Podcasting buying guide
Best Email Automation Tools for Podcasters
For most shows, start with Kit: it is free up to 10,000 subscribers for forms and episode broadcasts, and Creator at $33 a month for 1,000 subscribers adds the welcome sequences and tagging a podcast list needs. Choose beehiiv if the newsletter doubles as a public archive, MailerLite if budget decides, and ActiveCampaign if sponsors or a paid community are the business.
How to choose
Begin with the relationship you want to automate: a new subscriber, a favorite topic, a ticket purchase, a membership state, or a receipt. Then ask three questions of every tool below: where is a listener’s consent stored, which system owns the listener’s identity when the same person uses two email addresses, and what event ends a sequence early.
Price is the part most often misread on a podcast list. A free tier can cap subscribers (beehiiv at 2,500, MailerLite at 250), sends per month (Mailchimp at 500, Brevo at 300 a day) or leave out sequences entirely (Kit). Each figure in the table below was read from the vendor’s own pricing page on October 7, 2026, and the link in the first column goes straight there.
Shortlist at a glance
| Tool | Best for | Price on the vendor’s page |
|---|---|---|
| Kit | Creator-led newsletters and sequences | Free up to 10,000 subscribers; Creator $33 a month at 1,000 subscribers, $75 at 5,000 subscribers and $116 at 10,000 subscribers (billed yearly) |
| beehiiv | Publication-style newsletters and growth | Free up to 2,500 subscribers; Lite $49 a month and Pro $95 a month, both with yearly billing |
| MailerLite | Lean newsletters with approachable automation | Free for 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month; Comfort $19 at 1,000 subscribers, $49 at 5,000 subscribers and $89 at 10,000 subscribers (monthly billing) |
| Mailchimp | Familiar newsletter operations and templates | Free for 250 contacts and 500 sends a month; Standard from $20 at 500 contacts, $100 for 2,501–5,000 contacts and $135 for 5,001–10,000 contacts |
| ActiveCampaign | Behavioral segments and sponsor journeys | Starter $15, Plus $49, Pro $79 a month at 1,000 contacts; Starter $79 at 5,000 and $149 at 10,000 (annual billing) |
| Drip | Ecommerce, membership, and listener purchase flows | $39 a month for up to 2,500 people, $89 at 5,000 people and $154 at 10,000 people; 14-day free trial |
| Kit Pro | Newsletters, digital products, and creator memberships | The higher plan from the same company as Kit above:Pro $66 a month at 1,000 subscribers ($50 first-year promotion), $158 at 10,000 |
| HubSpot | Podcasts attached to a broader marketing or sales motion | Marketing Hub Starter $7, Professional $800, Enterprise $3,600 a month, priced per seat; free tools available |
| Customer.io | Event-driven product, app, or membership audiences | Essentials $100 a month for 5k profiles, $145 at 10k, billed monthly; Premium from $1,000 a month, billed yearly |
| Brevo | Multichannel basics with cost-conscious sending | Free with 300 sends a day; Starter from $9 and Standard from $18 a month, both from 5,000 emails a month |
| GetResponse | Newsletters, webinars, and creator launches | Starter $19 a month at a 1,000-person list ($15.58 annual); Marketer $59; Creator $69 with webinars and a course builder |
| Loops | Focused product-led onboarding around a podcast product | Free for your 1,000 newest contacts and 4,000 sends in a rolling 30 days; paid $48 at 4,788 subscribers, $99 at 9,998 |
| Postmark | Transactional messages supporting a podcast product | Free for 100 emails a month; Basic $15 a month for 10,000 emails, extra emails $1.80 per 1,000 |
Kit
Best for: Creator-led newsletters and sequences. Kit is the best first pick for a show whose newsletter is the main way listeners hear from you between episodes. The free plan covers landing pages, forms and broadcasts for up to 10,000 subscribers, so an episode-notes broadcast costs nothing while the list is small. The moment you want a welcome sequence or a visual automation that tags listeners by interest, you move to Creator at $33 a month for 1,000 subscribers. It is $75 at 5,000 and $116 at 10,000, all on yearly billing, and Kit’s pricing page lists free migrations from your current tool. See the Kit pricing page.
First pilot: Build a three-email welcome sequence that starts when someone joins through your episode-page form, and add a tag when they click the link for one topic or guest.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Creator-led newsletters and sequences | Creator-oriented forms, broadcasts, and visual sequences, with free migrations from your current tool | Visual Automations and sequences are not in the free plan, so a welcome series means paying from the first subscriber |
beehiiv
Best for: Publication-style newsletters and growth. beehiiv is a publishing platform first, and its feature list includes podcasts, a website, paid subscriptions and an ad network alongside the email tool. That suits a show that wants its newsletter archive to be a public, searchable site and may later sell a paid tier. The free plan allows up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends and one publication, and automations arrive with Lite at $49 a month. beehiiv’s pricing page says it takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue, leaving only Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. See the beehiiv pricing page.
First pilot: Move one weekly episode recap to a test publication, then compare delivery, clicks and unsubscribes against the same issue sent from your current tool.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Publication-style newsletters and growth | Newsletter publishing, podcasts, a website and paid subscriptions in one workspace | Automations and paid subscriptions start on Lite, and it is less natural for deeply product-led listener journeys |
MailerLite
Best for: Lean newsletters with approachable automation. MailerLite is the budget answer for an independent show with a list in the low thousands. Comfort costs $19 a month at 1,000 subscribers, $49 at 5,000 and $89 at 10,000 on monthly billing, which is below the Creator rates quoted in the first entry at each of those sizes, even though those are the yearly-billed figures. Comfort also gives you ten times the subscriber tier in monthly emails, so a weekly show with 1,000 subscribers sends about 4,000 and stays well inside 10,000. The free plan stops at 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, which is enough to test a form and a welcome email, not a real weekly audience. See the MailerLite pricing page.
First pilot: Add a signup form to the show-notes page, send a three-email welcome path that ends with the episode that best explains the show, and exit anyone who clicks through to your membership page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Lean newsletters with approachable automation | Accessible campaign, form and automation workflow surface at a low price per subscriber | Large teams may outgrow its governance and data depth |
Mailchimp
Best for: Familiar newsletter operations and templates. Mailchimp is the safe default when whoever runs the show already knows its editor from a previous project. The free plan covers 1 audience, up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month with a 250-a-day cap, so two episode emails to 250 listeners already use the whole month. Paid Standard starts at $20 a month at 500 contacts, then $100 for the 2,501 to 5,000 band and $135 for 5,001 to 10,000. The cost per listener falls as the list grows, yet at 10,000 it still sits above MailerLite’s $89 for the same list size. See the Mailchimp pricing page.
First pilot: Send one episode announcement to a consented segment, then confirm that an address you unsubscribed earlier does not receive it.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Familiar newsletter operations and templates | Broad template and integration ecosystem | Contact-based tiers climb quickly, and the free plan’s 500 monthly sends cover only two sends to a 250-person list |
ActiveCampaign
Best for: Behavioral segments and sponsor journeys. ActiveCampaign is for a podcast that has a business behind it: sponsors who want to know which listeners are in-market, a paid community, or a consulting offer. Its automations can score engagement and hand a warm listener to a sales pipeline, which a newsletter tool will not do. Starter is $15 a month at 1,000 contacts but limits an automation to 5 actions, so a branching listener journey points to Plus at $49. At 10,000 contacts the selector reads $149 for Starter and $189 for Plus. See the ActiveCampaign pricing page.
First pilot: Ask new subscribers which topic they came for, route them into one of two three-email tracks on that answer, and stop both tracks when the membership tag is added.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Behavioral segments and sponsor journeys | Deep automation logic and contact-based segmentation | More setup, data governance and training than a newsletter-first tool, and Starter caps each automation at 5 actions |
Drip
Best for: Ecommerce, membership, and listener purchase flows. Drip makes sense when the show sells things: merch, a ticketed live episode, a digital download. Its automations key off purchases rather than only newsletter signups, and the pricing page lists $39 a month for up to 2,500 people with unlimited email sends and up to 50 workflows. A 5,000-person list is $89 and a 10,000-person list is $154. With only a 14-day trial and no ongoing free plan, it is hard to justify for a show that mails nothing but an episode digest. See the Drip pricing page.
First pilot: Pick the one product you sell, such as a ticketed live recording or merch, and trigger a thank-you and tips sequence for buyers only.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Ecommerce, membership, and listener purchase flows | Purchase-oriented automation with unlimited email sends | No ongoing free plan, and more platform than an editorial-only podcast needs |
Kit Pro
Best for: Newsletters, digital products, and creator memberships. ConvertKit is the name the company used before it became Kit, and listeners and producers still search for it, so this entry covers the step above Creator rather than repeating the plans above. Pro lists $66 a month at 1,000 subscribers (a first-year promotion shows $50) and $158 at 10,000, and adds Subscriber Signals, unlimited users and deliverability reporting. That starts to matter once a host, a producer and whoever sells sponsorships all need to log in and read the same engagement numbers. See the Kit Pro pricing page.
First pilot: Give a producer and a sponsor-sales contact their own logins, then run one lead-magnet-to-episode sequence and review the deliverability report together.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletters, digital products, and creator memberships | Pro adds Subscriber Signals, unlimited users and deliverability reporting on top of Creator | Pro costs about twice Creator at 1,000 subscribers, so it pays off only when several people work in the account |
HubSpot
Best for: Podcasts attached to a broader marketing or sales motion. HubSpot belongs on this list only for a podcast that is one channel in a company’s marketing, such as a B2B show that feeds a sales team. It keeps the listener, the sponsor inquiry and the deal in one CRM, and the free tools cost nothing. The paid hub is a different order of spend: Marketing Hub Starter is $7 a month per seat, Professional $800 and Enterprise $3,600, and the automation row on the pricing page runs from 1 automated action on the free tools to up to 10 on Starter and unlimited on Professional. Ten actions are plenty for a sponsor-inquiry reply and a short follow-up, so the cost only jumps if the show grows a paid community with long journeys. For an independent show that is a lot of platform for a weekly newsletter. See the HubSpot pricing page.
First pilot: Create one lifecycle property such as “sponsor lead” and prove that a listener who fills in the sponsor-inquiry form reaches the right person before adding anything else.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Podcasts attached to a broader marketing or sales motion | CRM context and handoffs can connect audience work to a team process | Starter allows up to 10 automated actions and the free tools 1; unlimited actions start at Professional, which costs $800 a month |
Customer.io
Best for: Event-driven product, app, or membership audiences. Customer.io suits a podcast that runs its own app or a members-only player, where “listened to three episodes” or “cancelled membership” is a real event your code can send. Essentials starts at $100 a month for 5k profiles with 1 million emails included, and the selector reads $145 at 10k profiles. A show with no app and a plain signup form would be paying for event plumbing it never uses. See the Customer.io pricing page.
First pilot: Send an email when a member plays their first three episodes in your app, holding back a tenth of eligible members as a comparison group.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Event-driven product, app, or membership audiences | Strong fit when listener or member events are reliable and structured; Essentials includes 1 million emails a month | Requires event instrumentation, identity decisions and operational ownership, and extra profiles cost $0.009 each |
Brevo
Best for: Multichannel basics with cost-conscious sending. Brevo is a candidate when sending volume matters more than list size. Its free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts but sends 300 emails a day, so a show with 8,000 subscribers would need about 27 days to mail the whole list once. Paid plans start at $9 (Starter) and $18 (Standard), both from 5,000 emails a month, and Starter has no daily sending limit. See the Brevo pricing page.
First pilot: Set up one welcome automation, then compare what Brevo would charge for your real monthly volume with what you pay your current provider.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Multichannel basics with cost-conscious sending | Email plus SMS and chat options for small teams, with a free plan that stores up to 100,000 contacts | Free-plan sends are capped at 300 a day, so a large list needs a paid plan or a staggered send |
GetResponse
Best for: Newsletters, webinars, and creator launches. GetResponse is the odd one out: it bundles webinars, landing pages and a course creator, so it fits a show that runs live listener sessions or sells a mini-course off the back of episodes. Starter is $19 a month for a 1,000-person list ($15.58 with annual billing) but includes a single automation workflow. The Creator plan at $69 ($56.58 annually) is where webinars, the website builder and a course creator for up to 500 students appear. See the GetResponse pricing page.
First pilot: Invite one segment to a single live listener Q&A, send the replay only to people who registered but did not attend, and drop attendees from that email.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletters, webinars, and creator launches | Webinars, landing pages and a course creator alongside email | A broader marketing surface adds complexity to a simple podcast cadence, and Starter includes only one automation workflow |
Loops
Best for: Focused product-led onboarding around a podcast product. Loops is for a podcast that is also a software product, such as a listening app or a members-only player, where onboarding emails follow in-app events. Its free plan lets you send up to 4,000 emails in any rolling 30 days to your 1,000 newest contacts, and the paid plan reads $48 at 4,788 subscribers and $99 at 9,998. A show with only a newsletter has no use for that product-event focus. See the Loops pricing page.
First pilot: Trigger a welcome series from your app’s “account created” event and a separate receipt-style email from the “membership started” event.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Focused product-led onboarding around a podcast product | Small surface area for straightforward lifecycle email, with no per-seat fees and transactional sending included on paid plans | May need adjacent tools for publication, commerce or advanced CRM work |
Postmark
Best for: Transactional messages supporting a podcast product. Postmark is not a newsletter tool, and it earns its place here only for the mail a listener cannot afford to miss: the receipt for a paid membership, the link to a private podcast feed, a password reset. Those messages ride a separate transactional stream from your broadcasts. The free plan covers 100 emails a month, and Basic is $15 a month starting at 10,000 emails with extras at $1.80 per 1,000, so a show sending 12,000 of these a month pays $15 plus $3.60 in extras. See the Postmark pricing page.
First pilot: Route your membership receipt and private-feed access email through Postmark, then check the delivery log for bounces over a week of real signups.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional messages supporting a podcast product | Clear separation for receipts, access links and other operational mail | Not a replacement for a newsletter audience or editorial sequence platform |
What a podcast list costs at 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers
The monthly prices below come from the pricing pages linked in each row. Kit and ActiveCampaign list yearly-billed rates, MailerLite and Drip list monthly rates, and Mailchimp lists its Standard bands, so read across a row rather than down a column and treat the differences in billing as part of the comparison.
| Tool and plan | 1,000 subscribers | 5,000 subscribers | 10,000 subscribers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kit Creator | $33 | $75 | $116 |
| MailerLite Comfort | $19 | $49 | $89 |
| ActiveCampaign Starter | $15 | $79 | $149 |
| Drip | $39 (covers up to 2,500) | $89 | $154 |
| Mailchimp Standard | from $20 at 500 contacts | $100 (2,501–5,000 band) | $135 (5,001–10,000 band) |
Two things stand out. MailerLite is the cheapest paid option at 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers in this table, while ActiveCampaign Starter is the cheapest at 1,000 but climbs fastest ($15 to $149 across the same range). And no single list size makes Kit the least expensive; it earns the top spot on features and the free plan, not on the monthly bill.
A podcast automation pilot
Run one welcome sequence for one audience, such as people who joined through the form on your latest episode page, and give it a single measurable goal for two to four weeks. Opens say little on a podcast list because Apple Mail pre-loads images; count clicks to an episode, membership starts, unsubscribes and spam complaints, and read the replies.
| Step | Question for the podcast | Done when |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Define | What did the listener sign up for: episode alerts, bonus content, or a giveaway? | The signup form says so in plain words and the source is stored on the contact |
| 2. Connect | Does the form, and any membership checkout, reach the tool as a tag or event? | A test signup and a test purchase both show on the contact's record |
| 3. Run | Does the second email lead to an episode or a membership page? | Click-through is compared with last month's plain broadcast to the same kind of list |
| 4. Decide | Do the subscription and your hours spent justify keeping the sequence? | You keep it, change it or switch it off, and write down why |
Which type of tool fits?
| If your main job is… | Start by evaluating… | Do not skip… |
|---|---|---|
| A weekly episode newsletter | Kit, beehiiv, MailerLite, Mailchimp | A topic preference field, a send-day setting, and a full list export |
| A paid membership or private feed | ActiveCampaign, Customer.io, HubSpot, Loops | How the member's status reaches the tool, and which address owns the account |
| Merch, tickets, mini-courses and live events | Kit Pro, Drip, GetResponse | Removing buyers from the sales emails the moment they pay |
| Receipts and access links | Postmark | Keeping these messages on a transactional stream, separate from newsletter consent |
Before choosing, read the email automation guide for the wider tool comparison, the personalization guide for using a stated topic interest, and the metrics guide for what to count after launch.
Decision table: which tool fits your priority?
| If your priority is… | Test first | Confirm before committing |
|---|---|---|
| A short path from signup to a first episode | Kit or MailerLite | That the welcome sequence you want is available on the plan you can afford |
| A public archive and a possible paid tier | beehiiv | That the 2,500-subscriber free limit still fits your list |
| A familiar editor plus simple nurture | Mailchimp or MailerLite | Automation branching depth at your contact band |
| Receipts and private-feed links | Postmark | That these messages stay separate from newsletter consent |
| Sponsor leads and a paid community | ActiveCampaign or HubSpot | How many automation actions your plan allows |
| Kit | A free account with the episode-page form and a Creator trial for the welcome sequence | How the subscriber count moves the monthly price: $33, $75, $116 |
| beehiiv | One weekly issue sent from a test publication | Which features start on Lite at $49 a month |
| MailerLite | The free plan for the form, then Comfort for automations | Whether 250 subscribers is enough for the free plan to last |
| Mailchimp | One announcement to a small consented segment | Whether your list falls in the $100 or the $135 band |
| ActiveCampaign | A two-track topic journey on Plus | The 5-action limit on Starter |
| Drip | A buyers-only sequence for one product | That 2,500 people on $39 covers your list for a year |
| Kit Pro | The Pro plan with two or three team logins | That the extra reporting is worth twice the Creator price |
| HubSpot | The free tools and the sponsor-inquiry form | Whether Starter's 10 automated actions cover your sponsor and membership flows, or you need Professional's unlimited ones |
| Customer.io | A three-episodes-played event from your player | That your app can send the event reliably before you pay $100 |
| Brevo | A send of your full list on the free plan | How many days the 300-a-day cap makes that take |
| GetResponse | One live listener Q&A with a replay email | That webinars sit on the Creator plan at $69 |
| Loops | An onboarding sequence from your app's account-created event | Whether your newest 1,000 contacts are the ones you mail |
| Postmark | One receipt template on the free 100 emails | Your monthly transactional volume against the 10,000 on Basic |
A four-week plan around a new season or series
Timing the rollout to a release gives the sequence a natural first audience: the people who find the new run of episodes. The plan assumes one host and one producer, and a list that is still under a few thousand.
| Week | Days | What you build | Done when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price it | 1-5 | Work out your bill at 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers on your two finalists, using the table above | You know which plan you will be on if the show doubles its list |
| Wire it | 6-10 | Point the show-notes signup form at the tool and name the tags, such as topic and source | A test signup from a phone shows the right tag on the contact |
| Write it | 11-16 | Draft the welcome sequence: who you are, the three best episodes to start with, and one question | The last email asks a question you would be glad to receive replies to |
| Build it | 17-21 | Add the goal exit for members and the unsubscribe handling | A test member and an unsubscribed address both drop out without a manual step |
| Test it | 22-26 | Send to Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail addresses and open the episode link on mobile | Links, show art and send times look right in all three |
| Launch it | 27-30 | Turn it on for new signups from the latest episode only | After a week you can say how many clicked through to an episode |
What a good pilot actually measures
| Misleading signal | Why it misleads on a podcast list | Count this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Open rate | Apple Mail's privacy features pre-load images, so a share of opens come from no one | Clicks to an episode page and replies to the welcome emails |
| Free-plan trials | Kit's free plan has no sequences and MailerLite's stops at 250 subscribers, so the free tier hides the plan you will pay for | A trial of the paid tier you would actually buy, on your real list |
| Download totals | Hosting stats and email stats come from different systems and rarely match | Email-attributed membership starts or merch orders |
| One-week pilots | A weekly show produces only one broadcast in that window | At least three episodes' worth of sends |
Common implementation mistakes to avoid
- Starting the welcome sequence, a sponsor series and a re-engagement flow in the same week, so a new subscriber gets three emails in a day
- Importing an old list from a giveaway or a previous host without consent dates, then sending a broadcast to everyone
- Putting receipts and private-feed links in the same stream as newsletter issues, so an unsubscribe also stops access emails
- Choosing a tool for its template gallery when what you need is a tag that fires when someone becomes a member
Recommended reading order
- Getting started with email automation, for the first workflow before you pick a tool
- Welcome email automation, for the first sequence a new listener receives
- Best email automation tools for creators, for a wider creator shortlist
- Best email automation tools for memberships, if the show sells paid access
- Re-engagement automation, for listeners who stop opening
FAQ
What is the best email automation tool for a podcast?
For most shows it is Kit: free up to 10,000 subscribers for forms and broadcasts, and $33 a month at 1,000 subscribers on Creator once you want a welcome sequence. beehiiv suits a show that wants a public newsletter archive, and MailerLite is the cheaper paid option at $19 for 1,000 subscribers on monthly billing.
How much should a podcast newsletter cost to run?
At 1,000 subscribers the paid options in this list run from $15 (ActiveCampaign Starter) to $39 (Drip) a month, and at 10,000 subscribers from $89 (MailerLite Comfort) to $154 (Drip). A small show can run free: Kit up to 10,000 subscribers for broadcasts, beehiiv up to 2,500 with unlimited sends.
Do I need a separate tool for membership receipts and private-feed links?
Not always, but it is safer. Receipts and access links are messages a member expects even after unsubscribing from the newsletter, and a transactional service such as Postmark keeps them on their own stream. Postmark's free plan covers 100 emails a month and Basic is $15 for 10,000.
When should a podcast move from a newsletter tool to a CRM-style platform?
Move when a decision depends on who a listener is rather than what they read: sponsors want in-market segments, or a paid community needs sales follow-up. ActiveCampaign at $15 to $149 a month for 1,000 to 10,000 contacts is the next step, and HubSpot's Starter at $7 a month per seat is the cheapest paid way into its Marketing Hub.