Choosing email marketing platforms in the UK starts with a legal question before a feature one: who are you allowed to email? Get that right and almost any mainstream platform will do the job.
Who you can email
Under PECR, you need consent to send marketing email to individuals, and the ICO treats sole traders and most partnerships as individuals. Limited companies and LLPs can be emailed without consent, although UK GDPR still applies to the personal data involved. The soft opt-in lets you email existing customers about similar products if you offered an opt-out when you collected their details and include one in every message. Bought lists are a risk, because you can't show that anyone consented.
Since February 2026 the maximum PECR fine matches UK GDPR: £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover, whichever is higher. Every marketing email needs a clear sender identity and a working unsubscribe link.
What to check in email marketing platforms
| Need | What to check |
|---|---|
| Consent records | Sign-up forms that store when and how someone opted in, and double opt-in if you want stronger proof |
| List hygiene | Automatic unsubscribe, bounce and suppression handling |
| Deliverability | Support for sender authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC), which Gmail and Yahoo expect from bulk senders |
| Design | Templates that work on mobile, and a simple editor |
| Cost | Whether pricing is by contacts or by emails sent, and what happens when you pass the free limit |
| Your data | Where it is stored, and whether you can export it |
Email marketing platforms free: what to expect
Email marketing platforms free plans typically cap contacts and monthly sends, limit automation, and may add the provider's branding to your emails. Well-known names include Mailchimp, Brevo and MailerLite, but limits change often, so read the current pricing page before you commit. A free plan suits a simple newsletter; automation usually needs a paid tier.
Marketing automation tools
Marketing automation tools send messages triggered by what someone does: a welcome sequence after sign-up, a reminder when a basket is abandoned, a follow-up after a quote. Marketing automation tools free of charge are usually limited to a basic welcome email. Lists of the top 10 marketing automation tools go out of date within months, so judge tools by what you need to automate instead.
Start with three workflows: a welcome series, a post-purchase follow-up and a re-engagement email for people who have gone quiet. Check that all three work on the plan you would actually pay for, and that an unsubscribe in one sequence removes the person from every other. If you also track leads, CRM automation tools can trigger emails from deal stages; see our guide to the CRM system for small business UK.