Comparing email tools on the monthly fee alone misses most of the cost. You also need to line up four things across vendors: who counts as a billable contact, list size, send volume and which features sit on which plan. This page uses published USD prices only. It then keeps a simple tool-cost break-even separate from ROI.
Desk research only, with sources rechecked on 11 Nov 2026 (Europe/Amsterdam): no signed-in accounts, checkout quotes or case studies. Whether a vendor pays Email Stack Guide a commission makes no difference to the numbers below.
How to read this page
- Prices are USD unless a row says otherwise. EUR and USD are never mixed.
- “Near 1,000” means the vendor’s published band for about 1,000 billable contacts, where “billable” follows that vendor’s own rule (next section).
- Monthly and annual prices are both shown when the vendor publishes both. Annual-effective figures are the monthly equivalent of yearly billing.
- Send caps: ActiveCampaign (10× to 15× your contact limit, depending on plan) and MailerLite Comfort (10× your tier ceiling) limit monthly sends. beehiiv, GetResponse paid plans, Flodesk paid plans and MailerLite Power advertise unlimited sends (Power: subject to fair use). For Kit’s paid-plan send terms, see Kit’s pricing page.
- Taxes, extra seats, SMS, transactional email and CRM add-ons cost extra unless stated.
What each vendor counts on the bill
There is no universal “active subscribers” rule. Exporting today’s active count can understate your bill. Never delete suppression, bounce or unsubscribe records to drop a tier: they protect deliverability and your consent history.
| Vendor | What counts (public docs) | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Kit | Active / confirmed subscribers. Not based on emails sent. (Billing at Kit) | verified |
| MailerLite | Unsubscribed and bounced contacts don’t count, but the count is cumulative over the billing cycle: anyone active at any point still counts, even if deleted later. (pricing.md FAQ) | verified |
| ActiveCampaign | See ActiveCampaign’s help page on billable contacts and check it against your own account. | see help page |
| beehiiv | Subscriber bands on the public tier table. (pricing) | verified |
| GetResponse | List-size bands from 1k to 100k on all three plans (pricing). Check the current price for your band. | verified |
| Flodesk | Flat price: both paid plans include unlimited subscribers, and your subscriber count doesn’t change the price (FAQ). (pricing) | verified |
Published plans near 1,000 contacts
| Tool | Plan | Billable context | Monthly | Annual total / effective | Currency | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kit | Free | Active ≤10,000 | $0 | — | USD | verified |
| Kit | Creator | Active ≤1,000 | $39 | about $32.50/mo (12 months for the price of 10 , by our math) | USD | monthly verified; annual derived (Billing) |
| Kit | Pro | Active ≤1,000 | $79 | about $65.83/mo (12 for 10, by our math) | USD | monthly verified (Creator vs Pro); annual derived |
| GetResponse | Starter | ≤1,000 | $19 | about $15.58/mo (18% off a 12-month plan, by our math) | USD | monthly verified (help); annual derived |
| GetResponse | Marketer | Entry band on the pricing page | €54 | €44.28/mo paid annually | EUR | EUR, as shown on the pricing page on 11 Nov 2026 (net prices, not converted to USD) |
| GetResponse | Creator | Entry band on the pricing page | €62 | €50.84/mo paid annually | EUR | EUR, as shown on the pricing page on 11 Nov 2026 (net prices, not converted to USD) |
| ActiveCampaign | Starter | Published annual starting rate (contact count not labeled) | check current price | From $15/mo billed annually | USD | starting rate on LP; monthly and above 1k: check current price |
| ActiveCampaign | Plus | same | check current price | From $49/mo billed annually | USD | starting rate; monthly and above 1k: check current price |
| ActiveCampaign | Pro | same | check current price | From $79/mo billed annually | USD | starting rate; monthly and above 1k: check current price |
| ActiveCampaign | Enterprise | same | check current price | From $145/mo billed annually | USD | starting rate; monthly and above 1k: check current price |
| beehiiv | Free | ≤2,500 | $0 | — | USD | verified |
| beehiiv | Lite | ≤1,000 | $59 | $588/yr → $49/mo | USD | verified (pricing) |
| beehiiv | Pro | ≤1,000 | $109 | $1,140/yr → $95/mo | USD | verified (pricing) |
| Flodesk | Free | Forms and landing pages; no email sending | $0 | — | USD | verified |
| Flodesk | Any list size (flat price, unlimited subscribers) | $46 | $456/yr → $38/mo | USD | verified (FAQ) | |
| Flodesk | Everything | Any list size (flat price, unlimited subscribers) | $99 | $948/yr → $79/mo | USD | verified (FAQ) |
| MailerLite | Comfort | Active ≤1,000 (cumulative in cycle) | $19 | $17.10/mo effective (10% off) | USD | verified (pricing.md) |
| MailerLite | Power | Active ≤1,000 (cumulative in cycle) | $39 | $35.10/mo effective | USD | verified (pricing.md) |
ActiveCampaign sends (main /pricing page, shown for 1,000 contacts): Starter and Plus allow 10× your contact limit (10,000); Pro 12× (12,000); Enterprise 15× (15,000). Starter automations are capped at 5 actions per automation. Enhanced CRM (Pipelines and sales engagement) is a paid add-on on Plus, Pro and Enterprise, not part of the base price. (activecampaign.com/pricing)
Flodesk annual billing: Flodesk’s FAQ lists Email at $38/month billed annually ($456/year) instead of $46/month, and Everything at $79/month billed annually ($948/year) instead of $99/month. By our math that saves $46×12 − $456 = $96 a year on Email and $99×12 − $948 = $240 on Everything. Both paid plans include unlimited subscribers and unlimited emails at one flat price; Flodesk says members already on a legacy unlimited plan keep it unchanged.
MailerLite Free (250 max) is only for lists under 250. At 1,000 contacts you need Comfort or Power.
Tool notes
Kit
Kit bills on active (confirmed) subscribers, not on emails sent (Billing at Kit). The Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with broadcasts, forms, landing pages, tagging and digital products, but visual automations and email sequences need a paid plan (Free plan help). Annual plans offer 12 months for the price of 10. Creator at 1k: $39 monthly, or about $32.50/mo on annual billing by our math. Pro at 1k: $79 monthly. Kit’s billing help also uses Creator at $59/mo for the 3,000-subscriber tier. The rest of the ladder isn’t published there, so we don’t fill it in. For paid-plan send limits and any migration help, see Kit’s pricing page.
GetResponse
Plans: Starter / Marketer / Creator. At 1k: Starter $19 monthly. GetResponse Help also states 18% off a 12-month plan, which puts Starter at about $15.58/mo on annual billing by our math. Starter includes one custom automation workflow; Marketer and Creator list unlimited workflows. Paid plans advertise unlimited monthly email sends. The pricing page showed Marketer at €54/mo (€44.28/mo paid annually) and Creator at €62/mo (€50.84/mo paid annually), in EUR as shown on 11 Nov 2026; we don’t convert EUR into USD. For USD prices on those plans, and for any band above 1k, check the current price.
ActiveCampaign
Treat the landing-page figures as published annual starting rates, then get a configured quote for your contact band and billing period. If you need SMS, WhatsApp, transactional email or Enhanced CRM, add those add-ons to the total.
beehiiv
Publishes a full USD tier table (pricing). At ≤1k: Lite $59 monthly / $588/yr ($49/mo); Pro $109 / $1,140/yr ($95/mo). Every plan, Free included, has unlimited email sends. Paid subscriptions carry a 0% platform take rate, but Stripe’s processing fees still apply. Lite is sold up to 100k subscribers and Pro up to 250k; those are list ceilings, not counts included at the entry price. The Ad Network isn’t available during the trial or in every region, and access doesn’t guarantee income.
Flodesk
Free doesn’t include email sending. Two paid plans, each at one flat price for any list size: Email $46/$38 and Everything $99/$79 (monthly / effective annual). Both paid plans include unlimited subscribers and unlimited email sends. Email adds workflow automations, A/B testing and the option to remove the Flodesk footer, with 1 seat. Everything adds unlimited sales pages, checkout flows, upsells, subscriptions, payment plans and sales tax processing, with 3 seats. Flodesk Checkout is currently available only to businesses based in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Euro Area countries.
MailerLite
Full matrix at pricing.md (updated 8 Sep 2026). At 1k: Comfort $19/$17.10; Power $39/$35.10. Comfort allows monthly sends of 10 × your tier ceiling. Power has unlimited monthly emails (subject to fair use) but still caps each automation at 100 steps. Multiple automation triggers and unlimited seats are Power-only.
Worked examples
Example A: ~900 billable contacts, ~4 campaigns a month
Sorted by monthly cost on annual billing.
| Option | ~Cost/mo | Watch-outs |
|---|---|---|
| Kit Free | $0 | No sequences or Visual Automations |
| ActiveCampaign Starter | from $15 (annual starting rate) | Contact count behind the rate not labeled; 10× sends; 5 actions per automation; check how your account counts contacts |
| GetResponse Starter | $15.58 annual effective | One automation workflow |
| MailerLite Comfort | $17.10 annual effective | 10× send cap is plenty for 4 × 900 sends |
| Kit Creator | $32.50 | Needed if you want sequences on Kit |
| Flodesk Email | $38 annual effective | Same price at any list size; checkout needs Everything |
| beehiiv Lite | $49 annual effective | You’re paying for monetization tools |
Example B: 5,000 contacts (published USD only)
This table is deliberately short: MailerLite and beehiiv publish USD prices at this size, and Flodesk charges the same flat price at any list size. For Kit, ActiveCampaign and GetResponse at 5,000, check the current price on each vendor’s page.
| Tool | Plan | Monthly | Annual / effective | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite Comfort | ~5,000 | $49 | $44.10/mo | verified |
| MailerLite Power | ~5,000 | $69 | $62.10/mo annual-effective (yearly billing, not month-to-month) | verified |
| beehiiv Lite | ≤5,000 | $109 | $1,140/yr → $95/mo | verified |
| beehiiv Pro | ≤5,000 | $199 | $2,028/yr → $169/mo | verified |
| Flodesk Email | Any list size (flat) | $46 | $38/mo | verified |
| Flodesk Everything | Any list size (flat) | $99 | $79/mo | verified |
Example C: daily digest to 2,500 contacts
A daily send to the full list is about 2,500 × 30 = 75,000 emails a month. Plans that advertise unlimited sends fit best: beehiiv, paid GetResponse, paid Flodesk or MailerLite Power. Check Kit’s send terms before you count it in. MailerLite Comfort at the 2,500 tier allows 25,000 a month (10 × the tier ceiling), a third of what you need. ActiveCampaign lists sends at 10× (Starter, Plus), 12× (Pro) or 15× (Enterprise) the contact limit; at a 2,500-contact limit that would be 25,000–37,500 sends by our math (confirm on a live quote), still short of 75,000.
Tool-cost break-even vs ROI
These are two different calculations. Only the second one is ROI. To run both with your own numbers, use the email marketing ROI calculator.
Hypothetical tool-cost break-even (T / V)
T = monthly software cost. V = the average contribution margin per active subscriber per month that you attribute to email for this exercise.
Break-even subscribers ≈ T / V.
Hypothetical example: Kit Creator at T = $32.50/mo and V = $0.50 gives $32.50 / $0.50 = 65 subscribers. That’s the break-even for the tool alone, on assumed numbers. It is not a buyer count, a measured conversion rate or observed revenue.
Cost per billable contact = T ÷ billable contacts. At 1,000: MailerLite Comfort $17.10 ≈ $0.017; Kit Creator $32.50 ≈ $0.0325; beehiiv Lite $49 ≈ $0.049.
ROI for the whole email program
ROI % = (incremental contribution margin − total email-program cost) / total email-program cost × 100%
- Incremental contribution margin is the margin you can show email actually caused. Revenue your analytics attribute to email is not automatically incremental.
- Total email-program cost is software plus labor, design, migration, deliverability tools, payment-processing fees, SMS/transactional add-ons and any other email-only tools.
Leads count only at a defensible expected margin per lead. Don’t add raw lead counts to dollars. Time saved counts only if you measure it, and don’t count labor twice if it’s already on the cost side.
Feature gates that change total cost
| If you need… | The cheapest plan often falls short because… | Plans that match on public pages |
|---|---|---|
| Sequences from day one | Kit and beehiiv Free plans leave out automation, and Flodesk Free doesn’t include email sending at all | Kit Creator; beehiiv Lite and up; MailerLite Comfort and up; GetResponse Marketer |
| A paid newsletter without a platform cut | Take rates and native paid-subscription tools differ by vendor; check each one | beehiiv Lite and up states a 0% take rate; processing fees remain |
| Deep automation or CRM workflows | ActiveCampaign Starter caps automations at 5 actions; Enhanced CRM is an add-on | ActiveCampaign Plus/Pro (plus add-ons); GetResponse Marketer |
| Design-led email with checkout | Flodesk Free has no email sending, and Flodesk Email has no checkout | Flodesk Everything |
| EU data-center preference | Not every vendor states EU hosting | MailerLite states an EU data center; GDPR compliance is still your job |
| Lowest bill for a small list | Free plans have hard caps | MailerLite Free (≤250) or Kit Free for broadcasts (≤10k) |
Who should pay what
| Buyer profile | Typical cost at ~1k (annual effective) | Shortlist |
|---|---|---|
| Broadcasts only, ≤250 contacts | $0 | MailerLite Free |
| Broadcasts only, ≤10k | $0 | Kit Free (no sequences); beehiiv Free up to 2.5k |
| Creator funnels at ~1k | ~$16–$38 | MailerLite Comfort/Power; Kit Creator ($32.50); Flodesk Email ($38); GetResponse Starter ($15.58, one workflow) |
| Newsletter monetization | ~$49–$95 | beehiiv Lite or Pro |
| Automation-heavy small business | from ~$49–$79 (starting annual rates) | ActiveCampaign Plus/Pro (confirm quote and add-ons); GetResponse Marketer (€44.28/mo paid annually in EUR; check the current USD price) |
| Design-led email plus ecommerce | ~$38–$79 | Flodesk Email / Everything (checkout on Everything only) |
A total-cost worksheet beyond the software bill
Use one period and one currency throughout. Fill in your own costs; these are budget categories, not vendor quotes.
| Cost line | What to include |
|---|---|
| Platform and add-ons | The matching contact tier, sends, seats and required extras |
| People | Hours spent writing, designing, building segments, checking and reporting × your actual hourly cost |
| Setup and switching | Template rebuilds, form replacement, migration checks and training; show one-off costs separately |
| Other tools | Testing, list validation, landing pages or integrations you actually need |
| Selling and messaging | Relevant payment-processing, SMS and transactional charges |
Show recurring cost separately from the first-period total so a migration month does not masquerade as a normal month. For annual billing, show the upfront cash payment as well as the monthly equivalent. Do not count the same invoice or labor hours in two rows.
Checklist before you commit to annual
- Export the count that matches that vendor’s billable definition.
- Keep suppression, unsubscribe and bounce history. Don’t delete it to drop a tier.
- Estimate monthly sends.
- Map must-have features to plans and add-ons.
- Price monthly and annual on the official page, in one currency.
- Confirm tax, seats, SMS, transactional and CRM add-ons.
- Test the automation you need in whatever trial that vendor offers. Lengths and terms vary; don’t assume 14 days.
- Then commit to annual.
Related Email Stack Guide pieces
For creator workflows, free plans and automation on three of the tools in this table, see Kit vs beehiiv vs MailerLite. To turn these list prices into program ROI or tool-cost break-even, use the email marketing ROI calculator. If your hard cap is $50 a month at about 500–1,000 contacts, we also walk through which published plans still fit in our best email marketing tools for creators under $50 guide.
Sources (checked 11 Nov 2026)
- Kit: https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2502679-billing-at-kit · https://help.kit.com/en/articles/16627071-the-kit-free-plan · https://help.kit.com/en/articles/4494683-creator-vs-pro-choose-the-right-plan
- GetResponse: https://www.getresponse.com/pricing · https://www.getresponse.com/pricing/trial · https://www.getresponse.com/help/what-is-the-monthly-cost-of-getresponse.html
- ActiveCampaign: https://www.activecampaign.com/lp/pricing-summary · https://www.activecampaign.com/pricing · help page on billable contacts
- beehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing · https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing.md
- Flodesk: https://flodesk.com/pricing
- MailerLite: https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing.md
Check on the vendor’s page before you buy
- Kit prices beyond Creator $39 (1k), Creator $59 (3k) and Pro $79 (1k), plus paid-plan send limits and migration help
- ActiveCampaign monthly prices, the contact count behind the annual starting rates, bands above 1k, and which contacts count toward your bill
- GetResponse Marketer and Creator in USD, and all GetResponse USD prices above 1k
Email Stack Guide · Imprint: LiBrAi · See our affiliate disclosure.