Find the Best
Email Marketing Software

For large organizations, the answer depends on your existing tech stack. Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the default for Salesforce CRM users. HubSpot Marketing Hub is the best option for inbound-focused teams already on HubSpot CRM. Marketo Engage (Adobe) is the standard for complex B2B demand generation. Braze leads for mobile-first consumer brands. If you want enterprise power without enterprise pricing complexity, ActiveCampaign and Iterable sit in the mid-market tier and scale well. All enterprise platforms require a demo and custom pricing; there's no self-serve.

Klaviyo is expensive as your Shopify store scales: at 50,000 contacts you're paying $700+/month. The best Klaviyo alternatives:

• Omnisend: the best direct Klaviyo alternative, similar features at lower price
• Drip: a strong visual automation builder, eCommerce-focused
• Brevo: unlimited contacts, charges by send volume instead of list size
• tinyEmail: newer, AI-native, built for Shopify with a strong free tier
• Sendlane: unified email + SMS, good for mid-size stores

If you're under 10,000 subscribers, Klaviyo's free plan is generous enough that switching may not be worth it yet.

Klaviyo is the category leader for a reason: its Shopify integration is the deepest, with real-time revenue attribution, abandoned cart flows, and behavioral segmentation out of the box. But it gets expensive. Omnisend is the best value alternative with similar eCommerce automation at lower cost. Privy is the go-to for pop-ups and list growth. Postscript adds SMS alongside email for DTC brands doing omnichannel. For pure beginners, MailerLite has a functional Shopify integration at a fraction of the cost of Klaviyo.

"Bulk email" refers to sending a single message to a large list simultaneously, such as newsletters, announcements, and promotional campaigns. Most email marketing platforms (Mailchimp, MailerLite, Brevo) are bulk email tools. The term gets used differently in cold email, where "bulk cold email" means sending high-volume outreach to prospects, which requires different infrastructure (dedicated IPs, mailbox warmup, rotating sending accounts). Tools like Instantly and Smartlead are purpose-built for bulk cold outreach. Using a standard ESP like Mailchimp for cold email is against their terms of service and will get your account suspended.

MailerLite is the most consistently recommended starting point; it has a genuinely clean interface, a free plan with real automation, and good documentation. Brevo is a close second, especially if you want a free plan that isn't limited by contact count. Both have drag-and-drop editors, pre-built templates, and basic automation without needing to understand deliverability or DNS. Avoid ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, or Klaviyo until you have a list and a sending rhythm; the complexity isn't worth it at the start.

Cold email is outreach to people who haven't opted in to hear from you, which is the equivalent of a cold call, sent to a prospect list. Email marketing is permission-based, meaning people subscribe to your list voluntarily. They require completely different tools. Cold email platforms (Instantly, Smartlead, Lemlist) focus on deliverability, mailbox warmup, and sending through multiple accounts. Email marketing platforms (Mailchimp, MailerLite, Klaviyo) focus on design, automation, and list management. Using a marketing ESP for cold email violates their terms of service. Using a cold email tool for newsletters misses the point of both.

Shopify Email is fine for very early-stage stores; it's free for up to 10,000 emails per month and is built into your Shopify dashboard. But it has real limitations: no advanced automation, weak segmentation, no A/B testing, and limited template options. Most stores outgrow it quickly. When you start caring about abandoned cart recovery, win-back flows, and revenue attribution, it's worth switching to Klaviyo (best in class) or Omnisend (better value). The switching cost is low; both platforms connect to Shopify in minutes and import your customer data automatically.

Pricing is almost universally based on contact count (how many subscribers you have), not how many emails you send, with a few exceptions like Brevo, which charges by send volume. Rough benchmarks:

• 0–1,000 subscribers: Free on MailerLite, Brevo, Sender, HubSpot
• 5,000 subscribers: $20–$50/month on most platforms
• 25,000 subscribers: $100–$250/month depending on features
• 100,000 subscribers: $400–$1,200/month depending on platform
• Enterprise (500K+): Custom contracts, often $2,000–$10,000+/month

Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign sit at the premium end. MailerLite and Brevo are consistently the most affordable at every tier.

Deliverability is the percentage of your emails that actually reach the inbox rather than spam or getting blocked entirely. A beautiful email campaign means nothing if it lands in the promotions tab or junk folder. Deliverability is affected by your sender reputation (domain age, past complaint rates), technical setup (SPF, DKIM, DMARC records), list hygiene (how many invalid or inactive addresses you're sending to), and your ESP's infrastructure. Tools like GlockApps and Mail-Tester let you test where your emails land before sending. Dedicated ESPs like Postmark are built specifically for high deliverability on transactional email.

Transactional emails are system-triggered messages tied to a user action, such as password resets, order confirmations, shipping notifications, or account alerts. They go to one person at a time and are expected by the recipient. Marketing emails are bulk sends to a subscriber list, including newsletters, promotions, or campaigns. Most ESPs handle marketing email. Transactional email needs a dedicated API like Postmark, Resend, or SendGrid for guaranteed fast delivery and reliable inbox placement. Some platforms like pepipost, Brevo and Customer.io handle both, but the best transactional infrastructure is always a dedicated tool.