Newsletter platforms · 2026
Best newsletter platforms for small businesses 5 tools ranked by verified data
Data checked Oct 14, 2026 against the vendors' own pages. How we verify
We scored 5 newsletter platforms for small businesses with the same 8-criterion scorecard; 5 have enough verified data to be ranked.
Only tools listed for small businesses are included.
Brevo ranks first with 98/100, followed by AWeber (85) and MailerLite (85).
The lowest starting price among ranked tools (the least you can pay for a paid plan, for one user or account) is Brevo's: $9 per month billed monthly on the Starter plan.
The ranking
| # | Tool | Score | Coverage | From, billed monthly | From, billed yearly | Free plan | Integrations | Public API | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Brevo | 98/100 | 75%5 of 8 criteria | $9/mo | Not offered | Yes | 150 | Yes | Oct 14, 2026 |
| 2 |  AWeber | 85/100 | 85%6 of 8 criteria | $15/mo | $12.49/mo | Yes, 500 subscribers | 750 | – | Oct 14, 2026 |
| 3 |  MailerLite | 85/100 | 85%6 of 8 criteria | $12/mo | $10.80/mo | Yes, 250 subscribers | 100 | Yes | Oct 14, 2026 |
| 4 |  Klaviyo | 84/100 | 85%6 of 8 criteria | Free | Free | Yes, 250 subscribers | 350 | Yes | Oct 14, 2026 |
| 5 |  Mailchimp | 83/100 | 75%5 of 8 criteria | $13/mo | Not offered | Yes | 300 | Yes | Oct 14, 2026 |
Each value links the vendor page it was read from (hover for the check date). Coverage is the share of the scorecard's weight with verified data, and "N of M criteria" how many criteria the score is based on; a tool is ranked at 60% or more.
– = not published by the vendor, or not verified yet.
Why each one ranks where it does
- 1. Brevo 98/100
Multichannel marketing platform covering email, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns, automation, segmentation, landing pages and a sales CRM.
- Entry price (100/100): $9/month billed monthly on Starter (scored on the monthly price)
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Free)
From $9 per month billed monthly on the Starter plan.
Homepage captured Oct 14, 2026 - 2. AWeber 85/100
Email marketing platform for small businesses with automations, landing pages, signup forms, ecommerce pages and web push notifications.
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Free)
- Verified features (100/100): 5 of 9 tracked features verified: paid subscriptions, automations / sequences, landing pages and forms, segmentation and tags, open and click analytics
From $15 per month billed monthly ($12.49 billed yearly) on the Lite plan.
- 3. MailerLite 85/100
Email marketing platform with a drag-and-drop editor, automations, landing pages, signup forms, websites and digital product sales.
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Free)
- Verified features (100/100): 7 of 9 tracked features verified: paid subscriptions, automations / sequences, a/b testing, landing pages and forms, segmentation and tags, newsletter website, open and click analytics
From $12 per month billed monthly ($10.80 billed yearly) on the Comfort plan.
- 4. Klaviyo 84/100
Customer data and marketing platform that sends email, SMS and mobile messages, with a built-in helpdesk and AI agents for campaigns and service.
- Entry price (100/100): Free: the pricing page lists no paid plan
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Free)
- 5. Mailchimp 83/100
Email and SMS marketing platform with automations, audience tools, templates, popup forms and reporting.
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Free)
- Pricing transparency (100/100): 4 of 4 plans have a public price
From $13 per month billed monthly on the Essentials plan.
How we picked
Every one of these newsletter platforms is scored by the same 8 criteria (scorecard v2). Each criterion gives 0 to 100 from the vendor's published data; the total is the weighted average. A criterion without verified data is left out and the other weights are re-normalised. A tool with under 60% of the weight covered is listed as not ranked, and so is a tool with no verified price and fewer than 2 verified features (“needs a verified price”); each score shows how many criteria it is based on. The core criteria are the same in every category; the category criteria are specific to newsletter platforms. Nobody gets custom weights, including our own products.
| Criterion | Weight | Type | What we measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | 25% | Core | Price per month of the cheapest paid plan, against the prices of other newsletter platforms on the same billing basis (monthly-billed prices against monthly, annual-billed against annual).Log scale. Billed monthly: $9/month or less = 100, $100 or more = 0. Only billed annually: $9/month or less = 100, $159 or more = 0. Only free plans = 100. Usage-priced and one-time plans are not scored. |
| Free plan or trial | 15% | Core | Whether you can use the tool before paying: a free plan, or failing that a free trial, as shown on the vendor's pricing page.Free plan = 100. No free plan but a free trial = 60. The pricing page lists plans but shows neither = 0. No plans read = not scored. |
| Pricing transparency | 10% | Core | How much of the pricing is public: the share of plans with a published price ("contact sales" counts against), and whether there are at least 3 published tiers.80 x (plans with a public price / plans listed) + 20 x (public plans, up to 3) / 3. No plans read = not scored. |
| Verified features | 15% | Core | How many of the 9 features we track for this category the vendor's own pages verifiably show (paid subscriptions, automations / sequences, custom domain, referral programme, a/b testing, landing pages and forms, segmentation and tags, newsletter website, open and click analytics). This counts verified features only: a tool that documents less scores lower here, and only here.Linear: verified features / 5 (half the tracked list) x 100, capped at 100. No tracked feature verified = not scored. |
| API, integrations and export | 10% | Core | Whether a public API exists, how many integrations the vendor states, and whether the vendor documents a way to export your data.Average of the parts with data: public API yes = 100, no = 0; integrations on a log scale (100 or more = 100); a documented data export = 100. None verified = not scored. |
| Cost at 1,000 subscribers | 10% | Category | Monthly price of the cheapest paid plan that allows at least 1,000 subscribers.Log scale: $5/month or less = 100, $100 or more = 0. Plans that do not state a subscriber limit are not used. |
| Free plan limits | 10% | Category | What the free plan allows: subscribers (full marks at 2,500), emails per month (full marks at 10,000).Each stated limit linear up to its full mark (unlimited = 100), averaged. Tools without a free plan, or whose free plan states none of these limits, are not scored here. |
| Paid subscriptions | 5% | Category | Whether writers can charge for subscriptions, and the platform's fee on that revenue.No paid subscriptions (verified) = 0; paid subscriptions: linear, 0% fee = 100, 15% or more = 0. Fee not stated = not scored. |
Sources are vendor pricing pages, docs and changelogs, each with the date we checked it. We did not test these tools hands-on unless a listing says so. Full formulas: methodology.
Questions, answered from the data
What is the best newsletter platform for small businesses?
Brevo, with 98/100 on our scorecard; AWeber is second with 85/100.
What is the cheapest newsletter platform for small businesses?
By entry price among ranked tools, Brevo: $9 per month billed monthly on the Starter plan.
Which of these have a free plan?
5 of the 5 tools have a free plan; the highest-ranked is Brevo.
How did you rank these newsletter platforms?
Each tool gets 0 to 100 per criterion from its published pricing, limits and features; the total is the weighted average over the criteria with verified data. Tools with under 60% of the weight covered are not ranked.