What a small business needs from email
A small business is rarely a marketing department. The owner often writes the message between jobs, sends it from a phone and has a few hours a month for the whole channel. That shapes the choice more than any feature list. The tool has to make a monthly message quick to produce, keep a few automations running without upkeep and keep the bill predictable as the list grows.
Three kinds of email pay back for most shops. The first is the planned message: a seasonal offer, a change to opening hours or a short note about what is new. The second is the automated message that follows a customer event, such as a booking confirmation, a thank-you after a visit or an order receipt. The third is the reactivation message for people who have not bought or booked for several months. Each depends on a different part of the product. Planned sends depend on a clean editor and a reliable list. Automations depend on a workflow builder that your chosen plan includes. Reactivation depends on segmenting by visit or purchase history, which some vendors place on higher tiers.
That is why the cheapest entry plan is not always the cheapest option. A plan that looks inexpensive but leaves automation to a higher tier can cost more than a slightly dearer plan that already includes it. When you read a pricing page, check three things: what the entry plan includes for automation, what the vendor counts when it bills you (contacts, profiles, people or sends), and whether the features you need appear on the plan you are pricing.
Tool by tool for small businesses
Brevo
Starter $9/mo on monthly billing, from 5,000 emails a month · Free plan at 300 sends a day · Pricing page
What it does well for a small shop: it treats the monthly letter and the day-to-day messages as one account. A salon can send a seasonal offer, a clinic can send a monthly health note and a trades firm can send maintenance reminders, all from the same login. The free plan lets you build a real list before any payment, and Starter removes the daily sending cap, which matters the first time a campaign lands on a busy day.
Where it falls short: the price follows monthly send volume, so a list you mail more often moves up the tiers faster. The plan that lists automation and A/B testing is Standard at $18 a month, so budget for it from the start if you want automated messages. Its templates are simpler than those of design-led platforms, which can matter if your brand depends on heavy visual layouts.
Price: Starter from $9 a month on monthly billing, from 5,000 emails a month. Standard is $18 a month at the same starting volume. Professional is $499 a month for 150,000 to 10 million sends, as shown on the pricing page.
MailerLite
Comfort $12/mo monthly or $10.80/mo billed annually · Free up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month · Pricing page
What it does well for a small shop: it suits an owner with a small, clean list who wants a gentle learning curve. A florist, barber or dental practice with a few hundred regular clients can send a welcome note, a monthly update and an occasional offer without a training course. Because the free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, the first months cost nothing.
Where it falls short: the free allowance is small, and paid pricing starts at a 500-subscriber band. On Comfort, the monthly email allowance is ten times the subscriber tier, which you should plan around. Above the starting bands, pricing is on request, so a shop expecting several thousand subscribers should ask for a quote before it commits to a plan.
Price: Comfort from $12 a month, or $10.80 a month billed annually, at the 500-subscriber starting tier. Power, which allows unlimited monthly emails, is $25 a month or $22.50 a month billed annually at the same tier.
Mailchimp
Standard from $20/mo at 500 contacts · Free up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month · Pricing page
What it does well for a small shop: it is the tool many owners have already seen, which shortens the time to the first send. The free plan lets a shop test a campaign with a small audience, with a cap of 250 sends a day. At 500 contacts, Standard is listed from $20 a month and allows up to 6,000 emails a month at that size.
Where it falls short: pricing is contact-based and steps up in bands. The published figures are $100 a month for 2,501 to 5,000 contacts and $135 a month for 5,001 to 10,000 contacts. A list that crosses a boundary raises the bill at once, so a shop with 3,000 contacts should check where the next band begins before importing names from an event or a trade show.
Price: Standard from $20 a month at 500 contacts. The larger bands are $100 a month for 2,501 to 5,000 contacts and $135 a month for 5,001 to 10,000 contacts, as listed on the pricing page.
Kit
Free up to 10,000 subscribers · Creator $33/mo billed annually · 14-day trial on paid plans · Pricing page
What it does well for a small shop: it is built for owners who want to become a recognised voice. A dentist writing about implant care, a personal trainer with a weekly newsletter or a consultant with a readership can grow an audience on the free plan. Landing pages, forms, unlimited email broadcasts and audience tagging are all included on the free tier.
Where it falls short: visual automations and email sequences start on Creator, so a business that wants a welcome series or a review request running on its own should price Creator from the start. It is less suited to flows built around bookings or orders, and its strength is audience building rather than daily operations.
Price: Free up to 10,000 subscribers. Creator is $33 a month billed annually and adds unlimited visual automations and sequences. Pro is $66 a month billed annually and adds deliverability reporting and unlimited users.
Constant Contact
Lite $12/mo monthly or $10.20/mo billed annually · Free trial with no card, no free plan · Pricing page
What it does well for a small shop: it fits a business whose email is mostly announcements, event invitations and sales notices. Lite includes email and social media tools, with monthly sends up to ten times the contact count. A front-desk employee can usually learn it in a single session, which is valuable when the owner wants to hand the task to someone else.
Where it falls short: there is no free plan, and automation sits on the higher tiers. Standard adds automation, scheduling and A/B testing, and Premium adds advanced automation, segmentation and reporting with 500 SMS a month. A shop that only sends announcements may pay for capability it never uses, and the contact count sets the final price.
Price: Lite from $12 a month monthly or $10.20 a month billed annually. Standard from $35 a month, or $29.75 billed annually. Premium from $80 a month, or $68 billed annually.
AWeber
Lite $15/mo for 500 subscribers and 5,000 sends a month · Plus $30/mo for 500 subscribers and 6,000 sends a month · 14-day free trial · Pricing page
What it does well for a small shop: it suits a conventional business that sends a regular letter to a few hundred customers and wants a tool without many moving parts. A local accountant or a family hardware store can keep a monthly newsletter going without learning a complex platform, and the Lite price is easy to budget.
Where it falls short: automation depth is modest next to the larger platforms, and there is no ongoing free plan, only a 14-day trial. The pricing page does not publish prices above the 500-subscriber band, so a growing business should ask for the next tier before committing.
Price: Lite $15 a month for 500 subscribers and 5,000 sends. Plus $30 a month for 500 subscribers and 6,000 sends.
Klaviyo
Email plan from $20/mo for 500 profiles · Free for 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month · Pricing page
What it does well for a small shop: it suits an online shop with a real product catalogue, where an email can draw on what a customer viewed or bought. The email plans step from 500 profiles at $20 a month to 1,000 at $30, 2,500 at $60, 5,000 at $100, 10,000 at $150 and 25,000 at $400. The free plan covers 250 active profiles and 500 sends, plus $5 of mobile messages.
Where it falls short: the price follows profiles, so a shop with many inactive names pays for them. Clean the list before you choose a tier. A service business without product data gets much less from the product-based flows that make Klaviyo distinctive, and it may find a simpler tool covers its needs for less.
Price: $20 a month for 500 profiles, $100 a month for 5,000 and $150 a month for 10,000 on the email plans. The free plan is limited to 250 active profiles.
Moosend
Pro from $9/mo at 500 contacts ($7/mo billed annually) · 30-day free trial, no card · Pricing page
What it does well for a small shop: it gives lean shops automation at a low monthly price. The Pro plans are priced by contact band, so the decision comes down to how many contacts you keep. Published figures are $9 a month monthly or $7 billed annually at 500 contacts, $16 or $13 at 1,000, $48 or $38 at 5,000 and $88 or $70 at 10,000.
Where it falls short: there is no free plan, so the 30-day trial is the only way to test it before paying. The bill rises with each band, so a list that doubles will roughly double the cost. Some owners will find the templates less polished than those of the larger tools.
Price: Pro from $9 a month at 500 contacts monthly, or $7 billed annually. At 5,000 contacts it is $48 a month, or $38 billed annually.
How to choose for your business
Start by writing down three numbers: the contacts you have today, the contacts you expect in twelve months and the emails you will send in a typical month. Those figures show which pricing model fits. If sends drive the cost, as on Brevo, a stable list that you mail often may suit you. If contacts or profiles drive the cost, as on Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Moosend and Drip, a large list of inactive names costs more than a smaller engaged one, so cleaning the list pays off directly.
Next, decide which automations you need on day one. For a service business that is usually a confirmation, a thank-you after a visit and a review request. For a shop it is usually a post-purchase message and a reactivation message. Then check which plan includes them. On Kit they start on Creator at $33 a month billed annually. On Constant Contact they start on Standard at $35 a month. On Brevo, automation and A/B testing are listed on Standard at $18 a month. Price the plan that includes the automation you need, not the cheapest entry plan.
Finally, use the trial for real work rather than for the editor. Import a sample list, build the welcome message, send one campaign to a small segment and time each step. If setting up one monthly campaign takes more than two hours, that is the time the tool will cost you every month, and it has a value even when the subscription is cheap.
A monthly routine for a busy owner
Most of the value in small-business email comes from routine rather than volume. Batch the planned message once a quarter, so the owner writes three issues in one sitting instead of looking for one each month. Let the automations handle the rest: the welcome message for a new customer, the thank-you after a booking, the review request a few days later and a reactivation message for people who have not returned in about six months.
Once a quarter, remove names that have stopped engaging and check where recent contacts came from. This takes little time, protects the reputation of your sending domain and keeps contact-based costs under control. On tools that price in bands, removing a block of dormant names can move the bill down a band, so check the boundary before you add new people.
Measure what you act on. Open and click figures help you judge the planned message. For a review or reactivation flow, the real question is whether bookings or repeat orders rise, and that answer lives in your booking or point-of-sale report rather than in the email dashboard alone.
Reading pricing pages without surprises
Email vendors use different units, and the difference can change your total by a wide margin. Brevo prices by monthly email volume. Mailchimp, Constant Contact, AWeber, Moosend and GetResponse price by contacts or subscribers, with send allowances attached to each band. Klaviyo prices by profile and Drip by people. Kit's free plan is based on subscribers, and its automations sit on a paid tier.
Annual billing deserves a direct comparison. MailerLite, Constant Contact, Moosend, GetResponse and Kit each show a lower monthly figure when you pay yearly. Put the yearly total next to the monthly total, and confirm whether the yearly rate applies for the full term before you sign up.
Check the trial terms too. AWeber offers 14 days, Drip 14 days with no card, Moosend 30 days with no card, Campaign Monitor 30 days and Constant Contact a free trial with no card required. A trial helps only if you use it to run the workflow you intend to keep, not just to look at the editor.
Frequently asked questions
Which email tool should a small business start with?
For most small businesses that send a planned message each month, Brevo is the strongest first choice. Starter is $9 a month on monthly billing, covers 5,000 emails a month and has no daily sending limit on that plan. The free plan allows 300 sends a day and stores up to 100,000 contacts, so you can build the list and test the workflow before paying. If the list is very small and the editor matters most, compare MailerLite first.
What would a 5,000-contact list cost on the main tools?
The answer depends on the pricing unit. Mailchimp lists $100 a month for the 2,501 to 5,000 contact band, which is $1,200 a year. Klaviyo lists $100 a month for 5,000 profiles, also $1,200 a year. Moosend lists $48 a month on monthly billing or $38 a month billed annually at 5,000 contacts, which is $576 or $456 a year. Drip lists $89 a month for 4,501 to 5,000 people. Brevo prices by monthly email volume, so its cost follows what you send rather than how many names you keep. Kit stays free up to 10,000 subscribers, but its automations need Creator.
Is there a free plan a small business can keep using?
Several tools have one, with different limits. Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, including landing pages, forms and email broadcasts. MailerLite's free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Mailchimp's covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, capped at 250 a day. Klaviyo's covers 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, plus $5 of mobile messages. Brevo's allows 300 sends a day. Constant Contact, AWeber, GetResponse, Drip, Moosend and ActiveCampaign do not publish an ongoing free plan, so test them with a trial.
How often should a small business email its list?
Most owners do well with one planned message a month, plus a handful of automated messages that run without attention: a welcome note, a confirmation after a booking or order, a review request and, after several months of silence, a reactivation note. Consistency matters more than volume. A business with 2,500 contacts that mails twice a month sends 5,000 emails a month, which is the volume Brevo's Starter plan starts from.
Should a small business pay by contacts, profiles or sends?
Check the unit before you compare prices. Mailchimp, Constant Contact, AWeber and Moosend charge by contacts or subscribers, with send allowances attached to each band. Klaviyo charges by profile and Drip by people. Brevo charges by monthly email volume. A list you mail often but keep small can suit a send-based plan. A large list that you rarely mail may be better on a contact-based plan with a free tier, provided the list fits under that tier's limit.
Which automations should a small business set up first?
Start with a welcome message for each new contact, a confirmation after a booking, order or visit, and a review request a few days later. A reactivation message for people who have not returned in about six months is the fourth. Before you choose a plan, confirm that it includes automation. On Kit, visual automations and sequences start on Creator at $33 a month billed annually. On Constant Contact, automation starts on Standard at $35 a month. On Brevo, the plan that lists automation and A/B testing is Standard at $18 a month.
How do I move my list to a new tool without losing contacts or deliverability?
Export names, email addresses and consent records first. Remove long-inactive contacts, set up your sending domain on the new platform, rebuild the welcome, confirmation and review messages, and send test messages to your own phone and laptop. Import only people who agreed to hear from you. Keep the old account open for a short overlap so you can catch replies and unsubscribes. Importing people who never opted in is the quickest way to damage a sending domain.
Do the trial periods let me test everything?
Not always. AWeber offers 14 days, Drip 14 days with no card, Moosend 30 days with no card, Campaign Monitor 30 days and Kit 14 days on paid plans. Constant Contact offers a free trial with no card required. A trial helps most when you use it to build the workflow you intend to keep: import a sample list, create the welcome message, send one campaign to a small segment and time each step.