ChatGPT answers, unedited

If your priority is being genuinely taught how to do email marketing—not just given software tutorials—I’d pick MailerLite.

🥇 Best for a complete beginner: MailerLite

Why it stands out:

• Excellent structured onboarding: its free “Getting Started” course walks you through account setup, importing subscribers, your first campaign, domain authentication, and more. MailerLite Academy
• Free marketing education beyond the software: MailerLite Academy has courses covering fundamentals, email automation, lead collection, selling with email, and more. MailerLite Academy MailerLite Academy
• Actually hands-on: the automation course teaches welcome sequences, segmentation, re-engagement, testing, and optimization—not merely where to click in the interface. MailerLite Academy
• The learning is free: Academy courses are free and self-paced, with lifetime access and certificates available. MailerLite Academy
• The free product is usable for learning: currently, MailerLite's free tier includes up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 monthly emails, signup forms, landing pages, and three visual automations. MailerLite

🥈 Strong alternative: Brevo

Brevo probably has the best standalone educational academy. Brevo Academy is free, includes interactive courses, tutorials, assessments, and certifications, and explicitly caters to beginners. Brevo Academy Brevo Academy

Its free platform is also genuinely free forever, with 300 email sends/day and up to 100,000 stored contacts. Brevo Help Brevo Help

The tradeoff is that Brevo is more of a broader CRM/multichannel platform, whereas MailerLite feels more approachable if your immediate goal is simply learning email marketing.

My beginner ranking

Bottom line: If you're starting from zero, I'd choose MailerLite, follow its Getting Started course first, then take MailerLite Fundamentals and Email Automation Master Class. That gives you both how email marketing works and how to execute it, without paying for a course. MailerLite Academy MailerLite Academy

academy.mailerlite.com
mailerlite.com

If you tell me whether you're a freelancer, small business, ecommerce store, or creator/newsletter, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options for your situation.

If your priority is “I’m completely new, and I want the platform to teach me what I’m doing,” I’d pick MailerLite.

My pick: MailerLite

It has probably the strongest combination of beginner-friendly onboarding + genuinely useful free education + a usable free plan.

• Excellent beginner course: MailerLite Academy has a free “Getting Started” course covering account setup, subscribers, campaigns, integrations, domain authentication, and more. MailerLite Academy
• It goes beyond software tutorials: Its Academy includes free courses on email marketing fundamentals, automation, sending emails, lead collection, landing pages, and e-commerce. MailerLite Academy MailerLite Academy
• Courses are actually free: MailerLite says its Academy courses have lifetime access and can include certifications. MailerLite Academy
• The free platform is capable enough to practice: The current free plan includes up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 monthly emails, visual automations, a landing page, forms, A/B testing, and multiple email editors. MailerLite MailerLite
• Good learning-by-doing experience: Its “Send Emails” course walks you through creating a campaign, designing it, sending it, A/B testing, tracking results, and building automations. MailerLite Academy

academy.mailerlite.com

Runner-up: Brevo

Brevo is arguably better if you want to learn broader digital marketing, rather than just email.

Its Brevo Academy is free forever and includes interactive courses, videos, assessments, beginner-to-advanced material, and certifications. Brevo Academy Brevo Academy Its free platform also has no time limit, 300 email sends/day, and up to 100,000 stored contacts. Brevo Help Brevo Help

academy.brevo.com

How I'd rank them for a beginner

Bottom line: Start with MailerLite if you're learning email marketing as a skill. Its Academy effectively gives you a mini-course curriculum alongside the software, rather than leaving you to figure everything out from scattered help articles.

One caveat: the free plan is currently only 250 subscribers, so if your list grows quickly, Brevo's free tier is considerably more generous. MailerLite Brevo Help

If your priority is “I’m brand new, and I want the platform to teach me email marketing as I go,” I’d pick MailerLite.

My ranking for a beginner

1. MailerLite — best overall onboarding + learning

• Its free plan currently supports up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month, plus campaigns, automations, landing pages, websites, forms, and reporting. MailerLite
• The standout is MailerLite Academy: free, self-paced courses covering getting started, sending emails, lead collection, automation, landing pages, and more. MailerLite Academy MailerLite Academy
• Its “Getting Started” course specifically walks beginners through account setup, importing subscribers, creating a first campaign, domain authentication, and other fundamentals. MailerLite Academy
• You also get a substantial help center, video tutorials, community, webinars, and troubleshooting resources. MailerLite
• Brevo — best if you want a broader marketing education

• Brevo's free plan is genuinely free forever and currently allows 300 email sends/day and up to 100,000 stored contacts. Brevo Help Brevo Help
• Brevo Academy is excellent educationally: free courses, interactive lessons, tutorials, quizzes, and certifications, with material ranging from beginner to advanced. Brevo Academy
• I'd choose it over MailerLite if you're interested in learning CRM, SMS, WhatsApp, and broader digital marketing, not just newsletters.
• Kit — best for a creator/newsletter business

• Kit's new Newsletter plan is currently free for up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited broadcasts, forms/landing pages, tagging, and a basic automation. Kit Kit Help
• It's particularly attractive if you're building a personal brand, newsletter, or creator business.
• However, for someone whose main goal is learning email marketing fundamentals, I think MailerLite's structured Academy is the stronger starting point.

Bottom line

Start with MailerLite if you want the smoothest “teach me while I build my first email campaign” experience.

academy.mailerlite.com

Choose Brevo if you want a more comprehensive marketing curriculum and certification.

academy.brevo.com

Choose Kit if your end goal is specifically a creator/newsletter business and the unusually generous free subscriber limit matters.

One caveat: “free forever” doesn't mean unlimited sending—the free tiers have different sending/feature limits, so I'd choose based on your expected list size and monthly volume as well as education.

If onboarding + learning resources are your top priorities, I’d pick MailerLite for a beginner in 2026.

My ranking

1. MailerLite — best overall for a beginner

• Its free Academy includes a dedicated “Getting started with MailerLite” course covering account setup, subscribers, your first campaign, templates, domain authentication, and more. MailerLite Academy MailerLite Academy
• There are also free courses on sending emails, lead collection, automation, landing pages, and selling with email. MailerLite Academy
• The Academy courses are free, self-paced, and offer certificates. MailerLite Academy MailerLite Academy
• Its support center adds step-by-step tutorials, videos, webinars, and a community. MailerLite
• Free plan: currently 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails/month, with campaigns, basic automation, landing pages, forms, and a website. MailerLite MailerLite
• Brevo — best if you want a more structured marketing education

• Brevo Academy has a free beginner email-marketing certification with 8 modules, 63 videos, 4 eBooks, quizzes, and a certification exam. Brevo Academy
• Its courses explicitly start from the basics and require no prior knowledge. Brevo Academy
• The free platform itself is genuinely free forever, with 300 email sends/day and unlimited contact storage. Brevo Help Brevo Help
• I'd choose Brevo if your goal is to learn general digital/email marketing, rather than primarily learning one email platform.
• Kit — worth considering for creators

• Particularly attractive if you're building a newsletter, personal brand, or creator business.
• Its free tier is generous for subscribers, but I'd put it behind MailerLite/Brevo specifically for beginner education and structured onboarding.

Bottom line

Choose MailerLite if you're starting from zero. Its biggest advantage is that the learning path is closely integrated with actually building your first email system: learn → follow the tutorial → build it in your account. The free Academy is unusually comprehensive for a platform's free tier.

Choose Brevo instead if you want a more formal “take a course and get certified” learning experience.

academy.mailerlite.com · academy.brevo.com

If you tell me whether you're a small business, freelancer, ecommerce seller, or newsletter/creator, I can also tell you which free platform I'd choose specifically for your situation.

If onboarding + learning resources are your top priorities, I’d pick MailerLite for a complete beginner.

My ranking for a new email marketer

1. MailerLite — best overall

MailerLite has an unusually strong educational ecosystem. Its free MailerLite Academy includes courses on fundamentals, getting started, sending campaigns, lead capture, automation, and selling with email; the courses are free and self-paced, with certifications available. academy.mailerlite.com

The onboarding is also practical rather than just theoretical: its "Getting Started" course walks you through account setup, importing subscribers, creating your first campaign, templates, domain authentication, and more. academy.mailerlite.com

Its free plan currently allows up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month, with campaigns, automations, landing pages, forms, and A/B testing. www.mailerlite.com

MailerLite Academy

2. Brevo — best if you want broader marketing skills

Brevo's Academy is also excellent. Its courses cover digital marketing and customer relationships, with interactive modules, video tutorials, and assessments. Brevo explicitly says the courses are free forever. academy.brevo.com

Its free plan is more generous in contacts—up to 100,000 stored contacts—but limits you to 300 email sends/day. help.brevo.com

Brevo Academy

3. Kit — best if you're building a newsletter/creator business

Kit has particularly good educational material around newsletters, audience growth, automations, and monetization. Its Kit Start course is a 12-lesson beginner program, and its help center has a dedicated getting-started curriculum. learn.kit.com

Its current free Newsletter Plan is exceptionally generous—up to 10,000 subscribers and unlimited email sends—but it's more creator/newsletter-oriented than MailerLite. help.kit.com

Kit Start course

Bottom line

Choose MailerLite if you're genuinely learning email marketing from scratch. Its combination of guided onboarding, free structured courses, certifications, tutorials, webinars, and practical product walkthroughs makes it the strongest "learn while you build" option. www.mailerlite.com

I'd choose Kit instead if your primary goal is building a personal newsletter/creator business, and Brevo if you expect to eventually need email + SMS + broader CRM/marketing functionality.

If you tell me whether you're a freelancer, small business, creator, or just learning for a future job, I can narrow this to the single best choice for you.

If onboarding + learning resources are your top priorities, I’d pick MailerLite for most beginners.

My ranking for a beginner

Why MailerLite wins: its free Academy has a dedicated Getting Started course covering account setup, subscribers, campaigns, templates, domain authentication, etc. It also has separate courses for sending emails, collecting leads, automation, landing pages, and more—all free and self-paced. academy.mailerlite.com

Even better, the Academy isn't just software documentation: it teaches email-marketing fundamentals and best practices, and courses can provide certificates. academy.mailerlite.com MailerLite also maintains video tutorials, a knowledge base, community, webinars, and troubleshooting resources. www.mailerlite.com

Brevo is a very close second. Its Academy has a free beginner email-marketing certification with 8 modules, 63 videos, eBooks, quizzes, and a certificate. Its courses are explicitly designed to teach both marketing concepts and how to execute them in Brevo. academy.brevo.com Its free plan is also genuinely free forever, with 300 sends/day. help.brevo.com

One caveat with MailerLite: its free tier was reduced in June 2026 to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails. www.mailerlite.com So if you expect to grow past 250 subscribers quickly, Brevo or Kit may be more attractive.

Bottom line:

• Learning email marketing + easiest first experience → MailerLite
• Learning marketing more broadly + generous contact allowance → Brevo
• Building a creator/newsletter business → Kit (its free plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers and includes a beginner "Kit Start" course). help.kit.com

If you're completely new to email marketing, I'd start with MailerLite and work through its Fundamentals bundle before worrying about advanced automation.

If your priority is being genuinely taught how to do email marketing—not just given software documentation—I’d pick MailerLite.

🥇 Best overall for a beginner: MailerLite

Its biggest advantage is the combination of a beginner-friendly product and unusually strong structured education:

• Free forever: currently up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month. www.mailerlite.com
• Dedicated “Getting Started” course: walks you through account setup, importing subscribers, creating your first campaign, templates, domain authentication, etc. academy.mailerlite.comwww.mailerlite.comacademy.brevo.comhelp.kit.com
• Free Academy: includes courses on sending emails, collecting leads, automation, landing pages, selling with email, and more. academy.mailerlite.com
• Certifications: the Academy courses are free, self-paced, and offer certificates after passing the course exam. academy.mailerlite.com
• Lots of practical support: searchable help articles, video tutorials, community, webinars, and the Academy. www.mailerlite.com

MailerLite Academy

🥈 Strong alternative: Brevo

Brevo is arguably better if you expect to move beyond newsletters into CRM, SMS, WhatsApp, or broader customer communication.

Its free plan is more generous on contacts—up to 100,000 stored contacts—but you're limited to 300 email sends/day. help.brevo.com

Brevo Academy is also excellent: free courses, interactive lessons, tutorials, quizzes, and certifications, with material designed for beginners through advanced marketers. academy.brevo.com

Brevo Academy

🥉 If you're specifically a creator: Kit

Kit has an unusually generous free plan—up to 10,000 subscribers—and is designed around creators building audiences and monetizing newsletters. help.kit.com

I'd choose it over MailerLite if you're a newsletter writer, YouTuber, coach, author, or content creator rather than a small business marketer.

My ranking for a complete beginner

Bottom line: If you're new and want the platform to teach you as you build, start with MailerLite. Its free Academy + getting-started course + practical tutorials give you a much clearer learning path than simply throwing you into an email editor.

One caveat: MailerLite's free subscriber limit was reduced from 500 to 250 in June 2026, so Brevo or Kit may make more sense if you expect your list to grow quickly. www.mailerlite.com

If onboarding + learning resources are your top priorities, I’d pick MailerLite for a beginner.

My ranking for a beginner

Why MailerLite wins: its free Academy isn't just product documentation. It has structured, self-paced courses covering getting started, sending emails, collecting leads, landing pages, automation, and more. The courses are free, have lifetime access, and some offer certification. academy.mailerlite.com

Its “Getting Started” course walks a complete beginner through account setup, the dashboard, integrations, templates, domain verification/authentication, and the first steps toward sending. academy.mailerlite.com There's also a dedicated course on actually creating campaigns, A/B testing, tracking results, and building automations. academy.mailerlite.com

The free MailerLite plan currently allows up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month, plus campaigns, basic automations, landing pages, forms, and A/B testing. www.mailerlite.com

The one serious alternative: Brevo

Brevo is arguably better if contact-list size matters more than the simplicity of the learning journey. Its free plan is genuinely free forever and allows unlimited contacts, with a 300-email-per-day sending limit. help.brevo.com

Its Brevo Academy is excellent: there's a free beginner email-marketing certification with 8 modules, 63 videos, 4 eBooks, quizzes, and a certificate. academy.brevo.com

My recommendation: start with MailerLite if you're learning email marketing from scratch. Its education is unusually integrated with the actual process of building your first newsletter, rather than making you piece together documentation yourself.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you expect (e.g. 100, 500, 2,000+) and whether this is for a business, newsletter, or creator brand, I can tell you which free plan I'd choose for your specific situation.

If your priority is “I’m brand new, and I want the platform to actually teach me email marketing,” I’d pick MailerLite.

🥇 Best overall for beginners: MailerLite

What separates MailerLite is that the learning resources are unusually structured, rather than being just a help center.

• MailerLite Academy is free and includes courses on fundamentals, sending emails, automation, and selling with email. academy.mailerlite.com
• Its Getting Started course walks you through account setup, importing subscribers, creating campaigns, templates, and domain authentication. academy.mailerlite.com
• There's a dedicated Email Automation Master Class covering welcome sequences, segmentation, re-engagement, testing, and analytics. academy.mailerlite.com
• The courses are self-paced, with certificates available after completing the exams. academy.mailerlite.com
• The interface is deliberately geared toward simplicity, which matters when you're learning both the software and the strategy. www.mailerlite.com

One catch: MailerLite's current free plan is only 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails/month, and some features have been restricted on the free tier. www.mailerlite.com

🥈 Best if you're building a newsletter/creator business: Kit

Kit is arguably the more generous free-forever product: its Newsletter Plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited email sends, unlimited forms/landing pages, and one basic automation. help.kit.com

Its onboarding is also strong: when you join, Kit helps set up your Creator Profile, Creator Network, and Recommendations. help.kit.com

I'd choose Kit over MailerLite if your goal is specifically “build a newsletter and eventually monetize an audience.” For learning email marketing fundamentals, though, I think MailerLite's Academy is better.

🥉 Best for a more business/CRM-oriented path: Brevo

Brevo has a genuinely free plan with 100,000 stored contacts and 300 email sends/day, plus email campaigns, transactional email, and other marketing tools. academy.mailerlite.comwww.mailerlite.comwww.mailerlite.comhelp.brevo.comacademy.mailerlite.com

It's a good choice if you're eventually going toward e-commerce, CRM, SMS, or transactional email. But for a complete beginner looking for a guided education experience, I'd put it behind MailerLite.

My ranking for your specific question

My recommendation: Start with MailerLite, work through its free Academy courses while building your first welcome sequence, and only switch if you outgrow the 250-subscriber free limit. academy.mailerlite.com

MailerLite Academy

If you tell me what you're marketing (newsletter, small business, e-commerce, freelance service, course, etc.), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options for your situation.

If your priority is “I’m brand new, and I want the platform itself to teach me email marketing”, my pick is MailerLite.

🥇 Best overall for beginners: MailerLite

Why I’d choose it:

• Excellent step-by-step onboarding: its free “Getting Started” course walks you through account setup, importing subscribers, creating your first campaign, domain authentication, and more. academy.mailerlite.comacademy.mailerlite.com
• A genuinely strong learning library: MailerLite Academy has free courses covering fundamentals, sending campaigns, lead collection, automation, landing pages, and selling with email. academy.mailerlite.com
• It teaches the why, not just the buttons: the Academy covers broader email-marketing best practices, automation, content marketing and landing-page optimization. Courses are free with lifetime access. academy.mailerlite.comacademy.mailerlite.comwww.mailerlite.comhelp.kit.com
• You can learn by doing: the free plan includes campaigns, basic automations, forms, a landing page and website, so you can actually implement what you're learning. www.mailerlite.com

One important catch: MailerLite's current free plan is limited to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails/month. www.mailerlite.com

🥈 Best alternative: Brevo

I'd put Brevo second if your definition of “best” is the most structured marketing education.

Its Academy offers a free beginner email-marketing certification with 8 modules, 63 videos, 4 eBooks and a certification, covering things like deliverability, A/B testing and GDPR. academy.brevo.com The Academy itself is free forever and doesn't require you to already have a Brevo account. academy.brevo.com

Its free platform is also considerably less restrictive on contacts: you can store up to 100,000 contacts, although you're limited to 300 email sends per day. help.brevo.com

🥉 Best if you're a creator: Kit

Kit is particularly attractive if you're building a newsletter, personal brand, course, or creator business. Its current Newsletter plan is free for up to 10,000 subscribers. help.kit.com

But for someone whose primary goal is learning email marketing from scratch, I'd still favor MailerLite because its educational material is more explicitly structured as a beginner learning path.

My ranking for a complete beginner

Bottom line: Start with MailerLite if you want the smoothest “teach me while I build my first newsletter” experience. Its Academy + hands-on onboarding is unusually good for a free platform. academy.mailerlite.comacademy.mailerlite.com

MailerLite Academy
MailerLite free plan

If your priority is “I’m completely new, and I want the platform to teach me email marketing as I use it,” my top pick is MailerLite.

🥇 Best overall for beginners: MailerLite

MailerLite stands out because its education is unusually strong for a free platform:

• Free MailerLite Academy with structured, self-paced courses—not just help articles.
• A dedicated “Getting Started with MailerLite” course covering account setup, subscribers, campaigns, templates, and domain authentication. academy.mailerlite.com
• Additional free courses covering email marketing fundamentals, automation, sending campaigns, and selling with email. academy.mailerlite.com
• Courses include certificates, and you get lifetime access. academy.mailerlite.com
• Its support center also has step-by-step videos, troubleshooting guides, community resources, and free webinars. www.mailerlite.com

The main downside: MailerLite's current free plan is relatively restrictive—up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month. www.mailerlite.com

🥈 Best if you want to learn marketing, not just the software: Brevo

Brevo has an excellent Brevo Academy, with free courses, interactive lessons, video tutorials, quizzes, and certifications. It explicitly teaches beginners the why and how of digital marketing, rather than merely showing you where buttons are. academy.brevo.com

Its free plan is also much more generous on contacts: up to 100,000 stored contacts, although you're limited to 300 email sends per day. help.brevo.com

🥉 Best for creators/newsletters: Kit

Kit is particularly good if you're building a personal brand, newsletter, or creator business. Its free Newsletter Plan includes up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, landing pages/forms, and a basic automation. help.kit.com

Kit also has a dedicated getting-started curriculum and Kit University, which focuses heavily on audience growth and monetization. help.kit.com

My ranking for a true beginner

My recommendation: Start with MailerLite if your goal is to actually learn the craft rather than simply get an email-sending tool. Its combination of a beginner-specific onboarding course, broader marketing courses, certifications, tutorials, and free training is hard to beat.

If “free forever” means you expect to grow beyond a few hundred subscribers without paying, though, I'd choose Kit instead—the 10,000-subscriber free ceiling is dramatically more generous. help.kit.com

If your priority is “I’m brand new, and I want the platform to teach me email marketing as I use it,” I’d pick MailerLite.

My ranking for beginners

Why MailerLite wins: its free Academy isn't just product documentation. It has structured, beginner-oriented courses covering the fundamentals of email marketing, automation, campaigns, landing pages, and more, with certificates and lifetime access. academy.mailerlite.com

Its Getting Started course specifically walks a new user through account setup, subscribers, their first campaign, domain authentication, and other initial tasks. academy.mailerlite.com There's also a dedicated course on actually sending emails and building automations. academy.mailerlite.com

The free plan itself includes 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month, plus forms, landing pages, websites, and automation. www.mailerlite.com

The interesting alternative: Kit

If you're primarily building a personal newsletter, audience, or creator business, I'd seriously consider Kit instead. Its current free Newsletter Plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited email sends, plus forms, landing pages, a basic automation, and a creator profile. academy.mailerlite.comwww.mailerlite.comhelp.kit.comlearn.kit.comacademy.brevo.com

Kit also has a very beginner-friendly Kit Start course covering broadcasts, writing emails, recommendations, growing your profile, and monetization. learn.kit.com

So I'd make the choice this way:

• “I want to learn email marketing properly from scratch” → MailerLite
• “I want to build a newsletter/creator audience” → Kit
• “I want email + CRM/SMS/WhatsApp and broader marketing” → Brevo — its free Academy has courses, interactive lessons, tutorials, assessments, and certifications, and the free platform has no time limit. academy.brevo.com

My personal beginner pick: MailerLite. The combination of a genuinely usable free plan + unusually strong structured education makes it the least intimidating place to learn. academy.mailerlite.com

MailerLite Academy · Kit Start course · Brevo Academy

If your priority is “I’m a beginner and I want the platform to teach me email marketing, not just give me software,” I’d pick MailerLite.

My ranking for a beginner

Why MailerLite wins: its learning ecosystem is unusually strong. The free MailerLite Academy includes practical courses covering fundamentals, getting started, sending emails, automation, and selling with email. Courses are self-paced, free, and offer certificates. academy.mailerlite.com

Its specific Getting Started course walks a new user through account setup, subscribers, the first campaign, templates, domain authentication, and other essentials. academy.mailerlite.com It also provides a searchable knowledge base, video tutorials, community, webinars, and free courses in one support hub. www.mailerlite.com

The catch is that MailerLite's free plan became considerably smaller in June/August 2026: 250 active subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails, with limits on automations, forms, landing pages, etc. www.mailerlite.com

The runner-up: Brevo

If you want to learn email marketing plus broader digital marketing, Brevo is arguably even better educationally. Its Brevo Academy is free forever, has interactive courses, video tutorials, assessments, and certifications, and is explicitly designed for beginners through advanced marketers. academy.brevo.com

Its free platform is also genuinely free forever, with up to 100,000 stored contacts—but you're limited to 300 email sends per day, which can become frustrating as your list grows. help.brevo.com

One important exception: Kit

If by “email marketing” you really mean building a newsletter/audience as a creator, I'd choose Kit instead. Its free Newsletter Plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, forms and landing pages, tagging/segmentation, and a basic automation. academy.mailerlite.comwww.mailerlite.comwww.mailerlite.comacademy.brevo.comhelp.kit.comhelp.kit.com Its onboarding materials are also excellent, including a dedicated “Getting Started” collection with 16 articles and a video Lunch & Learn series. help.kit.com

Bottom line:

• Small business / first-ever email marketing → MailerLite
• Want the most structured marketing education → Brevo
• Creator/newsletter business → Kit

If you're starting from absolute zero, MailerLite + its Academy is probably the smoothest “learn while you build” combination.

If onboarding + learning resources are your top priorities, I’d pick MailerLite for a beginner.

My ranking

Why MailerLite wins: its Academy is unusually well integrated with the actual beginner journey. There’s a dedicated “Getting started with MailerLite” course covering account setup, subscribers, your first campaign, templates, domain authentication, and more. academy.mailerlite.com

It also has free courses covering email fundamentals, sending campaigns, lead collection, automation, landing pages, and ecommerce, with certificates available. academy.mailerlite.comacademy.mailerlite.com And its help center includes step-by-step video tutorials, troubleshooting guides, community support, and free live training. www.mailerlite.com

One important catch in 2026: MailerLite's free plan is now limited to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails/month. The changes took effect around August 13, 2026. You still get useful features such as forms, landing pages, and limited automation. www.mailerlite.com

Brevo is the strongest alternative

Brevo has an excellent Brevo Academy, with free courses, interactive modules, tutorials, assessments, and certifications. It's explicitly designed for beginners as well as experienced marketers. academy.brevo.com

Its free plan is also genuinely free forever and currently allows 300 email sends per day with up to 100,000 contacts stored, although that daily sending limit can be restrictive. help.brevo.com

What about Kit?

Kit is particularly compelling if you're building a newsletter, personal brand, or creator business. Its free Newsletter plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, landing pages/forms, and a basic automation. Its onboarding actually creates a Creator Profile and enrolls you in its Creator Network to help you get started. help.kit.com

But for someone saying “I'm completely new to email marketing; teach me how to do this”, I would still choose MailerLite because its educational material is more explicitly structured as an email-marketing learning path.

Bottom line:
👉 MailerLite = best learn email marketing while using the platform
👉 Brevo = best learning + broader business marketing
👉 Kit = best creator/newsletter experience + unusually generous free tier

If you're starting from zero, I'd go MailerLite → complete the Getting Started course → build a signup form → create a welcome email → learn automation. That gives you a much better first-month learning path than simply picking the platform with the biggest free subscriber limit. academy.mailerlite.comacademy.mailerlite.com

If your priority is “I’m new, and I want the platform itself to teach me email marketing,” I’d pick MailerLite.

My ranking for a beginner

Why MailerLite wins: its free Academy is unusually comprehensive. It has a dedicated “Getting Started” course with 13 lessons, plus courses on sending emails, lead collection, automation, landing pages, and ecommerce. The courses are free, self-paced, and include certificates. academy.mailerlite.com

It also backs that up with a large help center, step-by-step video tutorials, webinars, and a community. www.mailerlite.com

The current free plan is $0 forever, with up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month, plus 3 automations, a landing page, forms/pop-ups, and A/B testing. www.mailerlite.com

Brevo is a very close second. Its Academy is excellent for someone who wants to learn marketing, not just how to operate the software: it has beginner-friendly interactive courses, videos, quizzes, and certifications, all free. academy.brevo.com Its free platform has no time limit and allows unlimited contacts, although sending is capped at 300 emails/day. help.brevo.com

Kit is worth considering if you're primarily a creator building a newsletter. Its free Newsletter plan has particularly good onboarding around its Creator Profile, recommendations, and audience-growth tools. help.kit.com

Bottom line

For learning email marketing from scratch + learning how to use the platform + staying free while you learn, I'd start with MailerLite.

A good beginner path would be:

MailerLite → Getting Started course → Send Emails course → Collect Leads → Automation Master Class.

Start with MailerLite Academy 