Drip Email Marketing Software: Price Next Year's List – Save $5,652

That $5,652 is a gap in listed prices between two different drip email marketing software plans, not a promised saving. A 50,000-contact list costs $2,988 a year on Beehiiv Lite, billed yearly, or $8,640 on Klaviyo Email, billed monthly. Billed monthly on both, the gap is $8,640 − $3,588 = $5,052.

The gap widens as a list grows: across 1k, 10k and 50k contacts, Klaviyo’s bill grows 24x while Beehiiv’s grows 5.1x. Price the list you expect next year, not the one you have today.

Here “best” means the lowest 12-month bill on each vendor’s listed plan at your contact count. The figures come from each vendor’s own pricing page, read 2026-10-20. They cover the five plans below, not every drip tool on the market.

Verdict: The cheapest listed plans are ActiveCampaign Starter at 1,000 contacts, Brevo Starter at 10,000 (at 4 sends per contact a month) and Beehiiv Lite at 50,000.

The flaws, and their fixes: ActiveCampaign Starter stops at 25,000 contacts, so price its Plus plan if you will pass that. Brevo’s $497.04 assumes 4 sends per contact a month, so count your own sends first. Beehiiv Lite’s pricing shows no store-triggered flows, so confirm it sends your cart emails before you move.

Strengths: ActiveCampaign Starter is $3 less than Brevo at 1k, Brevo’s 10k bill is about half of MailerLite’s, and Beehiiv’s bill grows slowest, 5.1x from 1k to 50k.

Who should skip: If your list will pass 25,000 contacts within a year, skip ActiveCampaign Starter and price Beehiiv Lite, the cheapest listed plan here at 50k ($2,988).

Drip Email Software Sends on Triggers, So Check Webhooks and Zapier First

A drip campaign is a set of emails that go out on their own, on a schedule or when a shopper signs up, buys or leaves a cart. Check three things before you compare price:

1. Webhooks, if you want live numbers. Mailtrap advises that a drip tool needs webhooks (instant alerts it sends to another system, such as on a click) for real-time analytics.
2. A Zapier link, if your store has no direct connector. ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Klaviyo and MailerLite all appear on Zapier’s list, and every tool on it connects to Zapier, which links it to more than 9,000 apps. Beehiiv is not on that list, so check its connectors first.
3. Store-triggered flows on the plan you’ll pay for. A cheap plan only saves money if it sends the cart and post-purchase emails your store needs.

For the basics, see Mailchimp’s drip campaign glossary and the US Chamber of Commerce guide to setting up a drip email campaign.

At 50k, Beehiiv Lite ($2,988) and MailerLite Comfort ($3,445.20) Cost Least

How we evaluated: each figure is the 12-month cost of the vendor’s cheapest listed plan at that contact count, read 2026-10-20. Klaviyo’s figures use monthly billing; the other four plans use yearly billing. Rows run from the lowest 10k bill to the highest.

Plan	1k contacts	10k contacts	50k contacts
Brevo Starter (yearly)	$183	$497.04	Not compared at 50k
MailerLite Comfort (yearly)	$205.20	$961.20	$3,445.20
Beehiiv Lite (yearly)	$588	$1,428	$2,988
ActiveCampaign Starter (yearly)	$180	$1,788	Not offered above 25,000
Klaviyo Email (monthly)	$360	$1,800	$8,640

Brevo charges by email volume, so its row assumes 4 sends per contact a month, per Brevo’s pricing page. At 10k contacts, that is 40,000 emails a month. At that size, Brevo’s bill is about half of MailerLite’s and just over a quarter of Klaviyo’s.

You can check any row yourself. Open Klaviyo’s pricing page, set the Email plan to 50,000 contacts, and multiply the monthly price by 12. You should get $8,640, or $720 a month.

Klaviyo’s Bill Grows 24x From 1k to 50k; Beehiiv’s Grows 5.1x

This table divides each larger bill by the 1k bill. It shows how much each tool’s price rises as your list grows.

Plan	10k bill ÷ 1k bill	50k bill ÷ 1k bill
Klaviyo Email	$1,800 ÷ $360 = 5x	$8,640 ÷ $360 = 24x
MailerLite Comfort	$961.20 ÷ $205.20 = 4.7x	$3,445.20 ÷ $205.20 = 16.8x
ActiveCampaign Starter	$1,788 ÷ $180 = 9.9x	Not offered above 25,000
Beehiiv Lite	$1,428 ÷ $588 = 2.4x	$2,988 ÷ $588 = 5.1x
Brevo Starter	$497.04 ÷ $183 = 2.7x	Not compared at 50k

ActiveCampaign Starter is cheapest at 1k, but its bill grows almost 10 times by 10k. Beehiiv starts out the most expensive and grows the slowest.

Billing terms change the gap, so here are both comparisons:

Klaviyo vs Beehiiv at 50k, as listed = $8,640 monthly-billed ÷ $2,988 yearly-billed = 2.9x.

Klaviyo vs Beehiiv at 50k, monthly to monthly = $8,640 ÷ $3,588 = 2.4x.

Klaviyo minus MailerLite at 50k = $8,640 − $3,445.20 = $5,194.80 a year.

Klaviyo’s Free Plan Covers 250 Profiles; Beehiiv’s Covers 2,500

Free plans let you try a tool before you pay. Their limits vary tenfold.

• Klaviyo: the free plan covers 250 active profiles (contacts you can email) and 500 sends a month, per Klaviyo’s pricing page. That works out to 2 sends per profile a month. Past 250 profiles, budget $360 a year at 1k.
• Beehiiv: the free plan covers 2,500 subscribers, per Beehiiv’s pricing page, which is 10 times Klaviyo’s limit. Its pricing data shows no store-triggered flows, so confirm cart emails work before you rely on it.
• Kit, Mailchimp and MailerLite: Sender says their free plans offer either no automation or only basic autoresponders (an automatic email sent after a signup). Sender groups the three, so it doesn’t say which tool falls on which side. Check Mailchimp’s pricing page or MailerLite’s first.
• Drip: Sender calls it “Best for ecommerce lifecycle automation.” The trial needs no credit card, but Drip’s pricing page says unlimited emails are not available during the trial.

See also: Mailchimp vs MailerLite 12-month cost at 1k, 10k and 50k contacts.

HubSpot Workflows Cost $13,680 in Year One; Texts Run From $0.007

Four costs sit outside the per-contact price.

1. Onboarding fees. HubSpot’s workflow builder starts on the Professional plan at $890 a month, plus a $3,000 onboarding fee, per Sender. Year one = $890 × 12 + $3,000 = $13,680. Every 12-month bill in the cost table is lower, Klaviyo’s $8,640 at 50k included.
2. SMS fees. Omnisend sells US texts from $0.007 each, and the rate depends on volume. At that lowest rate, 1,000 texts cost $7. Klaviyo charges $0.01 a US toll-free text plus carrier fees, so the same 1,000 texts cost $10 before carrier fees.
3. Contact caps. ActiveCampaign Starter is offered only up to 25,000 contacts, per ActiveCampaign’s pricing page. If you expect to pass that within a year, price the next plan up before you start.
4. Send volume. Brevo’s $497.04 at 10k assumes 4 sends per contact a month. Count your own monthly sends first: if you send more, the bill is higher.

See also: SMS marketing platform for e-commerce: 4 picks by per-text cost.

Cheapest Plan by List Size: ActiveCampaign Starter $180 at 1k, Brevo Starter $497.04 at 10k, Beehiiv Lite $2,988 at 50k

• About 1,000 contacts: ActiveCampaign Starter at $180 a year, $3 less than Brevo Starter. Watch for the 9.9x jump by 10k and the 25,000 limit.
• About 10,000 contacts: Brevo Starter at $497.04, against $961.20 for MailerLite Comfort and $1,800 for Klaviyo Email. This holds only if you send about 4 emails per contact a month.
• About 50,000 contacts: Beehiiv Lite at $2,988, then MailerLite Comfort at $457.20 more. Confirm either one runs your cart flows before you move.
• Any size, if you want the e-commerce pick: Zapier picks Klaviyo for “data-rich eCommerce lifecycle marketing” and Sender for “predictive ecommerce flows”. Klaviyo Email costs $360 to $8,640 a year.

See also: ActiveCampaign email marketing review: plans, send limits and 12-month cost.

Next step: Before you commit to Klaviyo, whose bill grows 24x from 1k to 50k, read Klaviyo’s free plan limits and true 12-month cost.

Next step: read more in Best-of guides on MarketingRating, or check the figures in Email marketing pricing: the true 12-month cost at 1,000, 10,000 and 50,000 contacts.

FAQ About Drip Email Costs

Is email marketing still worth it in 2026?

Yes, if your email sales beat the bill: the cheapest plan here is $180 a year at 1,000 contacts. Salesforce’s research says email makes up 80% of all outbound messaging, and its use has grown year over year.

Which drip tool is cheapest at 10,000 contacts?

Of the five plans here, Brevo Starter is cheapest at $497.04 a year. That figure assumes 4 sends per contact a month.

Which bill grows fastest as the list grows?

Among plans priced at all three sizes, Klaviyo Email’s: its $360 bill at 1k becomes $8,640 at 50k, 24 times as much. From 1k to 10k alone, ActiveCampaign Starter’s grows faster, 9.9 times.