Email marketing has been around since the start of the Internet itself. And with modern technology recently introduced, email marketing automation is a powerful marketing channel that allows businesses to reach more customers than ever before.
If you’re only starting your online business, you may not want to pay for expensive email marketing software or an all-in-one marketing platform. Therefore, I list the best free email automation tools with free-forever plans. This way, you can choose the perfect tool for your business.
Alongside AI email generators, free email marketing tools are an excellent way to improve overall customer engagement and an effective way to keep customers updated on new products and services. These email automation software tools trigger emails based on user behavior, such as signing up through a form, clicking a link, purchasing your product, or others.
There is no better time than now to integrate email marketing into your business strategy and make email automation a key part of your digital marketing efforts.
Free email marketing software is available, but it often lacks useful automation features. However, in this list, you’ll only find those that provide email marketing automation with more than one automation step (known as workflows)!
Best Free Email Automation Tools (100% Free)
1. Sender (Top Free Email Marketing Sofware)
Sender is an email automation and SMS marketing software with a generous free-forever plan. This free email marketing tool probably includes the highest limits on free email software, including unlimited segmentation, making it one of the best free email marketing tools available.
The free version includes all the features you need to start collecting and nurturing your leads without going over the budget.
You also get access to its drag-and-drop editor, which includes free templates, an image library, and an image editor. Not only that, but they also offer free 24/7 chat support for all their customers.
Highlights of the Free Plan
- Email automation with unlimited segmentation.
- Up to 2,5000 contacts.
- Send up to 15,000 emails every month.
- Popups and sign-up forms.
- SMS opt-in collection.
- Free analytics and reports.
- Integrations (Zapier, Shopify, WordPress) and advanced API.
With Sender’s free tool, you can create various email campaigns, such as welcome series, drip campaigns, happy birthdays, abandoned cart emails, and purchase follow-ups.
Moreover, you don’t have to use their free templates; with their drag-and-drop email builder, you can customize all your emails to match your brand.
Sender’s Standard plan starts at $8.33 for 2.5k subscribers with 30k emails/month plus SMS messaging. So if you decide you need more features, it won’t surely break the bank.
2. Mailerlite (Top Free Email Marketing Tool)
MailerLite is one of the best free email automation tools, with plenty to offer in its free plan. Alongside Sender, Mailerlite has higher limits than the average competition for its free-forever email software plan, including unlimited email automation workflows.
Besides, by signing up for their free plan, you get a 30-day trial of premium features.
Highlights of the Free Plan
- Unlimited email automation and segmentation with unlimited automation steps.
- Up to 1,000 contacts.
- Send up to 12,000 emails every month.
- Unlimited embedded sign-up forms and popups.
- Email support.
Mailerlite has a wide range of features, from designing dynamic and engaging email marketing campaigns to evaluating performance and learning from it.
This free email marketing service has professionally designed templates for your landing pages, newsletters, popups, and websites. Thanks to its drag-and-drop builder, you can design and customize your template when needed.
To unlock more professional features such as dynamic email content, connecting more than one website, or adding multiple automation triggers, you can subscribe to their cheapest email marketing plan for $9/mo for 1,000 contacts.
3. SendPulse
SendPulse is another top free email automation tool that offers its clients a free-forever plan with up to 500 subscribers and 15,000 monthly emails.
However, the free plan only lets you build 5 automation workflows. Worse, there’s no segmentation. If you intend to have customers coming from different channels for different purposes, SendPulse’s free plan is not the best choice.
Highlights of the Free Plan
- 500 subscribers.
- 15,000 emails/month.
- 1 landing page.
- 5 automation workflows limited to 50 events (no segmentation).
As one of the best free email marketing services, SendPulse lets you create long automation campaigns for free. Their 15,000 emails per month assure you you’ll get all your emails delivered.
Nonetheless, SendPulse’s most expensive plan ($11/mo) is way cheaper than its competitors and lets you send unlimited emails and build unlimited automation workflows with unlimited segmentation.
If you sign up through my link, you can save $50 if you decide to upgrade to a paid plan.
4. Omnisend
Omnisend is an email platform best for eCommerce brands, as it includes pre-built eCommerce email automation workflows for things such as abandoned carts, order and shipping confirmations, post-purchases, and more.
Highlights of the Free Plan
- 500 emails/month up to 250 contacts (with an unlimited list size).
- Unlimited segmentation.
- Email and SMS automation (60 SMS/month), including pre-built eCommerce workflows and custom workflows.
- Email, SMS, and push notification campaigns.
- Exit-intent forms, teasers, landing page builder, discount coupons.
- Sales and performance reports.
- Email templates, image editor, product listing.
- Facebook retargeting.
While Omnisend’s free plan is more restricted regarding contacts and emails, eCommerce brands might find it useful for its automation templates and SMS automation.
You may test out all of the premium features and channels (SMS, push notifications, Google Customer Match, and Facebook Custom Audiences) without spending a dime. The only caveat is that you’re limited to sending 250 emails per month to a maximum of 500 recipients.
5. Sendinblue
SendinBlue gives you all the tools you need to expand your audience and keep them engaged by sending them the appropriate messages at the right time. Their free-forever plan includes unlimited contacts; however, you can only send 300 emails daily.
The email platform enables you to establish real-time connections with your clients by using various communication channels. For example, you can use their free chatbot for one user with unlimited chats and complete history.
Sendinblue also provides SMS and Whatsapp campaigns and transactional emails, all for free. Furthermore, you can customize the customer journey and keep track of each interaction with them using your customer relationship management tool.
Highlights of the Free Plan
- Unlimited contacts.
- Send up to 300 emails each day.
- Advanced email marketing automation and segmentation.
- SMS & Whatsapp campaigns.
- Drag-and-drop editor.
- Email and SMS personalization.
- Transactional emails with API and real-time statistics.
- Sig-up forms.
While you can build email automation workflows and have unlimited contacts with Sendinblue’s free plan, the automation workflows are limited to 2,000 contacts per month. You’d need to upgrade to their Business plan to remove this limitation.
What Is Email Automation?
Email automation is the process of automatically sending emails to your customers based on their behavior or actions. It’s a great way to automate your business’s tedious tasks so you can focus on more important things.
You can use email automation to nurture leads, send newsletters, or even remind customers about upcoming sales.
Here are some examples of how businesses use email automation:
- Send welcome emails after a new signup.
- Remind people about upcoming events.
- Send “thank you” emails after purchases or inquiries.
- Send discount codes and promotions to customers who have spent a certain amount of money in your store.
The basic idea behind email marketing automation is that you want every email your business sends out to be as relevant as possible. This means sending each one at precisely the right time, based on several factors, such as:
- The content someone has already seen.
- Their preferences.
- Purchase history
It also ensures each message contains information that’s relevant to them specifically (rather than just generic information).
These messages can be triggered by specific actions customers take on your website or social media profiles or their interactions with previous emails sent by your business.
Email automation helps you keep your customers engaged while reducing the time you spend manually sending emails. It’s a powerful marketing tool that can help you build better relationships with your audience, increase sales, and improve retention rates.
Best Free Email Automation Tools: That’s a Wrap!
As you can see, the best free email automation software allows you to start building connections with your website visitors or clients without spending a dime.
While many solutions offer free email services, not all provide you with free automation or segmentation. However, with the options on this list, you can start sending automated emails for free and build your online business with minimum costs.
Needless to say, implementing an email marketing strategy is an important step in your online business growth.
