Summary: The best free newsletter platforms in 2026 are beehiiv, Kit, Substack, MailerLite, and GetResponse. beehiiv offers 2,500 subscribers and unlimited sends. Kit is the most generous, with a free plan supporting up to 10,000 subscribers. Substack is completely free with no subscriber cap, but takes a 10% cut once you monetize. MailerLite and GetResponse both offer free entry points for more traditional email marketing needs, though their free tiers are limited.
Starting a newsletter doesn’t have to cost a thing… at least not at first.
Nearly every major newsletter platform offers a free plan of some kind, and some of them are pretty impressive.
We’ve spent a lot of time testing these tools, and one thing that comes up again and again is just how different “free” can look from one platform to the next. Some give you thousands of subscribers before you pay a cent. Others let you send unlimited emails. A few even let you monetize your audience right from the start. And then there are the free plans that are really just a glorified free trial.
The tricky part isn’t finding a free plan, it’s figuring out which one actually fits your situation. A plan that’s perfect for a writer who just wants to publish and grow a community might be completely wrong if you’re a small business owner who needs landing pages and automations from day dot.
In this guide, we’re covering beehiiv, Kit, MailerLite, Substack, and GetResponse, a.k.a. the platforms we think offer the most interesting free plans for different types of users. We’ll break down exactly what you get (and what you don’t) on each free plan, flag when you might need to upgrade, and help you figure out which one makes sense for where you are right now.
One quick note: We haven’t included Flodesk here because it doesn’t offer a free email plan, even though it is a platform we love and cover in our full newsletter platform comparison.
Quick Answer: What Are the Best Free Newsletter Platforms?
The best free newsletter platforms in 2026 are:
- beehiiv (best free plan for newsletter-first creators)
- Kit (most generous subscriber allowance at 10,000 for free)
- Substack (best for writers who want an easy setup)
- MailerLite (best for traditional email marketing features)
- GetResponse (best if you want a broader marketing platform)
| Platform | Free subscriber limit | Main free-plan strengths | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| beehiiv | 2,500 | Website builder, recommendation network, custom domain | No monetization on free plan |
| Kit | 10,000 | Huge subscriber allowance, sell products (with transaction fee) | No automations, Kit branding on emails, required to recommend other newsletters |
| Substack | Unlimited | Totally free, simple setup, community features | 10% cut on paid subscriptions |
| MailerLite | 250 (MailerLite cut its free plan limits on June 16th) | Automations, website builder, forms | Very limited |
| GetResponse | 500 | Landing pages, automations, website | GetResponse branding, limited landing page visits |
In terms of popularity, our Email Detective tool found Kit and Substack to be the most widely-used newsletter platforms in users’ inboxes, followed by MailerLite, Beehiiv, then GetResponse:
What to Look for in a Free Newsletter Platform
Before we dive deep into each individual platform, here’s a quick checklist of what to compare when choosing a free plan. The “best” free plan really does depend on where you’re at and what you want to do with your newsletter.
- Subscriber limits. How many people can you have on your list before you’re forced to upgrade?
- Monthly send limits. Some platforms cap how many emails you can send per month. Others offer unlimited sends even on free plans.
- Newsletter editor. Is the editor easy to use? Can you create beautiful emails, or will everything feel clunky and amateur?
- Signup forms and landing pages. Can you build forms to grow your list? Do you get a landing page to host your newsletter and capture new subscribers?
- Automations. Can you set up a welcome sequence for new subscribers, or is that locked behind a paywall?
- Reporting. What data do you get on opens, clicks, and subscriber growth?
- Monetization options. Can you charge for paid subscriptions or sell digital products on the free plan?
- Upgrade costs. If your newsletter takes off, how much will it cost you to move to a paid tier?
- Branding. Will the platform’s logo appear on your emails and forms until you pay?
With all of that in mind, let’s take a look at the platforms.
1. beehiiv: Best Free Plan for Newsletter-First Creators
Free plan: Up to 2,500 subscribers | Unlimited email sends
beehiiv is one of our top picks for newsletter creators overall. In fact, we’ve awarded it our Best Newsletter Tool badge for 2025 and 2026, and its free plan (called the Launch plan) is packed full of useful features you don’t have to pay a cent to use.
You get up to 2,500 subscribers and unlimited email sends, which means you’re not constantly watching a monthly send counter tick down. On top of that, beehiiv includes a website builder, a custom domain, audience segmentation, and API access.
And if you want to build out your online presence around your newsletter, you absolutely can. Your newsletter automatically becomes a webpage, so every issue is archived and publicly accessible and new subscribers can browse your back catalog before they sign up.
What you don’t get on the free plan is monetization. Paid subscriptions, access to the built-in ad network, advanced analytics, and Boosts (beehiiv’s newsletter recommendation marketplace) are all locked behind the paid Scale plan, which starts at $49/month for 1,000 subscribers.
The good news is that beehiiv takes 0% of your paid subscription revenue on paid plans. So once you’re earning, the platform fee is the only cost.
What’s included on beehiiv’s free plan:
- Up to 2,500 subscribers
- Unlimited email sends
- Website builder with custom domain
- Audience segmentation
- Basic recommendation network
- Signup forms and landing pages
- API access
What you don’t get on the free plan:
- Paid subscriptions and monetization tools
- beehiiv Ad Network
- Boosts (cross-promotion marketplace)
- Advanced analytics
- AI writing tools
- Branding removal from your newsletter
Best suited for: Creators and newsletter writers who want to build a newsletter-first brand with a proper web presence, and who are thinking about monetization down the line.
For more detail on beehiiv’s paid plans and whether they’re worth it, see our beehiiv review and beehiiv pricing guide. And for a head-to-head comparison with Substack, read our beehiiv vs Substack piece.
2. Kit: Most Generous Free Subscriber Allowance
Free plan: Up to 10,000 subscribers | Unlimited email sends
If raw subscriber count is what you’re after, Kit is hard to beat. The Free plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited email sends, which you probably won’t outgrow for a long time.
Beyond that big subscriber number, you also get unlimited landing pages, unlimited signup forms, email templates, subscriber tagging, and basic segmentation. You can even sell digital products and charge for paid subscriptions on the free plan, with a transaction fee of 3.5% + $0.30 per sale.
The trade-off is that you won’t get access to automation on the free plan – something they removed in September 2026. That basically means you can’t even create a welcome series for new subscribers. If you want to set up automated flows, you’ll need to upgrade. There’s also Kit branding on all your emails and forms, which you can only remove on a paid plan. And you’re obligated to recommend other newsletters to your subscribers, without getting a say in which.
Paid plans (called Creator) start at $39/month for 1,000 subscribers. Note that the starting price on a paid plan resets to a lower subscriber cap than you might have on the free plan. So, for example, if you decide to upgrade with 5,000 subscribers (which you can have on the free plan), it’ll cost you $75 a month on a paid plan.
What’s included on Kit’s free plan:
- Up to 10,000 subscribers
- Unlimited email sends
- Unlimited landing pages and forms
- Basic email templates and subscriber tagging
- Sell digital products and paid subscriptions (with transaction fee)
- Creator Profile page to showcase past issues
What you don’t get on the free plan:
- Automations
- Third-party integrations (70+ apps)
- Kit branding removal
- Advanced reporting
- Newsletter referral system
- Live chat and email support
Best suited for: Creators, bloggers, podcasters, and course creators who want lots of room to grow their list before paying anything.
Read our full review of Kit.
3. Substack: Best for Writers Who Want An Easy Setup
Free plan: Unlimited subscribers | Unlimited sends | No monthly fee (ever)
Substack is one of the simplest ways to start a newsletter. There’s no monthly fee, no subscriber cap, and no send limit. You sign up, write something, and hit publish. You don’t have to worry about any complicated email setup, and there’s also a very good chance your emails will end up in Gmail’s coveted Primary inbox.
When you start publishing, you get your own webpage that’s automatically populated with your newsletters so subscribers can easily browse your back issues. Plus, you can start accepting paid subscriptions whenever you’re ready.
Substack has become home to a huge number of writers, from solo hobbyists to journalists with six-figure subscriber counts, and that tight community aspect is one of its biggest draws. Features like Recommendations (other writers promoting your newsletter), Notes (short-form posts), and Chats (direct conversations with your audience) give Substack more of a networking feel than other email platforms.
The catch is that once you start charging for subscriptions, Substack takes a 10% cut of your revenue, plus an additional billing fee of 0.5% on recurring subscriptions. If you’re earning $5,000 a month from paid subscribers, that’s $500 going to Substack every month.
There’s also very little in the way of traditional email marketing features. You can’t create automations or segment your audience, and you can’t integrate it with third-party tools. The analytics are pretty basic too compared to other platforms.
What’s included on Substack’s free plan:
- Unlimited subscribers
- Unlimited sends
- Newsletter webpage with archive
- Paid subscription capability (with 10% platform fee)
- Community features: Notes, Chats, Recommendations
- Podcast and video support
What you don’t get on the free plan (or at all):
- Email automations
- List segmentation
- Third-party integrations
- Advanced analytics
- Custom domain (available, but requires setup)
Best suited for: Writers and creators who want the simplest possible way to start publishing, build a community, and eventually monetize, and who don’t need email marketing features.
For more info, watch our full review of Substack or read how Substack compares to Kit.
4. MailerLite: A Traditional Email Tool With a Tighter Free Tier
Free plan: Up to 250 subscribers | 2,500 emails a month
MailerLite used to have a fairly decent free plan, but it significantly reduced the plan’s limits on June 16th. The subscriber cap dropped from 500 to 250 active subscribers, and the monthly send limit dropped from 12,000 to 2,500 emails.
The good news is that MailerLite added a few features to the free plan at the same time. You now get access to custom templates, a blog, promotional pop-ups, and an HTML email editor that were previously paid-only. So there’s some give alongside the take.
But practically speaking, 250 subscribers is a very low cap. If you’ve got growth in mind, the MailerLite free plan might be better treated as more of an extended trial than a long-term free option.
What MailerLite does well, even on a restricted free plan, is make it easy to set up and send emails, hence why we’ve awarded it the Best Email Marketing Tool for Ease of Use badge three years running (2023, 2024, and 2025). The drag-and-drop editor is intuitive, the forms and landing pages are clean, and the automation builder is beginner-friendly.
When you do upgrade, the Comfort plan starts at just $12/month for 500 subscribers, making it one of the more affordable paid tiers among these platforms.
What’s included on MailerLite’s updated free plan:
- Up to 250 subscribers
- 2,500 emails/month
- Unlimited campaigns
- Up to 3 automations (enforced from August 2026)
- 1 landing page, 1 website
- 3 signup forms
- Custom templates, blog, promotional pop-ups
- HTML email editor
What’s not included in the free plan:
- More than 250 subscribers
- Removing MailerLite branding from emails
- Auto-resend campaigns
- Advanced segmentation
- Paid subscription support
- Additional team seats beyond 2
Best suited for: Small businesses and freelancers who want a classic, easy-to-use email marketing tool and don’t mind upgrading relatively quickly as they grow.
Keep an eye on MailerLite’s pricing page for the latest limits, as they have changed several times recently. Read our full review of MailerLite or read our MailerLite pricing guide to learn more about the paid tiers.
5. GetResponse: A Broader Marketing Platform With a Limited Free Entry Point
Free plan: Up to 500 subscribers | Unlimited emails
GetResponse is a full-featured marketing platform. Its jam-packed menu of features include email, landing pages, automations, webinars, and now an AI-powered course builder.
The free plan allows up to 500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, a landing page builder (capped at 1,000 unique visitors per month), and basic automations. You can also create courses for up to 250 students on the free plan, though you’ll need to upgrade if you actually want to sell them. The website pitches its free plan as a “forever free” option, but you’ll lose access to most premium features if you don’t upgrade after 14 days.
Note that GetResponse’s branding appears on all emails sent from the free plan, which isn’t ideal if you’re going for a professional look from day one. Landing page visits are also capped, which can be frustrating if you’re actively growing your list. And while you can set up premium newsletters with free subscriptions, charging for them is a paid-plan feature.
Once you’re ready to upgrade, the Creator plan (which includes paid newsletters, course selling, advanced automations, and webinars) starts at $69/month for 1,000 subscribers, which is one of the pricier options on this list.
Where GetResponse shines is in the breadth of what it offers once you’re on a paid plan. If you’re building something that combines newsletters with courses, webinars, and sales funnels, it could be worth the investment. But if your focus is purely on newsletter growth, there are more cost-effective options.
What’s included on GetResponse’s free plan:
- Up to 500 subscribers
- Unlimited email sends
- Landing pages (1,000 unique visitor/month cap)
- Basic automations
- AI course builder (up to 250 students, free subscriptions only)
- Website builder
What’s not included in the free plan:
- Removing GetResponse branding
- Paid newsletter subscriptions
- Course selling
- Advanced automations
- Unlimited landing page visits
- Webinars beyond 10 attendees
Best suited for: Small businesses and marketers who want to test a broader marketing platform, especially one they might later use for courses, webinars, and sales funnels alongside their newsletter.
Read our full review of GetResponse or see our GetResponse pricing guide for a full breakdown of what you get at each paid tier.
Honorable mentions…
A few other platforms worth knowing about, depending on your situation:
- EmailOctopus offers a free plan with up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails/month. Worth a look if you want a straightforward email tool with a bigger free subscriber allowance.
- Brevo prices by email sends rather than subscribers, with a free plan that allows unlimited contacts and 300 emails a day.
For a broader roundup of free options across email marketing, see our free email marketing services guide.
Which Free Newsletter Platform Should You Choose?
Here’s a quick summary to help you decide:
Choose beehiiv if you want a newsletter-first platform with a proper web presence, generous send limits, and good monetization options when you’re ready to upgrade.
Choose Kit if you’re a creator who wants lots of room to grow your list for free. The 10,000-subscriber limit is hard to beat, and the ability to sell products and subscriptions on the free plan is a pretty nice bonus.
Choose Substack if you want the simplest possible way to start publishing and building a community, and you don’t need all-singing, all-dancing email marketing features.
Choose MailerLite if you want a beginner-friendly traditional email tool and you’re happy to upgrade relatively quickly. The free plan is now quite limited, but the paid plans are affordable and the platform is easy to use.
Choose GetResponse if you’re building something bigger than just a newsletter, for example you want to run courses, webinars, and sales funnels, and want to test the whole platform before committing.
Common Free-Plan Limitations to Watch Out For
Committing to a free plan seems simple, but it can be a lot of effort if you have to then swap platforms to go to a paid plan. Instead, make sure the free plan you choose also has an upgrade option that suits your needs.
Here’s what to look out for:
- Subscriber and send limits. These vary enormously, and as MailerLite’s recent changes show, they can be reduced without much notice. Always check the current limits on the platform’s pricing page.
- Platform branding. Most free plans slap the platform’s logo on your emails, forms, and landing pages. This is something to consider if you’re trying to build a professional brand. Substack and beehiiv are the exceptions. beehiiv allows custom domains on the free plan, and Substack has no branding issue by design.
- Limited automations. Welcome sequences, re-engagement flows, and drip campaigns are often capped or locked on free plans. Kit gives you one automation, MailerLite gives you three (from August 2026), and beehiiv includes all sorts of automations on its free plan. Substack has none at all.
- Limited analytics. Most free plans give you basic open and click data, but advanced reporting is usually a paid feature.
- Limited templates. Some platforms (like MailerLite on older free tiers) restrict access to professional email templates until you pay.
- Monetization restrictions. The ability to charge for paid subscriptions, sell digital products, or run sponsorships is often the first thing locked behind a paywall. beehiiv, for example, requires an upgrade before you can monetize at all. Kit lets you sell on the free plan with a transaction fee. Substack lets you monetize for free but takes 10%.
- Support. Free plan users are often limited to community forums or email support with slower response times. Live chat and priority support are typically paid-tier perks.
- Upgrade costs. If your newsletter grows, what happens next? A free plan that needs an expensive upgrade can end up costing more in the long run than a paid platform with lower ongoing costs. Think about where you want to be in 12 months.
The Best Free Newsletter Platform Depends on You
There’s no single best free newsletter platform. It really does depend on what you’re trying to build and what features are most important to you.
beehiiv and Kit are the strongest overall free options for creators. beehiiv gives you a serious newsletter infrastructure complete with a website, custom domain, and unlimited sends for up to 2,500 subscribers. Kit gives you the most subscribers for free (10,000) and even lets you start monetizing before you pay.
MailerLite is worth considering for small businesses and freelancers who want a familiar, easy-to-use email marketing tool. It’s also good if you plan to upgrade fairly quickly to access the paid-tier plans and want to test out the platform first.
Substack is the easiest starting point for writers who just want to write and publish, especially if community features and discoverability are central to your goals.
GetResponse is worth exploring if email is just one part of a bigger marketing setup, though it’s not the best or cheapest pure-newsletter option.
Whatever you choose, starting with a free plan is a low-risk way to test the platform and find your feet. Just make sure you know what the upgrade option looks like if and when you do outgrow the free plan.
For a deeper look at each platform, including paid plans, editor quality, deliverability, and real-world test results, check out our full newsletter platform reviews:
And if you’re just getting started, our guides on how to create a newsletter, how to write one, and how to design it are good next steps.