THE 12 BEST EMAIL
MARKETING TOOLS IN 2026

What is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp is by far the best-known email marketing tool in the world, and for good reason. The platform started in 2001 as a simple newsletter tool and has grown into a complete marketing platform with a website builder, social media tools and a CRM. With more than 12 million active users, Mailchimp is the market leader in email marketing software.

Mailchimp's biggest advantage is the low barrier to entry. The drag-and-drop editor is intuitive, hundreds of templates are available and you can send your first campaign within an hour. Mailchimp integrates with virtually every other platform: from WordPress and Shopify to Salesforce and Google Analytics.

Features

• Drag-and-drop email builder with 100+ pre-designed templates
• Audience management with segmentation, tags and groups
• A/B testing on subject line, content, send time and sender name
• Customer Journey Builder for automated email flows
• Content Optimizer with AI suggestions for better subject lines
• Landing pages and forms for lead generation
• Reporting with open rates, click rates and e-commerce tracking
• 300+ integrations with popular apps and platforms

Pricing

Mailchimp offers four plans:

• Free: up to 500 contacts, 1,000 emails per month, 1 user
• Essentials: from €13/mo for 500 contacts, including A/B testing and 24/7 support
• Standard: from €20/mo, with advanced automations, retargeting ads and Custom Coded Templates
• Premium: from €350/mo, with advanced segmentation, multivariate testing and phone support

Note: Mailchimp charges per contact, even if those contacts are unsubscribed. Regularly remove inactive contacts to keep your costs down. At 10,000 contacts, you'll quickly pay €100+ per month on the Standard plan.

Automation

Mailchimp's automations are good enough for most small businesses. You can set up welcome emails, abandoned cart emails and birthday campaigns via the visual Customer Journey Builder. For complex, multi-step automations with conditional logic, tools like ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo are significantly more powerful.

Who is it for?

Mailchimp is ideal for small businesses and startups that want to get started with email marketing quickly. It's the best choice if you're looking for a user-friendly tool, have no more than a few thousand contacts and don't need complex automations. Once your list grows beyond 10,000 contacts or you want to build advanced workflows, Mailchimp becomes relatively expensive and limiting.

What is ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign is the tool serious marketers turn to when they've outgrown Mailchimp. The platform combines email marketing, marketing automation, CRM and sales automation in an integrated system. Where Mailchimp shines in simplicity, ActiveCampaign dominates in depth.

ActiveCampaign's strength lies in its visual automation builder. You can literally build any workflow imaginable: from simple welcome sequences to complex lead nurturing flows with conditional branches, wait times, CRM updates and lead scoring. This makes it the favorite tool of B2B companies serious about AI marketing for SMBs.

Features

• Visual automation builder with conditional logic, splits and if/else branches
• Built-in CRM with deal tracking, pipeline management and lead scoring
• Advanced segmentation based on behavior, tags, custom fields and site tracking
• Predictive sending with machine learning for optimal send times
• Site tracking and event tracking for behavior-based automations
• SMS marketing as a complement to email
• Split automations for A/B testing complete workflows
• 950+ integrations via native connections and Zapier

Pricing

• Starter: from €29/mo for 1,000 contacts (basic automations, email marketing)
• Plus: from €49/mo, including CRM, lead scoring, SMS and landing pages
• Pro: from €149/mo, with predictive sending, site messages and attribution reporting
• Enterprise: custom pricing, with dedicated account manager and custom reporting

ActiveCampaign is more expensive than Mailchimp, but you get significantly more automation power in return. The ROI is typically higher because you can run smarter, more personalized campaigns. According to marketing automation statistics, businesses that deploy marketing automation save an average of 12.2 hours per week.

Automation

This is where ActiveCampaign truly excels. The automation builder is the best on the market for SMBs. You can build complex flows with dozens of steps, score contacts based on engagement, automatically move deals through your pipeline and display personalized content based on behavioral data. Where Mailchimp's automations feel like a bike path, ActiveCampaign is an eight-lane highway.

Who is it for?

ActiveCampaign is perfect for growing SMBs (5-500 employees) that are serious about marketing automation. It's particularly popular with B2B companies, SaaS companies and service providers that have long sales cycles and need to nurture leads. If you have more than 1,000 contacts and want to take your email marketing to the next level, ActiveCampaign is the logical step.

What is HubSpot?

HubSpot is more than an email marketing tool -- it's a complete marketing, sales and service platform. HubSpot's free CRM is legendary in the marketing world, and the email marketing module is part of that ecosystem. HubSpot's greatest strength lies in integration: your email marketing, CRM, landing pages, social media, ads and analytics all live in one single system.

This makes HubSpot the ideal choice for businesses that don't just want to send emails, but want to streamline their entire marketing and sales operations. The downside? The price. Once you move beyond the free plan, HubSpot can become very expensive very quickly.

Features

• Free CRM with unlimited contacts and companies
• Drag-and-drop email editor with personalization tokens
• Smart content that adapts based on contact properties
• Marketing automation workflows (paid) with visual builder
• Lead scoring and lead nurturing
• Landing page builder with A/B testing
• Blogging platform, SEO tools and social media management
• Comprehensive reporting with attribution modeling and dashboards

Pricing

• Free: free CRM, up to 2,000 emails per month, forms and landing pages (with HubSpot branding)
• Starter: from €20/mo for 1,000 contacts, without HubSpot branding
• Professional: from €800/mo, with full marketing automation, A/B testing, blog and SEO
• Enterprise: from €3,600/mo, with advanced reporting, partitioning and teams

The price jump from Starter (€20/mo) to Professional (€800/mo) is enormous and a frequently heard criticism of HubSpot. The most valuable features -- advanced automation, A/B testing, smart content -- are locked behind the Professional paywall. For many SMBs, this is too expensive.

Automation

HubSpot's automation is powerful, but only available on the Professional plan and above. The visual workflow builder offers comparable functionality to ActiveCampaign, with the advantage that everything is directly connected to your CRM, sales pipeline and service tickets. For businesses that can justify the Professional plan, the automation is excellent.

Who is it for?

HubSpot is the best choice for businesses looking for an all-in-one platform for marketing, sales and service. The free plan is an excellent starting point, but keep the costs in mind as you grow. HubSpot is popular with B2B companies that have a budget of €1,000+ per month for marketing technology.

What is Brevo?

Brevo, formerly known as Sendinblue, is a French platform that combines email marketing, SMS, chat, CRM and transactional emails. Brevo differentiates itself from the competition in two ways: it charges per email sent rather than per contact, and it offers excellent transactional email capabilities. This makes it particularly attractive for businesses with large contact lists that don't email every day.

As a European platform, Brevo is natively GDPR-compliant and offers data storage in the EU -- an important advantage for European businesses that are privacy-conscious.

Features

• Email marketing with drag-and-drop editor and responsive templates
• Transactional emails (order confirmations, password resets) via SMTP or API
• SMS marketing with personalization and automation
• WhatsApp Business campaigns
• CRM with contact management and deal tracking
• Marketing automation with visual workflow builder
• Chat widget for your website
• Landing page builder and signup forms

Pricing

• Free: unlimited contacts, up to 300 emails per day (approx. 9,000/mo), Brevo branding
• Starter: from €19/mo for 20,000 emails per month, without Brevo branding
• Business: from €49/mo, with marketing automation, A/B testing, advanced statistics
• Enterprise: custom pricing, with dedicated IP, priority support and sub-account management

Brevo's pricing model is unique: you pay per email, not per contact. This means you can have a list of 50,000 contacts without paying extra -- as long as you stay within your email limit. For businesses with large lists that email monthly or biweekly, this is significantly cheaper than tools that charge per contact.

Automation

Brevo's automation is solid but slightly less refined than ActiveCampaign. The visual workflow builder offers if/else conditions, time delays and multi-channel actions (email + SMS + WhatsApp). For most SMBs, this is more than sufficient. Complex lead scoring and CRM automations are available but less intuitive than ActiveCampaign or HubSpot.

Who is it for?

Brevo is the best choice for businesses that want to combine transactional and marketing emails in one platform, and for businesses with large contact lists looking to save on costs. Its European origin and GDPR compliance make it extra attractive for European businesses. Brevo is also popular with e-commerce businesses that want to send order confirmations and marketing emails from a single system.

What is MailerLite?

MailerLite is the hidden gem of the email marketing world. The Lithuanian platform offers a surprisingly complete set of features at the lowest prices on the market. What makes MailerLite special is that the free plan already includes features that you'd need to upgrade for at Mailchimp -- such as automation workflows and landing pages.

The interface is clean, modern and intuitive. MailerLite feels like a tool made by designers: everything is in the right place, there are no unnecessary menus and you can find what you're looking for within seconds. For small businesses and freelancers who want a professional tool without a professional price tag, MailerLite is often the best choice.

Features

• Drag-and-drop editor and rich-text editor for minimalist emails
• Automation workflows with visual builder (also in the free plan)
• Website builder with blog functionality
• Landing pages and popup forms
• Email verification to maintain list quality
• A/B testing on subject line, content and send time
• Digital product selling for e-books, courses etc.
• Stripe integration for paid newsletters

Pricing

• Free: up to 1,000 subscribers, 12,000 emails per month, automation, landing pages (with MailerLite branding)
• Growing Business: from €9/mo for 500 subscribers, unlimited emails, A/B testing, remove branding
• Advanced: from €18/mo, with Facebook integration, auto resend and multiple automation triggers
• Enterprise: custom pricing for 100,000+ subscribers

MailerLite's prices are up to 50% lower than comparable tools. For 10,000 subscribers, you'll pay €47/mo on the Growing Business plan -- at Mailchimp, you'd pay €100+ for fewer features. This makes MailerLite the best choice when budget is an important factor.

Automation

MailerLite's automations are surprisingly good for the price. The visual workflow builder offers multiple triggers, branches and conditions. You can build welcome sequences, lead nurturing flows and e-commerce automations. The automation is less deep than ActiveCampaign (no lead scoring, fewer conditions), but more than sufficient for most small businesses.

Who is it for?

MailerLite is the best choice for freelancers, solopreneurs, small businesses and startups that want a complete email marketing tool without spending much. It's also popular with bloggers, podcasters and content creators who want to monetize their audience with paid newsletters and digital products.

What is ConvertKit?

ConvertKit, which rebranded to "Kit" in 2024, is specifically designed for online creators: bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, authors and course creators. The platform uses a tag-based system instead of lists, which means a contact only counts once regardless of how many segments that person is in. This saves significantly on costs compared to list-based tools.

ConvertKit's philosophy is "text-first": emails look as if they were sent from Gmail, not as polished marketing emails. This sounds like a limitation, but it's a deliberate choice. Plain-text emails typically have higher open and click rates than heavy HTML emails, because they feel more personal and pass through spam filters more easily.

Features

• Tag-based subscriber management -- a contact only counts once
• Visual automation builder with sequences and rules
• Landing pages and signup forms with 50+ templates
• Commerce feature for selling digital products and subscriptions
• Creator Network for cross-promotion with other creators
• Sponsor Network for monetizing your newsletter
• Referral system to reward subscribers for sharing
• RSS-to-email for automatic blog post updates

Pricing

• Newsletter: free up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms, 1 automation
• Creator: from €25/mo for 300 subscribers, with unlimited automations, sequences and integrations
• Creator Pro: from €50/mo, with subscriber scoring, newsletter referral system and advanced reporting

ConvertKit's free plan is remarkably generous: up to 10,000 subscribers is far more than most competitors offer. However, you miss automations and sequences, making the free plan mainly suitable for starting with a basic newsletter.

Automation

ConvertKit's automation is effective but less extensive than ActiveCampaign. The visual automation builder works with "events" (triggers), "actions" (what happens) and "conditions" (logic). You can set up welcome sequences, funnel automations and product launches just fine. What's missing is deep CRM integration and lead scoring -- but for most creators, that's not needed anyway.

Who is it for?

ConvertKit is the best choice if you're an online creator: blogger, podcaster, YouTuber, author or course maker. The tag-based system, commerce feature and Creator Network are specifically designed for this audience. If you have a "regular" business (B2B, e-commerce, service provider), there are better options.

What is Klaviyo?

Klaviyo is the email marketing tool built specifically for e-commerce. The platform integrates deeply with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and BigCommerce, using your product data, order history and customer behavior to send hyper-personalized emails. Klaviyo is the tool behind the email marketing of many successful D2C brands and online stores.

What sets Klaviyo apart from generic email tools is the depth of data. Klaviyo knows exactly which products a customer has viewed, what's in their cart, how often they buy and what the customer lifetime value is. With that data, you can build segments and automations that are impossible in tools like Mailchimp or MailerLite.

Features

• Deep e-commerce integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento
• Predictive analytics with expected order value, churn risk and optimal discounts
• Pre-built e-commerce flows: abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase, win-back
• Dynamic product recommendations based on purchase behavior
• SMS marketing integrated with email flows
• Advanced segmentation based on RFM analysis (Recency, Frequency, Monetary)
• Custom events and metrics for granular tracking
• Benchmark data to compare your performance with your industry

Pricing

• Free: up to 250 contacts, 500 email sends per month, 150 free SMS credits
• Email: from €20/mo for 251-500 contacts, unlimited emails
• Email + SMS: from €35/mo, including SMS marketing

Klaviyo is more expensive than generic tools but cheaper than you'd expect for a specialized e-commerce tool. The price scales with your contact list: 10,000 contacts costs about €150/mo, 50,000 contacts about €720/mo. Most online stores easily earn back this investment through abandoned cart recovery and repeat purchases.

Automation

Klaviyo's automation is excellent, with a focus on e-commerce use cases. The pre-built flows are optimized using data from thousands of online stores. The abandoned cart flow alone generates an average of 3-5% extra revenue. Combine that with browse abandonment, post-purchase upsell and win-back flows, and you have an email marketing machine that drives revenue 24/7.

Who is it for?

Klaviyo is the best choice for e-commerce businesses, particularly Shopify stores. If you have an online store with more than 250 products and 1,000+ customers, Klaviyo is the tool that delivers the highest ROI. For non-e-commerce businesses, there are better (and cheaper) alternatives.

What is GetResponse?

GetResponse is a Polish platform that has been around for more than 25 years and has evolved from a simple autoresponder into a complete online marketing platform. GetResponse's unique ace is its built-in webinar functionality -- no other email marketing tool offers this as a native feature.

This makes GetResponse particularly interesting for businesses that use webinars as a lead generation tool. Instead of paying separately for a webinar platform (Zoom Webinars: €79/mo, GoToWebinar: €99/mo), you get it with GetResponse as part of your email marketing package. The entire funnel -- from signup via email to live webinar to follow-up -- is in one system.

Features

• Email marketing with drag-and-drop builder and AI email generator
• Webinar platform for up to 1,000 participants (depending on plan)
• Marketing automation with visual workflow builder
• Conversion funnels -- ready-made funnels for leads, sales and webinars
• Website builder with AI assistant
• Landing pages with A/B testing
• E-commerce tools with product recommendations and abandoned cart
• Push notifications and SMS as additional channels

Pricing

• Free: up to 500 contacts, unlimited newsletters, website builder, 1 landing page
• Email Marketing: from €16/mo for 1,000 contacts, with autoresponders, A/B testing, segmentation
• Marketing Automation: from €54/mo, with automation builder, webinars (100 participants), sales funnels
• E-commerce Marketing: from €106/mo, with e-commerce integrations, transactional emails, product recommendations

Automation

GetResponse's automation is good, with a clear visual builder and pre-made templates for common scenarios. It integrates seamlessly with the webinar and funnel features. The depth is comparable to Brevo -- fine for most SMBs, but not as advanced as ActiveCampaign for complex B2B workflows.

Who is it for?

GetResponse is the best choice for businesses that combine webinars with email marketing. Coaches, trainers, consultants and SaaS companies that regularly host webinars save significantly by using GetResponse instead of paying separately for an email tool and webinar platform. It's also a solid choice as an all-in-one platform for SMBs that want to combine multiple channels.

What is Campaign Monitor?

Campaign Monitor is the email marketing tool for businesses that prioritize design quality above all else. The Australian platform is known for the most beautiful email templates in the industry and a drag-and-drop editor that produces pixel-perfect emails. Brands like Disney, Coca-Cola and Unicef use Campaign Monitor, and it shows in the premium feel of the platform.

Where most email marketing tools take a "good enough" approach to design, Campaign Monitor goes a step further. Every template is designed by professional designers, the editor offers fine-grained control over typography, color palettes and spacing, and the preview function shows your email in 40+ email clients.

Features

• Premium email templates with professional design
• Advanced drag-and-drop editor with custom fonts and branded templates
• Link review that automatically detects broken links before sending
• Inbox preview in 40+ email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.)
• Transactional emails with the same design quality
• Smart segments and timezone-based sending
• Team management with brand templates that can be locked
• 250+ integrations with popular platforms

Pricing

• Lite: from €11/mo for 500 contacts, basic features, 2,500 emails per month
• Essentials: from €19/mo, with unlimited emails, inbox preview, timezone sending
• Premier: from €149/mo, with advanced segmentation, send-time optimization, phone support

Campaign Monitor offers no free plan, only a free trial with limited functionality. Pricing is comparable to Mailchimp but with fewer features. You're paying for design quality and brand consistency here, not the most extensive feature set.

Automation

Campaign Monitor's automation is basic compared to the competition. You can set up welcome sequences, birthday emails and re-engagement campaigns, but the visual workflow builder is less flexible than ActiveCampaign, Brevo or even MailerLite. If automation is important to you, there are better options.

Who is it for?

Campaign Monitor is the best choice for businesses and agencies where design quality and brand consistency are the top priority. It's popular with marketing teams that manage multiple brands and want to guarantee that every email looks pixel-perfect. For solopreneurs and small businesses, Campaign Monitor is overqualified and overpriced.

What is Constant Contact?

Constant Contact is one of the oldest email marketing tools on the market (founded in 1995) and has a strong reputation with local businesses, nonprofits and event organizers in the US. The platform is known for excellent customer support -- including phone support and live webinars -- and a simple interface that's accessible even for non-technical users.

What sets Constant Contact apart is its event marketing functionality. You can create events, manage registrations, sell tickets and send follow-up emails -- all from the same platform. For businesses that regularly organize workshops, open days or networking events, this is a unique advantage.

Features

• Email editor with hundreds of templates and a brand template generator
• Event management with registration forms, ticket sales and reminders
• Social media posting and ads (Facebook, Instagram, Google)
• Surveys and polls for customer feedback
• E-commerce integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce and Etsy
• Contact list management with import from social media contacts
• Real-time tracking with click-map heatmaps
• Phone support

Pricing

• Lite: from €12/mo for 500 contacts, basic email marketing
• Standard: from €35/mo, with automation, A/B testing, contact segmentation
• Premium: from €80/mo, with advanced automation, SEO recommendations, Google Ads integration

Constant Contact doesn't offer a free plan but does have a 60-day free trial -- the longest in the industry. Prices are slightly above average, but the personal support and event functionality make up for it for many users.

Automation

Constant Contact's automation has improved but still isn't at the level of ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo. On the Standard plan, you can set up basic automations: welcome series, birthday emails and resend to non-openers. The Premium plan adds behavior-based automations and custom automation paths, but the visual builder is less intuitive than the competition.

Who is it for?

Constant Contact is the best choice for local businesses and organizations that frequently organize events, value personal (phone) support and want a proven, stable platform. It's less suitable for tech-savvy marketers looking for advanced automations and data integrations.

What is Moosend?

Moosend is a Greek platform acquired by Sitecore in 2023 that positions itself as the affordable automation tool. It combines Mailchimp's simplicity with the automation power of tools like ActiveCampaign -- but at a fraction of the price. For businesses that want powerful automations but don't have the budget for ActiveCampaign, Moosend is a serious option.

Moosend excels at offering advanced features on affordable plans. Where other tools hide A/B testing, landing pages and automation behind more expensive plans, Moosend offers all of this on the basic plan. This makes it one of the best options for growing businesses that want more than Mailchimp but don't have the budget for premium tools.

Features

• Drag-and-drop editor with 80+ responsive templates
• Marketing automation with pre-built workflows (abandoned cart, upsell, lead scoring)
• Landing pages and subscription forms
• Real-time analytics with click heatmaps and geolocation data
• Weather-based recommendations for e-commerce (unique)
• Product recommendations with AI
• Segmentation based on behavior, location, weather and custom fields
• Transactional emails via SMTP

Pricing

• Free trial: 30 days with full functionality
• Pro: from €9/mo for 500 subscribers, with all features including automation, landing pages and transactional emails
• Enterprise: custom pricing, with dedicated IP, SSO, migration support and account manager

Moosend's Pro plan is remarkably cheap: for €9/mo you get features that cost €20+ at Mailchimp and €29+ at ActiveCampaign. At 10,000 subscribers you'll pay €88/mo -- significantly less than the competition. The only caveat is that Moosend doesn't offer a permanent free plan.

Automation

Surprisingly powerful for the price. Moosend offers pre-built automation recipes for common scenarios: abandoned cart, birthdays, VIP customers, re-engagement and product recommendations. The visual builder is clear and offers conditional logic, wait times and multiple actions. Not as refined as ActiveCampaign, but significantly better than Mailchimp or MailerLite for the same money.

Who is it for?

Moosend is the best choice for businesses that want advanced automation at a budget-friendly price. It's ideal for growing SMBs that have outgrown Mailchimp but don't have the budget for ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo. E-commerce businesses benefit from the product recommendations and abandoned cart flows.

What is Drip?

Drip is the email marketing tool for e-commerce businesses that want Klaviyo's power but with a slightly different approach. Where Klaviyo is big with enterprise e-commerce, Drip specifically targets small and mid-sized online stores and DTC brands (Direct-to-Consumer). The platform combines email and SMS marketing with deep e-commerce data.

Drip's strength lies in combining ease of use with e-commerce power. It's simpler to set up than Klaviyo, with pre-built playbooks you can activate in minutes. At the same time, it offers advanced segmentation based on purchase behavior, browsing activity and customer lifecycle stage.

Features

• E-commerce CRM with complete customer profiles and purchase history
• Pre-built playbooks for welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back
• Advanced segmentation on purchase behavior, browsing behavior and engagement
• Dynamic content blocks with product recommendations
• Onsite popup builder for capturing visitors
• Revenue attribution -- see exactly how much revenue each email generates
• A/B testing on workflows and individual emails
• Integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and 100+ other tools

Pricing

• Free trial: 14 days with full functionality
• Email: from €39/mo for 2,500 contacts, with all features
• Price scales with contact list: 5,000 contacts = €69/mo, 10,000 = €124/mo

Drip is more expensive than generic tools but cheaper than Klaviyo for comparable e-commerce functionality. There's no free plan, but the 14-day trial gives you full access. For most online stores, Drip pays for itself through abandoned cart and post-purchase flows.

Automation

Drip's automation is excellent, with a focus on e-commerce scenarios. The pre-built playbooks are a major advantage: you select a scenario (e.g. "Welcome Series" or "Post-Purchase"), customize the content, and your automation is running within minutes. The visual builder offers conditional logic, splits and parallel paths. Drip's automation is less deep than Klaviyo when it comes to predictive analytics, but more than sufficient for most online stores.

Who is it for?

Drip is the best choice for small to mid-sized e-commerce businesses and DTC brands that want serious email automation without Klaviyo's complexity. If you have a Shopify or WooCommerce store with 500-50,000 customers and want to automate your email marketing, Drip is an excellent choice. Drip's AI marketing capabilities also make it a strong option for SMB online stores.