Tools — free plans
What do you actually get free?
Every vendor we track that runs a free tier, with two things beside it: the limits their own pricing page states — quoted exactly as we read them, never rewritten — and the cliff, meaning the first paid plan you land on when you outgrow the free one. Prices are read daily and shown for the US market.
What this page will not do. 82 of the vendors we track run a free
tier. We can quote captured limits for 32 of them. For the rest the plan is on the ladder
but its allowance was never captured in readable form, and those say so rather than carrying a
summary written from memory. A free tier's whole meaning is its limit, so a half-remembered one is
worse than an honest gap. The cliff price beside each vendor is a live figure from the same tables
the rest of the site prints — no number on this page is typed by hand.
What their own page says
Quoted exactly as read. Nothing in these boxes is our wording.
Benchmark Email — Free
“500 — 'Includes 500 contacts. $0 /mo'. 1 user max, 1 domain max.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepPro — $19 a month
Canva — Free
“'€0 /year for one person'. 'Design anything and bring your ideas to life. No cost, just creativity.'”
quoted as read from their pricing page on 2026-10-13
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
DigitalOcean — App Platform
“'Starting at $0 /month'. Fully-managed infrastructure.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-06
The cliff — first paid stepDroplets — $4 a month
EmailOctopus — Starter
“2,500 subscribers — Free. '2,500 subscribers, 10,000 emails per month'. EmailOctopus branding on emails, reports for 30 days, 1 landing page and 1 form, 1 user.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-06
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
EngageBay — Free
“250 Contacts — Email Marketing, Autoresponders, Email Broadcast, Sequences, Lead Grabbers, Landing Pages, CRM, Helpdesk, Live Chat. Priced $0 in all three billing states.”
quoted as read from their pricing page on 2026-09-15
The cliff — first paid stepBasic — $14.99 a month or $13.79 a month billed annually
Fliki — Free
“'€0 No credit card required'. 3 credits per month, watermark. 'For beginners trying out AI video creation.'”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-06
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
HubSpot — Free Tools
“Free for up to 2 users, no credit card required — Foundational free marketing, sales, service, content, data and revenue tools. A standing tier, not a trial, but capped at two users.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-08-27
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Icedrive — Free
“10 GB storage, from the page's own feature comparison. No sync devices, no crypto folder, no versioning.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Jetpack — Free
“brute-force protection, image CDN, lazy-loading images, limited spam protection, 20-event activity log”
quoted as read from their pricing page on 2026-09-01
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Klaviyo — Free
“250 active profiles — 'Up to 250 active profiles, 500 email sends/month, $5 of mobile messages/month, 10,000 Composer credits.' Built-in reporting, email support.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-06
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Loom — Starter
“25 videos, 5-minute screen recordings, up to 50 workspace members”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-03
The cliff — first paid stepBusiness — $18 a month
Mailchimp — Free
“Under 250 — Core features; sending pauses if the contact or send limit is exceeded.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-08-27
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
MailerLite — Free
“up to 250 — 2,500 monthly emails, 2 seats, 3 automations, 1 landing page, community support”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-08-26
The cliff — first paid stepComfort — $12 a month or $10.8 a month billed annually
Mailgun — Free
“'Test us out for $0/mo'; 100 emails/day included; 1 day log retention, 1 inbound route”
quoted as read from their pricing page on 2026-10-13
The cliff — first paid stepBasic — $15 a month
NordPass — Free
“'$0.00/month — For a lifetime.' Only the essential features; the same figure in every market read.”
quoted as read from their pricing page on 2026-10-01
The cliff — first paid stepPremium — $1.39 a month
Omnisend — Free
“250 — '$0 /mo. No cost. No credit card required.' 500 monthly emails, 250 contacts, 500 web push notifications, free migration, 24/7 support.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-06
The cliff — first paid stepStandard — $11.2 a month
Otter.ai — Basic
“'Free forever'. 300 monthly transcription minutes, 3 lifetime audio/video file imports, live transcription, Zoom/Teams/Google Meet.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-06
The cliff — first paid stepPro — $8.33 a month
Recraft — Free
“for exploring AI features at a basic level, personal use only; limited free credits”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Rytr — Free
“'$0/m — Free forever, no CC required.' 10K characters per month of AI content generation.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepUnlimited — $9 a month or $7.5 a month billed annually
SendPulse — Free (Newbies)
“500 — 'Explore SendPulse tools, launch your first campaign.' 15,000 emails per month, 140+ templates, drag-and-drop builder, subscription forms, basic automation.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Sensei LMS — Sensei Free
“unlimited free courses, certificate builder, basic quizzes, learning mode”
quoted as read from their pricing page on 2026-09-01
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Substack — Publishing
“unlimited — Free at any subscriber count — 'no matter how many subscribers you have', their words”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-08-26
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Todoist — Beginner
“Individuals. US $0. 5 personal projects, 3 filter views, 1 week activity history.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Trello — Free
“'Free for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace'. Unlimited cards, unlimited activity log, iOS and Android apps, 2FA.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-06
The cliff — first paid stepStandard — $6 a month or $5 a month billed annually
VEED — Free
“'Start for free, upgrade to get powerful features.' The paid tiers are described as adding no watermark and unlimited auto subtitles.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Vidyard — Free
“stand out with video messages; no credit card required; 15 AI videos, stock avatars, 3 custom AI avatars, limited automated video creation and delivery, limited videos per month, video editing tools, sharing options, limited integrations”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Vultr — Vultr Storage Gateway — Standalone
“'Free'. The highly available gateway is '$20.00 /mo'.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-06
The cliff — first paid stepCloud Compute, Regular Performance — 1 vCPU / 0.5 GB (IPv6 only) — $2.5 a month
Webflow — Starter
“Free. 'For exploring and experimenting with Webflow.' Webflow.io domain, limited CMS, 2 static pages, 1 GB bandwidth, 50 form submissions.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepBasic — $25 a month or $15 a month billed annually
WP Job Manager — WP Job Manager
“the core job board plugin, described on the vendor's own site as 'a free WordPress job board plugin'”
quoted as read from their pricing page on 2026-09-01
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
YouCanBook.me — Free
“$0 / month”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Zoho CRM — CRM Plus — Starter
“'€0 /user/month'. Free on either term — a free tier has no billing period. Zoho CRM Plus brings sales, marketing, service and every customer-facing team onto one platform. Key features: CRM, AI across the platform.”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Zoho Mail — Forever Free
“up to 5 users, 5 GB per user, 25 MB attachment limit, single domain, web access only (as recorded in the earlier read); no card required”
quoted as read from their pricing page, on the one worldwide read we hold on 2026-09-07
The cliff — first paid stepno paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here
Free tier confirmed — limits not captured
We hold the plan and what it costs to leave it. We never captured the allowance in readable form, so there is nothing here to quote — and we would rather show you the cliff than write a limit from memory.
| Vendor | Free plan | The cliff — first paid step | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Activepieces | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| beehiiv | Free | Lite — $59 a month or $49 a month billed annually | Every recorded check → |
| Better Stack | Free (personal projects) | Responder (Uptime + Telemetry) — $34 a month | — |
| Capsule CRM | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| ChatGPT | Free | Go — $8 a month | Every recorded check →chatgpt vs claude → |
| Claude | Free | Pro — $17 a month | Every recorded check →chatgpt vs claude → |
| ClickUp | Free | Core — $12 a month or $8 a month billed annually | Every recorded check →clickup vs notion → |
| Clipchamp | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| DeepBrain AI | Free | Personal — $24 a month | colossyan vs deepbrain → |
| ElevenLabs | Free | Starter — $6 a month | Every recorded check → |
| Fillout | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| FlexClip | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| Grammarly | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | Every recorded check → |
| Gumroad | Direct | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| Healthchecks.io | Hobbyist | Supporter — $5 a month | — |
| HeyGen | Free | Creator — $29 a month | Every recorded check →heygen vs synthesia → |
| IFTTT | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| Jotform | Starter (Free) | Bronze — $39 a month | — |
| Kapwing | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| Kit | Free | Creator — $39 a month or $32.5 a month billed annually | Every recorded check →brevo vs kit →kit vs constant contact →kit vs mailerlite → |
| Lensmor | Free | Basic — $499 a month or $415.83 a month billed annually | — |
| Linear | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| Mailjet | Free | Starter — $9 a month | Every recorded check →brevo vs mailjet →mailjet vs sender → |
| Make | Free | Core — $16 a month | zapier vs make → |
| Miro | Free | Starter — $10 a month or $8 a month billed annually | Every recorded check → |
| Mistral AI | Free | Pro — $14.99 a month | — |
| Murf | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| Notion | Free | Plus — $10 a month | Every recorded check →clickup vs notion → |
| Paperform | Free | Essentials — $24 a month | — |
| PostHog | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| Postmark | Free | Basic — $15 a month | Every recorded check → |
| Proton Pass | Proton Free | Pass Plus — $4.99 a month | Every recorded check →lastpass vs protonpass →nordpass vs protonpass →proton pass vs 1password → |
| Proton VPN | Proton Free | VPN Plus — $9.99 a month | Every recorded check →expressvpn vs protonvpn →protonvpn vs nordvpn →protonvpn vs surfshark → |
| QuickBooks | Free | Simple Start — $38 a month | Every recorded check → |
| Resend | Free | Pro — $20 a month | — |
| Riverside | Free | Pro — $35 a month | — |
| Runway | Free | Standard — $15 a month | Every recorded check → |
| Sender | Free | Standard — $6.3 a month | Every recorded check →mailjet vs sender → |
| SignWell | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| Superlist | Free | Basic — $5 a month or $4.92 a month billed annually | airtable vs superlist → |
| Synthesia | Basic | Starter — $14 a month | Every recorded check →heygen vs synthesia → |
| Systeme.io | Free | Startup — $17 a month | Every recorded check →systeme io vs getresponse →systeme vs teachable →thinkific vs systeme.io → |
| Tidio | Free | Starter — $24.17 a month | Every recorded check →tidio vs crisp →tidio vs zendesk → |
| TidyCal | Free | no paid plan with a monthly figure recorded here | — |
| Wave | Starter | Pro — $19 a month | Every recorded check → |
| Weebly | Free | Personal — $13 a month | Every recorded check → |
| Wix | Free | Core — $14 a month | Every recorded check → |
| WordPress.com | Free | Personal — $3.25 a month | Every recorded check →squarespace vs wordpress.com → |
| Zapier | Free | Professional — $19.99 a month | zapier vs make → |
| Zoho Books | FREE | STANDARD — $12 a month | Every recorded check → |
How to read this: the quoted limits are the vendor's own words on the
date shown; they change, and the date is there so you can tell how fresh ours is. “The
cliff” is the cheapest plan carrying a monthly figure in this market — not necessarily
the plan the vendor pushes you towards. Where a vendor shows a lower rate for paying annually we
print that too. The method →