Most churches need an email tool that sends a weekly bulletin, keeps each ministry on its own list, and costs little for a few hundred to a few thousand people. At the list sizes priced here, EmailFig is the most affordable all-in-one option of the eight: free up to 4,000 contacts and $11 a month at 2,500. Flocknote is the church-built pick for email, texting and online giving in one tool. Constant Contact suits event-heavy churches, and Text In Church suits churches that lead with texting and first-time guest follow-up.
Key Takeaways
- For a weekly bulletin to 2,500 contacts, billed monthly, the plans here run from $11 (EmailFig) to $150 (Flocknote Starter). At 500 contacts, EmailFig’s free plan covers it.
- Church-built tools bundle what general email tools leave out: Flocknote includes texting and online giving, Text In Church includes texting and a Planning Center sync. You pay for those whether you use them or not.
- Mailchimp’s and MailerLite’s free plans stop at 250 contacts, and Mailchimp’s free plan sends 500 emails a month, less than a weekly bulletin to 250 people.
- EmailFig has no texting, online giving or event registration. A church that is a registered nonprofit gets 20% off EmailFig’s paid plans.
Comparison table
Prices are monthly, in USD, billed monthly, for the cheapest plan that sends a weekly bulletin to the whole list, read from each vendor’s pricing page on November 4, 2026.
| Tool | Best for | Free plan | 500 contacts | 2,500 contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EmailFig | A weekly bulletin and ministry lists at the lowest price | 4,000 contacts, 10,000 emails a month | Free ($6 to remove branding) | $11 |
| Flocknote Starter | Email, texting and online giving in one church tool | Up to 40 members | $73 | $150 |
| MailerLite Comfort | A clean editor and a 30% nonprofit discount | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month | $12 | $33 |
| Constant Contact Lite | Event registration alongside email | Trial | $12 | $50 |
| Mailchimp Essentials | Volunteers who already know Mailchimp | 250 contacts, 500 emails a month | $13 | $45 |
| Text In Church Core | Texting and first-time guest follow-up | 14-day trial | $30 | $30 |
| Hey Church Starter | Recurring announcements on a schedule | 250 contacts, 500 emails a month | $10 | No plan listed |
| Mailmeteor | Personal-looking emails sent from Gmail | 500 emails a month | $5.99 per user | $17.99 per user |
A weekly bulletin is about 2,170 emails a month at 500 contacts and 10,800 at 2,500. EmailFig’s free plan sends 10,000 emails a month, so it is free at 500 and $11 at 2,500. Flocknote prices by total church members, not email contacts. Text In Church prices by text message credits (Core is $30 up to 500 texts a month) and includes unlimited email. Hey Church’s largest listed plan is 1,500 contacts. Mailmeteor’s figures are Starter (5,000 emails a month) and Premium (30,000). Every vendor’s full price ladder is in the real cost of email marketing in 2026.
The 8 tools
1. EmailFig
Best for: churches that want a weekly bulletin, a list per ministry and a welcome series for visitors, at $11 a month for 2,500 contacts where Flocknote Starter costs $150 and Constant Contact Lite $50.
EmailFig makes the weekly bulletin quick to repeat. Start from the church weekly bulletin template, then each week duplicate the last email, change the sermon and notices, and schedule it for Thursday morning. An Easter service times template covers the big Sundays. Each ministry (youth, choir, volunteers, a small group) can be its own list, and a preference page lets members choose which lists to stay on instead of unsubscribing from everything. Automations start when someone joins a list or gets a tag, with waits and yes/no branches, so a visitor who signs up on a landing page can get a welcome series over the following weeks. You also get signup forms, popups, double opt-in, 200+ templates, drag-and-drop and HTML editors, and connections to Zapier, Make, n8n and WordPress.
Pricing: free to 4,000 contacts and 10,000 emails a month, no card and no expiry. Paid plans remove the EmailFig branding: $6 a month at 500 contacts, $11 at 2,500, $15 at 5,000 and $27 at 10,000, billed monthly, each with 10 emails per contact a month. A church that is a registered nonprofit gets 20% off ($4.80 at 500, $8.80 at 2,500); contact support to set it up. See pricing.
Where it falls short: no texting; for email and SMS in one tool, look at Flocknote or Text In Church. No online giving or donation forms (Flocknote has giving) and no event registration or RSVPs (Constant Contact and Flocknote have both). No built-in member database or Planning Center sync, so you keep the list current by CSV import; Text In Church syncs with Planning Center. Segments use lists, tags, signup date and engagement but not custom fields, so “parents of third graders” has to be a list or a tag. No campaign A/B testing.
2. Flocknote
Best for: churches and parishes that want email, texting, online giving and a member database in one tool built for churches.
Every Flocknote plan includes unlimited email and standard texting, unlimited admins and groups, and signups for Sunday services, potlucks and volunteering. Online giving is included too, at 1.1% plus 30 cents per ACH gift and 2.9% plus 30 cents per card gift. Flocknote Complete adds a household database, attendance tracking, family and religious education registration, and donor reporting.
Pricing: priced by total church members. Free for life up to 40 members. Starter is $73 a month at 401 to 600 members and $150 at 2,301 to 2,900. Complete is Starter plus $75 a month, so $148 and $225 at the same sizes. No contracts.
Where it falls short: the price follows the size of the church, and every plan includes texting whether you text or not. At 2,500 members Starter costs $150, more than 13 times EmailFig’s $11, and the pricing page lists no nonprofit discount. A church that only needs email pays mostly for features it won’t use.
3. MailerLite
Best for: churches with a communications volunteer who wants a clean editor, at a nonprofit discount.
Small churches often pick MailerLite for its editor and value. Its pricing page gives nonprofits 30% off paid plans, bringing Comfort to $8.40 at 500 subscribers and $23.10 at 2,500.
Pricing: free up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Comfort is $12 a month at 500 subscribers and $33 at 2,500 (25,000 emails a month), billed monthly. Power, with unlimited automations and sends, is $25 and $49. Yearly billing saves 10%.
Where it falls short: the free plan stops at 250 subscribers, and sending locks once the list passes it. No giving. Even with the 30% discount, Comfort at 2,500 costs about twice EmailFig’s $11, before EmailFig’s own nonprofit discount. See MailerLite compared with EmailFig.
4. Constant Contact
Best for: churches that run many events (retreats, camps, dinners) and want registration and email in one account.
Constant Contact’s pricing page lists hosting events, selling products and taking payments on every plan, including Lite, plus social media posting.
Pricing: Lite is $12 a month at up to 500 contacts and $50 at 1,001 to 2,500. Standard is $35 and $75. Premium starts at $80. Prices are billed monthly; prepaying 12 months saves 15%. Nonprofits get 20% off a six-month prepay and 30% off a 12-month prepay, with no discount on monthly billing.
Where it falls short: automation is thin below Premium. Lite includes one automation template and Standard three, and custom automations need Premium, so a multi-week visitor series costs $80 a month or more. Lite sends are capped at 10 times your contacts, and each send past the cap costs $0.002.
5. Mailchimp
Best for: churches whose volunteers already know Mailchimp and would rather not move the list.
Many churches started on Mailchimp, and its editor and templates work well for a newsletter. Its pricing page offers nonprofits and charities 15% off.
Pricing: the free plan holds 250 contacts and sends up to 500 emails a month. Essentials is $13 a month at up to 500 contacts and $45 at 1,501 to 2,500, billed monthly, at the regular price after any promotion. Standard, with the full automation builder, is $20 and $60.
Where it falls short: the free plan’s 500 emails a month can’t carry a weekly bulletin even to 250 people. Essentials allows up to four steps per automation flow, enough for a short visitor welcome but not a six-week one. At 2,500 contacts Essentials costs about four times EmailFig’s $11. Moving your list off Mailchimp covers the switch, and Mailchimp compared with EmailFig has the full grid.
6. Text In Church
Best for: churches that lead with texting and want a structured follow-up for first-time guests.
Text In Church is a texting tool first, with unlimited email on every plan. It includes two-way texting, connect cards, automated workflows and message templates, and its site lists prayer requests and nurturing volunteers among its uses. It syncs in real time with Planning Center and connects to Pushpay, Rock RMS, Tithely, Elvanto and Mailchimp, so a church can keep its newsletter on Mailchimp with lists that stay current.
Pricing: priced by text message credits a month. Core is $30 a month for up to 500 credits and $35 for 501 to 1,250, billed monthly. At 501 to 1,250 credits, Plus is $45 and Suite is $60. Yearly billing saves 17%. There is a 14-day free trial, and church plants get six months free.
Where it falls short: the professional email builder and sending from your own domain are Suite only, so a designed bulletin from your church’s address costs $60 a month at 1,250 texts. The bill grows with how much you text, so a church that mostly emails pays for a texting product.
7. Hey Church
Best for: small churches that re-announce the same events every week and want those reminders sent on a schedule.
Hey Church is built around recurring announcements. Write one once, choose weekly, every two weeks or monthly, and it sends on that schedule. Its AI modes rewrite the hook and call to action each time, with or without an admin’s approval. People join by hand entry, a QR sign-up code, or a one-way import from Planning Center.
Pricing: free up to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month. Starter is $10 a month for 500 contacts and 2,500 emails a month. Growth is $30 for 1,500 contacts and 10,000 emails. The pricing page lists no plan above 1,500 contacts.
Where it falls short: its FAQ says every send goes to every contact who consented to email; it does not send by group, segment or tag. So the youth group notice reaches the seniors too. Its site says analytics are coming soon, and there is no open-rate dashboard.
8. Mailmeteor
Best for: a pastor or parish office that wants emails to look like personal notes from a Gmail account.
Mailmeteor is a mail merge for Gmail and Google Sheets. Each email goes out from your own Gmail address, personalized from a spreadsheet, so it reads like a note from the pastor.
Pricing: free for 500 emails a month. Starter is $5.99 per user a month for 5,000 emails, Premium $17.99 for 30,000, and Professional $35.99 for 60,000, billed monthly. Yearly billing gives three months free.
Where it falls short: Gmail’s limits apply, and Mailmeteor’s page lists them: 500 emails a day on a gmail.com account and 2,000 on Google Workspace. A bulletin to 2,500 people takes five days on gmail.com and two on Workspace. The list lives in a spreadsheet, and there is no texting.
What churches need from email
The weekly bulletin
Most church email is one message a week: service times, the sermon, this week’s events, a volunteer ask. The work is repeating it without retyping it. On EmailFig, MailerLite, Mailchimp and Constant Contact you duplicate last week’s bulletin, edit it and schedule it. Hey Church resends an announcement on a schedule with a fresh rewrite. Flocknote and Text In Church send email too, but Text In Church keeps its professional email builder on Suite.
A weekly bulletin to 2,500 people is about 10,800 emails a month. That fits EmailFig’s $11 plan (25,000 emails), MailerLite Comfort (25,000) and Constant Contact Lite (25,000), but not Mailchimp’s free plan (500) or Hey Church’s largest plan (10,000 emails for 1,500 contacts).
Ministry, volunteer and small-group lists
The youth group, the choir, the volunteers and each small group want their own email. Send youth updates to the seniors every week and they stop opening anything. Every tool here except Hey Church can send to one group at a time. Flocknote is built around groups, with unlimited groups on every plan. On EmailFig each ministry is a list, members pick their lists on a preference page, and a tag can mark a role such as “greeter” across lists.
First-time visitor follow-up
A visitor who leaves a card on Sunday should hear from the church that week and again over the next month. That takes an automation: someone joins a “Visitors” list, then gets a welcome, a wait, an invitation to a newcomers’ lunch, and a check-in. Text In Church is designed around this follow-up, by text and email. EmailFig, MailerLite and Flocknote handle it in email. Mailchimp Essentials stops at four steps per flow, and Constant Contact keeps custom automations on Premium.
Prayer requests, giving and event signups
Church-built tools cover these. Flocknote includes online giving and signups for services, potlucks and volunteering on every plan. Constant Contact lists events and payments on every plan. Text In Church lists prayer requests and two-way texting among its uses, so a member can reply to a text. A church on EmailFig, MailerLite or Mailchimp keeps giving and event registration in its existing giving platform or church management system and links to them from the bulletin.
Texting
If your congregation reads texts more than email, look at Flocknote (unlimited standard texting) or Text In Church (priced by text credits). EmailFig, Hey Church and Mailmeteor do not send texts.
How to choose
Start with what you need besides email. For texting, giving and a member database in one church tool, take Flocknote, and expect the bill to follow your membership. If texting and guest follow-up come first, take Text In Church. If you run many events, Constant Contact puts registration next to your email.
If the job is the weekly bulletin, ministry lists and a visitor welcome series, you need an email tool, and on a church budget price matters. EmailFig is free up to 4,000 contacts and $11 a month at 2,500, 20% less for a registered nonprofit. Cheap email marketing under 2,500 subscribers compares more tools at that size, and free tiers compared covers the free plans.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best email marketing for churches?
For most churches it is EmailFig: it sends a weekly bulletin and keeps each ministry on its own list, free up to 4,000 contacts and $11 a month for a weekly bulletin to 2,500. Flocknote is the church-built option with texting and online giving included, at $73 a month for 401 to 600 members and $150 for 2,301 to 2,900.
Is there free email marketing for churches?
Yes. EmailFig’s free plan holds 4,000 contacts and sends 10,000 emails a month, enough for a weekly bulletin to about 2,300 people. Flocknote is free up to 40 members. MailerLite’s free plan holds 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, and Mailchimp’s holds 250 contacts with 500 emails a month.
How much does Flocknote cost?
Flocknote prices by total church members. It is free up to 40 members, and Flocknote Starter is $73 a month for 401 to 600 members and $150 for 2,301 to 2,900, with unlimited email and texting. Flocknote Complete, which adds a household database and registration, costs Starter plus $75 a month.
Do churches get a nonprofit discount on email marketing?
Often, if the church is a registered nonprofit. MailerLite’s pricing page gives nonprofits 30% off paid plans, and EmailFig gives 20% off when you ask support. Mailchimp offers nonprofits and charities 15% off. Constant Contact gives 20% off a six-month prepay and 30% off a 12-month prepay, and nothing on monthly billing.
Is Mailchimp good for churches?
Mailchimp works for a church newsletter, and many volunteers know it, but it costs more than EmailFig and MailerLite at both sizes here. Its free plan sends 500 emails a month, less than a weekly bulletin to 250 people, and Essentials is $13 a month at up to 500 contacts and $45 at 1,501 to 2,500, with up to four steps per automation. EmailFig is free at 500 contacts and $11 at 2,500.
Can a church send texts and emails from one tool?
Yes. Flocknote includes unlimited email and standard texting on every plan, and Text In Church includes unlimited email with plans priced by text credits, from $30 a month for 500 texts. Mailchimp sells texting as an add-on. EmailFig, Hey Church and Mailmeteor send email only.