What email marketing software does
Email marketing software helps teams build audiences, send campaigns, and automate customer communication.
Software category
Email Marketing & Automation
Software for newsletters, audience management, campaigns, automations, forms, landing pages and customer engagement.
Evaluate email marketing software by audience model, sending limits, automation depth, ecosystem breadth and market context.
Category overview
A practical starting point for evaluation
Common buyer use cases
Common uses include newsletters, broadcasts, segmentation, forms, landing pages, and automated journeys.
Who may evaluate email tools
Marketing teams, creators, ecommerce businesses, and organizations with an audience may evaluate these tools.
What to look for
Compare capabilities, availability, pricing, business fit, integrations, and relevant privacy or security information.
Start with the decision
Choose how much email marketing system you need
Decide whether your recurring work needs simple broadcasts, deeper automation, ecommerce event workflows, or broader communication before comparing products.
Choose your operating model
What matters most in how you grow and automate customer communication?
Choose the communication model first, then check how audience size, sending volume, automation, and channels affect the fit.
Easy email marketing / SMB adoption
For newsletters, campaigns, audience management, and approachable automation without adopting a complex marketing system.
Products to consider
- KitCreators and newsletter businesses
Keep in mind: Ease of adoption may become limiting when advanced lifecycle automation becomes the core requirement.
Advanced automation / customer journeys
For behavioral automation, segmentation, lifecycle workflows, and customer journeys beyond basic newsletters.
Products to consider
- ActiveCampaignBusinesses needing substantially deeper automation than a basic newsletter or email tool
- KlaviyoEcommerce and B2C brands wanting marketing connected closely to customer and purchase behavior
Keep in mind: Automation depth increases setup and operational complexity.
Creator / audience business
For creators, newsletters, educators, and audience-led businesses where subscriber growth, email sequences, forms, and audience communication are central.
Products to consider
- KitCreators and newsletter businesses
Keep in mind: Creator-focused positioning may be less suitable for complex B2B CRM or ecommerce operations.
Ecommerce / customer lifecycle
For stores and commerce businesses where customer data, purchase behavior, segmentation, and lifecycle messaging drive communication.
Products to consider
- KlaviyoEcommerce and B2C brands wanting marketing connected closely to customer and purchase behavior
Keep in mind: Commerce specialization matters most when store and customer-event data drives communication.
Pricing scale / contact, send, and channel model
For buyers who need to understand how audience size, sending volume, automation, users, and additional channels affect ownership cost.
Keep in mind: Do not compare headline starting prices directly: current products use different contact, send-volume, subscriber, add-on, and multichannel models.
Choose based on your communication model—basic campaigns, deeper automation, creator workflows, or ecommerce lifecycle—then check how pricing scales with your audience and usage.
Explore software
Explore Email Marketing & Automation software
7 software options
Email Marketing & Automation
ActiveCampaign combines email marketing with deeper marketing automation and lifecycle workflows for businesses where automation sophistication matters.
Best for
Businesses needing substantially deeper automation than a basic newsletter or email tool
Main trade-off
More setup and learning than simpler newsletter tools.
View detailsPrice
Current pricing depends on the selected product, plan, contact and usage requirements, and tailored…
Email Marketing & Automation
Brevo combines email marketing, automation and transactional or multichannel communication in one customer-engagement ecosystem.
Best for
SMBs
Main trade-off
Final cost varies with send volume, options and add-ons.
View detailsPrice
Starter example: $9/month with monthly billing for 5,000 emails/month; $8.08/month equivalent with yearly billing…
Email Marketing & Automation
Customer.io connects customer data to automated lifecycle messaging across journeys, timing, channels, and conditions.
Best for
Businesses with meaningful customer signals and recurring lifecycle responses
Main trade-off
Reliable automation depends on reliable customer signals and identity data.
View detailsPrice
Verify current pricing, overages, and capability boundaries before choosing.
Email Marketing & Automation
Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is a creator- and newsletter-focused email platform for audience growth, email, and creator monetization workflows.
Best for
Creators and newsletter businesses
Main trade-off
Pricing scales with subscriber count.
View detailsPrice
For up to 1,000 subscribers, the currently displayed Creator benchmark is $33/month billed annually…
Email Marketing & Automation
Klaviyo is a B2C and ecommerce-focused marketing platform for customer-data-driven segmentation, lifecycle automation, and commerce-oriented reporting.
Best for
Ecommerce and B2C brands wanting marketing connected closely to customer and purchase…
Main trade-off
Can be more platform than a simple newsletter sender needs.
View detailsPrice
Paid pricing varies with active profiles, sending requirements, and selected services; no universal paid…
Email Marketing & Automation
Mailchimp combines email campaigns, audience management, automation, integrations and ecommerce-oriented marketing workflows.
Best for
SMBs
Main trade-off
Paid pricing varies substantially with audience size and plan.
View detailsPrice
Essentials, Standard, Premium and Pay As You Go also exist.
Email Marketing & Automation
MailerLite offers approachable newsletters, visual automations, forms, landing pages and websites for creators and small businesses.
Best for
Creators
Main trade-off
Free plan is limited to 250 active subscribers.
View detailsPrice
Current plans are Free, Comfort, Power and Enterprise.
Decision guides
Compare Email Marketing & Automation products
Mailchimp vs BrevoMailchimp is stronger for a mature marketing ecosystem, audience segmentation and ecommerce-oriented workflows. Brevo is stronger for send-volume-oriented economics and transactional or multichannel communication. Choose based on the workflow that fits your needs.Mailchimp vs MailerLiteMailchimp is stronger for a broader marketing ecosystem and advanced segmentation or commerce workflows. MailerLite is stronger for creators and SMBs prioritizing simplicity and approachable newsletter automation. Choose based on the workflow that fits your needs.Brevo vs MailerLiteBrevo is stronger for transactional email, SMS or multichannel customer engagement and larger send-volume needs. MailerLite is stronger for simple newsletters, creator workflows and straightforward content and automation tooling. Choose based on the workflow that fits your needs.
A clearer way to compare
SaaSvan compares buyer fit, pricing structure, and trade-offs. Product details and pricing can change, so verify time-sensitive information before purchase.
Read our methodology