9 Free Email Marketing Tools to Build Contacts Lists on a Budget

I’ve seen many marketing trends come and go—some disappear quickly, while others fade away over time. Yet, email marketing has stood the test of time as a reliable and effective content marketing channel.

For many marketers, email remains their top source of traffic and offers the highest return on investment. On average, every $1 spent on email marketing brings a return of $36.

That said, running a successful email marketing campaign isn’t always easy. It takes time, effort, and the right knowledge, along with a solid investment in efficient email marketing tools.

The good news? With the right free email marketing tools, building, managing, and organizing a responsive email list is absolutely achievable.

In this post, you’ll learn about nine free email marketing service providers that let you build, manage, and grow a healthy email newsletter for free. Many of these providers offer generous free plans, allowing you to test their premium features without financial commitment.

What Makes a Good Free Email Marketing Software?

Finding the right free email marketing services can make a significant difference in the success of your campaigns.

Here’s a closer look at the key features that define quality free email tools and how they can benefit your business:

1. Drag-and-Drop Editor

A good email marketing tool should have an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. This feature allows you to design attractive, professional-looking emails without coding knowledge.

It’s a game-changer for beginners, making creating visually appealing emails in minutes easy. Even experienced marketers will appreciate the efficiency it adds to their workflow, saving time while maintaining creativity.

2. Customizable Email Templates

Pre-designed templates that are easy to customize can elevate your email campaigns.

These templates save you the effort of starting from scratch and ensure your emails remain visually consistent and aligned with your brand identity.

Look for free email software that offers a variety of templates library tailored to different campaign types—newsletters, promotions, or event invitations—to cover all your marketing needs.

3. Automation Capabilities

Automation is a must for scaling your email marketing efforts.

Good free email marketing software should allow you to set up workflows that handle tasks like sending welcome emails to new subscribers, following up on abandoned carts, or nurturing leads through targeted messages.

Automation ensures your emails reach the right people at the right time without requiring constant manual input.

4. Audience Segmentation and Personalization

Segmenting your audience based on location, behavior, or purchase history is essential for effective email marketing.

Audience segmentation enables you to tailor your messages to specific groups, making your emails more relevant and engaging.

Paired with personalization options, like using a recipient’s name or referencing their past interactions, this feature can significantly boost open and click-through rates.

5. A/B Testing for Optimization

Effective marketing requires testing and refinement for different aspect of your marketing copy and landing page design.

Good software should include A/B testing, allowing you to experiment with different subject lines, layouts, landing page design testing, or call-to-action buttons to see what resonates best with your audience.

These insights help you optimize your campaigns for better results over time.

6. Analytics and Reporting

Data is the backbone of smart marketing decisions. Look for free email tools that provides detailed analytics on metrics such as open, click-through, and conversion rates.

These insights enable you to measure your campaigns’ performance, identify improvement areas, and better understand your audience’s behavior.

7. Ease of Integration

A good email marketing tool should integrate smoothly with other platforms you use, such as your website, e-commerce store, or CRM system.

This integration ensures a seamless data flow, helping you create more targeted campaigns and track your audience’s journey effectively.

Benefits of Using Free Email Marketing Tools

Free email marketing tools offer numerous advantages, especially for small businesses and startups operating on limited budgets. 

One of the most significant benefits is cost savings, as these tools eliminate the need for expensive software subscriptions, making professional email marketing accessible to everyone. 

Additionally, they boost productivity by streamlining processes with features like drag-and-drop, easy-to-use editors, and automated workflows. These tools simplify email creation and delivery, allowing you to focus on other essential aspects of your business.

Moreover, free email marketing tools often come equipped with analytics and features that can help you refine your strategy and boost engagement. 

By understanding your audience’s behavior and preferences, you can create more tailored campaigns that resonate with them. 

Ultimately, these tools provide a cost-effective way to enhance your email marketing efforts, improve your outreach, and achieve better results without straining your budget.

Best Free Email Marketing Tools For Beginners

Consider one of these nine free email sender service providers if you’re a beginner. 

Also, if the monthly cost of running email marketing limits your ability to grow your list, you will find free or affordable email newsletter service providers here. 

Some free email tools providers allow up to 1,000 free email subscribers, while others allow up to 500 with possible access to unlimited emails campaigns monthly.

Go through the list and explore all free email marketing features suitable for your unique marketing needs. 

You can sign up with a few service providers to see which email marketing software fits your requirements. 

Let’s walk through the list. 

1. Getresponse 

Getresponse is one of the oldest email marketing service providers on the Internet.

Launched in 1997, GetResponse has over 20 years of experience in marketing automation software and email marketing strategy.

Getresponse has evolved from a simple email marketing tool to full-fledged email and marketing automation platform. 

You can build your email list, host webinars, set up Facebook ads, email automation, sell your products, etc., within the Getresponse app.

Getresponse now adds an AI email generator to its feature, allowing you to write better email copy and headlines effortlessly. Its features include a landing page builder, an extensive templates library, a rich text editor for advanced users, pre-made workflows, and more.

You can also run paid ads in GetResponse on platform like Facebook, Google ads, and setup retargeting ads.

For beginners, you can sign up for a free Getresponse account, which allows up to 500 contacts on your email list. Though it limits access to some of the advanced email marketing tools, like,

• Autoresponder.
• Webinar
• AI Email writer – Compose emails with an AI generator.
• Event-based Automation
• Contact Scoring
• Unlimited newsletters
• Integrates with Shopify, Prestashop, or Magento. 
• Advanced segmentation
• Web Push notification
• Marketing automation
• Sales funnel
• Advanced segmentation and reports
• Cart Abandonment recovery
• And more

The Getresponse email marketing tool’s free services allow you to build and grow your list without committing your pocket. 

Getresponse offers a 30-day free trial. No credit card is required, no commitment, and you can import your contact list from other tools.

I used Getresponse for years before moving to Convertkit and now Brevo, and it’s by far the best email marketing software I have ever used. 

If you want to take your email marketing to the next level, start with GetResponse. You can access more tools and marketing features than many email service providers on the Internet. 

2. Smartlead

Smartlead is one of the fastest-growing cold emailing software in the market. It ensures your emails always land in prospects’ inboxes with unlimited sender accounts and email warmups. 

Featured as the Highest performer in Winter 2023 in G2’s ranking, Smartlead offers auto-rotating email accounts. It means you can scale your outreach without worrying about daily email-sending limits and keep your email reputation intact. 

Smartlead offers exclusive high-deliverability IP servers for each of the campaigns. Moreover, you can set up custom conditional email-sending triggers to automate the follow-up process. 

Its Smartwriter integration helps you create personalized emails for your outreach campaigns. The master inbox gives you 30 views of all messages and lets you control all the inboxes from one place. 

Smartlead offers a 14-day free trial (no credit cards required) with four different pricing plans starting at US$ 33 per month. You can track email open rates, click-through rates, and reply rates of your email campaigns. 

With Smartlead.ai, you can do the following: 

• Send cold emails with unlimited sender accounts
• Nurture leads with unlimited email warmups
• Send personalized messages 
• Set up custom conditional email-sending triggers
• Auto-rotate messages in one click
• Ensure landing in the lead’s inbox with high-deliverability IP servers
• Manage and reply to all your messages with the master inbox
• Automate sales flow with actions like retweeting and connection requests
• White Label clients
• Track email open, respond, and click-through rates

3. Ominisend

As a small business owner, I know firsthand the challenges of operating on a tight budget. One area where costs can quickly add up is email marketing.

I’ve closely examined affordable options that don’t sacrifice functionality. Ominisend is a promising platform for small businesses looking to build and nurture their email lists without breaking the bank.

With as little as $16 monthly, you can start your email marketing campaign with the Ominisend Standard plan. You can upgrade to a higher plan to accommodate the growing subscriber list as you generate more leads.

What I appreciate most about Ominisend is its user-friendly interface and lead generation features.

As someone who isn’t a tech wizard, I was able to navigate the platform and start creating stunning email campaigns almost immediately. Ominisend has been designed with the needs of small business owners in mind.

Another plus is the platform’s focus on essential features and e-commerce email marketing campaigns.

Ominisend provides e-commerce store owners with robust email and SMS marketing free tools to power their business and customer management.

While it might not have all the bells and whistles of some of its competitors, Ominisend delivers the core functionalities needed to grow an email list and engage subscribers.

The platform covers the basics effectively, from creating email marketing campaigns to managing contacts.

Here are some top features separating Ominisend from the rest.

• Affordable pricing plans – Cater to businesses with limited budgets.
• User-friendly interface – Easy to navigate for beginners.
• Email templates – Pre-designed templates for various occasions.
• Contact management – Effective tools for organizing and segmenting subscribers and managing customer data.
• Basic automation – Create simple automated workflows.
• Essential analytics – Track campaign performance with key metrics.
• E-commerce integration – Connect with popular online stores.
• Popup-up builder – Create engaging popups to grow your list.

4. Systeme.io 

Systeme.io is not your typical email list-building software but an all-in-one marketing tool for professionals, course creators, e-commerce businesses, bloggers, and affiliate marketers. 

It is a free marketing automation tool designed to help you from start to finish, so you only need one marketing platform to manage your list, generate sales, publish content, and grow your business. 

From building high-converting landing pages, sales funnel, automated email sequences, list segmentation, and analytics, Systeme.io has every essential email list-building feature. 

You can create a blog, build your sales funnel, run membership sites, generate leads, and manage an affiliate program within the Systeme.io platform.

However, you can also do the following with the Systeme.io email marketing feature:

• Set up automated email sequences.
• Build unlimited campaigns
• Create and send newsletters
• Get detailed email performance statistics.
• Set up workflow based on subscriber behavior or action.
• Set up automation rules to automate your business
• Send personalized emails 
• And more.

5. Convert Kit 

Convertkit is more beginner-friendly and straightforward to use than Getresponse; though it has fewer features, it is a free email sender for up to 1,000 subscribers.

If you’re using email marketing software primarily for list building, landing pages, upselling, and sending email campaigns, Converkit is the right choice for beginners and content creators.

It allows up to 1,000 subscribers in its free account and sends unlimited email broadcasts. 

This is sufficient to build up your email contact list and let the list pay for itself when upgrading to a premium plan.

ConvertKit is suitable for professional bloggers and creators, allowing you to run paid newsletters and segment the audience based on list interest, content upgrades, and email incentives.

You can send email autoresponders with its drip email feature, sell digital marketing products, add additional team members, and integrate with third-party services for lead generation and management.

For subscribers on the Creator Pro plan, you can run a newsletter referral program and access advanced reporting features.

ConverKit offers a 14-day free trial; you don’t need to enter payment info to access it. 

6. SendPulse 

Sendpulse offers marketers the tools to reach their audience on many platforms and devices with personalized messages.

Whether you want to capture leads through SMS, web push, or emails or connect with your audience through a chatbot in real-time, you can achieve these with the Sendpulse email marketing tools.

If you’re an instructor, online course creator, marketing agency, or blogger, you can use Sendpulse to grow your business. There are many great tools to help you reach your goals.

From landing builders to customer relationship management tools, subscription forms, payment processors, email marketing, email templates, automation, workflow, and more…Sendpulse has everything you need. 

It is a powerful email marketing platform with many advanced tools to help marketers build, manage, grow, and scale their business with less effort.

Here are some of the top Sendpulse robust features:

• Chat in real-time with your audience on WhatsApp, Telegram, Viper, Facebook, and Online with a chatbot.
• Create online courses and assignments, and give students certificates.
• Manage customers’ data through Sendpulse CRM
• Create email campaigns.
• Build custom email automation.
• Create workflow automation
• Transactional emails.
• Drag and drop editor.
• Integrate with popular services like PayPal, WooCommerce, Shopify, Facebook ads,  Zapier, and more.

7. Brevo (Formerly Sendinblue)

If your business leverages email and SMS marketing to build an audience and sell more, Brevo is the right choice. 

Beyond SMS and emails, Brevo offers additional features and tools to reach your audience anywhere and on different platforms. 

If you’re on a premium plan, you can reach your audience on WhatsApp, Push notifications, live chats, CRM, and chatbot. 

If you sell digital products or run an e-commerce shop, Brevo gives you tools to send automatic event-based emails to contacts after performing specific actions on your website. You can create an abandoned cart campaign recovery, sophisticated signup forms, transactional emails, etc.

This can help you significantly increase sales, traffic, engagement, and audience. 

However, Brevo offers a more generous free plan than many email marketing tools I’ve ever used. 

The free plan offers email automation, WhatsApp marketing, SMS, workflow, transactional emails, personalization, unlimited users (capped at 100k contacts), and more.

These are features on paid plans in many email marketing newsletter service providers. 

Also, as a free user, you can add an unlimited leads, access the email segmentation feature, customize the signup form, drag and drop, etc. 

But you will have the Brevo branding in your email newsletter campaigns. 

This is fine if you’re focusing on growing your list and looking to upgrade as soon as possible. 

For beginners, it makes sense to start list-building with Brevo and take advantage of its generous free plan and great email marketing tools, such as:

• Landing page builder 
• Email A/B testing.
• Automation Workflow 
• Advanced template language 
• Optimize email delivery with send time.
• Contact geographical and device reporting.
• Heat Map Analytics reporting.
• Phone and chat support (Business Plan)
• GDPR Compliance 
• Send transactional emails.
• Plugins 
• Custom webhook 
• Real-time email stats.
• And a lot more. 

Brevo is a powerful email marketing tool for professionals, content creators, e-commerce business owners, and organizations looking to build customer relationships. 

8. Mailerlite 

Mailerlite offers one of the best free email marketing tools, allowing beginners to build up to 1,000 email contacts. 

You can also send up to 12,000 email campaigns monthly on the free plan. 

As a free user, you can access key features like email automation builder, landing page, popups, web forms and popups, website builder, and drag-and-drop editor. 

The premium plan offers more advanced features like selling digital products, integrating with Facebook ads, auto-resend email campaigns, custom unsubscribe page builder, etc. 

Mailerlite is competitively priced; the premium plan starts at $9/month, allowing 1,000 subscribers and up to 3 team members. 

Free users can access email and chat support for the first 30 days. 

Growing business users have access to 24/7 email support, while users on the advanced plan have unrestricted access to email and live chat support. 

Mailerlite offers a 30-day free trial of its paid plan features, enabling you to try email marketing automation tools for free. And decide if it is worth the investment. 

9. MailChimp 

Mailchimp is a household name in the email marketing software industry. It is one of the oldest and best free email marketing services in the world. 

Starting in 2001, Mailchimp has primarily focused on small business owners, enabling them to access email marketing tools to compete with big brands and build an audience. 

Unless you’re willing to upgrade to a paid plan, Mailchimp’s free plan offers little to discuss. 

Mailchimp used to offer unlimited subscribers (capped at 2,000), but the free plan now allows 500 contacts and email support for 30 days. Plus, Mailchimp branding is in every email you send. 

It also offers pre-built email templates far less appealing than other email marketing service providers on our list. No automation workflow, segmentation, reporting, etc.

The paid plan starts at $13/month for up to 500 contacts but offers more features like basic automated customer journey emails, A/B testing, 24/7 emails, and live chat support. 

If you require more advanced features such as email automation, dedicated onboarding, workflow, custom-coded email templates, predictive audience segmentation, and a campaign manager, and 10k+ contacts, the price starts at $350/month. 

Comparing Mailchimp with other service providers like Brevo, Getresponse, and Convertkit, it lacks features to compete in today’s fast-paced, advanced technology world. 

But here’s the sad reality: you can only discuss the best free email list-building software by referencing Mailchimp due to its popularity and large user base. 

Suppose you want a simple platform to build contacts and send email campaigns without worrying about engagements, tracking, automation, etc. MailChimp is beginner-friendly. 

Thus, here are some excellent Mailchimp email marketing features worth discussing:

• Integrates with over 300 apps and services.
• Pay-as-you-go plan – You can buy email credit and pay when you send emails. 
• Send time optimization – Improve open rates and engagement level.
• Dynamic content – enabling content personalization for different audience segments.
• Advanced list segmentation 
• Assign roles and set account permission levels for team members.

Features and Pricing of Free Email Marketing Services

Here is a comparison of the features and pricing of some of the top free email marketing tools.

Email Provider	Free Plan Limit	Paid Plan Entry Price
GetResponse	Free plan (500 contacts)	$15.58/mon
Smartlead	14-day free trial	$32.5/mon
Omnisend	Free Plan (250 Contacts)	$11.20/mon
Systeme.io	Free Plan (2000 contacts)	$27/mon
ConverKit (Kit)	Free Plan (10k contacts)	$9/mon
Sendpulse	Free Plan (500 Contacts)	$8/mon
Brevo	Free plan (100k contacts)	$8.08/mon
Mailerlite	Free Plan (1k Contacts)	$9/mon
Mailchimp	Free plan (500 Contacts)	$13/mon

Editor’s Pick: Best Email Marketing Tools 

While many email marketing tools provide seamless and integrated services, their ease of use for beginners differs.

I have tried many email marketing service providers, including Getresponse, Mailchimp, Aweber, Mailerlite, ActiveCampaign, Benchmark, Madmini, Omnisend, etc.

Based on experience, Getresponse and ConvertKit are more beginner-friendly and suitable if you require creating beautiful web forms. 

Getresponse has better-prebuilt web forms, more tools, and allows up to 500 free subscribers for free users. You can create email subject lines and compose a complete email in Getresponse with AI.

However, you cannot access the autoresponder and other features, such as automation, webinar, landing page editor (more than once), perfect timing, e-commerce tracking, abandoned trigger, contact tagging, etc.

ConvertKit allows 1,000 free contacts, effortless form creation, and high-converting landing pages. 

If you require an all-in-one platform where you can build your business from one platform without disjointed tools, Systeme.io is a perfect choice.

You can build a blog, set up an e-commerce shop, integrate email marketing tools, organize webinars, create courses, manage affiliate programs, and all from Systeme.io.

Conclusion.

Email marketing is a critical part of an online marketing strategy; with the right tools, you can build a responsive list, increase website traffic, and optimize your content for the target audience.

An effective email marketing campaign will also increase revenue, click-through rate, and engagements, and help you sell more products or affiliate sales.

You can drive traffic on demand, send email broadcasts and newsletters, and bond with your audience uniquely and naturally.

From free to premium email marketing tools, there are endless possibilities to grow your audience and drive more sales revenue. 

While there are many options, you should research, evaluate different features, know what you want, and choose wisely based on your business goals. 

As I experience more email marketing software suitable for beginners, I will update this list to give you more options and features.