Best Email Marketing Tools

Email tools look similar on the surface and differ where it hurts: in your renewal bill and your automation limits. This guide covers the four checks we run in every email tool review.

1. How pricing scales with your list

Most email platforms charge by contacts. That is fair at 500 subscribers and painful at 10,000 — especially if unsubscribed contacts still count. Before choosing, price the plan at double your current list size. Our Mailchimp review explains its contact-based model, while HubSpot prices by seat and hub tier instead.

2. Automation depth you will actually use

A welcome series, an abandoned-cart flow and a re-engagement campaign cover 90% of small-business needs. Both leading tools do these. Pay for advanced multi-step workflows only when you have the traffic to feed them.

3. When a free plan stops being free

Free tiers are trials in disguise: contact caps, sending limits and removed automation arrive quickly. HubSpot’s free CRM is unusually generous as a starting point; Mailchimp’s free tier suits very small lists testing their first campaigns.

4. Deliverability is the tool plus your habits

No platform can fix a bought list or spammy subject lines. Choose a reputable sender, authenticate your domain, and clean your list quarterly — the platform choice matters less than these habits.