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Cheapest email marketing for ecommerce in 2026
Ecommerce email pricing is driven by list size, not by features. Here is what each platform we track actually charges, and where the free tiers stop.
Prices read from the vendors' own pricing pages on 2026-10-04. Re-checked weekly. How we check.
Which one should you pick?
- Pick MailerLite if you need the cheapest paid tier. Visit MailerLite
- Pick Kit (formerly ConvertKit) if you need the best free tier. Visit Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
- Pick beehiiv if you also want a newsletter business. Visit beehiiv
Some buttons are affiliate links — how this works.
The short answer
Short answer: Cheapest paid tier: MailerLite. Free to 250 subscribers, then Comfort from $12/mo. The lowest paid entry price of the four. Check MailerLite → Best free tier: Kit (formerly ConvertKit). Free up to 10,000 subscribers on the Newsletter plan, which is the most generous free tier in email.
| Tool | Entry price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | Free | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo, 2 user seats, 1 website, 1 landing page, 3 sig |
| Kit (formerly ConvertKit) | Free | Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited broadcast |
| beehiiv | Free | Up to 2,500 subscribers, 1 team seat, 1 publication, 30-day analytics lookback, |
| ActiveCampaign | $15/mo billed annually | At 1,000 email contacts. Starts at $15/mo, billed annually. 1 user, limited segm |
Prices checked 2026-10-23.
- Cheapest paid tier: MailerLite. Free to 250 subscribers, then Comfort from $12/mo. The lowest paid entry price of the four. Check MailerLite →
- Best free tier: Kit (formerly ConvertKit). Free up to 10,000 subscribers on the Newsletter plan, which is the most generous free tier in email. Check Kit (formerly ConvertKit) →
- Best if you also want a newsletter business: beehiiv. Free to 2,500 subscribers and it pays out on referrals, so the list can earn before it costs. Check beehiiv →
Real prices, side by side
| Tool | Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | Free | Free | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo, 2 user seats, 1 website, 1 landing page, 3 signup forms |
| Comfort | $12/mo ($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 ($22.5/mo billed annually) | Starts at 250 subscribers, unlimited monthly emails, unlimited user seats, unlimited automations and landing pages | |
| Kit (formerly ConvertKit) | Free (Newsletter) | Free | Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, sell digital products |
| Creator | $39/mo ($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 ($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. | |
| beehiiv | Free | Free | Up to 2,500 subscribers, 1 team seat, 1 publication, 30-day analytics lookback, unlimited email sends |
| Lite | $59/mo ($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 ($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 | |
| ActiveCampaign | 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. |
Prices checked 2026-10-23.
What each one is actually for
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.
Best for: Small lists that want a real free plan and cheap paid tiers.
Not for: Big lists — the free plan shrank to 250 subscribers and the ladder climbs fast.
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.
See MailerLite pricing →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).
Best for: Creators who want the most generous free tier in email.
Not for: Anyone who needs advanced automation on the free plan — it is one basic automation.
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.
See Kit (formerly ConvertKit) pricing →beehiiv
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.
Best for: Newsletter operators who want an ad network and paid subscriptions built in.
Not for: Plain email marketing — you are paying for newsletter monetization you may never use.
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.
See beehiiv pricing →ActiveCampaign
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.
Best for: Businesses that want serious automation and a CRM in one place.
Not for: Anyone who needs the price at a list size other than 1,000 email contacts, or a month-to-month dollar. The page we read prints only the annual starting rate at 1,000 contacts.
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.
See ActiveCampaign pricing →How to choose in one minute
- Write down the number of people who will log in. That is your seat count, and it is what the price scales on.
- Check the free tier against your real list size or contact count, not the marketing number.
- Only pay for the tier that removes the wall you have actually hit.
- Re-check the price before you buy — every number here is re-read weekly, but vendors change tiers without notice.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change the prices shown, which are read from the vendors' own pages. Full disclosure. How we check prices.