Most tools hide their best automation features behind a paywall. This one does not.
When a business decides to take email marketing seriously, there comes a point where the monthly newsletter is no longer enough. The contacts are there, the list is growing, but the real potential of the channel only begins when sends stop being manual and start responding automatically to the behaviour of each individual person. That is where automation flows come in — and that is also where most tools on the market start charging.
Mailrelay is the exception. It is a Spanish email marketing platform that includes complete automations, multichannel flows with multiple actions and conditions, and a redesigned interface with a global search function — all in its free plan. With up to 20,000 contacts and 80,000 sends per month at no cost, it is the tool that gives you the most room to build a real strategy before committing to any spending.
Why Automations Are the Qualitative Leap in Email Marketing
There is a fundamental difference between sending emails and doing email marketing. Sending emails is a one-off action: you prepare a message, send it to your list, and wait for the results. Doing email marketing means building a system that works continuously, that responds to what each contact does, and that accompanies the potential customer from the first point of contact through to conversion — and beyond.
That system is built with automations. A welcome sequence that triggers when someone subscribes. A follow-up flow that varies depending on whether the contact opened the first email or not. A reactivation campaign for contacts who have been inactive for months. An automatic reminder for those who abandoned a basket or did not complete an action.
Each of these flows works without anyone having to activate it manually. You configure it once and it runs continuously, applying the defined logic to each new contact that meets the established conditions. For a small business with limited resources, that is the equivalent of having a marketing team working in parallel — without the cost of that team.
The Problem: Automations Are Usually Behind the Paywall
Most email marketing platforms offer some kind of free plan to attract new users. But automations — precisely the functionality that transforms email marketing from a repetitive task into a scalable system — are usually the first thing reserved for paid plans.
Mailchimp removed automations from its free plan in 2019 and has since only offered them from its paid tiers. ActiveCampaign has no free plan — automations are its core product and carry a price from the very first contact. HubSpot includes some basic flows in its free version, but real automations with multiple conditions and branching logic sit in plans that start at several hundred euros per month.
The result is that many small businesses come to automations late — after months of paying for a tool, or after deciding that email marketing is strategic enough to justify the investment. Mailrelay changes that logic: automations are available from day one, at no cost, so you can build your strategy before committing to any expenditure.
What Mailrelay’s Automation Flows Include
Mailrelay’s automations are not a stripped-down version of what other platforms offer in their paid plans. They are complete flows, with multiple actions, branching conditions, contact tagging, and multichannel capability combining email and SMS.
Multiple actions within a single flow. A flow does not have to be linear. It can include email sends, time delays, tag assignments, changes to contact data, and conditions that split the flow into different branches based on behaviour. All within the same automation, with no limit on the number of steps.
Conditions and branching logic. The real power of an automation lies in its ability to adapt. If a contact opened the email, they go one way; if they did not, they go another. If they completed an action, they receive one message; if they did not, they receive a reminder. Mailrelay allows you to configure this logic visually, with no technical knowledge required.
Contact tagging. Tags allow you to segment the list dynamically based on behaviour. A contact who consistently opens emails on a particular topic can be automatically tagged as interested in that category, enabling more relevant communications in future.
Multichannel: email and SMS. The ability to combine email and SMS within the same flow expands the communication options available. Some messages work better by email — newsletters, detailed content, formal communications. Others, especially urgent ones or those requiring an immediate response, achieve better open and response rates via SMS. Having both channels available within the same coordinated flow is a capability that in other platforms requires integrating additional tools.
The Redesigned Interface: Easier to Use, Faster to Navigate
An automation only has value if it can be configured without the process becoming a source of frustration. Mailrelay has redesigned its interface with a clear focus on usability — a clean layout, a more modern visual experience, and a global search function that lets you find any element of the platform without navigating through menus.
For someone managing email marketing independently, without a technical team behind them, that has a direct practical impact. The time saved navigating the tool is time that can be spent on strategy instead.
The visual editor for newsletter design has integrated artificial intelligence that makes it easier to create professional-looking emails without design or coding knowledge. Templates are the starting point; the AI helps adapt the content, adjust the layout, and produce a result that does not look like it was made with a free tool.
Analytics That Allow You to Optimise, Not Just Measure
Campaign statistics have no value if they are too superficial to inform decisions. Knowing how many people opened an email is the starting point; understanding which link they clicked, which section of the email generated the most engagement, and how that compares to previous campaigns is what allows you to improve.
Mailrelay offers complete real-time statistics in its free plan: opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, heat maps showing which areas of the email generate the most interaction, and analysis of the most effective links. The data is available from the moment of sending — there is no waiting for processing, and no need to upgrade to access the relevant reports.
For a small business learning what works and what does not in its email strategy, that information is the most valuable resource it can have.
The Comparison Table
| Feature | Mailchimp (free) | ActiveCampaign | HubSpot (free) | Mailrelay (free) |
| Contacts included | 500 | No free plan | 1,000 | 20,000 |
| Emails per month | 1,000 | — | 2,000 | 80,000 |
| Complete automations | No | Paid | Limited | Yes |
| Multichannel flows (email + SMS) | No | Paid | No | Yes |
| Conditions and branching | No | Paid | Basic | Yes |
| Heat maps and advanced analytics | No | Paid | Basic | Yes |
| Visual editor with AI | No | No | No | Yes |
| Support in Spanish | No | No | No | Yes |
| Global search in interface | No | No | No | Yes |
Spanish-Language Support: The Factor That Does Not Appear in International Benchmarks
The best-known email marketing tools are American. Their support operates in English, with response times that vary depending on the plan you have, and with a knowledge base that is not always translated in enough detail to resolve specific problems.
Mailrelay is a Spanish tool, developed and operated in Spain, with customer support in Spanish by phone, chat, and tickets. For a Spanish company managing its email marketing independently, that has concrete practical value: when there is a problem with an automation that needs to go out tomorrow, there is someone available to help, in your language, without waiting 48 hours for a reply to an English-language ticket.
Deliverability: The Foundation Everything Else Rests On
A perfectly configured automation has no value if the emails it generates do not reach the inbox. Deliverability — a platform’s ability to ensure that sends arrive where they should — is the most undervalued factor in email marketing tool comparisons.
Mailrelay has its own IP ranges and specific algorithms to manage and improve deliverability. It is the same infrastructure used by companies with needs running to millions of emails per month. For a small business, that means its campaigns and automations reach the inbox with the same reliability as those of much larger companies — without having to build or pay for that infrastructure separately.
Who Makes the Most Sense to Start With Mailrelay
Mailrelay’s free plan is particularly well suited to certain profiles:
Businesses that want to implement real automations from the outset, without waiting until they have budget for a paid plan. Spanish SMEs that value having support in their own language and a tool whose interface does not require constant mental translation. Businesses with mid-sized lists — up to 20,000 contacts — that find the limits of other free tools too restrictive to work professionally. Small teams that need an agile interface and a visual editor that does not require technical knowledge to produce quality emails.
Conclusion
Email marketing automations are not an advanced feature reserved for companies with a marketing budget. They are the difference between a strategy that scales and one that depends on however much time the person managing it happens to have available. And with Mailrelay, they are available from day one, at no cost, on a platform with Spanish-language support, complete analytics, and the most generous contact and send limits on the market.
Professionalising your email marketing does not require an upfront investment. It requires making the right choice from the beginning.