Email Marketing Cost for 5,000 Subscribers
At 5,000 contacts every free tier except basic creator plans ends—compare exact monthly burn rates.
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Brevo
Starter / Business (Send-Volume)
$29 /mo
$348/yr bill
MailerLite
Growing Business Plan
$39 /mo
$468/yr bill
beehiiv
Launch (Free) & Scale Plan
$49 /mo
$588/yr bill
Mailchimp
Standard Plan
$100 /mo
$1,200/yr bill
tier_takeaway.note
At 5,000 contacts, Brevo ($29/mo) and MailerLite ($39/mo) cost less than 40% of Mailchimp Standard ($100/mo) and Klaviyo ($100/mo).
Subscriber tier price curve (1,000 to 100,000 contacts)
Monthly base subscription rates as your email list grows—check steep bracket jumps before migrating.
| Platform | 1,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 25,000 | 50,000 | 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | $9/mo | $29/mo | $55/mo | $119/mo | $229/mo | $449/mo |
| MailerLite | $0/mo | $39/mo | $73/mo | $159/mo | $289/mo | $550/mo |
| beehiiv | $0/mo | $49/mo | $79/mo | $119/mo | $199/mo | $299/mo |
| Mailchimp | $45/mo | $100/mo | $135/mo | $270/mo | $410/mo | $800/mo |
Brevo billing details
Best for: Businesses with large contact lists that send 1–4 newsletters per month
Free tier allows unlimited contacts but caps sending at 300 emails/day; paid tiers charge strictly by monthly email volume.
MailerLite billing details
Best for: Small businesses and bloggers wanting clean automations at roughly half of Mailchimp rates
Free 1,000-subscriber tier caps monthly sends at 12,000 emails; Growing Business unlocks unlimited monthly emails.
beehiiv billing details
Best for: Media brands and paid newsletters scaling via ad network, boosts, and 0% subscription cuts
0% cut on paid memberships (only standard Stripe fees apply), making it thousands cheaper than Substack once paid subs grow.
Mailchimp billing details
Best for: Legacy marketing teams already integrated with Mailchimp templates
Mailchimp bills you for unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts stored in your audience unless you manually archive them.
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Common questions
What is the cheapest email platform here at 5,000 subscribers?
At 5,000 contacts, Brevo costs $29.00/month compared to $100.00/month on Mailchimp—saving $852/year.
Why do some email tools bill for unsubscribed contacts?
Audience-based tools like Mailchimp and Klaviyo count active or unarchived profiles toward your tier bracket, whereas send-volume tools like Brevo store contacts free and bill only for monthly emails sent.
When does Substack 10% become more expensive than beehiiv or Ghost?
Once gross paid subscription revenue crosses ~$490/month (49 subscribers paying $10/mo), Substack's 10% platform fee exceeds a flat $49/month beehiiv Scale subscription—and the gap widens with every new paid reader.
