Best email marketing tool for creators
Kit's free plan covers 10,000 subscribers, the most of any tool here. MailerLite is cheaper once you outgrow it, and Brevo suits big, quiet lists.
What's the best email marketing tool for creators right now?
For most solo creators and newsletter writers, the best email marketing tool for creators is Kit, formerly known as ConvertKit. Its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, forms, and landing pages, more room than any other tool in this comparison gives away for free. Once you outgrow free, or want a cheaper paid plan at the same list size, MailerLite and Brevo both cost less than Kit's paid tiers. If your business has grown into something that needs branching automation and a real CRM built around it, ActiveCampaign is built for that job, and Mailchimp is worth a look if you already run a store alongside your list.
That covers the short version. "Creator" spans a solo newsletter writer with 500 subscribers and a course business with 20,000, so the right pick depends on where your list stands today.
Free plans and starting prices, side by side
| Tool | Free plan | Cheapest paid plan | Priced by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kit (ConvertKit) | 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts and forms, 1 basic automation | $39/mo (Creator, at 1,000 subscribers) | subscriber count |
| MailerLite | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/month | $12/mo (Comfort, at the smallest tier) | subscriber count |
| Brevo | 300 emails/day, no subscriber cap, includes SMS and WhatsApp | $9/mo (Starter, no daily send limit) | emails sent per month |
| Mailchimp | 250 contacts, 500 sends/month | $13/mo (Essentials, at 500 contacts) | contact count |
| ActiveCampaign | none, 14-day trial only | $15/mo (Starter, at 1,000 contacts, billed annually) | contacts plus plan tier |
All five prices above come from each vendor's own pricing page, checked on 2026-07-07. Every one of them rises as your list or send volume grows, so treat the number above as a floor, not your final bill a year in.
If you're under 10,000 subscribers and want to write, not manage tools
Stay on Kit's free Newsletter plan. It's the only free tier here built for a real audience size rather than a trial: 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, unlimited landing pages and forms, plus one basic automation. Most solo newsletter writers never need to pay a cent until they cross that line. Once you do, Creator starts at $39 a month and Pro at $79 a month, both quoted at a 1,000-subscriber list, and the price climbs from there as your list grows. Kit has no enterprise tier, so it's built for the individual creator, not a marketing team.
Once you outgrow free, MailerLite is the cheapest way to keep going
MailerLite's own free plan is smaller than Kit's, 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, and it got smaller again in June 2026. But its paid tiers undercut Kit at the same list size: Comfort is $12 a month and Power, with unlimited automations and unlimited seats, is $25 a month. Both include a website builder and digital product sales, the same creator-monetization angle Kit leans on. If the reason you're leaving Kit is cost as your list grows past 1,000 subscribers, MailerLite is the closest match dollar for dollar, a point our full Kit alternatives breakdown covers in more depth.
If your list is big but you rarely email it, Brevo changes the math
Every tool above charges more as your subscriber or contact count rises. Brevo doesn't work that way. It charges by how many emails you send each month, so a large list you email once a month can cost far less than it would under Kit, MailerLite, or Mailchimp's per-subscriber pricing. The free plan includes 300 emails a day and, unusually, SMS, WhatsApp, and basic CRM access on top of email. Starter removes the daily cap for $9 a month. The tradeoff is that Brevo's free and Starter plans keep the Brevo logo on your emails until you pay extra to remove it, and it's a broader small-business marketing stack rather than a creator-specific tool with built-in digital product sales.
When you need automation and a real CRM built in
Some creators outgrow the newsletter model entirely, running a sales operation with lead scoring, branching automation, and a pipeline to track deals. That's ActiveCampaign's job, and it has no free plan at all, only a 14-day trial with no credit card required. Starter is $15 a month at 1,000 contacts billed annually and already includes a built-in CRM and sales pipeline, though it caps automations at 5 actions per workflow and 1 user. Plus, at $49 a month, removes that automation-action cap and adds standard segmentation, with more users and deeper segmentation on Pro and Enterprise above it. Since November 3, 2025, new signups are also billed on total contacts, including unsubscribed and bounced ones, so check that detail before you commit. This is a step up in cost and complexity from a creator tool, not a lateral move, and our Mailchimp alternatives guide covers it alongside the other options in more detail.
Where Mailchimp fits for creators
Mailchimp isn't built for creators specifically, but plenty already use it, usually because they also sell through Shopify, WooCommerce, or Wix. Its free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, smaller than it used to be after a February 2026 cut, and Essentials starts at $13 a month at 500 contacts. Automation is capped at 4 steps until you move to Standard at $20 a month, where generative AI content tools and predictive segmentation are also included at no extra cost. If your creator business runs a real store alongside the newsletter, Mailchimp's ecommerce tracking is the deepest of the tools here. If it's only a newsletter, Kit or MailerLite fit the job better.
FAQ
Is there a truly free email tool for a newsletter under 10,000 subscribers? Yes. Kit's free Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, forms, and landing pages, plus one basic automation, and stays free forever at that size.
What's the cheapest paid plan once I outgrow a free tier? MailerLite's Comfort plan starts at $12 a month at its smallest subscriber tier, cheaper than Kit's $39 Creator plan or Mailchimp's $13 Essentials plan once you account for what's included, though all three prices rise as your list grows.
Which tool charges by emails sent instead of list size? Brevo. It prices plans by how many emails you send each month rather than how many contacts you store, so a large list you message infrequently can cost less than per-subscriber pricing from Kit, MailerLite, or Mailchimp.
Does any email tool for creators include a real CRM? ActiveCampaign bundles a CRM and sales pipeline on every paid plan, starting at $15 a month for Starter, with more users and deeper segmentation on Plus and above. Kit has a lighter, creator-focused CRM built in on all its plans, but it isn't a full sales pipeline the way ActiveCampaign's is.
Keep reading
FAQ
Is there a truly free email tool for a newsletter under 10,000 subscribers?+
Yes. Kit's free Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, forms, and landing pages, plus one basic automation, and stays free forever at that size.
What's the cheapest paid plan once I outgrow a free tier?+
MailerLite's Comfort plan starts at $12 a month at its smallest subscriber tier, cheaper than Kit's $39 Creator plan or Mailchimp's $13 Essentials plan once you account for what's included, though all three prices rise as your list grows.
Which tool charges by emails sent instead of list size?+
Brevo. It prices plans by how many emails you send each month rather than how many contacts you store, so a large list you message infrequently can cost less than per-subscriber pricing from Kit, MailerLite, or Mailchimp.
Does any email tool for creators include a real CRM?+
ActiveCampaign bundles a CRM and sales pipeline on every paid plan, starting at $15 a month for Starter, with more users and deeper segmentation on Plus and above. Kit includes a lighter, creator-focused CRM on all its plans, but it isn't a full sales pipeline the way ActiveCampaign's is.