## Short answer
**Start with MailerLite** if you need a straightforward, affordable email-marketing platform. It’s a strong default for a solo bootstrapped founder: easy to operate, capable automations, landing pages/forms, and generally less complexity than enterprise tools.
### Choose something else if your business fits one of these cases
| Your business | Best fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| SaaS/product-led startup | **Loops** | Clean interface and product-event-based lifecycle emails |
| Creator, coach, or audience business | **Kit** | Strong tagging, sequences, and creator monetization tools |
| Newsletter as the product | **beehiiv** | Publishing, referrals, growth, and monetization features |
| E-commerce, especially Shopify | **Klaviyo** | Excellent purchase data and revenue-focused automations |
| Lowest-cost all-in-one CRM/SMS option | **Brevo** | Email, contacts, CRM, and SMS in one platform |
| Advanced behavioral automation | **Customer.io** | Powerful, but likely excessive and expensive at an early stage |
## My practical recommendation
1. **Use MailerLite** for newsletters, lead magnets, onboarding sequences, and basic segmentation.
2. Keep **transactional email**—password resets, receipts, alerts—separate through **Postmark**, **Resend**, or your application provider.
3. Avoid starting with HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, or Customer.io unless you already need their complexity.
4. Before committing, confirm the platform’s current pricing at your expected **subscriber count and monthly send volume**; pricing models differ and change frequently.
Whichever platform you choose, authenticate your domain with **SPF, DKIM, and DMARC**, use explicit opt-ins, include one-click unsubscribe, and follow **CAN-SPAM** requirements.
**Default pick: MailerLite.**
**If you’re building a SaaS and want product-triggered emails: Loops.**