How much email marketing tools cost for a small business

Pricing structures across email platforms are almost universally based on list size (sometimes combined with email volume), not on which features you use. This means a business sending one email a month to 5,000 people pays roughly the same as a business sending twenty emails a month to the same 5,000 people.

E-commerce-focused platforms like Klaviyo cost more per subscriber than general-purpose tools like Mailchimp or MailerLite, but the extra cost is usually justified once you're running product-based automations like abandoned cart, post-purchase, and win-back flows tied to actual order data.

Beyond list size, the next major cost driver is send volume for platforms that charge per email rather than per subscriber (common with transactional-style or high-deliverability tools). If you send frequently to a large list, model both pricing structures before committing, since the cheaper-looking option by subscriber count can be more expensive by volume.

For a business under $500K in revenue, total email marketing spend (tool plus any freelance help) rarely needs to exceed $100-150 a month until list size or automation complexity genuinely requires it. Spending more than that early is usually paying for features that won't get used.