A restaurant list is big and quiet: thousands of past guests you blast a promo to a couple of times a month. That pattern makes the pricing model — per send versus per contact — the whole decision. We reweighted the rubric for a large, infrequently-emailed list and ranked the five tools by what a restaurant actually pays to hit “send.”
For restaurants we weight the cost model for a big, low-frequency list highest, then SMS-plus-email in one place. A diner database grows forever but you email it rarely, so paying per contact stored is the wrong shape — paying per send, or a flat cheap tier, is the right one. See the full rubric →
Cost for a big, low-frequency list30%
SMS + email in one platform20%
Templates & ease for staff20%
Free / low-entry honesty15%
Automation (birthday, re-engage)15%
01
RANK
★ Editor’s Choice
Brevo
Pay per send, not per diner
The pricing model built for how restaurants email. Brevo bills by emails sent, not contacts stored, so your list of past guests can be enormous and cheap — the free tier alone holds up to 100,000 contacts and sends 300/day, and Starter is $9/mo for 5,000 sends. SMS is in the same platform for time-sensitive promos. For a big list you email twice a month, this is dramatically cheaper than any contact-priced rival. Clear winner for the segment.
The pick if you prefer one predictable monthly price to a per-send meter, and your list is not huge. Growing Business starts around $10/mo, the drag-drop builder makes a good-looking promo in minutes, and a front-of-house manager can run it without training. Email-only, so no SMS, and subscriber pricing means a very large list costs more here than on Brevo — but for a mid-size restaurant list it is clean, cheap and easy.
Worth it only if you run a real loyalty or CRM play — birthday offers, win-back flows for lapsed regulars, segments by visit history — where its automation is the best here. But it is contact-priced (Starter $15/mo at 1,000 contacts) and climbs with the list, which is exactly the shape restaurants should avoid unless the automation earns it back. A small group or franchise doing serious retention marketing; not a single site sending a monthly special.
Familiar and polished, and the wrong shape for a restaurant list. Mailchimp bills by contacts stored — including unsubscribed and duplicate contacts — so you pay every month to warehouse thousands of diners you email twice, and real bills run 20-40% over the sticker. The free plan is now just 250 contacts. The templates are nice; the meter is pointed the wrong way for how restaurants actually send.
The name a lot of restaurants already know, with genuinely event- and hospitality-friendly templates. But the economics are the weakest here for a big list: no free plan, only a 60-day trial, and contact-based pricing that scales steeply — Lite runs from $12 at 500 contacts to about $50 at 1,000. For the same monthly promo to a large diner list, you will pay more here than on Brevo or MailerLite. Buy it for the template library, not the bill.
Brevo, because it charges by emails sent, not contacts stored — the exact match for how restaurants email. A diner list is big and low-engagement: thousands of past guests you blast a promo to a couple of times a month. On contact-priced tools you pay every month for all of them; on Brevo the free tier alone holds up to 100,000 contacts and the paid Starter plan is $9/mo for 5,000 sends. It also bundles SMS for last-minute table or event pushes.
Why is contact-based pricing a trap for restaurants?
Because a restaurant’s list grows with every guest but its send frequency stays low. Mailchimp and Constant Contact bill by contacts stored, so an 8,000-name list costs the same whether you email once a month or never — and Mailchimp even bills for unsubscribed contacts. You end up paying to warehouse diners you rarely message. Send-based pricing (Brevo) or a cheap flat subscriber tier (MailerLite) fits the pattern far better.
Do restaurants need email and SMS in one tool?
It helps. Restaurant promotions are time-sensitive — a slow Tuesday, a cancelled-table opening, a weekend special — and SMS gets opened in minutes where email waits. Brevo includes SMS in the same platform, so you can run both from one contact list without a second subscription. If you only ever send a monthly newsletter, email-only MailerLite is cheaper; if promos are your engine, the combined tool earns its keep.
Is Constant Contact still worth it for restaurants?
It is the familiar name and the templates are restaurant-friendly, but the pricing works against you. There is no free plan, only a 60-day trial, and cost scales steeply with list size — Lite jumps from $12 to about $50 as you go from 500 to 1,000 contacts. For a restaurant with a large, infrequently-emailed list, that contact-based curve makes it one of the pricier ways to send the same monthly promo.