Best Email Marketing software

How to Choose the Best Email Marketing Software

Email marketing software helps businesses build subscriber lists, create campaigns, automate customer communication, segment audiences, measure engagement, and maintain ongoing relationships with leads and customers.

The best platform depends on what email is expected to do inside your business.

A newsletter creator may mainly need an easy editor, signup forms, and affordable subscriber pricing. An ecommerce store may care more about abandoned carts, product recommendations, customer segments, and purchase-triggered automation. A B2B company may need lead nurturing and CRM integration. A larger sender may place deliverability controls, permissions, reporting, and sending infrastructure above design features.

Start by identifying your main email workflow, expected list size, monthly sending volume, and required integrations.

Then compare products based on the features you will actually use.

Best Email Marketing Software by Use Case

These are use-case recommendations rather than a single universal ranking.

The best software for a Shopify store may be unnecessarily complex for a consultant sending one newsletter each week. Likewise, a simple newsletter tool may not provide enough automation for a business managing thousands of customer journeys.

What Is Email Marketing Software?

Email marketing software helps businesses communicate with groups of subscribers through email.

Instead of sending messages manually from a normal inbox, email marketing platforms provide tools for managing mailing lists, designing campaigns, automating messages, segmenting audiences, and measuring performance.

Common capabilities include:

1. email campaign creation
2. newsletter design
3. subscriber management
4. signup forms
5. segmentation
6. personalization
7. marketing automation
8. drip campaigns
9. A/B testing
10. templates
11. analytics
12. landing pages
13. transactional emails
14. ecommerce integrations
15. CRM integrations
16. API access

Some products focus mainly on newsletters.

Others have developed into broader customer-engagement platforms that combine email with SMS, mobile messaging, CRM data, customer profiles, ecommerce events, and automated lifecycle campaigns.

Understanding which type of platform you need can prevent you from paying for functionality your team never uses.

Types of Email Marketing Software

Newsletter Software

Newsletter software is designed for businesses and creators that regularly publish email content to a subscriber audience.

Typical requirements include:

1. drag-and-drop email editing
2. reusable templates
3. signup forms
4. subscriber lists
5. scheduling
6. audience segments
7. analytics
8. unsubscribe management

Creators, publishers, consultants, communities, and small businesses often do not need complicated automation when they first begin.

Ease of use can matter more than advanced functionality.

Email Automation Software

Email automation allows messages to be sent automatically when a subscriber meets a particular condition or performs an action.

A workflow may begin when someone:

1. joins a mailing list
2. downloads a resource
3. purchases a product
4. abandons a cart
5. clicks a particular link
6. reaches a customer milestone
7. stops engaging
8. submits a form

The software can then send one message or a sequence of messages without someone manually launching each campaign.

Common automated workflows include:

Welcome series: Introduce new subscribers to the brand.

Lead nurturing: Educate prospects over several messages.

Abandoned cart: Remind shoppers about products they left behind.

Post-purchase: Send onboarding, product education, or follow-up content.

Win-back campaigns: Re-engage customers who have become inactive.

Renewal reminders: Notify customers before subscriptions or services expire.

Automation becomes more useful as customer journeys become more complex.

Ecommerce Email Marketing Software

Ecommerce businesses have requirements that go beyond ordinary newsletters.

Their email platform may need access to:

1. products
2. orders
3. customer purchase history
4. shopping carts
5. browsing behavior
6. customer value
7. discounts
8. inventory events

This information can support automated campaigns such as:

1. abandoned-cart reminders
2. welcome sequences
3. browse abandonment
4. product recommendations
5. post-purchase education
6. back-in-stock messages
7. review requests
8. replenishment reminders
9. VIP campaigns
10. win-back sequences

Klaviyo and Omnisend are particularly associated with ecommerce lifecycle marketing, while platforms such as Mailchimp and MailerLite also support ecommerce integrations and automated campaigns.

For an online store, the quality of the ecommerce integration is often more important than the number of email templates included.

Email Marketing Deliverability

Deliverability is one of the most important factors when comparing email marketing software.

Sending an email successfully does not automatically mean it reached the recipient’s inbox.

Messages may be delivered to the inbox, placed in spam, rejected, delayed, or filtered by the recipient’s email provider.

Several factors can affect deliverability, including:

1. sender authentication
2. domain reputation
3. sending reputation
4. list quality
5. spam complaints
6. bounced addresses
7. subscriber engagement
8. sending behavior
9. email content
10. opt-out handling

The email platform provides infrastructure and tools, but the sender also has responsibility for maintaining healthy sending practices.

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

Businesses sending marketing email from their own domains should understand email authentication.

Common authentication mechanisms include:

SPF: Helps identify which servers are permitted to send email for a domain.

DKIM: Adds a cryptographic signature that helps receiving systems verify that the message was authorized by the sending domain.

DMARC: Builds on SPF and DKIM and gives domain owners greater control over how authentication failures are handled and reported.

Businesses sending significant volumes of email should treat domain authentication as a core setup task rather than an optional technical feature.

List Quality Matters

A large mailing list is not automatically a valuable mailing list.

Businesses should avoid purchasing lists or repeatedly sending campaigns to people who did not ask to receive them.

Healthy email programs usually focus on:

1. permission-based subscriber acquisition
2. clear signup expectations
3. easy unsubscribe
4. removing invalid addresses
5. monitoring engagement
6. managing complaints
7. segmenting audiences

Software can provide the tools, but deliverability ultimately depends on how those tools are used.

Email Marketing Automation Features to Compare

Automation builders can vary substantially between products.

Before choosing a platform, examine how workflows actually work.

Automation Triggers

Useful triggers may include:

1. subscriber added
2. form submitted
3. email opened
4. link clicked
5. product purchased
6. cart abandoned
7. customer anniversary
8. date reached
9. customer segment entered
10. custom event received

Ecommerce platforms may provide additional triggers based on purchase and browsing activity.

Conditional Logic

More advanced automation allows different subscribers to take different paths.

For example:

Customer purchased → Send onboarding

Customer did not purchase → Continue nurture sequence

This creates more relevant customer journeys than sending the same sequence to everyone.

Delays and Timing

Automation should let marketers control how much time passes between messages.

Timing may depend on:

1. minutes
2. hours
3. days
4. specific dates
5. subscriber timezone
6. customer action

Segmentation

Segmentation allows businesses to send different messages to different groups.

Segments may be based on:

1. location
2. interests
3. signup source
4. purchase history
5. engagement
6. lifecycle stage
7. customer value
8. website behavior

Better segmentation generally creates a more relevant subscriber experience than sending every campaign to the entire database.

Email Marketing Features to Compare

Email Editor

The editor should make it easy to create emails that work across desktop and mobile devices.

Common editing options include:

1. drag-and-drop blocks
2. text
3. images
4. buttons
5. columns
6. product blocks
7. saved sections
8. HTML editing

Teams with strict brand requirements should also check how much control they have over typography, spacing, reusable styles, and templates.

Templates

Templates can speed up campaign creation.

Look for templates relevant to the messages your team actually sends rather than choosing a platform because it advertises the largest template library.

Signup Forms

Forms help convert website visitors into subscribers.

Common form types include:

1. embedded forms
2. popups
3. landing pages
4. signup pages

Ecommerce businesses may also need behavior-based forms and integrations with their store.

Segmentation

Segmentation becomes increasingly important as a subscriber list grows.

A small newsletter may initially send similar content to everyone.

A larger marketing program may separate:

1. prospects
2. customers
3. VIP customers
4. inactive subscribers
5. product interests
6. regions
7. lifecycle stages

Personalization

Basic personalization may insert a subscriber’s name.

More advanced platforms can personalize content using customer attributes, purchase behavior, interests, location, or other data.

A/B Testing

A/B testing allows marketers to compare different campaign versions.

Common tests include:

1. subject lines
2. sender names
3. email content
4. calls to action
5. send times

The value of testing increases when the audience is large enough to produce meaningful results.

Analytics

Useful email marketing metrics may include:

1. delivered emails
2. opens
3. clicks
4. click-through rate
5. bounces
6. unsubscribes
7. spam complaints
8. conversions
9. revenue

Ecommerce platforms may connect campaign activity directly with orders and sales.

Do not evaluate campaign success using open rate alone. Privacy features and email-client behavior can make opens less reliable than clicks, conversions, replies, or revenue for many use cases.

Email Marketing Software Pricing

Email marketing pricing can become complicated because vendors do not all charge in the same way.

Pricing may depend on:

1. number of contacts
2. number of active subscribers
3. emails sent per month
4. users
5. automation features
6. advanced reporting
7. SMS usage
8. transactional email
9. customer data features
10. support level

Two platforms with a similar advertised starting price may become very different in cost when the list reaches 10,000 or 100,000 subscribers.

Contact-Based Pricing

Many email tools increase the subscription price as the number of stored or active contacts grows.

Before migrating a large list, understand exactly which contacts count toward billing.

Send-Based Pricing

Some platforms focus more heavily on the number of emails sent.

This model can be attractive for businesses with a large database that emails subscribers relatively infrequently.

Feature-Based Pricing

Advanced automation, reporting, permissions, testing, or customer-data functionality may only be available on higher plans.

The cheapest plan may therefore not represent the price of the features you actually require.

Calculate the Real Cost

Before selecting email marketing software, estimate:

Expected subscribers + monthly email volume + required automation + team users + ecommerce or CRM integrations + transactional email + additional channels

Then compare providers using the same expected workload.

Free Email Marketing Software

Several email marketing platforms provide free plans or trials.

Free plans can be useful for:

1. new newsletters
2. startups
3. creators
4. small local businesses
5. testing a platform before migration

However, free tiers may limit:

1. subscribers
2. monthly sends
3. automation
4. templates
5. branding removal
6. reporting
7. support
8. users

The best free platform is the one with an upgrade path that still makes sense when the email list grows.

Email Marketing Software for Small Businesses

Small businesses should usually prioritize simplicity, affordability, and enough automation to remove repetitive work.

Useful features include:

1. easy campaign creation
2. subscriber management
3. signup forms
4. templates
5. basic segmentation
6. automation
7. analytics
8. integrations

Mailchimp, MailerLite, AWeber, GetResponse, Sender.net, and similar platforms may all be worth comparing depending on the size and complexity of the business.

Avoid paying for advanced functionality simply because you may need it someday.

Email Marketing Software for Ecommerce

Ecommerce teams should evaluate email platforms through the customer lifecycle rather than only campaign creation.

A strong ecommerce setup may support:

Visitor → Subscriber → First Purchase → Repeat Purchase → VIP Customer

Email can support every stage.

Important capabilities include:

1. Shopify or WooCommerce integration
2. customer synchronization
3. abandoned-cart automation
4. product recommendations
5. customer segmentation
6. purchase-triggered workflows
7. revenue reporting
8. customer lifecycle automation

Klaviyo and Omnisend are especially relevant to ecommerce-focused comparisons, while Mailchimp, MailerLite, and other platforms also provide ecommerce functionality.

Email Marketing Software for Creators and Newsletters

Creators often need a simpler workflow:

Capture subscriber → Publish newsletter → Build audience → Monetize

Useful features include:

1. signup pages
2. forms
3. email editor
4. scheduled newsletters
5. automation
6. subscriber tagging
7. landing pages
8. paid subscriptions or digital product features

Avoid selecting an enterprise marketing platform if most of its functionality has little connection with the newsletter business model.

Email Marketing for B2B Companies

B2B email marketing often centers on longer sales cycles.

Relevant workflows include:

1. lead nurturing
2. webinar follow-up
3. content downloads
4. demo requests
5. account engagement
6. sales handoff
7. re-engagement

CRM integration becomes particularly important.

Marketing teams should be able to understand when a contact becomes sales-ready, while sales teams should have enough context about previous marketing activity.

Email Marketing Software vs Marketing Automation Software

Email marketing and marketing automation overlap, but they are not identical.

Email marketing software primarily focuses on building lists, creating campaigns, sending messages, automating email sequences, and analyzing results.

Marketing automation software may coordinate a broader customer journey across multiple channels and systems.

It may include:

1. email
2. lead scoring
3. CRM activity
4. forms
5. website behavior
6. SMS
7. customer segmentation
8. workflow automation

A small business may be able to handle most requirements inside an email marketing platform.

A business managing complicated lead or customer journeys may eventually need broader marketing automation.

Email Marketing vs SMS Marketing

Email is suited to longer communication, newsletters, product education, visual content, and campaigns where readers may need more information.

SMS is more appropriate for shorter and more time-sensitive messages.

Examples include:

1. reminders
2. urgent notifications
3. short promotions
4. appointment alerts
5. time-sensitive offers

Many businesses use both.

If SMS is important to your marketing strategy, compare the SMS Marketing Software category on HowToBuySaaS as well.

Email Marketing vs WhatsApp Marketing

Email and WhatsApp serve different customer communication patterns.

Email works well for newsletters, longer educational content, lifecycle sequences, and scheduled marketing.

WhatsApp can support faster conversations, chatbots, notifications, sales interactions, and customer support.

Businesses operating across several communication channels should decide whether they want separate specialist tools or an omnichannel platform.

Explore the WhatsApp Marketing Software category if WhatsApp is an important part of your customer engagement strategy.

Email Marketing Integrations

Email marketing becomes more useful when it connects with other customer systems.

Ecommerce Integrations

Online stores should check for native connections with:

1. Shopify
2. WooCommerce
3. BigCommerce
4. other ecommerce systems

A native integration can allow customer and purchase information to trigger automated campaigns.

CRM Integrations

CRM integration is useful for B2B and sales-led organizations.

It can help connect:

Lead acquisition → Marketing nurture → Sales opportunity → Customer

without requiring teams to manually move data between systems.

Website Integrations

Common website connections include:

1. WordPress
2. forms
3. landing pages
4. website builders

Automation Platforms

Integrations with workflow tools can help connect email software with applications that lack a direct integration.

API and Webhooks

Technical teams may need API access for:

1. subscriber creation
2. custom events
3. transactional workflows
4. user synchronization
5. internal applications

Check developer documentation before buying if the API is important to your implementation.

How We Evaluate Email Marketing Software

HowToBuySaaS evaluates email marketing software based on the type of business and messaging workflow it is designed to support.

Campaign Creation

We consider how easily marketers can create, preview, schedule, and manage campaigns.

Automation

We look at available triggers, conditions, workflow controls, personalization, and how easy automation is to maintain.

Subscriber Management

The platform should provide practical tools for lists, segments, tags, subscriber data, opt-outs, and audience organization.

Deliverability Tools

We consider whether the platform helps users configure authentication, understand delivery problems, manage bounces, and maintain healthy sending practices.

Integrations

We evaluate connections with ecommerce platforms, CRMs, websites, analytics software, and other marketing systems.

Analytics

Reporting should help marketers understand whether campaigns are generating useful engagement and business outcomes.

Pricing

We compare how costs change as subscriber counts, sending volume, users, or required features increase.

Ease of Use

The platform should match the technical ability of the intended user.

A powerful automation system provides little value if the marketing team cannot maintain it.

Scalability

We consider whether businesses can expand their audience, sending volume, automation, and team usage without immediately needing to replace the platform.

Questions to Ask Before Buying Email Marketing Software

Before choosing a platform, answer these questions:

1. How many subscribers do we currently have?
2. How quickly is the list growing?
3. How many emails will we send each month?
4. Do we send newsletters, automation, or both?
5. Do we need abandoned-cart automation?
6. Which ecommerce platform do we use?
7. Do we need CRM integration?
8. How complex are our customer journeys?
9. Do we need transactional email?
10. How many employees need access?
11. Do we require approval workflows?
12. Do we need landing pages and forms?
13. How important is advanced segmentation?
14. Do we need SMS or other channels?
15. What reporting matters to us?
16. Can we configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC?
17. How does pricing change as contacts increase?
18. Is migration support available?
19. Do we need API access?
20. What happens if our sending volume grows significantly?

Frequently Asked Questions About Email Marketing Software

What is the best email marketing software?

There is no single best email marketing platform for every business.

Mailchimp is worth comparing for small businesses seeking a broad marketing toolkit. MailerLite is relevant to businesses and creators wanting a simpler email workflow. Klaviyo and Omnisend are particularly relevant to ecommerce. ActiveCampaign is worth considering when advanced automation is important.

The right choice depends on your list size, business model, automation requirements, integrations, and budget.

What does email marketing software do?

Email marketing software helps businesses collect subscribers, create campaigns, send newsletters, automate messages, segment audiences, and measure marketing performance.

Is there free email marketing software?

Yes. Several email marketing platforms offer free plans or trials.

Limits may apply to subscriber counts, monthly sends, automation, branding, reporting, or support.

Which email marketing software is best for small businesses?

Small businesses should prioritize ease of use, pricing, campaign creation, basic automation, forms, segmentation, and integrations.

Mailchimp, MailerLite, AWeber, GetResponse, Sender.net, and other SMB-focused platforms are worth comparing.

What is the best email marketing software for ecommerce?

Klaviyo and Omnisend are strongly focused on ecommerce and customer lifecycle marketing.

Other platforms such as Mailchimp and MailerLite also provide ecommerce integrations and automation.

The best choice depends on your store platform, customer data, automation needs, and expected messaging volume.

What is email marketing automation?

Email marketing automation uses rules or customer actions to trigger messages automatically.

Common examples include welcome sequences, abandoned-cart reminders, lead nurturing, post-purchase emails, and re-engagement campaigns.

What is email deliverability?

Email deliverability refers to whether a message successfully reaches the intended inbox rather than being rejected, filtered, or placed in spam.

Deliverability can be affected by authentication, reputation, list quality, engagement, complaints, and sending behavior.

Do I need SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for email marketing?

Businesses sending marketing email from their own domains should configure appropriate email authentication.

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC help receiving mail systems verify legitimate senders and protect domains against certain forms of spoofing and abuse.

Is email marketing software the same as CRM software?

No.

Email marketing software focuses primarily on subscriber communication and campaigns.

CRM software primarily manages leads, contacts, customer relationships, sales opportunities, and customer history.

Many businesses integrate both systems.

Is email marketing software the same as marketing automation?

Not necessarily.

Email automation can exist inside a normal email platform.

Broader marketing automation may manage several channels, lead scoring, CRM activity, customer data, and more complex workflows.

Can email marketing software integrate with Shopify?

Many platforms offer Shopify integrations.

The depth of the integration varies, so ecommerce businesses should check whether customer, order, cart, product, and revenue data can be used inside campaigns and automation.

How much does email marketing software cost?

Pricing depends on the provider and may be based on subscribers, contacts, email sends, users, features, or a combination of these.

Always calculate pricing at your expected future list size rather than only comparing entry-level plans.

Can email marketing software improve deliverability?

A good platform can provide sending infrastructure and tools that support healthy email practices, but no provider can guarantee inbox placement.

Subscriber consent, sender reputation, authentication, list quality, engagement, and campaign practices also affect results.

Compare Email Marketing Software on HowToBuySaaS

Start by defining the role email plays in your business.

If you mainly publish newsletters, prioritize ease of use, templates, forms, subscriber management, and pricing.

If ecommerce revenue is the goal, compare store integrations, segmentation, abandoned-cart workflows, product data, and revenue reporting.

If customer journeys are complex, focus on automation triggers, conditions, CRM integration, and customer data.

If your list is large, pay particular attention to deliverability controls, subscriber pricing, sending limits, authentication, and reporting.

Browse the email marketing software listed on HowToBuySaaS and compare platforms according to your audience size, automation requirements, integrations, ecommerce needs, deliverability controls, and total expected cost.