The 7 Best Free Email Marketing Tools in 2024

When you don't own the channels where you reach customers, the ground can always shift beneath you. That's where email marketing shines.

Automate your email marketing Reach your audience The good news: there's an entire ecosystem of free email marketing tools available, and they have all the features you'll need to build out your email marketing (and then some).

I researched and tested more than 60 email marketing apps with free plans to find the best ones for a variety of use cases and business types. Here are the seven best free email marketing apps.

The Best Free Email Marketing Apps

1. MailerLite for advanced email marketers
2. HubSpot for segmentation
3. Utobo for course creators
4. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) for all-in-one marketing and sales features
5. Mailchimp for a growing email marketing program
6. Sender for the most generous free plan
7. Loops for email marketing automation

What Makes the Best Free Email Marketing Service?

Here's what I looked for when testing free email marketing services:

The number of subscribers and sends included for free. Some free email marketing platforms are generous in this regard, offering thousands of free sends per month, while others include low caps that mean your "free" platform isn't free for very long. I kept this in mind while testing.

Email templates and customization. You shouldn't have to start your email marketing operation from scratch. The best options come with at least a few fully-designed and professional templates to get your free email campaign started. And in cases where there aren't any free templates, the email editor needs to really shine in ease of use.

Audience segmentation. Success with email relies on being able to deliver the right emails to the right people at the right time. For growing businesses, that means you need capable audience segmentation features with any free email campaign software you choose.

Automation. From transactional emails to triggered campaigns and more, a growing business needs to be able to automate email marketing as your efforts scale.

Scalability. Speaking of, just because you're starting by doing your email marketing for free, it doesn't mean you won't grow out of it. The best free email marketing software can grow with your business—from free to paid when necessary, adding more features and higher limits as you go.

Full email marketing features. There are plenty of capable apps designed for one particular type of email (like newsletters, for example, or transactional emails), but for our purposes here, I focused on full-featured apps you can use across your email marketing operation.

After narrowing down the list based on those criteria, I ran each of the remaining contenders through an extensive testing workflow that included:

• Creating an account and completing any onboarding offered by the app.
• Looking at core features like the drag-and-drop editor, template library, and overall campaign creation flow.
• Testing out additional features like automation, customer segmentation, and alternative editors (like HTML or plain text), along with determining any applicable limits for these features on the free plan.
• Where available, I tested out niche features for eCommerce, universal branding, broader marketing automation, and AI, among others.
• Lastly, I looked into how costs for each app scale as you outgrow the free plan and move to paid.

Along with each step, I considered the ease of use for core and ancillary features—because with all the options available today, "free" shouldn't have to mean hard to use.

With those criteria in mind, here's the best free software for email marketing.

The Best Free Email Marketing Platforms at a Glance

Best Free Email Marketing Software for Advanced Email Marketers

MailerLite

Pros:

• Pre-built content blocks make building emails super quick
• Generous allotments for segmentation and automation
• Affordable upgrade for unlimited users

Cons:

• No pre-made email templates on the free plan

MailerLite doesn't offer pre-made templates for its free newsletter service, but the dynamic, pre-designed content blocks more than make up for the lack of templates. With blocks for highlighting multiple articles, videos, RSS lists, products, apps, events, and more, MailerLite helps experienced email marketers make quick work of building new campaigns and custom templates.

Your emails can include more than just text and images, too. There's a countdown timer that dynamically shows the time remaining until you launch a product or before a sale is over. You can add product details, embed a video, pull in your most recent blog posts with a dynamically updating RSS block, and more. It's a great way to send interactive emails instead of just digital letters.

Beyond email content, MailerLite also includes robust automation and audience segmentation features in the free plan. An intuitive builder makes quick work of mapping out automation workflows—or you can hit the ground running with one of the 15 new pre-built flows. Create both persistent and one-time segments and view aggregate statistics by segment, too.

Plus, MailerLite integrates with Zapier—meaning you can automate things like adding new MailerLite subscribers from Google Sheets and sending Mailchimp subscribers to MailerLite. Here are more ideas for how to automate MailerLite, plus some pre-made workflows to get you started.

MailerLite pricing: Free for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month

Best Free Email Marketing Software for Segmentation

HubSpot

Pros:

• Generous free plan
• Great for segmentation with HubSpot CRM features

Cons:

• Sub-par email templates
• Expensive upgrade and the full suite can be overwhelming

HubSpot has everything you need under one roof. The email marketing features are well-rounded and offer a lot for free: up to 2,000 emails per month, 10 active lists, and reporting. When you're ready to scale, you can add additional HubSpot tools for CRM, full marketing automation, customer service, sales, and more.

The email tool throws you into the editor as soon as signup is finished, so you can get moving quickly. For those new to HubSpot or email marketing more broadly, the next stop is the user guide, detailing everything you need to know to build beautiful, effective campaigns in HubSpot. With HubSpot's new AI features, things get even easier.

Included in the free plan are 1,000 static lists and 10 "active" lists, which include super quick options to segment, say, hard-bouncers or recipients who open but don't click.

While HubSpot offers a generous free plan, costs can scale quickly as you outgrow it. Pricing for the full Marketing Hub starts out reasonably at $18 per month, but if you need a lot of contacts or features like omnichannel marketing automation, A/B testing, or custom reporting, you'll need to be prepared to pay up.

Plus, HubSpot integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like automatically create and update HubSpot contacts from your contact management tool and copy new leads from your ads into HubSpot. Here are more ideas for how to automate HubSpot, plus some pre-made workflows to inspire you.

HubSpot pricing: Free for up to 2,000 emails per month, 1,000 static contact lists, 10 "active" contact lists, and 1 automation workflow

Best Free Email Marketing Software for Course Creators

Utobo

Pros:

• Easy integration with course content
• Supports multimedia content for interactive emails
• Simple user interface

Cons:

• Limited advanced email marketing features

Utobo is tailored for educators and course creators looking to leverage email marketing to engage their audience. It allows you to seamlessly integrate your course content into your emails, making it ideal for sending updates, new lessons, and interactive content directly to your students.

utobo's email editor is straightforward, designed to help you quickly craft emails with embedded multimedia content like videos, quizzes, and downloadable resources. This is particularly beneficial for course creators who need to deliver complex, engaging content to their subscribers.

The platform includes basic automation features, allowing you to set up drip campaigns and automated responses for new sign-ups or course completions. While it may not have the advanced segmentation or automation features of some other platforms, its focus on educational content delivery makes it a standout choice for course creators.

Utobo pricing: Free for up to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month

Best Free Email Marketing Software for All-in-One Marketing and Sales

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

Pros:

• Comprehensive CRM and marketing tools
• Unlimited contacts on the free plan

Cons:

• Daily email send limit can be restrictive

Brevo offers a robust suite of tools that go beyond email marketing to include SMS marketing, chat, CRM, and more, making it a great all-in-one solution for businesses looking to streamline their marketing and sales processes.

The free plan includes unlimited contacts, which is a significant advantage over other free email marketing tools. However, you're limited to sending 300 emails per day, which might be restrictive for larger campaigns.

Brevo's email editor is intuitive, with a variety of templates to choose from. You can create automation workflows, segment your audience, and even set up transactional emails. The CRM features are well-integrated, allowing you to manage your contacts and track customer interactions in one place.

Brevo integrates with Zapier, enabling you to automate workflows such as adding new Brevo subscribers from form submissions or sending notifications for new Brevo contacts. Here are more ideas for how to automate Brevo, plus some pre-made workflows to help you get started.

Brevo pricing: Free for up to 300 emails per day with unlimited contacts

Best Free Email Marketing Software for Growing Email Marketing Programs

Mailchimp

Pros:

• Comprehensive features even on the free plan
• User-friendly interface with plenty of templates

Cons:

• Limits on subscriber count and email sends

Mailchimp is a well-known name in the email marketing world, and its free plan offers a lot of features for small businesses just getting started. You get access to a wide range of templates, an easy-to-use email editor, and basic automation features.

The free plan includes up to 500 contacts and 1,000 email sends per month, which should be sufficient for small businesses and growing email lists. Mailchimp's audience segmentation and analytics tools are also robust, allowing you to fine-tune your campaigns and target specific groups of subscribers.

As you grow, Mailchimp offers a variety of paid plans with more advanced features like A/B testing, advanced segmentation, and multi-step automation workflows.

Mailchimp integrates with Zapier, so you can automate tasks like adding new Mailchimp subscribers from form submissions or updating Mailchimp lists from Google Sheets. Here are more ideas for how to automate Mailchimp, plus some pre-made workflows to help you get started.

Mailchimp pricing: Free for up to 500 contacts and 1,000 email sends per month

Best Free Email Marketing Software for Generous Free Plans

Sender

Pros:

• High limits for subscribers and sends
• Plenty of templates to choose from

Cons:

• Lacks some advanced features

Sender offers one of the most generous free plans in the market, allowing you to have up to 2,500 subscribers and send 15,000 emails per month. This makes it an excellent choice for businesses with larger email lists that are still looking to keep costs down.

The platform provides a variety of email templates and a drag-and-drop editor, making it easy to create professional-looking emails. You can also set up basic automation workflows and segment your audience to send targeted campaigns.

While Sender might lack some of the advanced features found in other email marketing tools, its generous free plan and ease of use make it a great option for small to medium-sized businesses.

Sender integrates with Zapier, enabling you to automate tasks such as adding new Sender subscribers from form submissions or updating Sender lists from other apps. Here are more ideas for how to automate Sender, plus some pre-made workflows to help you get started.

Sender pricing: Free for up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month

Best Free Email Marketing Software for Email Marketing Automation

Loops

Pros:

• Unlimited automation workflows on the free plan
• User-friendly interface

Cons:

• Limited to 1,000 contacts and 2,000 email sends per month

Loops is designed with automation in mind, making it an excellent choice for businesses that want to streamline their email marketing efforts. The free plan includes unlimited automation workflows, allowing you to set up complex campaigns without any additional cost.

The email editor is user-friendly, with a variety of templates to help you get started. You can create automated sequences, segment your audience, and track the performance of your campaigns with detailed analytics.

While the free plan limits you to 1,000 contacts and 2,000 email sends per month, Loops' focus on automation makes it a powerful tool for businesses looking to optimize their email marketing strategy.

Loops integrates with Zapier, so you can automate tasks like adding new Loops subscribers from form submissions or updating Loops lists from other apps. Here are more ideas for how to automate Loops, plus some pre-made workflows to help you get started.

Loops pricing: Free for up to 1,000 contacts and 2,000 email sends per month

Conclusion

Choosing the right free email marketing tool depends on your specific needs and the features that matter most to your business. Whether you're an advanced email marketer looking for robust content blocks with MailerLite, a course creator needing seamless integration with your lessons via Utobo, or a growing business wanting comprehensive marketing and sales features with Brevo, there's a free email marketing solution out there for you. Evaluate the options based on your priorities and start building your email marketing strategy today.