How we compare email marketing software
We list 15 email platforms sold to UK businesses, and a published rate card exists for 14 providers. Every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page as shown to a UK buyer. Where a vendor quotes instead, the table says so.
The calculator takes your subscriber count, the emails you send in a month, and whether you need automation. Each rate card is costed at those numbers and the table sorts by the result. A platform billed on contacts and one billed on sends can swap places when you change either input, so enter both real numbers. Commission does not change the order.
Which meter your email marketing software runs on
Most of the table charges for the people on your list. Brevo charges for what you send. HubSpot prices per seat and uses contacts to decide which plan you may buy. The second column says what each vendor counts, which matters as much as the meter.
| Provider | Pricing model | Contact billing |
|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | Per contact | All contacts (active + inactive) |
| AWeber | Per subscriber | Active subscribers (unsubscribes excluded) |
| Brevo | Per email volume | Unlimited contacts (billed by sends) |
| Campaign Monitor | Per subscriber | All subscribed contacts |
| Dotdigital | Custom (quote-based) | Custom (negotiated by volume) |
| Drip | Per subscriber | Active subscribers |
| EmailOctopus | Per subscriber | Active subscribers |
| HubSpot | Per seat | Contacts cap which plan you can buy; the price is per seat |
| Kit | Per subscriber | Active subscribers |
| Klaviyo | Per active profile | Active profiles only (excludes suppressed) |
| Mailchimp | Per contact | All contacts including unsubscribed |
| MailerLite | Per subscriber | Active subscribers |
| Omnisend | Per subscriber | All contacts including non-subscribers |
| Spreeflo | Per marketing contact | Peak marketing contacts in the month (non-marketing contacts and form responses unlimited and uncounted) |
| Transpond | Per active contact | Active contacts (fair use: 12x contacts /mo in sends) |
A large list mailed quarterly and a short list mailed daily get opposite answers from the same vendors. Work out which of your two numbers is the awkward one before you shortlist.
The contact billing column is where the invoice and the law pull apart. Where a vendor bills all contacts, someone who unsubscribed still occupies a paid slot until you remove them, and so does a hard-bounced address. List hygiene is therefore a billing control too. Keep the suppression record when you delete the billable profile: it is your only evidence that the person opted out.
Free plans and automation gates in email marketing software
The free tiers here are real, and most cap on more than one axis at once, which is why they run out unexpectedly. Automation is a common feature gate, so a welcome sequence or an abandoned-basket flow can move you onto a paid plan before list growth does.
| Provider | Free plan | Automation |
|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | No (14-day trial) | Advanced (Plus+); Basic (Starter) |
| AWeber | No (14-day trial) | Basic (Lite), Advanced (Plus) |
| Brevo | Yes (300 emails /day, unlimited contacts) | Basic (Starter), Advanced (Business+) |
| Campaign Monitor | No (free trial) | Basic (Lite), Advanced (Essentials+) |
| Dotdigital | No (demo / contact sales) | Advanced (omnichannel, AI) |
| Drip | No (14-day trial) | Advanced (visual workflow builder on every plan) |
| EmailOctopus | Yes (2,500 subscribers, 10,000 emails /mo) | Basic (time-based, Pro) |
| HubSpot | Yes (free marketing tools, up to 2 users) | Basic (Starter), Advanced omni-channel (Professional+) |
| Kit | Yes (10K subscribers, 1 automation, no A/B) | Basic (Free), Advanced (Creator+) |
| Klaviyo | Yes (250 profiles, 500 emails /mo) | Advanced (flows, triggers, predictive on every paid plan) |
| Mailchimp | Yes (250 contacts, 500 sends /mo) | Basic (Essentials), Advanced (Standard+) |
| MailerLite | Yes (250 contacts, 2,500 emails /mo) | Basic (Comfort), Advanced (Power) |
| Omnisend | Yes (250 contacts, 500 emails, 60 SMS /mo) | Advanced (Pro); Basic (Standard) |
| Spreeflo | No (forms only) | Yes (Starter+) |
| Transpond | Yes (250 contacts, 3,000 sends /mo, no automation) | Unlimited (Growth+) |
Sending is not always unlimited once you have paid for the contacts. Transpond states its allowance as a multiple of the list; where a vendor publishes no multiple, ask before you plan a daily send. If you send one newsletter a month to a few hundred people, you probably do not need to pay yet. Start paying when a specific automation is worth more than its plan.
Email marketing software built in the UK
A handful of platforms here list a UK origin. That buys you a support desk in your timezone and a contract under law you can enforce at home. It does not buy a feature advantage, so read the rest of each row before choosing on principle.
| Provider | Origin | UK SMS marketing |
|---|---|---|
| Dotdigital | United Kingdom | Yes (native, omnichannel) |
| EmailOctopus | United Kingdom | No |
| Omnisend | UK | Yes (Pro plan only) |
| Spreeflo | United Kingdom | No |
| Transpond | United Kingdom | Yes (add-on, UK customers only) |
Dotdigital sits at the account-managed end: its free plan row reads No (demo / contact sales) and its contract row Yes. EmailOctopus lists segmentation as Basic (tags, segments): a newsletter tool that does its job cheaply, not a marketing suite. Transpond's e-commerce row reads None native (Stripe, WordPress; stores via Zapier), so a shop should read that before the price.
PECR consent and what email marketing software cannot decide for you
Bulk marketing email to UK recipients is governed by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations as well as UK GDPR, and PECR decides whether you may press send at all. Much of this software was designed for the American market, where you may email a stranger provided you honour the unsubscribe. A platform with US defaults will let you do something here that you should not.
Marketing email to an individual subscriber generally needs consent, with a narrow exception known as the soft opt-in: broadly, you obtained the address in the course of a sale or negotiations for one, you are marketing your own similar products, and you gave a clear chance to refuse at collection and in every message since. Sole traders and unincorporated partnerships are not corporate subscribers, so a "B2B" list of small UK businesses is very often a list of individuals. A bought or scraped list is not consent, and neither is one that arrived with a business you acquired.
Every platform here reads yes in the UK GDPR/PECR tools column, and the qualifier in that cell says what the yes covers. Tooling is not compliance. Ask whether a vendor records the date, source and method of consent per contact, whether double opt-in is on by default, and where the data is processed. The ICO publishes direct marketing guidance; anything turning on your specific list is a question for your own adviser.
Switching email marketing software without losing the consent evidence
A CSV of addresses will import anywhere, and that is the trap. Take four things with you: the consent record against each contact, the suppression list of everyone who unsubscribed or bounced, your subscription categories, and the engagement history. The suppression list is the one people forget and the one that produces a complaint. Confirm it imports before you switch.
Every row in the Contract column reads no contract except Dotdigital, which lists Yes, so you can usually run both platforms in parallel for a month. Set up authentication records for the new sender before volume moves, and send to your most engaged segment first.