Sales edition · Updated October 7, 2026

Email software for sales teams: pricing, sequences and handoffs.

For most sales teams that already track deals in a CRM, ActiveCampaign is the strongest starting point, at $15/month on its Starter plan for 1,000 contacts, billed monthly or annually. The reason is practical: the Starter plan includes email marketing, automation and a standard CRM, so the person receiving a sequence and the deal record sit on the same contact.

Editorial desk · Pricing checked October 7, 2026 against each vendor's public pricing page

The short answer by sales motion

Start here

ActiveCampaign for teams that want sequences and deal records together, from $15/month at 1,000 contacts.

Close for per-seat teams that want CRM, email and calling in one tool, from $35/user/month billed annually.

Brevo for high send volumes on a tight budget, with a free plan of 300 emails a day.

Customer.io for product-led teams triggering outreach from usage events.

Moosend for small lists and lean budgets, from $13/month annually at 1,000 contacts.

What a sales team needs from email software

Sales email is not a newsletter. A rep sends a handful of messages to a defined set of accounts, each one tied to a person with a role, a deal stage and a history of calls. The software has to support that shape of work, which differs from a broadcast to thousands of subscribers. The questions to ask are about the contact record, the sequence logic and the reporting, not about template libraries.

In practice, three requirements decide most purchases. First, the contact record must be shared with the CRM, or reps end up copying data between tools and managers lose visibility. Second, sequences must stop when a prospect replies or books a meeting. This is the single most important behavior to test in a trial, because a sequence that keeps sending after a reply damages the relationship faster than any other mistake. Third, reporting has to answer questions by rep and by stage, not only by campaign.

Many teams also separate two jobs. One is nurture: content to people who are not ready to talk, usually sent in volume from a marketing platform. The other is outreach: short, personal sequences from a named rep. Some tools handle both well, but most teams get the best results by choosing one primary tool for the job that carries the most pipeline, then using a second tool only where it adds something the first lacks.

The comparison at a glance

Prices below are the starting points published on each vendor's pricing page, with the plan and billing view named. Enterprise tiers and custom quotes are left out.

Tool	Best for	Entry price (plan, billing)	Key limitation
ActiveCampaign	CRM-centric teams wanting sequences and deal records in one account	Starter $15/month at 1,000 contacts, billed monthly or annually; Plus $49/month; Pro $79/month	Price rises with contact count and with the segmentation tier you need
Close	Per-seat sales teams wanting CRM, email, calling and SMS together	Essentials $49/user/month monthly or $35/user/month billed annually	Priced per user; calling and SMS usage passes through at cost; not a newsletter tool
Brevo	High outbound volumes on a budget	Starter $9/month for 5,000 emails a month; free plan with 300 emails a day	Not a CRM; deal tracking and pipeline views are limited
Customer.io	Product-led sales teams triggering outreach from events	Essentials $100/month; Essentials at 10,000 profiles $145/month billed monthly	Needs clean event data and someone to maintain it; no per-profile tier below 10,000 is listed
Moosend	Lean teams with small lists	Pro at 1,000 contacts $13/month billed annually or $16/month monthly	Thinner integrations and design options; no CRM
Mailchimp	Small teams already using it for newsletters	Essentials at 500 contacts $13/month monthly billing; Standard at 500 contacts $20/month	Contact-count billing rises quickly; no deal pipeline

The tools, one by one

ActiveCampaign

Starter from $15/month at 1,000 contacts · Plus $49/month · Pro $79/month

ActiveCampaign suits sales teams that want the contact record, the sequence and the deal stage in one account. The Starter plan includes email marketing, marketing automation and a standard CRM, along with standard ecommerce integrations. For a team of three to ten reps working a named account list, that means one login and one source of truth for who has been contacted and at what stage.

The tool is most useful when handoff rules are written down. A sales-qualified contact can be moved out of nurture and into a rep-owned sequence, and a closed-lost deal can move into a longer re-engagement track. Those steps are easier to keep consistent when the CRM and the email automation share the same record.

Where it falls short: the plans step up quickly once you need advanced segmentation, and the price rises with contact count. Teams that only need a short sequence for a small list may find the platform more than they use. Plan the tier you need for the next twelve months, not the one that fits a single campaign.

Price: Starter is $15/month at 1,000 contacts, the same on monthly and annual billing. Check the current contact tiers on the ActiveCampaign pricing page, which lists starting prices for each contact count.

Close

Essentials $49/user/month monthly or $35/user/month annual · Growth $109 monthly or $99 annual

Close is built as a sales CRM first. The Essentials plan includes unlimited contacts and leads, team collaboration, built-in forms, email, calling and SMS, plus a centralized inbox and task list. For sales teams that want reps to work from one screen, this keeps the email thread, the call log and the next task on the same record.

The Growth plan adds automated workflows, a power dialer, custom activities and bulk email, which is the level most teams need once sequences become a routine part of prospecting. Because the price is per user, the cost is predictable as the list grows, but it scales with headcount rather than with the size of the database.

Where it falls short: Close is not a newsletter platform, and its bulk email sits inside the sales plan rather than being the core product. Calling and SMS usage is passed through at cost, so the monthly bill depends on activity. Teams that need heavy content marketing or large-scale nurture should pair it with a dedicated platform.

Price: Essentials is $49/user/month monthly or $35/user/month billed annually, which works out to $420 per user per year on annual billing (12 × $35). A free 14-day trial is available with no credit card required. See the Close pricing page for the current plan details.

Brevo

Free plan: 300 emails a day · Starter $9/month for 5,000 emails a month · Standard $18/month

Brevo is priced by email volume rather than by contacts, which makes it attractive for teams that send many messages to a large list. The free plan allows up to 100,000 contacts with a cap of 300 sends a day, so a team can start with sequences at no cost and move to a paid plan when daily volume outgrows the free limit.

The Standard plan adds automation, A/B testing and advanced reports, which covers the basic needs of an outbound team that runs several sequence variants at once.

Where it falls short: Brevo is an email platform, not a CRM, so deal stages, pipeline views and rep-level activity tracking are limited. Sales managers who need a live pipeline will need a separate system. Confirm in the trial that replies pause a sequence before relying on it for one-to-one outreach.

Price: Starter is $9/month for 5,000 emails a month, and the Standard plan is $18/month at the same volume. Compare the monthly-and-yearly toggle on the Brevo pricing page before committing.

Customer.io

Essentials $100/month · Essentials at 10,000 profiles $145/month billed monthly · Premium on custom volume

Customer.io fits sales teams whose outreach should respond to what a person does in the product. The Essentials plan includes a visual workflow builder, email and community support, and basic data integrations, so a trial that reaches a usage milestone can trigger a short sequence for the account owner.

This approach works best where product events are clean and well named. If the data is inconsistent, the triggers will fire at the wrong moments, and reps will stop trusting the signals. Set the thresholds jointly with product and sales before launch.

Where it falls short: the tool assumes data maturity. Teams without someone to maintain events and attributes will spend more time fixing triggers than writing messages. The smallest published profile tier in the pricing view is 10,000 profiles, so very small databases may not fit the model.

Price: Essentials is $100/month, and the 10,000-profile tier is $145/month billed monthly, which is $1,740 a year (12 × $145). Premium uses custom profile volume. Full details are on the Customer.io pricing page.

Moosend

Pro at 1,000 contacts $13/month billed annually or $16/month monthly · Pro at 5,000 contacts $38 annual or $48 monthly

Moosend suits small sales teams and founders who need real sequences without a large monthly bill. The Pro plan is priced by contact count, and the contact selector shows the cost at each size, so you can see the figure for your own list before signing up.

For a team with a list of 1,000 contacts, annual billing gives a yearly cost of $156 (12 × $13), which is useful when a solo seller or a two-person team wants automation without a CRM subscription on top.

Where it falls short: the design options and integrations are thinner than the larger platforms, and there is no CRM. Pipeline has to be tracked somewhere else, and reporting is narrower than the leaders on this page.

Price: the Pro plan is shown on the Moosend pricing page at several contact sizes. A 30-day free trial is available without a credit card.

Mailchimp

Essentials at 500 contacts $13/month monthly billing · Standard at 500 contacts $20/month

Mailchimp is the most familiar option, and that counts for something when a team is small and everyone already knows the interface. For sending updates, product news and short follow-ups to a modest list, it does the job without a training period.

Where it falls short: there is no deal pipeline, and the contact-based billing rises as the list grows. Sales managers who need rep-level visibility will outgrow it. It is a reasonable first tool for a small team, but a CRM-linked platform is the better fit once deals need tracking.

Price: Essentials at 500 contacts is $13/month on monthly billing, and Standard at 500 contacts is $20/month. Check the contact tiers on the Mailchimp pricing page before you commit, because the price changes at each contact band.

What it costs at three list sizes

Where a vendor's pricing page does not publish a figure for a given size, the cell says so rather than estimating. Close is priced per user, so its figures do not change with list size.

Tool and plan	1,000 contacts	5,000 contacts	10,000 contacts
ActiveCampaign Starter (monthly or annual)	$15/month	Pricing on request	Pricing on request
Close Essentials (per user)	$49/user/month monthly; $35/user/month annual	Same per-user price	Same per-user price
Brevo Starter (priced by emails a month)	$9/month for 5,000 emails a month	$9/month for 5,000 emails a month	Pricing on request for higher send volume
Customer.io Essentials	Pricing on request	Pricing on request	$145/month billed monthly
Moosend Pro (annual or monthly)	$13/month annual; $16/month monthly	$38/month annual; $48/month monthly	$70/month annual; $88/month monthly

Derived yearly figures, for planning only: ActiveCampaign Starter at 1,000 contacts is $180 a year (12 × $15). Moosend Pro at 1,000 contacts on annual billing is $156 a year (12 × $13). Customer.io's 10,000-profile tier on monthly billing is $1,740 a year (12 × $145). Close Essentials on annual billing is $420 per user per year (12 × $35).

Which tool for which job

Match the tool to the single most important requirement, then check the others in a trial.

If you need	Pick	Because
Sequences and deals on one contact record	ActiveCampaign	The Starter plan includes a standard CRM alongside email automation.
Email, calling and SMS in one per-seat tool	Close	Essentials lists email, calling and SMS, with a shared inbox and task list.
Outreach triggered by product events	Customer.io	The visual workflow builder and event data drive timing; the setup needs clean data.
Many sends on a small budget	Brevo	Pricing follows email volume, and a free plan covers early testing.
Sequences for a small list at the lowest cost	Moosend	Pro at 1,000 contacts is $13/month on annual billing.
A tool the team already uses for newsletters	Mailchimp	Shared audiences and a familiar interface, with a pipeline gap to plan for.

How to choose for your team

Start with the motion, not the vendor. An account-based team working a named list of fifty companies has different needs from a team that receives inbound leads from a website form. The first group needs sequences tied to people and deal stages. The second needs fast response to new contacts and clean routing to reps.

Next, decide where the deal record lives. If the CRM is already settled, the question becomes which email tool connects to it with the least manual work. If there is no CRM, a per-seat tool like Close may save a second subscription. Be careful about buying a platform for its marketing features when the real gap is pipeline visibility.

Then look at the pricing unit. Contact-based pricing rewards small, focused lists and punishes large databases. Per-user pricing rewards a stable team and punishes growth in headcount. Volume-based pricing rewards teams that send in bursts and punishes long, frequent sequences. Calculate the cost at the size you expect in twelve months, not the size you have today.

Finally, run a trial with a real sequence. Load fifty contacts, send three touches, reply from a test account and confirm that the sequence stops. Check that the CRM record updates. Ask a manager to read the report and say whether it answers their questions. A trial that skips these steps tells you little about daily use.

Setup checklist for a sales sequence

Use this order when you launch a new sales email workflow. Each step should be finished before the next one begins.

Step	Owner	Done when
1. Write the handoff definitions (MQL, SQL, PQL)	Sales lead with marketing	Both teams have signed one shared document
2. Clean the list and import suppressions	Operations	Unsubscribes and bounces are excluded before the first send
3. Authenticate the sending domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)	Operations or IT	A test message passes authentication checks
4. Build a short sequence of three touches over two weeks	Sales manager	Two reps have read it and agreed the wording
5. Test reply handling with a test account	One rep	A reply pauses the sequence in the trial
6. Connect the CRM sync	Operations	Deal stage changes are visible to the owning rep
7. Set reporting on replies and meetings	Sales manager	A weekly view is shared with the team

Writing sequences that get replies

A good sales sequence is short and specific. The first message names a reason the prospect might care, such as a change in their team, a published announcement or a problem common in their industry. Generic first-name merge fields do little on their own, because the prospect can tell the message is a template in a second.

Keep the cadence tight enough to be noticed and loose enough to be polite. Three touches across about two weeks is a common shape. Each follow-up should add something: a short case, a question, or a clear next step. A final message that offers to close the thread respectfully is often the most useful one in the sequence.

Write for a reply, not an open. Opens are unreliable signals in many inboxes, so measure replies, meetings booked and deals opened instead. Ask managers to review a sample of replies each week, because the wording of the best messages usually shows up in the replies that matter.

Keep the sequence owner visible. When a rep leaves, the sequence should be reassigned rather than left running under a former employee's name. Check that the sender identity and the reply-to address are current before every new batch.

Deliverability and compliance for cold email

Deliverability is a setup problem before it is a copywriting problem. Authenticate your sending domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, use a dedicated subdomain for outreach where possible, and keep the list verified before each batch. A bounced address damages the sender's reputation, so remove invalid contacts quickly.

Compliance depends on where your prospects are. Rules for unsolicited business email differ by country and by the type of recipient, and they change over time. Before launching a cold sequence in the EU or UK, read the guidance from your data protection authority and ask your legal adviser to review the approach. Include a clear identity statement and an easy way to opt out in every message, and honor opt-outs immediately across all tools.

Plain formatting usually helps cold email. Heavy HTML layouts, large images and tracking-heavy templates look more like marketing and less like a message from a person. Many sales teams send cold sequences as plain text from a named sender, and reserve designed templates for nurture campaigns to subscribers who have opted in.

Handing off between marketing and sales

Most friction between marketing and sales comes from unclear definitions, not from software. Write down what makes a lead marketing qualified, what makes it sales qualified, and what product usage makes an account product qualified. Put a date on the document and review it each quarter.

Once the definitions are agreed, encode the rules. A contact that reaches the sales threshold should leave the nurture track and enter the rep's sequence. A contact that books a meeting should stop all marketing messages. A closed-lost deal should move to a longer re-engagement track after a fixed delay. A closed-won deal should move to onboarding, not to a sales sequence.

Share one dashboard. When marketing and sales read the same numbers, arguments about attribution fade. Where the two teams disagree, the usual cause is a difference in definitions, which the shared document should settle before anyone debates the chart.

Tools to consider only for other jobs

Klaviyo is built around ecommerce data and retail flows. Its Email plan is $20/month for 500 profiles, but the product is aimed at store owners sending to shoppers rather than sales reps working accounts. Loops suits product email and transactional sends, and its Growing Audience plan is $99/month. Neither is the first tool a sales team should evaluate, though either can run alongside a CRM for product messages.

Sales verdict

CRM-centric team? ActiveCampaign. Per-seat team with calling? Close. Heavy volume on a budget? Brevo.

Choose on the motion and the pricing unit, then prove the reply behavior in a trial before you commit.

View ActiveCampaign pricing B2B businesses guide →

Sales questions, answered

What teams ask before committing.

What is the best email software for a sales team?

For most sales teams that already track deals in a CRM, ActiveCampaign is the strongest starting point. Its Starter plan is $15/month at 1,000 contacts and includes email marketing, automation and a standard CRM, so the contact who receives a sequence and the deal record sit in one place. Teams that want calling and SMS in the same per-seat tool should compare Close, and teams with event data from their product should look at Customer.io.

Is a marketing email tool enough for sales outreach?

It depends on the motion. A marketing platform handles nurture, newsletters and short sequences well. Once reps need per-person follow-up, call logging, deal stages and reporting by rep, a CRM-linked tool becomes necessary. Many teams run both: the email platform for broad nurture and the CRM for one-to-one outreach.

How much does email software cost for a sales team?

It depends on the pricing model. ActiveCampaign and Customer.io price by contact or profile count, Moosend and Mailchimp scale by contact tier, Brevo prices by monthly email volume, and Close prices per user. At 1,000 contacts, ActiveCampaign Starter is $15/month, or $180 a year (12 × $15). Close Essentials is $35/user/month billed annually, or $420 per user per year (12 × $35). Always check the plan that includes the features you need, not only the entry price.

Should sales use SMS in email tools?

Close lists SMS as part of its Essentials plan, with calling and SMS usage passed through at cost. For meeting logistics such as confirmations and reminders, an SMS channel inside the same tool keeps the history on one record. Promotional blasts are better kept in email. Confirm SMS terms and consent rules in your country before sending any texts to prospects.

How do marketing and sales hand off leads by email?

Write the handoff rules before you configure any tool. Define marketing qualified, sales qualified and product qualified leads in one shared document, and agree which actions move a contact from nurture to a rep. Then build the sequence so that a reply or a booked meeting pauses the marketing messages automatically. Shared definitions do more for pipeline quality than any individual feature.

Do cold sales emails need special handling?

Yes. Cold B2B outreach has rules that differ by country and by the type of recipient. Use a sending domain you have authenticated with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, keep lists verified, honor opt-outs immediately, and state who you are and how to stop receiving messages. If you operate in the EU or UK, check the rules for unsolicited business email with your legal adviser before launching a sequence.

When should a team move up to a more advanced tool?

Move up when sequences need event triggers, when reps need deal stages and attribution, or when the contact list grows past the point where per-contact pricing makes the cost unpredictable. Before upgrading, check which features the next plan adds. A higher tier often unlocks segmentation or automation, not the reporting you actually need.