Email software for marketing automation, compared on triggers, branching and price.

ActiveCampaign is the most direct match for teams that need branching. Starter includes email marketing, marketing automation and standard CRM and ecommerce integrations, so a team can build a welcome sequence and a basic follow-up path without moving up a tier. Plus adds standard segmentation and landing pages. Pro adds advanced segmentation, which matters once you want to split a list by several behaviors at the same time, for example opened the last three emails and visited the pricing page but did not buy.

Where it falls short is the price of that depth. Advanced segmentation sits on Pro, which is $79 a month at 1,000 contacts, so a team that expects to use it should budget for Pro from the start rather than discovering the gap after it has built flows. Its setup is also more involved than a simple newsletter tool, and a team without one person who owns the automations can end up with flows nobody maintains. Premium segmentation and a dedicated account team are reserved for Enterprise, at $145 a month at the same contact count.

Best for: sales and marketing teams that run several journeys at once and need them to hand off to a CRM. See ActiveCampaign\'s pricing page.

Klaviyo is built around customer profiles that are updated from a store\'s purchase, browse and cart activity. For an online store, that makes flows such as abandoned-cart reminders, post-purchase follow-ups and back-in-stock alerts easier to set up than in a general tool, because the triggers already exist. The free plan covers 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, which is enough to test the product flows on a small store.

The limitation is that Klaviyo is priced per active profile, and it is strongest for ecommerce. A content publisher or a B2B software team will find its profile model and store-oriented triggers less natural. The Email plan rises from $30 at 1,000 profiles to $400 at 25,000, so growth changes the budget quickly. Email and SMS together are shown as pricing on request in the published record, so a team that wants both channels should ask for a quote before building flows that depend on text messages.

Best for: online stores that want commerce triggers without writing their own event integration. See Klaviyo\'s pricing page.

Customer.io suits teams whose most important triggers come from the product rather than from a form or a purchase. An event such as a user creating a project, inviting a teammate or stalling at the same step for three days can start a journey directly. Essentials includes the visual workflow builder, basic data integrations and email and community support, which is enough for a product team that sends behavior-based messages to a few thousand users.

The cost of that model is profile-based pricing, and it assumes someone on the team can define events cleanly. Essentials shows a monthly price for 10,000 profiles at $145, for 20,000 at $235, and for 30,000 at $325, but prices at other sizes are not published on the same page. Premium has custom profile volume and pricing with premium support and higher AI agent limits. Companies that have raised under $10 million may qualify for 12 months free through the Startup Program, so check eligibility before you commit to a paid plan.

Best for: product, growth and engineering teams that already send events from their application. See Customer.io\'s pricing page.

Drip is designed around workflows and segments for ecommerce brands and creators. Its lower bands include unlimited email sends, dynamic segments, onsite campaigns and up to 50 workflows, so a small store can run a full set of sequences without paying per email. Each band lists its support level, and the higher bands add chat support and free migration, which helps a team moving from another platform.

Drip has no ongoing free plan, only a 14-day trial with no credit card, so teams should build and test their core flows during the trial. Its price steps up by people band rather than smoothly, so a list just over 2,500 people moves from $39 to $49 at 2,501 to 3,000 people, and the next band is $89 at 4,501 to 5,000 people.

Best for: small ecommerce stores and creators who want multi-step sequences without per-send charges. See Drip\'s pricing page.

Kit is the most affordable way to start for creators and newsletter operators. The free plan includes landing pages, forms, unlimited email broadcasts, tagging and segmentation for up to 10,000 subscribers, and it can sell digital products. This makes it a good place to build a list and learn which segments matter before you add automation.

The limitation is clear on the pricing page: unlimited visual automations and email sequences start on the Creator plan at $33 a month billed annually. The free plan is not a free automation tool. Pro adds subscriber signals, unlimited users and deliverability reporting, and it is aimed at larger teams. A creator who plans to use automation from the first week should price Creator in from the start.

Best for: creators and small publishers who want a free list now and automation when they need it. See Kit\'s pricing page.

GetResponse combines email automation with landing pages, signup forms and sales funnels. Starter includes unlimited monthly sends, a welcome series, one automation workflow, landing pages and signup forms. That single workflow is enough to test the idea, but it is not enough for a team running several lifecycle paths at once.

Marketer is the plan that makes automation practical. It adds unlimited workflows, advanced audience segmentation, abandoned-cart recovery and sales funnels. Creator adds webinars, a website builder and a course creator, which is useful for teams that sell through live sessions. The main limitation is the step from Starter to Marketer: the workflow limit is the first thing most teams hit.

Best for: marketers who run funnels, webinars and automated follow-up in one place. See GetResponse\'s pricing page.

Brevo prices by monthly email volume rather than by contact count, which suits teams that have a large list but send to a fraction of it each month. The free plan allows up to 100,000 contacts and 300 sends a day, so a team can keep a large audience on the free tier while it tests messages. Starter starts at $9 a month for 5,000 emails and has no daily sending limit. Standard starts at $18 a month for 5,000 emails and includes automation, A/B testing and advanced reports.

The limitations are the daily cap on the free tier, which makes launch days hard to run without a paid plan, and the fact that automation is not part of the entry paid plan. A team that wants flows should budget for Standard. Professional, at $499 a month for 150,000 to 10 million sends, is a separate step for high-volume senders.

Best for: teams with large lists and modest monthly sending who want automation at a low price. See Brevo\'s pricing page.

Moosend gives small lists access to workflow logic at a low entry price. Pro is priced by contact tier and includes unlimited emails for the contacts in the tier, so a team with a few hundred subscribers can build branching automations for less than the cost of most other tools in this list.

The price rises with the list. Pro is $16 a month billed monthly at 1,000 contacts and $48 at 5,000, and the annual rate is lower at each step. Moosend has no ongoing free plan, only a 30-day trial, so the first month should be used to build and test the flows that matter. Credit packs are also offered for sending volume beyond the subscription.

Best for: small businesses and solo marketers who need real workflow logic on a tight budget. See Moosend\'s pricing page.

Mailchimp is a familiar starting point for small teams, and its free plan lets you build a first audience and a basic welcome message without paying. Standard adds the automation features that matter for journeys, and the price is set by contact tier. At the 500-contact selector, Standard starts at $20 a month and includes up to 6,000 emails at that tier.

The limits are the free plan\'s caps of 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, and the tier steps that follow. The 2,501 to 5,000 contact tier is $100 a month with up to 60,000 emails, and the 5,001 to 10,000 tier is $135 a month with up to 120,000 emails. Teams whose lists grow quickly should compare the tier step with a per-profile tool before committing.

Best for: small teams that want prebuilt journeys and a familiar interface. See Mailchimp\'s pricing page.

MailerLite is a low-cost starting point for beginners. The free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, which is enough to run a welcome sequence and a first newsletter. Comfort starts at $12 a month at 500 subscribers, and the email allowance on that tier is ten times the subscriber ceiling. Power removes the monthly email cap for $25 a month at the starting subscriber tier.

The limitation is that the monthly email allowance depends on the subscriber tier, so a list that grows faster than its sends can hit the cap. Teams that need deep branching or many simultaneous journeys should look at ActiveCampaign or Customer.io instead of pushing MailerLite past the level it was built for.

Best for: beginners who want a free start and a predictable step up. See MailerLite\'s pricing page.

Loops is built for developers and product teams that want to send email from application events through an API. Its free Early Stage plan includes all features, with up to 4,000 sends in any rolling 30 days to the 1,000 newest contacts. The paid Growing Audience plan at $99 a month adds unlimited sends to subscribers and transactional sends to users outside your audience.

The limitations are the send cap on the free plan, the Loops footer that appears on it, and the fact that it assumes a technical owner. A marketer without access to the product\'s events will find Loops harder to use than the visual builders above. Its paid plan includes transactional sends, so teams can keep product and marketing email in one tool.

Best for: developer-led product teams that send event-based messages. See Loops\'s pricing page.

Constant Contact suits small businesses that want automation together with phone-friendly support and a simple setup. Standard adds automation, scheduling and A/B testing, and Premium adds advanced automation, segmentation and reporting along with 500 SMS messages a month. The Lite plan sends up to ten times the contact count, which can be generous for a small list.

The limitation is that there is no free plan, only a free trial with no credit card, and the automation that matters sits on Standard and above. Teams that want deep journeys with many branches will find it less flexible than ActiveCampaign or Customer.io.

Best for: small businesses that want a guided setup and automation without a steep learning curve. See Constant Contact\'s pricing page.