Newsletter platforms · 2026
Free newsletter platforms 17 tools ranked by verified data
Data checked Oct 14, 2026 against the vendors' own pages. How we verify
We scored 17 tools with a free plan among newsletter platforms with the same 8-criterion scorecard; 17 have enough verified data to be ranked.
Every listed tool has a free plan; the table shows exactly what each free plan allows, as the vendor states it.
Flodesk ranks first with 98/100, followed by Sender (98) and Brevo (98).
The lowest starting price among ranked tools (the least you can pay for a paid plan, for one user or account) is forwardemail.net's: $3 per month billed monthly on the Enhanced Protection plan.
Free plans compared
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. Flodesk 98/100Email marketing platform with a visual email builder, forms, landing pages, workflow automations and checkout and subscription tools.
- Entry price (100/100): Free: the pricing page lists no paid plan
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Free)
Homepage captured Oct 14, 2026 
2. Sender 98/100Email marketing platform for building, automating and sending newsletters, with landing pages, signup forms and transactional email.
- Entry price (100/100): $9/month billed annually on Standard; no monthly-billed price published (scored against annual-billed prices)
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Free)
From $9 per month billed yearly on the Standard plan.
3. Brevo 98/100Multichannel 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.
4. notifuse 93/100Open-source newsletter and transactional email platform offered as a managed cloud service or as self-hosted software with optional licences.
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Self-hosted)
- Verified features (100/100): 5 of 9 tracked features verified: automations / sequences, custom domain, a/b testing, segmentation and tags, open and click analytics
From $16 per month billed monthly on the Notifuse Cloud plan.
5. EmailOctopus 92/100Email marketing service for sending campaigns and automations with a drag-and-drop editor, forms, landing pages and reports.
- Entry price (100/100): $9/month billed annually on Pro; no monthly-billed price published (scored against annual-billed prices)
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Starter)
From $9 per month billed yearly on the Pro plan.
6. forwardemail.net 88/100Open-source email service offering domain email forwarding, encrypted mailboxes, outbound sending, newsletters and an API.
- Entry price (100/100): $3/month billed monthly on Enhanced Protection (scored on the monthly price)
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Free)
From $3 per month billed monthly on the Enhanced Protection plan.
7. AWeber 85/100Email 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.
8. MailerLite 85/100Email 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.
9. Klaviyo 84/100Customer 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)
10. Mailchimp 83/100Email 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 free newsletter platform?
Flodesk, with 98/100 on our scorecard; Sender is second with 98/100.
What is the cheapest free newsletter platform?
By entry price among ranked tools, forwardemail.net: $3 per month billed monthly on the Enhanced Protection plan.
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.