Nine email marketing pricing pages were opened fresh on September 4, 2026, with no account, no saved preferences and no ad blocker. On eight of the nine, the headline number assumed a full year paid up front. On four, it was in Canadian dollars, and nothing on the page said so. Three did both at once, and one, Zoho Campaigns, showed no US-dollar figure at all.
Key takeaways
- Brevo, EmailOctopus, Zoho Campaigns, beehiiv, Kit, MailerLite, Moosend and Sender all default to an annual rate shown as a monthly figure. On the five that stay in US dollars, switching to monthly billing raises the number 11% to 43%.
- Brevo, EmailOctopus, Zoho Campaigns and Mailchimp showed Canadian dollars to a signed-out visitor with no country selected. Zoho showed no USD option.
- Brevo’s Starter plan shows “CA$9” by default and “$9” once forced to monthly US dollars. Same digits, different currency, different amount of real money.
- EmailFig’s pricing page shows monthly prices in US dollars, with no annual toggle and no currency selector.
Annual billing as the default
The pattern is the same on each page: a monthly-sounding number, usually in large type, that only holds if the year is paid today. The toggle that would show the real monthly rate exists, but it starts in the other position. Six of the eight are walked through here. EmailOctopus and Zoho Campaigns are in the table below.
Brevo opens with “Yearly (-10%)” already selected. Its Starter plan reads CA$9 a month. Switch the toggle to Monthly and the same plan reads CA$10, in the same currency, before the currency question even comes up.
Kit opens with “Pay yearly, save 17%” switched on. At 1,000 subscribers, its Creator plan shows $33 a month. Flip the toggle and it’s $39, billed monthly, no currency change. That $6 difference recurs every month you’re not paying a year at a time.
beehiiv defaults to “Annual billing.” On September 4, at 1,000 subscribers, Scale reads $43 a month and Max reads $96. Switch to “Monthly billing” and the same two plans read $49 and $109. beehiiv has since renamed them Lite and Pro (October 1, 2026).
MailerLite defaults to “Billed yearly, Save 10%.” At 500 subscribers, its Comfort plan reads $10.80 a month. Billed monthly, the same plan is $12.
Moosend defaults to “Annual, Save 20%.” Its Pro plan reads $7 a month there and $9 once switched to Monthly.
Sender defaults to “Annual Billing,” and stacks a second, separate discount on top: a banner reading “30% discount is valid for first-time users” sits right next to the toggle. At 1,000 subscribers, Professional reads $14 a month under both discounts. Switched to Monthly Billing, with the first-time promo gone too, it’s $20, the number a returning customer or a second account actually pays.
What each page shows, and what it charges
Every figure below was read from the vendor’s own page on September 4, 2026, signed out. “Shown on arrival” is whatever the page displays before touching anything. “Forced to monthly USD” is the same plan, at the same size, after switching billing to monthly and currency to US dollars where that option exists.
| Vendor | Plan (size) | Shown on arrival | Forced to monthly USD | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | Standard | CA$19.83/mo (yearly, CAD) | $18/mo | different currency and billing period |
| EmailOctopus | Pro (500 subs) | CA$12/mo (yearly, CAD) | $10/mo | different currency and billing period |
| Zoho Campaigns | Standard (0-500 contacts) | C$3.75/mo (yearly, CAD) | not shown | no USD option shown |
| Mailchimp | Standard (0-500 contacts) | C$28.03/mo (CAD, monthly) | $20/mo | different currency |
| Kit | Creator (1,000 subs) | $33/mo (pay yearly) | $39/mo | +18% |
| beehiiv | Scale (1,000 subs) | $43/mo (annual) | $49/mo | +14% |
| MailerLite | Comfort (500 subs) | $10.80/mo (billed yearly) | $12/mo | +11% |
| Moosend | Pro | $7/mo (annual) | $9/mo | +29% |
| Sender | Professional (1,000 subs) | $14/mo (annual + first-time promo) | $20/mo | +43% |
Read the rows with a currency mismatch carefully. A percentage there would imply the two numbers are the same kind of thing, and they aren’t: one is Canadian dollars discounted for a year paid today, the other is US dollars paid month to month. Turning that into a single percentage would need an exchange rate the page never shows you, so the honest answer is that the gap isn’t a number. It’s two different questions wearing one price tag.
Currency defaults
Brevo’s Starter plan is the clearest example on this list. Land on the page and it reads CA$9 a month. Force it to monthly billing in US dollars and it reads $9 a month. The digits are identical. The money isn’t: a Canadian dollar is worth less than a US dollar, so the default CA$9 figure, already discounted for paying a year up front, represents less real spending than the $9 a monthly US customer actually pays. A reader skimming two browser tabs, one showing “CA$9” and one showing “$9,” has no way to know from the page alone which is which.
Zoho Campaigns doesn’t give you the option to find out. Its toggle switches between monthly and yearly billing, both in Canadian dollars. There was no currency selector, no country picker and no USD figure anywhere on the page. Switching the toggle to Monthly turns the default C$3.75 into C$5, a 33% jump inside the same currency. Comparing Zoho’s C$3.75 against a US competitor’s advertised price isn’t a comparison the page supports.
Mailchimp’s case is the easiest to see: load the page fresh and the URL changes to append ?currency=CAD before any click. The other three reach the same place without touching the address bar. A signed-out visitor with no stated country was shown a price in a currency they hadn’t chosen. Vendors typically pick the currency from the visitor’s location, so the page you see may differ. That is the point: the default isn’t stated, and you can’t tell which one you got without clicking.
What our own page defaults to
EmailFig’s pricing page shows monthly prices in US dollars. There’s no annual-versus-monthly toggle and no currency selector. At 10,000 subscribers on the managed plan it reads $27 a month, and that’s what a signed-up account is billed. The page does have a switch between managed sending and your own Amazon SES, which is a different price ladder, not a billing period.
How to read a price page
Look for the toggle before reading the number next to it. If a page shows “Monthly” and “Yearly” as two buttons, check which one is already pressed. If a page shows a currency symbol you don’t recognize as your own, or a dollar sign that might mean a different dollar, click it and see what the options are. If there’s no currency option at all, treat that as information too: the page has no way to tell you what you’d actually pay in your own currency, which is a real limit on the comparison, not a formatting detail.
Eight of nine vendors made the same default choice, so this isn’t about any one of them. The fix on the reader’s side is the same regardless: click the toggle before writing the number down. Cheap email marketing at 10,000 subscribers and the full comparison at every list size both state which billing period and currency each figure uses, for exactly this reason. The pricing cliff covers a related habit: a price that looks flat until one more contact moves it to the next tier. Free tiers compared does the same audit for the “free” plans these pages advertise above the paid ones.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Brevo’s price change when I switch from yearly to monthly billing?
Brevo’s default view applies a 10% annual discount and shows the discounted monthly-equivalent figure. When checked, its Starter plan read CA$9 a month under that default and CA$10 a month billed monthly, both in Canadian dollars, per Brevo’s pricing page.
Is the price shown on a pricing page always in US dollars?
No. Brevo, EmailOctopus, Zoho Campaigns and Mailchimp all showed Canadian dollars when checked signed out with no country selected, per each vendor’s own pricing page read September 4, 2026. Currency defaults often follow the visitor’s location, so yours may differ. Mailchimp’s URL visibly appends ?currency=CAD on load, which is the easiest of the four to catch.
How much does Zoho Campaigns cost in US dollars?
When checked, Zoho Campaigns’ pricing page had no currency override, and every plan was priced in Canadian dollars. Its Standard plan read C$3.75 a month billed yearly and C$5 a month billed monthly, from Zoho’s own pricing page, with no USD figure on it.
Can a default price look higher and still cost less?
Yes, when a currency switch is involved. Brevo’s Standard plan showed CA$19.83 a month by default (yearly billing, Canadian dollars) against $18 a month forced to monthly US dollars. The default has the bigger digits, but a Canadian dollar is worth less than a US dollar, so the two numbers can’t be compared until you put them in one currency and one billing period.
What does EmailFig’s pricing page default to?
Monthly prices in US dollars, with no annual-billing toggle and no currency selector. At 10,000 subscribers on the managed plan, EmailFig’s pricing page reads $27 a month, which is the same figure a signed-up account is billed.