About
How this site chooses, prices and explains email tools for startups.
Startup Email Marketing is an independent guide for founders who need to send email before they can afford a marketing team. For a team with fewer than 10,000 subscribers that needs broadcasts and a few automations, Kit is the one we would start with: its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited email broadcasts, but Visual Automations and email sequences begin on the Creator plan at $33 a month billed annually. Everything else on this site is built around that same question: what does a tool cost at the list size you have now, and what does it cost when the list doubles?
Who Runs This Site
The byline on this site is Daniel Hart, a pen name for the site's editorial team. The team has built and sent email for early-stage products, and the site exists because the same research kept being repeated each time a founder had to choose a tool. We write under a shared name so that the analysis, not a personality, carries the argument. If a claim is wrong, the correction matters more than the byline.
What We Cover
- Tool comparisons for startups: email platforms judged on entry price, subscriber-based pricing and the automation features early teams actually use.
- Cost at realistic list sizes: what a plan costs at 250, 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers, not only the cheapest headline number.
- Free plans: what a free plan includes, where its limits start, and when a team has to pay.
- Lifecycle email for early-stage SaaS: onboarding, trial and billing-related messages, and which tools handle them without a separate sending service.
How We Pick Tools
Every comparison starts with the job a startup is hiring email to do. A solo founder sending a weekly newsletter needs something different from a company running onboarding sequences for a product with paying customers. We then apply the same criteria to every tool in the same use case:
- Fit for the job: a newsletter platform is judged against other newsletter platforms, and a sequence tool against other sequence tools.
- Cost at the list size you will reach: we show the price at several subscriber counts, and we say when a tier is priced by subscribers, by emails sent or by user seat.
- Limits of the free plan: subscriber caps, send caps and whether automations are included.
- Setup and ownership: how hard it is to import a list, export it again, and keep templates and history if you leave.
- Known weaknesses: small template libraries, limited reporting, add-on costs and missing features are listed next to the strengths, not in a footnote.
Rankings are editorial decisions made from these criteria. A tool can be the best pick on one page and a poor fit on another, because the job being judged is different.
How We Read Prices
We read each vendor's pricing page and public documentation. The prices in our tables were read on 7 October 2026. We show the plan name, the price, whether it is billed monthly or yearly, and the subscriber or user count it applies to. Where a vendor does not publish a price for the size we are discussing, we write "pricing on request" instead of estimating.
Prices change. If you are deciding on a budget, check the vendor's pricing page on the day you buy, and treat the figures here as the state of those pages on the date above.
Tools We Compare Most Often
| Tool | Best for | Starting price (plan and billing) | Key limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kit | Creators and startups with one list and a small team | Free up to 10,000 subscribers; Creator $33/mo billed annually for automations | Visual Automations and sequences need a paid plan |
| beehiiv | Newsletter-led businesses and publishers | Free up to 2,500 subscribers; Lite $49/mo for up to 100,000 subscribers | Built around publishing; a jump in subscriber tier raises the price quickly |
| MailerLite | Very small lists and budget-first founders | Free up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month; Comfort $12/mo monthly, $10.80/mo billed annually, from the 500-subscriber tier | The free plan is tight once the list passes 250 subscribers |
| Close | Startups where sales follow-up matters as much as marketing email | Solo $19/user/mo monthly or $9/user/mo billed annually; 14-day trial, no ongoing free plan | A sales CRM, priced per user, not a subscriber-based email list tool |
What It Costs at Different List Sizes
Subscriber-based pricing changes the answer as a list grows. The table below uses only the tiers each vendor publishes. Where a size is not covered by a published tier, it says so.
| Subscribers | Kit | beehiiv | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|---|
| 250 | Free (broadcasts; no Visual Automations) | Free (up to 2,500 subscribers) | Free (up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month) |
| 2,500 | Free (broadcasts); Creator $33/mo billed annually for automations | Free (up to 2,500 subscribers) | Pricing on request |
| 5,000 | Free (broadcasts); Creator $33/mo billed annually for automations | Lite at 5,000 subscribers: $109/mo monthly or $95/mo billed annually | Pricing on request |
| 10,000 | Free up to 10,000 subscribers (broadcasts); Creator $33/mo billed annually for automations | Lite at 10,000 subscribers: $139/mo monthly or $119/mo billed annually | Pricing on request |
The arithmetic matters. At 5,000 subscribers on beehiiv, a yearly Lite plan is 12 × $95 = $1,140 a year. Kit at the same size is free for broadcasts, and only the automation layer costs 12 × $33 = $396 a year on the annual Creator plan.
Decision Table: Which Tool for Which Situation
| If you need | Start with | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletter broadcasts only, under 2,500 subscribers | Kit or beehiiv free plan | Both are free at this size and include unlimited email sends |
| Onboarding or trial sequences on a free budget | Kit free plan, then Creator when sequences go live | Sequences and Visual Automations start on the paid Creator plan |
| A list under 250 subscribers and a tight budget | MailerLite free plan | It is free at this size and includes 2,500 emails a month |
| Sales follow-up alongside marketing email | Close | It combines a CRM, email and calling, priced per user |
| A publication where subscriber growth is the goal | beehiiv | Its tiers are built around publishing, with paid subscriptions and polls |
Notes on Each Tool
Kit
Kit does well for a startup with one list and a small team. Its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers and includes landing pages, forms, unlimited email broadcasts, tagging and segmentation. Where it falls short is automation: Visual Automations and email sequences start on Creator at $33 a month billed annually, and the Pro plan at $66 a month billed annually adds deliverability reporting and unlimited users. Read the current plan list on the Kit pricing page.
beehiiv
beehiiv suits a startup whose email is the product, such as a newsletter with sponsorship or paid subscriptions. The free plan allows up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends on one publication. The Lite plan at $49 a month covers up to 100,000 subscribers and includes automations. Its weakness for a SaaS team is that its features are built around publishing, and the subscriber-tier jump from the free plan to Lite is large. See the beehiiv pricing page.
MailerLite
MailerLite is a sensible choice for a very small list. The free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. The paid Comfort plan starts at $12 a month, or $10.80 a month billed annually, on the 500-subscriber starting tier. Once a list grows past the free limit, you should request a price for your exact size, because the published tiers do not show 2,500 or 5,000 subscribers. The MailerLite pricing page lists the current tiers.
Close
Close is not a newsletter tool. It is a CRM with email, calling and SMS, and it suits a founder-led sales process where follow-up is part of marketing. It has no ongoing free plan, only a 14-day trial with no credit card needed. Solo starts at $19 per user per month, or $9 per user per month billed annually, and Essentials at $49 or $35 per user per month. Calling and SMS usage is passed through at cost. See the Close pricing page.
How to Choose
- Write down your current subscriber count and the count you expect in twelve months.
- Decide whether you need automations or only broadcasts. This single decision often changes the price more than the subscriber count.
- Check the free plan limits against those two numbers, not against the headline price.
- Compare yearly and monthly billing for the tier you will actually use, and calculate the annual total before you commit.
- Confirm that you can export your list, tags and templates before you move any subscribers in.
Migration Checklist
| Step | What to check |
|---|---|
| Export the current list | Confirm you have every subscriber, tag and consent status before you cancel anything |
| Import into the new tool | Match fields and tags, and check the count after import |
| Rebuild the core automations | Recreate the welcome or onboarding sequence and test it with your own address |
| Set up sending domain authentication | Confirm the sending domain setup the vendor documents before the first campaign |
| Run both tools briefly | Keep the old account active for one billing cycle so you can compare reports |
How to Report a Correction
If a price, plan limit or feature on this site is wrong, send the vendor's page link and the date you read it to hello@startupemailmarketing.com. We update the page, state the change, and bump the date only on pages we have actually changed.
What We Do Not Do
We do not build campaigns for clients or resell any email platform. We do not claim certifications, compliance status, uptime or deliverability rates on any vendor's behalf. Where a requirement such as SSO, audit reports or data residency matters for your purchase, confirm it directly with the vendor.
Contact
Questions, suggestions or corrections? Write to hello@startupemailmarketing.com. We try to reply within a few days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who writes the articles on this site?
Articles are published under the byline Daniel Hart, a pen name for the site's editorial team. The byline does not identify a single author.
How do you choose which tool ranks first?
We judge tools within the same use case, using fit for the job, cost at the list size you will reach, free plan limits, setup and data ownership, and known weaknesses. The top pick depends on the use case being compared.
When were the prices on this site last checked?
The prices in our tables were read on 7 October 2026 from each vendor's pricing page. Check the vendor's page before you buy, because plans change.
Why do some prices say "pricing on request"?
The vendor does not publish a price for that subscriber count or user count. We do not estimate prices, so we leave them out rather than guess.
Is Kit really free for a growing list?
Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited email broadcasts, landing pages and forms. Visual Automations and email sequences need the Creator plan, which is $33 a month billed annually. If you need automated onboarding, budget for that plan from the start.
Do you cover transactional email services?
This site focuses on email marketing tools for startups, meaning newsletters, lifecycle sequences and broadcasts. Transactional-only services are outside the scope of these comparisons.
How do I report an error?
Email the vendor's pricing page link and the date you read it to hello@startupemailmarketing.com. We will correct the page and state the change.