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Best free newsletter platforms (2026): real limits compared

Free plans are not interchangeable. Some cap you at a few hundred subscribers with a send quota. Others let you grow into the thousands with unlimited sends and a hosted site. Below is a docs-based comparison of the free tiers that matter for starting a newsletter, with every limit taken from the vendors’ own pricing and help pages.

By the Creator Mail Stack team · Free-plan limits checked September 28, 2026

How we made this page: We worked from each vendor’s public pricing pages, product docs and help centers, checked on September 28, 2026 (sources at the bottom). We have not done hands-on paid testing of these tools, and we don’t claim to. Affiliate status: Our Beehiiv and Buttondown links are partner referral links, so we may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. EmailOctopus and Systeme.io links on this page are also partner referral links. Kit, MailerLite, Substack, GetResponse and Mailchimp are not affiliates, and we link to their plain official sites. See the disclosure.

Short verdict: who should pick what

If you want the wider shortlist (paid plans and creator types), see best newsletter tools for creators. For a decision framework, read how to choose a newsletter tool.

What “free” actually means here. Kit wins on subscriber count. Beehiiv wins on publishing tools on a free plan (website, custom domain, unlimited sends, podcast hosting at 1 episode a month). Substack wins on “no list-size cap,” then charges a 10% platform fee if you go paid. MailerLite and Mailchimp free tiers are starter lists, not long-term free homes for a growing newsletter.

Verified free-plan limits compared

All figures come from each vendor’s official pricing page or help center, checked September 28, 2026, in USD. “Paid newsletter on free?” means whether the vendor’s own pages say you can charge readers while staying on the free tier.

Platform Subscriber / contact limit Email send limit Branding / watermark Paid newsletter on free? Key free gaps vs paid
Beehiiv (Launch) Up to 2,500 subscribers Unlimited beehiiv branding; remove on Max No (Scale / Max) Email automations (Launch gets a single welcome email), Ad Network, referral program, paid subscriptions, digital products
Kit (Free) Up to 10,000 subscribers Unlimited email broadcasts Kit branding; remove on Creator+ Yes (commerce on every plan; 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction) Visual automations, email sequences, RSS campaigns, polls
MailerLite (Free) Up to 250 subscribers 2,500 emails / month MailerLite logo stays on No (Comfort or Power + Stripe) Free caps: 3 automations, 1 website + 1 landing page, 3 signup forms, 2 seats; paid plans add removal of the logo, paid newsletters and RSS campaigns
Buttondown (Free) First 100 subscribers Priced assuming ≤1 email / day to the whole list Whitelabeling is a +$79/mo add-on With Paid subscriptions add-on (+$9/mo); Buttondown takes no cut beyond card fees Tagging, analytics, paid subscriptions, RSS-to-email (+$9/mo each) and automations (+$29/mo) are add-ons
Substack No list-size cap for free publishing No send quota listed in its cost help article Your publication lives on Substack Yes; Substack takes 10% of each paid transaction (+ Stripe fees) No plan tiers; the cost is the 10% fee once readers pay
EmailOctopus (Free) Up to 2,500 subscribers 10,000 emails / month EmailOctopus branding on emails; removed on Pro Not covered on its pricing page Higher subscriber and send limits and branding removal on Pro
Systeme.io (Free) Up to 2,000 contacts Unlimited email sends (per pricing FAQ) Not specified in the pricing FAQ 0% transaction fees on all plans (funnels / courses oriented) 3 sales funnels, 1 course, 1 blog, 1 affiliate program, 1 custom domain on free
GetResponse (Free) Up to 500 contacts (unconfirmed and removed contacts count) 2,500 newsletters / month GetResponse badge on every message No: paid premium-newsletter subscriptions are paid-plan only (listed on Creator) Premium features for the first 14 days only; after that no scheduling, autoresponders or published automation workflows, and 1 published landing page
Mailchimp (Free) Up to 250 contacts 500 sends / month (250 / day) Branding removal is listed for paid plans (Essentials and up) Not covered in the Free plan description Very low send ceiling; subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts all count toward the 250

Sources are listed at the bottom of the page, all checked September 28, 2026. GetResponse’s Free page and help center both state a 500-contact limit. Systeme.io is an all-in-one marketing suite, not a newsletter-first publisher.

Beehiiv Launch: best free plan for a real publication

Beehiiv’s free Launch plan is the strongest “newsletter as a product” free tier in this roundup. Per beehiiv.com/pricing and pricing.md (checked September 28, 2026), Launch is $0 for up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, newsletters, a website, custom domains, link-in-bio, the recommendation network, API access (excluding Send API) and podcast hosting at 1 episode per month.

Paid-newsletter eligibility on free: no. Paid subscriptions, the Ad Network, the referral program, digital products and email automations start on Scale. Beehiiv’s help center says a single welcome email is available on every plan, including Launch; multi-step welcome flows need Scale or above. Removing beehiiv branding needs Max.

When you’d outgrow free: at 2,500 subscribers, or earlier if you need paid subscriptions, ads, a referral program or automation beyond a welcome email. Scale starts at $49/month on monthly billing (or $43/month billed annually) at the up-to-1,000-subscriber tier, and $69/month monthly at up to 2,500.

Full plan tables and setup notes are in our Beehiiv guide. Fee math versus Substack is in Beehiiv vs Substack.

Try Beehiiv free

Kit Free: biggest free subscriber ceiling

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) advertises a free plan for creators just starting out: Free—up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited email broadcasts, audience tagging and segmentation, and the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions on every plan, including Free. Those bullets are on kit.com/pricing (checked September 28, 2026).

Paid-newsletter eligibility on free: yes. Commerce works on every plan. Kit charges 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction and says that figure includes card processing.

Key free gaps: The Creator plan card lists unlimited visual automations, unlimited email sequences, Kit MCP, A/B subject-line tests, polls, remove-Kit-branding, SMS marketing, apps and integrations, and RSS campaigns. Creator is quoted at $33/month billed yearly ($390/year) for 1,000 subscribers.

When you’d outgrow free: at 10,000 subscribers, or when you need visual automations and sequences. See Kit vs Beehiiv for a side-by-side.

MailerLite Free: small list, familiar ESP toolkit

MailerLite’s Free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails per month, with 2 user seats, campaigns, automations (up to 3 active), 1 website and 1 landing page, up to 3 signup forms and three editors (drag-and-drop, custom HTML and simple), per mailerlite.com/pricing (checked September 28, 2026). The MailerLite logo stays on Free; removing it is a paid-plan feature. If a Free account goes over 250 active subscribers, MailerLite locks sending (campaigns and automations) until you upgrade or remove subscribers.

Paid-newsletter eligibility on free: no. Paid newsletters and recurring subscriptions through Stripe need Comfort or Power. Comfort is listed as starting at $12/month and Power at $25/month.

When you’d outgrow free: at 250 subscribers, or sooner if you send often. A full 250-person list emailed once a week uses roughly 1,000–1,100 of the 2,500 monthly emails; sending twice a week uses about 2,200 before any welcome emails. Details and billing rules are in our MailerLite guide and Beehiiv vs MailerLite.

Buttondown Free: writing-first, à la carte after 100

Buttondown’s pricing page says you pay absolutely nothing for your first 100 subscribers (checked September 28, 2026), with a rich text or Markdown editor, sending from a custom domain and hosted newsletter archives included. Prices assume you send at most one email a day to your whole list; if you send more, Buttondown asks you to contact it about usage-based pricing.

Add-ons on the pricing page today: tagging and segmentation, paid subscriptions, comments and surveys, analytics, RSS-to-email, sponsorships and attachments are each +$9/month; archives on a custom domain, multiple newsletters and automations are each +$29/month; whitelabeling and teams are +$79/month. Buttondown says it charges only for active subscribers, and its paid subscriptions page says you keep all of the money you make after credit card fees.

When you’d outgrow free: at 100 subscribers, or when you need paid subscriptions, tagging or automations. Start at buttondown.com.

Substack: free to publish, paid when readers pay you

Substack’s help center states that publishing is free on Substack no matter how many subscribers you have. If you enable paid subscriptions, Substack takes 10% of each transaction, Stripe charges a credit-card fee (2.9% + $0.30 in the US example on that article) and a Stripe Billing fee for recurring subscriptions (0.7% as of July 2024; the article notes that creators who enabled payments before July 10, 2024 kept the older 0.5% rate until June 30, 2025). Source: How much does Substack cost? (article updated December 16, 2025; re-checked September 28, 2026).

When free stops being “free enough”: when the 10% take rate costs more than a flat-fee platform. That break-even math is the point of Beehiiv vs Substack.

Other free tiers worth knowing

EmailOctopus Free

EmailOctopus markets email for up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month on Free, with EmailOctopus branding on emails (the paid Pro plan removes it), per emailoctopus.com/pricing (checked September 28, 2026).

Systeme.io Free

Systeme.io’s pricing FAQ describes a free plan with up to 2,000 contacts, 3 sales funnels, 1 blog, 1 course, 1 affiliate program, 1 custom domain, unlimited emails and file storage, no credit card and no expiry (checked September 28, 2026 on systeme.io/pricing). The same FAQ names Startup at $17/month as the next step if you need more than 3 funnels or 1 course. Treat it as an all-in-one funnel suite first, not a newsletter-only publisher.

GetResponse Free

GetResponse Free includes space for up to 500 contacts and 2,500 newsletters per month, with a GetResponse badge on every message and 14 days of premium features, per getresponse.com/pricing/free (checked September 28, 2026). GetResponse’s help center confirms the 500-contact limit, counts unconfirmed and removed contacts toward it, and says the limit can’t be reset. After the first 14 days you can still send newsletters, but not schedule them, and autoresponders, published automation workflows and premium newsletters stop until you upgrade. Paid premium-newsletter subscriptions are listed on the Creator plan.

Mailchimp Free

Mailchimp’s help center describes a Free plan with up to 250 contacts and 500 sends per month, with a daily send limit of 250 (checked September 28, 2026). Exceeding the contact limit puts a hold on live and test sends until you upgrade or reduce contacts, and unsubscribed contacts count toward the limit. Mailchimp’s paid plans are Essentials, Standard and Premium. See About Mailchimp pricing plans.

When free stops being free: upgrade triggers

Based on official limits checked September 28, 2026:

If your show is a podcast as well as a newsletter, compare hosting and private feeds in newsletter tools for podcasters.

FAQ

What is the best free newsletter platform?

It depends what “best” means. For the biggest free list, Kit (up to 10,000 subscribers). For unlimited sends plus a website and custom domain on a free plan, Beehiiv Launch (up to 2,500). For free publishing with no subscriber cap, Substack, which takes 10% only if you charge. Checked September 28, 2026.

How do you start a newsletter for free?

Pick a free plan that fits your first year of list size, create a signup form or subscribe page, send a welcome note, and publish on a schedule you can keep. Beehiiv Launch, Kit Free, Buttondown Free and Substack are the usual starting points in this roundup. For help deciding, read how to choose a newsletter tool and the tool guides linked below.

Is Beehiiv free forever?

Yes, for the Launch plan’s stated limits. Beehiiv’s pricing FAQ says Launch is free forever with no credit card required, up to 2,500 subscribers and unlimited email sends. Features like paid subscriptions and email automations require paid plans.

What are Kit free plan limits?

Up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited email broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, and commerce (digital products and subscriptions) on Free. Visual automations, sequences and RSS campaigns are listed from Creator on kit.com/pricing.

What are MailerLite free plan limits?

Up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails per month, with up to 3 active automations, 1 website and 1 landing page, and 3 signup forms. The MailerLite logo stays on. Paid newsletters need Comfort or Power.

Is Buttondown free?

Buttondown is free for your first 100 subscribers. After that, pricing follows list size, and features such as tagging, paid subscriptions, analytics, RSS-to-email and automations are add-ons on the pricing page.

Is Substack free?

Publishing is free at any list size. If you enable paid subscriptions, Substack takes 10% of each transaction plus Stripe’s fees (and Stripe’s Billing fee for recurring payments).

Why aren’t there star ratings?

Because we haven’t done hands-on paid testing of these tools, and ratings would imply we had. Everything here comes from official pricing and docs, with dates.

Next reads

Open Beehiiv Launch

Sources (checked September 28, 2026)

Product names are trademarks of their respective owners. We run Creator Mail Stack independently, and none of these vendors endorse it. Found something out of date? Tell us.