If you run email for a nonprofit, the tool question is really a money question: how big a list can you keep for free, what does the first paid tier cost, and does anyone cut you a break for being a nonprofit? Below is the honest answer for 2026, using real current pricing — not the marketing headline numbers.
The honest bottom line
- Pick [MailerLite](https://www.mailerlite.com) if you want the best nonprofit-specific deal. It gives registered nonprofits 30% off paid plans indefinitely, and qualifying organizations can apply for a free 2-year sponsored account. That combination beats a generic "free tier" for most small charities.
- Pick [Kit](https://kit.com) (formerly ConvertKit) if you have a big list but simple needs. Its free plan carries up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited emails — by far the most generous free ceiling here — as long as you can live with one automation, Kit branding, and no third-party integrations.
- Pick [Moosend](https://www.moosend.com) if you want full features cheaply and don't need a permanent free plan. Paid access starts around $7–9/month for 500 contacts, nothing is feature-gated, and nonprofits get an extra 25% off that stacks with annual billing.
If you want the one-line version: MailerLite for the nonprofit perks, Kit for a large free list, Moosend for the cheapest full-featured paid plan.
Quick comparison
| MailerLite | Moosend | Kit (ConvertKit) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo | No free plan — 30-day trial (1,000 subs, unlimited email, no card) | Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited email |
| Entry paid price | From $12/mo (Comfort, 500 subs) | From ~$9/mo (~$7 annual, 500 contacts) | From $39/mo ($33 annual, 1,000 subs) |
| Nonprofit discount | 30% off + possible free 2-yr sponsored account | 25% off (stacks with 20% annual) | No published nonprofit discount |
| Feature gating | Some features gated to Power tier | None — every paid plan gets everything | Automations/integrations gated to free vs paid |
| Key strength | Best all-round value + nonprofit program | Cheapest full feature set, no upsells | Huge free list, strong deliverability |
| Best for | Small charities wanting polish + a discount | Budget teams needing automation now | Newsletter-first orgs with large lists |
Prices are entry tiers and rise with list size; always confirm the current number for your exact subscriber count before committing.
MailerLite: the nonprofit-friendliest option
MailerLite is the one built with your sector in mind. Beyond the standard product, registered nonprofits get 30% off any paid plan, with no expiry, and MailerLite runs a sponsored account program that can grant qualifying organizations a free account for two years. You have to submit proof of nonprofit registration (within 14 days of signing up for the discount), and only the largest discount applies — so the 30% nonprofit rate replaces, rather than stacks with, the normal 10% annual discount.
The product itself is genuinely good for the money. The free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month, and includes real tools: email campaigns, 3 automations, a website plus one landing page, one digital product or booking, three signup forms, and 100+ integrations. Paid plans start at $12/month for the Comfort tier (500 subscribers, roughly 10x your subscriber count in monthly emails) and $25/month for Power (unlimited emails, unlimited users, custom HTML, popups, more automation triggers, AI writing). The drag-and-drop editor and landing pages are cleaner and more modern than most tools at this price.
The honest weakness: MailerLite quietly cut its free plan from 1,000 subscribers down to 250 — a real downgrade if you remember the old limit. Free-tier emails also carry MailerLite branding, and a few features (custom HTML, popups, the AI assistant) are reserved for the Power plan. But for a nonprofit, the discount and sponsorship program more than offset the smaller free tier — you likely won't be on free for long anyway.
Moosend: cheapest full feature set, no upsell games
Moosend's pitch is refreshingly blunt: everything, cheaply, with no feature gating between tiers. Automation, landing pages, forms, and up to 5 user accounts are included on every paid plan — you're only paying for list size, not for unlocking capabilities. Pricing starts at about $9/month billed monthly, or roughly $7/month on annual billing, for 500 contacts with unlimited emails, scaling up with your contact count from there.
For nonprofits, Moosend offers a 25% discount that stacks with its 20% annual discount — one of the deepest legitimate savings in this roundup. Combine those and the effective per-month cost for a small list is very low. The automation builder is capable, the templates are solid, and unlimited sending means a spiky campaign month won't blow a send cap.
The honest weakness: there is no permanent free plan — only a 30-day trial (1,000 subscribers, unlimited emails, no credit card required). If your nonprofit genuinely needs a $0-forever option, Moosend is out. Its integration ecosystem is also smaller than the big names, the interface feels a little dated next to MailerLite, and the brand is less familiar to volunteers you might onboard. But if you're comfortable paying a few dollars a month for a no-compromises feature set, it's the best value on a per-feature basis.
Kit (formerly ConvertKit): the biggest free list
Kit rebranded from ConvertKit and remains the creator-and-newsletter favorite — and its free plan is the headline act for anyone with a large audience: up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited emails, landing pages, and the ability to sell products and paid subscriptions, all at $0. No other tool here comes close on raw free-list size. If your nonprofit's core activity is a newsletter to a big supporter base, that ceiling is hard to ignore.
Kit also does the fundamentals well. It publishes its deliverability numbers openly (reporting around a 99.8% delivery rate), offers clean visual automation workflows, opt-in forms, email sequences, and 70+ native integrations with tools like Shopify, WordPress, Stripe, and Zapier on paid plans. Paid Creator starts at $39/month ($33 annual) for 1,000 subscribers, rising to about $89/month at 5,000 subscribers; Creator Pro adds advanced reporting and a newsletter referral system.
The honest weaknesses are real. The free plan is deliberately limited: a single automation, Kit branding on every email, and no third-party integrations — so it's fine for straightforward broadcasts but frustrating the moment you want a welcome sequence tied to your CRM. Design flexibility is thin (only around 15 templates, limited drag-and-drop). And a September 2025 price increase roughly doubled the Creator plan, badly denting its value story once you outgrow free. There's also no published nonprofit discount, so unlike MailerLite and Moosend, you pay list price.
How to actually choose
Match the tool to your situation rather than the review-site hype.
- You're a registered nonprofit and want the lowest real cost: start with MailerLite. Apply for the sponsored account first; if you qualify, you may pay nothing for two years, and 30% off afterward keeps it cheap. You get a modern editor and landing pages in the bargain.
- You have a large supporter list and mostly send broadcasts: Kit's free 10,000-subscriber plan is unbeatable at $0 — just accept the one-automation, no-integrations, branded-email constraints. Budget for the jump to paid before you need automation or integrations, because it's the priciest paid entry here.
- You want full automation and landing pages now for a few dollars a month: Moosend. The 25%-plus-annual nonprofit stack makes it the cheapest way to get an ungated feature set — provided you don't require a permanent free tier.
- You need a permanent free plan under 250 subscribers with polish: MailerLite's free tier, then upgrade with the nonprofit discount as you grow.
A note on the tools we didn't center: Mailchimp is the name most boards recognize, but its free tier has shrunk and its per-contact pricing climbs fast — it's rarely the budget winner. Substack is free but takes a percentage of paid subscriptions and gives you little control over design or data ownership, which many nonprofits find limiting. Both are worth knowing about, but for a budget-conscious nonprofit the three tools above give you more room and lower real costs.
Whichever you choose, do two things before you commit: confirm the current price at your exact subscriber count (all three scale with list size), and check whether your organization qualifies for the nonprofit programs — the discounts and sponsorships are where the real savings live.