15 email broadcast services, compared by job
The best tool depends on whether you publish a newsletter, automate a product journey, or deliver critical application mail.
This hub does two things: it profiles fifteen tools by the job they do best, and it sends you to the head-to-head page for the pair you are actually weighing. Each card links the vendor's own pricing page, and the pair pages quote what we read there.
Quick fit map
Newsletter: MailerLite, Kit, beehiiv, Substack, Buttondown. Lifecycle: Customer.io, Loops, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot. Transactional: Postmark, Resend, SendGrid, MailerSend.
What to compare before you compare prices
A broadcast platform is not automatically a lifecycle platform, and an email API is not automatically a newsletter tool. Start with the message job, the consent basis, the data that triggers it, and who owns day-to-day operations. This avoids comparing a creator publisher, a CRM suite, and a transactional API on one misleading feature checklist.
Pricing is equally easy to misread. Some vendors emphasize contacts, others sends, tracked people, seats, channels, or overages. Ask each vendor to price the same twelve-month scenario, including your current list, expected growth, monthly sends, transactional volume, seats, and required add-ons. Recheck the linked pricing page at procurement time.
Head-to-head comparisons, grouped by job
If you already have two finalists, skip the profiles and open the pair. The first line under each group says what separates the tools in it.
Newsletters and creator platforms: who takes a cut, who bills by list size
- beehiiv vs Substack: fixed Lite and Pro plans against a 10% share of paid subscriptions.
- Ghost vs Substack: a publication site you control against a hosted platform with no monthly fee.
- Buttondown vs beehiiv: add-on pricing from the first 100 subscribers against bundled plans.
- Buttondown vs ConvertKit: a minimal writing tool beside a creator platform with sequences.
Marketing suites: contact bands and send caps
- Campaign Monitor vs Mailchimp: annual-billed plans at 500 contacts, with the cost over twelve months.
- Mailchimp vs Constant Contact, MailerLite vs Mailchimp and Moosend vs Mailchimp: three pairings that put Mailchimp against a rival suite.
- Brevo vs SendGrid: one platform for campaigns and transactional mail against SendGrid's separate Email API and Marketing Campaigns products.
Product lifecycle email: events, profiles and channels
- Customer.io vs Drip: price at six list sizes from 5,000 to 50,000, and what each counts as a contact.
- Customer.io vs Loops, Userlist vs Customer.io and ActiveCampaign vs Drip: the other lifecycle pairings.
Transactional and developer email: volume, streams and webhooks
- Resend vs Postmark and Postmark vs SendGrid: two pairings built around Postmark's separate transactional and broadcast streams; the second one prices SendGrid's Email API at five volumes.
- SendGrid vs Mailgun and Loops vs Resend: an API-first rival, and the choice between product emails and application email.
Entry prices we read on 7 October 2026
The cards further down describe each tool's fit. This table carries the figures behind them, each taken from the vendor's own page. Billing units differ, so read the last column before comparing rows.
| Tool | Free option | Paid entry points | What the price counts |
|---|---|---|---|
| beehiiv | Up to 2,500 subscribers | Lite $49, Pro $95 a month (yearly billing) | Subscribers, read at the 1,000 position |
| Substack | Free to publish | 10% of paid subscription revenue, plus card fees | Revenue |
| Ghost(Pro) | None listed | Starter $15, Publisher $29, Business $199 a month (yearly billing) | Members, read at 1,000 |
| Buttondown | First 100 subscribers | Add-ons of +$9, +$29 and +$79 a month | Features; the per-subscriber price above 100 was not read |
| Kit | Up to 10,000 subscribers | Creator and Pro, priced by subscribers | Subscribers |
| Mailchimp | 250 contacts, 500 sends a month | Standard from $20 at 500 contacts | Contacts and sends |
| MailerLite | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails | Comfort $12, Power $25 (500-subscriber start) | Active subscribers |
| Brevo | 300 emails a day | Starter $9, Standard $18, Professional $499 | Monthly email volume |
| Campaign Monitor | 30-day trial | Lite $11.70, Essentials $27.90, Premier $153.90 at 0 to 500 contacts, billed annually | Contacts |
| Customer.io | None (12 months free for startups under $10M raised) | Essentials $100 at 5,000 profiles; Premium from $1,000 | Profiles, people plus objects |
| Drip | 14-day trial | $39 at 2,500 people, $89 at 5,000 | Active people and sends |
| Loops | Up to 4,000 sends in 30 days to the 1,000 newest contacts | $99 near 10,000 contacts, $249 near 50,000 | Subscribed contacts |
| Resend | 3,000 emails a month, 100 a day | Pro $20 (50,000 emails), Scale $90 (100,000) | Emails sent |
| Postmark | 100 emails a month | Basic $15 from 10,000 emails; $55 at 50,000 | Emails sent and received |
| SendGrid | Email API trial of 100 a day for 60 days | Essentials $19.95, Pro $89.95; Marketing Campaigns Basic $15, Advanced $60 | Emails (API) or contacts and emails (Marketing) |
HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit Commerce and MailerSend appear in the cards below without a table row because we have not published a dated read of their prices on this hub.
Where the price lines cross
Most buying decisions on these pages turn on one crossover number. These are the ones we calculated from the figures above, with the arithmetic on the pair pages named in each line.
- Substack's 10% equals beehiiv Lite's $49 at $490 of monthly paid revenue, and Ghost Publisher's $29 at $290 (beehiiv vs Substack, Ghost vs Substack).
- Drip is $11 cheaper than Customer.io at 5,000 contacts ($89 against $100), and Customer.io is cheaper from 10,000 ($145 against $154) (Customer.io vs Drip).
- SendGrid Essentials is $35.05 below Postmark Basic at 50,000 emails, and Postmark Basic is $4 below SendGrid Pro at 300,000 (Postmark vs SendGrid).
- Postmark Basic ($15) undercuts Resend Pro ($20) near 10,000 emails, and Resend Pro ($20 for 50,000) undercuts Postmark Basic ($55) at 50,000 (worked through in the German and Japanese versions of Resend vs Postmark).
Tool-by-tool shortlist
These are fit-oriented summaries, not rankings. Read the official plan page for current limits, then validate the workflow with a representative pilot.
MailerLite
Best for: Small teams that want a friendly editor and landing pages.
MailerLite is a sensible starting point when one person owns newsletters, forms, and a few nurture sequences. Its appeal is the compact workflow: create a message, attach a form or landing page, and automate a follow-up without assembling a large marketing stack.
The important caveat is that “free” and “low cost” depend on contacts, features, and sending limits. Check the current pricing table before importing a list, then confirm whether the automation, templates, and support level you need are included in your chosen tier.
Pricing caveat: Free tier; paid plans vary by subscriber count. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Approachable builder; useful forms and landing pages
Cons: Advanced reporting and scale features are plan-dependent
Mailchimp
Best for: Teams that need a familiar all-rounder and a broad integration ecosystem.
Mailchimp remains a reasonable shortlist candidate for organizations that value a recognizable platform and many integrations. It can cover broadcasts, forms, basic journeys, and audience management in one place, which reduces the number of systems a generalist marketer has to learn.
It is not automatically the cheapest option at scale. Compare the billable-contact definition, send limits, seats, testing features, and required add-ons against your actual list—not a headline “starting at” price. A clean audience model matters as much as the editor.
Pricing caveat: Free entry plan; paid tiers and limits change. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Mature campaign workflow; large integration ecosystem
Cons: Contact-based billing can become complex as lists grow
Brevo
Best for: Small businesses combining email with SMS or chat channels.
Brevo fits teams that think in monthly sends rather than only subscriber count, especially when email sits alongside SMS or other conversations. That model can be attractive for a large but lightly mailed database, provided the selected plan includes the channels you actually intend to use.
Treat channel pricing as separate line items during evaluation. Check daily limits, automation availability, phone-number or SMS costs, and regional compliance requirements. The strongest pilot is one recurring broadcast plus one triggered flow, measured independently.
Pricing caveat: Free plan; paid plans generally depend on email volume. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Volume-oriented pricing options; multiple messaging channels
Cons: Advanced features vary by plan and channel
Kit
Best for: Creators building a newsletter with forms, sequences, and paid recommendations.
Kit is designed around a creator’s publishing loop: attract subscribers, send regular issues, tag interests, and move readers through sequences. That focus makes it easier to operate when the newsletter itself is the product or the primary acquisition channel.
Teams with product events, multiple workspaces, or deep CRM requirements should validate the data model before switching. The free tier and monetization features can change, so read the current limits and calculate cost at both today’s audience and the next realistic growth milestone.
Pricing caveat: Free entry tier; paid features scale with subscribers. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Creator-oriented forms and sequences; clear publishing workflow
Cons: Less suited to complex product-led lifecycle logic
beehiiv
Best for: Publishers prioritizing referral loops, growth experiments, and newsletter monetization.
beehiiv is a strong fit when the publication—not a product database—is the center of the operation. Its workflow is built around recurring issues, subscriber growth, referral mechanics, and publisher monetization, so editorial teams can keep acquisition and distribution close together.
Do not treat it as a drop-in replacement for an application email provider. Before adopting it, test exports, custom events, segmentation depth, domain setup, and the exact monetization terms. Pricing and feature gates should be verified on the official plan page.
Pricing caveat: Free plan; paid features depend on publication size and tier. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Publication-focused growth tools; built-in referral and monetization options
Cons: Not a general-purpose transactional or product messaging system
Substack
Best for: Writers who want the fastest route from publishing to a hosted subscription product.
Substack reduces the operational work required to publish a newsletter. A writer can focus on the issue, landing page, and subscriber relationship without first choosing a full marketing stack or building a publication site.
That convenience is a trade-off: platform terms, fees, discovery mechanics, and data portability matter. It is best evaluated as a hosted publishing business, not simply as a cheaper sender. Keep an export and test the reader journey before committing paid acquisition.
Pricing caveat: Free to start; paid subscriptions involve platform fees. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Very low setup friction; built-in publishing and subscription flow
Cons: Less control over branding, data workflows, and infrastructure
Buttondown
Best for: Technical writers and small publications that value a focused, lightweight workflow.
Buttondown is compelling when the job is intentionally narrow: write a good issue, send it to a permissioned list, and keep the publishing surface uncluttered. Markdown-friendly workflows and a smaller feature set can be a benefit for technical or independent writers.
The same simplicity means it may not replace a lifecycle platform. Validate forms, automation, segmentation, analytics, integrations, and team permissions with a real sample issue. Its current pricing and feature availability should be checked before estimating a long-term migration.
Pricing caveat: Free entry option; paid plans scale with subscribers. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Simple authoring; transparent, newsletter-first workflow
Cons: Smaller ecosystem and fewer broad marketing features
HubSpot
Best for: Revenue teams that want campaigns connected to CRM records and sales processes.
HubSpot makes sense when email is one step in a broader revenue process. Marketing teams can connect audience activity to CRM records, forms, and sales follow-up, which is useful when a broadcast needs to create context for a human conversation.
It is easy to underestimate the cost of that breadth. Model hubs, seats, contacts, onboarding, and required features separately; do not compare a free CRM tool with a full marketing subscription. A pilot should include one handoff to sales and a clear ownership rule for consent.
Pricing caveat: Free tools available; marketing features can be substantially higher-cost. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Strong CRM context; broad sales and marketing suite
Cons: Total cost and packaging can rise quickly with advanced needs
ActiveCampaign
Best for: Teams with branching nurture programs and sales follow-up requirements.
ActiveCampaign is a candidate for teams whose email program depends on branching logic: lead scoring, follow-up, win-back, and sales tasks. Its value appears when a journey is too operationally important to manage as a handful of manual broadcasts.
That power creates a maintenance cost. Document triggers, exit rules, suppression logic, and ownership before migrating. Price the exact contact tier and package, and test whether the reporting answers the business question rather than merely showing message activity.
Pricing caveat: Plans vary by contacts, features, and selected package. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Deep automation builder; useful sales and segmentation options
Cons: More setup and governance than a simple newsletter tool
Customer.io
Best for: Product teams sending behavior-based journeys from application data.
Customer.io is built for lifecycle programs that respond to what users do in a product. It becomes valuable when onboarding, activation, retention, and expansion messages need event context rather than only a static subscriber field.
It should be piloted as a data project as much as a copy project. Define event names, identity rules, consent fields, and fallback behavior first. Pricing can depend on tracked people, message volume, and package, so use your projected event and send volume when budgeting.
Pricing caveat: Usage and feature-based plans; request current quote for larger programs. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Event-driven journeys; strong product and data orientation
Cons: Requires disciplined event taxonomy and implementation work
Loops
Best for: Modern SaaS teams wanting product-triggered email with a relatively focused interface.
Loops is worth testing when a SaaS team wants product emails without adopting a full CRM suite. It can provide a focused home for onboarding, activation, and transactional-adjacent lifecycle messages while keeping the operational surface smaller than an enterprise marketing platform.
Before choosing it, check event ingestion, templates, environment separation, unsubscribe behavior, logs, and export paths. A free or starter allowance is not a guarantee of production fit; run a representative flow with retries and missing-data cases.
Pricing caveat: Free entry option; paid limits and tiers vary. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: SaaS-oriented workflows; approachable product-email setup
Cons: Validate edge-case orchestration and reporting depth for complex programs
Resend
Best for: Developers sending application email through a modern API and templates.
Resend is a strong fit for product teams that need reliable application email and want the sending layer close to their code. It is a better match for password resets, receipts, and product notifications than for a marketer-owned newsletter calendar.
Separate transactional and promotional requirements during evaluation. Confirm domain authentication, suppression handling, logs, webhooks, rate limits, and regional sending needs. The current plan page is the source of truth for included volume and overage behavior.
Pricing caveat: Free allowance; paid plans depend on email volume and features. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Developer-first API; straightforward transactional workflow
Cons: Not a complete newsletter or visual marketing suite
Postmark
Best for: Teams prioritizing fast, observable delivery for critical application messages.
Postmark is purpose-built for messages users expect immediately: account access, receipts, alerts, and other application events. Its stream-oriented model helps teams separate message types and investigate delivery behavior without mixing transactional mail with promotional campaigns.
That focus is also the boundary. Use a separate consent-based broadcast system for newsletters and marketing journeys, then evaluate the two systems together. Budget from actual monthly volume, inbound support needs, and any required retention or add-on features.
Pricing caveat: Volume-based pricing; current rate depends on message count and add-ons. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Transactional focus; message streams and delivery visibility
Cons: Not intended to replace a full marketing automation platform
SendGrid
Best for: Organizations needing a large email infrastructure ecosystem with API and campaign options.
SendGrid can serve teams that need an established API, SMTP pathway, and campaign tooling under one vendor family. It is often considered when engineering and marketing both need email capabilities, though their requirements should still be separated in architecture and permissions.
A successful evaluation must cover authentication, dedicated or shared infrastructure, suppression groups, templates, rate limits, and support expectations. Do not infer deliverability from vendor reputation alone; send a controlled pilot and monitor bounces, complaints, and inbox placement signals.
Pricing caveat: Free trial/entry options; plans vary by email volume and features. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Broad API ecosystem; supports both developer and marketing use cases
Cons: Product packaging and deliverability operations need careful ownership
ConvertKit Commerce
Best for: Creators combining email sequences with digital products or paid offerings.
ConvertKit Commerce is relevant when the newsletter is part of a creator business: readers receive a sequence, learn about an offer, and may purchase a digital product or subscription. Keeping those steps together can reduce the number of tools a solo operator manages.
The economics depend on audience size, transaction terms, and the exact features included in the current plan. Test checkout, tax and payout responsibilities, subscriber tagging, exports, and unsubscribe behavior before moving an established list.
Pricing caveat: Free entry tier; paid features scale with audience and commerce use. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Creator-oriented automation; commerce features in the same workflow
Cons: May be a mismatch for complex B2B or product event programs
Campaign Monitor
Best for: Brands that value polished campaign production and client-friendly reporting.
Campaign Monitor is a good candidate for teams where presentation, approvals, and repeatable branded campaigns matter. Agencies and in-house brand teams may appreciate the emphasis on polished templates and reporting that can be shared with stakeholders.
Compare it on workflow, not screenshots alone: test collaboration, approval, segmentation, send limits, and reporting exports. Subscriber count and send frequency can affect the bill, so use a twelve-month sending forecast rather than a single campaign estimate.
Pricing caveat: Plans vary by contacts, sends, and feature package. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: Strong campaign presentation; useful agency and brand workflows
Cons: Cost structure needs careful modeling for frequent sends
MailerSend
Best for: Developers who want API delivery with optional broader email workflows.
MailerSend is a practical shortlist option for application teams that want API and SMTP delivery with a path to more email functionality. It can suit teams that are not ready for an enterprise messaging platform but still need templates, logs, and domain controls.
Check the exact split between transactional and marketing features, as well as daily limits, webhooks, suppression, and retention. Run the same deliverability and failure-mode tests you would run for any provider; an included allowance is not a production guarantee.
Pricing caveat: Free allowance; volume and feature limits vary by plan. Check the official pricing page.
Pros: API and SMTP options; accessible developer workflow
Cons: Marketing depth and scale requirements should be validated
Capability and ownership checklist
Use the matrix to narrow the shortlist, then confirm publishing roles, trigger data, consent handling, suppression behavior, and portability with each vendor.
| Primary job | Shortlist | Evidence to validate |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletter publishing | MailerLite, Kit, beehiiv, Substack, Buttondown | Choose based on editorial workflow, ownership, and export needs. |
| Product lifecycle | Customer.io, Loops, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot | Prioritize event identity, branching logic, and suppression controls. |
| Transactional delivery | Postmark, Resend, SendGrid, MailerSend | Separate critical application mail from promotional consent and content. |
| Creator commerce | Kit, beehiiv, Substack, ConvertKit Commerce | Model platform fees, payout terms, and audience portability. |
| Decision area | Question to answer | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Consent | Which audience and event permissions authorize each message? | Marketing and compliance |
| Data | Can identity, events, suppressions, and exports be tested end to end? | Engineering |
| Operations | Who owns approvals, authentication, incidents, and unsubscribes? | Program owner |
A practical implementation pilot
Run a short, reversible pilot before moving the whole audience. Keep the incumbent system live for the control group, use a permissioned test segment, and make one owner responsible for consent, domain authentication, copy approval, and incident response. The goal is evidence about your workflow—not a vendor demo score.
- 1. Define the job: Write one sentence for the program: weekly publication, onboarding, receipt delivery, or sales nurture.
- 2. Use a representative slice: Test 500–2,000 permissioned contacts or a realistic event stream, including unsubscribed and bounced records.
- 3. Rebuild one path: Implement one broadcast and one automated journey; record setup time, missing features, and manual workarounds.
- 4. Measure quality: Track delivery, bounce and complaint handling, click behavior, conversion, latency, and export completeness.
- 5. Price the next year: Use expected contacts, sends, seats, overages, add-ons, and migration effort—not the first-month headline price.
| Pilot signal | What a useful result looks like |
|---|---|
| Delivery and complaints | Suppression, bounce, and complaint handling are observable and reproducible. |
| Workflow effort | The team can publish, trigger, approve, and troubleshoot without hidden manual steps. |
| Portability | Contacts, events, templates, and consent records can be exported in a usable form. |
For related internal reading, see our email broadcast guide, deliverability guide, and tool-selection framework. For transactional programs, compare the Resend and Postmark decision separately from newsletter software.
How the figures on these pages were read
A pair page quotes a price only after we opened the vendor's pricing page, and it names the date. The rewritten pages also carry a screenshot of that page. Several vendors set the price with a slider, so Customer.io, Drip, Loops, Postmark and SendGrid are quoted at the slider positions we actually moved to; we do not interpolate between them. Where a figure is missing, the page says so: Buttondown's per-subscriber price above its first 100, and Campaign Monitor's prices above 500 contacts, are examples. The method is written out on how we evaluate.
Comparing across different billing units
Rows in the price table above count different things. Customer.io bills profiles that include objects such as companies, Drip bills active people, Ghost bills members including free sign-ups, Postmark bills emails sent and received, and Substack bills a share of revenue. Convert your own situation into each unit before you compare totals. A store with 40,000 contacts mailing weekly sends about 160,000 emails a month, which matters for Postmark and Resend but not for Substack.
Where the wider market lives
A pair page weighs two products only. For the market around one of them, the alternatives index lists tools to switch to, and the blog guides cover transactional versus marketing mail and building a newsletter audience.
Which pair to open first
Pick the row that matches the email you most need to get right, then read the page for the two tools you are still weighing.
| If your priority is | Start with | The number to check |
|---|---|---|
| A paid newsletter | beehiiv vs Substack | $490 a month of paid revenue, where a 10% share equals beehiiv Lite |
| A publication site you own | Ghost vs Substack | $290 a month, and the member count behind Ghost's price |
| Product-triggered messages | Customer.io vs Drip | Your list size against the 5,000 to 10,000 crossover |
| Receipts and password resets | Postmark vs SendGrid | Monthly volume against the 50,000 and 300,000 stops |
| Campaigns and transactional mail in one account | Brevo vs SendGrid | Whether one volume meter or two suits you |
Common questions about this hub
Why do some pages say a price was not read?
Because the vendor's page did not show it to us on the day. Buttondown's slider price above its first 100 subscribers and Campaign Monitor's prices above the 0 to 500 contact band are two such gaps. We would rather leave a gap than estimate a number a reader might budget against.
Which tools here have a free plan?
beehiiv up to 2,500 subscribers, Kit up to 10,000, Buttondown for the first 100, MailerLite up to 250 subscribers, Mailchimp up to 250 contacts, Brevo at 300 emails a day, Resend at 3,000 emails a month with a 100-a-day cap, and Postmark at 100 emails a month for testing. Substack is free to publish. Customer.io, Drip and Campaign Monitor offer trials or, for Customer.io, a year free to startups under $10 million raised.
Where should a SaaS team start?
Read Customer.io vs Drip if product events decide who gets a message, and Postmark vs SendGrid for the receipts and alerts your app sends. Newsletter creators usually begin with beehiiv vs Substack.
What usually goes wrong when switching tools?
Consent history that is not exported, suppression lists that are not carried over, and triggers rebuilt with different event names. Each pair page ends with its own migration notes, written for the two tools it covers.