How much does email marketing cost
From $9 a month.Or by the email.
For a small business, email marketing software costs about $9 to $13 a month for a list of up to 500 contacts, then rises with the list: MailerLite’s Comfort plan is $19 at 1,000 subscribers, $49 at 5,000 and $89 at 10,000, billed monthly. Under 250 contacts, free plans cover it. The bigger cost is usually your own time. Priced per email instead, a send on Builderify costs 0.5 credit, or $0.0045 at the Starter pack rate, with no monthly fee. The calculator works out your month on each.
By the Builderify team
How much does email
marketing cost per month?
It follows the list.
The entry paid plans start at $9 to $13 a month. Mailchimp Essentials starts at $13 for up to 500 contacts.Mailchimp MailerLite Comfort is $12 for up to 500 subscribers.MailerLite Brevo Starter is $9 for 5,000 emails a month.Brevo
Then each step up in list size is a step up in price. MailerLite publishes every tier, so its column runs the full way; Mailchimp and Brevo put bigger lists behind a calculator, so this page doesn’t guess them. Next to it is the same weekly email priced per send on Builderify, after the 250 free credits every account gets each month.
Prices are in US dollars, billed monthly, before tax, read on 29 October 2026. Yearly billing is cheaper on MailerLite (10% off) and Brevo.
| List size | MailerLite Comfort | Mailchimp Essentials | Builderify, per email |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5002,000 emails | $125,000 emails included | $135,000 emails included | $6.75$4.35 at the Growth rate |
| 1,0004,000 emails | $1910,000 emails included | On their calculator | $15.75$10.15 at the Growth rate |
| 2,50010,000 emails | $3325,000 emails included | On their calculator | $42.75$27.55 at the Growth rate |
| 5,00020,000 emails | $4950,000 emails included | On their calculator | $87.75$56.55 at the Growth rate |
| 10,00040,000 emails | $89100,000 emails included | On their calculator | $177.75$114.55 at the Growth rate |
Builderify column: 0.5 credit an email, less 250 free credits, at the Starter pack rate ($9 for 1,000 credits) and, below it, the Growth rate ($29 for 5,000). New signups add 1 credit each. Brevo Starter covers 5,000 emails a month for $9, so it prices the first row; more volume is on Brevo’s calculator.
Email marketing cost
calculator
Your list, your month.
Type in your contacts, how often you email them and how many people sign up a month. The calculator picks each tool’s tier, adds the welcome emails new signups get, and prices the same month in Builderify credits. Every subscription price is pre-filled from the vendor’s page on 29 October 2026; overwrite it if yours differs. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Emails a month: 1,890 contacts × sends, plus signups × welcome emails
Subscription tools, this month
| Tool and tier | A month | Per email |
|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp Essentials, up to 500 contacts checked 29 October 2026 | $0.0069 | |
| MailerLite Comfort, up to 500 subscribers checked 29 October 2026 | $0.0063 | |
| Brevo Starter, up to 5,000 emails a month checked 29 October 2026 | $0.0048 |
A blank price means the size is behind that vendor’s own calculator: open its pricing page (Sources, at the end) and type the figure in.
The same month on Builderify credits
- Emails
- 945 cr
- New leads
- 30 cr
- Less 250 free
- 725 cr
- Per email, Starter
- $0.0045
| Pack | Per email | This month, at the pack rate |
|---|---|---|
| Starter $9 for 1,000 | $0.0045 | $6.53 |
| Growth $29 for 5,000 | $0.0029 | $4.21 |
| Pro $69 for 15,000 | $0.0023 | $3.34 |
| Business $149 for 50,000 | $0.0015 | $2.16 |
| Scale $349 for 150,000 | $0.0012 | $1.69 |
Packs are bought whole, once, and their credits never expire, so the last column is the share of a pack this month uses. There is no monthly fee: a month you don’t send costs nothing.
Why MailerLite can jump to Power. Comfort includes ten times the top of your subscriber tier in emails each month. Past that, MailerLite says you can upgrade to Power for unlimited sending or wait for the allowance to refresh.
Why Brevo follows emails, not contacts. Brevo’s calculator is set by monthly email volume; Starter is listed “from 5,000 emails per month”.
Why the free credits matter. Every Builderify account gets 250 credits each month, enough for 500 emails with no new signups. A small month can cost nothing.
Email marketing pricing
for small business
Five things set the bill.
Most tools charge for the size of your list; a few charge for what you send; and the biggest cost is often not the software at all. Here is what moves the number, in the order it usually matters.
-
01
Contacts on the list
Mailchimp and MailerLite price by list size, so you pay for every contact you keep, whether or not you email them this month. MailerLite counts active subscribers, and any address active at some point in the billing cycle counts even if you delete it later.MailerLite
-
02
Emails sent
Brevo sets its plans by monthly email volume.Brevo MailerLite counts a send as “one email to one subscriber”, so one campaign to 500 people uses 500. Builderify charges 0.5 credit for each one, and nothing for a month you don’t send.
-
03
Tier ceilings and send limits
Tiers are steps, not slopes: 501 subscribers is priced as 1,000. Paid plans also cap sends at a multiple of your contacts (10× on Mailchimp Essentials and MailerLite Comfort), and Mailchimp says overages apply past the contact or send limit.Mailchimp
-
04
Plan level and add-ons
The same list costs more on a higher plan: Mailchimp Standard starts at $20 against Essentials’ $13, and MailerLite Power at $25 against Comfort’s $12. Extras such as Mailchimp’s SMS credits are bought on top. Check that the plan you price includes the automation you need.
-
05
Your time and design
Writing, design, checking links and tidying the list take hours every month. At a few hours and any fair hourly figure, that line is usually bigger than the software. Paying an agency or freelancer turns those hours into an invoice; the calculator has a line for either.
-
06
And the domain setup, once
Sending from your own domain needs SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. It is an afternoon, not a monthly cost; the SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup guide builds the records with you.
What does one marketing
email actually cost?
Divide the bill by the sends.
On a subscription, the cost of an email depends on how much of the allowance you use. MailerLite Comfort at 500 subscribers is $12 for up to 5,000 emails: $0.0024 an email if you use every one, and more if you don’t. A per-email price stays the same however much you send.
Take a made-up shop with 450 contacts. It sends a weekly newsletter (4 sends), and 30 new signups a month each get 3 welcome emails. That is 1,800 plus 90: 1,890 emails a month. The receipt prices that month on each tool, then divides by the 1,890 sends.
The shop’s list stays under 500, so every tool lands on its entry plan. Grow it past 500 and the subscription prices step up; the per-email figure doesn’t.
Builderify’s line includes 1 credit for each of the 30 new leads; the subscription prices don’t charge for signups. Before free credits, an email is $0.0045 at the Starter rate.
Can email marketing
cost nothing?
For a small list, yes.
Free plans exist, with limits that bite as the list grows. Mailchimp’s and MailerLite’s free plans stop at 250 contacts, and Brevo’s free plan sends up to 300 emails a day.Brevo Each has its own catch, covered in its own guide.
-
01
Mailchimp Free
Cut in 2026, with no automation flows. See what changed in Mailchimp’s free plan and what happens past 250 contacts.
-
02
MailerLite Free
Fewer subscribers than it used to allow. See MailerLite’s free plan limits and what locks when you go over.
-
03
Your own Gmail
Free, with a daily cap and no unsubscribe link of its own. The Gmail sending limits guide counts how many days your list would take.
-
04
A WordPress plugin
Some newsletter plugins have free tiers, and some send through your web host. Compare three ways to send a newsletter from WordPress, priced.
-
05
Builderify’s free credits
250 credits every month, on every account, cover 500 emails, or fewer once new leads take their 1 credit each. A month that stays under 250 credits costs nothing.
Email marketing
with no monthly fee
Pay for the sends, not the list.
Builderify has no plan and no subscription. Broadcast campaigns and Sequences follow-up emails cost 0.5 credit per recipient, each new lead in your lead lists costs 1, and every account gets 250 free credits a month. Packs are one-time, start at $9 and never expire. See pricing for the full rate card.
What the credits pay for
- Campaigns sent from your own domain, once SPF, DKIM and DMARC check out, with an unsubscribe link and one-click opt-out on every send.
- Welcome and follow-up sequences: anyone who joins a list with a running sequence is enrolled automatically, and leaves it the moment they unsubscribe.
- Signups from popups and forms on your site, written into lists with the fields you define.
- Replies to your campaigns, which land in the Builderify Inbox rather than a personal mailbox.
What it won’t do
- Send to a list you didn’t earn. It is for opt-in lists only: people who asked to hear from you.
- Send the moment you sign up. A person approves each new sender first.
- Import an existing list from a CSV file. Contacts join through your popups and forms, or you add them by hand. If moving a big list is the point, a tool with an importer fits better.
- Promise the inbox. No tool can; where an email lands is the receiving provider’s decision.
Email marketing costs, before you ask.
On 29 October 2026, entry paid plans cost $9 to $13 a month for a list of up to 500: Brevo Starter $9 for 5,000 emails a month, MailerLite Comfort $12 and Mailchimp Essentials $13, in US dollars billed monthly. MailerLite Comfort then rises to $19 at 1,000 subscribers, $49 at 5,000 and $89 at 10,000. Under 250 contacts, free plans can cover it, and your own time is often the bigger cost.
Usually per contact. Mailchimp and MailerLite price by list size in tiers, with a monthly send allowance of ten times the tier on their entry plans, so you pay for every contact you keep whether you email them or not. Brevo sets its plans by monthly email volume. Builderify charges per email sent and per new lead, with no monthly fee.
Divide the monthly bill by the emails you actually send. MailerLite Comfort at 500 subscribers is $12 for up to 5,000 emails, so $0.0024 an email if you use the whole allowance and more if you don't. On Builderify an email is 0.5 credits, which is $0.0045 at the $9 Starter pack rate and less on bigger packs.
Yes. Builderify has no plan: each email sent is 0.5 credits and each new lead 1 credit, every account gets 250 free credits a month, and packs are one-time from $9 and never expire. Campaigns go out from your own domain once SPF, DKIM and DMARC check out, to opt-in lists only. It cannot import an existing list from a CSV file, so it suits a list you grow from your website.
Sources
Each vendor’s pricing page was read on 29 October 2026, in US dollars with monthly billing, before tax. Mailchimp shows prices in your local currency by default and says non-US-dollar prices are estimates. Kit is left out because its pricing page couldn’t be read that day. The Builderify figures come from the rate card on this site. Nothing here is a promise of delivery or inbox placement.
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