The best free emailing software according to the use you will make of it

Someemailing software offer a free plan, limited according to the number of contacts, or according to the number of emails sent per month or even per day.

They can be divided into three categories, according to their uses:

• Newsletter tools: this is the most classic case
• Email marketing software designed for e-commerce with more advanced features such as product suggestion or marketing automation
• Transactional email services. These are automatic emails for things like password update, order confirmation, etc.

There are many free emailing software and they offer various solutions in terms of features, target audience, deliverability and price.

In this article, we have selected 10 solutions that we believe offer the most generous free plans. Each solution corresponds to a specific use case, which we detail in this article.

The free emailing software market: What are the uses?

#1 Start a newsletter or set up a community

This is by far the most common use case. Solutions like Mailchimp, MailerLite, and even Hubspot have understood this. They offer free plans that allow you to start and offer a powerful stage to encourage you to opt for a paid version. But these solutions are usually much more expensive than the market.

Solutions like Substack or TinyLetter can be an alternative. They allow you to send very simple text-only newsletters and build a community. These tools are free, and remain free forever, unless you want to monetize the newsletter. In that case, the software will take a % of your revenue.

Sendinblue offers a very complete free plan, but with only 300 emails per day. It’s one of the most complete tools in this top, which you can easily adapt to your strategy. It is probably the best solution if you bet on your success, but the free plan can be quickly limiting.

#2 Implement an email marketing solution for an e-commerce site

These email marketing solutions allow you to create simple things, like a newsletter, but also more complex things, especially when it comes to marketing automation. The only credible solutions in this top are Mailchimp, Hubspot, and Sendinblue. However, the features of the free plans are very limited for this kind of use.

The email marketing solutions offered by Drip, Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign are also interesting and offer more powerful tools. We don’t mention them here, because they don’t offer a free plan, but they are clearly worth looking into.

#3 Send transactional emails with a specialized provider

Delivering emails is a job. Including expected emails, like an email to update your password, confirm a purchase, or send an invoice.

As developers know, it’s pretty much inevitable to go through a serious solution. We’ve chosen Sendinblue and Sendgrid for this purpose, but Postmark is rather the solution we prefer: Even if they don’t have a free plan, they have an excellent reputation, the support is excellent, and it’s extremely easy to install.

Top 10 free emailing software

#1 Sendinblue: The French nugget with a free plan to start emailing

Recognized as the French nugget, Sendinblue is the ideal software for those who want to start gradually in emailing. Intuitive and complete software, it is in full growth, and already equips many companies, NGOs and even some French public organizations.

It has an excellent reputation and a great deliverability in France and Europe. The service allows to respect the RGPD simply, and ensures a perfect protection of the users’ personal data by hosting them in France.

The free version of the software allows an unlimited number of contacts, access to all the automation and contact management features, and the ability to send up to 300 emails per day.

Sendinblue is one of the only solutions to offer support in French accessible by email, including free.

#2 Substack: Free text-based newsletter tool forever

Substack is the ideal tool for small teams who want to start email marketing or for solopreneurs. We also appreciate its ease of use and the ability to send emails to an unlimited list of contacts.

It has the big advantage of being completely free of charge, regardless of the number of emails sent, and this forever. The software is intended for creators who wish to create a paid newsletter. The subscription costs between 10 and 20 euros per month for the readers of the newsletter. Substack then takes 10% of the revenue.

However, the software only allows you to send newsletters in text format. It does not have any automation features either. Substack is not adapted to ecommerce. Convertkit is more efficient in this area, but its paid plan is not very interesting because it is limited to only 300 subscribers.

#3 Mailerlite: A beautiful free plan Made in Europe

A European solution, Mailerlite is a powerful software with an excellent reputation and a very generous free plan. The software is ideal for those who want a functionally extensive free plan, but do not have large volume requirements.

The software offers a series of free tutorials that explain how to use and create newsletters. The very successful interface makes you want to use the tool. The number of contacts is limited, but the software offers very interesting paid plans compared to its competitors Hubspot or Mailchimp.

Mailerlite on the other hand is limited in terms of marketing automation and, although very good, its reputation is not comparable to Mailchimp or Sendinblue. The features it offers are interesting, but the landing page creation tool is not very efficient. We can wonder about the reliability of the reporting data.

The free version of the software allows you to share the newsletter with 1,000 contacts and send 12,500 emails per month.

#4 Mailchimp: The design-first solution, with a free plan up to 500 contacts

Known on the market, Mailchimp is the perfect software for professionals who master emailing tools. It offers advanced features that also appeal to beginners thanks to its ease of use and functionality.

Mailchimp offers an interesting free plan, but limited to 500 contacts. It offers a neat design, clear reporting and several templates to create nice newsletters. It has therefore quickly positioned itself as a leader on the market.

However, the software offers very expensive features beyond 10,000 contacts. It is only available in English and does not offer support in the free plan. Mailchimp is developing more and more ecommerce features and is becoming less adapted to B2B than its competitors.

Mailchimp’s free plan allows you to have a list of 500 contacts, send 2,500 emails per month and 500 per day.

#5 Hubspot Email Marketing: The email marketing solution from the inbound marketing giant

Ideal for those who are comfortable with Hubspot CRM and want to test its marketing features while staying in the suite, Hubspot Email Marketing offers a very comprehensive and interesting free plan.

The newsletter tool has the advantage of being free for those who use Hubspot CRM. The software is one of the market leaders in inbound marketing strategy. It offers many features such as the creation of landing pages, workflows or hosting solutions for its documents.

The paid plan has to be renewed every year, which is expensive for small businesses. Compared to some of its competitors, its newsletter creation functionality is underdeveloped. The tool can be complex, especially when it comes to integrating newsletter and email campaigns with marketing automation workflows.

The free version of the software allows you to have a list of 100 contacts.

#6 Benchmark Email: An interesting solution, and a fairly comprehensive free plan

The Benchmark Email tool is ideal for those who are used to creating mailing campaigns and those who want an easy to use and inexpensive emailing solution. An established player in the market, it has a good reputation.

Benchmark Email stands out from its competitors by its ability to offer an optimal interface. The software allows you to create beautiful newsletters and offers very attractive prices. It also allows to create automatic RSS campaigns.

We wonder about the deliverability of emails which is not always at the level in Europe. The delivery is sometimes very random. The support, only in English, is not optimal and not very cooperative.

Benchmark Email offers a free plan that provides a list of 500 contacts and the ability to send 3,500 emails per month.

#7 Zoho Campaigns: Effective and generous

Zoho Campaigns is the ideal software for those who want to stay on a free plan for the long term. Available to Zoho B2B CRM users, it offers a comprehensive and accessible free plan.

An established player in the market, Zoho offers good deliverability and is well received by its users. Its reporting is efficient and detailed. It stands out from its competitors by the excellent quality of its contact management tool.

The interface of the software is not optimal for the user. It offers less powerful capture and lead generation tools than its competitors. The software is a bit limited for the creation of mailing campaigns.

The free plan offered by Zoho Campaigns allows you to share newsletters to a list of 2,000 contacts and 6,000 emails per month.

#8 Sender: The most generous free plan on the market

The most generous newsletter creation tool on the market, Sender is ideal for those who are not afraid to trust a newcomer who is making his mark. The software is efficient and easy to use.

On the other hand, Sender is struggling to make its mark on the market. It offers variable deliverability. The software is only available in English, which also limits its number of users.

Sender’s free plan allows for a list of 2,500 contacts and the sending of 15,000 emails per month.

#9 Email Octopus: Another recent player that offers a fairly generous free plan

The Email Octopus software is ideal for those who want to start emailing gradually and want to be able to be autonomous. It differs from Email Octopus Connect which only allows you to use the software and send emails yourself with Amazon SES (Simple Email Service).

Email Octopus offers a very generous free plan. In its paid version, the prices remain reasonable. It has a good user experience.

On the other hand, Email Octopus is a recent player. It offers a variable deliverability. The software is only available in English.

The free plan allows you to build a list of 2,500 contacts and send 10,000 emails per month.

#10 Sendgrid: The leader for transactional emails

Sendgrid is the ideal emailing software for those who want the functionality of sending transactional emails. The tool is perfectly suited for developers. An established player, it has a good reputation and offers good deliverability.

Sendgrid stands out from its competitors because of its transactional emailing feature. The software is very easy to set up, and allows to send 100 transactional emails per day. Sendinblue allows you to send 300 per day, but it is not as simple in terms of documentation and libraries.

However, the support has a bad reputation and the free plan is quickly limited. We recommend Postmark in general, but they don’t offer a free plan like Sendgrid.