20 Best Email Marketing Software Platforms for 2021
Email marketing consistently delivers a better ROI than any other marketing channel. Plus, it's brilliant for community building and engaging with your customers on what feels like a one-on-one level. But if you don't have the right infrastructure in place to handle your email marketing, you're not going to be able to reach your subscribers and customers in the way you need to encourage engagement, build those important relationships, generate more leads, and increase sales. That's why we've put together this list of the top email marketing platforms on the market right now. Each of the email marketing platforms on this list offers a unique set of features to explore so you can find the perfect email marketing platform to get the results you need.
Before we dive into our list, we're going to take a little time to answer some questions you may have about email marketing, why it matters, what an email marketing platform actually is, and the features you should look for.
Top 20 Email Marketing Software & Platforms
To create and execute your email marketing strategy successfully, you'll need to find the best email marketing software platform for your business. Here’s a look at the best 20 email marketing software platforms and what makes each a good pick.
1. Sendinblue
Sendinblue is an all-in-one platform covering many business communications types, including Email, SMS, Facebook, Chat, CRM, and more. The company's mission is to help businesses meet their customers. They help you to focus on the important tasks and put the rest on autopilot with automation. You can create professional-looking emails in no time, using its email builder, but the magic is in the platform’s combination of features. With chat, SMS marketing, Inbox, CRM, and automation, you’ll find it easy to piece together smarter and more compelling email campaigns. Facebook Ads functionality is built-in, making it possible to retarget contacts and attract new leads.
Key Features:
- A shared inbox so you never lose track of your customer email history.
- 60+ responsive email templates.
- Built-in CRM.
- Built-in SMS and Chat.
- Contact Segmentation - make your emails more relevant by targeting smaller groups of contacts with a tailored message.
- Facebook Ads for lead generation.
Pricing:
Sendinblue is free for up to 300 emails per day to unlimited contacts. Pricing starts at $25/month for up to 10,000 emails.
2. Omnisend
Omnisend is an all-in-one email marketing automation platform that also caters to eCommerce brands. It enables you to expand on your newsletters and boost sales with automated emails, segmentation, and the added potential of SMS. It includes pre-built automation for cart abandonment, welcome series, transactional emails to help deliver streamlined buyer engagements.
Key Features:
- A library of templates makes it easy to create professional, stunning emails without coding that you can easily customize to fit your brand, add products, include dynamic discount codes, and save for your next campaign.
- An Automations Library with pre-built workflows for every step of your customer journey.
- Segmented targeting that can be used both for campaigns and automation across all the channels Omnisend caters for.
- Pop-ups and forms aid lead generations.
- Reports and analytics track sales and identify winning campaigns.
Pricing:
Omnisend is free for up to 15,000 emails per month / 2,000 per day. Pricing starts at $16 per month when paid annually. There are additional costs for SMS, although higher plans offer SMS credits.
3. EmailOctopus
EmailOctopus is a popular email marketing software platform that has a mission to provide email marketing that's simpler, more intuitive, and better value than the competition. It offers templates you can customize in a drag and drop editor, or you can begin your emails from scratch. The app also includes a landing page builder with everything you need to generate leads and grow your email list. Integrations are a drawcard for agile brands. Many of your existing tools, including Shopify, Gravity Forms, and WordPress easily pair with EmailOctopus and make it an attractive tool, especially for brands with ambitious goals.
Key Features:
- Import existing subscribers and keep growing with customizable forms for your website, or create stunning landing pages to capture more subscribers.
- Start with a pre-designed template and customize it or build your own designs from scratch.
- Leverage email automation to deliver campaigns.
- Use insights and data to segment your subscribers into target audiences.
Pricing:
EmailOctopus offers a free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month. Paid plans start at $20 per month.
4. EngageBay
Apart from a standalone Service Bay product (covering activities such as live chat, helpdesk reports, tickets, and more), EngageBay offers three products:
- Marketing Bay
- CRM & Sales Bay
- All-in-One Suite
Email marketing is included in both the Marketing Bay and the All-in-One Suite, although CRM email integration is part of the CRM & Sales Bay. Their email marketing system includes rich text formatting, a landing page builder, email marketing templates, free email automation, and more.
Key Features of the Marketing Bay (most also Included in the All-in-One Suite):
- Marketing automation
- Email marketing
- Email sequences
- Landing pages
- Web forms
- SMS marketing
- Inbound marketing
- Site messaging
- Push notifications
- Contact segmentation
- Email templates
- Bulk SMS marketing
Pricing:
EngageBay is free for up to 500 contacts and 1,000 branded emails. Pricing for their All-in-One Suite (including both Marketing and CRM & Sales Bay options) starts at $8.99 per month when paid biennially.
5. ConvertKit
ConverKit is a great fit for both eCommerce businesses and creators. Its clean interface makes for an enjoyable experience, and it’s feature-rich. It includes features like opt-in forms, landing pages, email workflows, tagging systems, data management and list segmentation, personalization, automation, and a lot more. ConvertKit also comes with helpful integrations with other platforms creators and creators are accustomed to like Woocommerce, PayPal, Stripe, and WordPress.
Key Features:
- Automate your sales funnel to send content to subscribers automatically, getting them prepped to make a purchase.
- Sell digital products with a tool built for creators.
- Change a URL after the email is already sent with Creator Pro.
- Create personalized email marketing campaigns.
- Building professional landing pages and sign-up forms.
Pricing:
ConvertKit offers a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers. Paid plans start at $29/month.
6. GetResponse
GetResponse is one of our favorite email marketing platforms and it's widely used by marketers across industries. It includes email automation, email templates, segmentation, and personalization. There's also a neat Auto Funnel feature that provides a ready-made marketing funnel for email marketing campaigns. Altogether, GetResponse packs a set of powerful features geared toward brand growth. From A/B testing to a comprehensive analytics tool that tracks email campaign performance.
Key Features:
- Autoresponders to send welcome emails, followups, educational series, and nurture leads automatically.
- One-click integration to run powerful retargeting campaigns using Facebook Pixel.
- Website visitor tracking lets you send relevant communication based on page visits.
- Build landing pages for lead and sales generation.
- Create paid ads for Facebook, Instagram, and Google.
Pricing:
GetResponse offers a 30-day free trial. Pricing starts at $15/month.
7. AWeber
AWeber is a great email marketing platform for teams, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. It includes a drag-and-drop email editor, templates, automation and workflows, A/B testing, segmentation, autoresponders, and tons of integrations. Like others on our list, AWeber offers a landing page builder. It’s clean and drag-and-drop-based, making it easy to use for anyone who needs to quickly build and deploy a landing page along with an email campaign.
Key Features:
- AI-powered email template designer so you can create stunning branded emails quickly.
- Automate email content creation by broadcasting the latest posts from your blogs.
- Direct campaigns to the right people using tagging and dynamic content.
- Drag and drop landing page builder.
Pricing:
AWeber is free for up to 500 subscribers. Pricing starts at $16.15/month.
8. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is an affordable email marketing platform, making it great for small marketing teams and creators. It includes all the features you'd expect like automation, segmentation, triggered emails, email funnels, autoresponders, A/B testing, and scheduling. It also includes more advanced features like conditional content, geotracking, managed deliverability, and multi-user editing. Geotracking shows you where your subscribers are from, and you also get managed deliverability, and multi-user editing (update multiple fields in an email with subscriber information).
Key Features:
- Segmentation and dynamic content make it easy to customize your message and send targeted emails to the right contact.
- Personalize your emails based on any contact information you have.
- A/B testing to find the best-converting emails.
- Use simple split testing to make your emails get more opens, clicks, and buys.
- Built-in landing page builder.
Pricing:
Pricing starts at $9/month.
9. Drip
Drip is one of the more advanced email marketing platforms on our list and is the perfect option for eCommerce businesses because of its seamless integration with eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento. You can use eCommerce CRM data to create personalized marketing, segmenting your email list based on any number of criteria like clicks, purchase history, email opens, and more.
Drip also integrates SMS marketing, elevating it into a sphere few email marketing platforms play. SMSs can be sent for a range of engagements, from abandoned cart reminders to promotional deals.
Key Features:
- Ecommerce CRM lets you learn more about your customers so you can create targeted and personalized email marketing campaigns.
- Communicate with your customers no matter where they are, from email to SMS to social and beyond.
- Connect your eCommerce store to Drip to collect revenue-attribution data so you can make better marketing decisions.
- SMS automation to drive engagement with buyers.
- Segmentation and reporting on email campaigns.
Pricing:
Drip offers a free trial. Pricing starts at $19/month.
10. MailerLite
MailerLite is a strong competitor in the creators and small-medium business bracket. It includes the basics you need for successful email marketing like surveys, automation, popups, and landing pages. MailerLite also integrates with dozens of eCommerce platforms and marketing tools you're probably already using.
At a glance, it appears to be one of the more understated platforms, and this is largely due to its clean design. But that’s also what makes it powerful. Everything about the platform is geared towards growth, from eCommerce campaign functionality to automation, segmentation, promotional pop-ups, and the ability to create landing pages.
Key Features:
- A website builder and landing page builder for quick web asset builds.
- Pop-ups and embedded forms help you bring in more leads.
- Personalize your campaigns using advanced targeting features.
- Test, experiment, and streamline your emails to improve your email marketing benchmarks.
Pricing:
MailerLite is free for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. Pricing starts at $10/month.
11. Keap
Keap is technically a customer relationship management service, but it has robust email marketing, automation, and sales tools, earning it a spot on our list of the best email marketing platforms. Keap includes automation and workflows, templates for emails, quotes, invoices, and proposals, and it integrates with your other favorite business tools and apps. The true power of this platform is it’s automation and CRM. These help you turn current customers into repeat customers, and they are easy to navigate. Keap also integrates with your other favorite business tools and apps, making it a smart move for small eCommerce brands with a growing MarTech stack.
Key Features:
- Advanced marketing and sales automation, customizable campaigns, and app integration to power growth.
- Automatically capture new leads, assign tasks, and trigger personalized messages.
- Manage your contacts and leads in Keap and sync your Outlook and Gmail.
- Revenue reports and analytics help drive smarter brand decisions.
Pricing:
Keap offers a free trial. Pricing starts at $79/month.
12. Constant Contact
Constant Contact helps you create email marketing campaigns like a pro. It includes a smart email editor that makes it easy to customize and design great-looking emails that stand out on every device. IOther features that make it a catch for smaller brands and non-profits include automation, social marketing for lead generation, and the ability to build websites and landing pages. Constant Contact also has specialized email marketing for eCommerce tools to help your online store grow. You can upload contact lists from Excel, Outlook, Salesforce—or wherever you store your contacts.
Key Features:
- A smart email editor to design professional and aesthetically pleasing emails.
- Email marketing automation, including a welcome email for new subscribers, triggered email series, contact segmentation, resend emails to non-openers, and powerful list-building tools.
- Smart eCommerce tools and results, including segmented and automated emails.
- Website and landing page builder.
- Social marketing for posting ads, scheduling content, and tracking performance.
Pricing:
Constant Contact offers a one-month free trial. Pricing starts at $20/month.
13. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most established email marketing platforms out there. It's particularly well-suited for beginners and startups and offers tools like email automation, data segmentation, templates, personalization, A/B testing, lead capture forms, and integration with CRMs.
While it started as a purely email-focused solution, the platform offers much more today. You can build a free website, buy a domain, create paid ads and landing pages, publish social media posts, and send printed postcards to any destination in the world.
Key Features:
- Get predictive insights about your contacts so you can personalize your marketing.
- Personalize individual content blocks within your emails with dynamic content.
- Design personalized customer journeys using conditional logic and branching points.
- A/B testing to identify high-converting messages.
- Website and landing page builder.
Pricing:
Mailchimp offers a free plan for up to 2,000 contacts and one audience. Paid plans start at $9.99/month.
14. SendX
SendX is affordable, intuitive email marketing software that you can use to design, schedule, and track email campaigns, driving sales from your emails. You can upload an opted-in email list, send broadcast email campaigns, and create reports to measure clicks, opens, measure conversions, and more. You can automate your email marketing with a powerful rules-based interface based on user activity, audience segmentation, and more.
Key Features:
- Design, schedule, and track email campaigns, automating with a powerful rules-based interface when relevant.
- Build your email list using high converting email pop-ups forms, inline forms, and landing pages to own your audience.
- Create landing pages for lead generation.
- Design emails without HTML. SendX drag and drop editor is meant for marketers to design professional-looking emails with ease.
- Click heatmap for email campaigns shows where subscribers are based.
Pricing:
SendX offers a 14-day free trial. Pricing starts at $7.49 per month when paid annually.
15. SendPulse
SendPulse is a multi-channel email and messenger marketing platform built for sending emails, SMS, and creating chatbots for Facebook and Telegram. It may seem like a mouthful, but together, these features can help brands drive strong and more engaging brand experiences for buyers.
SendPulse let's send different types of messages separately or combine them with Automation 360. It includes a suite of email marketing tools, helping you to collect users' contact information, create responsive templates, and set up automated flows.
Key Features:
- A drag and drop editor to create responsive emails without any HTML knowledge, including 130+ templates.
- Trigger emails to nurture leads in every stage of your sales funnel, and convert them into paying customers.
- A form builder to create a pop-up, embedded, or floating subscription form on your website to collect email addresses and other information from your visitors.
- SMS and web push notifications for lead generation.
- Built-in landing page creator.
- Built-in CRM.
Pricing:
SendPulse is free for up to 15,000 emails to 500 subscribers. Pricing starts at $5.28 per month when paid annually. There are additional costs for extra marketing channels.
16. Freshworks CRM (formerly Freshmarketer)
Freshworks CRM is a full-featured marketing automation solution for your business that includes email marketing. It has tools for you to engage and convert your audience from subscribers into paying customers with email campaigns, so you can provide relevant information at the right time and deliver integrated campaigns that improve conversions.
Admittingly, this is a CRM first, but that’s what makes it a powerful platform. Its CRM functionality helps brands gather in-depth customer insights, making marketing campaigns all the more stronger. Automation also powers lead generation and nurturing, and can send invoices or help generate recurring revenue via email reminders to subscribers.
Key Email Features:
- Build emails from scratch effortlessly with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor, or choose from a vast collection of templates to create design-rich emails that complement your messaging.
- Send emails that speak to your audience with personalization and can bring in more conversions.
- Gain detailed campaign performance with analytics.
- Automate welcome emails, invoices, reminders, and more.
- Segment customers.
- Build journeys to automate email communication and leverage personalization throughout a customer’s lifecycle.
Pricing:
Freshworks CRM offers a 21-day free trial. Pricing starts at $29/month for the Marketing Cloud when paid annually
17. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 aims to replace many services and apps with a single ecosystem for your business to work in. Its tools cover communications, tasks & projects, CRM, contact center, and website. Bitrix24’s email platform comes with webforms, SMS and instant messaging marketing, and Facebook, Instagram and Google paid advertising functionality.
Yes, this makes Bitrix24 sound like a large and clunky tool, but it’s far from it. Brix24 has a relatively easy-to-navigate interface, and with features like a built-in CRM, creating powerful email marketing campaigns is a goal well within reach.
Key Email Features:
- Many channels, one contact center: social networks, mobile messengers, email, telephony, website live chat, website forms.
- Contact center reports (activity by channel, activity by day/time, average response time, client satisfaction, supervisor ratings, custom reports).
- Marketing and sales, including email marketing.
- Google Ads remarketing capabilities.
Pricing:
Bitrix24 offers a free starter business toolset that includes a basic set of Contact Center tools. Plans start at $13.52/mo.
18. User.com
User.com is a single workspace providing you with easy-to-use yet very robust tools for marketing, sales, management, and support teams. Marketing can use it to upgrade your brand's communication across channels, planning various paths for multiple customer segments and let automation take over the job. User.com offers personalized and tailored emails, sending the right email to the right receiver at the right moment.
Key Email Features:
- Utilize defined snippet tags to make your message more specific to the person.
- Plan your agenda and set up future promos.
- Personalize email art.
- Track open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribes; see all your campaigns' analytical results instantly.
- Use unified subscriber data for smarter campaigns.
Pricing:
User.com offers a Free plan with a basic set of features. Email marketing is only included in the Business and Premium plans that start at $49/mo.
19. Direct Mail for Mac
Direct Mail for Mac enables you to create and send great-looking email newsletters. You can use it to compose, grow, track, send, collaborate, and automate your emails. Whether your emails are newsletters, announcements, or promotions, Direct Mail is confident you will find the perfect template, and you can customize up to 18 fields. It includes a built-in image editor, a Design Test feature to see pixel-perfect screenshots of your message rendered in over 50+ email clients, and live previews that update as you type
Key Features:
- Grow your mailing list by adding a subscribe form to your website that automatically syncs with Direct Mail and integrates with your company's Facebook Page. Alternatively, swiftly import all of your contacts from other apps.
- Send emails to large lists in a matter of seconds without having to worry about bounces and deliverability issues.
- Autoresponders are highly customizable and easy to use. Let your subscribers know they're important to you by sending them a celebratory wish, or a special promotion, every year on their birthday.
- See reports on campaign performance.
- Collaborate with colleagues to build email campaigns.
Pricing:
Direct Mail for Mac is free for up to 150 emails/mo. Plans start at $15/mo.
20. Emercury
Emercury is is a strong contender in the small-to-medium bracket. It’s packed with a host of features that push it north of the spectrum. It offers an easy-to-use HTML editor and a drag and drops template editor to personalized messages, forms, and an autoresponder. Automation is available in the form of Emercury’s Journey Builder, a tool that helps you nurture leads using triggers. Emercury enables you to sync your data with over 2,000 sales and marketing tools, teamwork apps, forms, customer support platforms, social media, and more.
Key Features:
- Create responsive emails with a real-time drag-&-drop template editor. Start from scratch or use one of their templates.
- An easy-to-use form-builder for your website that gives you what you need to design a form with customizable fields and then show the form at the right time.
- Managing contacts with ease: segmented lists, bulk unsubscribe capabilities, suppression lists, tagging subscribers, a robust search function, and a never-email list.
- Create automated lead nurture campaigns.
- A/B testing to find the best email messaging.
Pricing:
Choose between subscriber-based pricing and CPM pricing. Prices start at $67/mo, with a 15% discount for non-profits and a 10% discount for annual plans.
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