What it costs at three list sizes
Most consulting lists sit between a few hundred and ten thousand contacts. The table below shows the published price for the tools that list a figure at 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 contacts. Where a vendor does not publish a price for that size, the cell says "pricing on request", which means you should use the vendor\'s contact selector to get the exact figure.
| Tool and plan | 1,000 contacts | 5,000 contacts | 10,000 contacts |
|---|
| ActiveCampaign, Starter / Plus / Pro | $15 / $49 / $79 per month | Pricing on request | Pricing on request |
| Kit, Free / Creator | $0 / $33 per month, billed annually | $0 (free plan) | $0 (free plan, at the 10,000 limit) |
| Drip, people band | $39 per month (1 to 2,500 people) | $89 per month (4,501 to 5,000 people) | $154 per month (9,001 to 10,000 people) |
| Mailchimp, contact tier | Pricing on request | $100 per month (2,501 to 5,000 contacts) | $135 per month (5,001 to 10,000 contacts) |
| Moosend, Pro | $16 per month monthly, or $13 annually | $48 per month monthly, or $38 annually | $88 per month monthly, or $70 annually |
Two things stand out. First, Moosend has the lowest published monthly figure at each of these sizes. Second, Kit is free at all three sizes, but its automations and sequences start on the Creator plan. A consultant who needs proposal follow-up at 5,000 contacts is therefore paying $33 a month at least, billed annually, which is not free in practice. Work out which feature you need before you read the free price as the total cost.
MailerLite\'s published tiers begin at 500 subscribers, with Comfort at $12 a month billed monthly and Power at $25 a month billed monthly. Campaign Monitor\'s published figures are for the 500-contact band. Those two are good value at small sizes, but you will need the pricing page selector for larger lists.
Tool by tool
Best for pipeline-driven consultancies
ActiveCampaign
What it does well for consultants. The Starter plan includes email marketing, marketing automation and standard CRM and ecommerce integrations. That combination is the reason it is the first pick here: a consultant can send a proposal follow-up, tag the contact and move the same person into a client path when they sign, without moving between tools. Plus adds standard segmentation and landing pages, and Pro adds advanced segmentation, which matters once you separate active clients by engagement level.
Where it falls short. The price rises with contact count, and the step from Starter to Plus is $34 a month at 1,000 contacts. A solo adviser with a list of a few hundred people may find the automation depth more than they need. Setting up CRM sync and tags takes an afternoon, and you should check that your CRM is supported before you commit.
Price. Starter $15 a month, Plus $49, Pro $79 and Enterprise $145, each at 1,000 contacts. A free trial is offered, but there is no free plan. See ActiveCampaign\'s pricing page.
Best for newsletter-led advisers
Kit
What it does well for consultants. The free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers and includes landing pages, forms, unlimited email broadcasts, tagging and segmentation. An adviser who publishes a monthly framework or case teardown can build an audience at no cost while the practice is young. Subscriber tags then let you separate prospects from clients as the list grows.
Where it falls short. Visual automations and email sequences start on the Creator plan, and proposal follow-up depends on sequences. A consultant who wants that behaviour from day one pays for it. Kit\'s strength is publishing, not pipeline management, so if your revenue depends on deal stages you will probably want a CRM alongside it.
Price. Free up to 10,000 subscribers. Creator is $33 a month billed annually and Pro is $66 a month billed annually, with a 14-day free trial on paid plans and no credit card required. Pro adds subscriber signals, unlimited users and deliverability reporting. See Kit\'s pricing page.
Best for solos starting a list
MailerLite
What it does well for consultants. The free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails, which is enough for an adviser sending a monthly letter to a first group of contacts. The editor is simple, and it suits a practice that needs a regular habit before it needs deal logic.
Where it falls short. The free plan stops at 250 subscribers, and a consultant who speaks at events can pass that quickly. Paid plans begin at 500 subscribers, so the step up is larger than the step from an introductory list. Deal-stage follow-up is limited, so most consultants will eventually pair it with a CRM.
Price. Free up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Comfort is $12 a month billed monthly, or $10.80 billed annually, at the 500-subscriber starting tier, and its monthly email allowance is ten times the subscriber ceiling. Power is $25 a month billed monthly, or $22.50 billed annually, with unlimited monthly emails. See MailerLite\'s pricing page.
Best for a familiar editor on a small list
Mailchimp
What it does well for consultants. The free plan covers one audience, up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. That is enough to test whether a regular letter gets replies before you spend money. The Standard tier starts at $20 a month for the 500-contact selector and includes up to 6,000 emails a month at that size.
Where it falls short. Pricing follows contact tiers, so a practice that grows its network pays more each time it crosses a band. The free plan allows 250 sends a day, which can slow a larger first mailing. For proposal-driven selling, you will need to build the follow-up logic yourself, or add a second tool.
Price. Free up to 250 contacts. Essentials at 500 contacts is $13 a month billed monthly. Standard at 500 contacts is $20 a month, with the 2,501 to 5,000 contact band at $100 a month and the 5,001 to 10,000 band at $135 a month. A 14-day Standard trial is offered. See Mailchimp\'s pricing page.
Best for assessment funnels
Drip
What it does well for consultants. Drip is built around workflows and dynamic segments, and it includes onsite campaigns and up to 50 workflows on its listed plans. A consultant running a short diagnostic, such as a readiness assessment that leads to a discovery call, can map each answer to a different path. Unlimited email sends are included in the people bands.
Where it falls short. There is no ongoing free plan, and the price moves up in bands as the audience grows. Its workflow model suits funnels more than long newsletters, so a practice that mainly publishes essays may find it heavier than it needs.
Price. $39 a month for the 1 to 2,500 people band, $89 for 4,501 to 5,000 people and $154 for 9,001 to 10,000 people. The published figures are billed monthly, and there is a 14-day trial with no credit card required. See Drip\'s pricing page.
Best low-cost automation
Moosend
What it does well for consultants. Moosend has the lowest published monthly price among the tools covered here at the sizes that matter most. Its Pro plan is contact-based and includes unlimited emails for the listed contact count. A lean practice that wants a few automated sequences, such as a welcome path for new subscribers and a follow-up after a proposal, can run them without paying for a larger suite.
Where it falls short. Email credit packs are sold separately, starting at $350 a month for 350,000 credits, so heavy sending increases the bill. The design options are plainer than those of the larger brands, and you should test the integrations you need, especially your CRM, before you rely on them.
Price. At 500 contacts, Pro is $9 a month billed monthly or $7 billed annually. At 1,000 contacts it is $16 monthly or $13 annually, at 5,000 it is $48 monthly or $38 annually, and at 10,000 it is $88 monthly or $70 annually. There is a 30-day trial with no credit card. See Moosend\'s pricing page.
Best for volume and a free daily allowance
Brevo
What it does well for consultants. The free plan allows 300 sends a day for up to 100,000 contacts, which can serve a large network with light mailings. Starter is $9 a month for 5,000 emails a month with no daily sending limit, and Standard is $18 a month and adds automation, A/B testing and advanced reports.
Where it falls short. Paid plans are priced by monthly email volume, so a consultant who mails a large network several times a month pays for each send. Automation and reporting sit above the entry tier, which means the free plan is best for occasional mailings rather than proposal sequences.
Price. Free with 300 sends a day. Starter at $9 a month from 5,000 emails a month, and Standard at $18 a month. Plans can be billed monthly or yearly, and the yearly toggle on the pricing page shows the discounted figure. See Brevo\'s pricing page.
Best for event-led advisers
GetResponse
What it does well for consultants. GetResponse includes landing pages, signup forms, welcome series and one automation workflow on its Starter plan. Its higher tiers add unlimited workflows, advanced audience segmentation and webinar tools. An adviser who runs roundtables or webinar briefings can pair the sign-up page with the follow-up sequence in one platform.
Where it falls short. There is no ongoing free plan, only a free trial. Webinars are on the Creator plan, which sits at the top of the range, so the cost rises fast if you need them. Abandoned-cart recovery on the Marketer tier is aimed at online stores, and you will not need it.
Price. Starter is $19 a month billed monthly or $15.58 billed annually. Marketer is $59 monthly or $48.38 annually, and Creator is $69 monthly or $56.58 annually. See GetResponse\'s pricing page.
Best for polished templates
Campaign Monitor
What it does well for consultants. Campaign Monitor is focused on email design. For a consultant whose newsletter is effectively a printed briefing with a strong visual identity, that focus is useful. The Premier plan adds phone support, which some practices want when they cannot afford a sent email to go wrong.
Where it falls short. Automation depth is not the emphasis, so proposal sequences and deal-stage logic need extra work. There is no ongoing free plan, and the trial is limited to 500 contacts and 500 emails.
Price. Lite is $13 a month billed monthly or $11.70 billed annually at the 500-contact band. Essentials is $31 monthly or $27.90 annually for unlimited email sends, and Premier is $171 monthly or $153.90 annually. See Campaign Monitor\'s pricing page.
Best for simple briefing invitations
Constant Contact
What it does well for consultants. Constant Contact is straightforward to use for invitations to a briefing, a roundtable or a seasonal update to an established list. The Standard plan adds automation, scheduling and A/B testing, and Premium adds advanced automation, segmentation, reporting and 500 SMS a month.
Where it falls short. There is no free plan, and the trial is the only way to try it before paying. Contact count sets the exact price, so you need the selector to know the cost. Its strengths are event-style sends rather than deal-stage sequences.
Price. Lite is $12 a month billed monthly or $10.20 billed annually. Standard is $35 monthly or $29.75 annually, and Premium is $80 monthly or $68 annually. A free trial is offered with no credit card required. See Constant Contact\'s pricing page.
How to choose in four questions
1. Where does the revenue come from? If most of your work starts with a proposal, you need follow-up logic that can wait for a reply and then branch on the answer. Look for automation and CRM connections first. If most of your work comes from referrals and renewals, you need a clean past-client list and a calendar of check-ins. A simple tool with good tagging is usually enough.
2. How big is the list you will have in a year? Choose the plan for the band you will reach in twelve months, not the one you have today, but do not pay for a band you will not reach. Use the contact selector on each pricing page. Moving up a band mid-year is usually a small change if the tool handles imports cleanly.
3. Do you need automations on day one? Some tools keep sequences behind paid tiers. Kit\'s free plan, for example, does not include visual automations or sequences. If you need them immediately, compare the cost of the first paid tier, not the free plan.
4. Who will maintain it? A consultant with no time for administration needs a tool that stays simple. Choose the smallest set of automations that supports your three main jobs: proposal follow-up, past-client check-ins and referral requests. Add more only when a specific job is not being done.
Workflows that suit a consulting practice
Three workflows cover most consulting email. Build them in this order, because each one generates data for the next.
The authority list. Send one monthly letter with a framework, a client example and one clear next step. Keep the letter short enough to read between meetings. The aim is to be remembered by people who are not yet ready to buy, so the letter should never read as a sales pitch. Track which topics get replies, and use those replies to decide what to write next.
The proposal follow-up. A proposal that goes unanswered is more often a timing problem than a rejection. A sequence that offers a call, answers a likely objection and asks whether the scope needs changing gives the prospect a reason to reply. Keep the number of messages small, and stop the sequence as soon as the prospect responds, because a sequence that continues after a reply reads as careless.
The past-client check-in. Clients who have finished an engagement are your best source of referrals, but they rarely think of you unprompted. A quarterly note that shares something useful, such as a benchmark or a short case, keeps the relationship warm. Ask for a referral only after a clear result, when the client is most likely to be pleased with your work.
Keep the three groups apart. A prospect who receives a client update may be confused, and a client who receives a sales sequence may feel their trust has been misread. Segmentation is the single feature most worth checking before you choose a tool.