Best Email Marketing Tools & Software Reviews
Honest reviews of the platforms we actually build in — scored on ease of use, deliverability, pricing and support by working email professionals.
Klaviyo
Best for ecommerce brands on Shopify
The default choice for ecommerce email. Segmentation and flow-building are genuinely best-in-class, and revenue attribution is baked in rather than bolted on. Costs climb fast as your list grows.
- Excellent segmentation and event data
- Strong deliverability out of the box
- Revenue reporting per flow and campaign
- Gets expensive above 20k contacts
- Template editor feels dated next to newer builders
Litmus
Best for teams who cannot afford a broken render
The reference standard for inbox previews and pre-send QA. Expensive for a solo freelancer, but a single caught rendering bug in a large send pays for a month.
- Renders across virtually every client
- Spam and link checks before send
- Excellent dark mode previews
- No meaningful low-cost tier
- Overkill if you send infrequently
ActiveCampaign
Best for B2B lifecycle and sales automation
The strongest automation builder at this price point, with CRM features most ESPs lack. The interface rewards patience — there is a real learning curve before it clicks.
- Deep, flexible automation logic
- Built-in CRM and deal pipelines
- Good value for the feature set
- Steep learning curve
- Email builder is slower to work in than rivals
Mailchimp
Best for small teams sending their first campaigns
Still the easiest place to start, and the free tier is fine for a newsletter. Once you need real automation or granular segments you will feel the ceiling — and the pricing bites at scale.
- Very approachable for beginners
- Huge integration ecosystem
- Generous free tier to get going
- Automation is limited versus rivals
- Pricing counts unsubscribed contacts