Every “best newsletter platform” list tells you the free plans are generous. Then you sign up and hit a phone check, a credit card pop-up, or a wall that says your domain isn’t verified. We opened accounts on beehiiv, Kit and MailerLite on the same day, ran the same seven tasks on each, and wrote down exactly where each one made us stop.
Why We Compared These Three Newsletter Platforms
Email is having a moment. beehiiv’s own 2026 report says publishers on its platform sent 28 billion emails in 2025 and reached more than 255 million unique readers (beehiiv, State of Newsletters 2026). That number comes from one of the tools we review, so read it as a vendor figure, not a market census.
Still, the direction is clear. Creators who built on social feeds keep losing reach to algorithm changes. A list of email addresses is the one audience you can take with you.
So which platform should hold that list? We picked beehiiv, Kit and MailerLite because they show up in nearly every top-ranking comparison, and because all three let you start without a card.
Here’s the catch, though. “Free” means something different on each one. That gap is what this comparison is about.
Key Takeaways
Kit’s public pricing page lists a free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers (Kit pricing), the biggest on paper. In our hands-on test, though, beehiiv was the easiest start and MailerLite needed a verified domain before anything went live. Each tool put a different hurdle in front of us.
Quick Verdict: Which Newsletter Platform Fits You
Kit’s free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers on paper (Kit pricing), but beehiiv was the only one that showed us a working free plan in the app, every limit spelled out. That is the short answer. The longer answer depends on what you need on day one.
| If you want… | Pick | Why, from our test |
|---|---|---|
| The most room on a free plan you can see in-app | beehiiv | Free Plan listed as 2,500 subscribers, $0/month, unlimited email sends |
| A big free list and selling digital products | Kit | Public pricing page: free up to 10,000 subscribers, with digital products and subscriptions |
| Lots of forms, landing pages and automations | MailerLite | Free plan usage page showed 500 forms, 500 landing pages and 1,000 automations |
| The fewest steps to a live welcome email | beehiiv | A prebuilt welcome automation went live in one publish |
| Sign-in with Google | beehiiv or MailerLite | Kit’s signup page has no Google button |
Does that mean beehiiv wins? Not for everyone. If you already own a domain and plan to sell products, the other two have real strengths. Keep reading for the details behind each row.
How We Tested beehiiv, Kit and MailerLite
We tested all three newsletter platforms on October 20, 2026, with one work account and no credit card entered anywhere. Each tool got the same seven tasks, written down before we started:
- Sign up.
- Create a newsletter.
- Build a subscribe form and get the embed code.
- Set up an automatic welcome email.
- Subscribe our own address and check that the welcome email arrives.
- Write an email and send it only to ourselves as a test.
- Read the free plan limits from the billing page.
We never sent anything to a real list. Every email went to our own inbox. When a step needed a card, a DNS change or a paid upgrade, we stopped and wrote down why.
Why such a short list? Because these are the steps every new newsletter goes through, whatever its topic. If a platform makes one of them painful, you will feel it in week one.
Two more ground rules. We copied what we saw on screen word for word, and we kept masked screenshots of every step. When this article says a screen “said” something, that is a direct quote from our test log.
A note on money: Indie Stack Lab may add affiliate links to some tools later. When a link is an affiliate link, it is labeled, and our disclosure page explains how that works. It did not change what we tested or what we wrote down.
beehiiv Review: Biggest Free Plan, Phone Check Required
beehiiv’s billing page showed a Free Plan of 2,500 subscribers at $0/month, with one team seat, one publication, unlimited email sends and 30 days of analytics. That was the most complete free plan we could see inside any of the three apps.
Signing up for beehiiv
Google sign-in worked, and the consent screen asked only for name, profile picture and email address. Then came two checks we did not expect. A “press and hold” human check appeared, and after that an SMS check: “We need to verify your phone number for security. No marketing texts. Ever.”
Is a phone check a dealbreaker? For most people, no. But if you run several newsletters or work from a shared business number, plan for it.
The plan screen put the paid “Get started” button first. The no-card 14-day trial sat in the second card. Its fine print was clear, though: “After your trial, you’ll be moved to our Free plan, good for up to 2,500 subscribers … No credit card required.”
Forms and the welcome email
beehiiv created a publication for us automatically. Subscribe forms live under Audience, and the embed code is one <script> snippet, plus an optional script that forwards UTM parameters.
One detail tripped us up. The forms page says these forms “are designed to be embedded on external websites” and “won’t work correctly inside beehiiv website pages.” On beehiiv’s own site you use a website builder block instead.
The welcome email was the easiest of the three. A prebuilt automation called “Welcome Email (with re-entry)” was already waiting in the checklist. We pressed Publish, confirmed, and it went live. When we subscribed our own address, the welcome email arrived.
What surprised us was the counter. Right after the signup, the automation still showed 0 recipients, even though the email had landed in our inbox. Give the numbers a few minutes before you panic.
What beehiiv keeps behind the paywall
The trial card marks “Earn with ads, paid recommendations, and subscriptions”, “Connect a custom domain” and “Invite your team” as not included. Settings also showed private branding (removing the “Powered by” badge) as a Pro feature.
One honest limit of our test: we built the welcome automation during the Pro trial, on day 1 of 14. We did not wait for the account to drop to the Free plan, so we can’t confirm that automations stay on afterward.
Kit Review: Creator-Focused, Card Prompt at Onboarding
Kit’s public pricing page lists a free plan at $0/mo for “up to 10,000 subscribers” (Kit pricing), the largest free cap of the three on paper. Inside the app, though, we only ever saw the trial of the paid Creator plan.
Signing up for Kit
There is no “Sign in with Google” on Kit’s signup or login page. You need a name, an email and a password.
The onboarding survey asked about our audience size, business name and creator type. Then a full-screen “Welcome to Kit!” modal asked for card details for the Creator plan: “Monthly $39/month · Annual $390/year (2 months free!)”. The skip link, “I’ll do this later,” sat at the bottom. We used it and never entered a card.
Honestly, this is the moment where a beginner might think Kit isn’t free. It is. The modal just doesn’t say so.
Forms and the welcome email
Kit’s form builder was pleasant. We picked an inline form, chose a template, and got five embed options: JavaScript, HTML, a shareable hosted page, WordPress and Unbounce. The JavaScript embed is a single line.
So how hard is a welcome email on Kit? It took more work than anywhere else. We needed three pieces: a sequence with the email in it, the email’s own Published switch, and a separate Visual Automation that connects the form to the sequence. The first time we opened automations, Kit also asked us to choose between the new and the legacy builder.
Before publishing, Kit showed a review panel. It warned us that the sequence used placeholder copy and that the first email goes out immediately. That is a nice safety net.
Kit turns on double opt-in by default. When we subscribed our own address, the page said “Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.” After the confirmation click, the welcome email arrived. Like beehiiv, the subscriber count still read 0 a minute later.
Kit’s pricing, in two numbers
The in-app billing page showed “Creator Monthly — 1,000 subscribers — $39/month.” The public pricing page headlines Creator at “$33/mo” for 1,000 subscribers (Kit pricing). Both are real; one is the monthly checkout price, the other the price shown on the marketing page. Check which billing period you are on before you compare it with anything else.
Kit’s trial also cancels itself. The billing page said: “Your subscription will cancel at the end of the trial,” and you can drop to the free plan early. Automations, sequences and “Remove Kit branding” are listed under Creator, so the free form carries a “Built with Kit” badge.
MailerLite Review: Generous Usage Caps, Domain Authentication First
MailerLite’s billing page showed its free plan as “Up to 250 subscribers. 2,500 emails.” for $0 a month. That is the smallest free list of the three, but the usage caps around it were the largest: 1,000 automations, 500 landing pages, 500 websites, 500 forms and 1,000 products.
Signing up for MailerLite
The signup page promised: “Get started with a Free plan — Sign up in seconds. No credit card required.” Google sign-up worked when clicked by hand.
Onboarding then asked for a postal address before the dashboard would load. That looks odd at first. It makes more sense once you know US law: the FTC’s CAN-SPAM guide says a commercial email “must include your valid physical postal address” (FTC CAN-SPAM Compliance Guide). Any commercial email you send to US readers needs one. MailerLite just asks for it up front.
The domain wall
This is the step that matters most. MailerLite let us build a form and a welcome automation, but it would not let either go live. The form page said: “Sender email domain must be authenticated and verified before you can enable this form.” The automation showed: “Sender email must be authenticated before you can send from this address.”
In plain terms: you need your own domain, and you need to add DNS records to it, before MailerLite sends anything to subscribers. Test emails to yourself still go out. We did not change DNS during this test, so our MailerLite automation stayed inactive.
Is that bad? It depends on you. If you already own a domain, it is a one-time DNS task, and an authenticated domain also helps your emails reach inboxes. If you don’t, it is a hard stop on day one.
Campaigns and the rest of the app
The campaign picker offered Regular and A/B split campaigns without a Premium label. RSS, Auto resend and Multivariate were labeled Premium. The test-email dialog carried an honest warning: “Spam placement is common for test emails and doesn’t reflect your actual campaign health.”
The welcome template also shipped with placeholder buttons. MailerLite won’t activate an automation until every button has a URL, so fill those in first.
Newsletter Platforms Compared Side by Side
Across our seven tasks, beehiiv needed 1 publish to get a welcome email live, Kit needed 3 separate pieces, and MailerLite could not go live at all without domain authentication. The table below puts every result from our test on one screen.
| beehiiv | Kit | MailerLite | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free subscriber cap | 2,500 (in-app) | Up to 10,000 (public pricing page) | 250 (in-app) |
| Free email sends | Unlimited | Unlimited broadcasts (public pricing page) | 2,500 per month |
| Google sign-in | Yes | No | Yes |
| Extra checks at signup | Phone SMS, “press and hold” | None | Postal address |
| Card prompt during onboarding | Paid button shown first | Full-screen card modal | None |
| Steps to a live welcome email | 1 publish | 3 pieces | Blocked until domain is verified |
| Double opt-in by default | No confirmation step in our signup | Yes | Needs a verified domain to enable |
| Branding badge on free | “Powered by” badge | “Built with Kit” badge | Not checked |
| Trial length | 14 days | 14 days | 14 days |
What does the table not show? Deliverability, for one. We sent only test emails to ourselves, so we have no inbox-placement data. Treat any platform comparison that ranks “deliverability” without sending real campaigns with suspicion.
Free Plan or Trial? What Changes After Day 14
All three newsletter platforms started us on a 14-day trial of paid features, and none of them made that obvious on the first screen. This matters more than any single feature.
Here is what we saw:
- beehiiv ran the Pro trial on day 1 and said we would move to the Free plan afterward.
- Kit ran a trial of Creator and said the subscription “will cancel at the end of the trial.”
- MailerLite called the first 14 days “Access to all our paid features.”
So the features you try in week one are not always the features you keep. Our welcome automations on beehiiv and Kit were both built during a trial. Kit’s public pricing page lists “Unlimited Visual Automations” and “Unlimited email sequences” under Creator, not Free.
What should you do with that? Before you invite your first real subscriber, write down the three things your newsletter can’t live without. Then check each one against the free column of the pricing page, not against what works in the trial. A feature that only works during the trial is a feature you will pay for later.
Which Newsletter Platform Fits Which Creator
The right newsletter platform depends on what you already have: in our test, a missing domain blocked MailerLite completely, while beehiiv and Kit sent the welcome email without one. Start from your situation, not from a ranking.
You’re starting from zero, with no domain. beehiiv is the smoothest start. You get a hosted publication, a subscribe page and a working welcome email without touching DNS. Budget a minute for the phone check.
You want to sell something to your readers. Kit’s free plan, per its pricing page, includes selling digital products and subscriptions. The welcome email takes longer to wire up, and you’ll sign in with a password.
You run a small business site and already own a domain. MailerLite’s free caps on forms, landing pages and automations are the widest of the three. Authenticate your domain first and the rest of the setup is straightforward. This is our pick for the “best newsletter platform for small business” search, with one condition: your list must stay under 250 subscribers to remain free.
You’re an author with a backlist. Any of the three works. If you want a landing page per book, MailerLite’s 500 landing pages stand out. If you want to sell ebooks directly, look at Kit.
Not sure what a newsletter should even be for? Decide that first. A weekly digest, a product update list and a paid letter need different things from a platform, and the right pick follows from that answer.
Substack and Ghost: Newsletter Platforms We Have Not Tested Yet
Substack and Ghost both appear on most “newsletter platforms” lists, but neither went through our seven tasks, so we won’t score them. What we can say is what’s public: eMarketer reports Substack is testing a structured sponsorship program for selected writers (eMarketer).
Why not test them now? Because a review without a test is just a summary of the vendor’s homepage. We’d rather leave a gap than fill it with guesses.
Ghost is next on our list. When the test is done, we’ll add it to the side-by-side comparison table on this page.
Before You Pick a Newsletter Platform: Your Next Step
Before you commit, run the same test we did: sign up, build one form and one welcome email, and send a test to yourself. Seven small tasks were enough to show us the friction that no feature list mentions.
A short checklist to take with you:
- Do you own a domain? If not, beehiiv or Kit will get you live faster.
- Will you sell something? Check Kit’s free plan features first.
- How big will your list be in a year? MailerLite’s free plan stops at 250 subscribers.
- Which features must survive the trial? Check the free column, not the trial.
Whatever you choose, keep your subscriber list exportable from day one. That list is the reason you’re doing this.