Best Free Email Marketing Tools in 2026: Real Free-Plan Limits

Anna · Designer & web developerUpdated 2026-11-06 · How we test

Free plans of Kit, beehiiv, Systeme.io, Brevo, MailerLite and Hostinger Reach compared: subscribers, sends per month, automations and branding.

The best free email marketing tool in 2026 depends on what you need for free. For the biggest list, Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers. For free automations, funnels and a course with unlimited sends, Systeme.io gives you 2,000 contacts. For a newsletter with a website, beehiiv gives you 2,500 subscribers. Brevo lets you store contacts but caps sending at 300 emails a day.

MailerLite, once the go-to free option, now stops at 250 subscribers. Hostinger Reach is free for only one year and only for 100 subscribers. Every free plan has a catch, and the catch is different each time.

I'm Anna, a web designer and developer. I haven't run lists on these tools, so this is a research piece based on official pricing pages, help docs and independent reviews. Figures are as of November 2026. Free plans get cut without much notice, so check the pricing page before you build your list on one. Some links here are affiliate links.

Free plans compared

Tool	Free subscribers	Free sends	Automations on free	Branding on emails	Paid from
Kit	Up to 10,000	Not capped on pricing page	No	Yes	About $33/mo (yearly, 1,000 subs)
Systeme.io	2,000 contacts	Unlimited	1 automation rule	Not stated	$17/mo
beehiiv	Up to 2,500	Not capped on pricing page	No	Yes	$49/mo yearly
Brevo	Contacts stored, sending capped	300 per day	Yes, basic	Yes	$9/mo
MailerLite	Up to 250	2,500 per month	3 active	Yes	$12/mo
Hostinger Reach	100 per month	200 per month	Not listed	Not stated	Paid tiers from 500 subs

Sources: each tool's official pricing page or help centre, November 2026. "Not capped" means the pricing page lists no monthly send limit for free accounts. Fair-use rules still apply.

Kit: the biggest free list

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) lets you build a list of up to 10,000 subscribers without paying. You get unlimited landing pages and forms, and you can even run a paid newsletter on the free plan, with Kit taking 3.5% plus 30¢ per charge.

What you don't get: visual automations and email sequences. So no automatic welcome series and no "send email 2 three days after email 1". You write broadcasts by hand. Kit branding stays on, and you get 1 user seat.

Good for: writers and creators who want to grow a big list first and add funnels later. When you upgrade, Creator costs $390 a year at 1,000 subscribers.

Systeme.io: free funnels, courses and email

Systeme.io is an all-in-one tool: email, sales funnels, a course host, a blog and an affiliate program. Its free plan is unusually full. You get 2,000 contacts, unlimited email sends, 3 sales funnels, 1 course with up to 500 students, 1 blog, 1 custom domain and 0% transaction fees.

The limits sit on the marketing side. Free includes only 1 automation rule and 1 email campaign (a sequence), so you can't run complex flows. The email editor is simpler than Kit's or MailerLite's.

Good for: coaches and solo sellers who want a landing page, checkout, course and email list in one place, at $0. Startup costs $17 a month for 5,000 contacts. Our Systeme.io review goes deeper.

beehiiv's free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers and gives your newsletter a website with 1 custom page. The editor feels like writing a blog post, and every issue becomes a web page that can rank in search.

There are no automations on free, no paid subscriptions and no ad network. beehiiv branding stays on. The pricing page is inconsistent about whether free includes a custom domain, so confirm that if your domain matters to you.

Good for: people who want to publish a regular newsletter and grow it. When you want to charge readers, Lite costs $49 a month yearly, and beehiiv takes 0% of subscription revenue beyond Stripe's fees.

Brevo: big contact list, small daily sends

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) works differently. The free plan limits how many emails you send, not how many contacts you store. You can send 300 emails a day. A list of 1,000 people therefore needs four days to receive one newsletter, which kills the idea of a single broadcast.

Free includes campaigns, basic automations, transactional email and a CRM. Brevo branding ("Sent with Brevo") appears in the footer. Your account needs approval before sending.

Good for: shops and apps that send small daily volumes, such as order updates or a welcome email to each new sign-up. Starter costs $9 a month and starts at 5,000 emails a month with no daily cap and no Brevo logo. Standard costs $18 a month.

Brevo: email, SMS and a CRM under one account.

MailerLite: small, but with automations

MailerLite's free plan used to be the default recommendation. It is now much smaller: up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. If your active subscribers go over 250, sending gets locked.

Inside that limit, it is the most complete free plan for a small business. You get 3 active automations (5 steps each), 3 forms, 1 landing page, 1 website, 2 user seats and all three email editors.

Good for: a new business that wants to learn email marketing properly before the list grows. Comfort starts at $12 a month and removes the MailerLite logo. See Kit vs beehiiv vs MailerLite for how the paid plans compare.

Hostinger Reach: a free year for tiny lists

Hostinger Reach is Hostinger's AI email tool, with a WordPress plugin and a builder that writes campaigns from a prompt. The free Starter plan (Reach 100) gives 100 unique subscribers and 200 emails a month, with no monthly AI credits. It lasts one year and you can claim it only once, though you don't need to be a Hostinger customer.

Paid tiers go from Reach 500 (500 subscribers, 3,500 emails a month) up to Reach 50000. Hostinger's help page doesn't show prices, so check the checkout.

Good for: testing email on a brand-new site hosted at Hostinger. For a real list, the free limits are too small. If you need a mailbox on your own domain rather than newsletters, see our guide to professional email on your own domain.

Which free tool to pick

You want the biggest free list and will write broadcasts by hand: Kit.
You sell a course or product and need a funnel and checkout: Systeme.io.
You want a newsletter that doubles as a website: beehiiv.
You send small daily volumes like welcome or order emails: Brevo.
You are a small business with under 250 contacts and want automations: MailerLite.
You just launched a site on Hostinger and want to try email: Hostinger Reach.

What "free" usually leaves out

Most free plans share the same gaps. Check these before you commit:

Branding. Every free plan here leaves the tool's logo in your emails or site footer.
Automations. Kit and beehiiv have none on free. Systeme.io has 1 rule, MailerLite 3.
Support. Free accounts usually get help docs only. MailerLite, for example, gives email support only from Comfort.
Your own sending domain. For good deliverability, set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC on your domain. All of these tools explain how in their docs. If you still need a domain, see our domain buying guide.

Moving later is possible. All of these tools import and export contacts as CSV. Automations and templates don't transfer, so the longer you build on one, the more work a move becomes.

For signup forms that feed these lists, a form builder like Tally can send answers to most of them; see Tally vs Typeform. More options are on our email and forms page.

FAQ

What is the best free email marketing tool in 2026?

It depends on the limit that matters to you. Kit's free plan covers the most subscribers, up to 10,000, but has no automations. Systeme.io gives 2,000 contacts with unlimited sends, funnels and a course. beehiiv gives 2,500 subscribers and a website. MailerLite is smallest at 250 subscribers but includes 3 automations, as of November 2026.

How many subscribers does MailerLite's free plan allow?

As of November 2026, MailerLite's free plan allows up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. It includes 3 active automations, 3 forms, 1 landing page, 1 website and 2 user seats. If active subscribers go over 250, sending is locked. Older reviews quoting 1,000 or 500 free subscribers are out of date.

Is Brevo really free?

Yes, Brevo has a free plan, but it caps sending at 300 emails a day. It limits sends rather than stored contacts, so a list of 1,000 needs several days to get one newsletter. Free emails carry Brevo branding. The Starter plan costs $9 a month, starts at 5,000 emails monthly, and removes the daily cap and logo.

Does Kit's free plan include automations?

No. Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms, and paid newsletters, but no visual automations or email sequences. You send broadcasts manually. Automations and sequences start on the Creator plan, which costs $390 a year at 1,000 subscribers, about $33 a month, as of November 2026.

What is included in Systeme.io's free plan?

Systeme.io's free plan includes 2,000 contacts, unlimited email sends, 3 sales funnels, 1 course with up to 500 students, 1 blog, 1 custom domain, 1 automation rule and 1 email campaign. It charges 0% transaction fees. The paid Startup plan costs $17 a month and raises the limit to 5,000 contacts.

Is Hostinger Reach free?

Hostinger Reach has a free Starter plan with 100 unique subscribers and 200 emails a month, according to Hostinger's help centre in November 2026. It lasts one year, can be claimed only once, and includes no monthly AI credits. Anyone can claim it, not only Hostinger customers. Paid tiers start at 500 subscribers and 3,500 emails.

Bottom line

No free plan is free forever at scale, so pick the one whose limit you will hit last. For most creators that is Kit, for sellers it is Systeme.io, and for newsletter writers it is beehiiv. Use MailerLite or Brevo when you need automations or small daily sends on a tiny list, and set up your sending domain from day one.