March 28, 2024

10 Best Email Automation Tools

for Growing Businesses (2024)

Reading time about 13 min

Email automation software helps you send

targeted email campaigns to your subscriber list
without having to spend hours personalizing and
tracking each email. Read on to find out which
email marketing automation tool best fits your
business needs.

All email marketing automation software works in

the same way, by sending emails based on triggers
— pre-defined steps your prospects will take in
their customer journey.
Unlike regular marketing emails that are sent to a
contact list on a fixed schedule or at intervals (like
in a drip campaign), automated emails are sent
when customer behavior matches the conditions
defined in an automated workflow.

What to look for in email

marketing automation
software
Pricing for email marketing automation platforms
generally fall into two categories:

•subscribers)
Pricing that limits the number of contacts (aka

• Pricing that limits the number of email sends

Some email automation tools are more expensive

when you have a large number of subscribers.
Ecommerce businesses typically have a large
contact list which makes email service providers
with unlimited contacts particularly attractive from
a pricing standpoint.

Agencies and other types of businesses with

fewer, high-value clients usually have a much
smaller contact list and are therefore likely to favor
ESPs who only limit the number of sent emails.

Other things to look out for in an email automation

platform:

• Contact management with list and tag sorting

•tracking
CMS & website integrations that include visitor
•andCross promotional messaging tools like SMS
Live Chat

•templates
Ready-made and fully customizable email

• Direct email messaging and autoresponders

• Custom landing pages with opt-in forms
•templates
Automated workflow builder with workflow

•email
drag-and-drop editor with the option to edit
HTML directly

Further reading: Marketing Automation Benefits

The 10 best email

automation tools
There are plenty of email marketing software
providers and each has different strengths and
pricing schemes.

To make it easier for you to select the best

marketing solution for your business, we’ve
narrowed down our list to only include providers
with quality customer support, great ease of use,
and transparent pricing models.

1 Brevo – Best Overall

2 Hubspot – Best for Agencies

3 Constant Contact – Best for Event Marketing

4 MailerLite – Best for Bloggers

5 ActiveCampaign – Best for SaaS (Integrations)

6 GetResponse – Best for Influencers (Webinars,
Live Collaboration)

7 Drip – Best for Online Storefronts

8 Omnisend – Best for Ecommerce

9 Mailchimp – Best for Creatives

10 EmailOctopus – Best for Web Developers

1. Brevo

Brevo is an email marketing automation platform

that caters to businesses of all sizes.

Email marketing beginners can launch their first

campaign in minutes using ready workflows and
email templates. More experienced marketers can
quickly create landing pages and run cross-
promotions with Facebook ads, push notifications,
WhatsApp, and SMS all in one dashboard.
An AI subject line generator will help you get your
emails opened and read.

You can also connect your website with one-click

integrations for WordPress, Shopify, and
PrestaShop, or use Zapier to connect thousands
of apps to streamline your workflow. Website
tracking makes it possible to use any user action or
website event for automation and engagement.

Examples of popular automation workflows, ready

to be activated in Brevo

Brevo’s extensible API gives developers the power

to create custom plugins for any use case, such as
transactional emails triggered by in-app
interactions, or smart product recommendations
for a custom storefront.

Best features
What makes Brevo stand out is its high rate of
email deliverability. Getting your emails into the
inbox of your subscribers — and avoiding spam
labels — is crucial for the success of all your email
campaigns.

Brevo uses double opt-in by default and lets you

divide transactional and marketing emails into
separate streams with different IP addresses (for
free). Brevo also lets you automatically exclude
unengaged subscribers, effectively guaranteeing
higher open rates.

Pricing
On the Free plan, Brevo provides audience
segmentation, signup forms, a Sales Platform, page
tracking, and marketing automation workflows for
up to 2,000 contacts with a sending limit of 300
emails per day.

Paid plans start at $9 a month, no daily sending

limits start at $25/month. Unlimited automation
and full features start at $65/month.

Automate your email

campaigns with Brevo

Free plan includes access to email automation

workflows, 300 emails/day, 40+ email
templates, and customizable signup forms to
grow your contact list.

Open my free Brevo account now >>

2. HubSpot
HubSpot is a widely used email automation tool
among marketing agencies. Its most popular
features are contact management, email tracking,
and lead scoring.

While HubSpot is more of a CRM tool and most

often associated with its lead generation pipeline,
it has plenty of other features in its Marketing Hub
toolset that make it a full-featured email marketing
tool.

Best features
Dynamic list building, segmentation, lead routing,
and internal notifications make it the ideal tool for
sales and marketing teams that want to work in
collaboration.

Pricing

HubSpot has a feature-restricted free plan which

provides basic contact management with up to
one million free contacts.

Its Basic plan starts at $50/month. However, as

soon as you can upgrade to the Professional plan
of its Marketing Hub to take advantage of
automation features, the costs skyrocket to
$890/month along with a mandatory $3000 (one-
off) onboarding fee.

If you’re a marketing agency that caters to high-

value accounts, HubSpot is certainly worth the
investment. But for businesses with basic needs,
its hefty price tag and piecemeal approach to
unlocking functionality might not feel justified.
3. Constant Contact
Constant Contact is perhaps the only email
marketing tool in this list that could be referred to
as legacy software, with a history that dates back
to the mid-nineties. While its user interface might
feel outdated and uninspired, its simplicity makes it
easier to use for a non-technical audience.

It comes with all the features you’d expect to see

in time-tested email automation software, including
list management, workflow automations,
embeddable website forms, and simplified
reporting.

Best features
What makes Constant Contact stand out from the
competition is its niche event marketing tools that
let you manage registrations for classes,
workshops, fundraisers, product demos, and more.

When paired with its social media management

capabilities, marketers can easily set up a content
calendar, respond to messages in real-time, and run
social ads on Instagram and Facebook.

Pricing
Constant Contact doesn’t have a free plan. Its
pricing starts at $9.99/month for its Core Plan
which comes with a 500 subscriber limit.

Constant Contact ’s costs scale according to the

number of total subscribers and is generally more
expensive than other tools with a similar feature
set. If this doesn’t fit your needs, find out more
about Constant Contact alternatives.

4. MailerLite
MailerLite is a relatively new contender in the email
marketing space and prides itself on being an email
automation tool designed from the ground up for
beginners.

However, it lacks the level of depth required for an

advanced marketing workflow, such as timing
emails based on website visits, or making product
recommendations based on individual customer
shopping history.

Best features
Its user-friendly design makes setting up workflow
triggers simple and intuitive for those who are
completely new to email marketers.

Pricing
For just $10/month, MailerLite provides an email list
manager, landing pages, ecommerce integrations
(Shopify, Woocommerce, Gumroad, etc), and a
pop-up builder.

But to take advantage of multiple triggers in a

single workflow automation (a very useful feature),
its base price jumps to $21/month on the
Advanced Plan — which many would consider its
real price tag.
5. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a email automation platform

that lets you fine-tune email marketing campaigns
with incredible precision. Contacts can be sorted
into both lists and tags, which opens up many
more creative ways to design a marketing strategy.

ActiveCampaign also has its own built-in CRM and

the unique ability to smoothly transition from list-
based campaigns to one-to-one conversations as
the need arises.

Best Features
Direct emails, canned responses and personalized
email signatures make ActiveCampaign a favorite
among sales teams that want to double up on
their marketing efforts.

Pricing
The Lite Plan starts at $15/month for 500
contacts and quickly increases in price as the
number of subscribers increases. Most of its cross-
channel marketing features like SMS, landing pages,
and branded forms are only available on the Plus
Plan or higher, which starts at $70/month —
making it one of the pricier options on this list.

Over 850+ supported integrations and a robust

API make ActiveCampaign a good fit for SaaS
companies that want highly customizable emails
triggered by a broad range of user actions.
6. GetResponse

GetResponse is a full-featured marketing

automation suite with a few neat features that set
it apart from more specialized email automation
software, including a webinar hosting tool, live
chat, and an AI-powered website generator.

Its advanced contact management and flexible

workflow automation builder are similar to
ActiveCampaign.

GetResponse’s free plan lets you send newsletter

campaigns with a 500 contacts limit, along with
just one landing page, sign-up forms, and pop-up
ups.

Best features
GetResponse is a great tool for influencer
marketing, especially for businesses that frequently
host webinars and collaborative online events.

Pricing
The Email Marketing plan starts at $19/month but
only provides basic segmentation, and email
automation is strictly limited to autoresponders.

From $59/month, the Marketing Automation plan

comes with email marketing and event-based
automation.
Read more: 9 Best Email Autoresponders [Free and
Paid]

7. Drip
Drip is a streamlined email marketing automation
tool designed exclusively for online storefronts. Its
native ecommerce integrations include Shopify,
Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. Its
API can be extended to work with custom
storefronts as well.

Drip also provides a useful set of workflow

templates that include abandoned cart, post-
purchase, win-back, birthday, and welcome emails.

Best features

Retail brands love Drip’s smart analytics which

drives personalized product recommendations. Drip
also syncs its segmentation feature with Facebook
Custom Audience insights to create comprehensive
customer profiles.

Pricing

Drip has the most straightforward pricing structure:

$39/month for all its features with a 2,500
contacts limit and unlimited email sends.

However, sending limits are imposed when email

senders hit 30,000 contacts which makes this
seemingly inexpensive app much more costly at
scale.
8. Omnisend

Omnisend is like Drip’s more fashionable cousin. It

targets larger, multi-store ecommerce businesses.

Its greatest time-saver is the dynamic customer

lifecycle feature that automatically assigns tags to
customers based on where they are in their
customer journey.

Best features
Omnisend intuitively combines shopping history and
social media interactions with ad retargeting on
Google and Facebook to generate actionable
customer data.

Pricing
Its free plan gives you access to all its features if
you have a subscriber list of fewer than 250
contacts and plan on sending less than 500 emails
per month.

At $16/month, the subscriber limit is raised to 500

contacts and the sending limit rises to 6000 emails
per month.

Omnisend’s Pro plan bundles unlimited email sends

with a small SMS quota and starts at $59/month
for up to 2500 contacts. Its pricing increases in
proportion to the number of active contacts.

9. Mailchimp
Mailchimp was once a simple newsletter tool that
anyone could use. It gradually evolved into a much
more complex email marketing automation platform
over time.

Mailchimp supports signup forms and surveys, a

website builder, and separate volume pricing for
transactional emails.

However, Mailchimp’s newest features are entirely

geared toward designers and creative agencies.

Best features
Mailchimp’s content studio tool resizes content to
fit non-traditional email design layouts. An email
subject line helper and content optimizer supply
marketers with helpful real-time suggestions. Its
new creative assistant AI can even auto-generate
email designs from company branding assets.

Pricing
Mailchimp’s free plan comes with a marketing CRM,
website builder, forms, landing pages, and a
monthly limit of 1,000 email sends (500 sends/day)
and 500 contacts. Sounds limited? Check out the
best Mailchimp alternatives.

Its Essential plan starts at $13/month with limited

customer journey mapping.

Mailchimp only really becomes a modern email

automation tool when you upgrade to its Premium
plan — which starts at $350/month and unlock its
advanced segmentation, A/B testing, and
comparative reporting features.

10. EmailOctopus
EmailOctopus is a barebones email automation
software that gives its users the option to route
their emails through Amazon Simple Email Service
(SES).

Its email routing feature is aimed at developers

who want the benefits of a simple email marketing
service to help collect new subscribers and
automate transactional and promotional emails.

Best features
The ability to route emails through Amazon SES
makes EmailOctopus significantly cheaper than
most email service providers and a good fit for
businesses with basic email marketing needs and
their own in-house developer team.

Pricing
The Connect Starter plan is free for up to 2,500
subscribers with unlimited emails (sent through the
Amazon SES service).

The EmailOctopus logo will be removed when you

upgrade to their Connect Pro plan, which starts at
just $7/month for 500 subscribers.
 Need help choosing the
right email automation
software?
We’ll guide you through the process of integrating
your website or app and show you which features
and pricing plan best fit your business needs.

Brevo has all the email marketing automation tools

you’ll need to grow your business in one place at an
affordable price.

Create my free Brevo account now >>

About the author

Brevo
Brevo is an all-in-one CRM suite that helps you build customer
relationships across email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat, and more.

Email Marketing

CRM

Chat & Messaging

 Omnichannel

Software Guides

Inside Brevo

Transactional

Featured articles

11 Best Mailchimp Alternatives Compared (2024):

Make the Switch

Reading time about 29 min

19 Best Cheap Email Marketing Services (May

2024)
 Reading time about 21 min

How to Send Mass Email in Gmail: A Step-by-

Step Guide

Reading time about 17 min

A Quick & Easy Guide to Sending Mass Email in

Outlook

Reading time about 11 min

11 Best Email Marketing Platforms for Small
Business (2024)

Reading time about 25 min

Get Free Email Templates: HTML, Responsive and

Customizable

Reading time about 10 min

 Ready to grow with Brevo?
Get the tools you need to reach your
customers and grow your business.

Sign up free

PRODUCT COMPARE

Why Brevo? Bulk email service

Email marketing Email marketing platforms

Transactional email Brevo vs Mailchimp

Enterprise solution Brevo vs HubSpot

All features Brevo vs Constant Contact

Pricing Brevo vs Klaviyo

Integrations Mailchimp alternatives

GDPR HubSpot alternatives

Security

Product updates

RESOURCES PARTNERS

Help center All partner programs

Platform status Affiliates

Community Experts

Blog Startups & VCs

Success Integration partners

Academy Find an expert

Developers

Migrate from Mailchimp

COMPANY

About us

Leadership

Careers

Press

Carbon footprint

Contact us

Cookie Settings

Anti-spam

Privacy

User Agreement

Legal Notice

Responsible Disclosure
© Brevo 2024. All rights reserved