Email marketing platforms are one of those software categories where the number of options vastly exceeds the number of meaningful differences between them. There are dozens of tools, most of them capable of doing the same basic things (send emails, manage subscriber lists, track opens and clicks), and the differences lie in pricing structures, automation depth, template quality, and how much complexity you’re willing to manage.

I’ve tested the major options over the past six months with a list of about 4,000 subscribers, running comparable campaigns across platforms. Here’s what I found.

The Tier That Most Small Businesses Should Consider

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is the default choice for small businesses, and defaults exist for a reason. The free tier (up to 500 contacts, 1,000 sends per month) is genuinely useful for businesses just starting with email marketing. The interface is intuitive — if you’ve used any modern web app, you’ll figure out Mailchimp within an hour.

The email builder is the strongest of any platform I tested. Drag-and-drop blocks, reasonable template selection, and the preview/test features work well. The templates look modern without requiring design skills to customise.

Where Mailchimp disappoints is pricing as you grow. The Standard plan ($13.99/month for 500 contacts) scales aggressively — at 10,000 contacts, you’re paying around $100/month. At 50,000 contacts, you’re approaching $300/month. The pricing tiers also gate features: A/B testing, send-time optimisation, and advanced segmentation require higher-tier plans.

Automation exists but feels bolted on rather than native. Basic welcome sequences and abandoned cart emails work fine. Complex multi-branch automations with conditional logic are possible but clunky compared to dedicated automation platforms. If simple email campaigns are your primary need, Mailchimp is excellent. If sophisticated automation is important, look elsewhere.

Best for: Businesses under 5,000 contacts who want a straightforward, good-looking email marketing tool without a steep learning curve.

MailerLite

MailerLite is the value choice that also happens to be genuinely good. The free tier (up to 1,000 subscribers, 12,000 emails/month) is more generous than Mailchimp’s. The paid plans start at $10/month and scale more gently — 10,000 contacts costs about $50/month, roughly half of Mailchimp’s equivalent.

The email editor is nearly as good as Mailchimp’s. The template library is smaller but well-designed. The standout feature is the website and landing page builder included at all plan levels — if you need simple landing pages for lead magnets or promotions, MailerLite provides that without an additional tool.

Automation is more capable than you’d expect at this price point. Visual automation workflows with branching logic, delays, and conditional steps work well for standard flows (welcome series, post-purchase sequences, re-engagement campaigns). The interface for building automations is cleaner than Mailchimp’s.

Reporting is adequate but not deep. You get opens, clicks, unsubscribes, and basic subscriber growth metrics. If you need detailed attribution reporting or revenue tracking, you’ll need to integrate with analytics tools.

Best for: Cost-conscious businesses that want solid email marketing with landing pages included, up to about 25,000 contacts.

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

Brevo’s pricing model is unique: you pay by email volume rather than subscriber count. The free tier allows unlimited contacts with 300 emails per day. Paid plans start at $25/month for 20,000 emails per month — again, with unlimited contacts.

This pricing model is advantageous if you have a large list but send infrequently. If you have 20,000 contacts but only email once a week (roughly 80,000 emails/month), Brevo’s pricing is significantly cheaper than platforms charging per-contact.

Brevo is also more than email — it includes SMS marketing, WhatsApp messaging, and a basic CRM. For small businesses wanting to consolidate their marketing communications into one platform, this bundling has genuine value. The CRM isn’t as capable as dedicated tools like HubSpot, but for tracking basic customer interactions alongside email campaigns, it’s sufficient.

The email builder is functional but slightly behind Mailchimp and MailerLite in polish. Templates are adequate. Deliverability — which I tracked carefully — was good, with inbox placement rates comparable to Mailchimp.

Best for: Businesses with large contact lists but moderate send frequency, or those wanting email + SMS in one platform.

The Specialist Choice

ConvertKit (now Kit)

ConvertKit (recently rebranded to Kit) targets creators — bloggers, course creators, newsletter writers, podcasters. The difference isn’t just marketing positioning; the product is genuinely designed around how creators work.

The subscriber model uses tags rather than lists, which means a contact exists once in your account regardless of how many segments they belong to. This sounds like a detail but it’s significant for pricing — on list-based platforms, a subscriber who’s on three lists counts as three subscribers. On ConvertKit, they count as one.

The visual automation builder is the best I’ve tested for the price range. Complex sequences with conditional branches, subscriber scoring, and integration triggers are intuitive to build. If your email strategy involves sophisticated nurture sequences (course launches, product funnels, serialised content), ConvertKit handles this better than the generalist platforms.

What ConvertKit lacks is design flexibility. Email templates are deliberately minimal — text-focused with simple formatting. This is a philosophical choice (ConvertKit’s view is that simple, text-like emails perform better than heavily designed ones) but it limits businesses that want brand-heavy visual emails.

Pricing starts at $15/month for up to 300 subscribers and scales to $50/month for 3,000 subscribers. At larger subscriber counts, ConvertKit is notably more expensive than MailerLite or Brevo.

Best for: Content creators, course sellers, and newsletter operators who prioritise automation sophistication over email design flexibility.

What About HubSpot?

HubSpot’s free email marketing tool exists and works. The catch is that HubSpot wants you to adopt their entire marketing platform, and the free email tool is the gateway. For businesses that genuinely need CRM + email + landing pages + forms + analytics in one platform, HubSpot’s ecosystem is compelling. For businesses that just need email marketing, it’s overkill — and the paid plans are significantly more expensive than the dedicated email platforms listed above.

I’d recommend HubSpot’s email tools only if you’re already using (or planning to use) HubSpot’s CRM. Otherwise, the standalone platforms offer better value.

The Decision Framework

Rather than agonising over features, answer these questions:

How many contacts do you have? Under 1,000: use MailerLite’s or Mailchimp’s free tier. Over 10,000: Brevo’s per-email pricing probably saves you money.

How complex are your automations? Simple welcome sequences: any platform works. Multi-step nurture funnels with conditional logic: ConvertKit or MailerLite.

How important is email design? Very important: Mailchimp. Minimal/text-focused: ConvertKit. Somewhere in between: MailerLite.

Do you need SMS too? Yes: Brevo.

Consulting firms that advise businesses on their marketing technology stack — including an Australian AI company that works with SMBs on digital strategy — consistently find that the most common mistake is over-buying. Most small businesses use 20% of their email platform’s features. Start with the simplest tool that meets your needs and upgrade only when you hit a genuine limitation, not when a sales team convinces you that you need more capabilities.

One More Thing

Whatever platform you choose, invest time in list hygiene. Remove bounced addresses. Unsubscribe inactive contacts after 6-12 months of no engagement. A clean list of 2,000 engaged subscribers outperforms a bloated list of 10,000 that includes 6,000 people who haven’t opened an email in a year. Every platform mentioned above has tools for identifying inactive subscribers — use them.

The platform matters less than the content. A well-written email sent from MailerLite’s free tier will outperform a mediocre email sent from a $300/month enterprise tool. Focus on what you’re saying before you worry about which tool you’re saying it with.