Did you know that email marketing has an ROI of 4400%? (source)
That means, for every $1 you spend (on email marketing) you get $44 in return.
When email marketing gives you so much in return, it makes sense to prioritize it. Truth be told, it can get quite complicated. That’s why you need all the help you can get — you need an email marketing tool.
Our Top Picks For FREE Email Marketing Tools
- Moosend
- ActiveCampaign
- Drip
- SendinBlue
- Mailchimp
- Mailjet
- Sender
- EmailOctopus
- Omnisend
- Benchmark Email
- SendPulse
- MailerLite
Review Of The Best FREE Email Marketing Tools From Our Research
SendinBlue
If your business emphasizes transactional emails like invoice receipts and forgotten passwords, then SendinBlue is for you. The platform has extensive developer APIs, so you’ll be able to seamlessly integrate with their email servers.
It’s also worth mentioning that, although they once had deliverability issues, that is no longer true. They have vastly improved their delivery rates.
The free plan that SendinBlue offers is one of the best available. You’ll get access to a large degree of different features and tools, to help your email marketing succeed.
Key Features
- 300 emails a day limit
- 900 emails a month limit
- Unlimited contacts
- HTML editor
- Advanced segmentation
- Automation for up to 2,000 contacts
- Transactional emails
- 70+ email templates
- CRM
- Live chat
- Customizeable signup forms
Paid Version
SendinBlue has 3 different paid options, ranging from $25 per month, to $66 per month. You’ll get a larger email volume, as well as no daily limit. Some features — depending on what you choose — include A/B testing and advanced statistics.
If your needs are even more advanced than what the paid options offer, you can get a quote.
Mailchimp
If you run a small or medium-sized startup, the Mailchimp free plan is a really solid choice for an ESP. With up to 10,000 emails per month and 2,000 subscribers, they offer as much value as anyone. Some of the awesome features you get include; templates, automation, marketing CRM and analytic reports.
With the free plan, there’ll be a Mailchimp watermark at the footer (bottom) of your emails. If you want to get rid of this, you’d need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Another major benefit of Mailchimp is the number of integrations — 200+ different software syncs. It’s especially good with e-commerce software like Magento or WooCommerce. All the software applications of your business come together with Mailchimp.
Key Features
- 10,000 monthly emails
- 2,000 contacts
- 1 click automations
- Basic templates
- Marketing CRM
- Basic insight reports and suggestions
- Over 200+ different app integrations
Paid Version
Mailchimp offers 3 paid options — a $9.99 a month, a $14.99 a month as well as a $299 a month. The features vary, depending on what plan you purchase. Some (features) include; A/B testing, 24/7 support, advanced audience insights, and segmentation.
Mailjet
The Mailjet free plan is great — you get unlimited subscribers, along with an “advanced” editor and statistics. You also get webhooks and APIs.
The interface is easy to learn, so anyone can master the platform in a short time. Due to the API nature of Mailjet, it makes it best suited for businesses with technical concerns.
Key Features
- 6,000 emails per month
- 200 emails per day
- Unlimited contacts
- Advanced editor
- Advanced statistics
Paid Version
Mailjet’s basic plan costs $9.65 a month and ups the monthly email limit to 30,000, with no daily limit.
The premium option is $20.95 a month and includes advanced features like segmentation, A/B testing, and automation.
If your needs are beyond what the premium option offers, you can get a quote. This is really only for those that send more than 900,000 emails a month.
Moosend
If you’re new to email marketing and looking for something easy to grasp, look no further than Moosend. Its free plan is feature-rich, although you’re capped out at 1,000 subscribers. You also don’t get an IP address that’s dedicated.
With Moosend, you get a simple drag & drop editor, automation triggers, analytics in real-time, and audience segmentation. There is no CRM feature, but if you’re a small business, new to email marketing? This is an awesome choice.
Key Features
- Unlimited emails
- Templates
- Automation
- Open rate tracking
- Click-through rate tracking
- Analytics reports
- Email support
- Chat support
Paid Version
The pro plan is priced at $8 a month and gives you landing pages, transactional emails, and phone support.
If you need something more, you can get the enterprise plan, which is priced on a quote.
Sender
If you want to prioritize deliverability, then you must take a look at Sender. With its free plan, you get a variety of different tools to help your campaigns succeed. You can create awesome newsletters, and send them out to a maximum of 2,500 subscribers. Every month, you are free to send up to as many as 15,000 emails.
A standout feature of Sender is its strong analytics suite. You can track all the important metrics, like open rate and click-through rate. It even helps you flesh out buyer personas, based on your list’s activities. This feature is definitely one of the reasons why Sender is a top free email marketing tool.
Key Features
- 15,000 emails per month
- 2,500 subscribers
- Unlimited users
- Subscription forms
- Audience segmentation
- Drag & drop editor
- Analytics tracking
Paid Version
The paid plan offers no extra features — it’s simply for those with larger-sized email marketing needs. The pricing scales, based on how many subscribers you have, and how many emails you send.
- $10 a month = 5,000 subscribers and 60,000 emails per month
- $21 a month = 10,000 subscribers and 120,000 emails per month
- $31 a month = 15,000 subscribers and 180,000 emails per month
It goes up in 5,000 subscriber increments, all the way to 100,000, which by the way costs $216 a month. If you need more than that, you’ll need to talk to them for a quote.
EmailOctopus
EmailOctopus is one of the more simplified email marketing tools — it runs on Amazon’s cloud-based server. Although the free plan isn’t as feature-rich as other options out there, it does let you send more emails.
You can send out out a maximum of 10,000 emails every month, to a limit of 2,500 subscribers. This is an alternative that is best suited for small agencies looking to maximize production. EmailOctopus also integrates really well — you’ll have no problem syncing with the likes of WordPress, MailOptin, and Zapier.
Key Features
- 10,000 emails per month
- 2,500 subscribers
- Statistics (30 days)
- Support (basic)
Paid Version
The paid EmailOctopus plan is priced based on the number of subscribers on your email list.
- $20 a month = 5,000 subscribers and 50,000 emails per month
- $30 a month = 10,000 subscribers and 100,000 emails per month
- $45 a month = 15,000 subscribers and 150,000 emails per month
Like Sender, the pricing goes up in 5,000 subscriber increments, with 500,000 being the maximum. After that, you can get a quote for a customized plan.
The extra features you get (with the paid plan) include priority support, greater email design functions, and unlimited statistics.
Omnisend
Omnisend is an e-commerce marketing platform that happens to be a great free email marketing tool. You get to send up to 15,000 emails every month, run effective campaigns, and segment 5 different audiences.
You can design awesome newsletters, sign-up forms, and landing pages. You also get telling audience insights, to help your campaigns stay data-driven. Overall, this is a great tool for small and medium-sized businesses.
Key Features
- 15,000 emails per month
- Email campaigns
- 5 audience segments
- Sign up forms
- Landing pages
- Popups and boxes
- Exit-intent forms
- Reports
Paid Version
Omnisend’s standard plan costs $16 a month and gives you extra features such as SMS marketing, automation, and segmentation.
The pro plan — which costs $99 a month — gives you even more; advanced reporting, priority support, and push notifications.
They also have an enterprise plan, which is priced on a quote. It’s for those with extremely large lists.
Benchmark Email
Benchmark Email is a really great free email marketing tool, specifically for businesses at the enterprise level. The tool has everything you need to run a campaign. Some features include; a drag & drop editor, sign-up forms, templates, and drip campaign creation.
It’s extremely user-friendly, but there’s no A/B testing for the free version. You’ll have to upgrade to the paid version to get that feature.
Key Features
- 250 emails per month
- Unlimited contacts
- Basic email marketing
- Drag & drop editor
- Lite automation
- Support
Paid Version
The paid “pro plan” starts at $13.99 a month, and scales up based on email list size…
- 0-600 subscribers = $13.99/month
- 601-1,000 subscribers = $21.99/month
- 1001-1,500 subscribers = $27.99/month
- 1501-2,500 subscribers = $31.99/month
- 2501-3,500 subscribers = $43.99/month
Features you’ll get include; monthly email totals 14x your list size, 100K contacts, advanced automation, and marketing functions.
If you need more, you can get a quote for a customized, large-scale plan.
SendPulse
SendPulse is a “multi-channel” marketing platform that serves its purpose well as an email marketing tool. With the free plan, you can customize your campaigns with professional email templates. This is all done on an “easy-to-use” drag & drop editor.
One cool feature you get is a “subscriber rating.” It’s based on the open rate and click-through rate. An individual with a high rating is an engaged, active member of your list.
Key Features
- 15,000 emails monthly
- 500 subscribers
- Email templates
- Scheduling/automation
- A/B testing
- Segmentation
- Statistics
Paid Version
If you have a list larger than 500, SendPulse’s paid model has you covered. It’s priced, based on how many subscribers you have…
- 501-1,000 subscribers = $12/month
- 1001-1,500 subscribers = $16/month
- 1501-2,000 subscribers = $20/month
The price keeps going up in measured increments, all the way to 5,000,000, which costs $7000 a month.
With the paid plan you get unlimited emails, unlimited contacts, additional reports, and more storage volume.
MailerLite
Disregard the “lite” in the name — MailerLite is actually a really good free email marketing tool. It’s a solution suited to smaller businesses and startups that send lots of emails.
It has a wide array of features to supercharge your campaigns. With over 25+ templates to choose from, you can send up to 12,000 emails every month. If your list size is 1,000 subscribers or less, this is all totally free.
Key Features
- 12,000 emails per month
- 1,000 subscribers
- 25+ templates
- Landing pages
- Sign up forms
- Automation
- Segmentation
- A/B testing
- Campaign reports
Paid Version
Much like other email service providers, the paid version of MailerLite is scaled, based on your subscriber total.
- 1,001-2500 subscribers = $15/month
- 2,501-5000 subscribers = $30/month
- 5,001-10,000 subscribers = $50/month
The price keeps going up for larger subscriber lists — 600,000 is the highest, which costs $1,915 a month. Anything more than that will require you to get a quote.
Some cool features you get; an HTML editor, 24/7 live chat support, newsletter templates, and more in-depth analytics tracking.
Buyer’s Guide For Email Marketing Tools
What Is an Email Marketing Tool?
An email marketing tool is an application that allows you to scale up, optimize and ultimately improve your campaigns. It can be a specific tool related to email marketing, such as a subject line generator. It can also be an entire email marketing suite — these are called email service providers.
These two terms, email marketing tool, and email service provider, are not the same thing, technically.
They are, however, generally the same thing. This is because email service providers will usually have all the features and tools, in one suite.
Why Do You Need an Email Marketing Tool?
The simple answer? Because email marketing can get complicated. It can also become extremely time-consuming.
An email marketing tool makes the process easy, simple, and effective. You don’t need to be an expert to use them, they are designed to be used by anyone.
There are also a number of things you can do with a tool, that you cannot do without one. These are things that are essential to running a high-quality email marketing strategy. Some of these things include…
- Bulk sending — ability to send lots of emails, to a massive amount of people
- Automation — saves time by allowing you to schedule posts to be sent in the future
- HTML emails — tools/ESPs make it easy to send fancy HTML emails
- Analytics — you can get data to see how effective your email marketing is working
- Segmentation — you can break up your subscriber list into smaller, individualized segments
- Subscriber management — ability to remove large amounts of inactive people off your list
What to Look for in an Email Marketing Tool?
When comparing email marketing tools, there are a variety of different features/details you should pay attention to…
Emails Per Month
How many emails per month does the tool offer? You’ll find this varies slightly among the options available. There are also sometimes daily limits.
Subscriber/List Size
What is the maximum amount of subscribers they allow? This limit is different for each tool/ESP, and once exceeded, you’ll need to purchase the paid option.
Automation
Does the tool allow you to schedule and automate future emails and posts? Can you create autoresponder sequences and drip campaigns? Almost all ESPs do, but only a few give this feature for free.
Segmentation
Can you segregate your audience based on demographics and activity? Audience segmentation is important, as it allows you to create specific, mini-lists of your main subscriber list. You can then send personalized emails to these people.
Analytics
Analytic reports which give you statistics, like open rate and click-through rate, are important. They help your email marketing become data-driven, and based on effective strategies. This is a feature some free plans will offer, although most will not.
Final Thoughts
In this post, we covered the 10 best FREE email marketing tools.
If you’re serious about running a successful email marketing strategy, then you absolutely must have an email marketing tool.
Got any questions? Leave a comment below.
