Free email marketing tools in 2026:

THIS WEEK: Three of the most popular free email marketing platforms have reduced their free tiers in the last twelve months. Before you sign up for something expecting it to stay free, here is what each of them actually gives you in 2026, what the catches are, and which one makes the most sense depending on your situation.

Email marketing consistently delivers one of the best returns on investment of any marketing channel. The reason small businesses do not do it properly is usually one of two things: they think it is complicated, or they think it costs money. The second objection has always been partly wrong. Free tiers have existed on most major platforms for years, and for a small list they are genuinely usable.

The problem is that free tiers have been getting worse. Mailchimp, which was once the obvious recommendation for anyone starting out, has cut its free plan so aggressively since being acquired by Intuit in 2021 that it is now barely functional for most businesses. MailerLite reduced its free subscriber limit in September 2025. Brevo has held its free tier largely intact but has limitations that matter in practice. The platforms are doing what every SaaS company does eventually: they make the free tier uncomfortable enough that paying becomes the easier option.

None of this means free email marketing is dead. It means you need to go in with accurate information about what you are actually signing up for, rather than finding out six months later when you hit a limit you did not know existed.

TOOL 1: Mailchimp

As of February 2026, Mailchimp's free plan allows 250 contacts and 500 sends per month, with a daily send limit of 250. That is it. To put that in perspective: if you have 250 contacts and send one email a month, you use up half your monthly send allowance in a single campaign. Send a follow-up to the same list and you have used the lot.

Automation has been removed entirely from the free plan. There is no scheduling, no A/B testing, no advanced segmentation. You get a drag-and-drop email builder, basic templates, one audience, and reporting that covers opens, clicks, and bounces. Customer support disappears after your first 30 days. The free plan has no time limit, but with these restrictions it is genuinely difficult to build an email marketing habit around it. For context, the free plan in 2022 allowed 2,000 contacts and 10,000 sends per month. That is a 96% reduction in four years.

Worth noting: Mailchimp also hit legacy paid users (accounts created before May 2019 that never migrated to current pricing) with an 11 to 13% price increase in April 2026. That was the second pricing change in four months. Mailchimp still has the best brand recognition in email marketing and the interface is polished. But as a free product in 2026 it is close to useless for anyone with growth ambitions, and as a paid product the direction of travel is not reassuring.

Link: https://mailchimp.com

TOOL 2: Mailerlite

The free plan was reduced in September 2025 from 1,000 subscribers to 500. You still get 12,000 emails per month, which is a more sensible send allowance than Mailchimp. What makes MailerLite's free tier genuinely more useful than Mailchimp's is that automation is included: welcome sequences, basic drip campaigns, and triggered emails are all available on the free plan.

You also get a landing page editor, website builder, and email support for the first 30 days. The limitations worth knowing about are that newsletter templates are not included on the free plan: you design from scratch or use the basic editor. MailerLite's branding appears at the bottom of every email you send and cannot be removed without upgrading. There is no support after the initial 30 days, which matters if you hit a problem and the knowledge base does not have the answer.

The paid Growing Business plan starts at $10 a month for 500 contacts and removes the branding and adds templates. Crucially, MailerLite only charges for active subscribers: anyone who unsubscribes or bounces stops counting toward your limit immediately, which is a meaningful advantage over Mailchimp's billing model.

Link: https://mailerlite.com

TOOL 3: Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

The free plan allows 300 emails per day, which works out at roughly 9,000 emails per month if you send every day. Unlike Mailchimp and MailerLite, Brevo does not charge based on the number of contacts you store: the free plan supports up to 100,000 contacts.

If you have a large list and send infrequently, Brevo's free tier is substantially more useful than the alternatives. The daily cap of 300 means that a campaign to 1,000 contacts takes four days to send in full, which is genuinely awkward and something to be aware of before you sign up. Automation is included on the free plan but is limited to 2,000 contacts.

You also get basic CRM features, segmentation, and transactional emails. What is missing: A/B testing, landing pages, advanced reporting, and the ability to remove Brevo's branding from emails. No credit card is required and the free plan has no time limit. The Starter plan begins at $9 a month for 5,000 monthly sends, removing the daily cap and Brevo branding.

Link: https://brevo.com

If you have fewer than 250 contacts and only need to send one or two emails a month, Mailchimp's free plan technically works but is not worth relying on given the trajectory of reductions. The platform has signalled clearly that it intends to push users toward paid plans.

If you have up to 500 contacts and want to set up automated welcome emails and basic sequences without paying anything, MailerLite is the better option. The interface is clean, automation works on the free plan, and the $10 a month paid plan is genuinely affordable when you outgrow the free tier.

If you have a larger contact list but send campaigns infrequently, say once or twice a month to a few hundred people each time, Brevo is the most practical free option. The contact storage is effectively unlimited on the free plan and the daily send cap matters less if you are not broadcasting to thousands at once.

The single most useful thing you can do today is sign up for whichever platform fits your situation, import your contacts, and set up one automated welcome email that sends to anyone who joins your list. That one automation, done once, will run indefinitely without you touching it and will outperform most businesses that are not doing email marketing at all.

NEED HELP? In over your head? Wearing too many hats already? No idea where to start? I can help you.

EmailOctopus (emailoctopus.com) is worth knowing about as a genuinely generous free alternative. The free plan allows 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month, which is significantly more than any of the three platforms above. The platform is simpler and less feature-rich, but for basic newsletters and broadcasts it covers most small business needs without the brand recognition tax of Mailchimp.

Beehiiv (beehiiv.com) is worth considering if you are building a newsletter rather than a marketing list. The free plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends and no beehiiv branding on emails. It is built specifically for newsletters rather than transactional marketing email, so the features are different, but for a weekly or monthly subscriber newsletter it is currently the most generous free tier available.

The direction of travel is clear. Every major email marketing platform has reduced its free tier in the last two years, and the ones that have not yet done so will almost certainly follow. Free tiers exist to acquire users and convert them to paid plans, not out of generosity, and as the platforms have matured and faced pressure on margins, the free offering has shrunk accordingly.

That is not a reason to avoid free email marketing. Even the reduced free plans above are enough to start, build a habit, and understand whether email marketing is working for your business before committing any money. The mistake is treating a free plan as a long-term solution rather than a starting point.

If email marketing is generating results for your business, spending £10 a month on a proper paid plan is one of the better investments you can make in marketing. If it is not generating results, the problem is almost certainly the content and strategy rather than the tool. In which case, paying more for the tool will not help.

Got a tool you want me to review? Reply to this email. Need actual help with your business's systems or digital setup? I have been doing this for 17 years. Get in touch.