Home › Guides › Email marketing at 25,000 subscribers
Updated October 7, 2026 · Prices read from vendor pricing pages: GetResponse October 1, 2026 (re-verified October 3), MailerLite September 21, 2026 (nightly re-checks through October 7), Klaviyo September 24, 2026 (re-checked October 1), Kit October 2, 2026, Mailchimp October 8, 2026, Omnisend October 8, 2026 (rate-table data inside its own pricing page), Brevo September 30, 2026 · Affiliate disclosure
Twenty-five thousand subscribers is where the free options run out. Every earlier mark in this series had a $0 answer: Kit's free plan carries 500, 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers for nothing, because its ceiling — the largest in the category — sits at 10,000. Past that line, every contact-band vendor we price charges money, and the published bills start at $174 a month. It is also the first mark where half the market goes quiet at once: Mailchimp's only published five-figure price is its Premium base at 10,000 contacts, and ActiveCampaign's printed list exists only at 1,000. How the bills compare at the sizes Mailchimp does publish — 500, 2,500 and 10,000 — is in our Cheaper Than Mailchimp breakdown.
So we priced one list — 25,000 subscribers, monthly billing unless stated — at every platform we cover, from each vendor's own page, and then priced the same list at 25,001 to see what crossing the line costs. Where a vendor doesn't publish the figure, we say so: no interpolations, no calculator scraping, no estimated cells.
| Platform | Monthly bill at 25,000 | Annual bill | What the page actually shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| GetResponse (Starter) | $174, unlimited sends | $1,712.16 prepaid — 82% of twelve monthly payments, an 18% saving | Hidden in its own checkout links; there is no band between 10,000 and 25,000, so a list of 10,001 already bills this figure |
| MailerLite (Comfort) | $179 | $1,933.20 billed yearly ($161.10 a month, 10% off) | Fully printed — the whole ten-band ladder on the page, and this mark sits near its top: the 30,000 band at $229 follows |
| Omnisend (Standard) | $282, for the 23,501 to 25,000 contact band | No annual rate printed; $3,384 is twelve monthly payments by arithmetic | Printed in the rate table embedded in its pricing page; the Pro plan bills $400 at this same band |
| Klaviyo (Email) | $400 | $4,800 — arithmetic only; no annual rate is published at any size | Printed, on the rung covering the 25,000-profile mark of its ladder |
| Kit | Not published above 10,000 | — | The free plan ends at 10,000 subscribers; every price past that line lives in an on-page slider, not on a static page |
| Mailchimp (Standard) | Not published | — | The only published figure covering a five-figure list is Premium, which starts at $350 a month for 10,000 contacts; larger sizes are selector-only |
| ActiveCampaign (Starter) | Not published at 25,000 | — | Its entire printed list exists at 1,000 contacts billed yearly — Starter $15, Plus $49, Pro $79, Enterprise $145; larger sizes live inside a selector |
| Brevo | Not published by contact count | — | Brevo bills monthly email volume, not contacts — its $9 Starter and $18 Standard plans are volume plans, and the contact-by-volume matrix exists only inside an on-page calculator |
Three things stand out. First, the convergence at the top: Klaviyo's Email plan and Omnisend's Pro plan both bill exactly $400 at this mark — the first time in this series two platforms have landed on the same figure from two different ladders. Second, GetResponse's price here was set 15,000 names ago: its ladder has no band between 10,000 and 25,000, so the $174 bill began at subscriber 10,001 and will not change until a published size above 25,000. Third, the spread: $174 to $400 a month is $2,712 a year more — about 130% — for the same 25,000-person list, against a $0–$150 spread at 10,000 subscribers. Growth, at this mark, is the most expensive feature in the category.
The bill at 25,000 matters less than the bill at 25,001, because contact-band pricing bills you by the band you land in. At every smaller mark in this series, the step past the round number cost between 9% and 120% more. At 25,000, one ladder does something we have not seen before:
The pattern to take away: at 25,000 subscribers the band edges matter more than the stickers. A list sitting at 24,900 names on Omnisend is $72 a year from a step change; the same list on MailerLite is $600 away. Price the boundary, not your count.
At 5,000 subscribers, GetResponse's 18% prepay and MailerLite's 10% yearly rate nearly erased each other — the two platforms landed $2.16 apart for the same list. At 25,000 the same two discounts pull apart, because a deeper percentage applied to a bigger base wins by more. GetResponse's prepay costs $1,712.16 against $2,088; MailerLite's yearly rate costs $1,933.20 against $2,148. On monthly billing the two sit $5 apart; billed yearly, $220.80. The lesson compounds with every mark: the deeper discount is worth little at small sizes and hundreds of dollars at large ones. Klaviyo and Omnisend publish no annual rate at any size, so their $4,800 and $3,384 years are twelve monthly payments by arithmetic, and nothing you can opt into. The same comparison at a smaller mark is in our bill at 2,500 subscribers.
Every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page, checkout links, plan documentation or the rate table embedded in its pricing page, with the reading date attached. Where a band price is not published, the cell stays empty — for Mailchimp's selector-only sizes, ActiveCampaign's 1,000-contact-only list and Kit's slider-only ladder. If you would rather price your own list size, the cost calculator shows the published bill at every band from 500 to 30,000 subscribers and leaves the gaps blank. The same exercise at other marks is in our bill at 1,000 subscribers, our bill at 2,500, our bill at 5,000 and our bill at 10,000.
From $174 to $400 a month among the vendors that publish the figure: GetResponse Starter $174 (monthly billing; $1,712.16 prepaid for the year), MailerLite Comfort $179 ($161.10 a month billed yearly), Omnisend Standard $282 for the 23,501-to-25,000 band, and Klaviyo's Email plan $400 ($4,800 a year, no annual rate published). Omnisend's Pro plan also bills $400 at this band. Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign publish no figure at this size, and Brevo bills email volume rather than contacts.
No — on contact-based pricing this is the first mark in our series where every published bill is paid. The largest free ceiling in the category is Kit's, and it ends at 10,000 subscribers. Brevo's free plan is a sending allowance (300 emails a day) rather than a contact-band plan, so it is the only $0 route for a 25,000-contact list, and only while sending stays inside the daily cap.
Omnisend moves from $282 to $288 a month — $72 a year more, about 2%, the gentlest step we have recorded. MailerLite moves to the 30,000 band at $229 — $600 a year more, 28%. Klaviyo's next published size in our captures is 30,000 at $500 — $1,200 a year more, 25%. GetResponse's next published size after 25,000 is 50,000 at $299, with nothing published in between.
Yes — GetResponse's prepay costs $1,712.16 (18% off $2,088) and MailerLite's yearly rate $1,933.20 (10% off $2,148). On monthly billing the two sit $5 apart; billed yearly the gap is $220.80, because the deeper 18% discount compounds with the larger base. Klaviyo and Omnisend publish no annual rate, so their years are twelve monthly payments by arithmetic.
Different mechanisms, same result. Mailchimp's only published figure covering a five-figure list is Premium at $350 a month for 10,000 contacts; larger sizes live in a plan selector we cannot read. ActiveCampaign's printed price list exists only at 1,000 contacts billed yearly. We leave both blank rather than estimate.