What are the best email marketing tools?

I've used at least over 15 different email marketing tools across the years for SaaS startups (which include email automation capabilities in CRM's), and many of these platforms have pros and cons across UX, price and key features like automation capabilities. My top 5 I always recommend depending on the business are: Active Campaign - great for automations, lead scoring and other advanced features. Mailchimp - still one of the easiest tools to use. Mailerlite - great for blogs and content creators. ConverKit - another good option for creators. Campaign Monitor - great UX and features.

Are there any free email marketing tools?

No email marketing tools are really free, especially if you're scaling and require the features that you need to drive personalised campaigns. However, most email platforms have a free-tier up to a particular subscriber count, with limited features. Most of the tools I've mentioned on this list have a free-tier.

What are the most cost-effective tools for entrepreneurs and creators?

If you're not a startup with lots of team members, personally the best email tools for solopreneurs, content creators or small teams selling digital-based products (or even eCommerce) that are good value for money are Mailerlite and ConvertKit. Both are easy to use, have drag-and-drop builders for emails, as well as landing pages, pop-up forms and lots more. I think for the capabilities they offer, both are great value and cost-effective.

11 Best SaaS Email Marketing Tools & Platforms (Free & Paid) for 2025

Favourite

Mailchimp

About:

Mailchimp is a popular email marketing tool used by most startups. This is because it has a comprehensive, easy to use, and affordable free plan to start off with. Of course, the premium plans unlocks more magic.

Top Features:

It has a beginner-friendly interface and can be used by anyone.

Explore detailed analytics to help show the progression of your email campaign.

It offers one of the best freemium plans compared to other platforms.

Beginner friendly

user journeys

CRM

Pricing:

There's a free plan for up to 2,000 contacts, with plans for more advanced features starting from $11 per month, which increases based on the numbers of subscribers and emails you send per month.

Web/App

Freemium

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

MailerLite

About:

MailerLite is one of the best email marketing platforms for people looking to have a simple, fast, and accessible automation tool without all the added extras.

Top Features:

I've found MailerLite to have a user friendly interface, so it's great for beginners.

There are also a variety of templates for you to choose from.

You can also create landing pages as well as pop-ups. Plus, much more awesome features.

Landing Pages

Dynamic emails

Growth tools

Pricing:

You can use MailerLite for free up to 1,000 subscribers, but have to pay if you then go over. Prices scale by how many subs you have.

Web/App

Freemium

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

ConvertKit

About:

ConvertKit is one of my most recommended email marketing platforms, particularly popular amongst the creator community.

Top Features:

Build landing pages with ease, which connects directly with your email automation campaigns.

Building beautiful emails and forms is super easy.

They also have great features for ecommerce and digital creators who want to sell digital products.

Creators

Landing Pages

Integrations

Pricing:

Free for 300 subscribers with limited features, with then paid plans starting from $15 per month for 300 subs and scales depending on how many subscribers you have.

Web/App

Freemium

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

SendInBlue

About:

SendInBlue offers a variety of features aimed to boost your email marketing campaigns. Great for users whether beginners or experienced email marketers.

Top Features:

As well as it's core of email marketing, the platform also features SMS marketing to bolster your campaigns.

If you're looking for a CRM, SendInBlue has one built in. Comes with awesome capabilities.

You can even build Facebook campaigns synced with your audience. Pretty awesome.

CRM

SMS

Forms

Pricing:

There's a free version for 1 user to send 300 emails a day for unlimited contacts (pretty good), but to experience the real power of this platform, you'll need the paid versions. Prices start from $31.90 p/m, and scale with more contacts you have.

Web/App

Freemium

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Aweber

About:

Aweber is another popular solution on the market, where you can build automation campaigns, landing pages and more.

Top Features:

They have a really nice drag and drop email builder which makes it quick to build good looking emails.

Like most other platforms, plenty of options for segmentation, tagging and automations.

They have a cool integration with Canva when building email campaigns.

All-in-one

All skill levels

Landing Pages

Pricing:

Similar to some of the others, they have a free plan for up to 500 email subs and they're generous with the features they provide. To take it to the next level, plans start with 500 contacts at $16.15 p/m, and scale with more subs.

Web/App

Freemium

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Sendgrid

About:

Sendgrid is a great email marketing tool used by a lot of companies for email marketing and transactional emails. Quite popular with many SaaS teams I've worked with.

Top Features:

These guys are one of the best I've seen when it comes to transactional emails. Great for devs with custom emails and using their API.

They have a good lightweight UX with building emails and setting up automations.

Sendgrid offers incredible deliverability and scalability as compared to other platforms.

API

Transactional

SMTP

Pricing:

Like some of the others, there is a limited free version. There are 3 other plans, Essentials, Pro and Custom. Essentials starts from $14.95 p/m and Pro starts from $89.95 p/m. Both scale according to the amount of emails sent per month.

Web/App

Freemium

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Constant Contact

About:

Constant Contact is a platform that offers a variety of services. They have features for e-commerce, email marketing, email tracking, event marketing, marketing automation, social media marketing, and transactional emails.

Top Features:

Create beautiful emails that encourage the audience to interact with links within your campaigns.

A top feature they have is they have a vast number of templates to help you formulate emails you like with less time.

You can even create Google Ads, Facebook + Instagram Ads and much more!

All-in-one

Social media

Mobile app

Pricing:

Plans start from $20 p/m and rise depending on amount of contacts you may have. There's also an 'Email Plus' version which starts from $45 p/m.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Moosend

About:

Whether you are a beginner in email marketing or a pro, Moosend has features for everyone. Lots of features outside of just email marketing.

Top Features:

The platform has great personalisation capabilities with segments and forms to help increase conversions.

You can build personalised landing pages and forms fast and with ease with their awesome templates.

Create complex automations with any easy-to-use platform.

Growth tools

CRM

Custom reports

Pricing:

Plans start from $9 per month with 500 contacts, and then increases based on subscriber count. There is also an enterprise plan.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Mailjet

About:

If you are looking for a platform that allows for cross-team collaboration then Mailjet is one of the best options available. Of course, it's jam-packed with great features.

Top Features:

Build great looking emails using their existing templates or build one from scratch with their drag-and-drop tool.

Use their subscription forms to collect emails, and organise and segment them into lists.

You can also send transaction emails with added personalisation.

Transactional

API

SMTP

Pricing:

There's a free plan for up to 6000 email per month. Certainly not bad! Then plans start from $15 p/m and increase depending on the plan's features and the amount of email you want to send per month.

Web/App

Freemium

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Campaign Monitor

About:

Campaign Monitor is an easy-to-use, powerful email marketing tool where you can instantly create beautiful campaigns and track subscriber engagement to build loyalty and conversion.

Top Features:

Create campaigns with ease with their drag-and-drop builder.

Build hyper-targeted campaigns using their advanced segmentation capabilities.

You can create customer journeys to ensure personalisation based on how they interact with your brand.

Personalisation

Forms

Transactional

Pricing:

They have 3 main plans - Basic from $9 p/m, Unlimited from $29 p/m and Premier from $149 p/m - all increase based on the amount of contacts you have.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Active Campaign

About:

If you are searching for an intelligent tool that has the perfect combination of email marketing and CRM automation tasks, Active Campaign is exactly what you need. The platform has A LOT of features.

Top Features:

Create powerful workflows that keep customers on your site longer and convert them to paying customers.

Craft beautiful bulk emails that convert leads into customers, optimise mailing lists for better segmentation, save time and scale your email marketing easily like never before.

A really great feature they have is the ability to do lead scoring based on what the user does.

Segmentation

Drag/Drop

Automation

Pricing:

There are four key plans - Lite, Plus, Professional and Enterprise. All scale in price depending on the amount of subscribers.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Automizy

About:

Automizy is a comprehensive email marketing software designed to help SaaS businesses attract more free trial users, and increase the likelihood of turning them into conversions through automated campaigns.

Top Features:

Building automations is really easy with this tool. They've done a good job with their interface.

Awesome drag-and-drop editor for building emails.

They have an AI tool built in for subject lines to see potential ways to help improve for more open rates. Pretty awesome!

Drag/Drop

Integrations

Pricing:

Pricing starts at $9 p/m if you only have 200 contacts or less (or just starting). Increases based on how many contacts you have.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

SendX

About:

SendX is one of the most trusted self-service email platforms for sending email. They offer a number of benefits for people looking to have a reliable solution as they grow their SaaS business.