How much does email marketing cost per month?

Here's the short answer most business owners want: standalone email marketing platforms cost $7 to $43 per month for entry-level paid plans, and several reputable tools offer genuinely usable free tiers. That range covers the vast majority of small businesses sending regular campaigns in 2025.

The specific benchmarks tell the story. According to platform pricing reviews, Moosend's Pro plan starts at just $7/month for 500 contacts with unlimited emails, Brevo begins at $8.08/month for 5,000 emails, and MailerLite charges $12/month for 5,000 emails with three users. ActiveCampaign's Starter plan runs $15/month for 1,000 contacts and 10,000 emails, while Beehiiv starts higher at $43/month — but for unlimited emails and up to 100,000 subscribers.

Free plans are real, but the restrictions matter more than the headline numbers. Industry testing shows free tiers typically impose daily sending caps of 200-300 emails and, critically, limit or exclude automation features — the welcome sequences and follow-up workflows that make email actually convert. Here's what the major free tiers actually include:

• Mailchimp Free: 250 subscribers and only 500 emails per month, capped at 250 sends per day — fine for testing, tight quickly.
• Brevo Free: 100,000 contacts but 9,000 emails monthly with a 300/day cap — generous contact storage, restricted sending.
• Kit (formerly ConvertKit) Free: 10,000 subscribers with unlimited emails — one of the most generous free offers available.
• MailerLite Free: 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails per month, which most growing businesses outpace within a quarter.

The catch is what happens when you need automation. If you want abandoned-cart campaigns, drip sequences, or behavior-triggered follow-ups, the free tiers usually push you into a paid plan — which is where that $7-$15 entry point comes in. Some platforms, like Moosend, position unlimited sends with no per-contact penalties as their core value proposition, and offer 15-20% savings for semi-annual or annual commitments.

There's also a broader category worth knowing about: bundled services. Some done-for-you providers — including AI Business Sites — fold full email automation into a larger monthly platform fee covering the website, CRM, and content engine, with no per-send charges at all. That's a different product category than a standalone email tool, but it explains why some businesses pay far more than $43/month for "email" — they're buying an entire marketing system, not a newsletter platform.

The ROI context makes even the higher figures easier to swallow: email marketing is widely cited as returning roughly $36 for every $1 spent. Whether you start free or pay $15/month, the channel remains one of the cheapest customer-retention investments available.

That "$0" price tag on a free email plan comes with fine print that quietly caps what your marketing can actually do. Free tiers commonly limit daily sends to 200-300 emails and exclude automation entirely, which means the welcome sequences and follow-up workflows that make email marketing profitable are off the table before you send a single message.

Consider what the free plans actually allow. Mailchimp's free tier permits just 500 emails per month with a 250-per-day cap, while MailerLite's free plan stops at 2,500 emails for 250 subscribers, according to hands-on testing of free email marketing services. Brevo's free plan looks generous at 9,000 emails monthly, but a 300-email daily ceiling throttles how fast you can reach a growing list.

The pattern is consistent: free plans trade away the two features that drive revenue — volume and automation. Experts note that free plans frequently lack automation capabilities, making paid plans essential for businesses that need welcome sequences, abandoned cart campaigns, or other automated workflows.

Paid entry plans position themselves as the escape hatch. Platforms like Moosend lead with a $7/month Pro plan for 500 contacts with unlimited emails and no per-send charges, while MailerLite's paid tier starts at $12/month for 5,000 emails, per detailed platform pricing reviews. The pitch is simple: stop counting sends and start running campaigns. With email marketing returning roughly $36 for every $1 spent, per-send anxiety becomes expensive overhead.

When you compare costs, look past the headline number:

• Daily and monthly send caps — a 300/day limit can stall any list above a few thousand contacts
• Whether automation is included, gated, or absent on the plan you're considering
• Per-send versus flat-rate pricing as your list grows past entry-level sizes
• Billing flexibility — some platforms offer 15-20% savings for semi-annual or annual commitments

This is also why bundled pricing deserves a fair comparison. A service like AI Business Sites includes full email automation with no per-send charges inside its $497 monthly fee — but that fee covers a website, CRM, content engine, and AI back office, not email alone. The sticker price only tells the truth when you know what's inside it.

When businesses look at email marketing tools, they often see price tags as low as $7 to $15 per month for basic automation from platforms like Moosend or Brevo, with some services reaching up to $43/month for higher subscriber limits. These entry-level plans typically include unlimited sends and core automation features, making them attractive for cost-conscious teams. However, this view misses the bigger picture: sending emails is just one step in a much longer process that begins with a website visit and ends with a closed deal and a review request.

The $497 monthly fee for AI Business Sites isn’t for email alone—it covers a fully managed system where email automation works alongside a custom website, CRM, content engine, and follow-up tools. This bundled approach ensures every lead captured through email is met with a live site that answers questions, books jobs, and collects payments—all without the business owner lifting a finger. By handling the entire lead loop—from initial contact to final invoice—the system turns isolated email campaigns into a self-running business operation.

This holistic model explains why businesses invest more than standalone email platforms cost: they’re paying for outcomes, not just outreach. With email marketing delivering an average return of $36 for every $1 spent—a 3500% ROI—the value lies in systems that maximize that potential by ensuring no lead falls through the cracks after the send button is hit. This statistic underscores why a comprehensive solution justifies its price: it doesn’t just send emails, it turns them into revenue.

The software you choose matters less than how much of your time it eats. A $7-per-month email tool looks cheap until you count the hours spent building automations, cleaning lists, and chasing follow-ups yourself.

Here's the honest trade-off. Standalone platforms like Moosend, Brevo, and MailerLite start at $7–15/month for basic sends and simple automation, according to email marketing platform comparisons. But free plans frequently restrict automation entirely, and many impose daily sending caps of 200–300 emails, per hands-on platform testing. So the low price buys you a tool, not a system.

DIY works if you have both time and technical comfort. Some owners genuinely enjoy running their own stack — connecting forms, wiring up welcome sequences, and babysitting deliverability. With email marketing ROI cited at 3500% ($36 back for every $1 spent), per industry research, the effort can pay off. But "free is only free if your time is," and most small business owners are already short on it.

A done-for-you model takes a different approach. Instead of handing you software to learn, someone else builds the system, connects it to your website and CRM, and keeps it running. That's the model AI Business Sites uses: a flat $497/month that includes full email automation with no per-send charges — alongside the website, CRM, lead capture, and content engine — with no long-term contracts. Every lead that comes in gets captured and followed up automatically, whether it arrives by form, chat, or booking.

When weighing your options, ask:

• Who sets up the automations — you, or the provider?
• Are there per-send charges or daily caps that limit your follow-up?
• Does email connect to your website, CRM, and lead capture, or live in a separate tool?
• What happens to your lists and data if you leave?

There's no single right answer — a $12/month MailerLite plan is a fine starting point for a hands-on owner. But if email is one piece of a bigger picture (website, content, follow-up, CRM), a bundled system where it's all handled for you often costs less than the sum of your evenings. If you want to talk through which model fits your business, book a free strategy call — 30 minutes, no obligation, no sales pitch.