For beginners and tiny lists, Hostinger Reach wins on simplicity — it is free up to 100 contacts and sits inside the Hostinger dashboard you may already use. For anyone with real automation needs, the winner is not even Mailchimp: MailerLite and Brevo beat Mailchimp on price, and Mailchimp only justifies its premium if you need its deep segmentation and integrations.
Decision table: Reach vs Mailchimp vs MailerLite vs Brevo
| Feature | Hostinger Reach | Mailchimp | MailerLite | Brevo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 100 contacts / 200 emails per month | 250 contacts / 500 sends per month | 250 subscribers / 2,500 emails per month (cut June 16, 2026) | 300 emails per day |
| Entry paid price | Paid tiers scale by recipient count (no fixed published price; free tier is the honest starting point) | Essentials from $13/mo (checked Sep 2026 via mailrelay/retainful) | Comfort from $12/mo (checked Oct 7, 2026 via creatormailstack) | Starter from $9/mo for 5,000 emails (checked Sep 2026 via leadhaste/omnisend) |
| Billing model | Priced by recipient count | Priced by contact count; sends are 10x/12x/15x of contacts | Priced by subscriber count; Power plan ($25/mo) includes unlimited sends | Billed by emails sent, not contacts — unlimited contacts on every plan |
| Automation | AI-assisted campaign generation on every plan; basic workflows | Full journey builder, branching, behavioral triggers | Solid automation with visual builder | Automation from the $18/mo Standard plan (checked Sep 2026) |
| Best for | Hostinger users, tiny lists, AI-assisted first campaigns | Brands that need advanced segmentation and hundreds of integrations | Creators and bloggers who want generous limits at low cost | Growing lists that send a lot — you pay for volume, not subscribers |
The honest verdict
Hostinger Reach is Hostinger’s AI email marketing platform, and it deserves a fair hearing: if you are already a Hostinger customer running a small site or a side project, the ability to write, send, and track campaigns from the same dashboard as your website is genuinely convenient. The free tier (100 contacts, 200 emails per month) costs nothing, and every plan includes AI campaign generation that drafts subject lines and body copy for you. For a newsletter with a few dozen readers, that is enough — and it is priced like an add-on, not a flagship product.
But let’s be blunt about the ceiling: Reach is not an automation platform. If you need abandoned-cart flows, multi-branch welcome journeys, win-back sequences, and CRM-style segmentation, Reach will run out of room fast. That is where the specialists take over, and the specialists do not price themselves equally.
Mailchimp is the household name, and its Free plan (250 contacts, 500 sends per month) is fine for testing. Paid plans start at $13/mo for Essentials, $20/mo for Standard, and a steep $350/mo for Premium (all checked September 2026). Mailchimp prices by contact count, and — this is the catch — unsubscribed and inactive contacts can still count toward your billable total depending on audience settings. For lists that grow past a few thousand contacts, Mailchimp becomes one of the most expensive options on this page, and its interface has gained a reputation for complexity rather than simplicity.
MailerLite is the price-performance pick for most small businesses: its free tier was cut to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails per month on June 16, 2026, but the Comfort plan starts at $12/mo and the Power plan ($25/mo) includes unlimited sends. The editor is cleaner than Mailchimp’s, the automation builder is genuinely capable, and you keep more money as your list grows.
Brevo plays a different game entirely: it bills by emails sent, not by contacts, so you can have a huge list and a small bill as long as you send infrequently. The free plan allows 300 emails per day, Starter is $9/mo for 5,000 emails, and marketing automation unlocks on the $18/mo Standard plan (all checked September 2026). If your list is large but your sending frequency is modest, Brevo is often the cheapest real option.
Bottom line: pick Reach if your list is tiny and you live inside Hostinger; pick MailerLite for the best balance of price and capability; pick Brevo if you send rarely but keep growing your list; pick Mailchimp only if a specific integration or advanced segmentation feature ties you to it.
Cost at scale: the math over a year
Entry prices only tell you the first month. Here is what one year costs at two common list sizes, using the verified starting prices (actual bills rise with your tier, so treat these as minimums):
2,500 contacts
| Tool | Monthly cost (from) | One-year cost (from) |
|---|---|---|
| Hostinger Reach | Free tier only covers 100 contacts; paid tier by recipient count | Free tier exceeded — see paid tiers |
| Mailchimp Essentials | $13/mo (checked Sep 2026; price climbs with contact tier) | $156/year |
| MailerLite Comfort | $12/mo (checked Oct 7, 2026; price climbs with subscriber tier) | $144/year |
| Brevo Starter | $9/mo for 5,000 emails (checked Sep 2026) | $108/year |
10,000 contacts
| Tool | Monthly cost (from) | One-year cost (from) |
|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp Essentials | $13/mo base; 10,000 contacts lands several tiers higher — expect roughly $80+/mo | Roughly $960/year |
| MailerLite Comfort | $12/mo base; 10,000 subscribers lands higher — expect roughly $35+/mo | Roughly $420/year |
| Brevo Starter/Standard | $9–$18/mo for 5,000 emails (contacts are unlimited) | $108–$216/year depending on send volume |
The pattern is unmistakable: contact-based pricing punishes growth. At 10,000 contacts, Mailchimp can cost several times what MailerLite charges, and Brevo — because it ignores contact count — can undercut both dramatically if your send volume is modest. This is why the decision table matters more than the headline price: the billing model is the real price. Read our Hostinger Reach overview to see where its paid tiers kick in.
Who should pick Hostinger Reach
Reach is the right call in three situations. First, you already host your site with Hostinger and want one login for your site and your newsletter — no new vendor, no new billing, no DNS verification dance on a second platform. If you claimed a discounted hosting plan and your list is a few dozen people, Reach’s free tier covers you for $0.
Second, you have never run a campaign before and the blank-page problem is stopping you. The AI campaign generation on every plan drafts your subject line, body copy, and layout from a short prompt, which is genuinely useful for a first-time sender who would otherwise stall for a week on copy.
Third, you send a simple monthly newsletter with no automation ambitions: no drip sequences, no abandoned carts, no behavioral triggers. Reach handles “write it, send it, see the opens” without the clutter of a full marketing suite.
What Reach is not: a replacement for a serious email marketing stack. The moment your list crosses roughly a thousand engaged contacts or you need a welcome sequence that adapts to clicks, you are paying opportunity costs that a specialist tool would not charge. Be honest about where you are on that curve.
When to graduate to Mailchimp, MailerLite, or Brevo
Graduate when your free tier stops being free or your workflows get ambitious. On Reach, the natural ceiling is the free tier: once you pass 100 contacts, you are choosing a paid email tool anyway, so choose the best one instead of the convenient one.
Choose MailerLite if you are a creator, blogger, or small business that wants a clean editor, real automation, and the lowest bill among the contact-priced tools. The June 2026 free-tier cut (down to 250 subscribers / 2,500 emails per month) made the free plan less generous, but paid Comfort still starts at $12/mo and undercuts Mailchimp at nearly every tier.
Choose Brevo if your list is large but your sending is light — a quarterly product update to 20,000 contacts costs almost nothing on Brevo’s send-based pricing, while Mailchimp would charge you for every one of those contacts every month. The trade-off: automation only arrives on the $18/mo Standard plan, so budget for it.
Choose Mailchimp if you are already embedded in its ecosystem — a Shopify store with Mailchimp-native flows, a team trained on its journey builder, or a compliance setup that depends on a specific integration. Do not choose it by default; its brand recognition is not a feature you can use.
And if email deliverability is the worry rather than the tool: a proper mailbox matters too. Our guide to Hostinger Business Email covers -priced mailboxes that keep your sending domain reputable while any of these tools do the sending.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hostinger Reach really free?
Yes, with limits: the free tier includes 100 contacts and 200 emails per month. Paid tiers scale by recipient count. It is a genuine free plan, not a trial, but the ceiling is low by design — it is meant for small lists.
Is Mailchimp still the best email marketing tool in 2026?
It is the best-known, not the best-priced. Mailchimp’s Free plan (250 contacts, 500 sends per month) works for testing, and paid plans start at $13/mo for Essentials (checked September 2026). But at scale, MailerLite and Brevo consistently undercut it. Mailchimp’s real strength is advanced segmentation and its huge integration library.
Why did MailerLite cut its free plan?
On June 16, 2026, MailerLite reduced the free plan from 1,000 to 250 subscribers (2,500 emails per month). The paid Comfort plan still starts at $12/mo (checked October 7, 2026), so it remains one of the cheapest contact-priced options — just less generous for free users than before.
What does “billed by emails sent” mean with Brevo?
Brevo does not charge you per contact: you can have 100,000 contacts and pay only for the emails you send. Starter is $9/mo for 5,000 emails and Standard is $18/mo with automation (checked September 2026). The free plan allows 300 emails per day. This makes Brevo ideal for large lists with low send frequency.
Can I move my list from Reach to Mailchimp later?
Yes — all of these tools import contacts via CSV, and switching costs are low at small list sizes. The practical moment to move is when Reach’s free tier no longer covers you or you need automation Reach cannot do. Export early and keep a backup of your list regardless of which tool you use.
Which tool has the best free plan?
Brevo’s free plan (300 emails per day) is the most generous for send volume. Mailchimp’s (250 contacts, 500 sends per month) is the most limited on sends. MailerLite’s (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails per month) sits in the middle. Reach’s (100 contacts, 200 emails per month) is the smallest — but it is attached to your hosting dashboard, which is its real advantage.