Email Marketing Software Comparison (2026)
Rather than a curated top five, this page lays out all 25 email marketing tools in one table so you can scan the whole market at a glance.
Each row shows the real entry price, whether there is a genuine free plan (not just a trial), who the tool is built for and its one standout, with the tool name linking to our full overview, review and pricing breakdown.
How we compare: prices and free-plan status are read from each vendor's public plans; “free plan” means a tier you can keep using at $0, distinct from a trial. “Best for” and the standout come from each tool's own positioning and our enriched notes. We list every tool in the niche, including ones we wouldn't recommend, and flag any that are discontinued. How we evaluate →
All 25 email marketing tools compared
| Tool | Entry price | Free plan? | Best for | Standout | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign review · pricing | from $15/mo | No | Automation-heavy workflows and SMBs needing CRM + email | The go-to when you need genuinely advanced marketing automation plus a built-in CRM without enterprise pricing. | Visit → |
| AWeber review · pricing | See pricing | Free plan | Small businesses and Reliable deliverability | A 25+ year veteran whose main edge is reliable deliverability and genuine 24/7 phone support. | Visit → |
| Beehiiv review · pricing | See pricing | Free plan | Newsletter operators and Newsletter monetization | Built by ex-Morning Brew operators specifically to grow and monetize newsletters, with a referral engine and ad network baked in. | Visit → |
| Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) review · pricing | from $9/mo | Free plan | Send-volume pricing and Transactional + marketing email | Charges by emails sent rather than contacts, making it unusually cheap for big lists that send infrequently, with serious transactional… | Visit → |
| ClickFunnels review · pricing | from $97/mo | Trial only | Sales funnels and Direct-response marketers | The category-defining funnel builder, bundling pages, checkout, courses and email for direct-response marketers. | Visit → |
| Constant Contact review · pricing | Free plan available | Trial only | Small businesses and nonprofits and Event marketing | A beginner-first platform with unusually strong event/registration marketing for small businesses and nonprofits. | Visit → |
| Drip review · pricing | from $39/mo | Trial only | DTC / ecommerce brands and Revenue-attributed automation | An ecommerce email/SMS CRM with a single flat feature set, billed only on contact count. | Visit → |
| EmailOctopus review · pricing | See pricing | Free plan | Low-cost simple sending and Beginners | Low-cost simplicity, with an option to ride Amazon SES economics for cheap sending. | Visit → |
| Flodesk review · pricing | from $38/mo | No | Designers and small creative brands and Flat-rate unlimited sending | The design-first email tool: beautiful templates and unlimited sends, now subscriber-tiered for new users. | Visit → |
| GetResponse review · pricing | from $19/mo | Free plan | Webinars + email in one tool and Affiliate-friendly recurring payouts | One of the few platforms that bundles webinar hosting directly with email marketing and automation. | Visit → |
| HubSpot review · pricing | from $15/mo | Free plan | Growing B2B teams and All-in-one CRM + marketing | Email marketing embedded in a best-in-class CRM, so data and automation stay unified as a B2B team grows. | Visit → |
| Kajabi review · pricing | from $89/mo | No | Course and membership creators and Digital product businesses | The premium all-in-one for course and membership creators who want email built into their product platform. | Visit → |
| Kartra review · pricing | from $99/mo | Trial only | Funnels + email + checkout in one and Course and membership sellers | Combines email, funnels, checkout, memberships and a helpdesk so online businesses can run on one stack. | Visit → |
| Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) review · pricing | from $249/mo | No | Service-based small businesses and CRM + automation + invoicing | CRM, automation and invoicing built specifically for small service businesses, in one unified plan. | Visit → |
| Kit (formerly ConvertKit) review · pricing | from $15/mo | Free plan | Creators and newsletters and Coaches and digital product sellers | The default newsletter platform for creators who want tagging, automations and built-in product/subscription selling in one tool. | Visit → |
| Klaviyo review · pricing | See pricing | Free plan | Ecommerce / DTC brands and Shopify stores | The ecommerce email + SMS standard, turning Shopify/store data into highly targeted, revenue-attributed campaigns. | Visit → |
| Mailchimp review · pricing | See pricing | Free plan | Brand-name familiarity and Small businesses starting out | The household-name email tool: easiest to recognize and start with, though no longer the value leader. | — |
| MailerLite review · pricing | See pricing | Free plan | Budget-conscious senders and Beginners | The value pick: a genuinely pleasant interface and core features at one of the lowest price points in the category. | Visit → |
| Moosend review · pricing | from $9/mo | Trial only | Budget automation and SMBs | Cheap, no-feature-gating: marketing automation and all Pro tools included from the lowest paid tier. | Visit → |
| Omnisend review · pricing | Free plan available | Free plan | Ecommerce stores and Email + SMS in one | A more affordable Klaviyo alternative that bundles email, SMS and push with prebuilt ecommerce automations. | Visit → |
| Ontraport review · pricing | from $29/mo | Trial only | Small businesses needing CRM + automation and Visual campaign builders | A CRM + automation + ecommerce platform with a visual campaign builder aimed at small businesses. | Visit → |
| Sender review · pricing | See pricing | Free plan | Budget email + SMS and High free-tier needs | One of the most generous free tiers in email marketing, with automation included and optional SMS. | Visit → |
| Substack review · pricing | See pricing | Free plan | Writers and independent journalists and Paid newsletters | Turns writing into paid subscriptions with zero setup, monetizing via revenue share instead of monthly fees. | — |
| Systeme.io review · pricing | from $17/mo | Free plan | Solopreneurs on a budget and Funnels + courses + email in one | An all-in-one funnel/course/email platform with a free tier that is actually usable, not a time-limited trial. | Visit → |
| Zoho Campaigns review · pricing | Free plan available | Free plan | Existing Zoho users and CRM-integrated email | The natural, low-cost email choice for businesses already running on Zoho CRM and Zoho One. | Visit → |
Prices verified 2026-06-28 from public vendor pricing. Plans and prices change — always confirm on the vendor's own site. No price here is guaranteed.
Key takeaways
- 15 of 25 offer a real free plan — AWeber, Beehiiv, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), EmailOctopus and 11 more let you start at $0, while 6 more offer a trial only.
- Entry prices span $9–$249/mo — from Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) at the low end to Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) at the top of the entry tiers.
- Cheapest paid entry: Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) from $9/mo (a free plan too).
- Most documented feature set: ActiveCampaign — it lists the most features and integrations in our notes, which usually also means the steepest learning curve.
FAQ
How many email marketing tools does this comparison cover?
All 25 email marketing tools we track in the Email Marketing category are in the table above, compared on the same four points: entry price, free plan, best-for and standout. It's a full reference chart, not a curated shortlist.
Which email marketing tool is the cheapest?
By verified entry price, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is the cheapest paid option at $9/mo, and it also has a free plan.
Which of these email marketing tools have a free plan?
AWeber, Beehiiv, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), EmailOctopus, GetResponse, HubSpot, Kit (formerly ConvertKit), Klaviyo, Mailchimp, MailerLite, Omnisend, Sender, Substack, Systeme.io and Zoho Campaigns offer a genuine free plan you can keep using at $0. The free-plan column above marks each one, and separates them from tools that only run a trial.
How is this different from your best-of guides?
This page lists every tool in the niche side by side so you can scan the whole market. Our best-of guides instead pick the five to eight email marketing tools we'd actually recommend for a specific job, with a full write-up on each.
Sources
The standout lines, audiences and free-plan facts in the table above are drawn from these vendor pages and independent reviews:
- activecampaign.com
- help.activecampaign.com
- g2.com
- aweber.com
- g2.com
- omnisend.com
- beehiiv.com
- beehiiv.com
- emailtooltester.com
- brevo.com
- help.brevo.com
- emailtooltester.com
- support.myclickfunnels.com
- supplygem.com
- blackswanmedia.co
- constantcontact.com
- knowledgebase.constantcontact.com
- omnisend.com
- drip.com
- comparetiers.com
- g2.com
- emailoctopus.com
- help.emailoctopus.com
- emailtooltester.com
- flodesk.com
- emailtooltester.com
- mailtoolfinder.com
- getresponse.com
- getresponse.com
- emailtooltester.com
- hubspot.com
- blog.hubspot.com
- docket.io
- kajabi.com
- todaytesting.com
- litextension.com
- kartra.com
- todaytesting.com
- ruzuku.com
- keap.com
- checkthat.ai
- business.com
- kit.com
- emailtooltester.com
- emailvendorselection.com
- emailcrush.com
- klaviyo.com
- moengage.com
- retainful.com
- mailchimp.com
- emailtooltester.com
- benchmarkemail.com
- mailerlite.com
- mailerlite.com
- emailtooltester.com
- moosend.com
- emailvendorselection.com
- g2.com
- omnisend.com
- support.omnisend.com
- emailtooltester.com
- ontraport.com
- todaytesting.com
- trustradius.com
- sender.net
- smtpedia.com
- thatmarketingbuddy.com
- ruzuku.com
- popup.fm
- ifttt.com
- systeme.io
- landerlab.io
- capterra.com
- zoho.com
- zoho.com
- emailsoftwareinsights.com