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Email marketing software can alter the course of your growth by sending the right message to the right people at the right time – on autopilot.

But with 670+ email marketing tools available, finding the best software can be overwhelming. That’s why we’ve meticulously researched and tested over 100 email marketing platforms for you.

Using a combination of interviews with 1,782 marketers, results from our extensive annual testing of email marketing platforms, and a lot of data crunching, we’ve compiled a list of recommendations to meet a range of needs.

2 Best email marketing automation tools for SaaS in 2023

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Scroll horizontally to compare tools
ActiveCampaign
Enables businesses to create optimized customer experiences.
Website
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HubSpot
Small and medium ecommerce businesses that want to generate sales on autopilot.
Website
Best for
Best for
Best marketing automation software for small to medium-sized businesses
Best for
Best for B2B service companies
Pricing for 2,500 contacts
Pricing for 2,500 contacts
$49/mo
14 day free trial
Pricing for 2,500 contacts
$135/mo
Free start
Rating
Rating
4.5(588)
Rating
4(2)

We’ve uncovered the strengths and weaknesses of these popular email marketing services in 9 key areas: cost, deliverability, integrations, ease of use, reporting, security, advanced features, CRM, and support.

Read on to finally find the optimal tool for your email marketing efforts.

#1 ActiveCampaign

Website

Best marketing automation software for small to medium-sized businesses

With over 150,000 customers, it’s not surprising that ActiveCampaign was the most commonly mentioned tool in our survey of email markering software options for 2023.

ActiveCampaign has earned its reputation as a leading marketing automation tool by focusing on building a world-class product that provides multiple solutions for B2C, B2B, and e-commerce businesses from around the globe.

ActiveCampaign’s automation builder is as simple to use as a flowchart or mindmap

It’s by far the most advanced email marketing platform on our list, with machine learning and predictive tools enabling marketers to work smarter and deliver higher ROI.

Often credited with pioneering visual marketing automation, ActiveCampaign is impressively intuitive and easier to use than some tools on our list.

As an all-in-one marketing tool, ActiveCampaign comes with a built-in CRM system to manage your sales, live chat, and of course, email campaigns.

A built-in sales CRM connects with ActiveCampaign’s powerful automation engine

As an all-in-one marketing tool, ActiveCampaign comes with a built-in CRM system to manage your sales, live chat, and of course, email campaigns.

ActiveCampaign’s Pricing

You might think all these features come at a hefty cost. Yet, starting at only $9 a month, ActiveCampaign is reasonably priced and more affordable than many of the tools on this list.

To find out which plan is right for you, check out our full ActiveCampaign pricing breakdown.

ActiveCampaign’s Pricing

ActiveCampaign’s Pros

  • All-in-one platform

    You can build courses, landing pages, websites, membership sites and manage products directly inside ClickFunnels.

  • Unique triggers and actions

    As a bi-product of it’s all-in-one platform, ClickFunnels has unique triggers and actions in their automation workflows, like auto-enrolling people into courses or upselling products.

  • Community

    ClickFunnels have an active user community (online and offline) with more than 100k customers throughout the year. There is also a wide network of ClickFunnels consultants available for managed campaigns.

  • Automation split testing

    This feature enables you to A/B test entire sequences against each other, rather than just test individual emails (which is offered by most marketing automation tools).

ActiveCampaign’s Pros

  • CRM

    ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation is particularly powerful because ActiveCampaign has an in-built CRM system. This CRM, however, is not as good as standalone platforms like PipeDrive or Salesforce – though we feel this is a reasonable trade-off for ActiveCampaign’s automation features.

ActiveCampaign Verdict

If you’re looking for a market-leading email marketing solution, there’s no denying that ActiveCampaign has long occupied that position.

Try ActiveCampaign today with a 14-day free trial — no credit card required.

ActiveCampaign
Website

#2 HubSpot

Website

Best for B2B service companies

Hubspot are an extremely popular, yet massively over-priced, marketing automation tool aimed at small businesses.

In our recent analysis of the marketing automation industry, we found that Hubspot own a 41.6% share of the small business automation software market, positioning them ahead of Infusionsoft as the market leaders.

HubSpot's Pricing

With a lot of features and market renown, Hubspot offers a lot of flexibility and you can have confidence in your marketing automations. However this comes at a hefty price tag, with prices starting at $200/mo.

To find out which plan is right for you, check out our full HubSpot pricing breakdown.

HubSpot's Pricing

HubSpot's Pros

  • The platform is easy to use

    Hubspot have a beautifully designed product. Given the complexity of marketing automation software, they have done a great job of making it intuitive for small business owners with little or no coding ability.

  • 7-day free trial

    Most marketing automation tools do a pretty bad job of mitigating the customer’s up-front risk (high setup fees, no free trials, and long contracts). While Hubspot do require high setup fees and a contract, they are one of the only tools to offer a free trial.

  • Educating their users

    Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Hubspot is the extent to which they invest in educating their customers. Their blog provides an exceptional place for business owners to learn about online marketing.

  • A place for all your tools

    Hubspot is convenient in that it has everything in one place. While you could get 99% of Hubspot’s functionality for free (or cheap) elsewhere, it’s handy having it all in one place.

HubSpot's Cons

  • Requires a 12-month contract

    Hubspot contracts are billed annually by default. Ultimately, marketing automation is something that you’re likely to use for many years, so this is not too big an issue. However, it would be preferable to have a rolling month-on-month contract.

  • No A/B testing in their basic or PRO package

    If you want to run split tests, you’re going to have to upgrade to their $2,400/month package. Given that A/B testing is one of their quickest and most effective ways to improve the performance of online campaigns, it seems odd that they wouldn’t offer this at lower levels to help small businesses generate better results (and additional revenue).

  • Very steep price creep

    While Hubspot do have a $200/month package, marketing automation and CRM integration are only offered at their $800/month package, which includes only 1,000 contacts. As your requirements and contacts grow, so does this cost (quite rapidly).

  • Most tools offered by Hubspot are free elsewhere

    Hubspot offers a well-designed set of tools, but there aren’t any silver bullets in there that couldn’t be found elsewhere for free or cheap.

  • Technical support is paid

    Implementing Hubspot is fairly straight-forward, but if you do require ongoing technical support, you’ll have to pay for it.

HubSpot Verdict

Hubspot are the most popular marketing automation tool for small businesses. While their product is excellent, you do need to be aware of price creep, as Hubspot’s pricing gets expensive as you require additional contacts.

HubSpot
Website