Buying guide
How much does email marketing cost for a small list? Moosend, GetResponse and beehiiv
If you have a list of a thousand people and one welcome email you want to send itself, the three tools people mention first cost anywhere from nothing to about EUR 16 a month. The headline number tells you little, because each one charges on a different axis: how many people are on your list, which features you switch on, or both. This page compares them at 1,000 contacts, and says what each one does not do at that price. It is built from each vendor's own pricing page and our full reviews. We have not run a campaign on any of them.
The short version
| Our pick for | Product | From |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan that includes automation | Moosend | $13 a month at 1,000 contacts, billed yearly |
| Free until 2,500 subscribers, if you only need to send | beehiiv | Free on the Launch plan |
| Best if webinars or funnels are on your list | GetResponse | EUR 13.12 a month at 1,000 contacts, billed yearly |
Prices checked October 2026 on each vendor's own page. They change — verify before you buy.
Cheapest paid plan that includes automation
Moosend $13 a month at 1,000 contacts, billed yearly
Moosend charges by the number of contacts and lets you send as much as you like to them. At 1,000 contacts the Pro plan is $16 a month, or $13 if you pay for the year; at 2,000 it is $24 or $19. Marketing automation, landing pages and subscription forms are part of what it sells, so a welcome sequence does not need a more expensive tier. The cost of that simplicity is that the price steps up with every jump in list size.
- At 1,000 contacts
- $16 monthly, $13 billed yearly
- At 2,000 contacts
- $24 monthly, $19 billed yearly
- Free option
- 30-day trial, no credit card
- Team members
- Up to 5 on Pro
Good
- Unlimited sends, so the bill moves only when the list does
- Automation is part of the plan
- Accepts PayPal as well as cards
Not so good
- Price climbs in steps: $88 a month at 10,000 contacts on monthly billing
- No permanent free plan, only the 30-day trial
Free until 2,500 subscribers, if you only need to send
beehiiv Free on the Launch plan
beehiiv's free Launch plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, a website and campaign analytics, which is the whole job for a newsletter that goes out on a schedule. What it leaves out is automation: a welcome sequence that sends itself needs the Scale plan at $43 a month. beehiiv branding also stays on your newsletter through both the free and the Scale tier.
- Price
- $0 on Launch
- Subscriber limit
- Up to 2,500 on the free plan
- Automations
- Not on the free plan
- To add automations
- Scale, $43 a month
Good
- Genuinely free for a small list
- Unlimited sends on the free plan
Not so good
- No automation on the free plan
- beehiiv branding shown on free and on Scale; removing it costs $96 a month
Best if webinars or funnels are on your list
GetResponse EUR 13.12 a month at 1,000 contacts, billed yearly
GetResponse Starter is EUR 16 a month at 1,000 contacts, or EUR 13.12 billed yearly, close to Moosend's yearly figure in number, though in euros rather than dollars. It includes unlimited monthly sends, a landing page builder and forms, but only one custom automation workflow. Its case is the tiers above: webinars and a website builder arrive on Creator at EUR 62 a month (EUR 50.84 yearly), so it fits you if those are on your roadmap rather than a later surprise. Every advertised price is quoted at 1,000 contacts and rises from there.
- At 1,000 contacts
- EUR 16 monthly, EUR 13.12 billed yearly
- Automation on Starter
- 1 custom workflow
- Webinars
- From Creator, EUR 62 a month
- Currency
- Euros
Good
- Webinars, funnels and a website builder exist on higher tiers
- Unlimited monthly sends on Starter
Not so good
- One automation workflow on Starter
- Prices are quoted in euros and only at 1,000 contacts
How we chose — and what we did not do
We have not physically tested these products. Plenty of sites imply that they have; we would rather tell you what this page is actually built on:
- Prices were read from each vendor's own pricing page in October 2026; Moosend's price by list size was read on 16 October 2026.
- We compared at 1,000 contacts, where Moosend and GetResponse publish a price and beehiiv's plan is free, and mention 2,500 where beehiiv's free plan ends.
- Where a vendor quotes one headline figure, we used the number from our own full review of that tool, linked from its section.
- We have not run campaigns on any of the three, so we say nothing about deliverability or how pleasant they are to use.
Where hands-on testing matters more than specifications — how a strap feels after two hours, how a menu behaves in the cold — we say so in that product's section rather than guessing.
How to choose between them
Ask what you need to automate, not just how many people you have
A welcome email that sends itself is automation. On beehiiv it starts at the $43 Scale plan, not the free one. On GetResponse Starter you get exactly one custom workflow. On Moosend it is part of Pro. For a list under 2,500 that only sends a scheduled newsletter, the free beehiiv plan covers the whole job. The moment you want a welcome sequence, the cheapest route changes.
Price the list you will have in a year, not today
Moosend is $16 a month at 1,000 contacts, $48 at 5,000 and $88 at 10,000 on monthly billing. beehiiv's free plan stops at 2,500 subscribers. GetResponse quotes everything at 1,000 contacts and climbs from there. If you expect to triple the list, look up the price for that size before you commit to a year.
Check the currency and the billing period
GetResponse prices in euros; Moosend and beehiiv in dollars. Yearly billing saves about 20% at Moosend and about 18% at GetResponse, and in each case the advertised low price assumes you pay for twelve months up front.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest way to email a small list?
For a list under 2,500 that only needs scheduled sends, beehiiv's free plan. If you also need automation, the cheapest paid plans we found at 1,000 contacts are Moosend at $13 a month and GetResponse at EUR 13.12, both on yearly billing and quoted in different currencies.
Do I need to pay at all?
Not if your list is under 2,500 and you only send emails on a schedule. You start paying when you want automation, remove the beehiiv branding, or pass the free subscriber limit.
Does the price change as my list grows?
Yes, on all three. Moosend rises with each step in contacts, GetResponse quotes its prices at 1,000 contacts and rises from there, and beehiiv's free plan ends at 2,500 subscribers.