The main difference between HubSpot, MailChimp, and Moosend is what other functionality you want to have added to it. Also, you need to consider how robust the marketing automation builder needs to be for your business. If you are sending a lot of email with a small to medium sized team, HubSpot is a great fit. If you are a business owner or small team, Moosend or Mailchimp is probably a better fit.
Building a mailing list can be a real feat, but what happens when you’ve got the mailing list, the content, the ideas but not the budget to go through with purchasing an email marketing and automation plan?
Most SaaS companies that offer email marketing and automation services have predicted that turn of events and can provide some sort of free trial.
Today, I am going to compare the three email marketing and automation ninjas that offer a free plan, rather than a free trial:
These are the following:
- HubSpot Free Email Marketing Plan
- MailChimp Free Email Marketing Plan
- Moosend Free Email Marketing Plan
Moosend Vs Mailchimp Vs HubSpot
Pro Tip: Trust in our blog post for more information, a complete comparison table of Mailchimp alternatives and all the information you’ll need about the most popular email marketing and automation tools.
Moosend’s Free Plan
Let me start with an introduction: Moosend is an email marketing and marketing automation tool that can offer pretty much everything a business needs, whether it’s a startup or a big company with years on the market and the largest mailing list one could find.
From managing your lists to getting the best email templates that will do the deed and from automation tools that will amaze you to all the data you can get, Moosend can definitely help you with all you’ll need.
As far as the free plan is concerned now, the free plan is free forever and gives you access to all features and tools, no exceptions whatsoever.
This means that you can have access to the creation of custom workflows right off the bat, as many email automations as you need, no matter how simple or complicated, the A/B testing feature that most free plans don’t offer and all the integrations the paid plans can enjoy.
If your mailing list has no more than 1,000 subscribers-which means that you’re a company that has just gone on the market and doesn’t have a lot of budget to waste, then we’ve got you covered.
Oh and remember: You can send unlimited emails per month, with no branding and no need to check how many times the same subscriber appears on different lists-it will still count as one single subscriber.
Now, let’s look at some of the features:
You’ve got free unlimited campaigns, a drag-and-drop editor that is very easy to use, advanced analytics and segmentation, all the personalized templates that will help you with your conversion rate optimization aspirations and more to choose from.
Moosend can also offer plenty of integrations with your favorite apps, thus making sure you remain in your comfort zone.
All you’ll need to do is just hop onto the website and create a free account. There is no credit card required and your account can remain free for as long as you want.
For more information, Moosend has a helpful comparison page: 9 Best Mailchimp Alternatives [2024 Predictions]
MailChimp’s Free Plan
Mailchimp is one of the few leaders of the email marketing and automation industry that doesn’t offer a free trial. Rather it offers a free plan, much like our own Moosend does.
Mailchimp’s free plan is free forever as well. You can add up to 2000 subscribers, however, there is a limitation to the emails you can send monthly: It’s only up to 12000 per month, with a daily limit of 2000 to boot.
If you exceed these limits, then you’ll be asked to upgrade to one of the paid plans.
The free plan offers something that most free trials and/or plans don’t: You’ll get the basic templates for free, 1-click automation and a marketing CRM.
What you cannot have though, would be a non-branded email. So, Mailchimp’s logo will be at the bottom of your emails if you’re using the free plan.
Not to mention that there is no option for multi-step automation on their free forever plan.
However, we should point out that Mailchimp offers the much-needed abandoned cart automation as part of its single-step automations-this doesn’t mean of course, that you can have it all. There is no user onboarding series as part of the free plan.
Another drawback of Mailchimp’s free plan is that there is no support for the users, apart from the knowledge base and just 30 days of email support.
This should be no big a deal for someone who knows what they’re doing of course, but is a big deal to someone that can’t know how to tackle the issues that may arise.
HubSpot’s Free Plan
HubSpot is also one of the “big names” in the email marketing and marketing automation game. However, its free forever plan only recently came into existence.
Now, what can this free forever plan do for you and your email marketing endeavors? Aside from the easy drag-and-drop email builder, which is, of course, free, HubSpot offers a free CRM tool that can help with all your sales efforts, including connecting emails that convert, with elements of high personalization, straight out of the CRM software.
The free plan also offers task management and free integrations for email providers, such as Google or Outlook. If you need any client management tools, you can get ticketing support. If you need marketing tools, you can get live chat, chatbots, and mobile optimization.
However, automation tools like workflows are not included in the free plan. Not to mention A/B testing, which will definitely be of use down the line, to any and all companies.
HubSpot’s free forever plan can take up to 2000 email sends per month. And take note: You can add up to 1.000.000 contacts to HubSpot’s CRM and as many users as needed. However, if you use their CRM with their Marketing Hub, your contacts will be in both places, so make sure to take note before you’re asked to pay more.
All in all, HubSpot’s free plan is free for your CRM purposes. The rest of its tools are stripped down to the bare essentials, something that won’t work well with any developing company, down the line.
HubSpot vs MailChimp In-depth Guide
Read a more in-depth Mailchimp vs HubSpot comparison.
Which One Should You Pick for Your Business?
MailChimp is undoubtedly one of the biggest, hottest names in the email marketing industry and for good reason. And HubSpot is one that just started gaining more fame in the email marketing and automation industry.
However their pricing plans-even the free plans-come with hidden charges and fees that have made users look for other, more cost-effective options, one of which is Moosend.
Do you need a robust free CRM?
I highly recommend signing up for HubSpot with the understanding that it will require future investment to gain all of the value for your business.
If you don’t need a robust CRM and just need email marketing
If you simply need email marketing on a budget, I would check out Moosend and sign up for free.
