An email list is the only audience a small business owns. Followers belong to the platform, search traffic belongs to Google, and both can disappear in a policy change. The list does not. Building one from nothing is four steps, and every one of them can be done on a free tier at the time of verification (2026-09-09). The tool decision comes last on purpose: most people pick the tool first and then never build the offer that makes anyone subscribe.
Step 1: decide what someone gets for their address
Nobody subscribes to "updates". They subscribe to get something they wanted anyway. The offers that work for a small business are boring and specific: a checklist for the job your customers are about to do, a price list or quote calculator, a short email course that answers the five questions you get asked most, or first access to something you sell. Write the offer in one sentence that ends with the outcome ("the 12-point checklist we use before every roof inspection") and put that sentence at the top of the form. If you cannot write that sentence, you are not ready for a form.
Step 2: put a form where the traffic already is
Every tool below includes a form builder, so the question is placement, not software. Three placements cover most businesses: an inline form at the end of your most-visited page, a small bar or footer form on every page, and a dedicated landing page you can link to from social profiles and videos. Skip pop-ups until you have measured the inline form; a pop-up on a site with 200 visitors a month annoys more people than it converts.
If your site is not on the email tool's builder and you want the cleanest form on the page, Tally builds unlimited forms free with logic and integrations, and pushes each submission into the email tool. That is also the route if you collect more than an address, such as a quote request that should create a subscriber.
Step 3: write one welcome automation, then stop
The welcome email is the highest-open message you will ever send, so it does one job: deliver the thing you promised, in the first line, with a link. Add one sentence about what comes next and how often. That is the whole email. A second and third message, sent two and five days later, can share your best existing content and ask one question that gets replies. Three emails, one automation, done. Do not build a ten-step sequence before anyone is in it.
This is where the free tiers diverge, and it is the reason the tool choice comes last.
Step 4: pick the tool by where the list will be in twelve months
Under 250 subscribers and you want automation now: MailerLite. The free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month with 3 automations, 3 forms, 1 landing page and 1 website. That is exactly the setup above with room to spare. Comfort is $12 a month ($10.80 annual) for 500 subscribers, 5,000 emails and 50 automations with branding removed. It is the easiest editor of the five and the natural first tool; see MailerLite vs Kit for the creator alternative.
A funnel, a lead magnet page and email in one place, free: Systeme.io. The free plan never expires: 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 automation rule, 1 workflow, 1 custom domain and unlimited emails. It is the pick if the list will sell a course or a coaching offer, because the checkout and the course hosting are already there; Startup is $17 a month for 5,000 contacts and 10 funnels. The design is plainer than a dedicated page builder, and the single free automation rule means you get the welcome flow and nothing else until you pay. The funnel builder for coaches guide covers when it beats the specialists.
A big list you will mail rarely: Brevo. Free is unlimited contacts with a 300-emails-a-day cap and Brevo branding. If you are importing a few thousand existing customers and sending monthly, that is the cheapest home for them; Starter is from $9 a month for 5,000 emails and marketing automation arrives on Standard at $18. Note that automation is not on the free plan, so the welcome flow waits until you pay.
Broadcasts only, to a list that may grow fast: Kit. Free covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms, but no automations or sequences and Kit branding. It suits a writer who will send a weekly letter and wants headroom; the welcome flow needs Creator at $33 a month at 1,000 subscribers. If you sell a paid newsletter or digital products later, the checkout is built in.
The rule that resolves most cases: pick MailerLite if you need the welcome automation free today; pick Systeme.io if the list exists to sell a course or coaching; pick Brevo if the list is already big and mails rarely; pick Kit if the list will be large before you need automation. Run your numbers through the email ROI calculator to see what a list is worth at your conversion rate, and compare the paid steps in best email marketing for beginners.
What to avoid
Do not buy or scrape a list; every tool here suspends accounts for it and the emails go to spam anyway. Do not add customers who never opted in; ask them once, with the offer, and let them choose. Do not connect two email tools to one form; you will send two welcome emails and never know which tool owns the contact. And do not judge the list by size: 300 people who asked for your checklist are worth more than 3,000 who forgot they signed up.
When to upgrade
Upgrade the month you hit a cap that stops a send or an automation, not before. On MailerLite that is subscriber 251 or the fourth automation; on Systeme.io it is contact 2,001 or the second automation rule; on Brevo it is the day you want automation; on Kit it is the day you want a sequence. Until then the free tier is the whole product, and the money is better spent on the offer that makes people subscribe.