10 Best Email Marketing Software & Tools for 2026 (Tested)

The best email marketing software depends on your business. If you’re running an eCommerce site, Omnisend is hard to beat. If your list is growing but you send fewer than 2,500 emails a month, Constant Contact is unusually cheap.

If you want polished emails without a learning curve, Mailchimp has the easiest builder I’ve tested. If the budget is tight, Sender and EmailOctopus cost a fraction of the big names as your list grows.

For most other small businesses, ActiveCampaign is still the best general email automation platform, particularly given its AI features.

The 10 Best Email Marketing Tools at a Glance

Tool	Best For	Price From	Free Plan?	Our Rating	Try It
Omnisend	eCommerce	$16/mo	Yes — 250 contacts	4.6/5	Try free →
ActiveCampaign	AI & automation	$15/mo	Trial only (14 days)	4.0/5	14-day trial →
Constant Contact	Small businesses sending infrequently	$6/mo	Trial only	3.8/5	Start for $6/mo →
Mailchimp	Ease of use	$13/mo	Yes — 250 contacts	4.3/5	Try free →
Sender	Most features for the money	$9/mo	Yes — 2,500 subscribers	4.5/5	Start free →
EmailOctopus	Large lists on a small budget	$10/mo	Yes — 2,500 subscribers	4.25/5	Start free →
Beehiiv	Newsletters	$0 (free to 2,500 contacts)	Yes — 2,500 contacts	4/5	Start free →
Brevo	Affordable automation	$0 (300 emails/day)	Yes — 300 emails/day	4.1/5	Start free →
Campaigner	SMBs wanting simple AI email	$14/mo	30-day free trial	3.9/5	30-day trial →
Resend	Developers (API-first)	$0 (3,000 emails/mo)	Yes — 3,000 emails/mo	4/5	Start free →

Entry prices, verified October 2026.

See detailed pricing at 5K, 10K, 25K, and 100K contacts. For every scoring criterion, weighting and result, the full dataset is public.

Best email marketing software for eCommerce

Omnisend is the best email marketing platform I’ve tested for eCommerce businesses. Its revenue attribution is more granular than Klaviyo’s, its omnichannel workflows are smooth as butter, and it costs significantly less.

If you’re running a Shopify or WooCommerce store and you’re not using Omnisend, there’s potentially some revenue being left on the table.

As the name implies, its focus is dialling in the omnichannel experience. It can trigger a push notification if an email isn’t opened, followed by an SMS if the push is ignored. This is more native and less buggy than the integrations you’d stitch together with other platforms.

Pros and Cons

• Revenue attribution that actually works: Tracks revenue back to specific emails and automations with more granularity than any other eCommerce platform I’ve tested.

• Native omnichannel workflows: Combine email, SMS, and web push in a single automation. Fallback logic is built in, rather than stitched together via third-party integrations.

• Shopify integration depth: Product picker pulls from your catalogue, abandoned cart triggers fire reliably, and product recommendations use actual purchase history. 4.8-star Shopify app rating with 5,000+ five-star reviews.

• Better value than Klaviyo: At 10K contacts, Omnisend Standard costs $132/mo versus Klaviyo’s $150+. Comparable features for meaningfully less money.

• Free migration from Klaviyo (or any ESP): The biggest barrier to switching ESPs is the migration itself. Omnisend handles it for you at no cost. Their team manages list imports, automation rebuilds, template recreation, and deliverability setup, so the switch costs are minimal.

Pricing

Contacts	Standard	Pro
500	$16/mo	$59/mo
5,000	$81/mo	$90/mo
10,000	$132/mo	$150/mo
100,000	Custom quote	Custom quote

At 10K contacts, Omnisend Standard ($132/mo) is comparable to ActiveCampaign Starter ($149/mo), and for eCommerce the native Shopify integration and revenue attribution justify the choice. At 100K+, Omnisend moves to custom quotes while ActiveCampaign charges $1,199/mo on Starter — but Omnisend typically costs less than Klaviyo at scale.

Omnisend’s AI is one of the strongest in the eCommerce space, and it’s the area of the platform that has improved most over the past year. The AI writer is trained on millions of real campaigns, so the subject lines, preheaders, and body copy it generates sound on-brand rather than the obvious LLM filler you get elsewhere. One smart touch I like is the Brand Assets AI which keeps voice and visual identity consistent across every campaign and automation.

The standout is the natural-language segment builder. Describe the customer you want to reach in plain English (“lapsed buyers who spent over $200 last year”) and it builds the segment for you. It draws on churn prediction and high-value-customer scoring under the hood.

Is Omnisend the right eCommerce email platform for you?

Any Shopify or WooCommerce store doing more than $100k/year in revenue. If you need abandoned cart emails, product recommendations, SMS marketing, and detailed revenue attribution in a single tool, Omnisend is the clear choice.

Open Omnisend's Website→Read Omnisend review

One more thing worth knowing if you’re on Klaviyo or Mailchimp and tempted: Omnisend runs a free migration service. Their team rebuilds your lists, automations, and templates at no cost — it’s their offer, not mine, but it removes the main excuse for staying put.

Switching platforms? Omnisend migrates you for free →

Best email marketing platform for AI & automation

ActiveCampaign still has one of the best automation builders in the industry, and their AI offering has taken this to another level.

We’ve used ActiveCampaign for 14 years across 8 of our portfolio companies and sent 124,000+ emails on their platform, so we’re acutely aware of its strengths and shortcomings.

It’s no longer the cheapest (in 2024, they hiked their pricing… ruffling many a feather), but at scale it’s reasonable compared to alternatives that offer a fraction of the functionality.

I started using ActiveCampaign in 2012, back when it was a scrappy underdog and one of the first tools with visual automation. For a few years, the company seemed a bit rudderless.

But their automation offering is still in a league of its own. I’ve tested every major competitor, and nothing comes close to ActiveCampaign’s visual workflow editor for building complex, multi-step sequences. You get 135+ automation triggers and can split-test entire automation paths. As of 2026, AI can now do the grunt work that once took days.

ActiveCampaign also gets the boring bits right. Compliance, security, deliverability — the stuff that determines whether your emails reach the inbox.

Pros and Cons

• Results Guarantee – It’s the only platform to guarantee marketing results. ActiveCampaign now backs new customer subscriptions with a full first-month refund if they don’t see improvements.

• 1,000+ integrations – ActiveCampaign has more than 1,000 integrations including native integrations with Salesforce, Calendly, Webflow, Zendesk, DocuSign, and most major eCommerce platforms like Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce.

• Visual automation builder is best-in-class: 135+ triggers, if/else branching, split-testing entire automation paths. Running our own sequences as continuous A/B tests has produced 4-5× uplifts in open rates on our most-tested flows.

• Active Intelligence is actually good: I was sceptical when it first launched that it’d just be a ChatGPT wrapper. But ActiveCampaign’s AI builds context from your previous campaigns, writing style, and engagement patterns. It can build decent workflows in minutes.

• Predictive sending per contact: Analyses each subscriber’s engagement history and delivers when they’re personally most likely to open, rather than blasting the whole list at 10am (Pro plan).

• Deliverability is top-notch: 99.4% delivery rate across our own accounts, and my default test email scored 9.5/10 in Mail Tester. ActiveCampaign’s own study puts inbox placement at 94.2%, against an ~83% industry average. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup is guided by a built-in wizard.

• Cost scaling is reasonable for a per-contact tool: The 1K-to-100K multiplier is roughly 80x ($15/mo to $1,199/mo on Starter). That’s steep, but consider that HubSpot scales at 59x just between Starter and Professional — before you even reach 100K contacts.

Pricing

ActiveCampaign uses per-contact pricing across four tiers: Starter, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise. No free plan — just a 14-day trial. The prices below are on annual billing; paying month to month costs about a quarter more.

If you’re choosing ActiveCampaign, budget for Plus (it’s what we use) or Pro. Starter can’t run If/Else branches, and branching is most of the reason to pick ActiveCampaign in the first place.

Contacts	Starter	Plus	Pro
1,000	$15/mo	$49/mo	$79/mo
10,000	$149/mo	$189/mo	$375/mo
100,000	$1,199/mo	$1,599/mo	$2,599/mo

At 10,000 contacts, ActiveCampaign Starter ($149/mo) is pricier than Campaigner ($79/mo) but offers vastly more powerful automation. At 100K contacts, Starter jumps to $1,199/mo — a steep climb, but you get the automation depth no budget tool can match.

ActiveCampaign’s AI — branded “Active Intelligence” — gives you the following:

• Content generation trained on your brand: It learns your writing style and audience preferences from previous campaigns.
• Predictive sending: Per-contact send-time optimisation based on individual engagement patterns (Pro plan).
• Win probability and churn prediction: Scores deals by likelihood of closing and flags contacts at risk of disengaging.
• AI-generated automation workflows: Describe what you want in plain language, and it builds the workflow.

Plenty of tools slap “AI” on a feature list. ActiveCampaign’s version is useful because it speeds up the work you already do. It drafts on-brand email and automation copy, translates campaigns for different audiences, and surfaces smarter segments from engagement data. You get a decent first draft in minutes, then improve it with guidance based on what’s actually performed for you.

In my latest test, I pointed it at an onboarding sequence and asked how to lift opens and activation. It spotted an unfinished A/B test, a missing preheader and a high unsubscribe rate, then added the fixes itself. It still couldn’t build the split tests for me, so a human who understands testing remains part of the job.

Is ActiveCampaign the right email marketing tool for you?

Businesses that have outgrown basic email and need proper marketing automation. If you’re sending segmented campaigns, building multi-step workflows, scoring leads, or running sequences across more than 1,000 contacts, the value equation tips heavily in ActiveCampaign’s favour.

Open ActiveCampaign's Website→Read ActiveCampaign review

Best email marketing software for small businesses sending under 2,500 emails/month

Constant Contact is the email tool I’d consider first for a small business or solo entrepreneur building a list before sending regularly. Its Starter Email plan costs $6/month with unlimited contacts and a 2,500-send monthly cap.

Most email platforms become more expensive as your list grows, even if you barely email it. Constant Contact’s Starter Email plan lets a local business, consultant or new project keep collecting subscribers without the usual contact-count penalty.

I tested Constant Contact across eight areas in August 2026. It scored 30 out of 40, with its strongest results coming from pricing, deliverability, support and the email builder.

The email builder was easy to use, and the AI generated workable drafts after editing. The default email scored 9/10 in Mail Tester. The weak spot is automation: I built a three-email welcome sequence, but the builder lacks the behavioural depth I’d want for serious lifecycle marketing.

Pros and Cons

• Unlimited contacts for $6/month: Starter Email keeps the bill flat while the list grows, provided you stay under 2,500 monthly sends.

• Beginner-friendly editor: I rebuilt a designed email with minor friction and no training.

• Good default deliverability: Our untouched test email scored 9/10 in Mail Tester, with no blocklist or formatting issues.

• Useful support: Phone support answered in about a minute, and chat gave a sensible billing answer.

Pricing

Plan	Starts at	Monthly send allowance
Starter Email	$6/mo	2,500 total sends
Lite	$12/mo	10x contact tier
Standard	$35/mo	12x contact tier
Premium	$80/mo	24x contact tier

Starter Email is the interesting plan. At 5,000 contacts, it still costs $6/month, while the broader Lite plan starts at $80/month for that contact tier.

You can store a large list cheaply, but you cannot send to all of it often.

Is Constant Contact the right email marketing tool for you?

Small businesses, local operators and solo entrepreneurs whose lists are growing ahead of their campaign frequency. If you send fewer than 2,500 emails a month, Constant Contact’s Starter Email plan is difficult to beat.

Open Constant Contact's Website→Read Constant Contact review

Best email marketing software for ease of use

Mailchimp has the easiest email builder I’ve tested. Of the 130+ tools we track, it’s the one people move to most.

I rebuilt a newsletter campaign from Really Good Emails in eight minutes, which is faster than I’ve managed in ActiveCampaign, Omnisend or Constant Contact. It’s one of the few email builders I’ve used where I barely had to think — everything just made sense.

Support surprised me too. I asked a deliberately awkward billing question with a false premise baked in. A human agent replied, corrected it and suggested archiving contacts to lower my bill (the right answer, and one that makes Mailchimp less money).

The automation builder handles welcome sequences and simple branches well, but it won’t critique a journey for you or update a Shopify contact from inside the flow.

Pros and Cons

• The fastest email builder I’ve tested: My rebuild got about 90% of the way to the reference design. Images come straight from Canva, Instagram, Giphy or stock libraries.

• Human support that answers the real question: A chat agent corrected the false premise in my billing question and recommended archiving contacts, which lowered the bill.

• Clean deliverability defaults: My default campaign scored 9/10 in Mail Tester once I adjusted for a missing DMARC policy on my own test domain. HTML and SpamAssassin checks were clean.

• Analytics AI that reads like a person: Ask it to summarise the last 30 days and you get plain-English insights and recommendations, rather than a dashboard to decode.

• A Claude connector that produces real drafts: Claude planned a campaign for a coffee roastery, and Mailchimp imported four email drafts and a social post ready to edit.

Pricing

Mailchimp prices by contacts across four plans: Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium. Most serious users will land on Standard, because Essentials caps automations at four steps with no branching.

Contacts	Essentials	Standard	Premium
500	$13/mo	$20/mo	—
1,500	$26.50/mo	$45/mo	—
10,000	$110/mo	$135/mo	$350/mo
100,000	—	$800/mo	$1,025/mo

At 10,000 contacts, Mailchimp Standard ($135/mo) undercuts ActiveCampaign Plus ($189/mo, even on annual billing) but costs three times as much as EmailOctopus. It’s no longer the cheap option it was a decade ago. Most of the difference goes on the builder and the support, which were the two best parts of my test.

Mailchimp’s AI takes a slower route than most. You pick a template first, then use Intuit Assist to generate or reshape content block by block. I prefer that to one-shot builders that hand you something 80% finished, but I wanted more critique of structure and click-through than it gave me.

The article summary block was the best of it: give it a URL and it pulls in a sensible title, summary and image.

Is Mailchimp the right email marketing tool for you?

Owner-operators, small businesses and non-technical marketers who want polished campaigns without a long setup. If your main work is newsletters, product announcements and welcome sequences, the time Mailchimp saves on every send adds up quickly.

Open Mailchimp's Website→Read Mailchimp review

Best email marketing software for getting the most for your money

If you’re a small business watching the budget, Sender is where I’d start. It had been on my radar for years without me quite understanding why I’d choose it. Eight tests later, I had two reasons: a free plan that covers a real small-business list, and an automation builder Claude can operate for you.

The free plan includes 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month, with automation included. At the full allowance, that’s six sends to your whole list every month before you pay a penny (with Sender branding on the emails).

I gave Claude a short brief for a fictional coffee roastery, and it built a three-email welcome sequence directly in my Sender account, with subject lines and delays in place. When I asked it to improve the plain first draft, it updated the email designs in Sender too.

You have to connect Claude through Sender’s MCP connection first, as there’s no prompt box inside Sender itself. The sequence also stayed in draft with an activation problem flagged, so it needed checking before going live.

Support was quick when it mattered. My account was held for review, which blocked me from publishing landing pages. Two messages later, it was approved in 31 minutes.

Pros and Cons

• The most complete free plan I’ve tested: Automation is included rather than held back as an upsell, so a welcome sequence can run alongside the newsletter.

• AI that builds the workflow itself: Claude created a three-email welcome sequence with delays and subject lines directly in my account, then improved the designs when asked.

• Cheap as the list grows: $69/mo at 10,000 subscribers and $389/mo at 100,000 on monthly billing. ActiveCampaign Starter is $149/mo at 10,000 contacts, even on annual billing.

• Lead capture that works first time: My landing-page signup landed in the right subscriber group, ready to trigger a welcome sequence.

• A clean spam check: A default-template email scored 9.5/10 in Mail Tester. The only deduction was three images missing alt text.

Pricing

Sender prices by subscriber count. Paid plans remove the branding and raise your sending limit to 12x your subscriber allowance on Standard, or 24x on Professional.

Subscribers	Standard	Professional
1,000	$15/mo	$20/mo
10,000	$69/mo	$127/mo
100,000	$389/mo	$860/mo

Those are month-to-month prices. Sender also runs a 30% first-year discount on annual billing, which brings Standard at 10,000 subscribers down to $48.30/mo. Either way, it’s about half the price of Mailchimp Standard at that size.

Professional adds SMS automation and a larger sending allowance. I’d only pay for it if you’ll use one of those.

Sender’s AI runs through Claude rather than a built-in assistant. I’d try it if you already work in Claude and want help turning an idea into an editable sequence. Expect to review the copy, the design and the activation settings yourself before anything reaches a customer.

Is Sender the right email marketing tool for you?

Small businesses that want newsletters and automated follow-up without committing much budget. Start on the free plan with one newsletter and a welcome sequence, then upgrade when branding or list size becomes the constraint.

Open Sender's Website→Read Sender review

Best email marketing software for large lists on a small budget

EmailOctopus is what I’d pick for sending a lot of email without the bill growing with it. It’s free up to 2,500 subscribers, $44.50/mo at 10,000 and $345/mo at 100,000. That last number is less than a third of ActiveCampaign Starter at the same size.

I first recommended it for developers in 2021. At the time, it combined Amazon SES’s low sending costs with a simple interface that made sense to non-technical users.

This time I tested it as a general email tool. It’s much friendlier than it was in 2021, and it’s still cheap.

The builder was easy enough that I’d happily hand it to a less technical teammate. I rebuilt a designed newsletter close to the original without fighting the editor.

The limits show up in the small details. I wanted a 38px font and could only pick from presets, so I settled for 36px. Changing the relative width of two columns wasn’t obvious either, and button text is bold or not bold, with nothing in between.

Support was the quickest I had in this round of testing. On live chat, I was talking to a human in about 40 seconds and had a useful answer in under two minutes.

Pros and Cons

• Pricing that stays low at scale: $44.50/mo at 10,000 subscribers and $345/mo at 100,000 on monthly billing. Annual billing trims it further.

• A generous free plan: 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, which is four full-list sends before any automated emails.

• An editor non-designers can use: I got close to my reference newsletter without a struggle.

• A clear automation canvas: Emails, delays and conditions on opens, clicks or tags slot in where you’d expect them.

• Human support in under two minutes: Even an email I sent on the team’s retreat day got a reply in about 20 minutes.

• Forgiving imports: Valid contacts came through despite errors elsewhere in the file, and the error download explained every rejected row.

Pricing

EmailOctopus has one free plan (Starter) and one paid plan (Pro), priced by subscriber count.

Subscribers	Starter	Pro
1,000	Free	$13.50/mo
2,500	Free	$20/mo
10,000	—	$44.50/mo
100,000	—	$345/mo

Pro removes the EmailOctopus branding, keeps your reports indefinitely rather than for 30 days, and includes unlimited landing pages, forms and users. The free plan’s 2,500 ceiling applies to contacts you store, not just the ones you email. Support confirmed you’d need Pro to keep more.

If you’d rather use your own Amazon SES account, EmailOctopus Connect charges a platform fee on top of your SES bill. I’d start with the standard service.

There isn’t much AI to talk about. EmailOctopus isn’t trying to win on it, and for a newsletter with a welcome sequence I didn’t miss it. If AI-assisted workflows matter to you, Sender or ActiveCampaign are the better bets.

Is EmailOctopus the right email marketing tool for you?

Newsletters and small businesses that need a straightforward welcome sequence, especially if the list is big relative to the budget. At 100,000 subscribers, it costs less than a third of ActiveCampaign Starter.

Open EmailOctopus's Website→Read EmailOctopus review

07Beehiiv

Best email marketing platform for newsletters

I chose Beehiiv for my personal newsletter that I write to friends. My reasoning was mostly that Beehiiv seemed to be taking off in newsletter circles, and I wanted to understand why.

Beehiiv’s sole focus is helping you monetise your newsletter. It’s essentially an email marketing tool + newsletter ad network + cross-promotional newsletter marketplace. Let me unpack that.

The email marketing side of Beehiiv is pretty basic, but functional. You can spin up a website to capture leads, gate your content behind a paywall, and send emails to your list — all for free (up to 2,500 contacts). My only gripe is that a lot of basic features, like custom HTML and analytics, are only available on their paid plans.

In practice, basic features require an upgrade. Things I expected to be standard — like custom HTML or A/B testing — are locked behind the paid plans, which start at $59/mo on Lite. For a free newsletter, I’d start with EmailOctopus’s free plan instead.

Beehiiv is strongest when you’re running a newsletter with revenue attached. If you’re building a paid or ad-supported newsletter, the combination of built-in advertising, paid subscriptions with 0% platform fee (on paid plans), and cross-promotion is hard to beat.

It’s a bit overkill for my personal newsletter, and in hindsight I’d probably go for EmailOctopus. If I were building a paid newsletter business, though, I’d start with Beehiiv.

Pros and Cons

• Strong newsletter monetisation: Built-in ad network, paid subscriptions with 0% platform cut (on paid plans), and a referral programme. Substack takes 10%; Beehiiv takes nothing.

• Reasonable at scale for a monetised list: Lite is $139/mo at 10,000 subscribers and $469/mo at 100,000, well under half of ActiveCampaign Starter at that size.

• Built for newsletter operators: Web hosting, custom domain, SEO-optimised archives, referral tracking, and audience polls — all designed around the newsletter business model.

• Growing ecosystem: Cross-promotion between newsletters and a recommendation engine that drives subscriber growth from other Beehiiv publications.

Pricing

Plan	1,000 subscribers	10,000	100,000	What it adds
Free	$0/mo	—	—	Up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends, website, custom domain
Lite	$59/mo	$139/mo	$469/mo	+ Automations, ad network, 0% take rate on paid subscriptions
Pro	$109/mo	$239/mo	$699/mo	+ Remove branding, audio newsletters, dynamic content
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Custom	+ Dedicated account manager and IPs

Those are month-to-month prices; annual billing takes about 15% off. At 100K subscribers, Beehiiv Lite costs $469/mo, against $1,199/mo for ActiveCampaign Starter, though EmailOctopus and Sender are cheaper still. If your newsletter generates revenue, the 0% take rate matters more than the subscription.

Basic — a writing assistant for content and subject lines. It doesn’t learn from your data or optimise send times. The monetisation tools are the reason to choose Beehiiv.

Is Beehiiv the right newsletter platform for you?

Newsletter creators who plan to monetise — through paid subscriptions, advertising, or both. Also worth considering if you expect rapid subscriber growth and want predictable costs.

Open Beehiiv's Website→

08Brevo

Best affordable email marketing service for simple automation

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is a useful “stepping stone” email marketing tool for businesses that have outgrown basic email but aren’t ready for ActiveCampaign. It’s simple, affordable, and prices by email volume rather than contacts, which makes it cost-effective for large lists with low send frequency.

I’ve used Brevo since 2016, back when it was Sendinblue and primarily a transactional email service. Across our ventures, I’ve sent 640,199 emails through their platform without much drama.

It won’t win any awards for innovation, but it works.

Pros and Cons

• Email-volume pricing is genuinely different: Unlimited contacts on every plan — including free — and only pay for what you send. 25K contacts emailing weekly costs ~$69/mo, versus $189-$300/mo on per-contact tools.

• Generous free plan: 300 emails/day to unlimited contacts. A small business sending weekly to 2,000 subscribers pays nothing.

• Straightforward automation: ActiveCampaign gives you more automation depth, but Brevo is considerably easier to learn. For welcome sequences and basic triggers, it does the job without the learning curve.

• Transactional email included: Having transactional and marketing email in one platform simplifies your stack. Most competitors require a separate service.

Pricing

Monthly Email Volume	Starter	Standard
Up to 9,000 (300/day)	$0 (Free)	—
20,000	$25/mo	$65/mo
40,000	$39/mo	$84/mo
100,000	$84/mo	$129/mo

With 5,000 contacts sending weekly (20,000 emails/month), Brevo Starter costs $25/mo. ActiveCampaign Starter at 5,000 contacts costs $99/mo. That’s nearly 4x the price for the same basic use case.

The AI writing assistant is a basic content generator that doesn’t learn from your campaigns. Send-time optimisation is available on the Business plan ($65/mo+). I’d choose Brevo for simplicity and value rather than its AI features.

Is Brevo the right email marketing tool for you?

Small-to-medium businesses needing affordable email with basic automation. Particularly good for large contact lists with moderate sending frequency. Also the right choice if you need transactional and marketing email in one platform.

Open Brevo's Website→

Best email marketing software for SMBs wanting simple AI without complexity

Campaigner is the platform for businesses that want email plus a sensible AI layer — without the surrounding marketing-suite sprawl. It doesn’t try to be a CRM, a webinar host, or a workflow studio. It sends email well, has SMS as an add-on, and ships AI for subject lines and segmentation.

If you want straightforward AI-assisted email without a six-week onboarding, Campaigner is hard to beat. The automation ceiling is low and there’s no free plan to test on.

Pros and Cons

• Audience Intelligence benchmarks against your own historical data, rather than a generic dataset. Subject lines and content suggestions are scored against your real campaign opens — a more relevant feedback loop than the generic LLM wrappers most competitors ship.

• Strong deliverability infrastructure: Campaigner has been a deliverability-first ESP for 20+ years. Independent inbox-placement tests consistently put them in the top tier alongside ActiveCampaign.

• The 30-day free trial includes full AI access. That’s generous compared to the 14-day trials most competitors offer, and the AI suite isn’t locked behind a higher plan.

• SMS is available as an add-on. If you want a second channel later, you don’t need to switch tools or stitch in a separate provider.

Pricing

Contacts	Starter	Essential	Advanced
1,000	$14/mo	$30/mo	$59/mo
10,000	$79/mo	$99/mo	$189/mo
100,000	$649/mo	Custom	Custom

Annual billing typically saves 10-15%. The Starter plan includes the Audience Intelligence Tools — the AI isn’t paywalled behind a higher tier, which is rare in this category.

Audience Intelligence covers AI-generated subject lines benchmarked against your historical open rates, content suggestions written in your brand voice, and segment recommendations driven by engagement signals. It doesn’t learn from your account the way Active Intelligence does, but it’s a meaningful step above the generic ChatGPT wrappers most competitors ship.

Is Campaigner the right email marketing tool for you?

Small businesses and marketing teams who want straightforward AI-assisted email without a full marketing suite. If you’re sending newsletters, broadcasts, and simple automated sequences, Campaigner does the job cleanly. The gist: you care more about deliverability and useful AI than the deepest automation builder.

Open Campaigner's Website→

10Resend

Best email service for developers (API-first)

If you need email marketing triggered via an API, use Resend. It has a generous free tier — I don’t think I’ve ever actually paid for it, and I’ve used it across half a dozen micro-SaaS projects.

It’s remarkably easy to set up, particularly if you’re vibe coding a project in Lovable, Claude Code, or similar — most AI coding tools will just ask you for an API key and you’re all set.

Pros and Cons

• Free tier covers real projects: 3,000 emails/month at zero cost. More than enough for most micro-SaaS projects and early-stage startups.

• Setup takes minutes: add a domain, verify DNS, grab an API key, send. Documentation is clear, SDKs cover every major language.

• Pro plan is absurdly cheap: $20/mo for 50,000 emails. Compare that to any marketing tool at the same volume.

Pricing

Plan	Price	Emails/Month	Key Limits
Free	$0	3,000 (100/day)	1 domain, 1-day log retention
Pro	$20/mo	50,000	Multiple domains, 3-day log retention
Scale	$90/mo	100,000	7-day log retention, dedicated IPs
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	SLA, priority support, SSO

None, and that’s deliberate. It’s a developer email API, so if you want AI in your workflow, you build it yourself.

Is Resend the right developer email tool for you?

Developers building applications that need to send email. Also the right choice if you’re vibe coding a side project and need email without the overhead of a marketing platform. If “npm install resend” means something to you, this is your tool.

Open Resend's Website→

The Best Email Marketing Tools by Type of Business

The best email marketing software for your business depends on what you do (and don’t) need. Here’s my take on the strongest contenders for different types of business.

Best email marketing software for eCommerce (Shopify, WooCommerce)

Winner: Omnisend. Runner-up: ActiveCampaign.

Omnisend was built from the ground up for eCommerce. The Shopify and WooCommerce integrations pull in your product catalogue, purchase history, and browsing behaviour so you can trigger abandoned cart flows and product recommendation emails that reference what each customer looked at. Revenue attribution is where Omnisend genuinely outperforms: you can see exactly which automation and subject line variant generated how much revenue. At $16/mo for 500 contacts, that's hard to argue with.

The omnichannel capability is what sets it apart. You can build a single automation that sends an email, waits 24 hours, fires a push notification if unopened, then follows up with an SMS — all within one visual workflow. I've tested this against cobbling together the same thing with separate tools and Zapier, and Omnisend's native approach is less buggy and faster to set up.

Why not Klaviyo? Their platform is very good – but doesn't justify the extra cost over Omnisend in my opinion. 10,000 contacts, Omnisend Standard runs ~$132/mo versus Klaviyo's $150+. Unless you need Klaviyo's deeper Shopify Plus integrations, Omnisend gives you more for less.

The 3 Big Email Marketing Names I’d Avoid in 2026

None of these three are bad tools, but across our testing I couldn’t find a situation where I’d pick one over the options above.

AWeber was my top recommendation in 2014. It’s still reliable, and their support is still human, which counts for something. Much of what it charges for is now free on Sender and Brevo.

Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) was in that original 2014 line-up too. It still puts CRM, pipeline and automation under one roof, and its onboarding programme is good. But the platform feels its age, the learning curve is steep, and pricing has crept above tools that do automation more elegantly. Several of our clients have moved to ActiveCampaign for exactly that reason (my Keap review has the detail).

Drip was my pick for small-to-medium eCommerce stores back in 2021. It’s still a capable eCommerce platform, but Omnisend now does the same job with email, SMS and push in one workflow, plus a free plan to start on.

If you’re already on one of these and it’s working for you, there’s no urgent reason to move. But if you’re choosing fresh in 2026, you can usually get more for the same money.

How to Choose Email Marketing Software in 2026

Choosing email marketing software shouldn’t take weeks. Most tools do 80% of the same things. There are nine real differentiators, starting with pricing and value for money.

1. Cost & Value for Money

Entry price is misleading. What matters is how costs scale as you grow:

Tool	1K Contacts	10K Contacts	100K Contacts	Scaling Factor
Beehiiv	$0 (free)	$139/mo (Lite)	$469/mo (Lite)	8x (Lite, 1K to 100K)
Brevo	$0 (free)*	$35/mo*	Custom*	Volume-based
Campaigner	$14/mo	$79/mo	$649/mo	46x
Constant Contact	$6/mo	$6/mo*	$6/mo*	Flat Starter tier
EmailOctopus	$13.50/mo	$44.50/mo	$345/mo	26x
Sender	$15/mo	$69/mo	$389/mo	26x
Mailchimp	$26.50/mo	$110/mo	$800/mo (Standard)	30x
Omnisend	$16/mo	$132/mo	Custom	8x+ (to 10K)
ActiveCampaign	$15/mo	$149/mo	$1,199/mo	80x

* Brevo prices by email volume, not contacts. Constant Contact Starter Email stays flat, but only includes 2,500 sends per month. ActiveCampaign prices are on annual billing; Beehiiv, Mailchimp, Sender and EmailOctopus are month to month.

ActiveCampaign and Campaigner are nearly identical at entry — $15/mo vs $14/mo for 1K contacts. At 10K, ActiveCampaign is $149/mo vs Campaigner’s $79/mo — nearly 2x more, but with vastly deeper automation. At 100K, ActiveCampaign is $1,199/mo vs Campaigner’s $649/mo — under 2x more, but with the workflow depth Campaigner simply can’t match. If you need serious automation, the premium is justified. If you mostly need broadcasts plus a sensible AI layer, Campaigner scales more predictably.

The budget picks: At 100K contacts, EmailOctopus ($345/mo) and Sender ($389/mo) cost about a third of ActiveCampaign Starter. You give up automation depth, but if you mostly send newsletters, that’s money you keep.

2. Ease of Use

The simplest tools are Mailchimp and Campaigner. Mailchimp’s builder needed the least thought of anything I tested, and its templates look good before you change a thing. Campaigner shortens the curve further with AI subject lines and segment suggestions out of the box.

The most complex is ActiveCampaign, simply because there’s so much of it. The flowchart-style canvas makes that depth easier to learn than you’d expect, but budget a weekend.

3. Deliverability

In my Mail Tester checks, ActiveCampaign and Sender scored 9.5/10, and Constant Contact and Mailchimp scored 9/10. But deliverability depends more on your sending behaviour than on which platform you use. List hygiene, engagement rates, and authentication setup matter more than which servers your emails pass through.

4. Features

ActiveCampaign has the deepest feature set for automation. Omnisend has the most for eCommerce, with email, SMS and push in a single workflow. Sender packs the most into a free plan.

The number of features matters far less than whether you’ll actually use them. Most businesses use under 20% of what their tool can do.

5. CRM & Automation

ActiveCampaign’s workflow builder is in a league of its own: 135+ triggers, conditional branching, split-testing entire paths. Sender and EmailOctopus both handled my welcome-sequence test with delays and conditions, but neither offers native actions in third-party apps. If your CRM runs the business, that gap matters.

6. Reporting & Analytics

For eCommerce: Omnisend’s revenue attribution is the most granular. For small teams: Mailchimp’s Analytics AI summarises campaign performance in plain English. For everyone else: ActiveCampaign offers solid analytics with engagement scoring.

7. Integrations

Most tools integrate with major platforms. Omnisend’s Shopify integration is deepest for eCommerce. ActiveCampaign has the broadest library, with 1,000+ integrations and the most Zapier triggers/actions.

8. Support & Training

ActiveCampaign and Omnisend offer 24/7 live chat on paid plans. Campaigner has phone, email, and live chat support across all paid tiers — unusual for a tool at its price point and a reflection of their deliverability-first heritage. In my own support tests, EmailOctopus put me through to a human on live chat in about 40 seconds, and Mailchimp’s chat agent spotted the false premise in my billing question and fixed it.

9. Security & Compliance

In 2026, this isn’t optional. GDPR enforcement is intensifying and US state privacy laws are multiplying (nearly 20 states with active legislation). All reputable tools support GDPR compliance — check for Data Processing Agreements, consent management, and right-to-deletion workflows.

AI Features Worth Paying For in 2026

Every email marketing tool now claims “AI features.” Most are being generous with the definition.

Most tools offer the same AI text generator you could use for free on ChatGPT.com. The output is the same whether you’ve used the platform for one day or five years. This describes the AI in Brevo, Constant Contact and Beehiiv. Handy for writer’s block, but not a strategic advantage.

A few tools apply AI to their specific domain. Campaigner’s Audience Intelligence benchmarks subject lines and content against your own historical open rates rather than a generic dataset — a meaningful step above a plain ChatGPT wrapper, though it doesn’t persist or compound the way Active Intelligence does. Omnisend’s AI understands your product catalogue. Sender and Mailchimp both connect to Claude: in my tests, Claude built a draft welcome sequence inside Sender, and turned a campaign plan into Mailchimp drafts.

Only ActiveCampaign offers genuine contextual intelligence. Active Intelligence builds a persistent model of your brand voice, engagement patterns, and performance history. It genuinely gets smarter over time. This is the only best-in-class AI we found in the comparison.

The question to ask: does the AI get better the longer I use the platform? If yes, it’s worth paying for. If no, it’s a convenience feature.

The only way to know whether contextual AI justifies the price for your list is to run it against your own campaigns — ActiveCampaign’s 14-day trial is long enough to find out.

Email Marketing Software Pricing Comparison

Full pricing breakdown across all 10 tools at key contact tiers:

Tool	Model	1K	10K	100K
Beehiiv	Per subscriber tier	$0	$139 (Lite)	$469 (Lite)
Resend	API volume	$0	$20	Custom
Brevo	Per email	$0*	$35*	Custom*
Constant Contact	Starter sends	$6	$6**	$6**
EmailOctopus	Per subscriber	$13.50	$44.50	$345
Sender	Per subscriber	$15	$69	$389
Campaigner	Per contact	$14	$79	$649
Mailchimp	Per contact	$26.50	$110	$800 (Standard)
Omnisend	Per contact	$16	$132	Custom
ActiveCampaign	Per contact	$15	$149	$1,199

* Brevo: estimated at 4 emails/contact/month. ** Constant Contact Starter Email includes 2,500 total sends per month.

All prices shown are entry-tier rates. I rechecked the top six and Beehiiv in October 2026 (ActiveCampaign on annual billing, the rest month to month); the others date from July 2026. Visit individual pricing pages to confirm.

Final words

Don’t overthink it. Most email marketing tools do 80% of the same things. The real differentiators — automation depth, pricing model, domain-specific features — only matter if your business specifically needs them.

If you’re just starting out, pick Constant Contact ($6/mo) if you send fewer than 2,500 emails a month, or Campaigner ($14/mo with a 30-day full-access trial) if you want simple AI help from day one. If you’d rather not pay anything until the list is worth it, Sender’s free plan covers 2,500 subscribers. You can always migrate later. The tool matters less than the habit of sending regularly.

If you’re scaling and need automation, ActiveCampaign is the answer 8 times out of 10. The 2 exceptions are pure eCommerce (Omnisend) and teams where lots of non-specialists build the emails (Mailchimp).

The worst decision is spending three weeks evaluating tools instead of writing emails. The second worst is choosing a tool because of its brand name rather than testing whether it fits your needs.

Just start sending. Getting into a rhythm matters more than which logo is on the dashboard.

If you want to see the raw data behind these rankings — including the scoring criteria, weightings, and how each tool performed — I’ve published the full dataset: Email Marketing Software Ranking Data (Coda).

Updates

5 November 2026:Removed the repeated ActiveCampaign price-rise claim and Mailchimp’s testing score and date from its introduction. Restored Omnisend’s AI rating.

Removed the repeated ActiveCampaign price-rise claim and Mailchimp’s testing score and date from its introduction. Restored Omnisend’s AI rating.

5 November 2026:Updated ActiveCampaign’s recommendation to AI & automation and its introduction to reflect 14 years of use. Corrected the testing start year to 2012.

Updated ActiveCampaign’s recommendation to AI & automation and its introduction to reflect 14 years of use. Corrected the testing start year to 2012.

UpdateOctober 2026 – Retested the top six tools head-to-head (video at the top of the guide) and reshuffled the list. Mailchimp returns at #4 after scoring 34/40 in my September retest; its builder was the standout of the test, and our migration data shows it’s still the tool people most often move to. Sender (#5) and EmailOctopus (#6) are new. Instantly, HubSpot and GetResponse drop out: cold outreach is a different job from email marketing, HubSpot only makes sense for established B2B teams, and GetResponse’s breadth no longer beats the specialists. Keap and Drip join AWeber under the names I’d avoid. ActiveCampaign’s pricing and billing details now match my latest review, the at-a-glance table shows each tool’s review rating, and Beehiiv’s pricing now reflects its Lite and Pro plans.

October 2026 – Retested the top six tools head-to-head (video at the top of the guide) and reshuffled the list. Mailchimp returns at #4 after scoring 34/40 in my September retest; its builder was the standout of the test, and our migration data shows it’s still the tool people most often move to. Sender (#5) and EmailOctopus (#6) are new. Instantly, HubSpot and GetResponse drop out: cold outreach is a different job from email marketing, HubSpot only makes sense for established B2B teams, and GetResponse’s breadth no longer beats the specialists. Keap and Drip join AWeber under the names I’d avoid. ActiveCampaign’s pricing and billing details now match my latest review, the at-a-glance table shows each tool’s review rating, and Beehiiv’s pricing now reflects its Lite and Pro plans.

UpdateJuly 2026 (3) – Added the two-question tool finder near the top of the guide, so you can jump straight to the recommendation that fits your business instead of scrolling all ten. The top sticky bar and sidebar pick now follow whichever tool’s section you’re reading. No ranking changes.

July 2026 (3) – Added the two-question tool finder near the top of the guide, so you can jump straight to the recommendation that fits your business instead of scrolling all ten. The top sticky bar and sidebar pick now follow whichever tool’s section you’re reading. No ranking changes.

UpdateJuly 2026 (2) – Retitled and restructured for how people actually search: added “The 3 Big Names I’d Avoid”, a plain-English note on tools-vs-platforms terminology, quick trial links in the comparison table, and links to our dedicated eCommerce guides. Trial buttons now go straight to each tool’s pricing or signup page rather than the homepage. No ranking changes.

July 2026 (2) – Retitled and restructured for how people actually search: added “The 3 Big Names I’d Avoid”, a plain-English note on tools-vs-platforms terminology, quick trial links in the comparison table, and links to our dedicated eCommerce guides. Trial buttons now go straight to each tool’s pricing or signup page rather than the homepage. No ranking changes.

UpdateJuly 2026 – Clarified the verdict framing: Omnisend holds the #1 spot as the best platform for eCommerce, while ActiveCampaign is our pick as the best general email automation platform for small businesses. FAQ answers updated to match.

July 2026 – Clarified the verdict framing: Omnisend holds the #1 spot as the best platform for eCommerce, while ActiveCampaign is our pick as the best general email automation platform for small businesses. FAQ answers updated to match.

UpdateMay 2026 – Campaigner replaces MailerLite at #8. The repositioned slot reflects the rise of AI-assisted email at the entry tier. Campaigner’s Audience Intelligence covers subject lines, content, and segment recommendations benchmarked against your own historical opens. Its deliverability-first heritage makes it a stronger fit for SMBs than a pure budget pick.

May 2026 – Campaigner replaces MailerLite at #8. The repositioned slot reflects the rise of AI-assisted email at the entry tier. Campaigner’s Audience Intelligence covers subject lines, content, and segment recommendations benchmarked against your own historical opens. Its deliverability-first heritage makes it a stronger fit for SMBs than a pure budget pick.

UpdateFebruary 2026 – Full article rewrite. Added Resend, Instantly and Beehiiv. Updated all pricing, AI features, and deliverability data.

February 2026 – Full article rewrite. Added Resend, Instantly and Beehiiv. Updated all pricing, AI features, and deliverability data.

UpdateMarch 2023 – A major re-ranking introduced Klaviyo at #4 for large eCommerce sites and ClickFunnels at #6 for coaches and consultants. Constant Contact and GetResponse both returned to the top 10 list at #8 and #10 respectively, while Moonmail and Sendlane were removed from the primary recommendations.

March 2023 – A major re-ranking introduced Klaviyo at #4 for large eCommerce sites and ClickFunnels at #6 for coaches and consultants. Constant Contact and GetResponse both returned to the top 10 list at #8 and #10 respectively, while Moonmail and Sendlane were removed from the primary recommendations.

UpdateFebruary 2022 – HubSpot returned to the #2 spot as the preferred B2B service platform. Benchmark was moved to #7.

February 2022 – HubSpot returned to the #2 spot as the preferred B2B service platform. Benchmark was moved to #7.

UpdateAugust 2021 – EmailOctopus replaces Moonmail as the recommendation for developer needs. Drip was added as a specialised recommendation for small-to-medium eCommerce businesses.

August 2021 – EmailOctopus replaces Moonmail as the recommendation for developer needs. Drip was added as a specialised recommendation for small-to-medium eCommerce businesses.

UpdateAugust 2020 – Several older tools were removed in favour of niche-specific recommendations: Moosend (non-profits), Omnisend (eCommerce), Rejoiner (managed services), Autopilot (visual automation), MailerLite (personal projects), and Moonmail (developers).

August 2020 – Several older tools were removed in favour of niche-specific recommendations: Moosend (non-profits), Omnisend (eCommerce), Rejoiner (managed services), Autopilot (visual automation), MailerLite (personal projects), and Moonmail (developers).

UpdateApril 2019 – The guide was expanded to include HubSpot, Ontraport, SendX, Benchmark, Sendlane, and iContact. This update introduced deeper technical analysis of security, GDPR compliance, and Zapier integration depth.

April 2019 – The guide was expanded to include HubSpot, Ontraport, SendX, Benchmark, Sendlane, and iContact. This update introduced deeper technical analysis of security, GDPR compliance, and Zapier integration depth.

UpdateJanuary 2018 – SendinBlue was added specifically for marketing and transactional email. Older tools like Constant Contact were de-emphasised due to a perceived lack of clear USP against newer entrants.

January 2018 – SendinBlue was added specifically for marketing and transactional email. Older tools like Constant Contact were de-emphasised due to a perceived lack of clear USP against newer entrants.

UpdateMarch 2016 – ActiveCampaign was added to the guide. ActiveCampaign immediately took the #1 spot, shifting the focus from “email sending” to “marketing automation and CRM”.

March 2016 – ActiveCampaign was added to the guide. ActiveCampaign immediately took the #1 spot, shifting the focus from “email sending” to “marketing automation and CRM”.

UpdateMay 2014 – GetResponse was elevated to the top recommendation for small businesses. The update also included technical corrections about Sendy’s API and autoresponder capabilities following reader feedback.

May 2014 – GetResponse was elevated to the top recommendation for small businesses. The update also included technical corrections about Sendy’s API and autoresponder capabilities following reader feedback.

UpdateFebruary 2014 – The article debuted with a focus on Aweber for entrepreneurs and Sendy for cost-effectiveness. The initial roster also included Infusionsoft, Constant Contact, GetResponse, and Mailchimp.

February 2014 – The article debuted with a focus on Aweber for entrepreneurs and Sendy for cost-effectiveness. The initial roster also included Infusionsoft, Constant Contact, GetResponse, and Mailchimp.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best email marketing software in 2026?

Omnisend is my #1 email marketing software for 2026. It's the best platform for eCommerce — its revenue attribution, native omnichannel workflows, and pricing beat Klaviyo at every contact tier. If you're not running an online store, ActiveCampaign is the best general email automation platform for small businesses. Constant Contact is the low-cost pick if you send fewer than 2,500 emails a month.

What are the best email marketing platforms in 2026?

The best email marketing platforms in 2026 are Omnisend (eCommerce), ActiveCampaign (AI & automation), Constant Contact (small businesses sending infrequently), Mailchimp (ease of use), Sender (the most features for the money), EmailOctopus (large lists on a small budget), Beehiiv (newsletters) and Brevo (affordable automation with unlimited contacts). Campaigner is the pick for SMBs wanting simple AI, and Resend for developers.

Is there a difference between email marketing software, tools, platforms, and services?

No — 'email marketing software', 'email marketing tools', and 'email marketing platforms' all describe the same products, and every product in this guide fits all three labels. Two exceptions: 'email marketing services' sometimes means a managed service where an agency runs campaigns for you, and 'email marketing solutions' is enterprise sales language for the same software with a longer contract. Whichever term you search, the comparison is identical.

What is the best free email marketing software?

Sender's free plan is the most complete I've tested: 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month, with automation included. EmailOctopus is close behind at 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails. Brevo suits larger lists with moderate send volume, because its free plan allows unlimited contacts at 300 emails per day. Developers should use Resend for API-triggered email.

What is the best email marketing software for small business?

ActiveCampaign is the best general email automation platform for small businesses — from $15/mo you get the most capable visual workflow builder in the category, plus AI that genuinely learns from your campaigns. If you need affordable simplicity rather than deep automation, Brevo is the best budget pick: its email-volume pricing means unlimited contacts — you only pay for what you send, and $25/mo covers 20,000 emails. For SMBs who want a sensible AI layer baked in, Campaigner starts at $14/mo for 1,000 subscribers with a 30-day free trial. If the budget is tight, Sender's free plan covers 2,500 subscribers with automation included.

What is the best email marketing software for eCommerce and Shopify?

Omnisend is the best email marketing platform for eCommerce, including Shopify and WooCommerce. Its native omnichannel workflows, revenue attribution that traces sales back to specific emails, and deep product catalogue integration make it purpose-built for online stores. It's also cheaper than Klaviyo at every contact tier while offering comparable or better analytics.

Is Mailchimp still good in 2026?

Yes. I tested Mailchimp across eight areas in September 2026, and it scored 34 out of 40. The builder was the strongest part of the test, support gave me a useful human answer to an awkward billing question, and its default campaign scored 9/10 in Mail Tester. Automation is lighter than ActiveCampaign's, and the free plan stops at 250 contacts.

What is the best email marketing software for automation?

ActiveCampaign is the clear leader for email marketing automation. Its visual workflow builder offers 135+ triggers, conditional branching, and the ability to split-test entire automation paths. Active Intelligence can generate workflows from natural language descriptions. For a budget alternative, Sender and EmailOctopus both handle welcome sequences with delays and conditions on their free plans.

How much does email marketing software cost?

Email marketing software costs between $0 and $3,600+/month, depending on the tool and your list size. At 1,000 contacts: Constant Contact Starter Email is $6/mo, Campaigner starts at $14/mo and ActiveCampaign starts at $15/mo. At 10,000 contacts: EmailOctopus is $44.50/mo, Sender is $69/mo and Mailchimp Standard is $135/mo. At 100,000 contacts: EmailOctopus costs $345/mo, Beehiiv Lite costs $469/mo and ActiveCampaign Starter costs $1,199/mo.

What is the best alternative to Mailchimp?

The best Mailchimp alternative depends on why you're leaving. If it's the price, EmailOctopus costs $44.50/mo at 10,000 subscribers against Mailchimp Standard's $135/mo, and Sender's free plan covers 2,500 subscribers. If it's limited automation, ActiveCampaign has far stronger workflows. If you're eCommerce, Omnisend is the better fit.

What is the best email marketing software for beginners?

Mailchimp is the easiest email marketing tool for beginners I've tested. Templates, content blocks and Canva images are all where you'd expect, so there's very little to learn before your first send. Constant Contact is the cheaper easy option if you send fewer than 2,500 emails a month, and EmailOctopus's builder is simple enough to hand to a less technical teammate.

Should I build my own email marketing tool with AI?

Almost certainly not. With AI coding tools, you can have an impressive frontend in an hour. But deliverability infrastructure, IP warming, bounce handling, spam filter management, and compliance require years of specialist engineering. If you just need API-triggered emails for a side project, use Resend's free tier. Don't rebuild the plumbing.

What email marketing software has the best deliverability?

In our own Mail Tester checks, ActiveCampaign and Sender scored 9.5/10, and Constant Contact and Mailchimp scored 9/10 (Mailchimp's after adjusting for a missing DMARC policy in our test account). Campaigner, a deliverability-first ESP for 20+ years, also performs well. The critical caveat: deliverability depends as much on your sending behaviour (list hygiene, engagement rates, authentication) as on the platform. Any reputable tool delivers well if you follow best practices.

What is the best email marketing software for B2B?

ActiveCampaign is the best email marketing platform for most B2B teams. It combines lead scoring, a built-in CRM for smaller teams and the deepest workflow builder I've tested, with native integrations for Salesforce and Pipedrive when the pipeline outgrows it. HubSpot gives you tighter CRM-to-email attribution, but Marketing Hub Professional starts at $890/mo, which only makes sense for established B2B companies.

What is the best email marketing platform for newsletters and creators?

Beehiiv is the best platform for newsletters that make money through paid subscriptions or advertising, because it takes 0% of subscription revenue on its paid plans. If you're not planning to earn from the newsletter, EmailOctopus is cheaper and simpler, with a free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers. Neither is right for complex behavioural automation.

What are the best AI features in email marketing software?

The most valuable AI feature is contextual intelligence that learns from your data — and only ActiveCampaign offers this at scale. Its Active Intelligence builds a model of your brand voice, audience behaviour, and campaign performance. The key question: does the AI get better the longer I use the platform? If yes (ActiveCampaign), it's worth paying for. If no (most others), it's a convenience, not a differentiator.

Is email marketing still effective in 2026?

Yes — emphatically. Email ROI remains roughly $36-42 returned for every $1 spent, making it the highest-ROI marketing channel by a wide margin. Email is the only channel where you genuinely own your audience — no algorithm changes, no pay-to-play throttling.

Do I need both email and SMS marketing?

For eCommerce, usually yes. For B2B and creators, usually no. SMS open rates exceed 90%, and combining email with SMS in abandoned cart workflows can lift recovery rates by 30%+. For B2B and newsletter creators, email alone is typically sufficient. If you want both, Omnisend and Brevo handle email and SMS natively within the same workflows.

Can I use the same tool for newsletters and eCommerce?

You can, but you probably shouldn't. Omnisend is purpose-built for eCommerce, with product pickers, cart abandonment and revenue attribution. Beehiiv is built for newsletters, while Constant Contact suits simpler small-business campaigns. ActiveCampaign is the closest all-rounder, but even it lacks Omnisend's eCommerce depth.

How do I migrate from one email marketing tool to another?

Most tools offer one-click import from competitors — especially from Mailchimp — and a typical migration takes 1-2 hours for lists under 10,000 contacts. Key steps: export contacts as CSV, import into the new tool, set up authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), recreate critical automations, and warm up sending volume over 2-3 weeks. The hardest part is rebuilding automations. Budget 1-2 full days for a complete migration. Keep your old account active for 30 days in case you need to reference old campaigns.

93 Reader Comments

1. SP
   Stein Peeters10 Jul 2020

   The data set file is not being sent. Could you please send it to me? Thanks! I'm very interested as I'm selecting a marketing automation tool right now. Thanks.

2. SM
   Shelley Madison11 Jun 2020

   Hi Marcus, thank you for the research, very much appreciated. I'd also appreciate the data set you offered to share if the offer still stands. Thanks again!

3. AD
   Andrew Darius14 Apr 2020

4. JH
   Justin Hipps11 Mar 2020

   Great and informative post. Where is the download / raw data "at the bottom" - I must have missed the link

5. PM
   Power MTA setup4 Mar 2020

   Hi Marcus
   This is a very informative topic... Thank you for sharing with us.

6. PA
   Payvoice App14 Feb 2020

   I recently switched from MailChimp to Mailerlite and have been pleased with the results. I ran into a small problem and the customer service was excellent and responded very quickly (I’m using the free plan).

7. MK
   Maria Kurday7 Feb 2020

   Hey,

   thanks a lot for creating such a detailed and objective overview of the email marketing providers!

   I would really like to have a look at your dataset, I already filled out the survey twice, but it does not seem to work - still no email with dataset received. Could you please send it to me? Thanks a lot!

   Kind regards,
   Maria

8. RM
   Rajesh M18 Dec 2019

   Great article.
   Just wanted to point out that there is an error in SendX's pricing in the Pricing Comparison table.
   SendX's pricing is close to $100/mo for 10,000 users.

   On the SendX website, the pricing is mentioned in slabs - so the final bill will be the addition of all slabs that are applicable to your number of contacts.

   1. MT
      Marcus TaylorAuthorreply29 Jan 2020

      Thanks for raising this Rajesh, we've updated our dataset to reflect this.

9. ET
   Edward tricky18 Nov 2019

   Hello Marcus Taylor,
   Thank you to share such a piece of useful information with us. keep posting such kind of Information.

   1. MT
      Marcus TaylorAuthorreply29 Jan 2020

      ???? will do!

10. SK
    Shaun K13 Oct 2019

    Thanks for this informative review Marcus. What are your thoughts on ConvertKit? It was recommended to me, I am a blogger who does it for passion for the last 5 years, but I am thinking of starting to monetize my work.

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply29 Jan 2020

       It's perfect for bloggers, but I wouldn't recommend it for any other use case.

11. L
    Lou6 Aug 2019

    Thanks for putting this together, my head was spinning from trying to figure out who/what to use.

12. P
    Paul31 Jul 2019

    Please forgive me if I missed this in some of the comments and replies, but I saw nothing on Infusionsoft or Marketo. I was expecting to see both in your analysis, but nothing was mentioned, save for the remark early on that Active Campaign has rocketed past Infusionsoft in the marketplace. Is it because you consider them outside the "Email Marketing" space which was the subject of your analysis?
    Thanks

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply29 Jan 2020

       Hi Paul, back in 2015/2016 both Marketo and Infusionsoft made our top 10, but they've gradually been slipping each year.

       Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) is now in #37th place and Marketo is at #78th. There's nothing wrong with these platforms, but they just don't score as highly in the nine areas that we believe (from interviewing email marketing users) are most important.

       We also observe from migration data that a large number of Infusionsoft users end up moving to other email marketing services, citing 'difficult to use' as a common reason, so I'm somewhat reluctant to recommend their platform these days.

13. JD
    Jason Dawes2 Jul 2019

    SENDLANE IS A HORRIBLE TOOL. Used this for a month then switched to Klaviyo and it is light years better. Sendlane had a million bugs and almost ruined my business.

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply29 Jan 2020

       Hi Jason,

       Ouch! We've added this feedback to our dataset. Incidentally, we've seen some similar signs on our end. They've fallen to #14 on our list this year so won't be making the 2020 top 10.

       Thanks for sharing ????

14. SM
    Sikha Mishra25 Jun 2019

    Hi Marcus
    This is very informative post for us. Thank you for sharing with us.

15. J
    Jessica13 Jun 2019

    Thanks for this article. It is super helpful. I have used quite a few different ESPs (Bronto, MailChimp, Constant Contact, dotmailer, Listrak and now Informz) and have my opinions about all of them. But I have always worked for e-commerce companies. I now work for a non-profit association and we need an ESP that integrates with our database, which is run on Aptify. The only ESP I have found that claims to integrate with Aptify is Informz (Higher Logic) and lets just say, the integration doesn't actually work and the platform itself leaves a lot to be desired. So I was wondering if you knew of any other platform that might integrate with Aptify or be able to build an integration?

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply29 Jan 2020

       Wow, you've tried them all!

       It seems it may be a bit of an issue on the Aptify end, as they don't seem to offer much in the way of an API from what I can see, so it's probably a challenge for ESPs to integrate with them.

       The only two options I can see from a quick browse is Higher Logic (as you mentioned) and a company called HighRoad, though I'm not familiar with either.

16. M
    Marin12 Apr 2019

    Powerful review!

    What options are available for sending cold email?

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply29 Jan 2020

       Mailshake and Woodpecker.co are both worth a look.

17. B
    Bec29 Mar 2019

    Fantastic article, thank you! I was wondering if I could ask some advice -- we are only a small company that doesn't need automation or a CRM, we just want to be able to send out monthly emails to 6000 subscribers that can be categorised into industries or groups. We don't need bells & whistles. Due to our industry, the chunky CRM doesn't integrate into a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. so it's all very labour intensive but lucky for them I do love a spreadsheet. Thanks in advance for the advice.

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply29 Jan 2020

       Hi Bec,

       I would probably look at something like MailerLite or Moosend. They're both very affordable and do the basics very well (while taking care of the dull, but important stuff like security & deliverability).

       While they do both offer automation, you can obviously just use them for basic mass email sending - and both should be affordable at 6,000 contacts.

18. EV
    Elena Villarreal19 Mar 2019

    Marcus, thank you very much for detailed yet to the point review! I am looking for the email program for our small activity which we are planning to grow fast. You saved me tones of time and money on trials and errors. Mailchimp is a bit outdated. So I am looking forward to our new adventure and hope to continue with the program for many years.

19. R
    RDH12 Mar 2019

    Why are some of the comments from 2014? Is this an old article or is it updated with the latest and greatest options?

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply29 Jan 2020

       Hi RDH,

       This article was first published back in 2014 and has been updated (at least) every year since.

20. S
    Stefan4 Mar 2019

    This was the most helpful article ever. After all the tests, I think that I'll go for ActiveCampaign. Thank's!

21. AS
    Anna Saif19 Feb 2019

    HI Marcus

    Found your article very informative especially as I am a novice in all this. We are about to launch a research centre in the UK and wondered which email marketing tool you would recommend. Having read quite a bit now online, I see a lot of the literature seems to concentrate on business users rather than non-profits. Any suggestions would be most welcome.
    Many Thanks

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply29 Jan 2020

       Hi Anna,

       I would take a look at Moosend, who offer a 25% discount to non-profits. If you need something a bit more powerful, ActiveCampaign offer a 20% discount.

22. JD
    Jim Daly13 Feb 2019

    Hi Marcus,
    Thank you for this detailed report. One of the options I am considering is Drip, it seems to be popular. Did you consider it?
    Any thoughts on Drip vs ActiveCampaign?
    All the best,
    Jim

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply29 Jan 2020

       Hi Jim, yes - we did consider Drip.

       This year Drip came out in 31st place in our ranking of the top 100 email marketing services. One factor pulling down their ranking was a high number of Drip users moving away from their platform reporting four issues in particular as the reason: Integrations, low-quality support, bugs, and difficult-to-use UX.

       Hope that's useful.

23. DM
    Donnie Murillo25 Oct 2018

    A very thorough and well-written blog on Email Marketing software tools. These are some very decent tools which will prove helpful for novices like us. Thanks for the blog Marcus.

24. OG
    Oleg Goncharenko17 Jul 2018

    Hi Marcus,
    Thanks for the review.
    It looks like it's been a while since the review has been written 4 years ago (according to the most of the comments above).
    Please advice on how it's relevant up to date?
    We are looking for a mail marketing tool for b2b software services company.
    Would appreciate your feedback.
    Thanks!
    Oleg

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply16 Oct 2018

       Hey Oleg,

       We've just posted our 2018 update! A few new tools have made the cut, and a couple of old ones removed. All of the data has been updated as of October 2018, so that should be useful.

       For B2B software, I'd probably look at either Hubspot/ActiveCampaign? We use ActiveCampaign as our email marketing tool for Leadformly, which is a B2B SaaS service.

       Marcus

25. A
    Abhinav13 Jul 2018

    A very useful post, thanks Marcus!

    I’ve had used email services from different service providers in the past for my own online business although now I have moved to Benchmark Email and using there services.

    I found almost every service providers relatively easy to use but almost everyone lacks in providing support to there client and now-day's support is like backbone of any service.
    Benchmark Email provide chat & call support apart from email support and that to 24*7 and because of limitless support from Benchmark Email I am sticking with them.

26. F
    Faizan15 Jun 2018

    I've often seen Mailchimp is lacking in showing Popups (I really don't care about those who don't prefer Pop Ups).
    One more thing I want to add that Mailchimp's Workflow is not as effective as Getresponse have.
    I have reviewed both of the services for myself and found Getresponse much better than Mailchimp and even from others too (Cost effective).

27. KS
    Kulwant Singh16 May 2018

    such a great article...thanks a lot ..... it help me alot

28. J
    Jan1 May 2018

    Hi Marcus..

    Thanks so much for these summary articles. I'm teetering on the edge of a blog and was sooo confused until I found this and your other articles on the topics needed to establish my site.

    Your info is presented in clear and informative manner.. When I launch I'd like to refer readers to your articles.. Is that okay?

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply16 Oct 2018

       Of course! :)

29. K
    Karlie23 Apr 2018

    Also interested if you'd have any comments on Drip?

    Thanks!

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply16 Oct 2018

       I hear lots of good things, but (and I may be going crazy) I recall Drip offering a $1 signup offer when they were acquired by Leadpages and so a lot of people were commenting on how good it was for a dollar. It seems to have gone back to the old pricing and repositioned slightly to eCommerce email marketing. I'm sure it's an excellent product.

30. K
    Karlie23 Apr 2018

    Thanks for the article Marcus. We have about 25000 subscribers and currently use Mail Chimp. We're looking to change though, for three reasons - we'd like to integrate with a CRM, want to send smarter, automated emails and gather customer activity data, would like a service with actual customer support.

    Mailchimp advertises that they do automation etc, but I can't seem to find where to set up anything very smart. Also their customer support is non-existent. Seems impossible to contact a human.

    Do you know if mailchimp actually does offer what we're looking for, or we're better to move to something like active campaign? Appreciate your comments ;)

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply16 Oct 2018

       Hey Karlie,

       I haven't used Mailchimp for many years as they just don't seem to have kept up (particularly around marketing automation), but technically I think the answer is yes - they can do what you're after.

       However, I guess the real question is whether they're the optimal solution to do what you're after, in which case the answer is likely no. We've just updated this guide with some more up-to-date comparisons, which hopefully should answer your question!

31. B
    Benjamin6 Apr 2016

    Excellent article. The best and non-bias review I've read about email marketing software thus far.

    I've been shopping around and will probably go with Get Response. Initially I was looking at Mail Chimp since they had the 2000 free subscribers but it appears, in the longer run, it'll be better with GetResponse.

    Haven't used email marketing as much as I should. Previously, we tried using ImnicaMail because of their pricing but it was as good as not having an email marketing campaign; all our mail was sent to spam (since they did not manage their customers' list for spam). Thought email marketing wasn't effective until I found out our emails were being sent to the spam box. Learnt my lesson there.

    Thanks again for the useful article.

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply16 Oct 2016

       Thanks Benjamin! Sounds like a good choice after your bad experience - I'd love to hear how you're getting on with GetResponse.

       Marcus

32. A
    Alice18 Mar 2016

    Wow such a detailed review! I have tried MailChimp before and I found it too expensive. After that i've signed up to Mailerlite and got hooked. It's either free or cheapish depending on your subscribers' lists. With other email software providers, you'd need to make an investment even if you're running a small shop or a blog. And let's be honest, not everyone of us can afford it :)

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply16 Oct 2016

       Yep, we moved away from Mailchimp for the same reason :) hope it's all going well

33. M
    Miguel24 Nov 2015

    I'm shopping to upgrade my email marketing software. Just got off the phone with Constant Contact. Can't believe they don't offer A/B testing!

34. M
    Mark27 Apr 2015

    I have a database of 2000 emails that I have marketed to for some time now from a pop 3 email without using a service.

    I imported it to mail chimp and it wants a double opt in. How can I bypass that.

    Once I start using mailchimp then people can easily unsubscribe if they don't want the email.

35. AS
    Afroz Siddiqui10 Dec 2014

    If you want cheap, easy and something you can grow with, I recommend MailChimp. You can even start out free with them. Later, if you decide to change platforms, it’s relatively easy to transfer your list.

36. S
    Sneha5 Dec 2014

    Thank Marcus, the summary was a great help.

37. TH
    Tony Hoang2 Dec 2014

    Great review Marcus! Have you looked into contactpigeon.com? They are a new e-mail marketing platform that offers data driven campaigns with thorough segmentation and automation features.

38. M
    Meera2 Nov 2014

    Hi I am new to direct email marketing. Sendy looks like a good pick based on this post. Thanks, Marcus for this article.

    Just a question, is it possible to export back only the delivered emails back to our database or via a .csv file.

39. KB
    Karanpreet Bindra4 Oct 2014

    Hi Marcus,

    Thanks for the article, it was also interesting and inspiring to see your other ventures in diverse fields. Would like to connect 1:1 in the near future. Meanwhile, even I had done a similar comparison as I myself handle email marketing for my organization. Do check it out as well as for the readers of the blog since it covers 2 additional players.

    Cheers,
    Karan

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply6 Oct 2014

       Hi Karenpreet, you're welcome.

       I took a look at your comparison - good work. More than happy to connect anytime if you want to drop me an email.

       Marcus

40. MT
    Marcus TaylorAuthor1 Oct 2014

    @Frank - I've never heard of them, and a quick Google search for your name MPZ Mail reveals you promoting them on Quora. I'm not sure why you'd ask for more information on them if you're already a user recommending them to others? Are you affiliated with them by any chance?

41. F
    fSheppard1 Oct 2014

    I really enjoyed this article but could anyone tell me a little bit more about MPZMail? It's not on this list, however I know a fair few people who are moving from MailChimp. I've had a look around and it seems to be pretty good.

42. K
    Kelly1 Oct 2014

    Great post Marcus,

    I've always been a mailchimp user myself, and I have to say I really like their UI but I'm always open to new options. I've dabbled in a couple of the other email marketing providers like Pure360 - but find them so clunky and annoying to use (despite them looking really pretty and having great templates) that I always end up going back to good old mailchimp. I haven't used GetResponse yet, I'll give their free trial a shot :)

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply1 Oct 2014

       Thanks Kelly, Mailchimp have definitely come a long way with their UI over the years, it's just their service that hasn't caught up ;) I haven't had the chance to play around with Pure360 as much as I'd like, but I've heard the same things echoed by several friends who use their service. Looking at their client list, I think they're more aimed at large companies though.

43. NC
    Nathan Chan30 Sep 2014

    Fantastic article Marcus. Really enjoyed this detailed post.

    After reading this I think I will move to and try out Ontraport!

    Nathan

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply1 Oct 2014

       Thanks Nathan, Ontraport's awesome :)

44. DR
    David Reed30 Sep 2014

    I'm currently looking for a hosted email marketing service that offers SMS services and integrates with Salesforce. We have a customer database of over 250,000 users and need to be able to send them SMS messages as well as emails at roughly the same time as appointment reminders.

    I've spent a long time looking at the different options, and there doesn't seem to be anything exactly what we're looking for (without requesting customisation), but before I give up hope I wondered whether you knew of anything?

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply30 Sep 2014

       Hi David,

       Check out Pure360 - from their website it seems like they have both SMS services and integration with Salesforce. I can't vouch for their service as I've never used it, although I did used to live about two minutes from their offices in Brighton! The other option would be something like Infusionsoft. I'm pretty certain that they have SMS functionality, and would be very surprised if they didn't integrate with Salesforce.

       Hope that helps.
       Marcus

45. NT
    Nina Thompson22 Sep 2014

    This is so helpful! We've been using an old school bespoke email program at our company for years and have finally come to the realisation that we need to enter the 21st century!

    One question - do you know how easy it would be to connect a tool like Aweber or GetResponse to a customer database? We would hate to lose our list of customer data during the move, so that's a big concern for us.

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply22 Sep 2014

       Thanks Nina, sounds like a much needed upgrade ;)

       Do you know whether your current email service allows you to export subscribers? If so you should be fine. All of the email marketing tools reviewed in this post allow you to import subscribers from a CSV file, so providing you can get all of your existing subscribers into a spreadsheet you'll be absolutely fine.

       Marcus

    2. NT
       Nina Thompsonreply28 Sep 2014

       I think so. I'd need to take a closer look but I'm sure you're right.

       Thanks for the help!
       Nina

46. P
    Peter20 Sep 2014

    Great review Marcus!

    I'm currently looking for an email marketing service for a mailing list of about 80,000 subscribers. I run an information product business in the fitness industry with a large number of customers buying our ebooks and online courses every day. I'm particularly interested in GetResponse, although I'd be keen to hear your thoughts on the flexibility of their service for creating autoresponders, and integrating with a checkout service (we use WooCommerce).

    I see that you've recommended Infusionsoft, which I was also looking at. Do you have any strong opinions on which one would be better for our kind of business?

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply22 Sep 2014

       Hi Peter,

       It really depends on your budget and how much automation you need.

       GetResponse would be a great pick, although their automation is quite limited at the moment. For example, you can setup standard autoresponders, and autoresponders based on behaviour such as "opened previous email", but it's very hard to separate customers from non-customers etc.

       With Infusionsoft (or other marketing automation alternatives like Ontraport, Marketo, Pardot), you'd have a lot more flexibility with automation, but that may be overkill depending on what you're looking to do.

       The main thing to consider is that Infusionsoft starts at $199/month a one-off $2,000 fee for a kickstarter package. Realistically, you'll likely end up paying $300-$400 per month for one of their more advanced packages. GetResponse is $450/month for 100,000 subscribers.

       In terms of integration with Woocommerce, i'm pretty sure you'd have more luck with Infusionsoft. It looks like they have a plugin called 'InfusedWoo' in their app marketplace here: https://marketplace.infusionsoft.com/app/infusedwoo

       Hope that helps,
       Marcus

    2. P
       Peterreply22 Sep 2014

       It sounds like Infusionsoft is probably the direction we need to head in. If it's more affordable than GetResponse and has better automation, then it's a bit of a no brainer.

       While we don't need full blown automation, it's important for us to be able to send different campaigns to customers based on whether they have/haven't bought certain other products. Based on what you've said, and what I gather from their website, this seems out of GetResponse's depth.

       Thanks Marcus, I appreciate the advice.

47. M
    Maura17 Sep 2014

    Highly descriptive article. Will there be a part 2?

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply22 Sep 2014

       Thanks Maura - I don't think so. If anything changes I'll most likely just update this post.

48. AC
    Alistair Coe15 Sep 2014

    Really good information, thanks for the comparison Marcus!

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply22 Sep 2014

       Anytime :)

49. K
    Kevin7 Sep 2014

    Great timing, Marcus. I signed up for free trials with Mailchimp, GetResponse and Aweber about a week ago and was just doing some research to confirm my thoughts.

    I agree with you that overall GetResponse are the best of the bunch. However, I did find that Mailchimp's UI was way better and easier to use. It's just a shame that they force you to jump through hoops with double opt-ins, and their payment structure was a little bit off putting.

    What I'd like to know is whether any email marketing software provider allows you send emails that look identical to if they were sent from Gmail. I find that the best newsletters are those that look like it came from a friend. If only Mailchimp or Aweber didn't force their logos and HTML style in every campaign I imagine they'd get way better open and click through rates. Do you know of any services that do this?

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply23 Sep 2014

       Hi Kevin,

       It sounds like you're after plain-text email campaigns, which all of the services reviewed above offer as standard. Instead of creating a HTML campaign, you should be able to select plain-text from a drop down menu and go from there. That should disable all of the logos, and formatting that give emails the 'newsletter template' look.

       Marcus

50. JC
    James Calain2 Sep 2014

    Marcus,

    Thank you for this article, it's been a great help for our company while we're in the process of moving to a different ESP.

    I wondered, what are your thoughts on solutions like Mailigen, Vertical Response, Mad Mimi, and Campaign Monitor? I know there's a never ending list of possible email software companies that you could compare, but these ones in particular interested me as they seem to offer many similar services to those that you mentioned. Have you come across them before, and if so would you advise using them over GetResponse?

    Another question I had was to do with email delivery rates. Do you know of any way to gauge the quality of an email marketing software company's delivery rates before becoming a customer and running your own test? I'd love to see a comparison like this post focusing on quantitative metrics like that. Perhaps an idea for a future post?

    James

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply22 Sep 2014

       Hi James,

       I've heard of several of the providers you mentioned, but I haven't used them on any projects so I can't really comment. From a quick browse of their websites they all look fine, but nothing jumps out at me in terms of a unique proposition.

       In terms of delivery rates, I know there are websites like SenderScore, which provide some information on delivery rates, but it's good to remember that those numbers are never static. If a company like Infusionsoft upgraded their servers, or changed the IP address that they send mail from, the stats would immediately become outdated.

       Similarly, it's probably worth taking any numbers provided by the email services with a pinch of salt, as they're more than likely to be a little bit on the generous end of the spectrum.

       In my experience, it's not something you really need to worry about unless you're sending 100,000's of emails per month, as the difference it makes is very minimal.

       Hope that helps,
       Marcus

51. P
    Panos1 Jul 2014

    Let's keep in mind that these are all different cases:

    - Desktop-based email marketing software (installed on your personal computer).
    - Serviced model or Saas (like MailChimp and others presented here).
    - Self-hosted (installed on your own server like Email Marketer and nuevoMailer).
    - Hybrid: self-hosted using 3rd party SMTP relay services (quite trendy lately).

    There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each model has pros and cons.
    Low-mid volume, occasional senders and not so technically literate users will probably do better with the serviced model (or a desktop based solution).
    Medium to heavy users are more likely to go for a self-hosted solution and usually the hybrid approach.

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply22 Sep 2014

       Hi Panos,

       That's a good breakdown of the different types of email services. I aimed this post at the large majority of people who would just be looking for a Saas service like Aweber or GetResponse, but you're right that there are many alternatives.

52. MC
    Malonie Carre26 May 2014

    I have very few mail customers but would like to get started on this. If I use mail chimp to get my first 2000 email addresses over the next year or so ( obviously for free! ) can I then migrate them into Get Response when I am ready to start paying a monthly fee? I am a musician so it is more for my fans than for selling.

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply27 May 2014

       Of course - I did a similar thing when I was building the newsletter for TheMusiciansGuide.co.uk. It's relatively easy to export and import between the various email marketing services, so you should be fine.

       Have you looked into Radio Airplay or FanDistro? They're both really good tools for collecting the email addresses of fans that like your music. I remember reading a case study that Brian Hazard of Passive Promotion / Color Theory wrote where he got thousands of fan email addresses using Radio Airplay.

    2. MC
       Malonie Carrereply27 May 2014

       Thank you, You just gave me a very cool tip! Great article, I will look up The MusiciansGuide too!

53. RB
    Ryan Biddulph22 May 2014

    I dug Aweber and getresponse when I used them. Smart post Marcus! Now I use my gifting club's email service, and have moved a bit away from email marketing. But overall helpful read here and a must for most marketers.

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply22 Sep 2014

       You're welcome, thanks for commenting Ryan!

54. MT
    Marcus TaylorAuthor22 May 2014

    Cheers Ben, i've corrected this. I didn't come across either when I was playing around with Sendy - must not have been looking hard enough!

    1. B
       Branoreply2 Feb 2015

       Being Sendy users ourselves, we were also little bit disappointed with the limited reporting options offered by the app. So we built an extension which will help you to build dashboards, per-list reports, calculate conversions, etc.

55. JM
    Jason Millen22 May 2014

    Really well written post Marcus!

    It'd be great to hear what some of the email marketing software providers have to say in response to this review and what *they* consider to be their strengths over the competition.

    Out of interest have you come across SendBlaster or Vertical Response? My company trialed SendBlaster a while back and I remember being quite impressed with the overall ease of use. Vertical Response was the other one we looked at which we'd heard good things about but ended up not going with for some reason or another.

    Would love to hear your thoughts on them if you've come across them before.

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply22 May 2014

       Thanks Jason

       I agree, it'd be great to hear from some of the guys in the space to know what differentiates them in their view.

       As for SendBlaster and Vertical Response, I've definitely come across VR in the past but not sure about SendBlaster. The name rings a bell but I can't think where from, and from their website it doesn't look like one that i've used.

       Vertical Response looks interesting - although again I can't quite figure out what really separates them from the other more popular services.

56. RL
    Rob Lawrence15 Apr 2014

    A very useful summary, thanks Marcus.

    I've had some success using Mailchimp in the past although eager now to try others services.

    I found MC relatively easy to use and navigate once I understood some of the terms
    relating to (all) mailing lists such as auto-responders, lists, groups, A/B testing.

    One positive for mailchimp is I found their guides/tutorials very good.

    I'm in the process of expanding and evaluating services such as Aweber on another site and interested in other providers too.

    Two questions:

    1. With any of these services are you able to manage multiple sites/lists of subscribers under one account, even if those lists/subscribers/topics are unrelated?

    2. Any thoughts on Feedblitz as I see people starting to use that service now too?

    Thanks for the very insightful evaluation.

    1. MT
       Marcus TaylorAuthorreply16 Apr 2014

       Thanks Rob!

       Mailchimp are pretty good - probably one of the most intuitive services to use. The main disadvantage is their double opt-in, which results in losing ~20-30% of people who go to sign up to your mailing list but don't confirm in the email.

       I'm pretty sure that all of the services reviewed let you manage multiple sites under one account. Aweber, Mailchimp, Sendy, and Get Response definitely.

       I haven't heard of Feedblitz - just looking at their website now. Appears that they're a Feedburner replacement specialising in RSS-to-email (sending your blog subscribers an email about latest posts). Their pricing looks a bit steep (considering Feedburner was free) - so I'd probably choose Mailchimp or Aweber over them? That way you can message up to a few thousand people free of charge.

       Hope that helps!

    2. G
       Georgereply16 Oct 2014

       Hey Marcus,

       George from Sendicate here. We're an email newsletter web app that aims to fix the current complex on boarding and newsletter sending process. We also allow single-opt in on lists if ya want :) Got RSS to email and all the bells and whistles too, we just try and make the user flows simple. Check us out.

       Cheers,
       George