Email marketing offers a direct line to your audience. It sparks brand awareness, nurtures leads, and closes deals. 

But to harness the potential of email, you need a reliable email marketing platform. That's what this guide is going to help you with.

We've done the groundwork and narrowed down the 10 email marketing platforms most likely to fit your business needs.

Here's a quick summary of the platforms we reviewed and their standout features.

What Is an Email Marketing Platform?

Email marketing platforms are software designed to create, send, and optimize email campaigns. 

These platforms typically offer a range of features, including email template designs, automation workflows, contact list segmentation, A/B testing, and analytics. 

Depending on your email platform, you may have access to advanced and niche features alongside basics and must-haves.

Benefits of Email Marketing Platforms

Email marketing platforms help you enhance efficiency, scale email marketing campaigns, and deliver personalized experiences to your target audience.

To send the best marketing emails, a platform that meets the following requirements will be your ideal choice.

Efficiency

Creating an email marketing campaign is often time-consuming.

It takes a lot of time and brainstorming to design and send relevant emails to all your subscribers at the right time.

An email service provider (ESP) handles these tasks by helping you design, write, and automate emails.

Automated emails (emails triggered by certain user actions) save time and resources by eliminating the need for manual email creation. You can schedule messages to be sent at specific times, such as after a new subscriber signs up. This is especially useful if you have a large subscriber base.

Scalability

An email service provider helps you build and grow your email list and easily handle large volumes of email without compromising the quality.

For example, Melissa Run, founder of The Design Space, grew her email list by 50 times in two years using the email marketing platform Active Campaign.

Effectiveness

These platforms help you collect data about your email subscribers—from basic details (name, location, job, company name, etc.) to advanced information (email interaction history, purchases made, number of clicks, etc.).

Using these data points, you can divide your subscribers into segments (groups of individuals sharing similar traits or behaviors). And send them personalized emails. Through personalization, you deliver a relevant message that resonates with the recipient.

Haute Hijab, a small startup company, generated $200K+ in total revenue using Drip’s abandoned cart automated series.

Top 10 Email Marketing Platforms Reviewed

Every platform offers unique features to cater to different business sizes and marketing campaign requirements.

So what is the best email marketing platform?

These are our 10 contenders.

1. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a widely used and preferred email marketing software. Mailchimp is an option for companies with large budgets that want to scale their email marketing campaigns.

Mailchimp Pros and Cons

Mailchimp’s Main Features

Inbox Preview

Inbox preview is part of Mailchimp’s email template builder. It helps you see how your email will appear across different email clients. Like Gmail, Yahoo, and Apple Mail.

The way email elements appear in Gmail might not be the same in Yahoo or Apple Mail. So, this feature helps you avoid rendering or accessibility errors that can hurt the performance of your emails.

Advanced Email Analytics 

Mailchimp's reporting provides access to metrics in an easy-to-understand dashboard.

On the Marketing Dashboard, you see metrics like open rates, click-through rates (CTR), and the amount of revenue generated. You can customize the reporting dashboard by selecting which metrics you want to see.

You can also visualize metrics as graphs. Which paints a clear picture of performance over time. One option for visual view is the conversion rate (number of users who took an action you wanted them to take out of total emails delivered). 

Clear graphic representations make it easier to analyze and draw helpful insights.

Mailchimp Pricing

Mailchimp has a forever free plan with 1,000 monthly email send lists for up to 500 subscribers. Paid plans start with:

• Essentials: $13/month for three users, 500 subscribers, and 5,000 email sends
• Standard: $20/month for five users, 500 subscribers, and 6,000 email sends
• Premium: $350/month for unlimited users, 500 subscribers, and 150,000 email sends

Plan prices increase incrementally as the number of subscribers increases. And the Premium plan can accommodate more than 250,000 subscribers. 

2. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is known for its powerful email marketing automation features. These make it an attractive choice for businesses that want to scale through automation, and for ecommerce businesses.

ActiveCampaign Pros and Cons

ActiveCampaign’s Main Features

Pre-built Automation Workflows

ActiveCampaign has over 200 pre-built email sequences, facilitating quick and customizable automation. Each sequence, known as a "recipe," is easy to edit. Industry-based categorization makes it easy to find the most relevant sequence for your needs.

Once you connect your online store, the software will start collecting your customers' data. Like purchasing behavior, interaction, and traffic. You can create customer segments and send targeted emails based on them.

Email Automation Builder

ActiveCampaign's email automation journey builder is straightforward and user-friendly.

You start with an entry trigger, an action the user takes to begin the workflow. For example, when the user submits a form on your website.

Then, you can add those users under specific tags, such as “New users.” Tags help organize user data. And also come in handy during segmentation. You can add time delays between emails. Or specify conditions by using Yes/no logic to trigger different sets of emails. 

Here’s how a basic email sequence looks in ActiveCampaign. It’s easy to understand, and highlights all the triggers and delays.

ActiveCampaign Pricing

ActiveCampaign offers a 14-day free trial. Email send limits are based on the number of contacts in your account. For example, if you have 700 subscribers in your account on the Lite plan, your limit is 7,000 emails per month. Paid plans include:

• Lite: $39/monthfor one user, 1,000 subscribers, and 10 x number of subscribers = number of email sends
• Plus: $70/month for three users, 1,000 subscribers, and 10 x number of subscribers = number of email sends
• Professional: $187/month for five users, 2,500 subscribers, and 12 x number of subscribers = number of email sends
• Enterprise: $323/month for 10 users, 2,500 subscribers, and 15 x number of subscribers = number of email sends

3. Moosend

Moosend is one of the most affordable email marketing platforms, well-suited for businesses with small budgets. You can design stunning emails, create persuasive email sequences, and build captivating landing pages and forms.

Moosend Pros and Cons

Moosend’s Main Features

Moosend’s automation builder and dynamic content blocks are two of its key features.

Email Automation Builder 

What sets Moosend apart from competitors is the low price point of their advanced email automation. They offer over 20 actions you can set up to trigger an automated journey, including when someone: 

• Opens any campaign
• Purchases any product
• Subscribes to any list
• Exits a webpage

Moosend also offers templates to set up your automated email campaigns and tailor them to prospects and customers. The screenshot shows an example of an automated email drip targeted toward users who have added an item to a cart, but have not completed the checkout process. 

Dynamic Content Blocks

Moosend's dynamic blocks can populate emails automatically with interchangeable details specific to the user experience, like the name of a product, the URL where it can be found, an image, or tags. This saves you time from manually adding details while still crafting personalizing messages to your audience. 

To use this feature, you have to integrate Moosend with an ecommerce platform, like Shopify, WooCommerce, or Wix. Then you can choose from four block types: cart abandonment, product recommendation, product browsing, and RSS campaigns.

Let’s say someone visits your ecommerce store, looks at a page of women’s boots, clicks on a few options, but ultimately exits the page without a purpose. With automation and dynamic blocks in place, Moosend can automatically kick off an email to the visitor. Luring them back with images of the boots they were interested in, or similar items.

Moosend Pricing

Moosend has a 30-day free trial with no send limit. The paid plans include:

• Pro: $7/month for two users, 500 subscribers, and unlimited email sends
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for 10+ users and unlimited email sends

Alternatively, they also have credit-based pricing. One credit equals one email per recipient. You get 1000 credits for $1. So, if you want to send a campaign of one email to 5,000 subscribers, you’ll spend $5 on 5,000 credits. 

4. MailerLite

MailerLite has established itself as a go-to email marketing platform for small businesses and solopreneurs due to its affordability and ease of use.

MailerLite Pros and Cons

MailerLite’s Main Features

Pre-made Content Blocks

MailerLite has pre-made blocks for every section—email header, navigation menu, images, and email footer. So, you always have a helping hand to design emails.

Interactive Elements

Liven up your emails by adding interactive elements such as quizzes, surveys, carousels, or accordions. These elements are clickable and encourage users to take action. Increasing email engagement and boosting metrics like CTR.

MailerLite Pricing

You can start using MailerLite for free if you have up to 1,000 subscribers and plan to send fewer than 12,000 emails. The paid plans start with:

• Growing Business: $10/month for three users, 500 subscribers, and unlimited email sends
• Advanced: $20/month for unlimited users, 500 subscribers, and unlimited email sends
• Enterprise: Custom

Plan prices increase incrementally as the number of subscribers increases. And the Enterprise plan can accommodate more than 500,000 subscribers.

5. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is one of the best email marketing platforms for creators such as authors, podcasters, and artists. The software helps creators monetize their email lists by selling digital products such as e-books, courses, and merchandise.

ConvertKit Pros and Cons

ConvertKit’s Main Features

Landing Page Builder

Using ConvertKit's drag-and-drop landing page builder, you can build captivating landing pages to sell products and subscriptions. The cherry on the top is a library of engaging and easy-to-customize landing page templates.

Customization of premade templates is intuitive. You can adjust font size, add and remove images, change color schemes, and add interactive elements such as a countdown timer.

Each landing page you build has its own reporting dashboard showing you the number of visitors, clicks, and conversion rate.

Email Automated Journey Builder

ConvertKit’s automation builder lets you enroll subscribers in a nurturing email sequence based on predefined criteria. For example, if a user signed up to receive your email newsletters, you can enroll them in a welcome email series.

For every sequence, you can add up to five entry points (actions that start the automation), including:

• Users subscribing to a form
• Tagging a subscriber (assigning custom tags within the platform)
• Changes in a custom field
• Subscribers making a purchase

ConvertKit Pricing

ConvertKit offers a 14-day free trial and a lifetime free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers. The paid plans include:

• Creator: $15/month for two users and unlimited email sends, up to 300 subscribers
• Pro: $29/month for unlimited users and unlimited email sends, up to 300 subscribers

Plan prices increase incrementally as the number of subscribers increases. And both paid plans can accommodate more than 500,000 subscribers.

6. Drip

Drip is a popular email marketing platform built for ecommerce businesses.

Drip integrates with 150+ ecommerce, payment, and social media platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Facebook, Stripe, and PayPal.

The variety of integrations allows Drip to offer advanced targeting capabilities so businesses can reach a wide range of audience segments. Businesses can target website visitors directly or re-engage audiences on social media. Users can filter data points to more effectively personalize marketing campaigns.

Drip Pros and Cons

Drip’s Main Features

Automated Email Workflow Builder

Drip’s advanced automation workflow builder allows you to choose a wide range of trigger events for each automation you build. Even extremely granular triggers, like a customer simply viewing a product. 

Such granular automation allows you to build highly personalized and targeted email campaigns based on your customers' intent.

Furthermore, you can add filters for each trigger. Filters help you specify additional details to narrow down the recipients in each email sequence.

For example, you can use filters to exclude new customers from a promotional email sequence intended for existing customers.

With filters, you tailor email sequences and target a set number of users.

Detailed Analytics

For each workflow or campaign, you’ll see a detailed analytics dashboard. Here, you can view key email performance metrics—clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes. 

And, there is another section that shows attributed revenue—revenue generated via email campaigns.

This data is helpful to understand which emails are generating more revenue and which email strategies are working.

Image Source: Drip

Drip Pricing

Drip offers a 14-day free trial with access to all its premium features. Drip’s paid plan starts at $39 per month for 2,500 contacts and unlimited email sends, and offers custom pricing for 170,000 or more subscribers.

Further Reading: How to Build an Engaging Ecommerce Email Marketing Strategy

7. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is an all-around email marketing platform where you can also create event invites, post on social media, sell products via landing pages, and run advertising campaigns.

Some of Constant Contacts standout features are the automation builder and reporting dashboard.

Constant Contact Pros and Cons

Constant Contact’s Main Features

Automation Builder With 5,000+ Integrations

Constant Contact has more than 5,000+ integrations with other tools, making it easy to gather data from various channels like email, social media, SMS, and even your own website to build effective email campaigns.

And, you can use the data you collect to build automated workflows. Constant Contact's workflow builder is intuitive and user-friendly. But doesn't offer as many advanced triggers as some other email marketing platforms. It's best when you want to create basic, if/then automations.

Email and Online Store Reporting

Constant Contact's reporting dashboard displays email metrics such as open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe, and conversion rate. 

By connecting your online store, you can also see the revenue generated. It offers useful insights with no learning curve.

Constant Contact Pricing

Constant Contact offers a 60-day free trial to test out its features before committing to a paid plan. The limits for email ends per month is based on how many contacts you have currently in your account. Paid plans include:

• Lite: $12/month for one user, 500 subscribers, and 10 x number of subscribers = number of email sends
• Standard: $35/month for three users, 500 subscribers, and 12 x number of subscribers = number of email sends
• Premium: $80/month for unlimited users, 500 subscribers, and 24 x number of subscribers = number of email sends

8. Omnisend

Omnisend is an ecommerce-focused email marketing platform geared toward small and medium-sized businesses. It integrates well with various ecommerce and payment platforms, including Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, Big Commerce, and Stripe.

Omnisend has many useful features. A drag-and-drop email and form builder, automation workflows, audience segmentation, and an ecommerce reporting dashboard, to name a few.

Omnisend Pros and Cons

Omnisend’s Main Features

Form Builder

The form builder is one of Omnisend's most powerful features, with many customization and targeting options available. The platform supports four types of forms:

• Popup: Appear after specific user action or time interval
• Embedded: Appear consistently where you embed them on your website (for example, a signup page for your email newsletter)
• Flyout: Slide out from the side or corner of the website, occupying less space than pop-ups
• Landing page: The form itself acts as a landing page. It can be used to collect information about potential visitors.

You can customize every form, adjusting when you want to display it, who sees it, and at what frequency. For example, you can choose to display promotional pop-ups to existing customers to encourage them to buy again.

Ecommerce and Email Reporting

Omnisend simplifies your data analysis with an easy-to-understand reporting dashboard. 

Beyond standard email metrics like open and click rates by device, Omnisend's focus on ecommerce metrics, such as the revenue generated, provides a holistic view of your campaign's impact.

Omnisend Pricing

Omnisend offers a lifetime free plan for up to 250 subscribers and 500 emails per month. The paid plans include:

• Standard: $16/month for 500 subscribers and 6,000 monthly email sends
• Pro: $59/month for 2,500 subscribers and unlimited monthly email sends

Plan prices increase incrementally as the number of subscribers increases. And both paid plans can accommodate more than 150,000 subscribers with custom pricing.

9. AWeber

AWeber offers a robust set of features tailored for small businesses and entrepreneurs, including email segmentation, an email builder, and comprehensive analytics.

AWeber Pros and Cons

AWeber’s Main Features

Email Template Builder 

AWeber has four types of email editors:

• Drag-and-drop editor: To build appealing emails with layout, images, and other visual elements
• Rich-text editor: To create plain-text email using a single layout format
• HTML-based editor: To code email templates from scratch
• Smart email designer: To generate custom templates based on website assets

AWeber's Smart Email Designer analyzes your website and suggests pre-designed templates matching your brand style and messaging. The tool generates up to seven templates, making it super helpful for beginner email marketers.

Here are some of the templates this feature created for our website.

Product Selling and Payment Processing

AWeber offers digital product selling with its Stripe and Shopify integrations.

Once connected, you can create a landing page and incorporate "Ecommerce elements" where you can add your product's name and price. This setup allows AWeber to collect user data and process payments seamlessly through the Stripe integration.

Having such integrations means you can target your customers and sell products using a single platform.

AWeber Pricing

AWeber offers a lifetime free plan for one user, 500 subscribers, and 3,000 email sends. Teh free tier also includes a single landing page, and one email automation per month. Paid plans include:

• Lite: $14.99/month for three users, 500 subscribers, and unlimited email sends
• Plus: $20/month for unlimited users, 2,500 subscribers, and unlimited email sends
• Unlimited: $899/month unlimited users, 100,000+ subscribers, and 12 times the number of subscribers for email sends

10. Brevo (Formerly Sendinblue)

Brevo is an affordable email marketing platform best suited for small businesses with limited budgets. For the price, some of the advanced features, such as email automation and an impressive template builder, really stand out.

Brevo Pros and Cons

Brevo’s Main Features

Email Template Builder

Brevo's email template builder is equipped with 40+ pre-built templates and quick and easy customization. 

What sets it apart is its “Brand Library” feature. Which is like having a built-in design style guide. With this feature, you can have a curated library of your brand's design assets, including logos, color palettes, fonts, and any relevant URLs.

You can set up your Brand Library manually, or use your site’s URL and let the tool fetch assets automatically for you. Here’s what the feature fetched for our website URL.

Having every brand asset in a single place makes the design process easier and quicker, as you don’t have to upload them again and again.

Automated email workflows

Brevo’s automation feature is easy to use and helps you send welcome emails, target inactive subscribers, and create follow-up sequences. Most of the automation triggers are ecommerce-related. Like abandoned carts and product purchase.

Brevo also offers Whatsapp and SMS triggers within the email sequences. That means along with email campaigns, you can send a WhatsApp message or text message, targeting your audience on multiple platforms.

Brevo Pricing

Brevo offers a free plan with unlimited subscribers and 300 daily email send limit. Paid plans include:

• Starter: $25/month for one user, unlimited subscribers, and 20,000 email, sends
• Business: $65/month with the add-on option for multiple users, unlimited subscribers and 20,000 email sends (plus access to additional features)
• Enterprise: Customprice for multiple users, unlimited subscribers, and advanced integrations

Key Features to Look for in Email Marketing Software

Almost every email marketing software offers basic and must-have features including:

• Email template builder to design and send emails
• A/B testing to test two variations of the same email
• Email list building and management of new subscribers
• Basic automation builder often without extensive personalization triggers
• Basic analytical dashboard showing email metrics such as open rate and CTR

But, a reliable email marketing platform goes beyond these must-haves and offers more advanced features.

Let’s talk about some advanced features to get the most use out of your email marketing platform. 

Audience Segmentation and Personalization

An ESP with advanced segmentation and personalization capabilities will help you send relevant and targeted emails. So, when deciding on a platform, ask yourself these questions:

• Does the software have the option to add dynamic content based on the recipient’s demographics (such as gender and location)?
• How simple/fast is it to pull data from your other platforms (e.g., advertising platforms or payment software)?
• Does the software support cross-channel personalization (e.g., using website data to personalize emails)?
• Is there an option to localize email content (e.g., add a nearby store’s location)?

Integration with CRM and Landing Page Builders

By integrating customer relationship management (CRM) and a landing page builder with an ESP, you can collect data from multiple sources and use it to create more effective email campaigns.

For instance, you can pull CRM data and use it to send personalized emails. And through landing pages, you can generate leads and instantly add them to a nurturing sequence.

Advanced Analytics and Reporting Tools

To measure and optimize your campaign performance, you need access to in-depth data. An ESP with advanced analytics will help you gather data beyond common email metrics such as open rate, CTR, or unsubscribe rate.

You’ll be able to collect granular data such as device-specific engagement, email client breakdown, and engagement over time.

Additionally, look for how the ESP presents data to make it easy to understand:

• Does it offer data visualizations and display performance over time?
• Does it offer click-through maps or heatmaps?

When you have access to a diverse set of data that's easy to analyze, you can easily optimize your campaign.

Enhancing Engagement with Email Campaigns

No matter which platform you choose, the goal is to engage the recipient. You want to build trust and encourage them to take a certain action.

While each platform equips you with the tools to carry out your email campaigns, the success lies in how you create and send emails.

Here are some of the most effective ways to make your emails shine.

Write Compelling Email Subject Lines

The email subject line is what sets the stage for the reader. It also makes 47% of recipients decide whether they want to open your emails.

A compelling subject line captures the reader's attention, persuading them to click on the email. It also helps you stand out in a crowded inbox.

Use these tips to write a persuasive subject line:

If you need help writing a compelling subject line, use Semrush's AI Writing Assistant. It's easy to use and generates ready-to-use subject lines. Head to the AI Writing Assistant dashboard, and on the left-hand menu, click "All Tools."

In the search bar, type "Email Subject Lines" and hit "Enter." Then click the tile in the search results for the "Email Subject Lines" tool.

Once in the tool, customize factors that affect the output, like the language, how much creativity you want the AI to inject into your subject lines, the tone of voice you want to use, and the audience your emails are intended for. 

When everything looks right, click "Generate" to see the potential email subject lines the AI creates for you.

Use any of the generated subject lines as written, or change the customization fields and regenerate them if they aren't quite right for your needs. Or just use them as a launching point to brainstorm your own ideas.

AI Writing Assistant helps you write much more than just subject lines. Browse its other 74 tools and see how it can generate customizable email copy, blog posts, and much more.

Further reading: Top 5 AI Email Assistants in 2024 and How to Choose the Best

Personalize Your Email Campaigns

Personalization is when you tailor your emails to a segment of users. It's about making readers feel seen, valued, and understood.

When you offer a tailored experience, recipients are more likely to engage and buy from you. Due to personalization, 80% of customers are more inclined to buy.

To personalize your emails, you must have access to various user data points such as

• Geography (e.g., country, city, or state)
• Demographics (e.g., age, gender, income, or education)
• Psychographics (e.g., lifestyle, interests, or hobbies)
• Behavior (e.g., buyer journey stage brand loyalty traits or purchasing style)
• Media (e.g., preferred social media or TV channels)
• Benefit (e.g., what the customer values most, like customer service or quality)

Most of this data is easy to find in your email analytics dashboard. But you can easily collect basic details via signup forms or surveys.

Using the above-mentioned data points you can personalize emails in various ways that go beyond the recipient’s first name:

• Send product recommendation emails based on the recipient’s browser history
• Send abandoned cart emails based on the recipient’s purchasing history
• Send a weekly or monthly digest emails to your customers
• Send special discounts on birthday or anniversaries
• Send a “thank you” email to your loyal subscribers

For instance, Grammarly sends a daily digest based on the user's weekly activity. Such emails build trust and propel recipients to engage with the emails.

Further Reading: Market Segmentation: Types, Examples, and Strategies

Create Clear CTA Buttons

The call to action (CTA) in an email shows the action you want readers to take after reading your email. It can be to sign up for your product launch, use a discount code, or submit a feedback survey.

To get higher engagement, your CTAs should be clear, actionable, and appealing.

Use the following tips to write and design click-worthy CTAs:

• Use action verbs such as “Download your report” or “Shop the launch” 
• Highlight the benefit, such as “Subscribe and get 10% off”

• Use responsive designso that CTA button appears correctly on various devices
• Keep your CTA design separate from emails by using different font type, size, or button color
• Use customized designs for multiple CTAs

Here's a good CTA example from Apple. 

The email contains two CTAs. The primary CTA (main action you want users to take) “Pre-order” is more prominent and noticeable because of a contrasting background color. Secondary CTA (relevant action) “Learn more” catches less attention as it’s a plain text CTA.

Further reading: How to Win People Over with Compelling Email Content

Optimizing Send Times for Maximum Reach

When scheduling your emails, consider two factors: the day of the week and the time of the day.

Both are important because you want your audience to open your emails, engage with them, and click through. But, the right timing is a product of various factors: your industry, each recipient’s geography, email type, and holidays and events.

Research can give you a starting point on when to send emails to generate higher opens and clicks:

• Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET, then 12:01 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET, according to Hubspot
• Tuesday, 8 p.m., 2 p.m., or 5 p.m., according to Omnisend
• Tuesday or Thursday, 10:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., according to Brevo

Choosing the Right Platform for Your Needs

All email marketing platforms help you solve different pain points. But, to make an informed decision keep your business requirements and goals at the core.

Think about what features would help you achieve your goals while considering the pricing structure and your budget.

And, if you need help brainstorming ideas for your next email campaigns, writing click-worthy subject lines, and boosting your email campaign’s performance, Semrush's AI Writing Assistant and other tools can help. 

See for yourself with a free trial of Semrush today!