The Top 10 Free Email Marketing Tools You Need to Consider

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Email marketing produces on average a 4,200% return on investment (ROI) — that’s more than $42 profit for every $1 you invest!


Using a free email marketing tool means you can spend less and still earn more, maximizing your profits.


But finding the perfect email service provider (ESP) for your business can be quite tricky with the sea of free email marketing software on the market.


To make your life easier, here’s the ultimate list of free email marketing tools on the market today, including their features, pricing, and pros and cons.

1. The top 10 free email marketing tools

Here’s a quick glimpse of all the tools we’ll be looking at in-depth and how they compare against each other:

Comparison chart of the top free email marketing services

Comparison chart of the top free email marketing services

1.1. Systeme.io

systeme.io logo

systeme.io logo

Scoring a whopping 4.7/5 on Capterra and a 4.8/5 on Trustpilot, systeme.io is the best of the best!


It’s an all-inclusive marketing platform that includes top-quality free email marketing services.


Systeme.io also comes with a whole host of other features that meet all your digital marketing needs, allowing you to launch, grow, and scale your business all from one platform.

1.1.1. Features and pricing

With systeme.io’s email marketing features, you can:

  • Send unlimited emails
  • Set up automated email sequences
  • Measure the success of your campaigns with in-depth statistics
  • Use tags to segment your email list, and send tailored emails to specific groups
  • Use A/B testing to split test your email sign-up forms to maximize your lead generation

Capitalize on systeme.io’s other marketing features to supplement your email marketing:

  • Sales funnels — Create an effective sales funnel to build your email list fast and generate qualified leads
  • Website and landing page builder — Build your entire website, and send your email subscribers to beautifully built landing pages using proven, customizable templates and the drag-and-drop editor
  • Affiliate marketing — Use email marketing to gain more affiliates or to earn money as an affiliate by joining systeme.io’s affiliate program
  • Business automation — Automate your email sequences for drip and lead nurturing campaigns, and curate personalized emails
  • Blogging — Capitalize on multiple marketing channels to build your list and generate new leads
  • Sell products and online courses — Build online courses, and promote your products using effective email campaigns

It’s hard to imagine you can get all these features and more for free.


Let’s take a closer look at systeme.io’s pricing:

systeme.io’s pricing

systeme.io’s pricing

Systeme.io offers 4 pricing plans, including a forever-free plan where no credit card details are required.


All plans, including the Free plan, come with:

  • Unlimited emails, blog posts, file storage space, and membership site members
  • Integrated PayPal and Stripe payments with no transaction fees
  • Access to your own affiliate program
  • 24/7 expert online support that responds in less than 2 hours

Systeme.io’s Free plan has everything you need to launch a successful email campaign:

  • 2,000 contacts, 1 tag, and 1 email campaign
  • 3 sales funnels with 10 steps
  • A blog, membership site, and custom domain
  • 1 workflow and automation rule
  • An order bump, 1-click upsell, A/B test, and coupon code

When you’re ready to take your email marketing to the next level, systeme.io’s affordable paid plans scale perfectly with your business.


Systeme.io really lives up to the hype — just ask our customers!


If you’re looking for the best free software for both your email marketing and your business, look no further than systeme.io.

1.2. HubSpot

HubSpot logo

HubSpot logo

HubSpot is an all-in-one CRM (customer relationship management) platform, scoring a 4.5/5 on Capterra.


Let’s see what HubSpot has to offer your business.

1.2.1. Features and pricing

Here’s a list of HubSpot’s key email marketing features:

  • Email templates — Use proven, customizable templates to create high-converting emails
  • Drag-and-drop email editor — Easily customize your emails with no technical knowledge needed
  • Marketing automation — Set up automated email sequences, and create personalized campaigns
  • A/B testings and analytics — Optimize your emails by testing subject lines, call-to-actions (CTAs), and email content, and analyze which emails bring the most results
  • CRM integrations — Segment your list using customer data, manage contacts, and send emails tailored to each subscriber

These features may sound convincing, but what can you do with the free plan?


No credit card details are required for HubSpot’s Free plan which gives you:

  • 1 million subscribers
  • 2,000 emails/month
  • HubSpot branding
  • 1,000 static lists
  • 5 active lists
  • Team email
  • Up to 1 automated follow-up email for each form

We can’t help but wonder what the point of 1 million subscribers is if you can only send 2,000 emails per month?


HubSpot seems to take the idea of “limits” very seriously — to remove the HubSpot branding and find practical use in these features, you’re going to need to upgrade to a paid plan.


Here’s what the paid plans are going to cost you:

  • Starter plan — Starting at $45/month for 1,000 marketing contacts and 5,000 emails/month
  • Professional plan — Starting at $800/month for 2,000 marketing contacts and 20,000 emails/month
  • Enterprise plan — Starting at $3,200/month for 10,000 marketing contacts and 200,000 emails/month

As you can see, HubSpot gets pricey very quickly, never lifting the monthly email limits.

1.2.2. Pros and cons

Here’s a quick summary of HubSpot’s pros and cons:

Pros

  • Its ease of use makes it a great tool for beginners
  • Smooth integrations with HubSpot’s CRM
  • Access to other tools such as mobile optimization and retargeting ads

Cons

  • Only 2,000 emails/month with the Free plan
  • HubSpot branding
  • Other free tools are also limited in features
  • Expensive paid plans

1.3. Sendinblue

Sendinblue logo

Sendinblue logo

Based on real reviews, Sendinblue’s Capterra score of 4.5/5 shows that it’s a tool worth considering.


Here’s the breakdown of Sendinblue’s email marketing software and what you’ll get from the free version.

1.3.1. Features and pricing

Sendinblue’s email marketing features include:

  • Email builder — Easily design professional-looking emails with proven email templates and the drag-and-drop editor
  • List segmentation — Segment your list based on declared interest, previous engagement or purchase history, and socioeconomic and geographic characteristics
  • Email personalization — Use dynamic content and Sendinblue’s CRM features to target individual subscribers
  • Marketing automation — Automatically run campaigns, update customer data, and manage lists
  • A/B testing — Determine the best sending time with Sendinblue’s machine-learning Send Time Optimization tool
  • Landing pages and sign-up forms — Generate new subscribers, and create a targeted visitor experience for your campaigns
  • SMS marketing — Capitalize on SMS marketing to supplement your marketing efforts

Unfortunately, not all of these features are available on the Free plan:

Sendinblue’s features per pricing plan

Sendinblue’s features per pricing plan

Sendinblue’s Free plan (no credit card details needed) includes:

  • 300 emails/day (9,000 emails/month)
  • Sendinblue branding
  • Unlimited contacts
  • Email personalization
  • Email campaigns
  • Workflow editor

However, the Free plan excludes:

  • A/B testing
  • Send time optimization
  • Landing page builder

To access these features, you’re going to need to upgrade to the Premium plan starting at $65/month, because even the Lite plan at $25/month excludes these key features.

1.3.2. Pros and cons

Let’s take a look at Sendinblue’s Free plan pros and cons:

Pros

  • Unlimited contacts
  • Advanced personalization with dynamic content and CRM integrations

Cons

  • Daily sending limit of 300 emails
  • The Free plan lacks essential features
  • Sendinblue branding on emails

1.4. Sender

Sender logo

Sender logo

Sender is our next stop on our hunt for the best free email marketing software with a 4.6/5 score on Capterra.


Sender has some impressive free features to optimize your email marketing efforts — here’s the breakdown.

1.4.1. Features and pricing

Sender’s email marketing features are mainly designed with newsletters in mind and include:

  • Templates — Browse the template library, and find a winning email design
  • Email editor — Create your email from scratch using the drag-and-drop builder, built-in image editor, or embedded videos that are automatically converted to GIFs
  • Email deliverability — Sleep well knowing your emails are reaching inboxes due to Sender’s advanced email deliverability infrastructure
  • Marketing automation — Build sophisticated workflows to create welcome emails, drip and lead nurturing campaigns, abandoned cart emails, and more
  • Integrations — Integrate with content management systems (CMS) plugins such as Magento and WordPress, ecommerce tools such as WooCommerce, and analytic tools such as Google Analytics
  • Advanced analytics — Measure open and click-through rates, build buyer personas based on subscribers’ actions, and integrate with Google Analytics
  • Transactional emails — Send transactional emails

While some of these features are very appealing, where are the landing pages and A/B testing needed to optimize email marketing campaigns?


Let’s find out how this translates to the Free plan:

Sender’s pricing

Sender’s pricing

With Sender’s Free plan (no credit card details required), you’ll get:

  • 2,500 subscribers
  • 15,000 emails/month
  • Sender branding on emails
  • Email automation features

While this monthly email limit is on the more generous side, it still doesn’t compete with systeme.io’s unlimited emails.

1.4.2. Pros and cons

Here’s a quick review of Sender’s pros and cons:

Pros

  • Advanced email deliverability infrastructure
  • Useful CMS and analytics integrations

Cons

  • Only 15,000 emails/month
  • Sender branding on emails
  • Lacking some essential features like landing pages and A/B testing

1.5. Mailchimp

Mailchimp logo

Mailchimp logo

If you’ve ever looked into email marketing, you’ve definitely come across Mailchimp.


Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing services with over 14,000 reviews on Capterra and a score of 4.5/5!


Let’s see if Mailchimp claims the title of best free email marketing tool.

1.5.1. Features and pricing

Mailchimp’s free email service includes:

  • Basic email templates — Access a portion of the templates, and customize them with a drag-and-drop editor
  • Creative Assistant — This AI-powered tool generates custom designs in a matter of seconds
  • Subject Line Helper — Receive feedback on how to improve your subject lines, and draw in more readers
  • 1-step automation — Automate your email campaigns but only with 1 step
  • Subscription forms and landing pages — Generate new subscribers with customizable forms and landing page templates
  • Website and domains — Build a website with a custom domain using pre-designed color palettes and layouts
  • Marketing CRM — Connect your customer data to get to know your audience better and create a personalized experience
  • Integrations — Integrate with 250+ popular marketing tools

While Mailchimp’s Free plan offers some seriously impressive features, they still seem to be holding out.


Here are Mailchimp’s pricing plans:

Source: emailcrush.com

Mailchimp’s Free plan includes:

  • 2,000 contacts
  • 2,000 emails/day and 10,000 emails/month
  • Mailchimp banner ad on all emails
  • 24/7 support for 30 days

Mailchimp’s Free plan lacks some fundamental functionality that can only be found in the paid plans, such as A/B testing, customer journeys, dynamic content, unlimited 24/7 support, and more.


While the paid plans may not look that pricey, bear in mind that the prices in the image above are for 500 subscribers only, and increasing the subscriber limit gets expensive very quickly.

1.5.2. Pros and cons

Here’s Mailchimp’s list of pros and cons to determine whether or not it’s the best free email marketing software:

Pros

  • Has advanced features in content creation
  • Ample integrations

Cons

  • Mailchimp ad banner on emails
  • Support for only 30 days
  • You have to upgrade to paid plans to access some basic functionality

1.6. SendPulse

SendPulse logo

SendPulse logo

SendPulse defines itself as a multi-channel marketing platform but is mostly known for its email marketing services.


While SendPulse has one of the lower scores on this list with a 4.4/5 on Capterra, it’s still worth exploring — it might even surprise you!

1.6.1. Features and pricing

SendPulse’s free email marketing service includes:

  • Drag-and-drop editor — Create high-converting emails in minutes with customizable templates, and no coding skills are required
  • Subscription forms — Use SendPulse’s form builder to create a variety of forms that suit your needs
  • Workflow editor — Build automated workflows to automatically send emails that are triggered by events
  • Resend to non-openers — Resend unopened emails but with different subject lines
  • Campaign analytics — Get click maps for links, measure your open and click-through rates, and integrate with Google Analytics
  • Email verifierClean up your email list, and avoid the pesky spam folder, by verifying email addresses and removing ones that don’t exist
  • Web push notifications — Notify users on your website about sales, important updates, or new content
  • Transactional email service — Send automated messages in response to subscribers’ actions, such as subscription and booking confirmations, order updates, and double opt-in emails

Now let’s check out the logistics of SendPulse’s Free plan:

SendPulse’s pricing

SendPulse’s pricing

SendPulse’s Free account gives you the following:

  • 500 subscribers
  • 15,000 emails/month
  • 3 addresses and 1 domain
  • 1 landing page
  • 5 automation flows and 1 event
  • 100 verification emails/month

SendPulse also offers separate Free plans for transactional emails and web push notifications, including 12,000 transactional emails and unlimited web push notifications for 10,000 subscribers, respectively.


Compared to others on this list, SendPulse’s free email marketing plan is rather limited — especially with its 500 subscriber limit and lack of A/B testing, segmentation, and personalization features.

1.6.2. Pros and cons

Here’s the final rundown of SendPulse’s pros and cons:

Pros

  • Advanced features such as resending to non-openers and email verification
  • Web push notifications and transactional emails

Cons

  • The limit of 500 subscribers is incredibly low
  • Lacking some basic features such as A/B testing, segmentation, personalization, and more
  • Some users have reported their accounts being suddenly blocked if their bounce rates are too high

1.7. Omnisend

Omnisend logo

Omnisend logo

Omnisend is an ecommerce platform that seamlessly integrates email marketing into its software — making it the perfect tool for businesses running an ecommerce store.


Despite Omnisend’s high score of 4.8/5 on Capterra, its free service has some major limitations.

1.7.1. Features and pricing

Let’s take a look at Omnisend’s impressive list of features:

  • Email templates — Choose from an array of professional templates, or drag and drop the elements yourself
  • Content editor — Create personalized dynamic content blocks, use the product picker to import products, and set up unique coupon codes, scratch cards, and gift boxes
  • Landing page and sign-up form builder — Maximize your conversions with a dedicated landing page or with Omnisend’s built-in forms
  • Segmentation — Segment your list according to shopping behavior, engagement, and profile data
  • Marketing automation — Save time with pre-saved workflows that run automated email campaigns
  • A/B testing and analytics — Optimize your campaigns through split testing and actionable insights
  • Push notifications — Use push notifications for cart abandonment, browse abandonment, and transactional messages
  • SMS marketing — Integrate your SMS and email marketing

Omnisend’s free services almost seem too good to be true!


Unfortunately, it is — the problem comes in when looking at the limits on the Free plan:

Omnisend’s pricing

Omnisend’s pricing

Omnisend’s Free plan includes:

  • 250 contacts
  • 500 emails/month
  • Up to 60 SMSes depending on your region
  • Up to 500 push notifications
  • Omnisend branding
  • 5 segments

Omnisend’s free email marketing software features are probably what got it its high score, but its limits are what stop it from being the best free email marketing tool.


It is, however, a great email marketing tool for small business owners who don’t need that many contacts or emails but can still benefit from all the advanced features.

1.7.2. Pros and cons

Let’s weigh up Omnisend’s pros and cons:

Pros

  • A wide host of advanced features included in the Free plan
  • Perfect for small businesses with an ecommerce store

Cons

  • Incredibly low limit of 500 emails/month
  • Only 250 contacts
  • Omnisend branding

1.8. MailerLite

MailerLite logo

MailerLite logo

MailerLite is another favored email marketing service, scoring a 4.6/5 on Capterra.


Let’s find out what makes this free email marketing software a go-to platform for many email marketers.

1.8.1. Features and pricing

Here’s a list of MailerLite’s key features included in its free tool:

  • Advanced email editor — Create effective campaigns with the drag-and-drop editor and rich text editor
  • Website and landing page builder — Easily drag and drop your way to a sleek and functional website and professional landing pages
  • Pop-up and embedded forms — Use dynamic email pop-up options and customizable form templates to maximize your lead generation
  • Marketing automation — Send triggered emails, personalize each email, and improve customer retention
  • Advanced segmentation — Segment your list by interests, email engagement, behavior, sign-up form, geographical location, and combining segments
  • Analytics and A/B testing — Optimize your email marketing campaigns by analyzing campaign reports with valuable insights and split testing your campaigns

MailerLite’s free email marketing software covers its bases with basic, yet necessary, email features.


Here are a few things included in MailerLite’s Free plan:

  • 1,000 subscribers
  • 12,000 emails/month
  • 5 landing pages with 25+ customizable templates
  • MailerLite branding on emails

However, here are a few more things that are excluded from the Free plan:

  • Live chat 24/7 support
  • Custom HTML code editor
  • Newsletter templates
  • Custom domains
  • Click maps and A/B testing of landing pages
MailerLite’s features per pricing plan

MailerLite’s features per pricing plan

While MailerLite delivers on the essential email marketing features, it lacks the advanced features that are offered by free versions of other email marketing software.

1.8.2. Pros and cons

Here’s a last look at MailerLite’s pros and cons:

Pros

  • A/B testing, segmentation, and automated personalization
  • Affordable pricing plan with all the features needed

Cons

  • The Free plan doesn’t have newsletter templates
  • Can’t compete with advanced features of other tools
  • MailerLite branding

1.9. Mailjet

Mailjet logo

Mailjet logo

Mailjet is one of those free email tools that try to keep up with the big dogs but, unfortunately, just gets left behind.


Mailjet’s Capterra score of 4.3/5 shows that it might not be the best free email marketing service out there, but it’s still worth investigating.

1.9.1. Features and pricing

Here are the key features of Mailjet’s Free plan:

  • Drag-and-drop editor — Create responsive emails with Mailjet’s editor called Passport
  • Email templates — Access a library of free email templates
  • Subscription forms — Create a subscription widget with Mailjet’s intuitive editor or with your own HTML and CSS code
  • SMTP relay, APIs, and webhooks — Integrate with Mailgun’s API, and set up your SMTP server in minutes
  • Device compatibility — Optimize your emails with every device using the MJML rendering engine used by Passport
  • Basic analytics — Measure your campaign performance by analyzing opens, clicks, and non-delivery reports
  • Integrations — Integrate with 80+ popular marketing apps

Unfortunately, Mailjet’s features are incredibly limited compared to the other free email marketing services out there on the market.


Most of the basic functionality can only be found in the paid plans:

Mailjet’s pricing

Mailjet’s pricing

With Mailjet’s Free plan, you get:

  • Unlimited subscribers
  • 6,000 emails/month and 200 emails/day
  • Mailjet branding
  • Online customer support for the first month only

Only with the paid plans can you get these fundamental email features:

  • Segmentation
  • A/B testing
  • Dynamic content
  • Marketing automation
  • Real-time collaboration

Without these features on the free version, can you really run a successful email campaign for free?

1.9.2. Pros and cons

Let’s check out Mailjet’s pros and cons for the final verdict:

Pros

  • Unlimited subscribers

Cons

  • The Free plan lacks fundamental email marketing services
  • Mailjet branding
  • Limited online support for only 30 days

1.10. EmailOctopus

Source: CompareCamp.com

EmailOctopus is a simple email marketing platform with a modest score of 4.6/5 on Capterra.


It’s perfect for small businesses or email marketing newbies that don’t want to be overwhelmed by a tsunami of complex features.

1.10.1. Features and pricing

EmailOctopus’ free email marketing software includes:

  • Email builder and templates — Browse 30+ mobile-friendly templates, start from scratch with the drag-and-drop editor, or import your own HTML code
  • Landing page builder — Either drag and drop your own elements or choose one of the mobile-friendly landing page templates
  • Pop-up and inline forms — Customize your forms with up to 20 custom fields, and create both pop-up and embedded forms
  • Segmentation — Tag your subscribers based on location, age, gender, and preferences
  • Personalization — Send tailored emails to each segment based on their tags
  • Marketing automation — Create time-based automated campaigns using multi-step automation
  • Analytics — Measure your campaign’s success with real-time campaign reports, open and click tracking, and a Google Analytics integration
  • Integrations — Integrate with Zapier, and access all the top marketing platforms through 3rd party integrations
  • Affiliate program — Advertise EmailOctopus through your email marketing, and earn money as an affiliate

EmailOctopus has a nice and simple spread of email features — nothing too fancy, but it still ticks most of the basic boxes.


Let’s check out the pricing plans:

EmailOctopus’ pricing

EmailOctopus’ pricing

Here’s what you can get with EmailOctopus’ Free plan:

  • 2,500 subscribers
  • 10,000 emails/month
  • EmailOctopus branding on emails
  • Reports for the last 30 days
  • Unlimited users
  • Basic support

While EmailOctopus lacks some important features, such as A/B testing, it may still meet the email marketing needs of some businesses.


However, we wouldn’t recommend it as the best free email marketing platform.

1.10.2. Pros and cons

Here’s the final roundup of EmailOctopus’s pros and cons:

Pros

  • Has enough functionality for small or new businesses
  • Affiliate marketing-friendly

Cons

  • Features of the Free plan are pretty basic
  • EmailOctopus branding
  • Reports for only 30 days

2. Which free email marketing tool is best for your business?

We know that was quite a lot of information, so here’s a quick recap of all the free email marketing services:

Comparison chart of the top free email marketing services

Comparison chart of the top free email marketing services

The 2 email marketing services with the most impressive features and highest Capterra scores are systeme.io and Omnisend.


Omnisend has some incredibly advanced email marketing features included in its free version. However, its limits of 250 subscribers and 500 monthly emails are major disadvantages that can’t be overlooked.


This makes Omnisend impractical for most businesses unless they’re really really small.


That leaves systeme.io!


This is the only email marketing service to offer unlimited emails, and it’s the most comprehensive out of the all-in-one platforms — no tool can host your entire business like systeme.io.


Systeme.io’s paid plans are also incredibly affordable compared to most tools on this list, so if your business needs a little bit more, systeme.io has you covered without breaking the bank.


It looks like systeme.io has won this round.

3. Conclusion

It’s no easy task finding an email marketing tool that’s not only free but also has every feature you need.


After reading this article, you should have a better idea of the top email marketing services on the market and each of their strengths and weaknesses.


Now you just need to find the one that matches your business’ needs and won’t let your marketing efforts go to waste.


Create a systeme.io free account today, and take both your email marketing and business to the next level — for free!

Other posts about email marketing tools:

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