Best Free Email Marketing Services

Looking for a way to run your email marketing efforts without breaking the bank? The free email marketing services on this list all let you send thousands of emails per month without spending a single penny.

👉 You can check our article what is email marketing? to find out how to get started.

Keep reading for a detailed look at each free email marketing service’s sending limits and pros and cons. Then, we’ll share our recommendations at the end. These are much better than Gmail for professional users!

Best free email marketing services in a nutshell

Here are the top solutions that we’re going to cover:

1. Sendinblue (www.sendinblue.com)
2. Mailchimp (mailchimp.com)
3. MailerLite (www.mailerlite.com)
4. Benchmark (www.benchmarkemail.com)
5. OmniSend (www.omnisend.com)
6. Sender (www.sender.net)

Before we dig in, here’s a quick summary of the free email marketing tools that we’ll cover, along with the various limits on each service’s free plan:

Note; while there are other popular email marketing solutions on the market as well, like ConvertKit, GetResponse, Mailjet, AWeber, Constant Contact, Moosend, SendPulse, ActiveCampaign, and more, we felt that their free offerings were either not up to par with the lineup that we settled on in the end (or nonexistent at all). Keep reading for a deeper look at each service that has made the final list.

1. Sendinblue (www.sendinblue.com)

Sendinblue has a great free plan (unlimited contacts) along with support for SMS text message sending, SMTP, in-depth analytics, powerful marketing automation features all in the same dashboard. Sendinblue is also headquartered in France, so you’re guaranteed to comply with GDPR.

How many emails/subscribers do you get for free?

The free plan lets you have an unlimited number of contacts, but you’re limited to 300 emails per day. For that reason, it might not be a great option if you want to send out email blasts to all your subscribers at the same time. However, if you have lots of drip campaigns, it’s quite flexible because there’s no subscriber cap.

The first upgrade is called the Lite plan, which offers 40,000 emails per month at $25 per month. The daily sending limit is removed.

What makes this one of the best free email marketing services?

• A strong drag-and-drop email editor.
• Impressive automation with things like autoresponders, coupons in emails and abandoned cart messages.
• Integrations with platforms like Shopify, Salesforce, and Intercom.
• Heat mapping and A/B testing to see how your emails are doing.
• SMS marketing that can be linked to your email campaigns.
• A feature-rich WordPress plugin that lets you manage everything from your WordPress dashboard. Plus, you can handle your transactional emails through Sendinblue as well.
• Chat feature to reach out to visitors in real time. One of the unique features with an email marketing service.
• A unique CRM solution that’s integrated into the main Sendinblue package.

Who should use it?

Because of the way the free account works, Sendinblue is a great email marketing solution if you have lots of subscribers but you don’t need to message them all at the same time. If you’re only going to be sending a reasonable number of emails each day, you won’t have to pay for Sendinblue at all. It’s also a good option for WordPress users because of its official plugin and it has better analytics than many of the other free email marketing services.

2. Mailchimp (mailchimp.com)

Mailchimp is a favorite of many bloggers and small businesses because it was one of the first big email services to offer a completely free plan. Not only that, but Mailchimp has some excellent eCommerce and email marketing tools.

How many emails/subscribers do you get for free?

The free plan includes 10,000 emails per month for up to 2,000 subscribers.

If you would like to upgrade to unlimited emails it costs $10 per month–the catch is that you can only have up to 500 subscribers–which isn’t the case for some alternatives.

What makes this one of the best free email marketing services?

• The drag-and-drop editor, along with the beautiful templates that you can personalize, are some of the best in the business.
• You get a landing page builder – use them to promote special offers.
• Mailchimp has tools for Instagram and Facebook ads and posts.
• Connect with tools like Shopify, Eventbrite, and Salesforce.
• The automation tools include options for abandoned carts, welcome campaigns, and product recommendations.
• A/B testing and segmentation make your emails more effective.
• Great award-winning customer support available 24/7.

Who should use it?

We like Mailchimp for any small business owners and bloggers who appreciate great designs and stellar deliverability (it will also help you optimize your open rates). It’s also nice if you have an eCommerce store or plan on automating emails and you’d like to make your workflows more efficient.

3. MailerLite (www.mailerlite.com)

MailerLite is one of the best free email marketing services that gained popularity in the last two years. This tool makes it easier for users to improve interaction using pop-ups and surveys.

How many emails/subscribers do you get for free?

The free plan will let you send up to 1,000 emails without having to spend a dime. And while the free version will give you access to nearly all of the essential email marketing features, you might have to miss out on some advanced features.

By that, I mean you won’t be able to create templates, get live chat support or check CTR using a heatmap, or perform A/B testing. You can unlock all this for $10 per month. If you want to increase the subscribers limit to 2,500 then you need to spend $15 per month instead.

What makes this one of the best free email marketing software?

• You can create beautiful email newsletters, pop-ups, and surveys.
• Easily design a mobile-optimized email template for free.
• Send a newsletter to your global subscribers at optimum time using delivery-by-time-zone.
• You’d be able to control your backend using the custom HTML editor.
• Find the most converting landing page using A/B split testing and heatmap analysis.
• The dedicated support team for providing high-class live chat experience (premium plan)
• Get access to 49+ newsletter templates for blog, eCommerce, business, and more.
• Has an API for developers built on HTTP and REST.

Who should use it?

MailerLite can be used for creating landing pages (for webinars, for example), pop-ups, and surveys from a single dashboard. All this plus the heatmap testing makes it ideal for startups, small to mid-sized businesses and eCommerce stores who need good deliverability.

4. Benchmark (www.benchmarkemail.com)

Benchmark boasts a speedy email designer made just for busy marketers. You can edit photos right in the editor and the templates are great for a wide variety of businesses. At the same time, this tool is easy enough to use that your people will be able to subscribe/unsubscribe without added hurdles.

How many emails/subscribers do you get for free?

The free plan lets you have unlimited subscribers and send up to 250 emails per month, which is almost exactly what you get with Mailchimp.

If you’d like to upgrade, you can start with 600 subscribers and unlimited sends per month for $13.99.

What makes this one of the best free email marketing services?

• It doesn’t take much time to craft email marketing campaigns using their drag-and-drop email builder.
• You can easily custom code your emails.
• The email automation options include welcome emails, abandoned carts, and follow-ups.
• Polls and surveys are included.
• You receive tools for A/B testing and integrating with hundreds of apps.

Who should use it?

Since the free plan is one of the best on the market, I would recommend it to those who can’t afford to pay anything for an email marketing tool. Otherwise, it works well for bloggers and eCommerce stores (running on WooCommerce and other tools).

5. OmniSend (www.omnisend.com)

OmniSend is a must among these email service providers for users who are running online stores only. It quickly pulls products from your store and generates beautiful and fun emails and opt-in forms to grow your email list.

How many emails/subscribers do you get for free?

The free plan offers you 15,000 emails per month and 2,000 emails per day. It doesn’t matter how many subscribers you have.

Upgrading depends on whether you need more emails per month or more advanced features. The first option is $16 per month for 500 subscribers and 15,000 emails. The email count and pricing goes up with more subscribers.

What makes this one of the best free email marketing software?

• The free plan is a steal and the upgrades are rather flexible.
• The eCommerce integrations instantly pull products you want to sell into the email.
• It has creative signup forms like popups, landing pages, and a wheel-of-fortune game.
• Send out discount codes or scratch cards.
• Create automation reports and A/B test campaigns.
• Retain mobile audience using mobile-friendly email templates.
• Send out automated emails for abandoned carts and order confirmations.
• Also offers enterprise solutions for bigger companies.

Who should use it?

OmniSend is a great free option for eCommerce stores. You can still use it if you’re not running a store, but you’ll miss out on a lot of the unique functionality.

6. Sender (www.sender.net)

Sender is yet another email service with a wonderful free plan. It also offers push notifications to go along with its segmentation, integrations, and stunning designs that you can customize.

How many emails/subscribers do you get for free?

The free plan lets you have up to 2,500 subscribers and send 15,000 emails per month.

The next upgrade is $10 per month for 5,000 subscribers and 60,000 emails per month.

What makes this one of the best free email marketing services?

• It has plugins for most popular content management systems.
• Video gets converted into animated GIFs inside emails.
• The analysis tools include click maps and Google Analytics – so you can track all your metrics effectively.
• Adding eCommerce products is done by quickly copying and pasting links.
• It can help you automate your social media marketing efforts.
• It will also give you pointers on how to optimize your subject lines.

Who should use it?

Sender has some wonderful tools, but I like it best because the pricing remains fairly low as you upgrade.

Which of these free email marketing services is right for you?

All things considered, here are my final recommendations:

• ⭐ I’d argue that Mailchimp is the best all-around free email marketing platform. That is if you’re okay with the limit of 2,000 subscribers.
• 💪 If you prefer to be able to send to an unlimited number of subscribers then Sendinblue is going to be your choice. I also like their SMS feature.
• If you’re running an eCommerce store, you have to try out OmniSend or MailerLite.

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