5 tools compared
Best email marketing software
Broadcasts, lifecycle automation, segmentation and deliverability, usually priced on list size rather than seats.
The field
Every email platform worth considering
Cheapest first. Ranked properly once you tell us about your team.
Brevo
Send-volume pricing plus SMS, chat and a light CRM, hosted in the EU.
Usage · free tier
Kit (ConvertKit)
Creator-focused email with tag-based automation and strong deliverability.
Usage · free tier
Klaviyo
Ecommerce lifecycle marketing with revenue attribution per flow.
Usage · free tier
Mailchimp
The best-known all-rounder for broadcasts and basic automation.
Usage · free tier
Resend
Developer-first email API with React-based templates and a light broadcast layer.
Usage · free tier
Prices are unverified estimates — useful for comparing orders of magnitude, not for budgeting. Confirm the current figure with the vendor before you commit to anything.
Feature matrix
What each email platform can do
Generated from the dimensions this category is compared on, so it stays true as the catalogue changes. Blank means we have not established it either way.
| Capability | Brevo | Kit (ConvertKit) | Klaviyo | Mailchimp | Resend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billed onContact-based billing means you pay for subscribers who never open anything. | Emails sent | Contacts stored | Contacts stored | Contacts stored | Emails sent |
| Automation | Simple sequences | Full lifecycle journeys | Full lifecycle journeys | Simple sequences | Simple sequences |
| Channels | Email, SMS | Email, SMS, Push | Email, SMS | ||
| Ecommerce integration | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Transactional sending | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Marketer-usable builder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| SAML single sign-onAvailable on some tier — check which, it is usually the expensive one. | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| EU data residency | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No | No | No |
| Public API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Native mobile apps | No | No | No | No | No |
How to choose
The questions that actually decide a email platform
Everyone asks about price and seat count. These are the ones specific to this category — and the ones our questionnaire asks you.
- 01
How large is your list?
Under 2,000 · 2,000 to 25,000 · 25,000 to 100,000 · More than 100,000
- 02
What do you actually send?
Newsletters and broadcasts · Lifecycle and onboarding sequences · Ecommerce campaigns · Transactional email from our app
- 03
Who builds the campaigns?
Marketers, without engineering help · Marketing, with engineering for the tricky parts · Engineers, in code
The trade-offs
What each one asks you to accept
No tool here is strictly better than the others. These are the prices of admission.
Breadth over depth — each module is capable rather than best in class.
Plain-text-first design philosophy — heavy template design is not the point.
Built around ecommerce — a poor fit for B2B or content newsletters.
Cost scales on total contacts, including people who never open anything.
Engineering owns email here — there is no rich marketer-facing builder.
10 comparisons
Head to head
If you have narrowed it to two.
Questions
Choosing a email platform
What is the best email platform?
There is no single best one, and any page that names one without asking about your team is guessing. The credible options are Brevo, Kit (ConvertKit), Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Resend. Which fits depends on the answers to the 3 questions this category turns on, plus your team size and budget — our questionnaire scores all 5 against them in about three minutes.
Is there a free email platform?
Brevo, Kit (ConvertKit), Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Resend all have a free tier. The limits differ sharply though — usually on history, seat count, or exactly the features that pass a security review. Check what the free tier withholds before you plan around it.
How much should we expect to pay for a email platform?
This category is not priced per seat, so headcount is the wrong unit. Costs track volume or a flat account fee instead. Model both against your own numbers before comparing vendors, because the headline prices are not like for like.
When is it worth switching email platform?
When the problem is a capability the current tool does not have — a price that scales the wrong way, a compliance control it cannot enforce, an integration that does not exist. When the problem is how your team uses the tool, a new one reproduces the same mess in a fresh interface within six months, and you will have paid for the privilege.
What should we compare email platforms on?
The dimensions that actually separate them: billed on, automation, channels, ecommerce integration, transactional sending, marketer-usable builder. Price matters, but it is rarely the thing that decides whether a tool survives contact with your team.