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Best email marketing for a course creator in 2026
A course creator needs two things from email: a list you can mail cheaply while it is small, and a way to sell the course without a second bill. These are the real prices for the four tools we track that do one or both, re-checked from the vendors' own pages this week.
Prices last re-checked 2026-10-04. Every number below is read from the vendor's own pricing page.
Which one should you pick?
- Pick Kit (formerly ConvertKit) if you need the best free tier while you build the list. Visit Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
- Pick Systeme.io if you want the course and the email in one bill. Visit Systeme.io
- Pick beehiiv if the course is sold as a paid newsletter. Visit beehiiv
Some buttons are affiliate links — how this works.
The short answer
Short answer: Best free tier while you build the list: Kit (formerly ConvertKit) Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers on the Newsletter plan, with unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts. That is the largest free tier in this set by four times, and it is the one that lets a creator mail a real list for years without paying.
| Tool | Entry price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free (Newsletter) | $0/mo | Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited broadcast |
| Creator | $39/mo, or $32.5/mo billed annually | Everything in Free plus unlimited visual automations, unlimited sequences, A/B s |
| Pro | $79/mo, or $65.83/mo billed annually | Everything in Creator plus Subscriber Signals, engagement analytics, unlimited u |
Prices checked 2026-10-04.
Best free tier while you build the list: Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers on the Newsletter plan, with unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts. That is the largest free tier in this set by four times, and it is the one that lets a creator mail a real list for years without paying. The trade-off: the free plan includes one basic automation, so a full course sequence needs Creator at $33/mo.
See Kit (formerly ConvertKit) pricingBest if you want the course and the email in one bill: Systeme.io
Systeme.io is free up to 2,000 contacts and one course, then $17/mo Startup ($14/mo billed annually) for 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels and 5 courses. It is the only tool here that hosts the course as well as the list, so it replaces two subscriptions instead of one. The trade-off: its email automation is thinner than Kit's or ActiveCampaign's.
See Systeme.io pricingBest if the course is sold as a paid newsletter: beehiiv
beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers and takes 0% of paid subscription revenue on Lite ($59/mo, $49/mo billed yearly), which also adds the ad network and boosts. If your course is delivered as a paid newsletter rather than a video library, this is the only tool here built for that.
See beehiiv pricingThe prices, plan by plan
Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers on the Newsletter plan. At 1,000 subscribers Creator is $39/mo billed monthly or $390/yr and Pro is $79/mo or $790/yr. Yearly billing also prints an extra 25% off Pro for the first year only: $50/mo, $593 billed, then it renews at the standard rate. Both plans scale with list size (Creator $169/mo at 15,000, Pro $249/mo).
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free (Newsletter) | $0/mo | Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, sell digital products |
| Creator | $39/mo, or $32.5/mo billed annually | Everything in Free plus unlimited visual automations, unlimited sequences, A/B subject lines, SMS, remove Kit branding |
| Pro | $79/mo, or $65.83/mo billed annually | Everything in Creator plus Subscriber Signals, engagement analytics, unlimited users, deliverability reporting, newsletter referral system. Yearly billing at 1,000 subscribers prints an extra 25% off the first year ($50/mo, $593 billed). The page says that discount is the first year only and the plan then renews at the standard rate. |
What to watch: Free / Creator / Pro were read from kit.com/pricing itself, at 1,000 email subscribers, on 2026-10-12. The monthly toggle prints Creator $39/mo and Pro $79. The yearly toggle prints Creator as $33/mo ($390 billed yearly); that $33 is the page's rounding of $390/12, so the table keeps $32.50. The same yearly view prints an extra 25% off Pro for the first year ($50/mo, $593 billed) with $66 struck through, and says the plan renews at the standard rate after that year. The card does not print the standard Pro yearly total of $790. Kit's paid plans scale with list size, so the price shown is the price at 1,000 subscribers, not a flat rate. Both paid plans say the trial is 14 days and that no credit card is required.
Source: https://kit.com/pricing, read 2026-10-05.
See Kit (formerly ConvertKit) pricingSysteme.io
Systeme.io is free up to 2,000 contacts, then $17/mo Startup, $47/mo Webinar and $97/mo Unlimited on monthly billing. Annual billing gives you two months free. Every plan includes unlimited email sends, unlimited sub-accounts, and 0% transaction fees. The free plan never expires and does not require a credit card.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo (no annual discount published) | 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, unlimited emails. Never expires, no credit card. |
| Startup | $17/mo, or $14/mo billed annually | 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels, 5 courses |
| Webinar | $47/mo, or $39/mo billed annually | 10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses, evergreen webinars |
| Unlimited | $97/mo, or $80/mo billed annually | Unlimited contacts, funnels, courses, and automation rules |
What to watch: Monthly rates $17, $47, and $97 were read on systeme.io/pricing on 2026-10-13, in the page's own FAQ. That FAQ prints Webinar as 50 funnels and 20 courses, Unlimited as unlimited courses and automation rules, and every plan as unlimited email sends, unlimited sub-accounts, and 0% transaction fees. The free plan never expires and does not require a credit card. The same FAQ lists extra free-plan caps of 1 blog, 1 affiliate program, 1 custom domain, 1 automation rule, 1 email campaign, and 500 students. The pricing page prints Annual billing and 2 months free. The page HTML does not print the annual dollar amounts. Those dollars stay the 2026-10-05 reading from systeme.io's own affiliate page.
Source: https://systeme.io/pricing, read 2026-10-05.
See Systeme.io pricingbeehiiv
beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers. At 1,000 subscribers Lite is $59/mo ($49/mo billed yearly) and Pro is $109/mo ($95/mo billed yearly). At 10,000 subscribers Lite is $139/mo ($119/mo billed yearly) and Pro is $239/mo ($199/mo billed yearly). Lite is not sold above 100,000 subscribers. The pricing-page FAQ says Lite and Pro include a free trial, no credit card is needed to start, and the trial ends when you upgrade. That answer does not say how many days the trial lasts.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo (no annual discount published) | Up to 2,500 subscribers, 1 team seat, 1 publication, 30-day analytics lookback, unlimited email sends |
| Lite | $59/mo, or $49/mo billed annually | Up to 100,000 subscribers, 2 team seats, 3 publications, paid subscriptions with 0% take rate, ad network, automations, 12-month analytics lookback |
| Pro | $109/mo, or $95/mo billed annually | Everything in Lite plus remove beehiiv branding, webinars and coaching, advanced analytics, webhooks, dynamic content, up to 250,000 subscribers, 10 team seats, 10 publications, 24/7 priority support |
| Enterprise | custom quote | Custom pricing and subscriber volume, SSO/SAML, dedicated IPs, concierge onboarding |
What to watch: beehiiv does not publish a price for a subscriber count between the slider stops, so those in-between prices are not on this page. Every stop that is listed was read from beehiiv.com/pricing on 2026-10-10. The plan prices in the first table are the 1,000-subscriber stop. Lite is not sold above 100,000 subscribers. Yearly figures are the per-month price when you pay yearly. On 2026-10-12 the yearly cards in the page HTML still showed Lite at $49/mo and Pro at $95/mo at 1,000 subscribers. The monthly toggle is not in that HTML, so those monthly rates stay the 2026-10-10 reading. On that same read, the Pro card carried beehiiv's own Most Popular badge. This page does not treat that badge as a count of customers. The FAQ says the Lite and Pro trial ends when you upgrade, and it does not say how many days that trial lasts. The page HTML does not contain a 14-day trial.
Source: https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing, read 2026-10-10.
See beehiiv pricingActiveCampaign
At 1,000 email contacts, ActiveCampaign starts at $15, $49, $79 and $145 per month billed annually. Each card says Starts at. The page does not print a month-to-month price.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $15/mo billed annually | At 1,000 email contacts. Starts at $15/mo, billed annually. 1 user, limited segmentation, 5 actions per automation, Active Intelligence with limits. |
| Plus | $49/mo billed annually | At 1,000 email contacts. Starts at $49/mo, billed annually. 1 user, standard segmentation, unlimited automation actions, landing pages, Active Intelligence with limits. |
| Pro | $79/mo billed annually | At 1,000 email contacts. Starts at $79/mo, billed annually. 3 users, advanced segmentation, unlimited automation actions, landing pages, predictive and conditional content, attribution. ActiveCampaign labels this card Popular. |
| Enterprise | $145/mo billed annually | At 1,000 email contacts. Starts at $145/mo, billed annually. 5 users, premium segmentation, unlimited automation actions, custom objects, single sign-on, a dedicated account team, Active Intelligence. |
What to watch: The prices in the table are the 1,000-email-contact cards on activecampaign.com/pricing, read 2026-10-12. Each card says Starts at and Billed annually. That view does not print a month-to-month dollar, so the monthly column says not printed. Other contact counts were not on that screenshot, so this page does not print a contact ladder. The Pro card carries ActiveCampaign's own Popular badge. This page does not treat that as a count of customers. The page headline says guaranteed results in 30 days or your money back. That sentence is ActiveCampaign's.
Source: https://www.activecampaign.com/pricing, read 2026-10-12.
See ActiveCampaign pricingMailchimp, Brevo and Constant Contact: what they cost
Every email-marketing comparison starts with these three names, so here is what each one actually charges. Every price below was read on the vendor's own pricing page and is re-checked weekly - the link goes to the full plan tables and the fine print:
- Mailchimp is free under 250 contacts. The free-plan column prints a max of 500 emails a month or 250 a day. Paid plans start at $13/mo for Essentials, $20/mo for Standard and $350/mo for Premium at the 0-500 contacts tier, and every price climbs as the contact count grows.
- Brevo is free at 300 emails a day, then Starter is $9/mo, Standard $18/mo and Professional $499/mo billed monthly, with yearly billing taking 10% off. Brevo prices by monthly email volume, not by contact count.
- Constant Contact starts at $12/mo on Lite, $35/mo on Standard and $80/mo on Premium billed monthly, or $10.20 / $29.75 / $68 per month billed annually. There is no permanent free plan. Constant Contact's own landing page says the trial is 30 days and no credit card is required. A paid plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Cheaper first paid month: Mailchimp Essentials at $13/mo, Brevo Starter at $9/mo and Constant Contact Lite at $12/mo are below the cheapest paid step among the picks above (Systeme.io Startup at $17/mo). Those entry prices are for the smallest list or send volume each vendor sells, so price them at your own size before you switch.
Compare these numbers against the picks above at your own list size: the cheapest tool for a 500-contact shop is rarely the cheapest at 10,000 subscribers, and the free tiers stop at very different places.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest option here?
Systeme.io - free up to 2,000 contacts and one course, then $17/mo Startup ($14/mo billed annually) for 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels and 5 courses. It is the only tool here that hosts the course as well as the list, so it replaces two subscriptions instead of one. Kit is the better value if the list is the product: Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers on the Newsletter plan, the largest free tier in this set by four times, though its first paid tier is $33/mo Creator once you need a full automation sequence.
Are these prices first-party?
Every number on this page is read from the vendor's own pricing page or from the source named under each tool. Where a vendor renders prices in JavaScript, the caveat under that tool says so and names the source we used instead.
How often are these prices re-checked?
The dataset behind this page is re-checked against the vendors' own pricing pages every week, and the date at the top of the page is the last time every tool on it was confirmed.
Do you take payment for placement?
No. Some links are affiliate links and we may earn a commission if you buy through one, at no extra cost to you. The order of the picks is set by price and fit, not by commission.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We do not accept payment for placement, and the price tables are generated from the same dataset we re-check weekly. Full disclosure. How we check prices.