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How we research: This article is based on each vendor's own published pricing, feature and help pages, checked in October 2026. We have not run hands-on benchmarks. Prices are in USD unless noted, exclude taxes, and change often, so confirm them on the vendor's site before you buy.
The quiet advantage: an email list you own, on a platform that fits how you sell.
Social reach rises and falls with algorithms. Your email list doesn't. For consultants and small businesses, the right platform depends less on feature counts and more on how you sell: through a newsletter, automated nurture sequences, webinars, high-volume promotions or a full funnel. This guide compares five platforms using each vendor's own pricing and feature pages, checked in October 2026.
Quick picks
| Pick | Best for | Free option (Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Kit | Creators and consultants who publish a newsletter | Free plan up to 10,000 subscribers |
| ActiveCampaign | Advanced automation tied to sales | 14-day free trial |
| GetResponse | Email plus webinars, courses and funnels | 14-day trial of premium features, then a free account |
| Brevo | Volume sending, transactional email, pay-as-you-go | Free plan (300 emails/day once approved) |
| Systeme.io | Email bundled with funnels and courses | Free plan up to 2,000 contacts |
How we compared
We looked at five things: how each platform prices (by contacts or by sends), free-plan limits, automation depth, extra channels such as webinars or SMS, and tools for selling directly. All facts come from vendor pages. We didn't test deliverability and make no deliverability rankings.
1. Kit — best for creators and consultants
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is built for people who grow an audience by publishing.
Pricing (kit.com/pricing, October 2026):
- Free plan: $0/month for up to 10,000 subscribers.
- Paid plans are priced by subscriber count on Kit's calculator. Paying yearly saves 17%, and paid plans offer a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Notable features listed by Kit:
- Subscriber tagging and segmentation, with conditional content based on tags.
- A visual automation builder and automated email sequences.
- RSS campaigns that send automatically when you publish.
- Selling digital products, paid newsletters and recurring subscriptions. Kit lists a transaction fee of 3.5% + 30¢ on these sales.
- On higher tiers: A/B testing of subject lines and content, deliverability reporting, an insights dashboard and a newsletter referral system.
- A free migration service. Kit says its team will rebuild your forms, templates and automations.
Choose Kit if your newsletter is your main marketing channel and you may later sell digital products to your list.
2. ActiveCampaign — best for automation
ActiveCampaign combines email marketing, marketing automation and CRM features. Its plans (Starter, Plus, Pro and Enterprise) are priced by contact count through its pricing calculator.
Key differences by plan (ActiveCampaign pricing page, October 2026):
| Starter | Plus | Pro | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automation actions | 5 per automation | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Segmentation | Limited | Standard | Advanced | Premium |
| Landing pages | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email send limit | 10× contacts | 10× contacts | 12× contacts | 15× contacts |
| Users | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
ActiveCampaign lists 950+ automation recipes, an AI-powered automation builder and 1,000+ integrations. SMS, WhatsApp, transactional email and Enhanced CRM (pipelines) are available as add-ons. It offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required and advertises a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Choose ActiveCampaign if you want branching automations that respond to behaviour, and you're willing to pay for depth.
3. GetResponse — best for webinars and funnels
GetResponse prices by list size, from 1,000 to 100,000 contacts, with Enterprise pricing above that. Paying yearly saves 18%.
Pricing at 1,000 contacts (GetResponse pricing page, October 2026, shown in EUR, excluding tax):
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly (per month) | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | €16 | €13.12 | Unlimited sends, 1 custom automation workflow, landing pages, forms and popups |
| Marketer | €54 | €44.28 | Unlimited workflows, advanced segmentation, abandoned cart, sales funnels |
| Creator | €62 | €50.84 | Adds webinars (up to 100 attendees), a website builder, a course creator and premium newsletters |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Adds SMS, transactional email, a dedicated IP and SSO |
GetResponse notes that displayed prices can vary with exchange rates and that you're charged in USD or EUR.
Free trial: GetResponse gives new accounts 14 days of premium features. After that, the account continues as a free version with limits. For example, landing pages are capped at 1,000 unique visitors per month, and a GetResponse badge is added to messages.
Choose GetResponse if live or on-demand webinars are part of how you sell. Webinars require the Creator plan or above.
4. Brevo — best for volume and transactional email
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) structures its paid plans largely around email volume as well as features.
What Brevo publishes (brevo.com/pricing, October 2026):
- Free plan: once Brevo approves your account for sending, you can send up to 300 emails per day. No credit card is required to sign up.
- Starter: from 5,000 emails per month, with no Brevo logo.
- Standard: for small businesses ready to automate and test campaigns. It adds click heatmaps, geography and device reports, and one included page.
- Brevo's feature list also includes unlimited multi-step automation workflows, A/B testing and AI send-time optimisation. Check its comparison table to see which tier includes each.
- Professional: from 150,000 emails per month, adds WhatsApp, popups and push channels, with 10 seats included.
- Enterprise: for companies with 1M+ contacts.
- Pay-as-you-go credits: one email equals one credit, and Brevo says credits don't expire.
- Transactional email (APIs, SMTP, webhooks) is available on all plans.
Plan prices load dynamically on Brevo's site and weren't readable when we checked, so we don't quote them here.
Choose Brevo if you send infrequently (pay-as-you-go), need transactional email alongside marketing email, or your list is large relative to how often you send.
5. Systeme.io — best all-in-one on a budget
Systeme.io includes email marketing alongside funnels, courses and checkout.
Pricing (systeme.io/pricing, October 2026): Free ($0, 2,000 contacts), Startup ($17/month, 5,000 contacts), Webinar ($47/month, 10,000 contacts) and Unlimited ($97/month). All plans include unlimited email sends and 0% transaction fees. The free plan allows 1 email campaign and 1 automation rule.
Choose Systeme.io if you'd rather run email, pages and checkout in one tool than connect several. Read our Systeme.io review.
Pricing models compared
| Platform | Priced by | Free option | Entry paid price we could confirm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kit | Subscribers | Free up to 10,000 subscribers | Calculator only (not quoted) |
| ActiveCampaign | Contacts | 14-day trial | Calculator only (not quoted) |
| GetResponse | Contacts | 14-day premium trial, then free version | €16/mo (Starter, 1,000 contacts) |
| Brevo | Email volume and features | 300 emails/day | Not readable on page (not quoted) |
| Systeme.io | Contacts | Free up to 2,000 contacts | $17/mo (Startup) |
How to choose
- What do you send?
- Newsletters: Kit.
- Behaviour-based sequences: ActiveCampaign.
- Webinar invitations: GetResponse Creator.
- High volume or transactional email: Brevo.
- How do you sell? If you also need pages, courses and checkout, an all-in-one like Systeme.io or GetResponse Creator may save you a tool.
- Count contacts honestly. Most platforms here price by contacts, so remove inactive subscribers before you compare costs.
- Plan for migration. Contacts export easily, but automations need rebuilding. Kit advertises a free migration service.
FAQ
Which platform has the most generous free plan?
By subscriber count, Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers (October 2026). Systeme.io's free plan covers 2,000 contacts but adds funnels, a course and a custom domain.
Which has the best deliverability?
Deliverability depends heavily on your list hygiene, authentication and sending habits. We haven't measured it independently, so we make no ranking.
Do I need a CRM as well?
If you sell services through a sales process, look at our best CRMs for marketing agencies guide, or at GoHighLevel for agency work.
Bottom line
Match the platform to how you sell. Choose Kit for content-led consultants, ActiveCampaign for automation, GetResponse for webinars and Brevo for volume and transactional sending. Choose Systeme.io to keep everything in one place.
