You’ve run a few email campaigns, and got some good feedback. Or maybe you’ve just launched your company newsletter. No matter what messages you send out, it can be a lot easier using email marketing software.
Email marketing is still the go-to medium for communicating with customers and prospects. In 2019, 78% of marketers saw an increase in email engagement. They also generated an average of $42 for every $1 spent (4,100% ROI).
A big part of this success depends on email marketing software. The single tool can help you easily collect, communicate, and grow with your audience.
Read on to see whether or not your company needs an email marketing service, and what main features to look for. We also share our 18 top recommended email marketing software tools to launch your next campaign.
First, what is email marketing software?
(Or skip straight to the software tools.)
Email marketing software goes far beyond just sending email. It’s basically any software tool used to create, send, test, and/or monitor your email campaigns.
If you’re sending emails to groups of people (i.e., newsletter subscribers, members, partners), you’ll want more than just an individual email account.
Bulk emails involve a lot of steps: segmenting audiences, designing emails, setting schedules, checking feedback, and more.
An email marketing service can make your manual workflow much easier. Plus, most platforms provide performance data and analytics that can help improve your campaign.
If you’re not using any email marketing service, you may be falling short on your campaign’s full potential.
Key features of email marketing services
Looking at today’s best email marketing services, you’ll notice many share similar features: a drag-and-drop email template builder, mailing list segmentation, automated drip campaigns, etc.
The main differences are usually the ease of integration (can it connect to a CRM or other tools), and learning curve (is it intuitive or does it require intensive training).
Here are some features to look for when choosing email marketing software:
- Email sending limits: The exact limit depends on your plan, but it’s important to find an email marketing service that doesn’t limit your growth. Look for companies that allow you to easily upgrade to a higher plan as you grow.
- Email builders and templates: How will your email look? Many email marketing services include easy drag-and-drop email builders and customizable email templates. These allow you to create beautiful emails across all desktop, tablet, and mobile.
- Mailing list management: Send subscribers exactly what they want by segmenting your audience. As your mailing list grows, you’ll want to create segments in order to organize and optimize your email marketing efforts.
- A/B testing tools: As you continue to send out emails, you’ll want to test which messages work best (i.e., different subject lines, different days/times sent, CTA copy). This advanced feature will help you create the most effective email campaigns and improve audience engagement.
- Email marketing features: There are many other features to look for in email marketing software: merge tags (for email personalization), autoresponders (for drip email campaigns or quick response), or the ability to create surveys. Also check if the software offers hosted or embedded signup forms so you can invite subscribers right away.
- Integration and plugins: Email campaigns are one piece of your overall marketing strategy. It’s good if the tools used for email campaigns can integrate with your other business applications (i.e., CRM, ecommerce, social media, analytics).
- Analytics and reports: Get insights about your messages, campaigns, and audience. The important metrics are open rates, CTRs, geolocation, how long a reader stays on your email, etc. Some tools will track your data in real-time so you can see audience actions as they occur.
Do you need email marketing software?
All businesses can benefit from email marketing software. Even if you don’t have a regular email newsletter or content, emails are a great way to promote sales, events, and connect with your customers.
The key, however, is to select email marketing software appropriate for your business needs. With so many options available, it can be easy to end up with a tool that includes features you don’t even use.
Take a look at your current email marketing strategy. Consider how it might change in the next year or two. Then, choose a software tool that fits your plan.
Maybe you want to focus solely on emails asking for referrals. Or looking to engage customers through channels other than email. In that case, we offer you a few other alternative software tools:
- Tools to help you with referral marketing
- Software for all stages of digital marketing
- Communicating with your brand ambassadors
- Communicating with influencers for your brand
Our evaluation criteria
| Evaluation criteria | Description |
| Pricing | How much does the software cost? What different plans are available? Are you required to commit for an entire year, or are monthly plans available? |
| Free trial or demo available | Does the company offer a free trial or demo period for you to try out the software before purchase? |
| Customer service and support | How does the company help assist you when using the software? What are the ways you can contact them for questions or issues? |
| Review score | How do existing users rate the email marketing software? Based on an aggregate score from top review sites, our rating is out of 5 stars and indicates how many people reviewed the software. |
| Notable features | What makes the email marketing service stand out? We’ve broken down the top features of each, such as email builders, audience management, and tracking analysis. |
Note: The software is not listed in any order of rank or recommendation. Our aim is to put together a complete source of email marketing software, and give a clear picture of all the available options. Prices are generally based on annual billing, and may change depending on the payment plan you choose.
18 best email marketing software
GetResponse
GetResponse is a complete marketing software that focuses on helping businesses do what they need to do: generate leads, engage customers, grow their audience, and boost sales. Whether you’re a large company, entrepreneur, or marketing manager, you can choose from over 20 features to run your custom campaigns.
The features are categorized into email marketing, marketing automation, landing pages, and conversion funnels – with templates and automations to help get your campaigns off the ground.
Key features (specific to email marketing)
- Fully customizable email templates: Easy email creation, with an intuitive email creator, mobile-focused design tools, and 5,000 free stock photos for messages that stand out in crowded inboxes
- List management: Build and segment your growing list based on subscriber contact data and behavior, and use ready-made lead magnet or conversion funnels
- Email analytics: Track email activity in real time, monitor subscription trends, run A/B testing, and learn which emails bring you more money
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Basic ($12.30/month), Plus ($40.18/month), Professional ($81.18/month), Max (Contact for pricing) | Free trial available | Help center, resources, live chat, webinars (for Plus, Professional, and Max) | 4.1 (840 reviews) |
Mailchimp
Most email marketers have heard of Mailchimp. As an all-in-one marketing platform for small business, Mailchimp helps starting teams do big things, with all the right tools and guidance every step of the way.
The email marketing software brings your audience data, marketing channels, and insights together so you can reach your goals faster – from a single platform.
Key features
- Audience management: Marketing CRM tools that turn audience data into insights, allowing marketers to build stronger relationships and drive better results
- Creative tools: Easy-to-use design and content tools, flexible templates, and an AI-powered creative assistant
- Marketing automation: Add a personal touch with send time optimization, customized purchase paths, and even ecommerce automation
- Integrates with Referral Rock
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Free (up to 2,000 contacts, 1 audience), Essentials ($9.99/month), Standard ($14.99/month), Premium ($299/month) | Free plan available | Email, chat support, guides/tutorials, phone (for Premium plan) | 4.4 (10,741 reviews) |
Omnisend
Omnisend isn’t another marketing automation tool for everyone. It’s tailor-made for ecommerce, helping nimble teams grow with highly-relevant emails, SMS, push notifications, Facebook Messenger, and more.
The company’s mission is to help ecommerce businesses make their marketing relevant by sending personalized messages to the right person, at the right time, using the right channel. For shoppers, that means tailored messaging and a unique online shopping experience. And for marketers, the power to rise above the promotional noise and get better results than ever.
Key features
- Customizable forms: A combination of forms and dynamic email capture features helps transform subscribers into shoppers
- Omnichannel automation workflows: Drive conversions by responding to ecommerce shopping behavior, sending relevant messages, and bringing customers back to their browsing session or an abandoned cart
- All-in-one marketing automation: Manage all communication channels, audience segments, and data reports on one powerful platform
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Free (15,000 emails), Standard ($16/month), Pro ($99/month), Enterprise (Contact for pricing) | Free demo, trial, and plan available | Email, live chat, knowledge base, webinars, resource library, instructional videos, dedicated customer success manager (for Enterprise users) | 4.7 (933 reviews) |
Sendinblue
Beginning as a digital agency, Sendinblue understands marketers needs tools that can efficiently scale as they grow. The email marketing platform serves small and medium-sized businesses, whether it be to manage email campaigns, send text messages, or save time with automation.
Sendinblue offers a competitively priced, cloud-based digital marketing tool for email, SMS, Facebook, chat, CRM integrations and more. With an all-in-one marketing platform, you can build stronger customer relationships and grow your business.
Key features
- Multi-channel communication: Get the word out there with email marketing, or communicate directly with customers through chat and SMS marketing
- Comprehensive dashboard: Keep track of all your customer details in one place, segment your audience by sending more targeted emails, and automate your marketing messages
- Data analysis: Improve your email marketing success rates, with open and click-through reports, email heat maps, A/B testing, and real-time statistics
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Free (300 emails/day), Lite ($25/month), Premium ($65/month), Enterprise (Contact for pricing) | Free account available | Help center, Sendinblue Academy (with videos), email | 4.5 (1,601 reviews) |
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is rated as a top email marketing software. But it does more than automate your email – it activates your entire customer experience. The platform combines the email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM tools you need to grow your relationship with your audience.
More than 100,000 businesses use ActiveCampaign to deepen their customer relationships at every touchpoint, with email marketing playing a big part in every marketing strategy.
Key features (specific to email marketing)
- Drag-and-drop email designer: Pre-made templates to create beautiful campaigns in minutes, with the ability to send broadcasts, triggered emails, targeted emails, scheduled emails, drip campaigns, or autoresponders
- Dynamic content: Send subscribers exactly what they want to see, with audience segments and tags, dynamic content for every condition (text and image), and personalized emails
- Advanced analytics: Capture data for geo-targeted campaigns, track your campaigns’ spread through social media, visitor behavior on your website, and use custom fields to collect the information that matters most
- Integrates with Referral Rock
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Lite ($9/month), Plus ($49/month), Professional $129/month, Enterprise ($229/month) | Free demo and trial available | Help resources, events, ActiveCampaign Learning Center and Study Hall, training webinars, video support, online training sessions, phone, email | 4.6 (6,289 reviews) |
HubSpot’s email marketing software
HubSpot’s email marketing software is part of its Marketing Hub. While the Marketing Hub has a suite of other marketing tools and data (including ad tracking and management, blogs, social media, live chat, and more), HubSpot’s email platform is robust enough on its own.
Marketers can easily create, personalize, and optimize customer emails without waiting on designers or IT. In addition to goal-based email templates, the email tools also allow for detailed engagement analytics and campaign management.
Key features
- Drag-and-drop editor: Customize your layout, add calls-to-action and images, and modify your content and colors to match your brand
- Run A/B testing and analytics: Dive even deeper into your data to see who’s engaging with each email and when, what device they were using, the most popular links and documents, and more
- Multiple integrations: A key advantage is being able to access all of HubSpot’s sales and marketing software tools and put all your marketing together
- Integrates with Referral Rock
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Free (basic email marketing forms and pages), Marketing Hub ($800/month) | Demo and free plan available | Live chat, email, phone (for Professional or Enterprise editions), local user groups, HubSpot Academy, knowledge base | 4.3 (10,248 reviews) |
Constant Contact
Constant Contact was built to be an online marketing tool to help small businesses level the playing field against their larger, more established rivals. It started with email marketing, and has since introduced new functionalities, such as websites, ecommerce, and shoppable landing pages.
With all the tools needed to market your ideas, the marketing platform makes it easy to quickly and affordably build a professional brand online, attract customers, and sell more products.
Key features (specific to email marketing)
- Smart email editor: Over a hundred beautifully designed templates built for business, are easy to customize, and look great on every device
- Email marketing automation: Drive sales in less time with automatic lead collection, email campaigns, and customer retention tools
- Email marketing for ecommerce: Sync your email marketing efforts to your ecommerce store, such as easily adding products to your email templates, greeting new customers with welcome emails, and embedding website sign-up forms
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Email ($20/month), Email Plus ($45/month) | Free trial available | Chat, phone, knowledge base, learning resources, community forum | 4 (6,058 reviews) |
Moosend
Moosend is an email marketing software with intuitive marketing automations and an award-winning user interface. From startups to global corporations, thousands of businesses use the platform to manage multiple campaigns and email lists.
The all-in-one platform caters to ecommerce, travel companies, publishers, SaaS, and even offers a partnership with other marketing agencies. With MooSend’s intelligent email automation, campaign reports, and suite of other communication tools, anyone can easily upgrade their email marketing campaigns.
Key features
- Drag-and-drop editor: Create professional newsletters that look good on any device, with hundreds of beautiful responsive email templates to choose from
- Automated workflows: Pre-designed automation workflows that are proven to convert, including user onboarding, abandoned cart, lead scoring, and VIP offer emails
- Tracking and analysis: Follow your subscribers through the whole journey, and decode their every move with easy-to-use, in-depth analytics to fine-tune your marketing campaigns
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Free (unlimited emails), Pro (starts at $8/month), Enterprise (Contact for pricing) | Free plan available | Live chat, webinars, knowledge base, resource library, instructional videos, video support | 4.7 (332 reviews) |
Robly
Founded to create a better email company, Robly invented OpenGen, artificial intelligence sending technology called Robly AI, and RoblyENGAGE. This open technology platform has exclusive features to replace traditional email features and sign-up widgets.
The email templates are optimized for higher click-through rates, campaigns are set with perfect send times, and deliverability is improved with automatically segmented contact lists.
Key features
- OpenGen: Generate 50% more opens within three months with a technology that boosts open rates, click-through rates, and consequently ROI
- RoblyAI: Send a campaign at the exact moment subscribers check their inbox, with just-in-time delivery that learns about your subscriber’s habits automatically
- RoblyENGAGE: Improve deliverability by automatically removing unengaged subscribers, and enjoying a higher percentage of engaged subscribers on your list
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Up to 500 contacts ($19/month), 501 to 2.5k contacts ($35/month), 2.5k to 5k contacts ($58/month), 5,001 to 10,000 contacts ($92/month) | Free demo and trial available | Phone, email, live chat, library | 4.5 (1,283 reviews) |
Litmus
Litmus helps companies get more from their entire marketing mix by putting the most dependable channel – email – first.
The email marketing software picks up where email service providers (ESPs) stop. Its features are built to create emails that convert and maximize your marketing efforts. Simply connect to your ESP and access a powerful set of tools, from pre-send testing to post-delivery data and insights.
Key features
- Campaign development: Save time by connecting different tools and tasks into one seamless email campaign development strategy across your entire organization
- Pre-send testing: See what your email looks like on 90+ apps and devices, allowing you to find and fix issues long before your message hits inboxes
- Insights and analytics: Get email insights into the engagement metrics that matter most, and share them with your team so you can drill down to reveal what really resonated with your audience
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Litmus Basic ($79/month), Litmus Plus ($99/month), Litmus Enterprise (Contact for pricing) | Free trial available | Help center, email, live chat, phone, webinars and events, guides, community forum, bi-weekly group demo | 4.5 (99 reviews) |
MailerLite
MailerLite was founded to give businesses a simple, yet powerful, email solution to help them grow. Its email marketing software empowers people of all skill levels to create professional marketing campaigns, from start to finish, at affordable pricing.
With intuitive drag-and-drop editors and templates, small to mid-sized businesses can easily build newsletters, websites, landing pages, pop-ups, and more. Aside from the email marketing tool, MailerLite offers exceptional customer support and service available 24/7.
Key features
- Drag-and-drop newsletter editor: Get a huge design head start with pre-built blocks that work like templates, supporting a variety of designs, video support, social media, and dynamic content
- Advanced targeting: Utilize email automation, interest group tagging, audience segmentation, and personalization – all set up in a few minutes
- Seamless integrations: Supercharge your email marketing by connecting to other web services, including most major ecommerce platforms (WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify, etc.), landing pages, signup forms, and CRMs
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Forever Free (1,000 subscribers) and Premium (based on subscribers) | Free demo, trial, and free plan available | Email, live chat, account manager, instructional videos, resource library, knowledge base, webinars | 4.5 (569 reviews) |
Zoho Campaigns
Zoho Campaigns is an email marketing automation software from Zoho’s suite of business applications. With Campaigns, you can create and send emails that drive more sales and maximize engagement.
From delivering personalized email experiences to building your brand’s voice, get on a simplified email marketing process with contact management, customer-centric content, targeted nurturing, automated follow-ups, and advanced conditional triggers.
Key features
- Advanced drag-and-drop workflows: Completely trigger-based and actionable, helping to bring data into workflows, push relevant data back outside, and deliver contextual emails.
- Send-time optimization: Trigger messages based on subscriber interactions with email campaigns, allowing you to set the conditions and let automation take care of the rest.
- Mobile edition: Easily add subscribers to your mailing lists, send campaigns, and check or share reports, no matter where you are
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Forever Free (12,000 emails and 2,000 contacts), Email-Based Subscription ($2 for 500 emails), Subscriber-Based Subscription ($4 for 500 contacts, unlimited emails), Pay By Email Credits ($6 for 250 credits) | Free demo and plan available | Email, phone, live chat, account manager, instructional videos, video support, dedicated success manager, resource library, knowledge base, webinars | 4.3 (947 reviews) |
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is email marketing solution that focuses on two things: creators and drip campaigns. Founded with a mission to help creators earn a living online, the platform provides robust, yet simple to use, tools that send scheduled content to a target audience.
On ConvertKit’s site, “a creator might be a blogger, author, maker, YouTuber, poet…” By making it easy to grow an audience and connect with fans, the platform enables creators to earn a living selling digital products and services online.
Key features
- Email automation: Send well-timed, targeted content to your audience with intuitive email marketing automation
- Email designer: Create simple emails that deliver and convert, with clean formatting, quick types of content, instant images, and custom code (if you want to)
- Integration partners: Aside from email marketing, the platform integrates with 70+ partner companies, from ecommerce, webinar services, membership and courses, and more
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Free (1,000 subscribers), Creator ($25/month), Creator Pro ($50/month) | Free demo, account, and trial available | Live chat, knowledge base, how-to guides, free courses, concierge migrations, community forum, on-demand and live workshops, tutorials, guides, ticket system, premium (for Creator) and priority support (for Creator Pro) | 4.6 (199 reviews) |
AWeber
Founded in 1998, AWeber is one of the market leaders in email marketing software. Its mission is to “deliver powerfully-simple email marketing for small businesses that does 90% of the work for you.”
AWeber’s convenient platform is coupled with a team that brings deep engineering, product, and marketing knowledge. The email marketing software offers all the necessary tools to engage subscribers and works end-to-end, handling every step from creation until the email reaches the subscriber’s inbox.
Key features
- Smart designer: AI-powered email template designer and a library of pre-built templates help to automatically create amazing-looking branded emails in just seconds
- Landing pages: Create visually-stunning landing pages that get your business online quickly – no website required
- Automated messaging: Assign custom email triggers and flows, apply tagging and dynamic content, and then schedule your email marketing to automatically send at the perfect time
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Free (500 subscribers), Pro ($16.15/month) | Free plan available | Phone, email, live chat, knowledge base, webinars, video tutorials | 4.2 (689 reviews) |
Sendpulse
As an all-in-one communication platform, Sendpulse handles email campaigns, SMS, messenger, and web push notifications. All these marketing tools are built to empower your business marketing efforts, bring in more leads, and convert them to customers.
Sendpulse is a marketing automation platform, which allows you to run routine processes, like purchasing, giveaways, onboarding, and more. By seamlessly integrating multiple communication channels, the platform helps businesses of all sizes connect with prospects and customers.
Key features (specific to email marketing)
- Drag-and-drop email editor: Create emails that match the design of your site, easily insert videos into your message, and take your pick from 130+ ready-made templates
- Email verifier: Keep your mailing lists clean, stay out of the spam folder, maintain a high sender reputation, and save on campaigns by ensuring you only send emails to valid email addresses
- Automation 360: Set up automated or scheduled transactional emails and promotional emails in response to customers’ actions, including abandoned cart emails, re-engagement emails, and custom events
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Subscription 500 ($6.4/month), Pay As You Go 10,000 ($32/month), VIP Plan (Contact for pricing) | Free trial available | 24/7 live chat, knowledge base, email, phone, how-to videos, glossary | 4.5 (184 reviews) |
iContact
iContact provides email marketing software to small and medium businesses worldwide. With lightning fast automation features, intuitive email solutions, and knowledgeable team members, it ensures every customer has what they need.
Not only can businesses send personalized emails that resonate with subscribers, the platform helps drive higher ROI out of every message sent with advanced email marketing automation. It’s also scalable, and can work with both businesses new to email or high-volume senders.
Key features
- Intuitive email tool: Turn your ideas into stunning emails in just a few minutes, with a drag-and-drop editor that creates professional-looking emails and powerful results
- iContact for Salesforce: Aside from many other integrations, iContact offers a native integration with Saleforce so marketing and sales can work together with ease
- Multi-user accessibility: A multi-user structure enables the entire team to access the same account and provides seamless cross-team collaboration
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Base plan and Pro plan available, priced according to total subscribers | Free demo and trial available | Live chat, email, videos and webinars, tutorials, glossary | 4.2 (1,592 reviews) |
Mailigen
Mailigen (by Pipedrive) helps companies grow and tell their stories through email. Intended to humanize email technology, its innovative automation platform is user-friendly and enables you to create deeper human connections with your audience.
The software brings together exceptional design and technology, sending beautiful emails that can’t be ignored. Mailigen’s email solutions are tailor-made for different industries, from education to real estate, so you can choose one that best fits your business.
Key features (specific to email marketing)
- Intelligent email builder: Block-building technology makes creating emails as fun and easy as playing with Lego, with nine different types of content blocks and a gallery of pre-designed templates – no HTML required
- Real-time email analytics: Measure the success of your email marketing campaigns with advanced analytics, including divide reports, browser reports, A/B testing, SPAM tests, custom click tracking domain, and measurement accuracy
- Web sign-up forms: Invite subscribers in a multitude of ways, with hosted forms, embedded forms, popup forms, or lightbox and exit intent forms
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Monthly plans (based on number of subscribers, i.e., $32 for 5,000 subscribers), or Pay As You Go (per email) | Free demo and trial available | Email, live chat, white papers, how-to guides, knowledge base | 4.7 (81 reviews) |
Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor gives you everything you need to run beautifully-designed, professional email marketing campaigns. “Empowering marketers everywhere to stand out,” the company’s offers powerful email marketing software with drag-and-drop simplicity.
Used by companies across various industries, from entertainment to travel and hospitality, Campaign Monitor creates a direct channel to engage with subscribers and promote brand loyalty.
Key features
- Pre-designed templates: Hundreds of professionally-designed templates you can customize for a completely branded email campaign in minutes
- Marketing automation: Create timely, personalized customer journeys that keep your audience engaged and automatically drive revenue
- Data and analytics: A full analytics suite gives an aggregate view into the performance of your overall email marketing program, including geography, acquisition, and engagement per campaign
- Integrates with Referral Rock
| Pricing | Free demo or trial | Customer support | Review score |
| Basic ($9/month), Unlimited ($29/month), Premier ($149/month)
*Campaign Monitor also offers an option to pay per campaign ($5 per campaign, $0.01 per recipient) |
Free demo and plan available (for a campaign to five subscribers) | Support center, guides, live chat | 4.4 (122 reviews) |
