Are We All Overpaying for Email Marketing Software Without Realizing It?

[ethanmiller]

A recent breakdown of MailerLite, Brevo, Kit, Omnisend, and ActiveCampaign highlighted something a lot of us don't think about until the bill arrives: pricing structures that quietly punish growth. Curious how this plays out for people actually running these Tools day to day.

Discussion Questions:

1. Have you ever switched email platforms specifically because your contact list outgrew the pricing tier — and was the migration worth the h***le?
2. How much weight do you put on "free plan" generosity (like Kit's 10,000-subscriber offer) versus paid-tier automation power when choosing a tool?
3. For ecommerce folks — is a commerce-specific platform (Omnisend) actually worth it, or can general tools like MailerLite/Brevo keep up with cart recovery and product flows?
4. Is advanced automation (ActiveCampaign-style behavioral triggers) something your team actually uses to its full potential, or does it end up underutilized?

Drop your experience below — especially if you've switched platforms recently. What pushed you to make the change? Full comparison for reference:

[Russell]

Great points about pricing and growth! I've definitely hit that wall where my contact list outgrew the plan, and switching platforms was a mixed bag — worth it for the features, but the migration was a headache. I tend to value free plans like Kit's for starting out, but once automation gets serious, paid tiers make a big difference. For ecommerce, I've found that general tools can handle cart recovery pretty well, but specialized platforms like Omnisend do add some nice extras. As for automation, we use behavioral triggers heavily, though not always to their full potential—it's easy to underestimate how much you can leverage them.