Mailchimp

Mailchimp started as a side project from an Atlanta web design shop and grew into the platform most small businesses try first. The editor supports a full drag-and-drop layout system, hundreds of templates, and a Customer Journey Builder for multi-step automations triggered by purchases, sign-ups, or inactivity. Content Optimizer scores your draft against subject line and layout best practices before you send, and Intuit Assist can generate a full email from a short brief.

Mailchimp bills by total contacts in your audience, not by how many emails you send, and that count includes unsubscribed contacts unless you manually archive them. The free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 sends a month with a 250-per-day cap; Essentials starts at $13 a month for 500 contacts, Standard at $20, and Premium at $350 for 10,000 contacts with advanced segmentation and multivariate testing. Deliverability and integrations (Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace) are strong across every tier. It suits a small business or solo marketer who wants one dashboard and doesn't mind paying a premium once the list grows past a few thousand names.