Mailchimp’s free plan caps at 250 contacts, 500 sends a month, and no automations at all. Constant Contact has no free plan at any size. Two of the four platforms here will carry a real list, running a real sequence, for nothing.
See where you land
How many people are on your list right now?
2,250 over
Mailchimp’s free plan stopped 2,250 contacts ago. Kit’s free plan carries you with 7,500 subscribers to spare. Benchmark’s free plan covers the first 500 with every feature switched on.
| Platform | Free plan size | What it lets you do | Sends included |
|---|---|---|---|
Kit Best |
10,000 subscribers | 1 visual automation, 1 sequence, 1 user, email-only support | Unlimited broadcasts |
Benchmark Email Best |
500 contacts | Every feature — 1 user, 1 sending domain, 2 API keys | 2,500 sends/mo |
| 500 subscribers | Limits not stated on the main pricing page | Not stated for the free tier | |
| No free plan | 30-day trial: every feature, up to 1,000 contacts, no card | Unlimited during the trial | |
Mailchimp Incumbent |
250 contacts | No automations at all; 1 seat | 500/mo or 250/day |
Constant Contact Incumbent |
None | A trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee are the whole offer | — |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Choose Kit if you need room — 10,000 subscribers free, unlimited broadcasts, one automation and one sequence. Choose Benchmark if you need to evaluate — only 500 contacts and 2,500 sends a month, but every feature unlocked rather than a sampler.
Kit and Benchmark win different arguments, and which one is right depends on what you are testing. Kit carries forty times Mailchimp’s contact limit and still runs one real welcome sequence — so if the question is "can I grow a list without paying", Kit answers it. Benchmark stops at 500 contacts but switches on every feature it sells, so if the question is "can I see what this software actually does before I pay", Benchmark answers that one. Anyone with a list over 500 who wants more than one automation will have to pay someone eventually; these two just move that moment further out than the incumbents do.
500 subscribers, limits unstated
AWeber publishes a free plan at aweber.com/free, but the limits are not stated on the main pricing page. We mark that as unpublished rather than fill it in. If a free tier is what you are choosing on, this gap matters.
Full AWeber review →No free plan, but the best trial
Moosend has no free tier. Its 30-day trial takes no card, covers up to 1,000 contacts and unlocks every feature — the longest evaluation window in this comparison, and a better test than most free plans.
Full Moosend review →The full comparison prices all four challengers against Mailchimp and Constant Contact at your list size, row by row.
Kit, if you need subscriber room: 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, one automation and one sequence. Benchmark, if you need to evaluate the software: only 500 contacts but every feature switched on.
250 contacts, with sends capped at a maximum of 500 a month or 250 a day, one seat, and no automations at all. Support is email for the first 30 days and then nothing.
No. There is no free plan at any list size. A trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee are the entire free offer.
Kit’s free plan includes one basic visual automation and one sequence. Benchmark’s free plan includes every feature it sells, automation among them, at up to 500 contacts. Mailchimp’s free plan has no automations.