Three tools genuinely stand out on permanently free plans—no trials, no expiration dates. Here's how to pick the right one for where you are right now.
DripDraft — our pick (and yes, it's ours)
Full disclosure: DripDraft is our own tool, so consider us biased — but it earns the top spot for one reason. The tools below help you sequence and send; the real grind is writing a genuinely personal follow-up for every prospect without losing your morning. DripDraft drafts each one in your voice and lands them in your Gmail as drafts you review and send — never auto-blasted, which protects your deliverability and sender reputation. Pair it with Hunter.io to find and verify addresses and you've got the whole loop — find, write, follow up — without a five-tool stack. Free plan: 10 campaigns/month. Start free →
Move 1: Sign up for Brevo if your contact list is growing fast
Brevo offers unlimited contacts on their free plan with up to 9,000 emails per month (300/day limit). That's genuinely rare. Most free-tier competitors cap you somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand subscribers before pushing you to upgrade. Brevo removes that friction entirely—your list can keep growing without forcing your hand on pricing.
Note: The Brevo blog covers this tool alongside competitors, but since Brevo is a vendor source, cross-check their claims against independent reviews before relying on it alone.
Move 2: Choose Sender if automation is non-negotiable
Sender gives you 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails monthly with full marketing automation included on the free tier. That's five times more subscribers than Mailchimp's free plan (which caps at 500). According to Lovable's guide to Mailchimp alternatives, Sender "delivers the most generous free tier for ecommerce: 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails monthly with product-based automations included"—making it a strong pick specifically if you run a store and need abandoned cart recovery, welcome sequences, or product-triggered campaigns without opening your wallet.
Even beyond ecommerce, Sender is the automation winner in this tier. Most tools lock workflows behind paid plans. Sender doesn't.
The catch: Sender branding appears on all free-plan emails. That's the trade-off for limits this generous.
The rest of the field
The other serious contenders each have a clear use case:
- MailerLite — 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails/month with automation, landing pages, and a website builder included. Solid middle ground for solopreneurs who want a polished feature set without needing a massive list.
- HubSpot — Unlimited contacts (CRM) and 2,000 emails monthly. The right call if you want a free sales pipeline attached to your email marketing.
- EmailOctopus — 2,500 subscribers with 10,000 emails/month and a deliberately simple interface. Worth a look if you just need clean newsletter delivery without the complexity.
Pick based on your actual bottleneck. Need to grow your list without a cap breathing down your neck? Brevo. Need to actually work that list with automation and sequences? Sender. Want a full feature set at a moderate list size? MailerLite.