The short answer: $0 to about $40 a month to get started, $25–$100 a month once you have a few thousand subscribers, and $100–$300+ a month past 10,000 contacts. But the sticker price is the least interesting part. How these platforms charge you matters more than what they charge — two tools at “$20/month” can cost wildly different amounts a year from now.
We pulled current pricing from ten popular platforms (researched September 2026 — verify before you buy, since vendors change prices often) to show you where the money actually goes.
The three ways email platforms charge you
Every pricing page boils down to one of three models. This is the single most important thing to understand, because the model determines your year-two bill.
Per-contact pricing (most common). You pay for the size of your list. Mailchimp, MailerLite, Kit, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, and Constant Contact all work this way. Your bill grows every time someone subscribes — even if you never email them. This model punishes list growth, which is exactly what you want as a business.
Per-email pricing (rarer, often cheaper at scale). You pay for sending volume, not list size. Brevo is the big one here: unlimited contacts on every plan, priced by how many emails you send (starting around $9/month for 5,000 emails). If you have a large list you email infrequently, this model can save you a lot.
Flat-rate pricing (simplest). One price, unlimited everything (within fair-use limits). Flodesk charges $38/month flat — same price whether you have 500 subscribers or 50,000. Easy to budget, and the math gets better the more you grow.
What 10 popular platforms actually charge
Prices below are entry-level paid plans, monthly billing, researched September 2026. “Free plan” notes the real limits, because a free plan you outgrow in a month isn’t really free.
| Platform | Free plan | Starting paid price | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | Yes — 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts | ≈$9/mo | Per email sent |
| MailerLite | Yes — up to ≈1,000 subscribers | ≈$10–12/mo | Per contact |
| Mailchimp | Yes — up to 500 contacts | $13/mo | Per contact |
| Constant Contact | No — trial only | $12/mo | Per contact |
| GetResponse | Yes — 500 contacts | ≈$16–19/mo | Per contact |
| ActiveCampaign | No — 14-day trial | $15/mo | Per contact |
| AWeber | Yes — up to 500 subscribers | $15/mo | Per contact |
| Moosend | No — 30-day trial | ≈$9/mo | Per contact |
| Kit (ConvertKit) | Yes — up to 10,000 subscribers (newsletter only) | ≈$25–39/mo | Per contact |
| Flodesk | No — trial only | $38/mo | Flat rate |
A few things worth noticing in that table:
- Kit’s free plan is the most generous in the industry (10,000 subscribers), but it’s limited to newsletters — automations and advanced features require the paid plan.
- Brevo is the structural bargain for anyone with a big list and modest sending volume, because contacts are unlimited.
- ActiveCampaign looks cheap at $15/month until you realize the automation features it’s famous for mostly live on the $49/month Plus tier.
The price at 5,000 contacts tells the real story
Entry prices are marketing. Here’s roughly what the same 5,000-contact list costs across platforms — this is where per-contact pricing bites:
- Mailchimp climbs to roughly $100/month on Standard at 5,000 contacts, up from $13 to start. That’s the steepest curve in the table.
- ActiveCampaign runs about $49/month (Plus, annual billing) at 1,000 contacts and keeps climbing from there.
- Brevo barely moves — you’re still paying for send volume, not contacts, so a 5,000-person list you email weekly costs roughly the same as a 500-person list.
- Flodesk is still $38/month. Flat is flat.
Approximate monthly cost by list size — this is what the pricing model actually does to your bill. Standard plans, monthly billing, researched September 2026. Brevo assumes ≈5,000 emails/month.
This is why we score pricing on the year-two bill, not the starter rate. Ask every vendor: “what will I pay at 5,000 contacts?” before you compare.
The hidden costs nobody puts on the pricing page
Billable contacts include people you can’t email. Most per-contact platforms charge for your entire list — including unsubscribed contacts and duplicates — unless you actively clean them out. A 6,000-person list with 1,500 unsubscribes might bill you at the 6,000 tier. Prune regularly.
Branding removal costs extra. Brevo’s entry plan includes its logo in your email footers; removing it is a paid add-on (around $9/month). Check whether “white label” is included or an upsell.
Seats and SMS are separate. Need two team members in the account? Some platforms charge per seat. Want SMS campaigns? That’s almost always a separate credit system, not included in your email plan.
Annual discounts lock you in. You’ll typically save 10–20% paying yearly. Fine once you’ve used a platform for a few months and know it fits — risky as a day-one commitment, because migrating automations and templates between platforms is genuinely painful.
What a small business should actually budget
- Just starting out (under 1,000 contacts): $0–$25/month. Free plans from Brevo, MailerLite, Mailchimp, Kit, or GetResponse cover this stage comfortably.
- Growing (1,000–5,000 contacts): $25–$100/month. This is where platform choice starts to matter — the gap between the cheapest and priciest option at this size is 3–4x.
- Established (10,000+ contacts): $100–$300+/month on per-contact platforms. At this size, seriously compare Brevo’s volume model or Flodesk’s flat rate against whatever you’re paying now.
The bottom line
Don’t pick email software on the starting price — pick it on the pricing model that fits how your list will look in two years. A big list you email rarely? Per-email pricing (Brevo) wins. A small engaged list with heavy automation? Per-contact is fine, just model the cost at 5,000 contacts first. And whatever you choose, verify the current price on the vendor’s site before you commit — this industry reprices often.