Marketing automation platforms mostly bill on the size of your contact list rather than what you send. That means the invoice grows as your database grows, whether or not you email anyone — and one major platform changed the rule that decides which plan you must be on, in a way that raised bills across its customer base.
A note on scope: this covers platforms that automate campaigns and customer journeys. Managing sales relationships is a CRM job, and drafting individual replies is what an email assistant does. Six tools below, compared on how they bill. Every figure is linked to the vendor page that publishes it, and two of these vendors do not show a rate card — which is stated rather than filled in from a roundup.
How these tools actually bill you
Two models are in play and they suit opposite usage patterns.
Contact-based. You pay for records held, regardless of activity. HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo and Mailchimp all work this way. The model rewards list hygiene and penalises hoarding inactive addresses.
Volume-based. You pay for emails sent, and the contact allowance rides along with the volume tier you pick. Brevo is the notable example, and it is structurally the opposite of everyone else here.
The consequence is that the same business gets very different quotes. A large list emailed monthly is cheap on volume pricing and expensive on contact pricing. A small list emailed daily is the reverse. This guide does not publish a worked head-to-head total, because two of the six platforms below do not publish the prices such a comparison would need.
The billing change worth knowing. Klaviyo’s own help centre sets out a requirement effective 18 February 2025: “Profile plan compliance: customers will be required to be on an email plan that matches or exceeds their active profile count.” Brands carrying large unengaged lists moved up tiers as a result. Klaviyo softened it with an appreciation discount that “limits any increase to their email plan price to no more than 25%”, applied automatically, calculated against 125% of the customer’s price ahead of the 14 January announcement, and applying “only…to the email and profiles plans”. If you are modelling Klaviyo costs from older figures, they understate.
All-in-one platforms
1. HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot bundles marketing automation with its CRM, which is the reason teams choose it and the reason it gets expensive. Its AI layer is now presented as Agent Hub rather than Breeze, with named agents billed per completed action against credits HubSpot prices at “$0.010 USD per credit”, sold in packs of 1,000 for $10.
Its billing distinction is the genuinely useful one: HubSpot charges per marketing contact, meaning contacts you actively email. Its Marketing Hub pricing page states that “You can store your non-marketing contacts in your CRM for free, up to a limit of 15 million overall contacts.”
The published ladder is steeper than most comparisons suggest. Starter “Starts at $7/mo/seat” on annual billing, or $20 per seat monthly, with 1,000 marketing contacts. Professional “Starts at $800/mo”, including three core seats and 2,000 marketing contacts. Enterprise “Starts at $3,600/mo”, including five seats and 10,000 marketing contacts. The jump from Starter to Professional is the real decision point in this product, and it is a large one.
The cost most people miss: Professional and Enterprise carry one-time onboarding fees of $3,000 and $7,000 respectively. Starter does not require mandatory onboarding, though consulting is available for an additional fee. On Professional, that makes the first-year starting cost $800 × 12 + $3,000 = $12,600 before extra contacts, seats or credits.
Contact pricing does not mean unlimited sending, either. The same pricing page caps monthly email sends at a multiple of your marketing-contact tier: 5× on Starter, 10× on Professional and 20× on Enterprise.
Suits: teams wanting marketing and CRM on one platform and budgeting for onboarding.
2. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is the depth option for automation logic, with a built-in CRM and strong segmentation. It is contact-based.
It does not show a price until you configure one. Its pricing page asks for your contact count and currency, and when we read it the tiers showed “Starts at —/mo” rather than a figure, so this guide quotes none; configure the page for your own list size to see yours. What the page does publish are the limits that matter more than the headline rate. The four tiers are Starter (1 user), Plus (1 user), Pro (3 users) and Enterprise (5 users). Starter is capped at “5 actions per automation”, while Plus and above are unlimited — that is the ceiling users hit soonest. A/B testing is limited to “5 per month” on both Starter and Plus, and unlimited only on Pro and Enterprise. The page states “No setup fees”, offers a free trial with no credit card required, and carries a 30-day guarantee.
Suits: B2B and SaaS teams treating automation as a revenue function rather than a newsletter tool — who are willing to request a quote.
Volume-based
3. Brevo
Brevo prices by monthly email sends rather than contact count, which makes it the structural outlier here and often the cheapest option for large lists emailed infrequently.
A widely repeated claim needs correcting: contacts are not unlimited on every plan. Brevo’s own pricing help article puts contact storage at up to 100,000 on Free, between 500 and 500,000 on Starter and Standard depending on the volume tier chosen, up to 2 million on Professional, and “unlimited contacts storage” on Enterprise only. The same article prices Starter from $9 a month, Standard from $18 and Professional from $499.
The free plan is genuinely generous on storage and tight on sending: up to 100,000 contacts and “300 email sends per day”, with the daily limit resetting rather than rolling over. Free emails “always include the Sent with Brevo sticker”, which cannot be removed without upgrading — the pricing page lists “No Brevo logo” as a paid-plan feature; on Starter it is a $9-a-month add-on. Starter begins “From 5,000 emails per month”, and here is the catch for large lists: Brevo’s help article shows that the 5,000-email Starter tier stores “Up to 500” contacts. Storage rises with the send tier you buy, so a business with 20,000 stored contacts cannot assume the $9 figure applies merely because it sends rarely. The free plan’s automation is also capped, at “up to 2,000 contacts”.
Suits: businesses with large lists and low send frequency.
Ecommerce and behavioural
4. Klaviyo
Klaviyo is the ecommerce standard, with Shopify-native segmentation, revenue attribution on every flow and predictive analytics.
Its free plan covers up to 250 active profiles, 500 emails a month, $5 of mobile messages a month and 10,000 Composer credits, with built-in reporting and 60 days of email support.
Above the free plan, Klaviyo prices through an on-site estimator that you configure by product and profile count rather than a published rate card. This guide therefore quotes no tier prices for it: the ladders circulating in comparison articles are not figures Klaviyo publishes, and given the February 2025 profile-compliance rule they are the numbers most likely to be stale. Build your own quote in the estimator, and model your profile count 18 to 24 months out rather than today, because the rule ties your plan to profiles held rather than profiles emailed.
Suits: Shopify and ecommerce brands where flows drive attributable revenue.
5. Customer.io
Customer.io targets SaaS and product-led companies, triggering messages from user behaviour rather than list membership. Email, SMS, push and in-app all run from one journey builder.
Its pricing page publishes Essentials from “$100 per month / billed monthly” and Premium from “$1,000 per month / billed yearly”, with Enterprise quoted on request. That makes it the most expensive entry point in this guide by a wide margin, and it is aimed accordingly.
The exception worth knowing: a Startup Program giving “12 months of Customer.io free” to early-stage companies that have “Raised under $10M”. For a funded startup that qualifies, the entry cost is nothing for a year.
Suits: SaaS teams with product usage data worth triggering on, and funded startups eligible for the free year.
Beginner-friendly
6. Mailchimp
Mailchimp remains the easiest entry point, with the largest template library and integration ecosystem, plus predictive segmentation and AI content suggestions.
Its free plan covers under 250 contacts with “500/mo or 250/day” sends. Read the paid figures carefully, because the headline prices are introductory: at the lowest contact tier the page shows Essentials at “$13.00/mo for 12 months”, Standard at “$20.00/mo for 12 months” and Premium at “$350.00/mo for 12 months”, each followed by “Then, starts at…” standard pricing. Those are first-year rates at the smallest list size, not steady-state costs at 10,000 contacts, and the gap between the two is where budgets get set wrong.
Suits: small businesses and beginners who value ease over automation depth — and who diary the renewal date.
Comparison
Every figure comes from the vendor’s own page, linked above. Where a vendor does not publish a price, the table says so rather than estimating it.
| Tool | Billing basis | Free plan | Published entry price | Next tier up | Setup fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | Marketing contacts | Free CRM; non-marketing contacts free | $7/seat annual, 1,000 contacts | Professional from $800/mo | $3,000 / $7,000 |
| ActiveCampaign | Contacts | Free trial, no card | Shown only after configuring contacts | Starter capped at 5 actions/automation | “No setup fees” |
| Brevo | Emails sent | 100k contacts, 300 emails/day | Starter from $9/mo | Standard from $18; Professional $499 | Branding removal needs a paid plan |
| Klaviyo | Active profiles | 250 profiles, 500 sends | Estimator, no rate card | Plan must match profile count | — |
| Customer.io | Profiles | None; startup year free | Essentials from $100/mo | Premium from $1,000/mo | — |
| Mailchimp | Contacts | 250 contacts, 500/mo | Essentials $13/mo for 12 months | Standard $20; Premium $350 | — |
The cost of growing, and the cost of leaving
Two costs sit outside the monthly price and both are larger than people expect.
Growth. On contact-based pricing you pay for every record even if you rarely email it, and Klaviyo’s profile-compliance rule makes that explicit: your plan has to match the profiles you hold. That rewards deleting unengaged contacts and penalises keeping them, which is a real operational discipline rather than an afterthought. Model your list 18 to 24 months ahead before choosing a platform, because the tier you sign on is rarely the tier you stay on.
Switching. Migration is where the cheap entry tier stops being cheap. Rebuilding automations costs staff hours and delays campaigns, integrations that were native on one platform may need a paid connector on another, and HubSpot’s onboarding fees are payable once regardless. Build a 12-month total that includes integrations, templates, data export and support rather than comparing headline prices — and on Mailchimp specifically, use the post-promotional rate rather than the first-year one.
Also verify whether the advertised price covers deliverability support or a dedicated IP if you send at volume, since those are frequently separate.
How to choose by list size
Under 1,000 contacts: free tiers cover it. Brevo’s is by far the most generous on storage at 100,000 contacts; Klaviyo caps at 250 profiles and Mailchimp at 250 contacts.
Large list, infrequent sending: volume-based pricing is often cheaper, because you are mainly buying sends — but check the storage that comes with each send tier, since Brevo’s smallest Starter tier stores only 500 contacts.
Small list, frequent sending: contact-based pricing is more predictable, though sends are still capped at a multiple of the contact tier (5× to 20× on HubSpot).
Ecommerce with attributable revenue: the ecommerce-native platform earns its premium only if you use the flows; otherwise you are paying for features you will not open.
SaaS with product data: behavioural triggering matters more than list management — and check the startup programme before paying $100 a month.
You want CRM in the same place: budget for the jump from $7 a seat to $800 a month, plus onboarding, rather than the entry price.
Related guides
- Best AI CRM Tools in 2026
- Best AI Email Assistants in 2026
- Best AI Lead Generation Tools in 2026
- Best AI Advertising Tools in 2026
- Best AI Social Media Tools in 2026
- Best AI Workflow Automation Tools in 2026
Frequently asked questions
Why does my bill grow when I am not sending more?
Because most of these platforms bill on contacts held rather than emails sent. Adding records to your database raises the invoice regardless of activity, which is why list hygiene has a direct financial effect. Brevo is the exception here, pricing by monthly email sends.
Which platform is cheapest for a large list?
Volume-based pricing generally wins. Brevo’s free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts and limits you to 300 email sends a day, and its paid plans start at $9 a month for volume from 5,000 emails — but that entry tier stores only 500 contacts, so price the send tier whose storage covers your list.
What changed with Klaviyo pricing?
From 18 February 2025 Klaviyo requires customers “to be on an email plan that matches or exceeds their active profile count”, which moved brands with large unengaged lists up a tier. An automatic appreciation discount limits any resulting increase to an email plan price to no more than 25%.
Are there setup costs?
Sometimes, and they are significant. HubSpot Professional and Enterprise carry one-time onboarding fees of $3,000 and $7,000. ActiveCampaign states “No setup fees”. Migration and automation rebuilding cost staff time on any platform.
Why do two of these not show prices?
ActiveCampaign shows a price only after you configure contacts and currency (the tiers read “Starts at —/mo” when we checked); Klaviyo prices through an on-site estimator rather than a rate card. Both publish their limits and features, so this guide compares those and leaves the figures to the vendor.
Is marketing automation the same as a CRM?
No. Marketing automation runs campaigns and customer journeys at scale; a CRM manages individual sales relationships. Several platforms include both, which is why the categories are often confused.
Conclusion
Choose on billing axis before features. If you hold a large list and email it occasionally, volume-based pricing will be materially cheaper. If you email a smaller list often, contact-based pricing is more predictable. Ecommerce and SaaS platforms justify premiums only when you actually use their specialised flows.
Then price the things that sit outside the subscription: onboarding fees at $3,000 and $7,000, add-on AI credits, branding removal, deliverability support, promotional rates that expire after twelve months, and the staff hours to migrate if you switch later. Model your contact count at least 18 months out, because on this pricing model the list you build is the bill you inherit.
