Quick answer
- Best overall for small businesses: MailerLite. A free plan with automations, landing pages and signup forms, plus a 14-day trial of paid features.
- Best for occasional senders with a big list: Brevo. Free forever plan with up to 300 emails a day.
- Best if you want CRM and email together: HubSpot. A free CRM with free marketing tools built in.
- Best known: Mailchimp. Priced in pounds on its UK site by number of contacts.
Comparison at a glance
| Tool | Free option | How paid plans are priced | Stand-out feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | Free plan; 14-day free trial of paid features, no card | By number of subscribers | Simple editor, automations and landing pages |
| Brevo | Free forever, up to 300 emails a day, no card | By number of emails sent | Email, SMS and transactional email in one |
| HubSpot | Free CRM with free marketing tools, no expiry | By plan and number of marketing contacts | Everything joins up with the CRM |
| Mailchimp | Check the UK pricing page for the current free plan | By number of contacts, shown in GBP | Large template and integration library |
What to look for
- Pricing model: tools that charge by subscriber get expensive as your list grows; tools that charge by emails sent suit businesses with big lists who email rarely.
- Automation: a welcome sequence and an abandoned-basket email are the two automations most small businesses benefit from first.
- Signup forms and landing pages: so you can collect subscribers without changing your website.
- Deliverability set-up: look for clear guidance on authenticating your domain (SPF, DKIM and DMARC) so your emails reach inboxes.
- Integrations: with your website builder, shop or CRM.
The tools in detail
Top pick
1 MailerLite: best overall for small businesses
MailerLite is popular with small businesses because it keeps things simple without leaving out the important features. The free plan covers email campaigns, automations, a landing page and signup forms. Paid plans unlock unlimited templates, dynamic emails, auto-resend, multivariate testing, an AI writing assistant and more. You can try every paid feature free for 14 days without a card, with 24/7 live chat support during the trial.
Good points
- Generous free plan with automations
- Clean, easy editor
- 14-day free trial of paid features
- Landing pages and forms included
Watch out for
- Free plan has subscriber and sending limits
- Sending through the API needs a paid plan
- Prices on its site may be shown in US dollars depending on where you are
2 Brevo: best for occasional senders
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) offers a free-forever plan with no card needed. Once your account is approved for sending, you can send up to 300 emails a day. Because Brevo is priced mainly on how many emails you send rather than how many contacts you store, it can work out cheaper for businesses with a large list that email occasionally. It also covers SMS and transactional email.
Good points
- Free forever plan
- Pricing based on emails sent, not contacts stored
- SMS and transactional email in one platform
Watch out for
- Daily sending cap on the free plan
- Editor is less polished than MailerLite's
3 HubSpot: best for CRM and email together
HubSpot's free CRM has no expiry date and includes free marketing tools, so you can capture leads, store contacts and send marketing emails from one place. The advantage is joined-up data: you can see a contact's emails, form fills and deals together. Paid Marketing Hub plans add automation and remove HubSpot branding, and they can become expensive as your contact list grows. See also our best free CRM guide.
Good points
- Free CRM with no time limit
- Email, forms and contacts in one place
- Scales into a full sales and marketing platform
Watch out for
- Free emails carry HubSpot branding
- Paid marketing plans cost more than standalone email tools
4 Mailchimp: best known
Mailchimp is the name many people think of first. Its UK site shows prices in pounds, based on how many contacts you have, with discounts for larger lists. It has a huge library of templates and integrations. It has become less generous on its lower tiers over the years, so compare the cost for your list size with MailerLite and Brevo before you commit. We do not have a commercial relationship with Mailchimp.
Good points
- Very well known with many integrations
- UK pricing in pounds
- Strong reporting
Watch out for
- Can cost more than rivals for the same list size
- Lower tiers are limited
Visit Mailchimp's UK pricing page for current prices.
UK GDPR and PECR basics for email marketing
General information only, not legal advice. See the ICO's guidance on direct marketing for the full rules.
- To email individual consumers with marketing, you generally need their consent, given by actively opting in.
- The "soft opt-in" can let you email existing customers about similar products, as long as you gave them a chance to opt out when you collected their details and in every email.
- Every marketing email must identify you and include an easy way to unsubscribe.
- Keep a record of when and how each person signed up. All four tools store this for you.
How we compared these tools
We compared free plans, trials, pricing models and headline features from each provider's official pricing pages on 1 November 2026. We have not run deliverability tests for this page. See how we review.
Sources we checked
All checked on 1 November 2026. Prices and features change, so confirm on the provider's site before you buy.