The phrase “free email marketing” covers a wide range. Some tools offer genuinely permanent free tiers. Others offer time-limited trials and call them “free plans.” This guide cuts through the marketing language and tells you exactly what you get for free, from which tools, and what it costs when you need more.

The honest free tier comparison

Tool	Free contacts	Free sends	Time limit	EU data storage	Automation on free
GetResponse	500	Unlimited	None	✓ Default	Basic autoresponders
Brevo	Unlimited	300/day (9,000/mo)	None	✓ Default	None
Klaviyo	250	500/month	None	✗ (US default)	Basic flows
Omnisend	250	500/month	None	✓ Default	Basic flows + 60 SMS
Mailchimp	500	1,000/month	None	✗ (US only)	Basic
Moosend	”1,000”	Unlimited	30 days	✓ EU	All features
Kit	10,000	Unlimited	None	✗ (US only)	Basic autoresponders

The critical distinction: Moosend’s free “plan” expires after 30 days. This is a trial, not a free tier. Do not choose Moosend based on its free offering if you need a permanent free account.

Our recommendation: GetResponse

For UK businesses starting out, GetResponse offers the best free tier. Here is why it beats the alternatives.

500 contacts free — double what Klaviyo and Omnisend offer at 250 contacts. For a new store building its first email list, GetResponse’s free tier is likely to last 12–18 months before a paid upgrade becomes necessary.

Unlimited sends — Klaviyo caps free users at 500 sends per month, Omnisend at 500 per month. GetResponse does not cap send volume on the free tier. This means you can send your full list as many broadcasts as you want.

EU data storage by default — GetResponse is a Polish company with EU data storage. No configuration required. Compare this to Klaviyo, which stores data in the US by default and requires manual EU region selection at account creation.

No credit card required — GetResponse’s free tier requires only an email address to set up.

Read the full GetResponse review →

When Brevo’s free tier is better

Brevo’s free tier has a unique structure: unlimited contacts with a cap on daily sends (300/day, 9,000/month). This is the best free tier for stores with large lists that send email infrequently.

If you have 2,000 contacts but only send one email campaign per month, Brevo lets you store all 2,000 contacts for free. At that send frequency, 9,000 sends per month is more than sufficient. GetResponse would require you to pay for a plan once you exceed 500 contacts.

The limitation: Brevo’s free tier does not include marketing automation. If you want automated flows (abandoned cart, welcome series), you need a paid plan.

Read the full Brevo review →

What you cannot do for free

The free tiers on every tool have real limitations. Being honest about these matters before you commit.

What free tiers typically exclude or limit:

• Advanced marketing automation (event-based triggers beyond basic autoresponders)
• A/B testing
• Predictive analytics (CLV scoring, churn prediction)
• Advanced segmentation based on purchase behaviour
• Priority customer support
• Removal of the tool’s branding from your emails

For a new store, these limitations are acceptable. The welcome series, signup confirmation, and basic broadcast emails that a free tier covers are sufficient for the first year of email marketing.

The automation limitation becomes the main reason to upgrade. Once you have 300+ contacts and your Shopify store is generating revenue, an abandoned cart automation typically recovers 5–15% of abandoned carts. At that scale, the cost of the paid plan is recovered many times over.

When to upgrade from a free tier

A practical rule: upgrade when the cost of the paid plan is less than the revenue you are losing by staying on the free tier.

If your store generates £50/day, recovers 5% of abandoned carts, and has a cart abandonment rate of 70%, the math works roughly like this:

• Daily cart value abandoned: £50 × 0.70 = £35
• Recovery at 5%: £35 × 0.05 = £1.75/day = £52/month

A paid plan at £11/month (GetResponse at 1,000 contacts) pays for itself in 6 days of recovered revenue.

In practice, the trigger for most stores is one of:

• You hit the free tier contact limit and have a decision to make
• You want to build an abandoned cart flow and the free tier does not support it
• Your deliverability is suffering because of the tool’s branding on your emails (affecting open rates)

The GDPR consideration

The free tier you choose affects your GDPR position from day one. Switching tools later means re-doing your DPA, potentially re-doing your data residency setup, and re-importing your contacts. It is easier to start on a tool you will stay on.

If EU data residency matters: choose GetResponse, Omnisend, or Brevo — all EU-hosted on the free tier.

If you start on Klaviyo’s free tier: select EU data region at account creation. If you miss this step and your data is stored in the US, you cannot change it without creating a new account.

Summary

Start with GetResponse if you want the most generous permanent free tier with EU data storage and no credit card required. It will serve most UK Shopify stores through their first 12–18 months of active email marketing.

Move to Omnisend or Klaviyo when you are ready to invest in proper e-commerce automation — the native Shopify integrations and abandoned cart flows on those platforms will recover more revenue than the free tier tools offer.

Use our decision tool to get a personalised recommendation based on your current list size, budget, and GDPR requirements.