7 products tested & ranked

We Tested 7 Best Email Marketing Automation Software — Here's What's Actually Worth It

Expert-tested email platforms ranked by deliverability, automation power, and value

Featuring:

ActiveCampaign·

Mailchimp·

Brevo (Sendinblue)·

GetResponse·

Drip+2 more

Helping 12,000+ professionals choose the right tools

Quick Answer

Our Top 3 Picks at a Glance

See all reviews

Best Overall

ActiveCampaign

From $15/mo (Lite). No free plan.

Advanced automation builder with the deepest workflow logic and excellent email deliverability.

Try ActiveCampaign

Best for Small Teams

Mailchimp

Free plan available. Paid from $13/mo.

The most recognized email marketing platform with accessible automation features perfect for small businesses.

Try Mailchimp

Best Value

Brevo (Sendinblue)

Free plan available. Paid from $9/mo.

Affordable multi-channel marketing platform with email, SMS, WhatsApp, and chat in a single tool.

Try Brevo (Sendinblue)

Email remains the highest-ROI marketing channel, delivering an average return of $36 for every $1 spent. But managing email campaigns manually is unsustainable as your list grows. The right email marketing automation platform handles segmentation, personalization, and triggered sequences while you focus on strategy. We tested the leading platforms across deliverability rates, template quality, A/B testing depth, and automation sophistication to find the best options for every budget and use case.

0Products Tested

0+Hours of Testing

0+Years Experience

0Expert Reviewers

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Our Top Picks

#1 Top Pick

ActiveCampaign

Best Overall

Try ActiveCampaign

#1 Our Top PickFrom $15/mo (Lite). No free plan.

ActiveCampaign

Best for teams that need the most powerful and flexible automation workflows at a reasonable price

Advanced Automation Builder

Email Marketing

Built-in CRM

Lead Scoring

Read Full Review →

Head-to-Head Comparison

Feature	ActiveCampaign	Mailchimp	Brevo (Sendinblue)	GetResponse	Drip	Klaviyo	Customer.io
Starting Price	From $15/mo (Lite). No free plan.	Free plan available. Paid from $13/mo.	Free plan available. Paid from $9/mo.	Free plan available. Paid from $19/mo.	From $39/mo. 14-day free trial.	Free up to 250 contacts. Paid from $20/mo.	From $100/mo (Essentials). Free trial available.
Email Deliverability	Excellent (93%+)	Good (88%+)	Very Good (91%+)	Good (89%+)	Very Good (91%+)	Excellent (94%+)	Excellent (93%+)
Template Library	250+ templates	100+ templates	60+ templates	200+ templates	30+ templates	100+ templates	Custom/code-based
A/B Testing	Advanced multivariate	Standard A/B	Advanced A/B	Advanced A/B	Basic A/B	Advanced A/B	Advanced A/B
Send Time Optimization	AI-powered	Predictive	Yes	AI-powered	Yes	AI-powered	AI-powered
Transactional Email	Yes	Paid add-on	Built-in SMTP	Yes	No	No	Built-in
	Try ActiveCampaign	Try Mailchimp	Try Brevo (Sendinblue)	Try GetResponse	Try Drip	Try Klaviyo	Try Customer.io

Detailed Reviews

Mailchimp

Easiest to Use$13/moBest for small businesses and solopreneurs looking for easy-to-use marketing automation

Pros

Easiest platform to learn and use
AI Creative Assistant for email design
Strong free plan for small lists
Huge integration ecosystem (300+)
Excellent email template library

Cons

Automation features plateau for advanced use cases
Pricing has increased post-Intuit acquisition
Limited lead scoring capabilities

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid from $13/mo.

The most recognized email marketing platform with accessible automation features perfect for small businesses.

Verified this week

Read Full Review →

Brevo (Sendinblue)

Best Value$9/moBest value marketing automation platform with multi-channel capabilities at an affordable price

Pros

Unlimited contacts on all plans (including free)
Multi-channel: email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat, push
Most affordable paid plans starting at $9/mo
Built-in transactional email (great for SaaS)
Strong GDPR compliance (EU-based)

Cons

Automation builder less advanced than ActiveCampaign
Reporting could be more detailed
Free plan limited to 300 emails per day

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid from $9/mo.

Affordable multi-channel marketing platform with email, SMS, WhatsApp, and chat in a single tool.

Verified this week

Read Full Review →

GetResponse

Most Features$19/moBest all-in-one marketing platform for small businesses that want to consolidate their tool stack

Pros

Most feature-rich all-in-one platform
Built-in webinar hosting (unique)
Conversion funnels for end-to-end journeys
AI-powered email content generation
Competitive pricing for the feature set

Cons

Individual features lack depth vs. specialists
Automation builder not as advanced as ActiveCampaign
Webinar quality doesn't match dedicated tools

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid from $19/mo.

All-in-one marketing platform with email, automation, webinars, landing pages, and a website builder bundled together.

Verified this week

Read Full Review →

Drip

Best for E-commerce$39/moBest for DTC e-commerce brands that prioritize customer experience and brand building

Pros

Powerful behavioral segmentation engine
Beautiful visual email builder
Straightforward transparent pricing
Strong Shopify and WooCommerce integration

Cons

Smaller integration ecosystem than competitors
Analytics less revenue-focused than Klaviyo
Limited B2B capabilities

Pricing: From $39/mo. 14-day free trial.

E-commerce marketing automation built for direct-to-consumer brands with powerful segmentation and personalization.

Verified this week

Read Full Review →

Klaviyo

Best for Shopify$20/moBest marketing automation platform for e-commerce brands, especially Shopify stores

Pros

Best-in-class e-commerce automation flows
Deep native Shopify integration
Revenue attribution on every campaign and flow
Predictive analytics (CLV, churn risk, next order date)
Strong SMS + email combined flows

Cons

Not suited for B2B or service businesses
Pricing scales steeply with contact count
Limited CRM capabilities compared to HubSpot

Pricing: Free up to 250 contacts. Paid from $20/mo.

The leading marketing automation platform for e-commerce brands with deep Shopify integration and revenue-focused analytics.

Verified this week

Read Full Review →

Customer.io

Best for SaaS$100/moBest for developer-centric teams that need flexible, event-driven marketing automation

Pros

Most flexible event-driven automation engine
Excellent API and developer documentation
Native data warehouse integrations (Segment, Snowflake)
True multi-channel: email, SMS, push, in-app, webhooks

Cons

Steep learning curve for non-technical users
Requires engineering resources for setup
Email template editor less polished than competitors

Pricing: From $100/mo (Essentials). Free trial available.

Developer-friendly marketing automation with event-driven workflows, flexible API, and powerful data infrastructure.

Verified this week

Read Full Review →

Our Testing Methodology

We evaluated each platform through hands-on testing of email campaign creation, automation workflow building, deliverability monitoring, and integration setup. Our team sent test campaigns across multiple scenarios to measure inbox placement rates and assessed template editors, A/B testing capabilities, and send time optimization features.

Frequently Asked Questions

Email deliverability is the foundation — even the best campaigns fail if they land in spam. After deliverability, look for robust automation workflows that trigger emails based on subscriber behavior, strong segmentation for personalization, and A/B testing to optimize subject lines, content, and send times over time.

Prices range from free (Mailchimp, Brevo, GetResponse) to $29-100+/month for paid plans. Most platforms price based on subscriber count. For a list of 5,000 contacts, expect to pay $30-80/month for a mid-tier plan. Enterprise features like advanced reporting and dedicated IPs increase costs significantly.

Yes. Export your subscriber list as a CSV from your current platform and import it into the new one. Most platforms handle this smoothly. However, you will lose historical engagement data (open rates, click history) and need to rebuild automation workflows. Plan a 2-4 week overlap period for migration.

A good deliverability rate is 90% or higher. The best platforms in our testing (ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Customer.io) achieve 93-95% inbox placement. Rates below 85% indicate potential issues with your sending reputation, list hygiene, or authentication setup (SPF, DKIM, DMARC).

Written by

Alex ThompsonSenior Technology Analyst

Alex Thompson has spent over 8 years evaluating B2B SaaS platforms, from CRM systems to marketing automation tools. He specializes in hands-on product testing and translating complex features into clear, actionable recommendations for growing businesses.

SaaS ReviewsProduct AnalysisB2B SoftwareTech Strategy

Our Top 3 Picks at a Glance

Our Top Picks

ActiveCampaign

Head-to-Head Comparison

Detailed Reviews

Mailchimp

Pros

Cons

Brevo (Sendinblue)

Pros

Cons

GetResponse

Pros

Cons

Drip

Pros

Cons

Klaviyo

Pros

Cons

Customer.io

Pros

Cons

Our Testing Methodology

Frequently Asked Questions

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