If you’re starting a newsletter for a small list, MailerLite’s free plan covers 2,500 emails a month, 2 user seats and 3 automations for up to 250 subscribers. If you send a lot of email, or need receipts and other transactional messages from the same account, look at Brevo, which sizes its plans by emails sent and includes transactional email on every plan. If several people will work in the account and you want room for many automations and integrations, Mailchimp’s Standard plan has 5 seats, up to 200 automation flows and 300+ integrations.

Whichever you choose, the law and the big inbox providers set the floor. Every marketing email needs a working unsubscribe, a postal address and honest headers, and Gmail and Yahoo now expect your sending domain to be authenticated. Those rules are summarized below.

This guide is desk research from Mailchimp, Brevo and MailerLite pricing pages, the CAN-SPAM statute and FTC rule, and Google and Yahoo sender documentation, checked on October 9, 2026. None of the three tools was used hands-on for this page. Plan prices change and aren’t quoted here.

Mailchimp vs Brevo vs MailerLite at a glance

Mailchimp Brevo MailerLite
Free plan 250 contacts; 500 sends a month; 1 seat Up to 300 emails a day once approved 250 subscribers; 2,500 emails a month; 2 seats
Paid plans sized by Contacts (sends are a multiple of contacts) Emails a month Subscribers
Automations 4 flow steps on Essentials; 200 flows on Standard Unlimited workflows from Standard 3 free, 50 on Comfort, unlimited on Power
User seats 3 Essentials, 5 Standard, unlimited Premium 1 Starter, up to 3 Standard, 10 Professional 3 on Comfort, unlimited on Power
Free trial 14 days of Essentials or Standard Free plan, no credit card needed 14 days, no credit card required

Mailchimp: seats, flows and integrations by tier

Mailchimp’s plans are Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium, and you pick a plan by your number of contacts. Monthly sends are a multiple of your contacts: 10 times on Essentials, 12 times on Standard and 15 times on Premium. The Free plan is limited to 250 contacts and a maximum of 500 sends a month or 250 a day, with 1 seat and 1 audience, no automation flows, no email scheduling and Mailchimp branding on your emails. Email support on Free lasts for the first 30 days.

Essentials gives 3 seats and 3 audiences, automations of up to 4 flow steps, scheduling and branding removal. Standard gives 5 seats and 5 audiences, up to 200 automation flows, custom reports, dynamic content and branded templates, plus personalized onboarding. Premium has unlimited seats and audiences, phone and priority support, and multivariate testing. All plans list 300+ integrations. Mailchimp offers a 14-day free trial of Essentials or Standard, and if you go over your contact or send limit on a paid plan, it bills overages automatically.

Brevo: sized by emails sent, transactional email included

Brevo’s Free plan needs no credit card, and once Brevo approves your account for sending, you can send up to 300 emails a day. Paid plans are sized by monthly email volume: Starter begins at 5,000 emails a month for a single user, with segmentation, forms and email support; Standard adds unlimited multi-step automation workflows, A/B testing, send-time optimization, web and event tracking, a landing page and removal of the Brevo footer, with up to 3 seats; Professional begins at 150,000 emails a month and includes 10 seats, plus WhatsApp, pop-ups and push channels and phone support.

Brevo says every plan includes transactional email features, including APIs, SMTP and webhooks. That makes it a fit when the same account should send both newsletters and order or appointment confirmations from your website.

MailerLite: newsletters and automations on a small list

MailerLite’s Free plan covers up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 monthly emails and 2 user seats, with 3 automations, 1 website and 1 landing page, 3 signup forms, 100+ integrations and community support. Comfort adds 3 user seats, unlimited templates, 50 automations, 10 websites and landing pages, a subscriber preference center and removal of the MailerLite logo. Power adds unlimited monthly emails, unlimited user seats, unlimited automations and 24/7 live chat and email support. Paid plans are priced by subscriber count, and MailerLite offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.

For a small business sending a regular newsletter plus a welcome sequence, the free plan or Comfort covers the basics; the jump to Power is mainly about unlimited sending and seats.

The rules every marketing email has to follow

Your email platform supplies much of this, such as the unsubscribe link and an address field in the footer, but the obligations are yours as the sender.

CAN-SPAM (15 U.S.C. 7704 and 16 CFR 316.5). For commercial email sent in the US:

  • No false or misleading header information, and no subject line you know is likely to mislead recipients about the content.
  • Three things in every message: a clear and conspicuous identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation (not required if the recipient gave prior affirmative consent), clear notice of how to opt out, and a valid physical postal address of the sender.
  • A working opt-out that still works for at least 30 days after you send. You may offer a menu of email types, as long as it includes an option to stop all commercial email.
  • Honor opt-outs within 10 business days, and don’t sell, lease or transfer the address of someone who opted out.
  • Keep opt-out simple. You can’t charge a fee, ask for anything beyond the recipient’s email address and opt-out preferences, or require more than replying to an email or visiting a single web page.

Gmail’s sender requirements. For mail to personal Gmail accounts, every sender needs SPF or DKIM authentication, valid forward and reverse DNS records, a TLS connection and a spam rate below 0.3% in Google’s Postmaster Tools. Senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts also need SPF and DKIM, a DMARC record (the policy can be set to none), a From: domain aligned with the SPF or DKIM domain, and one-click unsubscribe with a clearly visible unsubscribe link in marketing messages. Google’s advice for anyone using an email service provider is to verify that the provider authenticates your domain’s email with SPF and DKIM.

Yahoo’s sender requirements. All senders need SPF or DKIM and a spam rate below 0.3%. Bulk senders need SPF and DKIM, a DMARC policy of at least p=none, From: domain alignment, a list-unsubscribe header that supports one-click unsubscribe, a visible unsubscribe link, and must honor unsubscribes within 2 days.

In practice: set up your own sending domain in whichever platform you choose and complete its SPF, DKIM and DMARC steps, put your business postal address in the footer, and process unsubscribes within 2 days, which meets both Yahoo’s window and CAN-SPAM’s.

How to choose

  1. Count your contacts and how often you’ll send. Mailchimp and MailerLite size their plans by list size, while Brevo sizes them by email volume, so estimate both numbers before comparing plans.
  2. Count the people who need logins. Mailchimp Essentials has 3 seats and Standard 5; Brevo Starter has 1 and Standard up to 3; MailerLite Comfort has 3.
  3. List the automations you need on day one. MailerLite includes 3 automations even on Free, Mailchimp Essentials limits automations to 4 flow steps, and Brevo adds marketing automation at Standard. For several multi-step sequences, look at Mailchimp Standard, Brevo Standard or MailerLite Comfort and above.
  4. Decide whether one account should also send transactional email. Brevo includes it on every plan.
  5. Check your integrations. Mailchimp lists 300+ and MailerLite 100+; confirm the specific connection to your CRM, store or booking tool.
  6. Set up domain authentication before your first campaign, using the rules above.

For which messages to automate first, and how to keep reminders and marketing from tripping over each other, see email automation for service businesses. If your contact list lives in a CRM, check how it syncs using our email and CRM sync guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a free email marketing plan for a small business?

Yes. Mailchimp’s Free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month with 1 seat. MailerLite’s Free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month with 2 user seats and 3 automations. Brevo’s Free plan allows up to 300 emails a day once Brevo approves your account for sending.

Do I need a business address in marketing emails?

Yes. Under CAN-SPAM, every commercial email must include a valid physical postal address of the sender, along with a clear way to opt out and, unless the recipient has given prior affirmative consent, a clear identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation.

How fast do I have to honor an unsubscribe?

CAN-SPAM allows up to 10 business days. Yahoo asks bulk senders to honor unsubscribes within 2 days, so processing opt-outs within 2 days meets both.

Sources

Checked October 9, 2026.