The short answer
To send a newsletter you need email marketing software, not your own inbox: a Gmail account stops at 500 emails a day, adds no unsubscribe link, and messages to lots of recipients easily land in spam. Good newsletter software gives you a simple editor, signup forms, automated emails, unsubscribes and bounces handled for you, reports and the tools you need for GDPR. Spedito does all of that in plain language, free for up to 500 contacts. Here is how to choose.
Why not just use Gmail or Outlook
They are perfect for writing to a few friends. For a newsletter to customers they are not, for four reasons:
- Sending limits. A Gmail account can send at most 500 emails a day and 500 recipients per message. Go over and Gmail blocks sending for up to 24 hours.
- No unsubscribe. Every marketing email must let people opt out, and Gmail and Yahoo require one-click unsubscribe from bulk senders. From your own inbox you would have to do it all by hand.
- Privacy risk. Put the addresses in “To” or “Cc” instead of “Bcc” and everyone sees everyone else’s: under the GDPR that is a personal data breach.
- Spam. The same message to hundreds of people from a personal inbox looks exactly like what filters are built to stop.
What good newsletter software must do
- A simple editor: write as you would in a document, with images and buttons, and see straight away how it looks on a phone.
- Signup forms and pages, with a QR code, to grow your list.
- Automated emails: welcome, after purchase, birthday.
- Unsubscribes and bounces handled for you: anyone who opts out, or whose address no longer exists, gets nothing more.
- Guided domain verification (SPF, DKIM and DMARC) to stay out of spam.
- Clear reports: opens, clicks, unsubscribes.
- GDPR tools: double opt-in, proof of consent, a data processing agreement (DPA), ideally with data in the EU.
- An interface and support in your language.
- A clear price, with no platform branding in your emails.
Simple software or a full suite?
Platforms come in two families. Suites such as HubSpot, ActiveCampaign or Brevo bundle email, CRM, SMS, chat and sales: powerful, but more complex and often pricier, sometimes charging for every user. Simple platforms do newsletters and automated emails well, and you can learn them in an afternoon.
For a shop, a restaurant or a practice, the second kind is usually enough. If you have a sales team working deals every day, a suite can be worth the extra cost.
The platforms people use most
A first overview, with each one’s entry paid plan:
- Spedito: €5 a month for up to 1,000 contacts, free up to 500. In five languages, with data in the EU.
- Mailchimp: Essentials from $13 a month for 500 contacts. The alternatives are in Cheap Mailchimp alternatives.
- Brevo: Starter from €7 a month, priced by the emails you send. See Brevo alternatives.
- MailerLite: Comfort from $12 a month for 500 subscribers.
- Kit: popular with creators, free up to 10,000 subscribers with its branding; Creator from $39 a month for 1,000.
- EmailOctopus: Pro from $10 a month for 500 subscribers.
Prices at every list size are in our guide to the cheapest email marketing software; free plans are in Free email marketing.
How to test a platform in 30 minutes
- Create a free account and import twenty or so contacts, including yourself.
- Create a signup form and subscribe from another address: check the confirmation arrives.
- Write a test newsletter with an image and a button.
- Send it to a Gmail and an Outlook address and open it on your phone: did it land in the main inbox, Promotions or spam?
- Click “unsubscribe” and check that one click is enough.
- Look at the report: can you tell what happened at a glance?
If you feel at home after half an hour, it is the right software. If you need the manual, it probably isn’t.
Spedito in practice
Spedito is built for people who run a business and are short on time: your first newsletter takes ten minutes, the AI helps you write, and it can translate every email into each customer’s language. Forms, automations, subject-line A/B tests and reports are included on every plan, free included, and we never put our branding in your emails.
For your domain we show you the records to copy, with instructions for GoDaddy, Namecheap, IONOS, Cloudflare and the rest. Data stays in the EU and the DPA applies to every customer.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free newsletter software?
It depends on your list. Spedito is free for up to 500 contacts, with every feature and no branding of ours. For bigger free lists there are Sender, EmailOctopus and Kit, with their branding in your emails: we compare them in our guide to free email marketing.
Can I send a newsletter from Outlook?
To a few people, yes; to customers, no: Outlook also caps daily sending and does not handle unsubscribes or bounces. And spam filters treat the same message sent to many people from a personal inbox badly.
How much does newsletter software cost?
For a small list it can be free. With Spedito, €5 a month for up to 1,000 contacts and €25 for up to 10,000, excluding VAT; on other platforms, 1,000 contacts cost anything from a few euros to over 30 a month.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. With good newsletter software you write as you would in a document and start from a template. The only technical step is verifying your domain, and we walk you through it.