Email Marketing Software for WordPress: Which Saves $5,194.80 a Year?

At 50,000 contacts, MailerLite Comfort costs $3,445.20 for 12 months, while Klaviyo Email costs $8,640 for 12 months. That is a $5,194.80 gap in yearly subscription price, about $433 a month. Choosing email marketing software WordPress can run takes three checks: how the software sends, how deep it reaches into WooCommerce, and what it costs at the list size you expect to reach.

Self-Hosted Plugins Need an Outside Sender; Cloud Platforms Bring Their Own

Sender.net’s comparison splits WordPress tools into three sending routes. Sender.net sells its own email tool and ranks it first, so read its picks with that bias in mind.

1. Cloud ESP (email service provider, a vendor that sends from its own servers): Brevo, Mailchimp, Klaviyo and Sender. The WordPress plugin collects signups and syncs data back to the vendor.
2. WordPress-native plugin: MailPoet uses the MailPoet sending service. MailPoet says more than 500,000 websites use its plugin.
3. Self-hosted plugin: FluentCRM, Groundhogg and Mailster. Sender.net marks each “External SMTP required”, which means you pay a separate Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) delivery service.

FluentCRM can import a CSV (comma-separated values) file or your WordPress users, and its plugin page lists unlimited contacts and campaigns.

Don’t confuse delivery plugins with campaign tools. The WP Mail SMTP plugin (WP is short for WordPress) “doesn’t send marketing campaigns”. It reroutes WordPress system email, such as password resets, through SendGrid, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) or Brevo.

MailerLite Comfort Costs Least at 50,000 Contacts; Omnisend Fits WooCommerce Stores

Verdict: for a list headed to 50,000, buy MailerLite Comfort, the lowest-priced plan this guide prices at that size. Under 1,000 subscribers, MailPoet’s free tier keeps everything inside your WordPress dashboard.

The one real flaw: Comfort includes 500,000 emails a month at 50,000 contacts, per MailerLite’s pricing page. That covers only 10 sends to the whole list each month. Fix: MailerLite Power includes unlimited sends for $4,201.20 a year at 50,000 contacts, still $418.80 under Mailchimp Essentials.

Strengths: Comfort costs $205.20 a year at 1,000 contacts, about $17 a month. At 50,000 contacts it costs $1,174.80 less than Mailchimp Essentials, with the same 500,000 monthly email allowance.

Who should skip: WooCommerce stores that want order-based flows should buy Omnisend Standard instead. Shopify stores have different picks, covered in Shopify email tools at 50k contacts.

If you already run your own SMTP sender, price FluentCRM. Sender.net lists its paid plans from $129 a year, against Comfort’s $3,445.20 at 50,000, before your SMTP bill. Confirm FluentCRM’s tier for your list size first.

Three more fits:

• Near 10,000 contacts: Brevo Starter has the lowest annual price of the plans priced here, $497.04. That buys 40,000 emails a month, or 4 full-list sends. MailerLite Comfort’s $961.20 buys 100,000 emails, or 10 sends. Per 1,000 emails, Comfort works out to $0.80 and Brevo to $1.04.
• Cheapest paid hosted plan at 1,000 contacts: of the plans priced here, ActiveCampaign Starter costs $180 a year. It stops at 25,000 contacts, and Plus is the fix at $7,308 a year for 50,000. FluentCRM starts lower, at $129 a year per sender.net, but needs an outside SMTP service.
• Free, inside WordPress: MailPoet is free up to 1,000 subscribers, and paid plans start at about $14 a month (€13), per sender.net. Sender.net recommends it for sites under 10,000 subscribers.

Klaviyo Reaches WooCommerce Through Its API; Omnisend and Brevo Ship Store Plugins

Omnisend ships separate store and site plugins. EmailToolTester notes one plugin for WooCommerce and one for regular WordPress sites, and says store data syncs automatically once installed.

Its catch is setup: WooCommerce order statuses don’t map exactly to the ones Omnisend uses. Check that mapping before you switch on flows. EmailToolTester also found Omnisend’s deliverability rates for brand-new senders lower than most competitors’.

Brevo lists a separate WooCommerce plugin with email, automation, SMS and CRM (customer relationship management). Sender.net still rates its WooCommerce depth as basic.

ActiveCampaign’s plugin can add contact forms and live chat to any post, page or sidebar, and it also enables site tracking.

Klaviyo works on WooCommerce through its API (application programming interface), according to sender.net. Its predictive CLV (customer lifetime value) and churn scoring run deeper on Shopify than on WooCommerce. EmailToolTester points WooCommerce store owners to Omnisend; see the Klaviyo review with free-plan limits.

MailerLite Comfort Costs $3,445.20 a Year at 50,000 Contacts, $5,194.80 Less Than Klaviyo Email

Prices are in USD per year. MailerLite, ActiveCampaign and Brevo prices were read 2026-10-20 from their pricing pages. Omnisend, Mailchimp and Klaviyo prices come from their own pricing pages, and the MailPoet row comes from Sender.net’s comparison. FluentCRM is left out because Sender.net prices it from $129 a year, not by list size.

Rows run from cheapest to most expensive at 1,000 contacts. A dash marks a list size with no price row in our pricing dataset.

Plan	WordPress route	1,000 (USD/yr)	10,000 (USD/yr)	50,000 (USD/yr)
MailPoet	Native plugin, MailPoet sending	$0 (free to 1,000)	—	—
ActiveCampaign Starter	Forms, live chat plugin	$180	$1,788	not offered
Brevo Starter	WordPress + WooCommerce plugins	$183	$497.04	—
MailerLite Comfort	WordPress plugin	$205.20	$961.20	$3,445.20
ActiveCampaign Plus	Forms, live chat plugin	$588	$2,268	$7,308
Omnisend Standard	WordPress + WooCommerce plugins	—	$1,584	—
Mailchimp Essentials	Mailchimp for WordPress	—	—	$4,620
Klaviyo Email	WooCommerce via API	—	—	$8,640

At 50,000 contacts, cost per contact per year = $3,445.20 ÷ 50,000 = $0.069 for MailerLite Comfort. The same sum for Klaviyo Email gives $8,640 ÷ 50,000 = $0.1728, about 2.5 times as much. Above Plus, ActiveCampaign Pro costs $11,628 a year at 50,000, and Enterprise costs $14,028.

To check a row yourself, open MailerLite’s pricing page, set 50,000 subscribers and yearly billing, and read the Comfort column. Then price your own list size on each plan you shortlisted.

Mailchimp Essentials and MailerLite Comfort Allow 10 Full-List Sends a Month at 50,000

Plan, list size	Emails a month	Full-list sends a month	Extra fees
Brevo Starter, 1k	10,000	10,000 ÷ 1,000 = 10	Branding removal $10.80 a month
Brevo Starter, 10k	40,000	40,000 ÷ 10,000 = 4	Branding removal $10.80 a month
Omnisend Standard, 10k	120,000	120,000 ÷ 10,000 = 12	SMS from $0.007 each
Mailchimp Essentials, 50k	500,000	500,000 ÷ 50,000 = 10	Overages past contact or send limit
MailerLite Comfort, 50k	500,000	500,000 ÷ 50,000 = 10	Power plan for unlimited sends
ActiveCampaign Pro, 50k	600,000	600,000 ÷ 50,000 = 12	More AI credits sold at checkout
Klaviyo Free, 250 profiles	500	500 ÷ 250 = 2	—

Omnisend Standard at 10k gives 12 full-list sends a month. Mailchimp Essentials at 50k gives 10 full-list sends a month. If you email your whole list three times a week, plan for about 13 sends a month, which breaks both caps and means moving up a plan. Klaviyo’s free plan also includes $5 of mobile messages a month.

For texts (SMS, short message service), Brevo sells SMS credits separately from its email plans. Brevo’s free plan allows about 300 emails a day, per sender.net. Per-text costs are compared in SMS marketing platforms by per-text cost.

How We Evaluated

Each tool was compared on four criteria:

1. Annual cost at 1,000, 10,000 and 50,000 contacts, from vendor pricing pages (MailerLite, ActiveCampaign and Brevo read 2026-10-20), plus sender.net for MailPoet and FluentCRM.
2. Monthly send allowance at each list size.
3. WordPress route, from the WordPress.org email marketing tag and sender.net’s table.
4. Extra fees, such as SMS charges, overages and outside delivery services.

Strengths and flaws come from vendor docs and the independent reviews linked above.

Five Checks Settle Your WordPress Email Setup

1. If your list stays under 1,000, start on MailPoet’s free tier inside WordPress.
2. If you run WooCommerce, price Omnisend Standard at your own list size.
3. If you pick FluentCRM or Mailster, budget a separate SMTP service, per sender.net.
4. Divide the plan’s monthly emails by your contacts to see how many full-list sends you get.
5. If you expect to pass 25,000 contacts, skip ActiveCampaign Starter and price Plus instead.

Next Step

Compare more picks by use case in our best-of email marketing guides.

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

Can WordPress send newsletters without a plugin? WordPress can send email, but its dashboard has no screen for building campaigns by default, per Venture Harbour.

Is The Newsletter Plugin really free? Its free version allows unlimited subscribers and sends through wp_mail or an SMTP plugin, according to sender.net. Paid add-ons start at €69 a year.

Which free plan covers the most contacts? Brevo’s free plan covers up to 100,000 contacts, per Sender’s article. Its sends are capped near 300 a day. Sender’s own free plan covers 2,500 contacts and includes automation.