You’ve built your site and you’re starting to attract visitors… but most of them leave without a trace. To stay in touch with them, nothing beats email.
A newsletter helps you build a loyal audience, share your new content, and present your offers to people who chose to follow you. Unlike social media, your subscriber list belongs to you: no algorithm decides who sees your messages.
But you still need to choose the right tool. Between online email marketing platforms, WordPress plugins, and transactional email services, there are plenty of options, and prices vary a lot depending on the size of your list.
On this page, we’ve selected the best email marketing and newsletter tools for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners to help you find the one that fits your business.
Our top 7 email marketing tools
No time to read it all? Here’s our list of the best email marketing and newsletter tools:
- MailPoet: newsletters built into WordPress
- FluentCRM: email marketing right inside WordPress
- MailerLite: a simple, full-featured email marketing tool
- Brevo: an all-in-one email marketing platform
- Kit: the email marketing platform built for creators
- MailerSend: a reliable transactional email service
- Mailchimp: the email marketing pioneer
The list below isn’t a ranking. It’s randomly generated every week.
1/ MailPoet: newsletters built into WordPress
MailPoet is a WordPress email marketing plugin. You create your newsletters and automated emails from your dashboard with a drag-and-drop editor, and sending goes through MailPoet’s service or the server of your choice.
- Type of tool: WordPress newsletter plugin
- Price: free plan available (up to 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails per month), paid plans from $10 per month
Who is it for? Ideal for bloggers and WooCommerce stores that want to manage their newsletter without leaving WordPress.
2/ FluentCRM: email marketing right inside WordPress
FluentCRM is a WordPress email marketing plugin. Your contacts, campaigns, and automations stay on your site, but the plugin doesn’t send emails itself: you need to connect it to an email sending service (SMTP) so your campaigns reach their destination.
- Type of tool: WordPress email marketing plugin
- Price: free version available, Pro version from $129 per year
Who is it for? Ideal for WordPress and WooCommerce site owners who want to stay in control of their data and avoid paying based on the number of contacts.
3/ MailerLite: a simple, full-featured email marketing tool
MailerLite is an email marketing tool known for its simplicity. It brings together a drag-and-drop email editor, signup forms, landing pages, and automations, all in a clean interface.
- Type of tool: newsletters and email marketing
- Price: free plan available (up to 250 subscribers), paid plans from $10.80 per month (billed annually)
Who is it for? Ideal for beginners, bloggers, and small businesses that want to launch a newsletter without getting lost in the settings.
4/ Brevo: an all-in-one email marketing platform
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) brings together email marketing, SMS, WhatsApp, transactional emails, and a CRM.
- Type of tool: multichannel marketing (email, SMS, WhatsApp)
- Price: free plan available (300 emails per day), paid plans from $9 per month
Who is it for? Ideal for small businesses that want to manage several channels in one place.
5/ Kit: the email marketing platform built for creators
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is an email marketing platform designed for content creators. It focuses on tags, automated sequences, and monetization (selling digital products, paid newsletters, recommendations).
- Type of tool: newsletters and automations for creators
- Price: free plan available (up to 10,000 subscribers), paid plans from $33 per month (billed annually)
Who is it for? Ideal for bloggers, authors, coaches, and other creators who want to grow and monetize their audience.
6/ MailerSend: a reliable transactional email service
MailerSend is the transactional email service from the team behind MailerLite. It isn’t meant for sending newsletters. Instead, it makes sure your site’s automated emails get delivered: order confirmations, password resets, or form notifications.
- Type of tool: transactional emails (API and SMTP)
- Price: free plan available (500 emails per month), paid plans from $6.30 per month (billed annually)
Who is it for? Ideal for WordPress and WooCommerce sites whose automated emails end up in spam, or for developers who need an email sending API.
7/ Mailchimp: the email marketing pioneer
Mailchimp is one of the best-known email marketing tools. It offers a full-featured email editor, automations, forms, and plenty of integrations, including WooCommerce.
- Type of tool: newsletters and marketing automation
- Price: free plan for under 250 contacts, paid plans from $13 per month
Who is it for? Ideal for businesses looking for a well-known tool with lots of integrations, as long as they’re OK with a price that climbs quickly as their list grows.
Conclusion
A good email marketing tool is about more than a nice editor. Above all, it needs to get your emails into your subscribers’ inboxes and stay affordable as your list grows.
If you’re just starting out, a free plan is more than enough to launch your newsletter and get the hang of things. You can then upgrade to a paid plan, or switch tools, as your needs evolve: most platforms let you import your contacts in a few clicks.
Also, don’t forget your site’s automated emails (order confirmations, contact forms, password resets). They’re handled by a transactional email service, which is often separate from your newsletter tool.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
What’s the best email marketing tool?
There’s no universally “best” tool. The right choice depends on the size of your list, your budget, and your needs:
- MailerLite is popular for its simplicity
- Brevo is a good fit if you’re looking for a multichannel solution
- Kit is mainly aimed at content creators
- FluentCRM lets you manage everything from WordPress
Ideally, try one or two free plans before committing.
Which free email marketing tool should you choose?
Several tools offer a free plan to get started, with different limits:
- MailerLite, up to 250 subscribers
- Brevo, up to 300 emails per day
- Kit, up to 10,000 subscribers
- Mailchimp, for under 250 contacts
These plans are often enough to launch a newsletter. Keep in mind, though, that they usually display the tool’s logo in your emails and limit automations.
What’s the difference between email marketing and transactional email?
Email marketing refers to bulk emails sent to a list of subscribers: newsletters, promotions, welcome sequences.
A transactional email is sent to a single person following an action they took: order confirmation, password reset, form notification. Services like MailerSend specialize in this type of email, so it arrives quickly and stays out of spam.
Can you send a newsletter from WordPress?
Yes, with plugins like FluentCRM or MailPoet. Your contacts and campaigns then stay on your site. You’ll still need to connect a reliable sending service (SMTP) to make sure your emails reach their destination.
To learn more, check out our guide to creating a WordPress newsletter.
How do you choose an email marketing tool?
Several criteria matter when choosing a tool that fits your business:
- deliverability (the ability to land in the inbox)
- how easy the editor is to use
- the automations available
- integrations with WordPress and your other tools
- how the price changes with your number of subscribers
Most importantly, choose a tool you’ll actually use to write to your audience regularly.
