The Best Email Marketing Software – Ranked and Reviewed

In this article, we're going to be talking you through the best email marketing software on the market to help you decide which platform is the best choice for your business.

Whether you're a blogger, e-commerce entrepreneur, or even a brick-and-mortar business owner, an email marketing strategy should be a key part of your marketing plan.

Choosing the right email marketing platform for your business is essential. Every business has different needs, so it's important to find a service that's the right fit for you.

That way, you can decide for yourself which is right for your business.

In a rush?

For a great choice overall, you can't go wrong with ActiveCampaign!

Best Email Marketing Software

Let's jump right into the list!

And make sure you look into whatever tool looks to best serve your specific needs.

ActiveCampaign (Overall Winner)

ActiveCampaign is a full-service email marketing and marketing automation platform with built-in CRM software.

ActiveCampaign helps you grow your business and increase conversions by focusing on the customer journey and experience.

The main features include:

• Email marketing
• Marketing automation
• CRM
• Sales engagement
• Service and support features
• Site tracking
• Predictive content
• Forms and landing pages
• Lead scoring

ActiveCampaign enables you to publish content that creates, builds, and nurtures relationships with your customers.

This is done by offering a wide range of personalization and automation features that keep your customers naturally engaged.

Each template can be used as it is or customized to suit your branding, using the drag and drop email builder.

Personalizing emails is very quick and easy too. And you can personalize a range of different fields in each email marketing campaign you send.

The box will then be automatically filled differently for each subscriber, depending on pre-defined parameters, to get the best conversion rate.

You can also create multiple workflows which automatically send emails depending on where the subscriber has come from and how they've interacted with your content in order to get the best conversion rate possible.

ActiveCampaign Pros and Cons

PROS:

• Fantastic automation options
• Stunning email templates
• Personalized and predictive content
• Detailed analytics
• Send highly targeted emails
• CRM
• High deliverability rates

CONS:

ConvertKit (Best email marketing software for bloggers)

ConvertKit is one of the most popular email marketing platforms for bloggers. It's easy to see why.

ConvertKit's main features include:

• Forms and landing pages
• Easy-to-use email designer
• Sell digital products
• Automatic lead magnet delivery
• Personalized content
• Automation

The email templates are on-trend and eye-catching. They look professional without needing any changes.

However, if you do need to edit the templates to make them more on brand, then this is easy to do with the drag and drop email builder.

The analytics show you everything that you might need without overwhelming you with too many small details.

Should you get stuck, ConvertKit is known for offering excellent customer service through live chat, email, and a Facebook group for customers. They also have an extensive help section with lots of tutorials and troubleshooting guides.

ConvertKit understands that bloggers often wear many different hats. They've used this to create tools that make it easy to segment your audience according to their interests and where they signed up or other details.

They also make it easy to automate emails with different workflows. This allows you to create responsive emails that are well targeted with very minimal effort.

There are over 70 integrations to choose from. These include big names like Shopify, Freshworks CRM, WordPress, Zoho CRM, Teachable, and Instagram.

If you want to know more about how ConvertKit works, check out our in-depth ConvertKit review.

ConvertKit Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Easy to use
• Focused on bloggers
• Excellent customer service
• Affordable
• Easy to segment your audience

CONS:

Flodesk (easiest to use)

Every part of the software is dedicated to helping beginners learn how to send effective emails and understand the analytics in order to be able to learn from them and improve their content.

Flodesk's main features include:

• Intuitive email builder
• Forms and landing pages
• Unlimited subscribers
• Unlimited email sending
• Integrates with Shopify
• Powerful automation features

You can customize one of the templates, or build your own design entirely from scratch without needing to know any code.

Once you've perfected your email template, you'll find that the email scheduler is laid out in a way that walks you through each step.

Automation is a big part of the Flodesk ecosystem. The beginner-friendly dashboard guides you step-by-step through the process of creating a workflow, giving you lots of different options.

This includes delaying when an email is sent, or the ability to start at several different points and join workflows together further into the process.

Flodesk does this by offering an extensive help section with walkthrough tutorials and troubleshooting.

If this doesn't help then there is a Facebook group for customers to seek support as well as a dedicated email address. You can check out our in-depth Flodesk review for a more detailed rundown of how it all works.

Flodesk pros and cons:

PROS:

• Easy to use
• Beginner-friendly
• Excellent customer support
• 30-day free trial
• Great automation options

CONS:

HubSpot's Marketing Hub

HubSpot is one of the popular email marketing platforms on this list, and it's easy to see why. It has taken the most common obstacles faced by marketers and used this to create an all-in-one marketing platform that covers all the bases.

HubSpot's Marketing Hub Includes:

• Email marketing
• Marketing automation
• Forms and landing pages
• Live chat
• Social media ads
• Contact management
• Extensive reporting

It allows you to create multiple workflows to automate your email marketing. You're able to create time-specific emails that reflect things like attendance at webinars.

Another option you have is personalizing automation to help guide a user through a course, with caveats put in for whether or not they opened the previous email.

As you would expect, HubSpot has lots of email templates to choose from. These are split into folders by purpose (including a section on email templates for start-ups).

The only gripe is that editing email templates can be a struggle without the drag and drop editor that most other platforms feature. Once you've sent your email, you're able to monitor interaction with a very detailed analytics setting. However, it can take time to fully understand it.

HubSpot Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Extensive free plan
• Includes social media advertising features
• Geared towards high conversions
• A large number of integrations

CONS:

Constant Contact

This dedicated email marketing platform focuses on creating emails that people actually want to open.

They've worked hard to ensure that emails sent through the platform don't land in spam, too. So, you can be sure that your audience is actually receiving your updates.

The main features include:

• Email marketing
• Landing pages and signup forms
• List management
• Advanced segmentation
• Social media advertising
• Surveys, polls, and event RSVP

The platform searches your website to find your logo, brand colors, and social media profiles and automatically adds them to any email templates that you open.

There are lots of templates to choose from. You're even able to save your favorites for next time. This is a really useful feature that surprisingly few platforms offer.

Overall, Constant Contact is a really intuitive and easy platform to use. It's a great choice for beginners and experienced marketers alike. You can read our Constant Contact review for more details.

Constant Contact Pros and Cons:

PROS: 

• Easy to use
• Features a drag and drop editor
• Good deliverability rates
• Lots of modern templates to choose from
• Generous 60-day free trial

CONS:

Sendinblue

Sendinblue is an all-in-one CRM and email marketing automation software service. It offers an impressive list of features to help you improve the effectiveness of your email marketing.

Sendinblue's main features include:

• Email marketing
• SMS marketing
• Chat
• CRM
• Marketing automation
• Transactional emails
• Segmentation
• Landing pages and forms
• Facebook ads
• A/B testing
• Visual heat map

The email automation is workflow-based and very effective. You can create transactional messages that send automatically, assign lead scores to each subscriber, or trigger emails to be sent as a result of a subscriber's interaction with your website.

The platform is well built with logical menus and workflows that make it incredibly simple to send stunning emails with no experience.

You can add plenty of personalizations to your emails, including conditional content. While there are only a limited number of email templates, they're easy to customize to fit your own needs.

It's one of the only free plans on this list to offer email automation without payment.

The free plan also allows you to send up to 300 emails per day, have unlimited contacts, use the form builder, have live chat, and do segmentation. Even the paid plans are very affordable, so it's a great option if you're just starting out.

Find out more about this software in our Sendinblue review. Or find out how it performs against another email marketing solution in our Sendinblue vs Mailchimp article.

Sendinblue Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Very affordable pricing plans
• Great email automation
• Added bonus of SMS marketing
• High-value WordPress plugin for free

CONS:

Sendinblue's paid plans start at just $25/month and increase depending on how many emails you need to send each month. There is also a free plan which allows unlimited subscribers. That allows you to send up to 300 emails per day.

Drip

Drip is often named as one of the best email marketing tools for e-commerce businesses.

Drip's main features include:

• Forms and popups
• Email marketing
• Automation
• Segmentation and personalization
• SMS marketing
• Transactional email sending

Drip offers an impressive array of marketing automation and segmentation tools.

Workflows are highly adaptable and sophisticated. They allow you to tailor the automation to exactly what your business needs.

This means that your subscribers will receive highly personalized emails that are triggered by the actions they take on your website. They'll also receive follow-ups based on how they engage with your previous emails.

Any content not related to e-commerce will rely on heavily editing email templates to be more of an update.

Drip doesn't offer a free plan and the monthly pricing is fairly middle of the range, starting at $19 for 500 contacts.

It's definitely not the most affordable on this list but it's 100% worth it if you run an e-commerce store.

Drip Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Great for e-commerce sites
• Offers optimized workflow templates
• Offers customization that targets very small segments of users for maximum ROI
• Easy to use

CONS:

MailerLite

MailerLite has built a reputation over the years for being one of the easiest email marketing tools to use.

MailerLite's main features include:

• Drag and drop email editor
• Website builder
• Landing pages, pop-ups, and forms
• Automation
• Personalization
• Segmentation
• A/B testing
• Auto resend
• Click maps

MailerLite has a big focus on simplicity. Because of this, they've removed anything that needlessly complicates the process of sending emails.

One of the best things about MailerLite is its optimization features. It includes A/B testing and can auto-deliver your emails depending on the subscriber's time zone. It will also automatically resend any emails that were unopened the first time.

There are over 130 integrations available. So, whatever tools you are using should work seamlessly with MailerLite (and don't miss our full Mailerlite review to learn all about it).

MailerLite Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Clutter-free interface
• Easy to use drag and drop email builder
• Offers a free plan for up to 1000 contacts
• Great email support

CONS:

Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a powerful full-service marketing platform that offers email marketing as part of its holistic approach to marketing and relationship building.

It is a fairly new platform. However, it already has the backing of big-name brands like ColourPop and Huckberry who both use them for marketing and growth.

The main features include:

• Email marketing
• Segmentation
• Automation
• Customer profiles
• Personalization
• Forms and landing pages
• A/B testing

Klaviyo focuses on growth marketing, and as such, they aim to help you deliver personalized marketing across multiple channels.

These include email, SMS (we have a list of SMS marketing platforms worth checking out), in-app notifications, and on your website, allowing you to create eye-catching content across all platforms.

There are a number of automation templates for inspiration, too, which you can adjust to better fit your needs. You can A/B test content from multiple parts of your communications and the extensive analytics allow you to see every detail of how an email was delivered and interacted with.

The drag-and-drop email editor creates HTML emails without you needing to be able to code.

Customer service is rated as excellent. There's also an extensive help section that allows you to work through any issues on your own outside of support hours.

With all of these detailed features, you would expect a high price tag. However, Klaviyo actually works out to be a tool with one of those lowest email marketing software cost available. Plans start at just $20 per month with no setup fee for new users.

We have more details in our Klaviyo vs. Mailchimp review.

Klaviyo Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Excellent automation options
• A huge number of dynamic features
• Still user-friendly and supportive of beginners
• Very cost-effective
• Focuses on growth
• Encourages you to show up across multiple platforms

CONS:

• Finding your way around the software could take time to get used to
• Focuses on growth more than conversion

EmailOctopus

EmailOctopus provides a simple and affordable solution to email marketing. It offers everything you need to grow your list and scale your business, even on the free plan.

The main features include:

• Email marketing
• Forms and landing pages
• Beautiful templates
• Automation
• Custom fields
• Unlimited users
• Live chat support

EmailOctopus has an excellent reputation for its powerful email automation tools.

The content tool allows users to share their most-read content with new subscribers and allows users to keep their audience engaged. It does this by delivering a constant stream of content with minimal ongoing effort.

EmailOctopus offers an extensive range of email templates that are catered to a diverse range of online businesses, rather than focusing on a very narrow market sector like other email marketing platforms.

EmailOctopus offers a wide range of native integrations with a lot of big-name brands like Mailchimp, Salesforce, Shopify, Eventbrite, and more.

EmailOctopus Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Very generous free plan
• Lots of templates for every part of the process
• Responsive and professional-looking templates
• Easy drag and drop builder

CONS:

Omnisend

Omnisend has had a fairly slow start compared to other email marketing platforms on this list, but that doesn't make it any less powerful.

Omnisend's main features include:

• Marketing automation
• Email marketing
• SMS
• Web push notifications
• Forms and popups
• Segmentation
• A/B testing

One of the things that Omnisend does best is automation. There are lots of different filters, triggers, and conditions to choose from as well as plenty of workflow templates that guide you through the automation process if you're a beginner.

The workflow editor is very easy to use as well. This is great if you want to customize one of the automation templates.

The platform offers lots of tools like personalized product suggestions built into your emails, scratch cards, and gift boxes.

Omnisend Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• The free version offers extensive features
• Plenty of email automation tools
• Automation workflow templates that are customizable
• Sales tracking
• Added function of SMS marketing

CONS:

GetResponse

GetResponse calls itself the easiest email marketing tool on the market. The platform is packed full of features and the membership plans are very competitively priced.

GetResponse's main features include:

• Email marketing
• Sales funnels
• Lead magnet delivery
• Website builder
• Push notifications
• Landing pages and forms
• Live chat
• Webinars
• Paid ads

Email newsletter creation is done using the intuitive drag and drop page builder. This makes it easy to edit templates or create newsletters from scratch.

Personalization is fairly limited but you can personalize subject lines, email text, and contact data (including backup options if this customer data doesn't exist) for all the personalized email marketing campaigns you create.

GetResponse offers a very user-friendly workflow editor.

It allows you to choose from a range of workflow templates that you can customize, or you can start from scratch. You're able to create complex workflows that feed into each other, but you need at least the Plus package to access any of this.

List management is detailed, allowing plenty of segmentation options on any plan.

GetResponse Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Easy to use
• Limited free plan
• Flexible template designs
• Simple list management
• Good deliverability

CONS:

AWeber

AWeber is widely considered a leader in the world of email marketing tools. It has been around for over 20 years now. In this time, it has supported small businesses of all types in growing their business through email marketing.

AWeber's main features include:

• Email marketing (of course)
• Drag and drop email builder
• Advanced automation
• Landing pages and forms
• Sales funnels
• Segmentation and tagging

Most of the AWeber platform is easy to use, and the menus are fairly easy to follow (learn all about it in our AWeber review or check out how it stacks up in our AWeber vs Infusionsoft comparison). However, there are a few hidden sections that can be confusing to new users.

The email builder uses a drag-and-drop interface which allows you to easily add things like image carousels and event RSVPs. It also gives you the ability to allow customers to leave a product review without even clicking off the email.

It also offers plenty of options for detailed segmentation, and you're able to set up automation rules for list categorization.

AWeber Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• One of the original email marketing platforms
• Excellent list management options
• Sales tracking
• Industry-leading deliverability
• Great customer support and education for new users

CONS:

Moosend

If you're looking for a great email marketing platform on a tight budget then Moosend is a strong contender.

Moosend's main features include:

• Email marketing tools
• Personalization
• Segmentation
• CRM tools
• Forms and landing pages
• E-commerce AI
• User tracking

Despite being the most affordable option on the list, Moosend still offers plenty of advanced features.

The newsletter templates are simple but still eye-catching and responsive. They are also very easy to customize with the campaign editor.

Moosend offers intelligent and data-driven email automation and personalization for newsletters, landing pages, and subscription forms. The platform is very user-friendly, too!

If you need any help, their office is based in the UK and offers unrivaled customer support.

Moosend Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Very cost-effective
• Plenty of automation options
• Excellent customer support
• CRM features

CONS:

SendX

SendX is one of the newer email marketing platforms, having launched in 2016. They are committed to making email marketing accessible to beginners as well as more experienced users.

They've put a lot of work into making their platform user-friendly as well as maximizing deliverability. This makes them one of the best options for an affordable but feature-heavy email marketing solution.

SendX's main features include:

• Email marketing
• Drag-and-drop editor
• Email automation
• Dedicated IP
• A/B testing
• Embed video into drip emails

SendX offers a number of email templates that are easily customizable through their drag and drop email builder.

They also offer powerful automation tools which allow you to start your subscribers on a journey depending on how they've interacted with previous emails or content on your website. You can use this to turn warm leads into customers.

SendX guarantees the best deliverability, ensuring that emails are delivered into the primary inbox, avoiding promotions or spam.

They also offer additional tools like landing pages and pop-up forms to help you grow your list.

There isn't a free version, but you do have a 14-day free trial. Overall, SendX is a great all-rounder but just lacks a little “oomph” to make them stand out.

SendX Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Best deliverability guaranteed
• Dedicated IP
• Powerful automation
• Unlimited emails

CONS:

Ontraport

Ontraport is an all-in-one marketing and CRM platform with email marketing at the heart of the platform.

Ontraport's main features include:

• CRM
• Email marketing
• Marketing automation
• Tracking and attribution
• Lead scoring
• Payments

Ontraport is very beginner-friendly. The dashboard is easy to navigate and most features are self-explanatory.

There are plenty of customizable templates to choose from, but if you want to start from scratch, they also have a free course on email design to help you create on-brand and eye-catching newsletters.

Ontraport's email deliverability is fairly middle of the road. However, you do get extensive deliverability reports to help you improve the chance of your emails landing in the primary inbox. You can do this using the advanced AB testing features.

Ontraport Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Great email templates
• Easy to use
• A fair choice of integrations
• Easy to access customer service

CONS:

Benchmark

Benchmark email is a fairly new player in the email marketing service game. It focuses on delivering an uncomplicated platform that's user-friendly for all experience levels.

They even offer a free forever plan, although you can only send 250 emails per month. After that, paid memberships start at just $15 per month.

Benchmark's main features include:

• Email marketing
• Marketing automation
• Lead generation
• Landing pages and forms

As part of their “keep it simple approach” the email editor is a breeze. Everything you might need is laid out clearly in easy-to-navigate menus.

There is a wide variety of high-quality templates which you can sort in multiple different ways, and all of the templates are flexible and easy to customize.

The workflow editor is visual which makes it much easier to set up.

While the platform itself is great, Benchmark lets itself down on deliverability. Additionally, they only offer a minute amount of storage on their platform and then charge $5 for an upgrade, rather than working it into their pricing plans.

Benchmark Pros and Cons:

PROS:

• Easy to use
• Affordable
• Menus are easy to navigate
• Automation is simple

CONS:

How to Choose the Best Email Marketing Tools for Your Business

It's easy to feel overwhelmed when trying to decide which platform to choose, simply because there are so many options. Here are a few things to consider when doing your research.

Ease of Use

How easy is the platform to use? Take advantage of the free trials to get a feel for the tool before making a decision.

Try building a simple email or landing page to get a feel for how intuitive and easy to use it is.

Features

Think carefully about the features you will want to use.

Unfortunately, not all services offer all of these features. So, it's important to check before tying yourself to a plan.

Integrations

Integrations are the lifeblood of any email marketing platform.

Being able to connect your sales funnel to your CRM, adding in Instagram posts, or enhancing your analytics by connecting Google Analytics or WordPress is essential.

Pricing

If you're just getting started, budget is likely going to be a deciding factor when it comes to choosing an email marketing platform.

It's important to know your budget before you start comparing software so you don't waste time researching something that you definitely can't afford.

The Verdict: Which is the best email marketing software overall?

So, which are the best email marketing services? Taking your budget, non-negotiable features, level of experience, and what integrations you need into account will hopefully have allowed you to discount some options on this list.

But the question is, which is the best email marketing software overall?

Best Email Marketing Service for Bloggers:

If you're a blogger or content creator then ConvertKit wins hands down.

They've worked hard to create a platform for all abilities that allows you to create high-quality, on-trend emails with minimal effort. The analytics are incredibly useful and the automation options are all geared towards content creators.

Best Email Marketing Software for E-commerce:

For e-commerce businesses, Drip is undoubtedly the best option. It's packed full of advanced features that will help you maximize your conversions and grow your business.

Best Email Marketing Service for Beginners:

If you're a total beginner and you want something that focuses on usability, then Flodesk is the platform for you. They founded the company out of frustration at other platforms feeling over-complicated, and they've succeeded in their aim of fixing this.

There's also a huge amount of support if you do get stuck and the setup process walks you through everything.

It's a great option if you're a small business owner looking for something uncomplicated and effective.

Best Email Marketing Software for Service Providers:

However, if you're looking for something that will do everything and grow with you, then you can't beat ActiveCampaign. It's the best email marketing service for coaches and service providers thanks to its in-built CRM.

There are hundreds of integrations for all business types and the marketing automation capabilities are second to none. It really can't be beaten!

If you're still on the fence though, check out our comparison review of GetResponse vs ActiveCampaign.

And if you want to make you get the most out of any software you eventually choose, be sure to also check out our list of spam trigger words!

If you're still on the fence check out:

How Can Email Marketing Fuel Your Overall Inbound Strategy?

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