Your content dropped in search rankings thanks to a new google update, or maybe your facebook ads aren’t generating leads like they used to. Either way, one thing is clear: when you don’t own the channels on which you reach customers, the ground can always move under you. that’s where email marketing shines.
maybe you’ve been emailing clients via bcc in gmail and now you’re ready to find a better solution, something really designed for business.
Better often means more expensive, but there is an entire ecosystem of free email marketing tools available, and they have all the features you’ll need to build your email marketing (and then some).
We researched and tested dozens of free email marketing apps to find the best ones for a variety of use cases and business types. Here are the seven best free email newsletter services.
best free email marketing apps
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mailchimp for a growing email marketing program
hubspot for scalability
mailerlite for advanced email marketers
moosend for eCommerce businesses
sendinblue to create automated workflows
mailjet for collaborating with developers
zoho campaigns for the most generous free plan
what to look for in a free email marketing service
Full-featured and free email marketing apps are far from mutually exclusive. there are tons of options that offer flexible subscribers and sending thresholds along with the robust features small businesses need, for free. If you’re just getting started with free marketing tools or want to try out a few options before committing to a paid plan, you’re spoiled for choice.
This is what we look for when testing free email marketing software:
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the number of subscribers and shipments included for free. Some free email marketing platforms are generous in this regard, offering thousands of free emails per month, while others include low limits, meaning their “free” platform isn’t free for long. we took this into account during testing.
email templates and personalization. You shouldn’t have to start your email marketing operation from scratch. the best options come with at least a few fully-designed professional templates to get your free email campaign started.
audience segmentation. success with email depends 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 targeting 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 their efforts ramp up.
scalability. Speaking of which, just because you’re starting to do your email marketing for free, doesn’t mean you won’t let it grow. The best free email marketing software can grow with your business, from free to paid when needed, adding more features and higher limits as you go.
full email marketing features. There are plenty of capable apps designed for a particular type of email (like newsletters, for example), but for our purposes here, we’re focusing on apps with comprehensive features that you can use throughout your email marketing operation.
With those criteria in mind, here are the best free email marketing apps.
best free email marketing software for growing email marketing programs
mailchimp
Mailchimp, one of the most popular email marketing apps thanks to its friendly branding, is a great place to start your email marketing program if you plan to scale quickly. the app includes a landing page builder, customer journey mapping, marketing automation, list segmentation, retargeting ads, and even a/b testing, all in its free plan.
An accessible editor that includes helpful tips and best practices along the way makes Mailchimp an accessible choice for new and experienced email marketers alike. For example, when setting up a subject line, a sidebar reminds you of recommended character lengths, use of emoji in subject lines, and more.
once you’re ready to go beyond what the free plan offers, mailchimp makes scalability affordable with three different paid tiers. plus, mailchimp can handle email programs of any size – if you can afford to let it grow with you, you’ll never have to switch to another application.
mailchimp integrates with zapier, allowing you to do things like automatically subscribe new form responders, leads, or spreadsheet entries to a mailchimp list.
mailchimp price: free for up to 2,000 contacts and 10,000 sends per month
best free email marketing software for scalability across teams
hubspot
hubspot has everything you need under one roof. The email marketing features are comprehensive and they offer a lot for free: up to 2,000 emails per month, over 100 lists and reports. 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 launches you into the editor as soon as registration is complete, so you can get moving quickly. For those new to hubspot or email marketing in general, the next stop is the user guide, which details everything you need to know to create beautiful and effective campaigns on hubspot.
Included in their 105 lists are 100 static and 5 “active” lists, which include super-quick options for targeting, for example, bouncers or recipients who open but don’t click.
plus, hubspot integrates with zapier, so you can do things like automatically create and update hubspot contacts from new form entries, and copy new leads from your ads on hubspot.
hubspot pricing: free for up to 2,000 emails per month, 100 static contact lists, and 5 “active” contact lists
best free email marketing software for advanced email marketers
mailerlite
mailerlite does not offer pre-made templates for its free newsletter service, but the pre-built, dynamic content more than makes up for the lack of templates. With blocks to highlight multiple articles, videos, RSS feeds, products, apps, events and more, Mailerlite helps experienced email marketers quickly create new campaigns and custom templates.
Your emails can also include more than just text and images. there’s a countdown timer that dynamically displays the time remaining until you launch a product or before a sale ends. You can add product details, embed a video, pull your latest blog posts with a dynamically updating RSS block, and more. is a great way to send interactive emails instead of just digital letters.
Beyond email content, mailerlite also includes robust audience targeting and automation features in the free plan. An intuitive builder streamlines mapping of automation workflows. you can create one-time and persistent segments and also view aggregate statistics per segment.
also mailerlite integrates with zapier which means you can automate things like adding new mailerlite subscribers from google sheets and sending gumroad customers to mailerlite.
mailerlite price: free for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month
best free email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses
moose shark
moosend isn’t the most streamlined email marketing app we tested, but it makes up for it with generous allotments on the free plan and powerful targeting options for eCommerce businesses.
The email builder works as expected with drag and drop functionality to add elements and a rich text editor. Once you connect your e-commerce site, click the revenue dashboard tab to see an overview of how your email marketing efforts drive sales.
Compared to other apps we tested, it takes a few extra clicks to create a new segment. But even free users can segment listings by crucial eCommerce dimensions like average order value, subscribers adding a particular product to their cart, total spend, and more. moosend also includes automation features with its free plan: over a dozen automated “recipes”, including sequences for abandoned carts, upsells, and customer loyalty.
moosend integrates with zapier, opening connections to tons of other apps and automating workflows for things like adding new moosend subscribers from new leads and verifying email addresses for new moosend subscribers.
moosend price: Free for up to 1000 subscribers and unlimited emails
best email marketing tool for free email automation
send blue
The more you use your email marketing tool, the more you need to rely on automation. It’s hard to find truly free marketing automation software, but sendinblue offers a variety of templated automation flows, depending on your goals. you can choose your workflow to improve engagement, increase traffic, increase revenue, or build relationships.
Even with this kind of advanced automation, you can go from account setup to email editing in just a few clicks. once you’re there, you can create your emails with dozens of pre-made templates and a drag-and-drop editor. then send them as email newsletters or use sendinblue’s automation workflows to send them on a schedule.
You can’t send as many emails at once as you can from other free email marketing tools, but you can manage more contacts and divide them into specific lists. sendinblue also allows you to purchase prepaid credits to send more than your daily email limit.
extend sendinblue’s capabilities by integrating with zapier to automatically create new sendinblue subscribers from new google contacts, typo form submissions, and more.
sendinblue price: free for up to 300 emails per day and unlimited contacts
best free email marketing software to collaborate with developers
mailjet
at first glance, mailjet is a perfectly capable email marketing service. offers several dozen fully-designed email templates, the drag-and-drop editor you’ve come to expect, and support for transactional emails. your free account is a great way to start your email strategy.
but during installation, mailjet offers the choice between its merchant and developer interfaces. In developer mode, you can manually code emails or customize pre-made layouts and then create separate versions for a/b testing. you can connect mailjet to your app or e-commerce store and also set up transactional emails.
If you switch to mailjet’s paid plans, you can add anywhere from five to 15+ user accounts, so marketers and developers can easily collaborate on your email marketing. Plus, Mailjet integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like automatically send emails to people who complete your typeform, or create Mailjet subscribers from new Facebook lead ads.
mailjet price: free for unlimited contacts and up to 6000 emails per month
the best free email marketing software to get the most out of your free plan
zoho campaigns offers the most flexible and generous free plan of all the apps we tested. The email send and subscriber limits aren’t crazy: you get 2,000 contacts and 12,000 sends per month, but the free plan also includes full automation capabilities, robust audience segmentation, and tons of beautifully designed, professional templates.
The drag and drop editor works just as you’d expect and includes support for dynamic content blocks. you can even customize dynamic blocks based on your customer segments.
When it comes to automation, you’ll choose between automated responses (sequences triggered by an email) or fully automated workflows. both are available on the free plan and include several workflow templates to help you build automations faster. When you create a workflow, you can choose from templates for welcome and onboarding, nurturing series, re-onboarding, customer retention, e-commerce, and conditional workflows.
When you’re ready to scale, it can connect with any of Zoho’s other applications, so you have a complete set of tools at your fingertips. You can also connect Zoho campaigns with thousands of other tools through Zapier, allowing you to automate workflows like adding new form responses to your email lists or verifying subscribers’ email addresses.
zoho campaigns price: free for up to 2,000 contacts, 12,000 emails per month and 5 users
automate your email marketing tool
Once you’ve chosen your free newsletter software, here are some ideas on how to automate your email marketing tool. then take a look at 4 ways to use marketing automation to grow your business.
This article was originally published in February 2015 by Matthew Guay and has also had contributions from Jessica Greene. The apps were most recently reviewed in November 2021 and the article has been updated for clarity since then.
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