Email software for affiliate marketers, chosen by what you send and what it costs.
For most affiliates starting out, Kit is the best first pick. Its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers and includes unlimited email broadcasts, landing pages and forms, so you can build a list and send promotions before paying anything. When a launch needs automated sequences, Kit's Creator plan, which unlocks Visual Automations and email sequences, is listed at $33 a month billed yearly.
By the Email Marketing Software editorial team · Prices as published on each vendor's pricing page, checked 7 October 2026
Who should pick what
Starting with no budget: Kit's free plan, or MailerLite's free plan while you have 250 subscribers or fewer.
Launch funnels with webinars: GetResponse, on the Creator plan.
Evergreen review funnels with branching: ActiveCampaign, from its Pro plan for advanced segmentation.
Lowest paid entry at 500 contacts: Moosend Pro at $9 a month billed monthly, or $7 billed yearly.
High send volume without a contact-based bill: Brevo, where pricing starts from 5,000 emails a month.
What affiliate email actually requires
Affiliate email is a different job from newsletter publishing. You are usually sending people to an offer you do not own, often during a short launch window, and the email has to earn a click before the commission can follow. That creates four practical needs that should drive the choice of platform.
The first is a way to send promotions without breaking the sending platform's rules. Many email vendors publish acceptable-use or affiliate terms, and some enforce them strictly. Read the current terms on the vendor's own site before you import a list, because a suspended account in the middle of a launch costs you the launch.
The second is landing pages or bridge pages, the review or explainer page that sits between the email and the offer. Several platforms include landing pages and forms on their base plans, which lets you keep the bridge inside the same tool as the list.
The third is sequences. A launch is a timed series of emails: a pre-launch tease, cart-open announcement, bonus reminders, proof and objection handling, and a final deadline email. Sequences and automations are where most platforms put their paid features, so the plan that includes automation is usually the real starting point for a serious affiliate.
The fourth is cost that scales with the list. Affiliates build lists faster than they earn from them, so a contact-based price can climb before commissions do. The rest of this guide shows prices by list size so you can see where each platform's bill begins to grow.
Platform comparison for affiliates
Each row lists the plan that makes the most sense for an affiliate, the starting price as published, and the limitation that matters most for promotional work.
Platform
Best for affiliates
Starting price (plan, billing)
Key limitation
Kit
Free start with unlimited broadcasts
Free up to 10,000 subscribers; Creator $33/mo billed yearly
Starter $15/mo at 1,000 contacts, billed monthly or yearly
No ongoing free plan; price rises with contacts
Drip
Per-launch workflows with many steps
$39/mo for 1–2,500 people, billed monthly
No ongoing free plan; annual billing not listed
MailerLite
Lean start with a free tier
Free up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/mo; Comfort $12/mo ($10.80 yearly) at the 500-subscriber tier
Free tier capped at 250 subscribers
Moosend
Cheapest paid entry at 500 contacts
Pro $9/mo at 500 contacts, or $7/mo billed yearly
No ongoing free plan; 30-day trial only
Brevo
High volume priced by emails sent
Free up to 300 emails a day; Starter $9/mo from 5,000 emails/mo
Free plan has a daily send cap
Mailchimp
Familiar broadcasts for small lists
Free up to 250 contacts and 500 sends/mo; Essentials $13/mo at 500 contacts
Price steps up by contact band; check acceptable-use terms first
AWeber
Simple broadcasts with a short trial
Lite $15/mo at 500 subscribers
No ongoing free plan; 14-day trial
Platform by platform
Kit
Free up to 10,000 subscribers · Creator $33/mo billed yearly · Pro $66/mo billed yearly
Kit's free plan is the most generous starting point on this list for a list that is still growing. It includes unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited email broadcasts, audience tagging and segmentation, and the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions. For an affiliate, tagging is the feature that matters most. A subscriber who clicked a review page can be tagged by that offer, and only tagged people receive the next promotion, so one list can serve several products without every email going to everyone.
The limitation is automation. Visual Automations and email sequences start on the Creator plan. A bonus-stacked launch with timed follow-ups therefore means paying for Creator, which is listed at $33 a month billed yearly. The Pro plan, at $66 a month billed yearly, adds unlimited users and deliverability reporting, which matters more once a team is sending. Kit does not describe built-in revenue attribution on its plans, so you will need your affiliate network's reports or tracked links to connect a send to a commission.
GetResponse is the strongest fit on this list for affiliates who run webinars before an offer. The Creator plan includes webinars alongside a website builder and course creator, and the Marketer plan adds unlimited workflows, advanced segmentation, abandoned-cart recovery and sales funnels. A webinar-to-offer launch can therefore live in one account with one list, which removes a common source of mismatched tags between tools.
The Starter plan is cheaper, at $19 a month billed monthly or $15.58 a month billed yearly, and includes unlimited monthly email sends, a welcome series, landing pages and signup forms. Its limitation is the automation count: Starter includes one automation workflow, which is not enough for a full launch sequence with separate tracks for buyers and non-buyers. Plan for Marketer if your launch uses more than one path.
The pricing page is at getresponse.com/pricing. Prices rise with list size there, so check the band that matches your subscriber count before you commit to an annual plan.
ActiveCampaign
Starter $15/mo · Plus $49/mo · Pro $79/mo · Enterprise $145/mo · starting prices at 1,000 contacts
ActiveCampaign suits affiliates who run evergreen funnels that branch by behavior: a reader who opened the first review goes down one path, and a reader who clicked a comparison table goes down another. Starter includes marketing automation, Plus adds standard segmentation and landing pages, and Pro adds advanced segmentation. For a review funnel that needs several branches and tags, the Pro tier is the practical minimum.
The cost is the main limitation. Starting prices are quoted at 1,000 email contacts and scale with the contact count, and there is no ongoing free plan, only a free trial. For a growing list, get the price for your exact contact count before you move a large list over. For other list sizes, the pricing page is the reference.
From $39/mo for 1–2,500 people, billed monthly · Unlimited email sends on listed bands
Drip's model is built around people and workflows. The lower bands include unlimited email sends, dynamic segments, onsite campaigns and up to 50 workflows, which gives an affiliate room to build a separate workflow for each promotion. Keeping one workflow per launch makes it easier to see which sequence a subscriber is in and to retire a promotion cleanly once the offer closes.
Drip has no ongoing free plan, only a 14-day trial that does not require a card. Its bands are listed by number of people, so the bill moves in steps: $39 a month at 1–2,500 people, $89 at 4,501–5,000 and $154 at 9,001–10,000. Annual billing is not shown in the data for this guide, so the monthly figures are the ones to budget against.
Free up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/mo · Comfort $12/mo ($10.80 yearly) · Power $25/mo ($22.50 yearly) at the 500-subscriber tier
MailerLite is the leanest honest start for an affiliate who has a small list and wants to test promotions before spending. The free tier covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. That is enough to run a first few promotions to an engaged list and learn which offers get replies.
Once the list passes 250 subscribers, the paid tiers begin. Comfort at the 500-subscriber starting tier is $12 a month, or $10.80 a month billed yearly, with a monthly email allowance set at ten times the subscriber ceiling. Power at the same tier is $25 a month, or $22.50 billed yearly, with unlimited monthly emails. Launch depth is the limitation: a long pre-launch and cart-open sequence is more work to build here than on Kit's Creator plan or on GetResponse's Marketer plan.
Pro at 500 contacts: $9/mo monthly or $7/mo billed yearly · 30-day free trial, no credit card required
Moosend's entry price is the reason to consider it. At 500 contacts, the Pro plan is listed at $9 a month billed monthly or $7 a month billed yearly, with unlimited emails. That makes it the lowest paid entry on this page for a small affiliate list, and the price climbs in a predictable way as the contact count grows: $16 at 1,000 contacts, $48 at 5,000 and $88 at 10,000 on a monthly plan.
The trade-off is that there is no ongoing free plan, and the platform's depth for long, multi-branch launch sequences is less developed than the larger platforms. Moosend fits affiliates who run straightforward promotions, want automation without a large bill, and can build their own sequence logic with tags and segments.
Free: 300 email sends a day, up to 100,000 contacts · Starter $9/mo from 5,000 emails/mo · Standard $18/mo
Brevo prices by the number of emails you send rather than by contact count alone, which can suit affiliates who mail a large list infrequently and want to keep the list itself cheap to hold. The free plan allows 300 email sends a day across up to 100,000 contacts, so it can carry a large list while you test. The Starter plan starts at 5,000 emails a month with no daily sending limit, and Standard adds automation, A/B testing and advanced reports.
The limitation is the free tier's daily cap, which makes it hard to send a concentrated launch day from the free plan. Standard is the first plan with the automation a sequence needs. Brevo is a sensible choice when your concern is send volume rather than launch choreography.
Free: up to 250 contacts and 500 sends/mo · Essentials $13/mo at 500 contacts · Standard $20/mo at 500 contacts
Mailchimp is the most familiar interface on this list, and its free plan lets you send to up to 250 contacts with 500 sends a month. Familiar tools reduce setup time, which helps when a launch date is fixed. The Essentials plan is listed at $13 a month for 500 contacts, and Standard at $20 a month for the same contact count, with prices stepping up by contact band from there.
The main caution for affiliates is policy. Mailchimp's acceptable-use terms should be read in full before you import any list, because enforcement against promotional patterns is the kind of risk that can end an account mid-campaign. Treat its terms as the deciding factor, not the interface.
Lite $15/mo at 500 subscribers, 5,000 sends/mo · Plus $30/mo at 500 subscribers, 6,000 sends/mo · 14-day free trial
AWeber offers a straightforward subscriber-tiered price with a 14-day trial and no ongoing free plan. The Lite plan at 500 subscribers includes up to 5,000 email sends a month, and the Plus plan lifts that to 6,000 at the same subscriber count. For an affiliate who sends a steady weekly promotion, that is a simple budget to plan around.
The limitation is that tiers rise with subscriber count, so a list that grows quickly moves up a tier without a change in the work. Check the AWeber acceptable-use terms before importing a promotional list, the same way you would with any other platform.
The table below shows monthly prices on the plan named in each row, at four subscriber counts. Where a vendor's published bands do not give a price for that count, the cell says "pricing on request" and you should confirm the figure on the vendor's pricing page. Annual billing is noted in the text where it is available.
Platform and plan
500 subscribers
1,000 subscribers
5,000 subscribers
10,000 subscribers
Kit (Free)
Free
Free
Free
Free (up to 10,000)
Drip (1–2,500 band, then 4,501–5,000 and 9,001–10,000 bands)
$39/mo
$39/mo
$89/mo
$154/mo
Moosend Pro (monthly)
$9/mo
$16/mo
$48/mo
$88/mo
ActiveCampaign Starter
Pricing on request
$15/mo
Pricing on request
Pricing on request
MailerLite Comfort
$12/mo
Pricing on request
Pricing on request
Pricing on request
AWeber Lite
$15/mo
Pricing on request
Pricing on request
Pricing on request
Mailchimp Essentials
$13/mo
Pricing on request
Pricing on request
Pricing on request
Annual billing lowers some figures: Moosend Pro at 500 contacts is $7 a month billed yearly, and MailerLite Comfort at the same tier is $10.80 a month billed yearly. Kit's Creator plan, the one most affiliates need for sequences, is $33 a month billed yearly on its base tier and is priced by subscriber count on the pricing page.
How to choose
Start with the launch you are planning next, not with the platform you know best. If the next launch is a single promotion sent to a list you already have, almost any platform on this page can carry it, and the decision comes down to cost and policy. If the launch needs a timed series with several tracks, the automation tier decides the price, and you should price that tier rather than the entry plan.
Then look at policy. Read each vendor's acceptable-use terms for affiliate and promotional links, and keep a copy with the date you read them. Terms change, and a record of what the terms said when you launched helps if a question comes up later.
Finally, price the list you will have in six months, not the list you have today. A plan that is cheap at 500 subscribers can be expensive at 10,000, and a free plan with a 10,000-subscriber cap can be the most valuable tool on the list while you are still growing.
Decision table
If you need
Pick
Because
A free start with unlimited broadcasts
Kit (Free)
Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts and landing pages.
Webinars before a cart opens
GetResponse Creator
Listed plan includes webinars, a website builder and funnels.
Branching review funnels
ActiveCampaign Pro
Pro adds advanced segmentation for multi-path funnels.
Many promotion workflows on one account
Drip
Lower bands list up to 50 workflows with unlimited email sends.
The lowest paid entry at 500 contacts
Moosend Pro
Listed at $9 a month monthly or $7 billed yearly.
A large monthly send volume
Brevo Starter or Standard
Pricing starts at 5,000 emails a month with no daily sending limit.
Setup checklist before your first launch
Step
What to do
Note
1. Read the terms
Read the vendor's acceptable-use and affiliate terms and save a dated copy.
Do this before importing any list.
2. Build the bridge
Create a review or explainer landing page inside the platform, or on your own domain.
Kit, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign and MailerLite include landing pages or forms on listed plans.
3. Set up tags
Create one tag per promotion and one for each click or purchase path.
Tags let one list serve several offers without mixing audiences.
4. Import with consent records
Import only contacts who opted in, and keep the source of each import.
Consent records protect deliverability and answer complaints.
5. Build the sequence
Draft the pre-launch, cart-open, proof, deadline and follow-up emails.
Check that your plan includes automation: Kit Creator, GetResponse Marketer or Drip workflows.
6. Track commissions
Use your affiliate network's tracking links and reconcile commissions against sends each week.
Email platforms report opens and clicks; commissions come from the network.
7. Export backups
Export your subscriber list and tags monthly.
Keeps the list portable if a platform changes its terms.
A launch workflow that works on any of these platforms
A typical launch runs in five stages. Start with a pre-launch email that gives something useful for free and mentions the offer without pushing it. Next, send a cart-open email that links to your bridge page, not the raw offer, and explains the reason for the timing. Then send one proof email with a result, a comparison or a screenshot, and address the most common objection in the same message. Follow it with a deadline email that states the bonus end date, and finish with an evergreen review sequence for subscribers who joined after the launch closed.
Each stage needs a tag or segment so that buyers do not receive the next offer and so that non-buyers receive the proof email. Keep the sequence short enough that each email has a clear reason to exist, and remove any email that repeats the one before it.
The same workflow runs on the cheaper tools with more manual work and on the larger platforms with more automation. What changes is how many people or branches you can run at once, and what the bill does when the list grows.
Keep commissions and email numbers separate
Email platforms tell you who opened and clicked. Your affiliate network tells you who bought and what you earned. Keep the two reports apart and reconcile them weekly, using the tracking link or campaign tag as the join. A send that produced clicks but no sales is useful information, and a send that produced sales from a small segment may be worth repeating to that segment alone.
Keep a simple log for each launch: the date, the promotion, the segment it went to, the number of clicks and the commissions earned. After three or four launches, the log shows which segments and bridge pages carry the revenue, and that is the moment to decide whether a higher plan is worth its cost.
Affiliate questions, answered
What affiliates ask before they choose a platform.
Which email tool should an affiliate start with?
Kit's free plan is the most practical start for a list that is still growing. It covers up to 10,000 subscribers and includes unlimited email broadcasts, landing pages and forms. When you need automated sequences for a launch, the Creator plan is listed at $33 a month billed yearly.
Can I send affiliate links through these platforms?
Some vendors allow it under conditions and some restrict it. Read each vendor's acceptable-use and affiliate terms on its own site before you import a list, and save a dated copy. This page does not guarantee that any platform allows your promotion. A bridge page with a genuine review between the email and the offer is a common way to keep the email itself focused on the reader.
How much will it cost at 5,000 subscribers?
At 5,000 subscribers, Moosend Pro is listed at $48 a month on a monthly plan, and Drip's band for 4,501–5,000 people is $89 a month. Kit's free plan still covers that size. Several other vendors do not publish a price at that count on the pages reviewed, so check their pricing pages for the exact band before you decide.
Do I need an automation plan for launches?
For a launch with a timed series, yes. Sequences and automations are where most platforms place their paid features. Kit requires Creator for Visual Automations and sequences, GetResponse requires Marketer for unlimited workflows, and Drip includes up to 50 workflows on its listed bands.
How do I know which email earned a commission?
Use a unique tracking link or campaign tag for each send, and reconcile the affiliate network's commission report against your email reports each week. The email platform shows clicks and opens; the network confirms the sale.
When should I move off a free plan?
Move when you reach the plan's limit or when you need a feature the free plan does not include. Kit's free plan is capped at 10,000 subscribers, MailerLite's at 250 subscribers, and Brevo's at 300 emails a day. Check the limit that applies to your list, not only the price.
Is a bridge page necessary?
It is not required, but it gives the reader context the email cannot hold: who the offer suits, what it costs, what the bonus includes and what the reader should do next. It also keeps the email short. Build the bridge in the same platform where you have landing pages, so the reader's path stays in one place.