When and why to use group email services
23.05.12
How much will it cost?
All these services offer free trials that let you test their capabilities on a small scale before paying anything or importing thousands of email addresses. Most of the services even offer permanent free accounts, with some restrictions (such as missing features or limited mailing list size). For example, Benchmark Email offers a Free For Life plan that’s just what it sounds like, but the catch is that all members must individually complete a double opt-in process—you can’t upload an existing list of addresses.
Beyond that, pricing policies vary widely. Most services offer monthly plans at several different levels based on the number of subscribers, the number of campaigns sent per month, or the total number of messages sent per month. One of the least expensive plans is from YMLP, which charges $3.75 per month for up to 500 messages . iContact has plans starting at $10 per month for 250 subscribers (with a limit of six mailings per month). Less common are pay-as-you-go plans that cost more for a given number of messages but require no monthly commitment. For example, MailChimp charges $9 for 300 messages with no further strings attached . In all cases, the price per message or subscriber decreases with volume (such as iContact’s $699 monthly plan for 100,000 subscribers), and most services also offer generous discounts for nonprofit organizations.
Source: Macworld