Sources verified against brief 2026-11-05
If you need to send email or start a newsletter for $0, the useful question is not "which tool is best". It is "at which step does free stop working for me?" Each free plan breaks at a different place:
- Kit breaks on automation. You get a large list but no email sequences.
- Systeme.io breaks on list size and automation count. You get 2,000 contacts and 1 automation rule.
- MailerLite breaks on volume. You get automations, but only 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month.
No free plan below covers everything. This page shows where each one breaks so you can choose the one that breaks last for your situation. If you are choosing an email platform for a coaching business rather than a $0 budget, our best email marketing tools for coaches covers the paid-plan trade-offs. If you already have a site and only need the signup box, see how to add a newsletter signup to your website. Starting from zero instead? See how to create a newsletter.
Affiliate disclosure: the Systeme.io links on this page are affiliate links. If you sign up through them, SoloPicked may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Kit and MailerLite links are plain official links, not affiliate links. Read our full affiliate disclosure for details.
How we verified this
All numbers on this page come from the vendors' own pages, checked on 2026-11-05. We did not run lab tests and we did not use third-party blog numbers.
| Vendor | Official source | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Kit | The Kit Free plan (Kit Help Center) | Help article dated 2026-09-23. Kit's pricing page blocked our automated check, so we used this article only. |
| Systeme.io | systeme.io/pricing | Page structured data last modified 2026-10-20. |
| MailerLite | mailerlite.com/pricing | Free plan card, plan comparison table and FAQ. |
If a cell below says "not confirmed", the official page text we checked does not mention it. That does not mean the feature is missing. Vendors change these limits often, so check the source link before you commit.
Illustrated comparison (warm amber / cream). Not vendor UI.
The breakpoint table: where free stops
| Kit Free | Systeme.io Free | MailerLite Free | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $0, no end date, no credit card | $0 |
| Subscriber / contact cap | 10,000 email subscribers | 2,000 contacts | 250 subscribers |
| Email sending | Unlimited broadcasts | Unlimited email sends | 2,500 monthly emails |
| Automations | None. Visual automations and email sequences are not included | 1 automation rule | "Free automations" listed; exact count or trigger limit not confirmed |
| Forms / landing pages / funnels | Unlimited forms and landing pages | 3 sales funnels | 1 landing page, up to 3 active forms, 1 website |
| Custom domain | Not confirmed | 1 custom domain | Not confirmed |
| Remove vendor logo | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not on Free (listed as a paid feature) |
| A/B testing | Yes, on broadcasts | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| What happens when you go over | You must upgrade to keep sending. Content is kept | Account is restricted: opt-in forms and payments stop, no new contacts, emails and new automations pause. Nothing is deleted | Sending is locked, both campaigns and automation |
Read the last row first. It tells you what a bad day looks like with each tool.
Kit Free
What you get (per Kit's help article): up to 10,000 email subscribers, unlimited forms and landing pages, unlimited email broadcasts, audience tagging and segmentation, digital products and subscriptions, A/B testing on broadcasts, API access, and 5 Smart Recommendation slots in the Creator Network.
Where it breaks: Kit's article lists these as not included on Free: visual automations and the automation template library, email sequences, rules and RSS campaigns, AI Connectors, paid apps in the Kit App Store, and earning from Paid Recommendations. You can open the Visual Automations and Email Sequences pages on Free, but you will be offered an upgrade when you try to build one.
Over the cap: above 10,000 subscribers you need a paid plan to keep sending. Your content is retained.
If you downgrade from paid: automations and sequences stop running. They come back if you upgrade again.
Fits you if:
- You mainly send one-off broadcasts (a newsletter) to a list that could grow large.
- You want tagging, segmentation and A/B tests without paying.
Fails you if:
- You need a welcome sequence or any automated follow-up. That is the first thing Kit Free does not include.
Check Kit's current free plan: The Kit Free plan. Paid plan prices are outside the scope of this page — we only verified the Free plan here. For paid tiers, check Kit's official pricing page, and see our ConvertKit (Kit) pricing breakdown for the subscriber-tier math.
Systeme.io Free
What you get (per Systeme.io's pricing page): no end date and no credit card required. 2,000 contacts, 3 sales funnels, 1 blog, 1 course (up to 500 students), 1 affiliate program, 1 custom domain, unlimited email sends, and processing of up to $10,000 in total sales. The page copy also states 1 automation rule.
Where it breaks: two numbers matter most, 2,000 contacts and 1 automation rule. If your plan needs more than one automated flow, you hit the automation limit before the contact limit. Whether a single rule can carry a full multi-email welcome series depends on how the builder works, and the pricing page we checked does not spell that out — so we do not assume it does.
Over the limit: the account is restricted. Opt-in forms and payments stop working, you can't add new contacts or students, emails and new automations are paused, and students can't access your courses. Nothing is deleted. The restriction lifts once you upgrade or get back within the limits. In practice this is the harshest failure mode of the three, because your signup forms and checkout stop too, not just your sending.
Fits you if:
- You want email, a funnel, a landing page and a custom domain in one place for $0.
- You sell something small (a course, a digital product) and want a funnel more than a big list.
Fails you if:
- You expect your list to pass 2,000 contacts soon.
- You need several separate automations.
If Systeme.io's free funnel plus 1 automation rule fits your first 90 days, you can try Systeme.io free (affiliate link). Check the official pricing page for current limits first. For what changes on paid plans, see our Systeme.io pricing breakdown and the full Systeme.io review.
MailerLite Free
What you get (per MailerLite's pricing page): $0, 250 subscribers, 2,500 monthly emails, and knowledge base support. Core features listed: send email campaigns, free automations, 1 landing page, 1 digital product or booking, free signup forms, 2 user seats, MCP for Claude, ChatGPT and more, and 100+ integrations. The comparison table limits Free to 1 website, 1 landing page and 3 active forms.
Where it breaks: volume, and it breaks fast.
- A "send" is one email to one subscriber. A single campaign to 500 people uses 500 of your monthly emails.
- At the 250-subscriber cap, one campaign to your full list uses 250 sends. Based on the official 250-subscriber cap and the 2,500 monthly email allowance, that works out to roughly 10 full-list sends per month. That is simple arithmetic on the two official numbers, not a documented promise.
- Subscriber count is cumulative within each billing cycle. Addresses that were active in the cycle still count after you delete them.
- "Remove MailerLite logo" is listed as a paid feature, not a Free one.
Over the cap: if active subscribers exceed 250, sending is locked for both campaigns and automation.
Not confirmed from the pricing page text: custom domain details, whether automation emails count toward the 2,500 monthly sends, the exact automation trigger count, and A/B testing on Free.
Numbers that may differ elsewhere: some pages quote other MailerLite free limits. Always go by the official pricing page — the plan card and comparison table verified on 2026-11-05 say 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails. If a number you see elsewhere does not match 250 / 2,500, treat the official page as the source of truth.
Fits you if:
- You are starting from zero, have a small list, and want automations from day one.
- You send a few campaigns a month.
Fails you if:
- You expect to pass 250 subscribers soon. Free is closer to a trial for you than a long-term plan.
- You want to remove the vendor logo without paying.
Official source: MailerLite pricing. If you are weighing MailerLite's category against Kit, our Kit vs Mailchimp comparison covers how the mainstream email platforms differ on automation and pricing.
Decision guide: pick by your next 90 days
| If your next 90 days look like... | Free plan that breaks last |
|---|---|
| A newsletter that could grow past a few thousand subscribers, with no automated sequences | Kit Free (10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts) |
| A funnel (landing page, small product, opt-in) on your own domain, with one automated flow | Systeme.io Free (3 funnels, 1 custom domain, 1 automation rule, 2,000 contacts) |
| A tiny list (under 250) where you want automations and a few campaigns | MailerLite Free (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month) |
| A lead magnet, then a welcome sequence, then a sales email | No free plan clearly covers all three. Kit has no sequences. MailerLite lists free automations but the count is unconfirmed. Systeme.io allows 1 automation rule. Check what each vendor's automation builder actually allows before you commit — that detail is not spelled out on the free-plan pages we verified. |
What free still doesn't cover
- Automation depth. Kit Free has none. Systeme.io Free has one rule. MailerLite's free count is unconfirmed.
- Branding. MailerLite lists logo removal as paid. Kit and Systeme.io branding on free emails is not confirmed from the pages we checked.
- Domains. Systeme.io Free includes 1 custom domain. For Kit and MailerLite we could not confirm custom domain terms on Free.
- Export and migration. Our checks for this page did not cover how each tool handles exporting your list. Read each vendor's help center before you move a list in or out.
FAQ
Which email marketing platform is free? Kit, Systeme.io and MailerLite all have free plans with different breakpoints. See the table above. Pick based on which limit you are least likely to hit.
Is Mailchimp still free? We did not verify Mailchimp's free plan limits for this page, so we do not state any here. Mailchimp's own page is mailchimp.com/resources/free-marketing-features-overview. It appears in Google for this search, but check it directly for current terms. HubSpot and Zoho Campaigns also rank for this search with their own free pages, and we have not verified either of those for this page.
Why do people leave free plans? From the official pages, the common triggers are concrete: Kit's missing sequences, Systeme.io's 2,000-contact and 1-automation limits, and MailerLite's 250-subscriber and 2,500-email limits. We did not verify Mailchimp's free-plan terms for this page, so we make no claims about it here.
What do these tools cost once free is not enough? That is a separate question from this page, and paid prices are outside what we verified here. Check each vendor's official pricing page before you budget — Systeme.io and MailerLite are the pages we checked, and Kit's free-plan article links onward to its paid tiers. We cover the paid tiers in more detail in our ConvertKit (Kit) pricing and Systeme.io pricing breakdowns.
Sources
- Kit: The Kit Free plan (help article dated 2026-09-23, checked 2026-11-05)
- Systeme.io: systeme.io/pricing (structured data modified 2026-10-20, checked 2026-11-05)
- MailerLite: mailerlite.com/pricing (checked 2026-11-05)