Most Effective Email Marketing Software

Email marketing is a great way to reach your customers in a direct, affordable, and efficient manner. Though the number of email accounts continues to rise worldwide, email remains one of the most effective digital marketing tools available.

In fact, research shows that email marketing returns an average of $38 for every dollar invested—and with our list of the best email marketing software, you can take advantage of this useful tool!

Most Effective Email Marketing Software

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is the best overall email marketing software because it has the features that most businesses need, without being overly complicated or confusing. Businesses can schedule campaigns, A/B test copy, and get reports that include open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, and more. Plus, it has the most generous free-forever plans of the software we tested.Pros

• Free-forever plan (up to 2,000 contacts)
• Easy to build and customize campaigns
• Clear reporting that helps optimize future sends
• Integrates with hundreds of software platforms

Cons

• Pricey for larger contact lists (more than 15k subscribers)
• Very limited phone support
• Not designed for advanced marketing teams

Mailchimp’s free plan includes up to 2,000 contacts and up to 10,000 monthly email sends. Its platform is one of the easiest to get used to with drag-and-drop features that allow you to stylize your emails.

Aside from its free plan, there are also three paid plans, which vary in cost based on how many subscribers you have (nonprofits receive a 15% discount):

• Essentials: $9.99 to $270 per month
• Standard: $14.99 to $540 per month
• Premium: $299 to $1,190 per month

Mailchimp is the perfect tool for any business looking for a simple way to send emails to their customers. It has an easy-to-use email editor, and once you upgrade to the first paid plan you get access to more advanced tools such as A/B testing and multi-step journeys. Users will enjoy the easy-to-understand reporting that helps them determine what is working and what isn’t. Things like open rates and click-throughs are easily identified so business owners know if readers are responding to the content.

BEST FOR AUTOMATIONActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is the best email marketing software for automation because it has hundreds of pre-built automations that help you personalize campaigns for each subscriber. There are help guides throughout the platform as you’re getting things set up, plus ActiveCampaign’s customer support is fast and friendly.Pros

• Great automation features that simplify customer interactions
• Helpful, friendly, and fast customer support
• All plan levels include data migration and implementation services
• CRM with sales automation included for free (For a limited time)
• Has 850+ integrations with the most popular software

Cons

• Learning curve can be a challenge
• Lite plan is very limited (and includes ActiveCampaign branding)
• Plans quickly jump in price with the number of contacts

ActiveCampaign is a customer experience automation (CXA) software with email capabilities. Because it is designed to manage contacts and the sales process, it offers more than 850 integrations.

There’s a 14-day free trial to test the software. After that, you will need to subscribe to one of the four paid plans, which you can pay monthly or annually. The discount for paying annually ranges from 15% to 40% depending on the plan. The cost of each plan also depends on how many contacts you have (nonprofits get 20% off). 

• Lite: $15+ per month
• Plus: $70+ per month
• Professional: $159+ per month
• Enterprise: $279+ per month

You can get a plan and adjust it for the number of contacts you have while still getting the basic features of the plan. For example, you can get the Lite plan with 500 contacts but can incrementally increase it to 100,000 contacts for $405 annually. The Plus, Professional, and Enterprise plans increase the customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities of your platform.

ActiveCampaign helps businesses build automations that are customized to increase engagement with subscribers, giving it the edge in this category. The interface is easy to use, intuitive, and includes resources for any questions that come up during the process. It also includes sales automations so your marketing and sales processes can work together to earn more revenue.

EASIEST TO USEMailerLite

MailerLite is the easiest email marketing software to use because it has a drag-and-drop interface that makes it fun and intuitive to create the design you want. Simplicity is at the heart of the company’s mission, which is why the software has a clean and streamlined look.Pros

• Drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to design emails
• Free plan for up to 1,000 contacts
• Email support
• Lots of email templates to choose from

Cons

• Doesn’t include CRM functionalities (Though it allows for integration)
• Limited integrations
• Need to provide a lot of company information to get an account set up

MailerLite has designed a superior user-friendly platform, making it the best choice for ease of use. Should users experience any problems, there is email support to answer any questions and troubleshoot.

It offers a free-forever plan that includes 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 email sends. If you need more bandwidth or want more advanced features (like the ability to remove MailerLite branding), there is a paid plan. Cost depends on how many subscribers you have. You can pay monthly or annually, but with an annual plan, you get a 30% discount. Nonprofits also receive a 30% discount. Here’s a breakdown of the cost:

• Up to 1,000 contacts: $10 per month
• 1,001 to 2,500 contacts: $15 per month
• 2,501 to 5,000 contacts: $30 per month
• 5,001 to 10,000 contacts: $50 per month

MailerLite includes all of the essentials for email marketing, without cluttering their system with advanced features. This makes it the perfect fit for businesses looking for a straightforward approach to email marketing that they can master in days, not months.

BEST ALL-IN-ONE MARKETING SUITEHubspot

Hubspot is the best all-in-one marketing suite because it has great tools and reporting for all of your marketing campaigns across various channels (website, social, email marketing, and more). You can store all contact information with Hubspot’s CRM and attract an audience through lead forms, live chat, and online ads.Pros

• Full marketing suite with CRM, social media, blogging, as well as email marketing capabilities
• Email health tab helps keep deliverability rates on track
• Only pay for the contacts you are marketing to
• Track leads throughout their buying journey
• Helpful online training resources

Cons

• Does not have a free-forever plan or a low-cost plan
• Not for businesses strictly looking for email marketing tools
• Difficult to integrate a separate CRM, like Salesforce or Pipedrive
• Steep learning curve to fully unlock the marketing potential

Hubspot is a leader in CRM services that include email marketing. The platform can handle everything from emails, social media posts, and blog publishing, making it the top platform for an all-in-one marketing solution.

There’s a 14-day free trial, and then you’ll have to subscribe to one of their three paid plans. While it’s free to store unlimited contacts, once the number you email surpasses the included amount, you will have to pay an additional fee. Save 10% on the first two plans if you pay annually (the Enterprise plan must be paid annually). 

• Starter (up to 1,000 contacts): $50 per month
• Professional (up to 2,000 contacts): $800 per month
• Enterprise (up to 10,000 contacts): $3,200 per month

Hubspot combines all of your marketing activities in one place so you can have a centralized view of how contacts interact with your website, Google ads, social media, and email marketing. It provides insights into the buyer’s journey, helping business owners better tailor their marketing efforts for success. The platform includes a robust training platform that not only reviews how to use the system but also highlights the best practices for successful marketing campaigns.

BEST AFFORDABLE OPTIONMoosend

Moosend is the best affordable option not only because its paid plans cost less than most on the market, but also because you can pay either by the number of subscribers or by the number of emails sent, depending on which option is cheapest for you. Plus, its tools are user friendly and make it easy to get attractive and timely emails out to your audience.Pros

• Lowest plan costs
• Option to pay only when you send emails
• Easy to customize templates or use one from the template library

Cons

• Can’t send emails from a Gmail or Hotmail address
• Less-sophisticated user interface
• Limited integrations

Moosend is a cost-effective platform that gives users the choice of how to get billed: by subscribers or by email. Phone support is included that can help if you have trouble customizing one of the numerous templates provided.

Moosend’s Free Forever plan includes 1,000 subscribers, plus there’s a Pro Plan and an Enterprise plan with tiered pricing. You’ll need to contact Moosend for Enterprise plan pricing. The Pro Plan is priced based on the number of subscribers. Below is the cost if you pay monthly, but you’ll receive a 20% discount for annual billing. You’ll also receive a 25% discount if you’re a nonprofit. 

• Up to 2,000 subscribers: $10 per month
• 2,001 to 2,500 subscribers: $20 per month
• 2,501 to 5,000 subscribers: $30 per month
• 5,001 to 8,000 subscribers: $40 per month

You can opt to pay for the number of emails sent (includes unlimited subscribers), which Moosend calls credits. For $1, you get 1,000 credits, which is equal to 1,000 email sends. With this option, you get the same features that are included in the Pro Plan, such as landing pages, and transactional emails. 

Moosend is one of the cheapest email marketing tools on the market, but it’s robust enough to satisfy most email marketing campaigns for small businesses, winning our spot for the most affordable option. It allows you to pay either by the number of subscribers or by the number of emails sent, so you can choose which option is most cost-effective for your business. 

BEST FOR E-COMMERCEDrip

Drip is the best email marketing software for e-commerce businesses because of it’s sophisticated workflows combined with advanced list segmentation. This combination means that subscribers receive personalized emails triggered by their shopping behaviors on your site and receive timely follow-ups based on how they interact with your emails.Pros

• Simple yet powerful drip campaigns
• Easy to set up and use
• Excellent customer support
• Sophisticated contact list segmentation

Cons

• Lacks a few key integrations
• No drag-and-drop functionality for designing templates
• Support only available weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST

Designed to improve the online user experience for shoppers, Drip is the best email marketing software for e-commerce companies. Its user support is available to help with issues setting up and using the service. We especially like how you can segment your lists so users get the best possible experience from your website and email alerts.

Drip has a 14-day free trial and has one plan that ranges from $19 to $1,599 per month depending on how many contacts are in your account. Here are a few of the price points:

• Up to 500 contacts: $19 per month
• 501 to 2,000 contacts: $29 per month
• 2,001 to 2,500 contacts: $39 per month
• 2,501 to 3,000 contacts: $49 per month

For costs above this number of contacts, it’s best to get details directly from the website. The tiered scale goes up to 140,000 contacts for $1,599 before you need to contact them for custom enterprise pricing.

Drip is built for e-commerce, which means its workflows, email templates, and lead generation forms are designed with e-commerce best practices in mind. It includes advanced segmentation and customization that allows you to hyper-target your campaigns in order to increase user engagement.

What Is Email Marketing Software?

Email marketing software enables users to create, send, and track emails to their list of subscribers. Using software makes it easier to create well-designed emails, and also allows you to see key metrics such as open rates and click-through rates. Advanced platforms allow you to automate sends based on user behavior, which increases the likelihood of engagement since the email is more personalized to their interests.

Email marketing is an effective marketing tool for almost any industry. For example, an e-commerce store can automate a follow-up email if a user leaves an item in their cart, reminding them to make the purchase. A SaaS product can encourage users to demo a product and decide how persistently to follow up based on whether the lead takes them up on their offer. While email marketing is not by any means a new technique, it has proven its effectiveness year after year in industry reports.

email automation software

1. Active Campaign

ActiveCampaign is now used by over 60,000 organizations of all shapes and sizes.

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing automation tool which simply enables you to create drip emails that will boost your subscriber interaction, interests, demographics, history, and more.

You can use Active Campaign as a CRM and marketing automation software. You’re going to like this email marketing automation software in terms of email deliverability, affordability, customer support, and integrations.

Pros:

• Excellent customer support
• Flexible and versatile
• Advanced features

Cons:

• The learning curve is a bit challenging.
• There are some glitches reported by some users.
• The forms feature isn’t sufficient and not customizable enough

Pricing

The minimum price plan costs $9/mo with annual payment for 500 contacts. The highest price plan is the Enterprise plan costing $229/mo.

G2 Rating: 4.6 out of 5

2. Hubspot

There are 48,000 small companies that use Hubspot which means it is ranked as one of the top email automation tools. In order to support your email marketing campaigns, it provides

• all-in-one CRM
• email marketing automation
• landing page builder platform

Probably the most advantageous part of HubSpot is its analytics. You can track your email campaigns in terms of conversions. But what about pricing?

Well, you should consider that it’s very affordable in the first place, costs about $50/month. However, the pricing can quickly get out of control. For example, if you want to add bonus features and grow your email list, you may have to pay $2,000/month annually. So, better be careful.

Pros:

• Ability to customize the user experience based on behavior
• Great user interface

Cons:

• Prices are too high for most startups.
• Not HIPAA compliant

Pricing

The starter plan for HubSpot Marketing Hub costs $50/mo.

G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5

3. Constant Contact

As an effective email marketing automation software, Let Constant Contact allows you to send powerful emails with unique designs. Also, it is simple to use. You can arrange Facebook fan promotions, coupons, and deals with Let Constant Contact.

As the other email marketing automation software in the market, it provides an autoresponder. One of the important parts of this email marketing automation software is its affordable prices.

Pros:

• Clear overview of demographics of email recipients
• Simple and easy to use UI
• Excellent customer support

Cons:

• Has Constant Contact branding at the bottom of the emails
• Email templates tend to distort based on the platform recipients’ use.
• Email builder is a bit limited in terms of designing options

Pricing

Price based on number of contacts, starting at $20/mo

G2 Rating: 3.9 out of 5

4. Drip

Being an email drip campaign software, Drip has a simple and user-friendly interface. You can use email gathering technology, drag and drop elements, and pre-made templates in your emails.

If you have an e-commerce company then this email marketing software is great for you. For basic email marketing automation, it has affordable pricing options! For example, you should pay $49/month for 100+ contacts. You can streamline the drip email process with this app.

Pros:

• Smoothly handles large data
• User-friendly interface, dark mode available
• Ability to create unique responsive HTML email templates

Cons:

• Slow customer support
• Analytics and reports are average.
• Inability to re-edit workflows
• Not storing events for recall so, for example, in Zapier you have to continually refresh

Pricing

Starting at $19/mo for 1,500 contacts

G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5 starts

5. Sendloop

Sendloop is really one of the best marketing automation software on the market. It has an easy-to-use interface that doesn’t require IT. So, you can customize your emails with a simple drag n-drop email builder. It offers more than 80 free email templates with some unique features.

You can refine a drip campaign by targeting the right people.

Sendloop enables you to track your customers’ movements on your site. By using this email automation software, you can run highly-effective email marketing campaigns.

Pros:

• Drag and drop feature
• Provides WYSIWYG Email Editor so you can edit fast and easily
• Analysis track report
• Great technical support

Cons:

• A bit expensive as it charges for subscribers not plans
• The interface is a bit over-siimplistic
• Lacks mobile-optimized emails

Pricing

Service cost based on the number of subscribers. You can calculate your service cost from their website. The minimum cost is $9/mo for 500 subscriber and unlimited emails.

G2 Rating: 4.3 out of 5

6. Emailsmart.io

Emailsmart is an email automation software that serves for small and medium-sized transactions that care about privacy, gdpr and security. Based in London, the company offers boutique solutions that are GDPR compliant and affordable.

Pros:

• Unlimited contact size & billed only total emails sent
• GDPR Compliant for EU Users
• Affordable Prices
• Boutique service with excellent support team

Cons:

• Integration options are lacking

7. GetResponse

GetResponse is one of the best email service providers (ESP) and email marketing automation software in the market.

Even if it didn’t specify marketing automation capabilities at first, it did add some useful features such as autoresponder and much more. In this case, you can design your workflows with its easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface.

Pros:

• Straightforward and easy to use
• Fast interface
• They offer landing page building as well as email marketing
• Value price compared to its competitors

Cons:

• Some users reported messages going to spam folders
• Contact import issue
• Limitation in integrating with other apps

Pricing

Starting at $15/mo for 1,000 subscribers

G2 Rating: 4.2 out of 5

8. MailChimp

MailChimp is another good email marketing automation software that allows you to customize your emails. You can send a welcome sequence to new subscribers automatically or send birthday wishes or any content you want.

Also, you can use it to prevent and recover from cart abandonment. If you want to personalize your order notifications from your store or re-engage with inactive customers, MailChimp is for you!

For those who are looking for effective email marketing automation software, it is a great tool to use.

Pricing is not that affordable when you compare it to other marketing automation software. It’s free for up to 2,000 contacts. However, it costs upwards of $425 or more per month depending on your total number of subscribers.

Pros:

• Saves templates and contacts so you won’t have to start over everytime
• Provides an internal database that helps you store contacts
• Intuitive interface

Cons:

• Understanding list segmentation can be a bit tricky.
• Since they price based on the number of contacts, it can quickly get pretty expensive.

Pricing

Free plan available with 2,000 contacts. Paid plans start at $10/mo for 500 contacts with custom branding and A/B testing.

G2 Rating: 4.3 out of 5

Did you know that you can easily integrate Popupsmart with MailChimp? This way, the leads coming from the subscription popup will automatically be added to your MailChimp lists.

Also, if you use Shopify, take a look at our blog post, How to Add a MailChimp Popup to Shopify Account?

9. Wishpond

Wishpond is not only concentrating on your email marketing automation but also covers a large portion of your marketing needs.

You can use Wishpond to,

• capture leads
• create landing pages
• run social content, promotions, and discounts.

Wishpond has some functional features like other email marketing automation software that I’ve mentioned above. Dripping campaigns, customizing emails, and benefitting from real-time analytics and integrations might be given as examples.

You can track each lead in your database with a comprehensive overview. That means you can track your visitor’s activity individually.

It offers various packages for pricing but when you consider the service you get, it has reasonable pricing plans.

Pros:

• Excellent customer support
• Drag and drop feature

Cons:

• No search bar to search a particular lead
• Lag between campaigns
• Unreliable email deliverability (based on user reviews)

Pricing

Staring at $49/mo for 1,000 leads. You can schedule a demo for a custom plan.

G2 Rating: 3.9 out of 5

10. Benchmark Email

Benchmark Email might be a good fit for you if you’re looking for a basic email automation system. There are a lot of people who don’t want to deal with technicalities and issues that require expertise in this field. For this reason, it has a user-friendly interface and great customer support.

It just does the basics quite well. You can use the drag and drop system without any trouble. I recommend this tool if you’re just after something simple. However, if you’re looking for something more powerful for your email marketing benefits, you should probably consider some other email marketing automation software.

Pros:

• User-friendly and straightforward
• Ability to set limits to your email campaigns
• Easy to navigate dashboard

Cons:

• Not so mobile-friendly
• Doesn’t provide Email Usage report in downloadable format
• Lacks automatic spell-checking

Pricing

Free plan available for 250 emails per month. Paid plans start at $13/mo for unlimited emails but limited features compared to higher price plans.

G2 Rating: 4.1 out of 5

Conclusion

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