Home / Shortlists / Best Email Marketing for Podcasters in 2026: what each platform really costs
Best Email Marketing for Podcasters in 2026: what each platform really costs
This is what each email platform on this page costs at the list sizes a podcast runs at. Kit is the cheapest here: Kit Free is $0/mo up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, and no other free tier on this page covers more than 2,500 subscribers. beehiiv is the one to pick when the newsletter is the product - beehiiv Lite lists paid subscriptions with 0% take rate and its ad network right on the plan card. Brevo is the one to pick when you email listeners by the episode instead of by the week: Brevo Starter is $9/mo from 5,000 emails a month. MailerLite is the one to pick for the smallest steps up a ladder once the show outgrows free. A podcast list behaves differently from a marketing list. It is mostly free subscribers, it grows in bursts when an episode pops, and everyone on it joined to hear from you - so the free ceiling matters more than the feature list. Prices below come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked weekly. The picks come first; the full price tables are underneath.
Prices last re-checked 2026-10-04. Numbers are read from each vendor's own pricing page; any exception is flagged under "What to watch".
Which one should you pick?
- Pick Kit (formerly ConvertKit) if you need the best free ceiling for a growing show. Visit Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
- Pick beehiiv if you need the best when the newsletter is the product. Visit beehiiv
- Pick Brevo if you need the best priced by the send. Visit Brevo
- Pick MailerLite if you need the best small steps past free. Visit MailerLite
Some buttons are affiliate links — how this works.
The short answer
Short answer: Best free ceiling for a growing show: Kit (formerly ConvertKit) Kit Free is $0/mo up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, so a weekly episode email can hold five figures of listeners without a bill. Prices were read from each vendors own page on our last weekly check.
| 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 ceiling for a growing show: Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
Kit Free is $0/mo up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, so a weekly episode email can hold five figures of listeners without a bill. When you do pay, Kit Creator is $39/mo at 1,000 subscribers, $59/mo at 3,000, $89/mo at 5,000, $139/mo at 10,000 and $169/mo at 15,000, and Kit's yearly plans count 12 months for the price of 10 ($390 for the year at 1,000 subscribers).
See Kit (formerly ConvertKit) pricingBest when the newsletter is the product: beehiiv
beehiiv is the one built to earn from the newsletter itself: beehiiv Lite is $59/mo, or $49/mo billed yearly, at 1,000 subscribers, and its plan card lists paid subscriptions with 0% take rate and beehiiv's ad network. beehiiv Free covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, so the store opens before the bill does.
See beehiiv pricingBest priced by the send: Brevo
A show that only emails when an episode drops should pay by the send: Brevo Starter is $9/mo, or $8.08/mo billed annually, from 5,000 emails a month, and Brevo Free sends 300 emails a day at $0/mo. Brevo counts unlimited contacts on every plan, so a big dormant list costs nothing.
See Brevo pricingBest small steps past free: MailerLite
MailerLite Free is $0/mo up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, and MailerLite Comfort steps up gently: $12/mo at 250 subscribers (or $10.80/mo billed annually), $19/mo at 1,000, $33/mo at 2,500, $49/mo at 5,000 and $89/mo at 10,000 subscribers.
See MailerLite 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) 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 pricingBrevo
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.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo (no annual discount published) | 300 emails per day (printed in the pricing page FAQ), unlimited contacts, core features, no credit card needed. |
| Starter | $9/mo, or $8.08/mo billed annually | From 5,000 emails per month. Email & SMS (SMS credits sold separately), drag & drop editor, AI content generator, forms, email support. |
| Standard | $18/mo, or $16.17/mo billed annually | Everything in Starter plus marketing automation, A/B testing, advanced reporting, web & event tracking, landing pages, AI send-time optimization. |
| Professional | $499/mo, or $449.08/mo billed annually | From 150,000 emails per month, 10 seats included, WhatsApp / popups / push, contact scoring, phone support, deliverability specialist. |
| Enterprise | $2499/mo | 'Starting from' rate. 1M+ contacts, multi-account management, custom objects, dedicated IP, SSO & SAML, tailored onboarding. |
Prices checked 2026-10-04.
What to watch: Brevo prices by monthly email volume rather than contact count: the numbers above are the page's 5,000 emails/month default and rise with the volume slider. SMS credits cost extra. The 'no Brevo logo' add-on is $10.80/mo on Starter.
Source: https://www.brevo.com/pricing/, read 2026-10-04.
See Brevo pricingMailerLite
MailerLite is free up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Comfort starts at $12/mo and Power at $25/mo at 250 subscribers, and both rise with list size.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo, 2 user seats, 1 website, 1 landing page, 3 signup forms |
| Comfort | $12/mo, or $10.8/mo billed annually | Starts at 250 subscribers, 3 user seats, 50 automations, 10 websites and landing pages, 5 digital products |
| Power | $25/mo, or $22.5/mo billed annually | Starts at 250 subscribers, unlimited monthly emails, unlimited user seats, unlimited automations and landing pages |
| Enterprise | custom quote | Custom pricing above 200,000 subscribers |
Prices checked 2026-10-04.
What to watch: The entry prices and free-plan caps are first-party, read from mailerlite.com/pricing. The annual rates and the subscriber-tier ladder are third-party (EmailToolTester, updated 5 Aug 2026) because MailerLite computes those numbers in JavaScript.
Source: https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing, read 2026-10-05.
See MailerLite 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: Brevo Starter at $9/mo is below the cheapest paid step among the picks above (MailerLite Comfort at $12/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 way to email a podcast list?
Kit is the cheapest here. Kit Free is $0/mo up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts - every other free tier on this page stops earlier: beehiiv Free covers 2,500 subscribers and MailerLite Free covers 250.
Which platform pays me to run the newsletter?
beehiiv is the one that pays. beehiiv Lite is $59/mo, or $49/mo billed yearly, at 1,000 subscribers, and its plan card lists paid subscriptions with 0% take rate and beehiiv's ad network - the two ways a podcast newsletter earns.
What if I only email listeners when a new episode drops?
Brevo is the one priced by the send. Brevo Starter is $9/mo, or $8.08/mo billed annually, from 5,000 emails a month, and Brevo Free sends 300 emails a day at $0/mo - a show that emails monthly never pays for a dormant list.
What does the first paid month cost?
Kit Creator is $39/mo at 1,000 subscribers, beehiiv Lite is $59/mo at 1,000, and MailerLite Comfort is $12/mo at 250 subscribers. Brevo Starter is $9/mo from 5,000 emails a month.
Do these count subscribers or sends?
Both kinds are here. Brevo counts sends - unlimited contacts on every plan - while Kit, beehiiv and MailerLite count subscribers: Kit free to 10,000, beehiiv free to 2,500, MailerLite free to 250.
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.