Brevo, EmailOctopus, MailerLite, Mailchimp, Sender and Moosend all advertise an entry price between $9 and $13 a month, with Kit at $39 and beehiiv at $59. That band tells you almost nothing, because each number buys something different: a different contact ceiling, a different send limit, and a different list of features held back for the next plan up. Most of the pages don’t show you that number first, either. They default to a yearly or promotional rate and quote the true monthly price only once you find the toggle.
Key Takeaways
- Eight budget email tools price their cheapest plan at $9 to $13 a month, or $39 to $59 for Kit and beehiiv, once billing is forced to monthly and USD. What that buys ranges from 500 contacts with unlimited sending to 1,000 contacts with a hard send cap.
- Brevo, EmailOctopus, MailerLite, Kit, beehiiv, Sender, and Moosend default their pricing pages to a yearly or first-year promotional rate. The number shown first is not what you pay from month two onward.
- Brevo, EmailOctopus, and Mailchimp default at least some visitors to Canadian dollars, before anyone has typed in a location.
- The entry price describes the smallest possible customer and nobody else. The full breakdown at every list size is where it stops being useful.
Eight entry prices in monthly USD
Every figure below was read on each vendor’s own pricing page with billing set to monthly and currency set to USD, since neither is guaranteed by default. All were read in September 2026 except beehiiv, which repriced on October 1, 2026 and was read again on October 29.
| Vendor | Entry price, monthly USD | What it covers | What the default view shows instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo Starter | $9/mo | Unlimited contacts stored, 5,000 monthly emails | $8/mo, billed yearly; opened in Canadian dollars before USD was selected |
| EmailOctopus Pro | $10/mo | 500 subscribers, unlimited sends | $9/mo, billed yearly; also opened in Canadian dollars |
| MailerLite Comfort | $12/mo | 500 subscribers, 5,000 monthly emails | $10.80/mo, billed yearly at $129.60/year |
| Mailchimp Essentials | $13/mo | 500 contacts, automations capped at 4 steps | The pricing URL redirects to Canadian dollars by default, showing C$18.22/mo for the same plan |
| Kit Creator | $39/mo | 1,000 subscribers, unlimited automations | $33/mo, billed yearly at $390/year |
| beehiiv Lite | $59/mo | Up to 1,000 subscribers, beehiiv’s own branding still on your pages | $49/mo, billed annually |
| Sender Standard | $10/mo | 1,000 subscribers, 12,000 monthly emails | $7/mo, a first-year-only 30% promo billed as $84, reverting to $120/year after month twelve |
| Moosend Pro | $9/mo | 500 contacts, no free plan at any list size | $7/mo, billed annually |
Two vendors cover 500 contacts for roughly the same $9 to $10. One caps sending at 5,000 emails a month; the other doesn’t cap sending at all. That single difference matters more than the dollar figure both pages lead with.
The default number usually isn’t the monthly price
Mailchimp is the one page that opens on a month-to-month figure for its entry plan, and that arrives in the wrong currency for a Canadian visitor. The other seven default to a yearly, annual, or promotional rate, and every one of them quotes it as a monthly-equivalent so it sits next to the $9-to-$13 cluster without looking out of place.
Brevo’s page opens with “Yearly (-10%)” already toggled on. EmailOctopus does the same. MailerLite defaults to “Billed yearly.” Kit defaults to “Pay yearly, save 17%.” beehiiv shows the yearly price first, with the monthly price beside it. Moosend’s page loads on its “Annual, Save 20%” tab. Each one shows the discounted figure from the table above, not the price billed month to month.
Sender’s default is a different mechanic: not a standing annual discount, but a first-year-only promotional rate that expires after twelve months, reverting to the full $10/mo shown in the table.
Each of these is the price for someone willing to prepay a year, or in Sender’s case, a first-year promotional rate, shown by default to a visitor who hasn’t chosen either. Read the number a pricing page opens with and you may be reading the price for paying a year up front, not what you’ll actually pay this month.
The currency isn’t always dollars either
Brevo’s page defaulted to Canadian dollars in this same browsing session, showing CA$9 before USD was selected from the currency menu. EmailOctopus did the same, opening at C$12 for its 500-subscriber tier. Mailchimp’s pricing URL redirected outright to mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/?currency=CAD, quoting Essentials at C$18.22 a month until the currency dropdown was changed by hand. A US dollar and a Canadian dollar aren’t far apart in value, but a reader comparing two screenshots without checking which currency each one used is comparing numbers that were never on the same scale.
What the entry price leaves out
Brevo’s $9 Starter plan doesn’t include marketing automation; that starts on the Standard plan, and removing Brevo’s own “Sent with Brevo” footer costs a separate $12/month add-on even at the entry tier.
EmailOctopus’s $10 Pro plan removes the free plan’s branding and its 10,000-email monthly cap, but keeps a 50-tag ceiling that never lifts, whatever your list size becomes.
MailerLite’s $12 Comfort plan caps automations at 50 and keeps support to email only; unlimited automations, multiple triggers, and 24/7 chat live on the Power plan, which starts at $25 a month.
Mailchimp’s $13 Essentials plan caps automation workflows at four steps. A welcome email with one delay and one follow-up already reaches that limit; the plan with a full automation builder, Standard, starts at $20/month at the same contact count.
Kit’s $39 Creator plan does include unlimited automations and removes Kit’s branding, both withheld on the free plan. What it doesn’t include is subscriber engagement scoring, collaborative editing, and Facebook custom audiences, all reserved for the Pro plan above it.
beehiiv’s $59 Lite plan keeps beehiiv’s own branding. Removing it needs Pro, which starts at $109 a month.
Sender’s $10 Standard plan already removes Sender’s branding and adds SMS messaging at the entry price, which makes it the one plan on this list without an obvious feature held back for later.
Moosend’s $9 Pro plan isn’t a discount off a free plan, because Moosend doesn’t have one. Its only free option is a 30-day trial, and $9 a month is what’s left once that ends, regardless of list size.
Where EmailFig sits
EmailFig’s paid ladder starts at $6/month at 500 contacts ($5 on BYOS), below every entry price in the table above, and the pricing cliff shows where each rung above it lands. Automations, segments, forms, and branding removal are on that $6 plan and every plan above it; there’s no separate tier that adds a workflow builder or removes a footer line. That $6 figure isn’t the whole story either, since EmailFig is free up to 4,000 contacts on both its managed and bring-your-own-AWS plans, a cap most of this list doesn’t come close to matching. Past free, the entry price stops being the useful number for either of us: the full comparison at every list size is where the gap between vendors actually shows up.
Frequently asked questions
Does Brevo’s $9 Starter plan include marketing automation?
No. Brevo’s Starter plan, read from brevo.com/pricing, doesn’t include automated workflows; those start on the Standard plan. Removing Brevo’s own “Sent with Brevo” line from your emails also costs a separate $12/month add-on, on top of the $9 Starter price.
Why does a vendor’s pricing page sometimes show a different number than what I’m actually charged?
Most budget email tools default their pricing page to yearly or promotional billing, which lowers the monthly-equivalent number shown on load. Kit’s page opens at $33/month for its Creator plan, for example, but that’s the yearly rate; billed month to month, the same plan is $39, read from kit.com/pricing.
Is Moosend’s $9 a month a trial price or an ongoing plan?
It’s the ongoing Pro plan. Moosend has no standing free tier, only a 30-day trial, and once that ends the $9-a-month Pro plan (forced to monthly billing) is what’s left, at any list size, per moosend.com/pricing.
Does EmailOctopus’s $10 entry plan include unlimited sending?
Yes. EmailOctopus’s Pro plan, priced from $10/month at 500 subscribers on emailoctopus.com/pricing, removes the monthly send cap that applies to its free plan. What it keeps is a 50-tag ceiling that doesn’t lift at any paid tier.
Does Kit’s Creator plan remove Kit’s own branding?
Yes, unlike Kit’s free Newsletter plan, which keeps Kit’s branding on outgoing emails. Branding removal is included starting on the $39-a-month Creator plan, per kit.com/pricing.