True Cost of Email
List-size prices, not brochure prices

What your email tool really costs

Email platforms advertise a headline number and bill something else. Contact tiers that count the people who left. Plans that change price the moment your list crosses a line. Add-ons priced separately at checkout. We model the full bill at your subscriber count — 500, 2,500, 10,000 — on both billing cycles, and spell out exactly where the traps are.

How we price

Real billing math, real plan terms

Every number on this site comes from the vendor's own pricing page and plan documentation, checked on both monthly and annual billing. When a vendor changes its prices, we re-check and date every figure we publish. When sources disagree, we print the range — never a guess.

The billing traps

Where the extra money hides

Subscribers who unsubscribed but still count toward your tier. SMS credits billed apart from your plan. The discount that only appears on annual prepay. The free plan that ends the day you need automation. We name each trap, which tools charge it, and which don't.

Buyer-first

Switching advice, both directions

Every guide ends with the part vendor comparison pages skip: who should not switch, and which cheap-looking plan quietly costs more once your list grows. We have no stake in which tool you pick beyond the disclosure on our affiliate links.

What we're working on

We price email marketing platforms the way buyers actually experience them: at your list size, on both billing cycles, with every add-on that appears at checkout. Our first pricing guides and side-by-side bill comparisons — covering Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Kit, MailerLite, GetResponse, Omnisend, Constant Contact and more — are in the works and will land here, each one dated with the month we verified the numbers.

In the meantime, read who we are and how this site makes money.