GUIDE
Newsletter frequency and list size: the two numbers that set your bill
Two numbers set your bill: how large your list is and how often you mail it. There is no single page per list size because cadence changes the answer. A contact-priced platform like MailerLite bills the same whether you send weekly or daily, until a sending cap bites, while an email-priced platform like Brevo charges on every send. Start from both axes, then price them.
Two axes, not one
A list of 5,000 that mails once a month and a list of 5,000 that mails daily are different customers, even though the subscriber count is identical. That is why this site has no separate page per list size: the size alone does not decide anything. What decides is the pair, subscribers multiplied by cadence, because that product is what the billing meter actually reads. Fix one axis and the platform ranking flips as you move the other, so any honest answer starts by asking both questions at once and ends at a calculator, not a headline.
A contact bill barely moves with cadence
On a contact-priced platform you pay for the size of the list, not the number of sends. MailerLite (free plan, paid from $12/mo) is the clean example: its Comfort plan caps monthly emails at ten times your subscriber tier, so a weekly newsletter to the full list uses four to five times and never notices. Sender works the same way with 12x on Standard and 24x on Professional. Push to daily sends or heavy automation and you meet the cap, which is the moment to move up a plan rather than a reason the whole bill jumps.
An email bill scales with every send
An email-priced platform inverts the logic. Brevo (free plan, paid from $9/mo) keeps contacts unlimited and charges for emails sent, so cadence is the bill. The same 5,000 names cost roughly four times more at weekly than at monthly, and daily sending multiplies that again. This is excellent for a large, mostly dormant list you mail rarely, and expensive for a small, engaged list you mail often. The billing unit, contacts or emails, is the single fact that determines whether frequency is free or metered for you.
Put both numbers in the calculator
Because the two axes interact, the only reliable move is to enter your real subscriber count and your real cadence together and read the total across all nine platforms. The cost calculator does exactly that, and the pay-per-email versus pay-per-contact guide explains which billing unit wins at your frequency. If you are torn between the two models specifically, the MailerLite versus Brevo comparison puts a contact bill and an email bill side by side.
Questions people also ask
Why is there no separate page for my exact list size?
Because list size alone does not decide the winner. The same size ranks platforms differently depending on how often you send, so a page per size would give the wrong answer half the time. The calculator takes both numbers instead.
Does sending more often always cost more?
Only on an email-priced platform like Brevo, where every send is metered. On a contact-priced platform like MailerLite or Sender, cadence is free up to a sending multiple of your subscriber tier, then you move up a plan.
I send daily to a large list. Which model fits?
Usually a contact-priced platform, since the bill tracks list size rather than the number of sends. Confirm it at your exact numbers in the calculator, because a very large but rarely mailed list can flip the answer.