What course email has to do
Course email is not one job. It is four jobs that overlap in time, and each one places different demands on software. Before you compare tools, decide which of these jobs carries most of the revenue in your business, because that job should drive the choice.
The first job is enrollment launches. A launch is a fixed window in which you open the cart, sell a cohort or course, and close it again. The emails follow a recognisable arc: value and story before the doors open, a cart-open announcement with bonuses and a real deadline, objection handling and proof in the middle of the window, and a final message in the last hours. Launch work needs sequences that start and stop on a date, tags that show who opened or clicked, and a clean way to move people from a free lesson into a paid offer.
The second job is evergreen selling. Evergreen funnels run all year. A new subscriber who downloads a free lesson enters a sequence that introduces the course, shares testimonials you already hold, and invites them to enroll. Evergreen work depends on automation that starts reliably for each new subscriber, and on segmentation that stops sales emails for people who have already bought.
The third job is student onboarding and completion. Once someone enrolls, they stop being a prospect and become a student. The emails change: they now need access details, a quick win in the first lesson, a nudge when someone falls behind, and a reason to finish. Completion email is also a sales channel, because a student who finishes is the person most likely to join the next cohort, join a community or refer a friend. Your tool has to move a person from the prospect segment to the student segment without manual list work.
The fourth job is membership billing. Some educators sell access to a library or community on a monthly or annual basis. Renewals, failed payments, pauses and winbacks then become the main email jobs. Most tools here do not run the payment itself. They send the emails around it, so the practical question is how easily they accept tags or events from the checkout system you already use.
Tool by tool: what each one does for course sellers
Launches and evergreen
Kit
Price: free up to 10,000 subscribers; Creator $33/mo billed annually, which adds visual automations and email sequences; Pro $66/mo billed annually. Kit pricing
Kit is built around the loop most course sellers already run. A free resource or lesson collects subscribers, tags record which topics and offers each person showed interest in, and sequences carry them toward a paid course. Landing pages, forms and unlimited email broadcasts are on the free plan, and so is the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions. A creator who runs one or two launches a year and keeps a steady evergreen funnel can cover most of the work in one login.
The limits show at the edges. Kit's automations are the piece that starts an onboarding series for a new student, so that series needs the Creator plan. Its billing features cover selling products and subscriptions, not detailed membership logic such as pause rules or winback sequences tied to renewal dates. Educators who run three-tier ladders with sales calls at the top may find its pipeline support thinner than a CRM-based tool.
Good for: launch-led courses, evergreen funnels, creators who want one login. Less good for: recurring memberships and complex sales pipelines.
Webinar launches
GetResponse
Price: Starter $19/mo ($15.58/mo billed annually); Marketer $59/mo ($48.38/mo billed annually); Creator $69/mo ($56.58/mo billed annually). The Creator plan includes webinars, a website builder, a course creator and premium newsletter subscriptions. A free trial is offered, but no ongoing free plan is listed. GetResponse pricing
GetResponse is the strongest fit when the launch itself is a webinar, live or recorded. The Creator plan puts webinars and a course creator under one price, so an educator who teaches in public can register attendees, send reminders and follow up with an offer without joining several products. Marketer adds unlimited workflows, advanced audience segmentation, abandoned-cart recovery and sales funnels, which start to matter once you have a paid catalog.
The Starter plan is more limited. It includes one automation workflow, which is not enough for a full student onboarding series, and educators who sell only through self-paced evergreen funnels will leave the webinar features unused. Because the free offer is a trial rather than an ongoing free plan, you pay from the first billing period.
Good for: webinar launches and educators who sell live. Less good for: evergreen-only courses on a small budget.
High-ticket ascension
ActiveCampaign
Price: Starter $15/mo, Plus $49/mo, Pro $79/mo and Enterprise $145/mo, each shown from 1,000 contacts. ActiveCampaign offers a free trial and no ongoing free plan. ActiveCampaign pricing
ActiveCampaign suits educators whose ladder runs from a low-cost course to a core program, then to a mastermind or private coaching. Its automation and segmentation go deeper than most tools in this guide. The Pro tier adds advanced segmentation, and Enterprise adds premium segmentation and a dedicated account team. If your sales process includes applications, qualification and calls, the structure helps you keep those people in the right stage.
The cost of that depth is setup time. A seller with one course can spend more hours configuring the account than selling, and the price climbs as you move up the plans. Because there is no free plan, you begin with a trial and then commit. Choose ActiveCampaign when the ladder is the business itself, rather than as a default for every course.
Good for: high-ticket ascension, application funnels and sales-led programs. Less good for: single-course sellers who want a simple launch.
Visual workflows
Drip
Price: $39/mo for 1 to 2,500 people; $49/mo for 2,501 to 3,000; $89/mo for 4,501 to 5,000; $154/mo for 9,001 to 10,000. Plans include unlimited email sends, dynamic segments, onsite campaigns and up to 50 workflows. A 14-day trial is offered and no free plan is listed. Drip pricing
Drip suits an educator who wants visual workflow building and unlimited email sends, with pricing set by the number of people on the list rather than by how many emails go out. Onsite campaigns let you show a message on your course site to a visitor who matches a segment. That helps when the same person is a prospect on the homepage and a student in the members area.
The price moves in bands, so a list that grows from 2,500 to 5,000 people raises the monthly cost substantially. Drip's strength is workflows and sends rather than the broader launch toolkit that Kit offers. Estimate the list size you expect in six months before you commit, because that is the band you will pay for.
Good for: workflow-heavy onboarding and unlimited sends within a known band. Less good for: very small lists and creators who need a free plan.
First course list
MailerLite
Price: free for up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month; Comfort $12/mo ($10.80/mo billed annually), which starts at the 500-subscriber tier; Power $25/mo ($22.50/mo billed annually), which includes unlimited monthly emails. MailerLite pricing
MailerLite is a sensible start for an educator who has not yet built an audience. The free plan covers up to 250 subscribers, which is enough for a free mini-course, a first launch to a small list and a short welcome series. The paid tiers raise the subscriber ceiling, and Power removes the monthly email cap, so the jump in cost comes when your list outgrows the free band.
The limitation is launch depth. MailerLite handles a basic enrollment sequence, but educators who run multi-stage launches or need detailed segmentation for students and graduates will reach the edge sooner. Treat it as the first tool, and plan a move when the launch model needs more logic.
Good for: a free start, a first mini-course and small lists. Less good for: complex launches and multi-tier segmentation.
Budget volume
Brevo
Price: free plan for up to 100,000 contacts with 300 email sends a day; Starter $9/mo, which starts at 5,000 emails a month with no daily sending limit; Standard $18/mo, which adds automation, A/B split tests and advanced reports. Brevo pricing
Brevo is useful when the audience is large and sends are frequent, but the budget is small. The free plan holds up to 100,000 contacts, so a creator with a big free lead magnet can keep a large list at no cost, provided daily sends stay within 300. Starter removes the daily limit once you pay, and Standard adds the automation and reporting that a course onboarding series needs.
Brevo's launch tooling is lighter than Kit's, and its templates are more basic. Many educators use it for the bulk sending and the large list, then keep their launch sequences in a tool that is easier to manage for course sales.
Good for: large free lists and frequent sends on a low budget. Less good for: launch-sequence design and polished templates.
Product catalogs
Klaviyo
Price: free plan for 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month; email plans at $20/mo for 500 profiles, $30/mo for 1,000, $60/mo for 2,500, $100/mo for 5,000, $150/mo for 10,000 and $400/mo for 25,000. Klaviyo pricing
Klaviyo fits course businesses that also sell physical products, bundles or merchandise, because its data model is built around product catalogs and purchase history. If your course comes with a workbook, a kit or a store attached, Klaviyo can handle those purchases alongside the course emails.
For pure course sales it has no launch objects, and pricing by profile means a growing list raises the cost at every band. Most educators do better with a tool that has enrollment and launch logic built in.
Good for: course businesses that also sell products. Less good for: launch-only courses.
Event-triggered messaging
Customer.io
Price: Essentials from $100/mo, which includes a visual workflow builder and email support; Essentials at 10,000 profiles $145/mo, billed monthly; Premium on custom pricing. Eligible early-stage companies that have raised under $10M can receive 12 months free through the Startup Program. Customer.io pricing
Customer.io is built for product teams that want messages to fire from events inside an application, such as a student finishing a module or a learner going quiet. If your course runs on a custom learning platform that emits its own events, that event-first approach can be powerful.
Most course creators on hosted platforms do not have engineering support or a product database to feed it. Unless you already run an app that sends events, the setup and cost are heavier than the course job needs.
Good for: custom learning platforms with event data. Less good for: course sellers on hosted platforms without developers.
Also considered
Mailchimp, AWeber and Campaign Monitor
Mailchimp: a free plan for up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month; Standard from $20/mo at 500 contacts, with bands above that. Familiar to many new educators, but billing scales with contacts, so a growing student list grows the bill. Mailchimp pricing
AWeber: Lite $15/mo and Plus $30/mo, each for 500 subscribers, with a 14-day trial and no ongoing free plan. A dependable choice for broadcasts. AWeber pricing
Campaign Monitor: Lite $13/mo ($11.70/mo billed annually), Essentials $31/mo ($27.90/mo billed annually) and Premier $171/mo ($153.90/mo billed annually), each in the 500-contact band, with a 30-day trial. Strong for design-led sends and lighter on course launches. Campaign Monitor pricing
How to choose for your course
Start with the business model, not the feature list. A creator who sells one cohort course each quarter, mostly to people who came in through a free lesson, has different needs from a creator who sells a membership that renews every month. The first needs launch sequences, evergreen funnels and student onboarding. The second needs renewal and payment-related messages tied to whatever checkout system takes the money.
Next, decide what your list will look like in a year. A list of 500 people needs a tool that is cheap and quick to set up. A list of 10,000 needs a tool whose price band still makes sense at that size, and whose segmentation can keep students and prospects apart. Use the cost table above to model at least two sizes, not one.
Then check the three questions that usually settle the choice. Can the tool start a sequence when someone enrolls, using a tag or an event from your checkout? Can it keep students out of sales sequences? Can it separate prospects, students and graduates without manual lists? If the answer to any of these is no, you will need a workaround, and workarounds tend to break as the list grows.
Finally, run one small launch on the tool you are leaning toward before you commit to a longer plan. Most of the friction in course email appears in the first real launch: the sequence timing, the tag logic and the link from the email to the checkout. Choose the tool that makes that first launch easiest for your model.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best email software for selling online courses?
For most course creators, Kit is the strongest first choice. Its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with landing pages, forms, email broadcasts, tagging and the ability to sell digital products. Automations and email sequences start on the Creator plan at $33 a month billed annually. That covers the core loop of a launch, an evergreen funnel and student onboarding. Choose GetResponse if your sales depend on live webinars, ActiveCampaign if you run multi-stage high-ticket ladders, and MailerLite if you are still building a first list under 250 subscribers.
Do I need separate lists for prospects and enrolled students?
You need separate segments, and in most tools that is enough. Prospects should receive proof and invitations to enroll. Enrolled students should receive access details, support and the next step in the course. Graduates form a third group that suits referral requests and advanced offers. If you send sales emails to students in the middle of a lesson series, you will annoy the people who already paid. Segment first by enrollment status, then by topic interest, then by readiness to buy.
How long should a course launch sequence run?
Many educators run a pre-launch phase of about a week of value emails, a cart-open period with a clear deadline, a mid-cart round that answers objections and shows proof, and a final message before the window closes. A downsell can offer a payment plan or a waitlist after the deadline. Evergreen sequences then reuse the same assets for new subscribers. One well-planned launch each quarter, on top of an evergreen baseline, is usually easier to sustain than constant selling.
Which tool handles membership billing best?
Most tools in this guide send the emails around a membership but do not manage the recurring payment itself. Kit lets you sell digital products and subscriptions, but its strength is the audience and sequence side. GetResponse, ActiveCampaign, Drip and MailerLite send renewal reminders and value recaps while your checkout provider handles the charge. If your course is a recurring membership, choose a tool that can tag members from your checkout events and read the plan the member is on, then confirm in the vendor documentation how those tags are created before you commit.
Is a free plan enough to start?
It can be. Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, including landing pages, forms and unlimited email broadcasts. MailerLite's free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Brevo's free plan holds up to 100,000 contacts but caps daily sends at 300. Free plans are a good way to build a first list. You will need a paid plan once you need automations or sequences, such as an onboarding series that starts when a student enrolls.
How should I move my list from another platform?
Export your full list with tags, sources and enrollment status, then import it into the new tool in segments rather than as one block. Keep subscribers who joined from different lead magnets in their own groups so that each group receives the right first message. Authenticate your sending domain before the first send, and move your launch and onboarding sequences over only after the imported list has been checked and segmented.
Does the price rise as my list grows?
For most tools in this guide, yes. Drip, Klaviyo, Mailchimp and Customer.io price by people, profiles or contacts, so the cost rises at each band. Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, but automations sit on the paid Creator plan. Check the pricing page that matches your audience size, and model the cost at the next two list sizes you expect, not only today's count.