The best email marketing software for most people is Mailchimp for an easy all round tool, Constant Contact for small businesses and events, MailerLite for value and simplicity, Kit for creators, and beehiiv for newsletters. Below we compare the 21 leading email marketing tools on price, features, deliverability, ratings and who each one suits best.
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Ranked on verified ratings, pricing, feature depth and fit.
The best known email tool, with a generous free tier, friendly design and enough automation for most small businesses.
A long running, beginner friendly platform strong on events and simple campaigns, with helpful phone support.
Formerly Sendinblue, a value focused tool that prices on emails sent rather than contacts, with SMS and a light CRM built in.
An all in one tool that adds webinars and conversion funnels to email, suited to marketers running full campaigns.
A clean, affordable email tool loved for its simple editor and generous free plan, a top pick for value seekers.
An ecommerce focused tool that pairs email and SMS with prebuilt store flows, a lighter weight alternative to Klaviyo.
One of the oldest email tools, dependable and simple, a steady choice for small businesses and solopreneurs.
Formerly ConvertKit, built for creators and solo publishers who want simple automation, landing pages and monetisation.
A modern newsletter platform from ex Morning Brew operators, strong on growth, referrals and monetising a paid list.
A publishing platform for writers that makes paid subscriptions effortless, taking a cut of revenue rather than a monthly fee.
| Tool | Rating | Starts at | Free plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | ★ 4.4 | Free, then $13/mo | Yes | All round small business |
| Constant Contact | ★ 4.0 | From $12/mo | No | Small business and events |
| Brevo | ★ 4.6 | Free, then $9/mo | Yes | Email + SMS value |
| GetResponse | ★ 4.3 | Free, then $19/mo | Yes | Funnels and webinars |
| MailerLite | ★ 4.6 | Free, then $10/mo | Yes | Value and simplicity |
| Omnisend | ★ 4.5 | Free, then $16/mo | Yes | Ecommerce SMB |
| AWeber | ★ 4.2 | Free, then $15/mo | Yes | Small business classic |
| Kit | ★ 4.4 | Free, then $25/mo | Yes | Creators and newsletters |
| Beehiiv | ★ 4.7 | Free, then $39/mo | Yes | Newsletters and growth |
| Substack | ★ 4.6 | Free, 10% fee on paid | Yes | Paid newsletters |
Market size and forecast · 11.4% CAGR. Sources: Market Research Future, Porch Group Media, Litmus
The figures that define the email marketing market, each linked to its original source so you can verify every number.
| Metric | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average ROI per $1 spent | $36 | porchgroupmedia.com |
| Global email users | 4.48B | porchgroupmedia.com |
| Market size, 2025 | $12.6B | marketresearchfuture.com |
| Forecast CAGR to 2035 | 11.4% | marketresearchfuture.com |
| Forecast, 2035 | $37.3B | Market Research Future |
| Average ROI | $36 per $1 | Market Research Future |
| Companies using email | 81% | Market Research Future |
| Tools compared | 21 | 6S Software directory |
Email marketing software lets a business send bulk, branded emails to a list of subscribers, track how they perform, and automate follow ups, all while staying on the right side of spam and privacy rules. Instead of blind carbon copying hundreds of people from a normal inbox, which quickly gets you blocked, these tools manage your list, design the email, send it reliably at scale and report on who opened and clicked.
Email remains the workhorse of digital marketing for one simple reason: return. The channel delivers an average of 36 US dollars for every dollar spent [Porch Group Media], reaches 4.48 billion users worldwide, and is used by 81 percent of companies. It is also the one channel you own, rather than renting from a social network, which is why it keeps outperforming on customer acquisition and retention.
Every tool is built around three jobs: manage the list, build the email, and send and measure it. List management stores your subscribers, handles sign up forms and unsubscribes, and lets you segment people into groups. The builder is usually a drag and drop editor with templates, so you do not need to code. Sending infrastructure then delivers your campaign through servers tuned for deliverability, and reports show opens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes.
On top of that core sits automation. A welcome email when someone joins, a sequence that educates a new subscriber over a week, or a re engagement campaign for people who have gone quiet. The best email tools blur into marketing automation, and many of the same vendors appear in both categories. Deliverability, the share of emails that actually reach the inbox, is the quiet factor that separates good tools from bad.
Feature lists get long, so focus on what decides whether a tool earns its place.
The category splits into a few shapes. General all rounders like Mailchimp, MailerLite and Constant Contact suit most small businesses. Ecommerce tools such as Klaviyo and Omnisend lean on store data. Creator and newsletter platforms like Kit, beehiiv and Substack focus on publishing and paid subscriptions. And developer focused senders like SendGrid and Mailjet handle transactional email through an API.
Match the tool to who you are. A small business sending newsletters and promotions is well served by Mailchimp, MailerLite or Constant Contact. An online store should look at Klaviyo or Omnisend for their store data. A writer or solo creator building a paid newsletter should compare Kit, beehiiv and Substack. A product team sending receipts and password resets needs SendGrid or Mailjet.
Then weigh three practical factors. First, pricing, since most tools charge by number of subscribers and the bill climbs as your list grows, while a few like Brevo charge by emails sent. Second, deliverability and reputation, which you can gauge from reviews and any published inbox placement data. Third, ease of use, because a tool you can send from today beats a powerful one you never master. Trial two options with your real list and cross check verified reviews on G2 and Capterra.
Most tools price on the number of subscribers, often with a free tier for small lists. Mailchimp, MailerLite, Brevo and others offer free plans that cap contacts or monthly sends, which is enough to start. Paid plans then scale with list size, and the features most people want, like advanced automation and removing vendor branding, usually sit a tier above the entry plan.
Watch the pricing model closely. Subscriber based pricing means a list that doubles can double your bill even if you email the same amount, so Brevo's pay per email model can be cheaper for large but infrequently emailed lists. Newsletter platforms like Substack flip the model entirely, taking a percentage of paid subscription revenue instead of a monthly fee. Price the plan at the list size you expect to reach, not the one you start with.
AI is now standard, drafting subject lines and body copy, predicting the best send time, and cleaning lists for deliverability. The creator economy has pushed newsletters and paid subscriptions into the mainstream, which is why platforms like beehiiv and Substack have grown so fast. Privacy changes, including Apple Mail Privacy Protection, have made open rates less reliable, so smart marketers now lean on clicks, conversions and revenue as the real measures of success.
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