The short version: the best email marketing platform is the cheapest one that does the three things you need this year, not the one with the longest feature list. Pick based on list size, how you sell (ecommerce, services, or content), and how much time you have to learn new software, in that order. Everything else, including the shiny AI features every platform now bolts on, is a distant fourth.
Why this decision takes people so much longer than it should
I’ve watched clients spend six weeks comparing Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Kit and Brevo in a spreadsheet, reading review sites, watching demo videos, and still end up choosing nothing. Meanwhile their competitor picked a platform in an afternoon, sent their first campaign that week, and had a working welcome sequence within a month.
The paralysis isn’t really about the software. It’s about not wanting to make the wrong call and having to migrate later, which feels expensive and embarrassing. So people research forever instead of deciding. I get it. But the research rabbit hole is costing you more than a wrong choice would.
The three questions that narrow it down
Skip the 40-point comparison chart. Answer these three questions honestly and you’ll cut the field from twenty options to two or three within ten minutes.
1. How many people are on your list right now, and how fast is it growing
Under 1,000 subscribers changes everything. You don’t need enterprise automation, you need something free or nearly free that you won’t outgrow before it’s paid for itself. Once you cross 5,000 to 10,000 subscribers, pricing structures start to diverge wildly, and the platform that looked cheap at 500 contacts can suddenly cost three times more than a competitor at 20,000.
2. Are you selling products, services, or building an audience through content
Ecommerce businesses need abandoned cart flows, product recommendation blocks, and revenue tracking tied to email sends. Service businesses need lead nurture sequences and booking integrations. Creators and coaches often just need clean newsletters and simple tagging. Buying an ecommerce-first platform for a service business (or the reverse) is the single most common expensive mistake I see.
3. How much time will you personally give this each week
If you’re not going to build complex automation, don’t pay for it. If you love tinkering with workflows and want deep segmentation, pay for it and use it. Be honest about which person you are, not which person you’d like to be in three months when you’ve supposedly cleared your calendar.
What the main platforms cost in 2026
Pricing changes constantly and every platform buries the real numbers behind “starting from,” so here’s what I’ve seen paid by real small businesses recently, not the marketing page figures.
- Mailchimp: free up to 500 contacts with basic sending, then roughly £13 to £20 a month at 500 contacts on the Standard plan, climbing past £300 a month once you hit 10,000 contacts with full automation features switched on.
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit): free up to 10,000 subscribers with limited automation, then around £25 a month for the Creator plan at that size. Built for writers, coaches and course creators, weaker for product catalogues.
- ActiveCampaign: starts near £12 to £15 a month on the Lite plan for 500 contacts, but the automation and CRM features people buy it for live on the Plus plan, closer to £45 to £60 a month.
- Klaviyo: free up to 250 contacts, then pricing scales with both list size and email volume, popular with Shopify stores because of the deep ecommerce data, but it gets expensive fast past 10,000 contacts if you send frequently.
- Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): unusual because it prices on emails sent per month rather than list size, which suits small lists that email often, roughly £20 to £30 a month for moderate volume.
None of those numbers are the point. The point is that list size alone doesn’t tell you the cost, sending frequency and feature depth do, and every platform hides that until you’re three steps into checkout.
A real example: the client who was paying for the wrong problem
A client of mine, a coaching business with about 6,000 subscribers, was on ActiveCampaign paying close to £70 a month for automation she never touched. She’d been sold on the platform by a well-meaning friend who ran an ecommerce store and swore by its workflow builder. My client sent one newsletter a week, manually, with no automation beyond a single welcome email.
We moved her to Kit. Same list, same content, £29 a month instead of £70. Open rates didn’t move. Revenue didn’t move. The only thing that changed was £492 a year staying in her account instead of paying for a feature set she’d never opened. That’s not a platform failing her, that’s a mismatch between the tool and the actual job.
The uncomfortable bit nobody selling you software wants to say out loud: the platform rarely fixes a list that isn’t growing or emails nobody wants to open. I’ve had clients switch platforms three times in two years hoping the new dashboard would somehow fix flat open rates, when the real problem was they hadn’t sent a useful email in months. New software doesn’t write better subject lines for you. If your list is quiet, look at what you’re saying before you look at what you’re sending it through.
Step by step: how to decide this week
- Write down your list size and your sending frequency. Not your goal for December, your real number today.
- Pick your category: ecommerce, service business, or content and audience building. This eliminates roughly half the market instantly.
- Shortlist three platforms that fit your category and current list size, using the pricing ranges above as a rough guide rather than gospel.
- Check one thing on each: does it integrate with what you already use, your website builder, your booking tool, your ecommerce platform, or your CRM. A brilliant email tool that doesn’t talk to your Shopify store or Calendly is a daily headache, not a win.
- Sign up for the free trial of your top pick and send one real campaign within 48 hours, not a test to yourself, an actual email to your actual list.
- Give it 90 days before you reconsider. Most platforms need a proper run, not a first-week judgement, to show whether their automation and deliverability suit you.
Ninety days sounds like a long time when you’re impatient to see results, but switching platforms every few months means you never build the sending history and reputation that gets your emails into the inbox rather than the promotions tab or spam folder. Deliverability is earned slowly and lost quickly, and platform-hopping resets that clock every time.
Where AI features fit into the decision (and where they don’t)
Every major platform now advertises AI subject line generators, AI send-time optimisation, and AI-written email drafts. Some of it is handy, ActiveCampaign’s predictive sending has saved clients real testing time, and Mailchimp’s content optimiser catches obvious mistakes before you hit send. But I’d never choose a platform because of its AI features alone. If you want to understand what these tools are doing behind the scenes rather than what the marketing copy claims, it’s worth reading what AI marketing really means if you’re not a specialist before you let a demo video talk you into an upgrade you don’t need.
The same goes for automation depth generally. If your business needs proper multi-channel workflows tying email to SMS, ads, and your CRM, that’s a bigger decision than “which email tool,” and it’s worth comparing against the wider marketing automation options before committing, because some of these platforms are really automation suites with email attached, not email tools with automation attached.
The mistake people make before they even get to platform comparisons
A shocking number of business owners are choosing between platforms for a list that has 200 people on it and hasn’t grown in a year. That’s not a platform problem. If this is you, spend your time on growing your email list before you spend another hour comparing pricing tiers you won’t hit for eighteen months. The free plan on almost any platform will comfortably handle a list that size, and the money you’d spend on a premium plan is far better spent on a lead magnet, a proper landing page, or paid traffic to build the list you’re trying to email in the first place.
It’s also worth remembering that a full inbox with nothing worth reading isn’t a platform problem either. If your emails feel thin, the fix usually sits upstream in your content strategy, and there’s a real connection between what you’re writing for search and what you’re sending by email that most people miss entirely, which I’ve written about separately when looking at how content marketing supports results.
Migration: the cost nobody mentions until it’s your problem
Here’s the part comparison articles skip. Moving platforms later isn’t free, even when the new tool is cheaper. You’ll lose historical open and click data, you’ll need to rebuild every automation from scratch, and depending on the platform you may need 24 to 48 hours of “warm up” sending on the new domain reputation before deliverability settles back to where it was. I’ve seen open rates dip 15 to 20 percent for two to three weeks after a migration, purely from the new sending infrastructure needing time to build trust with inbox providers.
None of that means don’t switch if the current tool is wrong for you. It means factor the migration cost into your decision now, so you’re choosing a platform you can grow with for two or three years, not one you’ll outgrow in six months and have to move again.
My honest recommendation by business type
- Under 1,000 subscribers, any business type: start free on Mailchimp or Kit. Don’t pay anything until the free tier limits stop you doing something you need.
- Ecommerce, any size: Klaviyo, unless you’re on a tight budget under 2,000 contacts, in which case Mailchimp’s ecommerce integrations will hold you for a year.
- Service business or coach, growing list, wants proper automation: ActiveCampaign, once you’re past 2,000 to 3,000 subscribers and ready to build the workflows.
- Creator, writer, or course seller focused on newsletters: Kit, built specifically for this, and the free tier is unusually generous up to 10,000 subscribers.
- Frequent sender with a small, engaged list: Brevo, because you’re paying for volume sent rather than list size.
That’s a starting point, not a rulebook. Your integrations, your budget this quarter, and your own tolerance for learning new software all matter more than my general preference.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mailchimp still good for small businesses in 2026
Yes for very small lists and simple newsletters, but its pricing climbs steeply once you pass a few thousand contacts and want automation, so many small businesses outgrow it within a year or two and move to something cheaper at scale like Kit or Brevo.
How much should a small business budget for email marketing software
For lists under 2,000 subscribers, expect £0 to £25 a month. Between 2,000 and 10,000, budget £30 to £80 a month depending on how much automation you use, not just what’s available on the plan.
Should I choose a platform based on its AI features
No. AI features like subject line suggestions and send-time optimisation are useful add-ons but nearly every major platform now offers some version, so they shouldn’t be the deciding factor over list management, integrations, and pricing at your actual size.
How often should I switch email marketing platforms
As rarely as possible. Migrating usually costs you two to three weeks of lower open rates while deliverability resets, plus the time to rebuild automations, so pick carefully upfront and aim to stay for at least two to three years before reconsidering.
