Rules
Part of Which email marketing software deserves the subscription
Software worth it for a small team's email marketing budget
Best email marketing software for small teams in 2027 compares Brevo, Kit, Mailchimp, and MailerLite through an unpaid shortlist and evidence-led scorecard.
What to take away
- For a small team, MailerLite is the value pick and Brevo is the runner-up. Kit suits anyone selling digital products or paid subscriptions. Mailchimp earns its price only if you use its wider marketing features.
- Typical entry tiers run from $0 to about $30 a month at a few hundred contacts, and about $30 to $80 once you pass a few thousand. These are typical ranges, not quotes.
- The four differ mainly in how they count usageactive subscribers, sending allowance, seats and automation scope.
- Run the same timed pilot in every finalist. Reject any tool without working suppression, a complete export and support you can reach.
The shortlist in order
The order I would test is MailerLite, then Brevo, then Kit, then Mailchimp. That reflects entry cost at small scale and the daily attention each product demands, not a claim about brand quality. Choosing email marketing software without a six-month regret sets out how to run that test as a decision rather than a hunch.
MailerLite prices on active subscribers, so a dormant list costs you little.
Brevo separates contact storage from sending allowance. A team with a large, quiet list and a modest monthly send often pays less there.
Kit is built for people who sell. Broadcasts, sequences, tagging and digital product delivery sit in one place.
Mailchimp bundles campaigns, journeys, audience management and reporting. It is the widest of the four, and the one most likely to bill you for capacity you never use.
What the entry tiers actually cost
The figures below are typical ranges for a small team, not quotes. Confirm currency, tax treatment and over-limit behavior on each vendor's plan page. Reading a plan grid takes practice, and how to read an email marketing software comparison covers the framing vendors leave out.
What you pay for
- MailerLite
- Active subscribers
- Brevo
- Sending allowance
- Kit
- Subscribers, plus commerce fees
- Mailchimp
- Contacts and monthly sends
Entry tier shape
- MailerLite
- Free tier, then paid tiers; typically $0 to about $30 a month at a few hundred contacts
- Brevo
- Free tier, then paid tiers; typically $0 to about $30 a month at modest send volume
- Kit
- Free plan, then creator tiers; typically $30 to $80 a month as the list grows
- Mailchimp
- Free tier, then paid tiers; typically $0 to about $80 across small-team sizes
Small-team catch
- MailerLite
- Automations and seats are limited on the cheapest tier
- Brevo
- Contact storage is generous, monthly sends are not
- Kit
- Commerce features carry extra terms
- Mailchimp
- The bill climbs fastest as contacts grow
Per-contact and tiered pricing behave differently as a list grows. The trade-offs are well described in general pricing strategy terms: a tier that looks cheap at 500 contacts is often the expensive one at 5,000.
Shared sending infrastructure matters too. Your reputation travels with other senders on the same pool, so read how email deliverability works before assuming the platform decides inbox placement on its own.
Where each vendor fits, and where it costs you
The same four products look different depending on whether your list is growing, static or stale. Compare the numbers that move the bill: contacts, sends, seats and automation scope. Which email marketing software deserves the subscription works through that argument for any shortlist you build.
- MailerLitecheapest path for a team sending regular campaigns. Weaker than Mailchimp if you want one tool for many marketing channels.
- Brevobest fit for a large, quiet list and a small monthly send. Watch the send allowance, not the contact count.
- Kitstrongest for creators selling courses or subscriptions. Less useful if email is one channel among many.
- Mailchimpthe deepest automation and reporting here. Also the most expensive once a list passes a few thousand contacts.
Example: a three-person team at 2,000 contacts
Here is a worked illustration, not a quote. The team sends one campaign a week, runs three automations and needs two seats.
At 2,000 contacts, that team would typically land between $30 and $50 a month on MailerLite or Brevo, and noticeably more on Mailchimp at the same list size.
MailerLite fits if the team prunes its list quarterly, so active-subscriber pricing stays honest. Brevo wins instead when half those contacts are dormant and the team sends twice a month. Kit only makes sense if the team sells something.
Whether a free tier still covers this team depends on automations and seats, not contacts alone. Free versus paid email marketing software shows where those limits actually bite.
How to run a two-week pilot
Two weeks is enough for three finalists. Run the same tasks in each tool and score them the same way.
- Pick three finalists and one real segment of 500 to 2,000 contacts.
- Build a welcome sequence, a win-back email and an abandoned-cart message in each tool.
- Test suppression, one failed send and an unsubscribe. Time a complete export.
- Give two people the same task separately and note where each needed help.
- Price the three-year scenario at your current list, at double and at half.
- Score proven, partial, absent and unknown separately before deciding.
Small-Team Scorecard Checks
- Required use cases, markets, contacts, sends, users
- Permission evidence, suppression, segmentation, automation tests
- Security, privacy, support, reliability, backups, recovery
- Subscription, overages, implementation, migration, exit cost
- Run same time-limited pilot with representative data
- Reject unclear suppression, export, support, or cost path
- Record tasks needing specialist help and budget
Compliance belongs to you, not the platform. All four provide unsubscribe mechanics, but the FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide sets out what a commercial message must contain and how opt-outs must work.
