Free email marketing tools for small business: what the free plans include

What the free plans include#

A free plan lets a small shop send real campaigns to a real list without a monthly bill. The limits differ more than the marketing pages suggest, so the table below lines up the four things that decide whether a free plan works for you: contacts, sends, branding and automation. Every figure comes from the provider’s own pricing or help page, checked on October 22, 2026.

Free plans change often. Check each pricing page before you commit, and note the date you checked.

The hidden costs of a free plan#

Branding in every email

Almost every free plan adds the provider’s name to your footer or a badge to your emails and forms. For a new brand that wants to look established, removing it is often the main reason to pay. Check what the cheapest plan without branding costs at your list size, because that is your real starting price.

What happens at the limit

On most of the free plans compared here, going over a limit pauses sending rather than adding a charge. Mailchimp holds live and test sends if a Free account passes 250 contacts ^S2; MailerLite locks sending above 250 active subscribers ^S5; Klaviyo may restrict sending once either free threshold is passed ^S3. Brevo’s free cap is 300 emails a day ^S4, so a larger list cannot all be emailed on the same day. Plan the upgrade before a big launch, not during it.

How contacts are counted

A contact limit is only as useful as its counting rule. Mailchimp counts subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts toward your total, and excludes archived, cleaned and deleted ones ^S2. Klaviyo counts active profiles, meaning contacts who may receive marketing email ^S3. Two tools with the same headline limit can therefore hold very different lists.

Upgrade steps

Paid prices rise in tiers by list size. Going from a free plan to the lowest paid tier is usually small; the jumps that matter come later, when a growing list crosses into the next tier. Price your list at today’s size and at twice today’s size before you choose.

Domain authentication

Gmail requires every sender to use SPF or DKIM, and senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC, offer one-click unsubscribe and keep spam rates below 0.3% ^S9. A free Gmail or Yahoo address does not work well as a From address for marketing: those domains publish DMARC policies that can reject mail sent through another service, which is why Mailchimp rewrites such addresses and recommends your own domain ^S10. Budget for a domain and a few minutes of DNS work. Our guide to email deliverability basics explains the setup.

When a free plan is enough#

A free plan is the right choice when all of the following are true:

• Your list fits within the contact limit, counted the way that tool counts it.
• Your list size times campaigns a month stays under the send limit, with room for a test send or two.
• You can accept the provider’s branding in the footer for now.
• You send one-off campaigns, such as new arrivals or a seasonal sale, rather than relying on automated flows.
• One person runs email, so a single seat is fine.

When two or more of these stop being true, compare paid plans. The Mailchimp alternatives guide lines up entry prices and how each tool works.

Which free tool fits your situation#

• You sell on Shopify and send simple newsletters: Shopify Email’s monthly allowance covers a lot of sending without another account ^S8.
• You want automated flows from day one on a small list: Klaviyo and Omnisend both include automation on their free plans ^S3S7.
• You have a large list you email rarely: a plan capped by daily sends rather than contacts, such as Brevo, may fit better ^S4.
• You publish a regular newsletter: Kit allows a large subscriber list on its free plan, without automated sequences ^S6.
• You already work in Claude or ChatGPT and want to start in minutes: Tellnod runs the whole campaign in the chat.

Tellnod’s Free plan in Claude or ChatGPT#

Tellnod is an MCP connector that adds email marketing to Claude or ChatGPT. The Free plan includes 500 contacts and 2,000 emails a month, AI drafting, previews and two-step confirm, and the unsubscribe and compliance footer, with “Sent with Tellnod” in the footer. It has no time limit. New workspaces start on a 14-day Starter trial with 2,500 contacts and up to 2,500 emails, no card needed, and move to Free afterwards unless you choose a plan. See pricing for paid tiers.

After you connect Tellnod, a first campaign for Ninefold, a small apparel brand, might go like this:

1. “Set up my brand from ninefold.com and import this customer CSV. Only mark people as subscribed if the file says they opted in.”
2. “Email everyone who bought knitwear this year about the new merino range, with 10% off until Friday.” The finished email appears in the chat, with desktop and mobile previews.
3. “Send a test to me.” Then the assistant prepares the send and shows an approval card with the recipient count, exclusions and schedule. Only you can press Confirm.

Without your own verified domain, Tellnod sends from a shared address named after your shop, limited to 500 recipients per campaign and 1,000 emails a month. Verifying your domain lifts these limits. If your list grows past your plan, nobody is deleted; campaigns go to contacts within your limit until you upgrade.

How to get more from a free plan#

• Remove contacts who never engage. A smaller, active list keeps you under the limit and protects your sender reputation. See email list cleaning.
• Send to a segment instead of everyone. A focused segment uses fewer sends and keeps the message relevant to the people who get it. See email segmentation for e-commerce.
• Keep unsubscribes suppressed. If you move tools, bring your unsubscribed contacts across so they stay on the suppression list.
• Verify your domain early. It helps inbox placement on any tool, and Gmail requires DMARC from senders of more than 5,000 messages a day ^S9.

FAQ#