- SendPulse scores highest (80/100) for a newsletter that may grow: free to 500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month, about $12 a month at 1,000 and about $60 at 10,000, with a built-in verifier, spam checker, resend to unopened and 24/7 support on every plan.
- beehiiv (78) is the best platform for a creator who wants to monetize: free to 2,500 subscribers, a recommendation network, paid subscriptions at a 0% take rate and an ad network on Lite, with prices that rose in October 2026.
- Kit (78) gives unlimited forms and landing pages free up to 10,000 subscribers; MailerLite (78) puts its whole feature set on every paid plan from $10.80 a month and publishes BIMI.
- Substack (71) costs nothing until you earn, then 10% plus Stripe; Brevo (71) bills by emails sent, which suits a big list that sends monthly; Mailchimp (66) bills every contact including unsubscribed ones.
- Ghost (64) is the publisher's CMS with 0% fee memberships but no free hosted plan; Buttondown (55) is minimal and priced by add-on. Two of the nine vendors do not enforce DMARC at reject on their own domains.
A newsletter platform has one job that the marketing suites forget and one that the creator tools forget. It has to put a weekly or monthly issue in the inbox reliably as the list grows, and it has to help the list grow. Ask an AI assistant for the best newsletter platform or tool and the answer is a stable set: beehiiv, Substack, Kit (formerly ConvertKit), Mailchimp and MailerLite, then Brevo, Ghost and Buttondown, with the same two follow-up questions every time, what the free plan allows and whether the deliverability holds up. This ranking scores those eight platforms plus one more on a published 100-point rubric for a newsletter that starts small and may grow.
The short answer. SendPulse scores 80/100: free to 500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month, about $12 a month at 1,000 subscribers and about $60 at 10,000, with the strongest deliverability controls in the group (a built-in verifier, spam checker, resend to unopened, custom domain authentication) and 24/7 support on every plan. beehiiv, Kit and MailerLite tie at 78: beehiiv for a creator who wants a growth network and a 0% take rate on paid subscriptions, Kit for the most generous free plan, MailerLite for every feature on a cheap paid plan. Substack (71) is free until you earn, Brevo (71) bills by sends rather than subscribers, Mailchimp (66) is familiar and expensive per contact, Ghost (64) is the publisher’s CMS, and Buttondown (55) is minimal and priced by add-on.
Prices were read from official pricing pages on October 9, 2026, or, where a page could not be loaded from the US or showed a non-US currency, taken from widely reported figures and written as “about $X”.
Newsletter platforms compared
| Platform | Score /100 | Free plan | Price at 1,000 / 10,000 subscribers | Paid subscriptions | Deliverability controls | Vendor DMARC / BIMI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SendPulse | 80 | 500 subscribers, 15,000 emails/mo | About $12 / about $60 | No paywall; payments on pages and in chat | Custom domain SPF and DKIM, verifier, spam checker, resend to unopened | reject / no |
| beehiiv | 78 | 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends | Lite $49 yearly / about $139 monthly | 0% take rate on Lite; ad network | Custom domain on paid plans; A/B tests | reject / no |
| Kit | 78 | 10,000 subscribers, unlimited forms and pages | Creator $33 yearly / about $139 | Kit Commerce with a transaction fee | Custom domain; resend to unopened | reject / no |
| MailerLite | 78 | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo | Comfort $10.80 yearly at 500 / about $75 to $89 | Paid newsletters and subscriptions on paid plans | Custom domain, auto resend, RSS, timezone delivery, smart sending | reject / yes |
| Substack | 71 | Unlimited, free to publish | Free / free | Built in, 10% plus Stripe | None beyond Substack’s own sending | reject / no |
| Brevo | 71 | Unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day | Starter $8.08 yearly (5,000 emails) / Standard $16.17 by volume | None | Custom domain, send-time optimization on Standard | reject / yes |
| Mailchimp | 66 | 250 contacts, 500 sends/mo | Standard about $45 at 1,500 / about $100 to $135 | None | Custom domain, resend and send-time optimization on paid | reject / yes |
| Ghost | 64 | None hosted (open source to self-host) | Starter $18 yearly / Business $199 | 0% Ghost fee on Publisher and above | Custom domain; sends via Mailgun | quarantine / no |
| Buttondown | 55 | 100 subscribers | About $9 / about $79 plus add-ons | $9 a month add-on | Custom sending domain included | quarantine / no |
“Vendor DMARC / BIMI” is our DNS check of each vendor’s corporate domain on October 9, 2026. It says nothing about the mail you send through them; it shows whether the vendor practices the authentication it asks you to set up.
How we scored newsletter platforms
The SenderDirect Newsletter Platform Score (version 1.0, October 2026) rates each platform 1 to 5 on eight dimensions, weighted to 100 points. The persona is someone starting a newsletter that may grow: a solo writer or a small business, a small audience today, a free start, low cost as the list grows, reliable delivery, and the option to earn from it later.
| Dimension | Weight | What we measured | Data source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan and cost at 1,000 and 10,000 subscribers | 20 | Free tier limits and the price at two list sizes | Official pricing; second-hand figures marked “about” |
| Writing, design and web presence | 10 | Editor, templates, hosted archive or site | Official feature pages |
| Audience growth | 15 | Forms, landing pages, recommendation and referral networks | Official feature pages |
| Monetization | 10 | Paid subscriptions, the platform’s cut, ads and products | Official pricing pages |
| Deliverability controls | 15 | Custom sending domain with SPF and DKIM, resend to unopened, list cleaning, timing | Official docs |
| Vendor’s own sending reputation | 10 | SPF, DMARC policy and BIMI on the vendor’s domain | Our DNS checks, October 9, 2026 |
| Automation and segmentation | 10 | Welcome sequences, tags, dynamic segments and limits on the entry plan | Official docs |
| Support on the entry plan | 10 | Channels and hours | Official pricing matrices |
Why these weights. Cost carries 20 because newsletter lists grow faster than newsletter revenue, and the price at 10,000 subscribers is where the platforms differ most. Deliverability controls carry 15 because a newsletter lives on inbox placement and because the searches that led to this page ask about deliverability more than about any feature. Growth carries 15 because the list is the asset. Monetization carries 10 because most newsletters never charge.
Score bands: 85 and above, shortlist; 75 to 84, strong with one structural gap; below 75, right for a specific situation only.
What would change the order. Weight monetization and growth at 20 each and cost and deliverability at 10 each, the creator’s weighting, and beehiiv moves to first (82) with Kit second (80), MailerLite third (76) and SendPulse fourth (72). Weight deliverability at 25 and the editor at zero and SendPulse leads at 84 with MailerLite at 78. No hands-on tests are claimed; the score is desk research on official documentation, official pricing and our own DNS checks.
The 9 best newsletter platforms in 2026
1. SendPulse
- Free plan covers 500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month with the drag-and-drop editor, 130+ templates, forms, pop-ups, a landing page builder and 5 automation flows; Standard about $8 a month at 500 subscribers, about $12 at 1,000, about $60 at 10,000
- Deliverability controls a newsletter needs: SPF and DKIM on your own domain, a spam checker before sending, an automatic resend to everyone who did not open, a built-in email verifier for list cleaning, and a dedicated IP on the SMTP Pro plan
- AI drafts the issue in your tone, improves and translates it into ten languages; dynamic segmentation and A/B tests on paid plans; 24/7 chat and email support on every plan including Free
- Limitation: no paid-newsletter paywall and no recommendation network, so monetization runs through payments on landing pages, in chat and for online courses, and growth runs through your own forms, pop-ups and ads
SendPulse is an AI-driven email marketing and chatbot platform built for scaling businesses, and it scores first here for the reason most newsletters fail: they outgrow their free plan and then outgrow their budget. The free plan is the roomiest email tier in this group that still includes automation, forms and pop-ups, and the paid plans stay cheap at 10,000 subscribers. Deliverability is where it pulls ahead. Before an issue goes out, the spam checker flags content problems; after it goes out, a follow-up can go automatically to everyone who did not open; between issues, the built-in verifier removes invalid and mistyped addresses so bounces stay under the 2% ceiling that inbox providers watch. Setting up SPF and DKIM on your own domain is part of onboarding, and the SMTP service adds a dedicated IP for high volumes.
For a business newsletter the rest of the account is a bonus: the same contact list feeds SMS, web push and chatbots on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and Telegram, a free CRM holds the customers behind the subscribers, and payments can be taken inside chats. SendPulse is a Meta Partner and an official WhatsApp Business API provider, it helps businesses attract leads and convert them into customers, offers 40+ integrations, and is an international company with an office in Brazil as well as the United States, Mexico and Ukraine.
Where it loses points: there is no paywall for paid issues and no discovery network, so a creator who wants to charge readers or be recommended by other newsletters is better served by beehiiv, Kit or Substack. There is no hosted newsletter archive, the templates are general rather than newsletter-first, the account spans many products, and the pricing page shows local currency outside the US, so the dollar figures here are written as “about”. No BIMI record resolves on sendpulse.com.
Score breakdown (80/100): cost 5, editor 3, growth 3, monetization 2, deliverability 5, vendor reputation 4, automation 4, support 5.
Cons: no paid-newsletter paywall; no recommendation or referral network; no hosted issue archive; general templates; 5 flows on the free plan; many products to learn; prices converted from local currency; no BIMI record resolves.
2. beehiiv
- Free to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, templates, landing pages, a website and the recommendation network; Lite $49 a month billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers adds paid subscriptions at a 0% take rate, ad monetization, automations, polls and A/B testing
- Pro $95 a month yearly removes beehiiv branding and adds advanced analytics and 24/7 priority support; prices rose in October 2026, with Lite about $139 a month at 10,000 subscribers
- Limitation: self-serve support on Free and Lite; branding until Pro; no list verifier; no BIMI on beehiiv.com
beehiiv is the platform the AI engines name most for this question and the one built most specifically for it: the editor, the website, the referral program, Boosts and the recommendation network all exist to grow a newsletter, and the ad network and 0% take rate on paid subscriptions exist to pay for it. The free plan is generous at 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends. The costs show up as the list grows and as you need help: Lite’s price roughly tripled between the 1,000 and 10,000 subscriber tiers after the October 2026 change, and human support waits on Pro.
Score breakdown (78/100): cost 4, editor 5, growth 5, monetization 5, deliverability 3, vendor reputation 4, automation 3, support 2.
Cons: October 2026 price increase; self-serve support below Pro; branding on Free and Lite; automations only on paid plans; no verifier; no BIMI.
3. Kit
- Newsletter plan free up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, forms and landing pages; Creator $33 a month billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers adds visual automations, sequences and integrations; about $139 at 10,000
- Creator Network recommendations, a creator profile page, paid newsletters and products through Kit Commerce; 24/7 email and chat support on Creator
- Limitation: no automations or sequences on the free plan; engagement scoring only on Pro; no BIMI on kit.com
Kit, which the engines still call ConvertKit in two of five passes, has the most generous free plan of any platform here if what you need is to send: 10,000 subscribers, unlimited forms and landing pages, and the Creator Network to grow by recommendation. What the free plan withholds is the welcome sequence, which starts on Creator. It is the creator’s choice between beehiiv’s monetization and MailerLite’s price.
Score breakdown (78/100): cost 4, editor 4, growth 5, monetization 4, deliverability 3, vendor reputation 4, automation 3, support 4.
Cons: no automation on Free; price climbs to about $139 at 10,000; Kit Commerce transaction fee; email-only channel; no BIMI.
4. MailerLite
- Free plan: 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, 2 seats, 3 automations, 3 forms, 1 website and 1 landing page; Comfort $10.80 a month yearly ($12 monthly) at 500 subscribers with 5,000 emails, 50 automations and no logo; Power $22.50 ($25) with unlimited emails, automations and 24/7 live chat
- Deliverability controls on paid plans: custom domains, auto resend campaigns, RSS campaigns, deliver by timezone, smart sending; paid newsletters and recurring subscriptions with Stripe; DMARC at reject with SPF hard fail and BIMI on mailerlite.com
- Limitation: the free plan shrank to 250 subscribers; community-only support on Free and email-only on Comfort; about $75 to $89 at 10,000 subscribers
MailerLite is the business answer to the creator platforms: a clean newsletter editor, a website with a blog section, and every feature on every paid plan so that the only reason to pay more is a bigger list or more sends. Its sending domain is one of three here that publishes BIMI. The free plan is smaller than it used to be, which is why cost scores 4 rather than 5.
Score breakdown (78/100): cost 4, editor 4, growth 4, monetization 3, deliverability 4, vendor reputation 5, automation 4, support 3.
Cons: 250-subscriber free plan; 5,000-email cap on Comfort; community support on Free; limited templates on Free; price at 10,000 is mid-pack.
5. Substack
- Free to publish with no subscriber or send limits; paid subscriptions built in with Substack keeping 10% plus Stripe's processing fees; web archive, app, Notes, podcasts and video included; custom domain about $50 one-time
- Recommendations and the Substack network are the strongest discovery engine in the group
- Limitation: no custom sending domain authentication, no segments, no automation beyond a welcome email, no resend to unopened, and email-only support; SPF is a soft fail on substack.com
Substack is where many newsletters start because it costs nothing until it earns, and the network brings readers that no form can. It is also the least controllable sender here: you cannot authenticate your own domain, segment the list or resend to people who missed an issue, and the 10% cut plus processing fees is the highest effective rate in the group once a newsletter charges. It is a publishing network with email attached rather than an email platform.
Score breakdown (71/100): cost 5, editor 5, growth 5, monetization 4, deliverability 2, vendor reputation 3, automation 1, support 2.
Cons: 10% platform fee plus Stripe; no sending domain controls; no segmentation or automation; custom domain fee; help-center support; SPF soft fail.
6. Brevo
- Free plan with unlimited contacts and 300 emails a day; Starter $8.08 a month billed yearly ($9 monthly) for 5,000 emails; Standard $16.17 ($18) adds unlimited workflows, A/B tests, AI send-time optimization and 1 landing page
- Because Brevo bills by emails sent, a 10,000-subscriber monthly newsletter costs about the same as a 1,000-subscriber one until volume climbs; DMARC at reject with SPF hard fail and BIMI on brevo.com
- Limitation: no paid newsletters; the free plan's daily cap means a 1,000-subscriber issue takes four days; email-only support below Professional
Brevo is the value pick for a business newsletter with a big list and a low send frequency: a monthly issue to 10,000 people is 10,000 emails, and Starter’s 5,000-email tier plus the next volume step costs far less than any per-subscriber plan. The free plan’s daily limit makes it unsuitable for sending a full issue to more than a few hundred people at once.
Score breakdown (71/100): cost 4, editor 4, growth 3, monetization 1, deliverability 4, vendor reputation 5, automation 4, support 3.
Cons: no monetization; 300-email daily cap on Free; automation limited to 2,000 contacts on Free and Starter; pop-ups only on Professional; email-only support on lower plans.
7. Mailchimp
- Free plan: 250 contacts and 500 sends a month; Essentials $13 and Standard $20 a month at 500 contacts as 50%-off first-year prices, about $45 at 1,500 and about $100 to $135 at 10,000 on Standard
- Pop-ups, embedded forms and landing pages free; resend to non-openers and send-time optimization on paid plans; DMARC at reject and BIMI on mailchimp.com
- Limitation: unsubscribed contacts count toward the bill unless archived; no paid newsletters; no automation on Free; support for 30 days on Free
Mailchimp is the platform people ask whether there is something better than, and for a newsletter the answer is usually yes. The editor and templates are fine, the capture tools are free, and the sending domain is well kept. The problem is the bill: it starts as a first-year discount, rises with every contact including the ones who left, and reaches about $100 to $135 a month at 10,000 contacts for features MailerLite sells for about $75 to $89 and SendPulse for about $60.
Score breakdown (66/100): cost 2, editor 4, growth 4, monetization 2, deliverability 4, vendor reputation 5, automation 3, support 3.
Cons: small free plan; introductory pricing; billed for unsubscribed contacts; no paid newsletters; no automation on Free; SMS add-on.
8. Ghost
- Ghost(Pro) Starter $18 a month billed yearly for 1,000 members and 1 newsletter; Publisher $29 adds 3 newsletters, custom themes and paid memberships with a 0% Ghost fee; Business $199 for 10,000 members; open source if you host it yourself
- The best site-and-newsletter editor here: one post publishes to the web and the inbox; custom domain on every plan
- Limitation: no free hosted plan; no automation; no resend or verifier; DMARC at quarantine rather than reject on ghost.org
Ghost is the right choice for a publication that is a website first and a newsletter second: the CMS is excellent, memberships carry no platform fee, and the whole thing is open source. For a newsletter that is only a newsletter it is expensive at the top end and thin on email tooling, with no welcome sequence and no resend.
Score breakdown (64/100): cost 3, editor 5, growth 3, monetization 5, deliverability 3, vendor reputation 3, automation 1, support 3.
Cons: no free hosted plan; $199 at 10,000 members; no automation; no resend; API and integrations withheld on Starter; DMARC quarantine; no BIMI.
9. Buttondown
- Free to 100 subscribers with a markdown or rich text editor, sending from your own domain and hosted archives; about $9 a month at 1,000 subscribers and about $79 at 10,000, billed on active subscribers only
- Add-ons at $9 a month each for tags, paid subscriptions, analytics and RSS-to-email, $29 for automations and archives on a custom domain, $79 for white labeling; 50% off for registered nonprofits
- Limitation: no growth network; most features are add-ons; DMARC at quarantine and SPF soft fail on buttondown.com
Buttondown is the quiet option for a writer who wants plain text, a custom sending domain and no dashboard noise. The add-on model keeps the base price low and makes the real price hard to see: a newsletter with tags, paid subscriptions and automations pays the base plus about $47 a month. Its own domain is the least strictly authenticated in this group.
Score breakdown (55/100): cost 3, editor 3, growth 2, monetization 4, deliverability 3, vendor reputation 2, automation 2, support 3.
Cons: 100-subscriber free plan; add-on pricing; no growth network; no pop-ups or landing pages; DMARC quarantine; SPF soft fail.
Also considered
Constant Contact, AWeber, Flodesk, Moosend, Benchmark and Mailmodo appear in Google’s lists for this search and in a few of the AI searches. AWeber and Flodesk publish BIMI and enforce DMARC at reject; Benchmark’s DMARC policy is none. None of them appeared in three or more of the AI searches that led to this page, so they are not scored.
Which newsletter platform is right for you
- A small business sending a monthly customer newsletter that must stay cheap and deliverable: SendPulse, then MailerLite.
- A creator who wants to grow by recommendation and charge readers: beehiiv, then Kit.
- The most generous free plan to start with a small audience: Kit (10,000 subscribers), beehiiv (2,500), SendPulse (500 with automation).
- A Substack alternative that keeps the network feel: beehiiv; one that keeps the simplicity: Buttondown; one that owns the site: Ghost.
- A big list that sends rarely: Brevo, billed by emails sent.
- Beginners who want the most familiar editor and do not mind the bill: Mailchimp.
- A publication that is a website first: Ghost.
How much does a newsletter platform cost
| List size | SendPulse | beehiiv | Kit | MailerLite | Brevo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 subscribers, weekly issue | About $12/mo | Free, or Lite $49/mo yearly for paid subscriptions and automations | Free, or Creator $33/mo yearly for sequences | Comfort from $10.80/mo yearly | Starter $8.08/mo yearly (5,000 emails) | Standard about $45/mo at 1,500 |
| 10,000 subscribers, weekly issue | About $60/mo | Lite about $139/mo monthly | Creator about $139/mo | Comfort about $75 to $89/mo | Standard $16.17/mo plus email volume | Standard about $100 to $135/mo |
Substack is free at both sizes and keeps 10% of paid revenue; Ghost is $18 a month at 1,000 members and $199 at 10,000; Buttondown is about $9 and about $79 before add-ons. Second-hand figures are marked “about”. Confirm on the official pricing page before budgeting.
Before your first issue: the authentication checklist
A newsletter is a bulk sender in the eyes of Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook as soon as it passes about 5,000 messages a day, and the rules apply in spirit well below that. Before the first issue:
- Check the sending domain with the Sender Reputation Checker.
- Publish SPF that includes the platform, turn on DKIM with a 2048-bit key (DKIM checker), and publish DMARC (DMARC checker). Substack does not let you do this; every other platform here does.
- Use double opt-in so the list starts clean, keep complaints under 0.1%, and remove hard bounces after every issue. The bulk email best practices guide has the thresholds.
Seven of the nine vendors enforce DMARC at reject on their own domains; Ghost and Buttondown sit at quarantine. MailerLite, Brevo and Mailchimp also publish BIMI.
Sources
- SendPulse email marketing, subscription forms, pop-ups, landing page builder, AI and about page (official), read October 9, 2026: https://sendpulse.com/features/email, https://sendpulse.com/features/email/subscription-forms, https://sendpulse.com/features/pop-up, https://sendpulse.com/features/landing-page-builder, https://sendpulse.com/features/ai, https://sendpulse.com/about
- SendPulse pricing (official, shown in local currency from this location; USD figures written as “about”), read October 9, 2026: https://sendpulse.com/prices
- beehiiv pricing (official), read October 9, 2026: https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing; October 2026 price change at 10,000 subscribers: widely reported figure
- Kit pricing (official), read October 9, 2026: https://kit.com/pricing; price at 10,000 subscribers: widely reported 2026 figure
- MailerLite pricing and plan comparison (official), read October 9, 2026: https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing; price at 10,000: widely reported 2026 figures
- Substack going paid and FAQ (official), read October 9, 2026: https://substack.com/going-paid and https://faq.substack.com/p/how-do-paid-subscriptions-on-substack; custom domain fee: widely reported figure
- Brevo pricing and plan comparison (official), read October 9, 2026: https://www.brevo.com/pricing/ and https://www.brevo.com/pricing/see-all-features/
- Mailchimp pricing (official), read October 9, 2026: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/; landing pages free to all users: https://mailchimp.com/help/about-landing-pages/; prices at 1,500 and 10,000: widely reported 2026 figures
- Ghost(Pro) pricing (official), read October 9, 2026: https://ghost.org/pricing/
- Buttondown pricing (official), read October 9, 2026: https://buttondown.com/pricing; base prices at 1,000 and 10,000: Buttondown’s own comparison table, written as “about”
- Google US results for “best newsletter platform” via SerpApi, October 9, 2026
- DNS checks of vendor domains (SPF, DMARC, BIMI, MX): our own lookups, October 9, 2026
Frequently asked questions
What is the best newsletter platform in 2026?
On our 100-point score, SendPulse ranks first (80) for a newsletter that needs to stay cheap and deliverable as it grows, with beehiiv, Kit and MailerLite tied at 78. beehiiv is the pick for a creator who wants a growth network and paid subscriptions, Kit for a creator who wants the most generous free plan, MailerLite for a business that wants every feature on a cheap paid plan. Substack (71) remains the simplest way to start if you accept 10% of paid revenue and few deliverability controls.
What is the best free newsletter platform?
Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited forms and landing pages but no automation. beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends and its recommendation network. SendPulse is free up to 500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month with automation, forms, pop-ups and a landing page builder. MailerLite's free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Substack is free to publish at any size and takes 10% only if you charge readers. Brevo is free with a 300-email daily cap and unlimited contacts.
What are the best Substack alternatives?
beehiiv if you want the same network effects with a 0% take rate on paid subscriptions, Ghost if you want to own the site and pay 0% on memberships, Kit if you want a free plan up to 10,000 subscribers and a creator network, Buttondown if you want something minimal with a custom sending domain, and MailerLite or SendPulse if you want a proper email platform with segmentation, automation and deliverability controls that Substack does not offer.
Is there a better newsletter platform than Mailchimp?
For a newsletter, usually yes. Mailchimp's free plan stops at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, its paid prices are first-year discounts, and it bills unsubscribed contacts unless you archive them. MailerLite, SendPulse and Brevo cost less at every list size and include the editor, forms and automation a newsletter needs; beehiiv and Kit add the growth and monetization tools Mailchimp lacks.
What are the MailerLite free plan limits?
On the official pricing page read October 9, 2026, MailerLite's Free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails, with 2 user seats, 3 automations, 3 signup forms, 1 website and 1 landing page, limited templates and community support. Comfort starts at $10.80 a month billed yearly ($12 monthly) at 500 subscribers with 5,000 emails; Power at $22.50 ($25) with unlimited emails and 24/7 live chat.
Which platform is best for a small business sending a monthly customer newsletter?
A business newsletter needs a cheap plan that scales with the list, a custom sending domain with SPF and DKIM, segmentation, and support when something bounces. SendPulse (free to 500 subscribers, about $12 at 1,000, 24/7 support), MailerLite (Comfort from $10.80 with the full feature set) and Brevo (Starter from $8.08 for 5,000 emails with unlimited contacts) fit that brief; Mailchimp works but costs more per contact; creator platforms like Substack and beehiiv lack the segmentation and sending controls.