Starting a newsletter in 2026 is free — until it isn't. Every platform draws the line in a different place: some cap your subscribers, some cap your sends, and some stay free while quietly taking a cut of your revenue. Pick the wrong one and you'll migrate a live list six months later, which is miserable.
I compared the eight strongest free newsletter platforms available right now: Substack, beehiiv, Kit (formerly ConvertKit), Sender, MailerLite, Brevo, Buttondown, and Mailchimp. For each one I looked at the free plan's real limits, what triggers the paid upgrade, and who it actually suits.
1. Substack — best for writers who want zero upfront cost
Substack remains the only major platform that is genuinely free with no subscriber cap: you can publish and send to an unlimited list without paying a cent. The catch is the monetisation model — when you turn on paid subscriptions, Substack takes 10% of revenue plus payment processing (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction). There is no real automation, no A/B testing, and a custom domain costs $50. Its strongest asset is the built-in discovery network: Notes and cross-publication recommendations can bring you subscribers without any promotion budget.
Best for: essayists and journalists building an audience with no budget and no marketing machinery.
2. beehiiv — best free growth toolkit for creators
beehiiv's free Launch plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, a hosted website, custom domain support, and built-in growth tools like the referral programme and the Boosts marketplace (where you earn by recommending other newsletters). Paid subscriptions run at 0% platform fee on the paid Scale tier. What the free plan withholds: monetisation features, email automations, and A/B testing. beehiiv has paid out over $25M to creators through its Ad Network, which connects publishers with premium advertisers.
Best for: creators who want to grow fast on a free plan and monetise later without switching platforms.
3. Kit — best free plan for future sellers
Kit (rebranded from ConvertKit) offers the most generous subscriber ceiling of any free tier: up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited sending. The trade-off is depth — the free plan gives you essentially one automation and one sequence, and Kit's logo stays on your emails. Where Kit wins is commerce: built-in digital product sales, strong segmentation, and one of the best visual automation builders in the industry. Over 100 native integrations cover WordPress, Shopify, Teachable, and the rest of the creator stack. If you plan to sell courses, templates, or digital downloads to your list, Kit's free tier is the only one that lets you build the audience and the storefront in the same place.
Best for: creators whose newsletter feeds a business that sells digital products.
4. Sender — best free plan for volume senders
Sender's free tier is quietly one of the most useful: 2,500 contacts, 15,000 emails per month, and unlimited automation — a combination that beats Mailchimp's free plan on every axis. In deliverability tests run in April–May 2026, Sender averaged around 90% inbox placement, slightly ahead of Mailchimp on Outlook and Apple Mail. The trade-off is brand polish: the platform is less well-known, and branding stays on free emails. But for a growing newsletter that sends frequently, Sender's free tier lasts much longer before you hit a paywall.
Best for: high-frequency senders who want automation and volume without paying early.
5. MailerLite — best free plan for clean design
MailerLite's free tier is smaller than most — around 250–500 subscribers with monthly send limits — so treat it as a genuine trial rather than a long-term free home. What you get in return is one of the cleanest drag-and-drop editors in the industry, solid templates, and 0% digital product fees if you sell from your list. MailerLite is a marketing-suite platform rather than a creator-first newsletter tool, so it suits small businesses that want the newsletter alongside landing pages and light automation.
Best for: small businesses that prioritise polished design and don't mind paying once the list grows.
6. Brevo — best free plan if you send in bursts
Brevo takes the opposite approach to subscriber caps: it stores an unlimited number of contacts and instead limits sends to 300 emails per day on the free plan. That makes it ideal for small lists that email occasionally — a monthly digest to 2,000 people costs nothing. Brevo also bundles SMS marketing and a basic CRM, which is unusual at the free tier. The daily send cap is the obvious constraint: daily newsletters will outgrow it immediately.
Best for: infrequent senders and small businesses that want email plus SMS in one free account.
7. Buttondown — best free plan for minimalists
Buttondown's free tier covers just 100 subscribers, which sounds tiny — but the philosophy is different. It's a markdown-first, distraction-free editor aimed at writers who want ownership and simplicity, and pricing after the free tier is usage-based: you pay per active subscriber rather than jumping to a flat monthly plan. There's no feature bloat, no branding gimmicks, and full list portability. If you write a plain-text weekly note and want the cheapest honest path as you grow, Buttondown's transparency is hard to beat.
Best for: writers who want a clean writing experience and pay-as-you-grow pricing.
8. Mailchimp — best free plan for ecosystem integrations
Mailchimp's free plan is now one of the stingiest: roughly 250 contacts and 500 emails per month, with A/B testing and advanced segmentation locked behind paid tiers. So why include it? Ecosystem. Mailchimp integrates with nearly everything, and many businesses already run their stack around it. If your newsletter is a small part of a larger marketing operation — or you need an integration nobody else offers — Mailchimp earns its place. For a standalone newsletter starting from zero, the free plan hits its wall in a few months.
Best for: businesses already invested in the Mailchimp ecosystem.
How to choose in 60 seconds
Match the platform to your actual goal, not the headline feature:
- Pure writer, no budget, want discovery: Substack. Free forever for sending; you only pay when you monetise, via the 10% cut.
- Creator who wants to grow and monetise on one platform: beehiiv (2,500 free subs, growth tools built in) or Kit (10,000 free subs, commerce tools).
- High-volume sender on zero budget: Sender (2,500 contacts, 15,000 emails/month, unlimited automation free).
- Minimalist writer: Buttondown, then pay per subscriber as you grow.
- Occasional sender with a big dormant list: Brevo — unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day.
One more practical note: free-plan limits shift. Several of these platforms tightened their free tiers within the last year, so verify the current numbers on the pricing page before you commit a live audience.