Pricing guide
Small business
Marketing Automation for Small Business in 2026: Official Prices and Limits
Official USD prices and published automation limits for small-business marketing tools — ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, MailerLite, Kit, Brevo, and GetResponse — checked on November 14, 2026. Honest about official free plans and when a paid automation step-up is optional.
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The short answer
A small business shopping for marketing automation is usually comparing an official free or low paid plan that can run a simple welcome or follow-up series with a mid-market automation platform that charges more and publishes a deeper official grid. Official ActiveCampaign can be a reasonable published option once a list is at or above 1,000 contacts and you want Plus or Pro automation entitlements. It is not the only official starting point, and it is not automatically the cheapest.
On November 14, 2026 (America/Denver), official USD entry points and published automation notes were:
- MailerLite: official Free up to 250 subscribers, 2 seats, and 2,500 emails a month. Official Comfort starts at $12 a month ($10.80 yearly-billed) at 500 subscribers. Official Power starts at $25 ($22.50 yearly-billed) and the official Power card we recorded lists unlimited automations.
- Mailchimp: official Free up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. Official Essentials starts at $13 a month and official Standard at $20 at 500 contacts. See ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp and email marketing for small business.
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit): official Free up to 10,000 subscribers. Official Creator was $33 a month or $390 billed yearly at the 1,000-subscriber display, including official “Unlimited Visual Automations” and “Unlimited email sequences,” plus a 14-day trial with no credit card required, as advertised.
- Brevo: official free-forever plan (no credit card needed, as advertised); official Starter $9 a month or $97 a year, from 5,000 emails a month; official Standard $18 or $194 a year, with official copy that Standard can “Create an unlimited number of automated” campaigns. See ActiveCampaign vs Brevo.
- GetResponse: official Starter $19 a month or $15.58 annually at 1,000 subscribers, with unlimited monthly sends and 1 custom automation workflow on the Starter card; official Marketer $59 or $48.38 annually, with unlimited automation workflows on the Marketer card. See ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse.
- ActiveCampaign: no official free plan and a 1,000-contact minimum. At 1,000 contacts, official Starter is $19 a month or $15 yearly-billed; official Plus is $59 or $49. Official Starter is fenced at 5 automation actions, 5 lists, and 15 business goals. Plus and higher publish a much longer automation entitlement list; split automations, connected automations, and the automations map appear on Professional and Enterprise in the official catalog, not on Starter or Plus. A 14-day trial (no credit card needed) and a 30-day money-back line were advertised. Full ladder: ActiveCampaign pricing.
This is a dated comparison of official rate cards and published automation limits, not a ranked “best marketing automation software” score and not a hands-on test of every workflow. The head term marketing automation for small business has a traffic-potential figure of only 10 in our keyword file — we are not forecasting traffic from that number.
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How we researched this guide
On November 14, 2026, we recorded official prices and limits from activecampaign.com/pricing and the official USD catalog that page loads; the official marketing automation product page for published capability names; and the official pricing pages or price APIs of Mailchimp, MailerLite, Kit, Brevo, and GetResponse, as cited in Sources. We did not invent automation counts that a card does not print, and we did not treat a marketing-page capability (for example, Predictive Sending) as included on every official plan when the catalog marks it for Professional and Enterprise only.
All dollar amounts are USD.
When an official free or lower-priced plan still fits
Stay on a lighter official plan if you need a welcome series or a small number of automations, your list sits inside a published free cap, or the official first paid price at a few hundred contacts is the offer you actually want.
Official Mailchimp Free, MailerLite Free, Kit Free (up to 10,000 subscribers), and Brevo’s free-forever plan are the $0 official starting points we recorded, with different send and feature caps. Official GetResponse Starter already starts at 1,000 subscribers and publishes only one custom automation workflow on that card — enough for a single official workflow, not an unlimited automation library.
A paid step up is optional if those official caps already match how you work.
When official ActiveCampaign may fit a small-business automation brief
Official ActiveCampaign is worth comparing when:
- You are at or above the official 1,000-contact minimum, or you accept that official paid prices still start there.
- You need official Plus-and-up items the catalog and pricing grid actually attach to those plans (landing pages and a longer automation-action list on Plus; Predictive Sending, split automations, connected automations, and the automations map on Professional and Enterprise).
- You want the official combined marketing-automation and CRM positioning described in ActiveCampaign’s FAQ, and you understand that Enhanced CRM add-ons and lead scoring are not official Starter inclusions. See CRM email marketing and ActiveCampaign CRM.
Official Starter can still be the published lowest paid rung if five automation actions, five lists, fifteen business goals, one included seat (two maximum), a 25,000-contact cap, and email-only sending match your work. If you already know you need split or connected automations, official Starter and Plus are not the catalog tiers that list those entitlements.
Related: email workflow automation, email marketing for small business, and ActiveCampaign pricing. Official builder entitlements by plan are also in ActiveCampaign automations.
Official prices at sizes small businesses actually quote
| Official step | ActiveCampaign Starter | ActiveCampaign Plus | Other official entry we recorded the same day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 250 contacts or subscribers | no official AC price below 1,000 | no official AC price below 1,000 | Mailchimp Free $0 (500 sends); MailerLite Free $0 (2,500 emails); Kit Free up to 10,000 subscribers |
| 500 | no official AC row | no official AC row | Mailchimp Essentials $13 / Standard $20; MailerLite Comfort $12 ($10.80 yearly-billed) |
| 1,000 | $19 ($15 yearly-billed) | $59 ($49 yearly-billed) | Kit Creator $33 / $390 yearly at the 1,000-subscriber display; GetResponse Starter $19 or $15.58 annually; no official paid Mailchimp row at exactly 1,000 |
| Automation note at that entry | Official catalog: 5 automation actions on Starter | Longer official automation-action list; split/connected/map are not Plus catalog entitlements | Kit Creator: unlimited visual automations and email sequences, as advertised; GetResponse Starter: 1 custom workflow; GetResponse Marketer: unlimited automation workflows; MailerLite Power: unlimited automations on the card we recorded |
Do not interpolate a 500-contact ActiveCampaign price or a 1,000-contact Mailchimp paid price. Official Brevo Starter and Standard are priced from an email-send band (5,000 emails on Starter), not from the same contact steps as ActiveCampaign.
Official limits that are easy to miss
- Predictive Sending is named on the official marketing automation page and appears as a Professional and Enterprise catalog entitlement, not as a Starter or Plus entitlement in the file we loaded.
- Landing pages are a Plus-and-up official item, not a Starter inclusion.
- We are not reprinting customer testimonials or time-saved claims from vendor marketing pages. Those are not measurements we made.
- HubSpot official dollars are omitted; the public page we opened today did not include a recordable rate card.
FAQ
What is the cheapest official marketing automation starting point for a small list?
Official free plans at Mailchimp, MailerLite, Kit, and Brevo are the published $0 starting points, with different caps. Official paid Comfort (MailerLite, $12 at 500 subscribers) and Brevo Starter ($9 a month from 5,000 emails) sit below official ActiveCampaign Starter, which has no published tier below 1,000 contacts.
Does a small business need official ActiveCampaign for automation?
Only if the official Plus or Pro grid — or the official 1,000-contact ladder — is the offer you want. Many official free and lower paid plans already advertise automations, with their own published limits (including GetResponse Starter’s single custom workflow).
Do you forecast traffic or “best software” rankings for this keyword?
No. We compare official prices and limits. We also do not treat the keyword file’s traffic-potential figure of 10 as a traffic forecast.
Sources and method
Checked November 14, 2026 (America/Denver): ActiveCampaign pricing and official USD catalog; marketing automation product page; Mailchimp and official USD API; MailerLite; Kit; Brevo; GetResponse.