A free email plan stays free until the list grows. Then the contact count passes the cap, or the automation your welcome email runs on turns out to belong to a paid tier, and a new monthly bill arrives in a month you had planned for something else.
Free email marketing software is a sensible way to start, as long as the budget knows what comes next. The takeaway: before you commit to a platform, find out which limit you will hit first and what the tier that removes it costs, then put that cost and its likely date in your budget now. A bill you saw coming is a planned expense; one you didn't is a squeeze.
This guide's sponsor is Eric Salo Reviews, which publishes short, first-person reviews of online tools, software, courses and services. The guide quotes no vendor prices and names no platform.
Free email marketing software: six questions for the plan page
Every free plan has limits, and the vendor's own plan page is where they are written down. Read that page, not a summary of it, and ask the same six questions of each plan you consider:
- Contacts. Does the plan cap the number of contacts? At what number, and do unsubscribed contacts count towards it?
- Sends. Does it cap the emails you can send each month, or each day?
- Automations. Which automations does it include: a welcome email, a sequence of several emails, or none?
- Branding. Does it add the platform's own branding to your emails, and which tier removes it?
- Your own domain. Can you send from an address on your own domain on this plan, or only on a paid one?
- Billing. Is the next tier billed monthly or yearly? A yearly bill moves twelve months of spend into one payment.
Write each answer next to the tier that removes that limit and what the plan page says it costs. Choosing an email marketing software free plan means choosing its first paid tier, because that tier is the line your budget will carry once the list grows.
The limit you will reach first sets the date, and your own numbers show which one it is. Compare the list size you expect with the contact cap, and that list size times the emails you send each month with the send cap. A monthly newsletter puts little weight on a send cap; several campaigns a week can reach it before the list reaches the contact cap.
Shortlist by fit before you price anything
Answering six questions for every platform on the market would take weeks. Narrow the field by fit first, then price only the two or three platforms that survive. A cheap tier on a platform that doesn't suit you can cost more over time if it leads to a second move.
Fit starts with two facts about your business:
- The job email has to do. A monthly newsletter, a welcome sequence for new customers, or a sales funnel with landing pages and checkout attached.
- The list size you expect in a year. A forecast, not a hope: your current list plus the sign-ups you add in a normal month.
Then read first-person reviews that say who a platform suits. Eric Salo Reviews publishes reviews of email marketing software (including a platform with a free plan) and all-in-one funnel builders with built-in email, plus email marketing courses. They are short first-person reviews that say what a product is, what stands out and who it suits, with a link to the product. An overview page of its email marketing software reviews sets out the kinds of tools and courses they cover.
Why read them at this step: its reviews say who a product suits, which helps you see whether a platform fits your stage before you price its paid tiers. If the job includes landing pages and checkout, the funnel-builder reviews are the other branch to read, so the budget compares like with like.
There is one trade-off. Some of Eric Salo Reviews' links are affiliate links: it may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. So take prices from the vendor's own plan page before you budget, and keep the six answers in your own notes.
The sender rules add a cost line
Some costs come from rules rather than from the platform. Google's Email sender guidelines apply to everyone who sends to Gmail accounts, however small the list: senders have to set up SPF or DKIM authentication, and the spam rate shown in Postmaster Tools has to stay under 0.3%. Australia's Spam Act 2003, for example, requires commercial emails to contain a functional unsubscribe facility. So check whether the tier you pick lets you send from your own domain and handles unsubscribes for you, or keeps either for a paid plan. Either answer goes in the budget.
An email platform budget at three list sizes
Here is the sheet for one made-up business. The list sizes, prices and hours are round numbers chosen for easy arithmetic, in any currency. They are not any vendor's prices, and your plan pages will give different ones.
Table: illustrative figures, not quotes.
| Line item, per month | 500 contacts (illustrative) | 2,500 contacts (illustrative) | 10,000 contacts (illustrative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform tier | 0, on the free plan | 40 | 120 |
| Extra contacts or sends above the tier | 0 | 10 | 30 |
| Own-domain sending setup (one-off) | 90: 3 hours at 30 an hour | 0, already done | 0, already done |
| Any paid add-on (an extra user seat, say) | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Monthly running total | 0 | 50 | 165 |
| First year, setup included | 90 | 600 | 1,980 |
Three things stand out in the sheet.
The free stage has a cost too. Setting up SPF and DKIM for your own domain is DNS work, so it costs hours even when the plan costs nothing. Budget it once, at the start. The sheet assumes the free plan allows your own domain; if question 5 says it doesn't, move this line to the first paid column.
The first paid tier is a step, not a slope. Between 500 and 2,500 contacts the platform line jumps from 0 to 40 in a single month, the month the list crosses the cap. That is a step cost: flat, then a jump. The email marketing software cost you plan for is the tier above the cap, not the price you pay today.
Add-ons arrive late. At 10,000 contacts the bill includes lines a 500-contact list never needed. Ask the plan page about them early, so the sheet holds no surprises at the third stage.
Copy these lines into the expenses side of your business budget, with the platform tier as a fixed cost that steps up at each list size. That keeps your marketing software budget in the same place as rent, payroll and your other subscriptions.
What switching platforms later would cost
If the paid tier is too dear when you reach it, the alternative is moving, and a move has its own bill. Price it before you commit to a free plan, because each line grows with every email you build:
- The list and its unsubscribe records. Count the hours to export both and import them on the new platform, and check whether the free plan includes a full export.
- Templates and automations. Plan to rebuild each email design and each sequence on the new platform, unless its help pages say they can be imported. Count them, and estimate the hours per item.
- The sending domain. Expect to authenticate your domain again on the new platform: the setup line from the sheet, a second time.
- Your own hours. Someone's time for all of the above, plus checking the first sends. At an illustrative 30 an hour, 10 hours is 300.
- The overlap month. If you keep both platforms running during the move, budget one month of both subscriptions.
A switching estimate also tells you how much the free plan is worth to you. If moving later would cost more than a year on the paid tier, the platform you start on matters more than its price today.
Put a review date in the budget
A cap you can see coming is a date you can plan for. Put the plan-review date next to the list size you expect to reach.
Take an illustrative business with 500 contacts that adds 100 a month, on a free plan capped at 1,000 contacts. It reaches the cap in month five. Set the review for month four, so you compare tiers on your own schedule and not in the week a campaign is due.
When the date comes, weigh the paid upgrade like any other spend. Compare what the tier costs over a year with what you can trace to email: orders from campaigns, bookings from the welcome sequence, the hours a scheduled send saves you. The guide to working out ROI walks through that sum. If the upgrade doesn't pass it, the switching estimate from the last section tells you whether moving is cheaper.
Frequently asked questions
When should you move off a free plan?
When the list size, or a capped feature you rely on, reaches the plan's limit. Set the review date in advance, a month before your forecast reaches the cap, so the decision is planned rather than forced.
Is a paid email platform a business expense?
That is a tax question, and this guide gives no tax advice: the treatment depends on where you are and how the business is set up, so ask your accountant. Either way, keep each invoice from the platform with the budget sheet.
Does buying a plan through Eric Salo Reviews cost me more?
No. Its disclosure says some of its links are affiliate links: it may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Even so, this guide sends you to the vendor's plan page for prices. Eric Salo Reviews has a Disclosure & Disclaimer page, linked in its footer.
Next step
Ask the six questions of each free plan on your shortlist, fill the three columns of the sheet with your own figures, and set the review date. Then open EricSaloReviews.click and read who its reviews say a platform suits before you price the paid tiers.