I’ve been sending emails for well over 15 years.
It’s my sole source of online marketing.
And I’m totally willing to PAY to make sure I have the best email marketing software and services available to me.
It wasn’t always this way. When I was totally new to email marketing I signed up for a paid service (one that no longer exists) and I happily sent out my free emails.
You know the saying “you get what you pay for”, right?
It applies to deciding if you want to go with free email marketing platforms or paid ones.
The Cost of Email Marketing Platforms that are “Free”
Many email software as a service companies such as the one I use, ConvertKit, have a free version.
I never recommend this version.
The reason is you are always going to be getting less of something by using these.
Maybe it’s less support, less features, less emails you can send… always less something.
Less support is one of the most common ones.
Another platform I was on has a pop-up chat box for customers and no box for free members. I personally think this is a mistake as it doesn’t show the potential future paying customer what the actual paid service is like. But maybe that’s not their goal… if not I’m not sure what it is.
Just know when getting free you are getting LESS and then check out what you get less of and decide if that’s a smart move for your business.
The Return on Paid Email Software Platforms
There’s a lot of reliable math in online business.
If you grow your email list, email them regularly and make regular offers you can expect to earn somewhere in the range of $1 to $3 or more per subscriber per month.
As an experienced email marketer I earn about $3.50 per subscriber per month and growing. The better my relationships get with my subscribers the more that number increases.
I never balk at paying for my email software. Rather I’m just so freaking GRATEFUL that I can build a business with this little of an expense that provides me with a growing monthly recurring income and (my favorite) lifestyle freedom!
I recently had a member of my community discussing the costs and here was my reply:

Is Email Marketing Free?
If you’re not familiar with how email marketing works as I said I recommend you pay for software.
It’s not free but the software I recommend is ConvertKit and it’s only $9/month to start on their lowest plan.
Then you start building your email list of subscribers and you start sending them emails (I like the daily email habit and find it works really, really well).
There’s no cost per subscriber or per email so in essence that part is “free” after you pay your monthly payment.
I’m writing this post as an email marketing of 15+ years with over one million dollars in sales accounted through email marketing. I LOVE sending emails and I do so in a way that people WELCOME them into their inbox.
If you’d like to learn from me I run the Email Practice Club – it’s your “Hit Send Support Club”.
If you’d like to check out a good email platform check out ConvertKit. Give yourself a year to build a list and earn a minimum of $1 per subscriber per month and watch how inconsequential that monthly email software fee really seems!
All the best in your email marketing!
Angela