The lowest published monthly price for a paid plan that covers a 1,000-subscriber list, across 13 email platforms: from $9 on Buttondown to $59 on beehiiv, with what each plan sends and does for you.
Lowest paid plan covering 1,000 subscribers, USD per month, monthly billing
Buttondown$9.00
EmailOctopus$13.50
Sender$15.00
Moosend$16.00
Brevo$17.00
Ghost$18.00
ActiveCampaign$19.00
MailerLite$19.00
Flodesk$25.00
Mailchimp$26.50
Kit$39.00
Loops$49.00
beehiiv$59.00
Walnut bars: the platform’s free plan also covers 1,000 subscribers. Published prices, as of 2026-10-13.
Chart: the monthly price of the cheapest paid plan that covers 1,000 subscribers on each of the 13 platforms in the table, from $9 (Buttondown) to $59 (beehiiv); walnut bars mark platforms whose free plan covers 1,000 too.
As of · each platform’s published price at a 1,000-subscriber list, monthly billing, USD1
Cheapest Paid Email Platform at 1,000 Subscribers, as of 2026-10-13
Rank
Platform
Cheapest paid plan covering 1,000
Price, monthly billing (USD / mo)
Relative to the highest
Annual billing
Free tier
Free tier covers 1,000?
Emails / month on this plan
Done for you on this plan
Source
1
Buttondown
Basic
$9.00
$90 / yr
Free · 100 subscribers
No
One send a day to the whole list (pricing assumption)
Hosted newsletter archive, sending from your own domain; automations are a +$20/mo add-on
Ranked by the lowest published monthly price, on monthly billing, of each platform’s cheapest paid plan whose subscriber or contact limit covers 1,000; ties share a rank. Prices are list prices in USD before tax, read from each vendor’s pricing page or its built-in price table on 2026-10-13. Where a plan is priced by tier, the price is the smallest tier that holds 1,000 (Mailchimp’s 1,500-contact tier, Brevo’s 10,000-email tier with 1,500 contacts, Loops’s 5,000-subscriber tier). Kit blocks automated visits to its site, so its price comes from Email Vendor Selection’s Kit pricing guide (updated 2026-08-09), cited as a secondary source. Left out: AWeber, whose pricing page showed two different Lite prices for a 1,000-subscriber list on the same day ($15 a month flat up to 2,500 subscribers in one version, $25 a month in another);18 and Substack, which has no subscriber-tier price on its going-paid page and instead keeps 10% of paid-subscription revenue (writers keep 90%, minus card fees).19 Email limits and “done for you” items are as each pricing page lists them for that plan. Annual billing figures are shown as published; “$90 / yr” and similar are yearly totals.
The top 10
#1
Buttondown
$9.00 / mo
Buttondown’s Basic plan costs $9 / mo · billed monthly for up to 1,000 subscribers, or $90 a year. Its first 100 subscribers are free.1
The plan includes a rich-text or Markdown editor, sending from your own domain and a hosted newsletter archive. At this size the $9 price also includes tagging and segmentation, paid subscriptions, comments and surveys, analytics, RSS-to-email, sponsorships and email attachments, and Buttondown's free migration. Automations are an add-on at +$20 a month, as are archives on a custom domain and multiple newsletters.1 The price assumes at most one email a day to the whole list; more than that is a conversation with Buttondown about usage-based pricing.1
#2
EmailOctopus
$13.50 / mo
EmailOctopus Pro is $13.50 / mo · billed monthly for 501 to 1,000 subscribers, or $144 a year, with 10,000 emails a month. These figures come from the price table built into its pricing page.2
Its free Starter plan already covers 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, with EmailOctopus branding, 30 days of reports, one landing page and one form. Pro removes the branding, keeps reports and allows unlimited landing pages, forms and users.2
#3
Sender
$15.00 / mo
Sender’s Standard plan moves to $15 / mo · billed monthly once the subscriber slider passes 500, and covers up to 1,000 subscribers with 12,000 emails a month. Annual billing is listed at $180 a year, shown at $126 for the first year during a 30%-off offer.3
Sender’s Free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month, with Sender branding, and already includes email automation, landing pages and signup forms. Standard adds three seats, removes the branding and unlocks unlimited landing pages and A/B testing.3
#4
Moosend
$16.00 / mo
Moosend Pro is $16 / mo · billed monthly at 1,000 contacts, $14 a month on six-month billing and $13 a month on annual billing.4
There is no free plan, only a 30-day free trial. Pro includes unlimited email sends, marketing automation workflows, landing pages and subscription forms.4
#5
Brevo
$17.00 / mo
Brevo prices its Starter plan by emails a month, not by contacts, but each tier now comes with a stated contact limit. The 5,000-email tier ($9) stores 500 contacts, so the smallest Starter tier that holds 1,000 contacts is the 10,000-email tier: $17 / mo · billed monthly, $15.25 a month billed yearly, with 1,500 contacts.56
Brevo’s Free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts but sends at most 300 emails a day. A campaign to more than 300 people goes out to 300 on the first day, and the rest must be re-queued by hand day by day.7 On the pricing page, multi-step marketing automation is listed from the Standard plan up.5
#6
Ghost
$18.00 / mo
Ghost(Pro) Starter is $18 / mo · billed monthly for up to 1,000 members, or $15 a month billed yearly, with unlimited email sends.8
Starter bundles your own website, a free custom domain and the newsletter, with one staff user. Paid subscriptions start on the Publisher plan ($35 a month billed monthly at 1,000 members).8
#7=
ActiveCampaign
$19.00 / mo
ActiveCampaign Starter costs $19 / mo · billed monthly for 1,000 contacts, or $15 a month billed annually. Its monthly send limit is 10 times the contact limit.9
Starter includes multi-step marketing automation, capped at five actions per automation, with limited segmentation and one user. No free plan is listed.9
#7=
MailerLite
$19.00 / mo
MailerLite Comfort is $19 / mo · billed monthly on the up-to-1,000 tier, or $17.10 a month billed yearly, with 10,000 emails a month (ten times the top of the tier).10
Comfort allows 50 automations, 10 forms, 10 landing pages and websites combined, and 5 digital products.20 MailerLite’s Free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month since June 16, 2026.20
#9
Flodesk
$25.00 / mo
Flodesk Lite is $25 / mo · billed monthly for up to 1,000 subscribers, or $19 a month with annual billing, with unlimited email sends.11
Lite includes Flodesk’s designer templates, forms and landing pages, but only one workflow automation and a 25,000-subscriber ceiling. Flodesk’s Free plan builds forms, landing pages and link-in-bio pages but does not send email.11
#10
Mailchimp
$26.50 / mo
Mailchimp’s Essentials plan is $26.50 / mo · billed monthly on its 1,500-contact tier, the smallest that holds 1,000 contacts, with 15,000 sends a month.12 Mailchimp offers annual plans only on Standard and Premium at 10,000 contacts or more.12
Essentials includes email scheduling, A/B testing and automation flows of up to four steps. The Free plan holds 250 contacts and 500 sends a month.1213
The other three, and the free plans that already fit
Kit’s Creator plan is listed at $39 a month for 1,000 subscribers, with unlimited sequences and visual automations; its free Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with one sequence and one visual automation.14 Loops has no paid tier as small as 1,000: its free plan covers your 1,000 newest contacts and 4,000 sends in any rolling 30 days, and the first paid tier is $49 a month for up to 5,000 subscribers, with unlimited sends.15beehiiv’s Lite plan is $59 a month on monthly billing at 1,000 subscribers, or $49 a month billed yearly, after the new plans beehiiv launched for new customers on October 1, 2026; existing customers move to the new prices at their first renewal on or after November 1, 2026.1617
Six of the 13 platforms have a free plan that already holds a 1,000-subscriber list: EmailOctopus and Sender (2,500 each), beehiiv (2,500), Kit (10,000), Loops (the 1,000 newest contacts) and Brevo (100,000 contacts, but 300 emails a day).231614157 On those platforms, the paid plan buys branding removal, more sending, more automation or more seats rather than room for the list itself.