Last Updated: May 2025
Email marketing is still one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways for small businesses to reach their audience. In fact, according to Litmus, email marketing delivers an average return of $36 for every $1 spent, making it a smart investment for businesses on a budget.
But finding an affordable email marketing service that offers the right mix of features, ease of use, and scalability can be a challenge.
To help, we’ve compiled a list of 13 affordable email marketing services that are ideal for small businesses aiming to grow their customer base, increase engagement, and boost sales, without overspending.
Email Marketing Is an Effective Technique Because…
Email is still one of the cheapest and most effective tactics for small business digital marketing. You can easily reach your audience with a customized message to engage customers and build connections.
According to Campaign Monitor, email generates 174% more conversions than social media—it’s an extremely powerful tool for retention and sales. With the proper approach and resources, email can yield quantifiable results at a fraction of the expense of other forms of marketing.
How Much Does Email Marketing Cost?
Email marketing costs range from free (if you use your email to send your marketing emails) to very low to relatively expensive. The average small business using an email marketing service can spend anywhere from $9 to $1,000 per month.
And if you’re doing everything yourself on a simple software service, usually, the costs are on the lower end; $9 to $300 a month. But if you’re hiring an email marketing full-service agency to run it for you, these costs can soar to $300 to $1,000+ per month, based on your campaign objectives, volume of email sent, and amount of customization you need.
A few platforms even have free plans with limited features or subscriber lists, making them ideal for startups or small businesses just starting. You’ll want to compare the features to your business’s needs, whether that’s automation, A/B testing, or advanced analytics, to ensure the technology will allow you to succeed.
What to Look for in an Affordable Email Marketing Service
Picking out an affordable email marketing service isn’t only about the cheapest price, though; it’s about value for the money. Here’s what small businesses should consider when shopping around:
- Transparent and Scalable Pricing: Seek clearly defined pricing models up front. Services with free plans or pricing scales as you grow can assist you in staying on budget.
- User-Friendly Interface: A user-friendly dashboard that just makes sense, and that can save time and shrink the learning curve. Especially for those teams that don’t have marketers or technical resources to spare!
- Automation Capabilities: Simple automations such as welcome emails, follow-ups and drip campaigns can save time and increase engagement. High-end options also include behavior-triggered emails and personalization.
- Responsive Email Templates: Choose from a library of mobile-friendly templates to make sure your email looks great no matter where it’s read.
- Segmentation and Personalization: Allowing yourself the resources to segment your audience and tailor campaigns to behavior, location, or preferences drives higher open and click-through rates.
- Analytics and Reporting: Find out if the service has good reporting features that show you how many of your messages are being opened, clicked and acted upon (converting, signing up, etc.) in order to make data-driven decisions.
- Deliverability Rates: A service with a solid reputation for high deliverability ensures your emails land in inboxes, not spam folders.
- Integrations: See if it’s compatible with other tools you are already using, such as CRMs, ecommerce systems, or CMSs, to streamline your workflow.
- Customer Support: Good support (available with chat, email, or phone) can be a lifesaver, especially when you’re in trouble or don’t have access to information right away.
Top Affordable Email Marketing Service
77% of marketers report an increase in email engagement over the past 12 months. Hence, it’s evident that email marketing is a force to be reckoned with, especially for small businesses that don’t have the budget for expensive digital advertising space.
We’ve rounded up the best affordable email marketing services below to get your business off the ground without having to break the bank.
1. Saufter
Ratings: 5/5⭐
Pricing: Free trials; Paid plans start at $8/month.
Saufter is an AI-powered email marketing platform that’s designed to dig deep into user behaviour and campaign engagement. It sets itself apart by tracking competitor campaigns on autopilot and personalizes recommendations according to your customers’ journey, industry, and action.
Perfect for SaaS and ecommerce companies, Saufter can send custom messages for cart abandonment, feature usage and product recommendations.
With strong behavioral tracking and an intuitive design, Saufter is a versatile email marketing service that excels at complex campaigns and automations.
2. Zoho Campaigns
Ratings: 4.3/5⭐
Pricing: Free up to 2k contacts, paid plans start at $3/month.
Zoho Campaigns also offers an outstanding value in terms of the feature set and affordable pricing point. Its user-friendly drag-and-drop email builder means even beginners can craft beautiful-looking emails with ease, while the dashboard offers simplified, at-a-glance reports.
You receive responsive templates, automation workflows and customizable messages, along with a library of prewritten sequences for speedy onboarding. Full-stack email marketing software, available at a fraction of the cost.
3. Maildroppa
Ratings: No Ratings
Pricing: Free up to 1000 subscribers, paid plans start at $5/month.
If you need an inexpensive email marketing service to send basic newsletters, Maildroppa is a good option. Recently, they’ve made their email editor even better by adding a Stripo integration that allows users to build more visually appealing and customizable emails.
Beyond those, Maildroppa has robust reporting, campaign settings, pre-built signup forms, and scheduling options that cater specifically to your needs. European companies will also appreciate the built-in GDPR compliance.
4. Sender
Ratings: 4.4/5⭐
Pricing: Free up to 2500 subscribers; Paid plans start at $7/month.
With the Sender, you get a lot of features at a low cost. It’s great for small businesses that are ready to go beyond basic automations and transactional emails.
You can create abandoned cart reminders, categorize the customers by behavior, and even perform actions based on the engagement.
It can even pull the details of a product from a URL — just paste the link, and Sender auto-imports images, descriptions, and pricing into your email. It’s a smart option for small ecommerce businesses that want pro-level features.
5. EmailOctopus
Ratings: 4.1/5⭐
Pricing: Free up to 2500 subscribers; Paid plans start at $9/month.
EmailOctopus is great if you’re looking for an inexpensive email marketing service without a lot of frills. It offers a very generous free forever plan that allows you to send up to 10,000 emails per month to 2,500 subscribers.
You’ll also get 3 landing pages and forms, great for a small business just getting started on lead gen. With its simple-to-use interface and highly competitive pricing, EmailOctopus is a great tool for small businesses and people just starting to build their audience and their connection.
6. SendPulse
Ratings: 4.6/5⭐
Pricing: Free up to 500 subscribers; Paid plans start at $8/month.
SendPulse is a full marketing ecosystem at the heart of which there is a low-cost email marketing tool. Users are able to create appealing emails with over 130+ templates or a drag-and-drop editor.
Its inbuilt spam checker improves the deliverability of your campaigns and ensures they never land in the spam folders. When your business grows, you can also expand to SMS, chatbots, and web push notifications.
Just by itself, SendPulse allows users to set up fully automated emails, such as welcome, reminders to complete transactions, as well as notifications triggered by user behavior.
7. Mailjet
Ratings: 4.0/5⭐
Pricing: Free up to 6000 emails per month, Paid plans start at $17 monthly.
If you ever want to build emails with your team in real time and work together on messages, Mailjet is exceptional. Designed for small teams, it features no-code templates, robust segmentation, SMS capabilities and an inventive collaboration tool that turns solo editing into a group activity.
Prefer to work alone? Its intuitive tools will still serve you well. Its Essential plan offers up to 15,000 emails per month, but if you require automation and A/B testing, prices can rise.
8. MailerLite
Ratings: 4.6/5⭐
Pricing: Free up to 1000 subscribers; Paid plans start at $9/month.
The first thing you’ll notice when you log in to MailerLite is a clear, clutter-free interface—but don’t let that simplicity trick you into thinking this tool lacks power.
This budget-friendly email marketing tool is packed full of features, including trigger-based automations, countdown timers, welcome sequences and even inbuilt surveys and website building tools.
But, for a growing business in order to get advanced features like HTML editing, pop-ups and a preference centre, you’ll need to upgrade to the more expensive Advanced plan.
9. Moosend
Ratings: 4.7/5⭐
Pricing: Free trial; Paid plans start at $7/month.
The fun branding and friendly attitude at every turn make it an easy choice, and its simple design is great for beginners, too. You’ll receive all the basic features (triggered sequences, drag and drop forms, analytics) as well as A/B testing and countdown timers.
Its biggest strength? An extensive library of time-saving automated workflows, from abandoned cart emails to birthday campaigns, makes it a smart choice for growth-minded brands.
10. Brevo
Ratings: 4.5/5⭐
Pricing: Free up to 300 Emails daily; Paid plans start at $8/month.
Brevo is an omnichannel system with sure automation flows based on clicks, opens and web visits. It also offers transactional emails such as password resets and purchase receipts, which makes it a powerful Sendgrid alternative.
Unlike its competitors, Brevo bills by email rather than by subscriber, and is the only provider that offers the pay-as-you-go model. With CRM, SMS, WhatsApp campaigns, landing pages and even Facebook ads on higher plans, it’s good for businesses who want room to scale and options.
11. GetResponse
Ratings: 4.3/5⭐
Pricing: Free trial; Paid plans start at $15/month.
GetResponse is so simple to use, despite offering advanced tools. It even has a host-your-own-webinar option! The dashboard’s “Quick links” feature makes it easy to do things like create newsletters, landing pages, or sign-up forms.
Even though it’s on the more expensive side of affordable, it’s worth it. You receive a powerful library of automations that you can edit, everything from welcome series to loyalty campaigns. And, the easy drag-and-drop builder ensures you can tweak the emails to be the way you want them.
12. Omnisend
Ratings: 4.6/5⭐
Pricing: Free trial; Paid plans start at $11.20/month.
Omnisend is built for e-commerce and includes all of its advanced features in its free plan – great for testing out without spending a fortune. The no-frills dashboard greets users with a “Goals” tab displaying handpicked campaign ideas. It offers features like A/B testing, as well as push notifications and SMS automation.
Although there are strong pre-built workflows like abandoned cart and order confirmations, email templates are archaic, and there isn’t much you can do with them. Sometimes it is easier to just build anew.
However, since Omnisend also offers a value-priced free plan, it’s a compelling pick for e-commerce businesses.
13. SendFox
Ratings: 4.0/5⭐
Pricing: Plans start at $49 for lifetime access.
SendFox is an affordable email marketing service created by AppSumo, which is in the business of promoting discounted SaaS tools for small businesses.
Its standout feature? A single-purchase model, which is an attractive option for those opposed to subscriptions. Although it provides simple autoresponders and not necessarily the advanced automation and newsletter template capabilities that might enhance your creative options.
This anorexic setup also raises questions about its long-term viability, and features and enablers.
Email Campaigns Best Practices
It takes a lot more than hitting “send” to send an effective email. To increase open rates, click-throughs, and conversions, adhere to these well-tested best practices:
- Craft a Compelling Subject Line: Remember, your subject line is a first impression— so keep it clean, to the point, and curiosity-inducing in order to increase open rates.
- Segment Your Audience: Don’t blanket everyone with the same email. Segment your list by habits, interests, or demographics to tailor your messaging even further.
- Keep Content Focused and Valuable: Avoid clutter. Stay with one message or goal per email and always provide some sort of value, whether it is a tip or an offer, or an update.
- Optimize for Mobile Devices: More than 60% of emails are opened on mobile. Make it mobile-friendly and hit users with short, easy-to-read copy, no matter what device they’re surfing on.
- Include a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Whether it’s “Shop Now,” “Learn More,” or “Download,” there should be an obvious CTA (call to action) prominently displayed in each email, encouraging the reader to do more once they open your correspondence.
- Test and Analyze: Use A/B testing for subject lines, CTAs, or content layout, and monitor metrics like open rates and conversions to refine future campaigns.
Conclusion
Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for small businesses, with 87% of marketers using it to distribute content. Choosing the right affordable email marketing service can help you reach more customers, increase engagement, and boost sales—without straining your budget.
Platforms like Saufter offer intelligent features such as AI-driven personalization, user behavior tracking, and competitor monitoring—making it an ideal choice for small businesses seeking a powerful yet affordable email marketing service. With the right tool in place, your email campaigns can drive long-term growth and customer loyalty.
