Home / Shortlists / Best Email Marketing Under 500 Subscribers
Best Email Marketing Under 500 Subscribers
Five hundred subscribers is a list you can run for $0 on three of these five tools. The paid money at this size buys automations, branding removal and deliverability extras - not volume. Compare the tier you would land on, not the enterprise number on the pricing page, and check the send cap because a 500-contact list can still blow through a monthly send allowance.
Prices last re-checked 2026-08-24. Numbers are read from each vendor's own pricing page; any exception is flagged under "What to watch".
Which one should you pick?
- Pick MailerLite if you need the most affordable paid tier. Visit MailerLite
- Pick Brevo if you need the best free tier for daily sending. Visit Brevo
- Pick Kit (formerly ConvertKit) if you are a newsletter that sells. Visit Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
- Pick Mailchimp if you need the best known, biggest contact cap. Visit Mailchimp
- Pick Klaviyo if you need the best free tier for a store. Visit Klaviyo
Some buttons are affiliate links — how this works.
The short answer
Short answer: For a list of 500 the free tiers cover it: MailerLite, Klaviyo and Brevo all let you start for $0. If you want automations and no logo branding, MailerLite's paid plan is $10/mo at that list size, Kit starts at $15/mo for 1,000 subscribers, and Mailchimp prices its entry tiers on contact count.
Most affordable paid tier: MailerLite
MailerLite's free tier covers 500 subscribers and its paid plan at the same size is $10/mo, the lowest paid price among the picks above. Unsubscribed contacts drop off the bill, which matters on a list this small.
See MailerLite pricingBest free tier for daily sending: Brevo
Brevo starts at $0 with a 300-emails-a-day allowance, so a 500-person list can be mailed for nothing if you spread sends. You pay when you need more sends or the automation builder.
See Brevo pricingBest for a newsletter that sells: Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
Kit starts at $15/mo for 1,000 subscribers, so at 500 you are paying for the 1,000 tier whenever you leave its free plan. What you get for it is a newsletter built to sell digital products and recommendations.
See Kit (formerly ConvertKit) pricingBest known, biggest contact cap: Mailchimp
Mailchimp's entry plans are priced on contact count with a monthly send cap, so at this list size you are on its smallest tier and paying for the brand and the integrations rather than the volume.
See Mailchimp pricingBest free tier for a store: Klaviyo
Klaviyo's free tier covers 250 contacts, which is half of this list, and the first paid step lands near this size. Pick it if the email has to recover carts and drive orders, not if you only send a newsletter.
See Klaviyo pricingThe prices, plan by plan
MailerLite
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 | Free | 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 | Custom pricing above 200,000 subscribers |
Prices checked 2026-10-05.
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 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 | Free | 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 $9 a month for 5,000 emails (500 contacts); 10,000 emails is $17. Scales with sends, not contacts. |
| 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, custom pricing. 1M+ contacts, multi-account management, custom objects, dedicated IP, SSO & SAML, tailored onboarding. |
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 2026-10-27.
See Brevo pricingKit (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) | Free | 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) pricingMailchimp
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.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Under 250 contacts, core features. Sending pauses if the contact or email-send limit is exceeded. On 2026-10-14 the comparison table's Free column printed Max of 500/mo or 250/day. |
| Essentials | $13/mo | Starts at 0-500 contacts ('starts at' rate). Testing and scheduling features, 14-day free trial. Price rises with contacts. |
| Standard | $20/mo | Starts at 0-500 contacts ('starts at' rate), send up to 6,000 emails each month at that tier. Automations, personalization, optimization tools. 14-day free trial. |
| Premium | $350/mo | Unlimited contacts, advanced tools, priority support. Promo on the page: 15% off the first 12 months for 10,000+ contacts ($297.50/mo for 12 months). |
What to watch: Mailchimp prices are per contact tier and the page quotes 'starts at' rates: move the contacts slider and every number changes. On 2026-10-14 the comparison table's Free column printed Max of 500/mo or 250/day. The page prints no annual-billing rates - only a 15%-off-for-12-months promo for 10,000+ contacts.
Source: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/, read 2026-10-04.
See Mailchimp pricingKlaviyo
Klaviyo is free up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month. The Email plan starts at $20/mo at 500 active profiles and rises with the profile count: $60/mo at 2,500, $100/mo at 5,000, $150/mo at 10,000 and $400/mo at 25,000 active profiles. SMS is billed separately on every plan.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Up to 250 active profiles, 500 email sends a month, $5 a month of mobile messages and $5 a month of Klaviyo Composer usage included, email support for the first 60 days. |
| $20/mo | Starts at $20/mo for up to 500 active profiles and rises with the profile count (see the ladder below). No send or profile limits on the tier you buy. SMS messages cost extra. |
What to watch: Klaviyo prices by ACTIVE profiles, not list size, and the paid ladder is third-party (see the source note) because the configurator computes prices in JavaScript. SMS costs extra on every plan. Every rung is a monthly-billing figure: Klaviyo's page prints no annual-per-month rate, so this entry records none. The table lists the rungs we could source; the configurator has more rungs between them.
Source: https://www.klaviyo.com/pricing, read 2026-08-24.
See Klaviyo 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 option here?
MailerLite has the lowest paid price at $10/mo for 500 subscribers, and its free tier covers the same list at $0. Brevo also starts on a free tier with 300 emails a day.
Can I run 500 subscribers completely free?
Yes - MailerLite, Brevo and Klaviyo all have a free tier that reaches this list size. Klaviyo's free tier stops at 250 contacts, so a full 500 needs its first paid step, and Kit's free plan is the smallest of the five. Read dates: 2026-10-04 to 2026-10-27.
When does the price go up?
The bill steps at the next tier: MailerLite re-prices as the active subscriber count climbs, Kit jumps from its entry tier at 1,000 subscribers, and Mailchimp steps with the contact count. None of them charge for unsubscribed contacts on their subscriber-based plans. Prices here were read between 2026-10-04 and 2026-10-27.
Is a free plan good enough to start selling?
It is good enough to send. The paid money on MailerLite or Brevo buys automations, branding removal and segmentation, so budget the paid rate for the month you start a welcome sequence or a cart flow, not before. MailerLite was last read on 2026-10-05 and Brevo on 2026-10-27.
Which tool do I grow into at 1,000 subscribers?
Kit already prices its entry tier at 1,000 subscribers, so the jump is free of surprises. MailerLite and Brevo re-price at the next contact tier, and Klaviyo moves you off the free tier well before 1,000. Check the read date beside each price: Kit was last read on 2026-10-05 and Klaviyo on 2026-10-21.
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.