Email marketing revenue worldwide is poised to breach the 10 billion USD mark this year.

Moreover, according to a late 2022 poll, nearly half of the marketing professionals surveyed reported a two-fold increase in their ROI with email marketing campaigns.

Not surprisingly, email remains at the forefront of every business’s marketing strategy as a marketing channel thanks to its unique low-cost, high-ROI charm.

And, one of the keys to churning out winning email campaigns is using the right email marketing software.

But, in today's digital age, finding the right email marketing platform can seem as overwhelming as finding a pin in a haystack.

Our goal with this guide is to help you discover email marketing software that not only meets your requirements but also helps you sell more, sell better, and run your marketing campaigns more profitably.

Before we look at our curated list of high-quality email marketing tools, let's understand why we’re doing this exercise in the first place.

Email Marketing Benefits

We put together the following compelling reasons why every business must seriously consider making email marketing campaigns a mainstream part of their overall marketing strategy.

• Boosts sales;
• Increases profitability & ROI (Return Over Investment);
• High-deliverability medium compared to both organic and paid social media;
• Promises high returns for your marketing efforts;
• Highly affordable marketing channel;
• Leverages automation to save time, while reducing manual effort and error;
• Lowers customer acquisition costs;
• Increases brand affinity and credibility;
• Promotes customer loyalty;
• Enhances customer experience and retention.

And more.

In fact, an email marketing campaign that's well executed should have a positive impact on every business KPI or metric.

The 5 Email Marketing Platforms - A Quick Glance

SaaS Tool	Optimal Use Case	Pricing
Sender	Best Email Marketing Automation Tool for ECommerce	Free forever plan includes 2,500 subscribers & 15,000 emails/ mo + Unlimited popups, forms & email automation; Paid plans start from $8.33/mo for 2,500 contacts.
Drip	Email Marketing Software for Small Businesses	No free tier, only a 14-day free trial; Paid plan starts from $39/mo for up to 2,500 subscribers and includes unlimited email sending, forms & popups.
Mailchimp	All-in-one Email Marketing Tool	Free plan includes up to 500 contacts and sending of 1000 emails/mo; Paid plans are free for the 1st month and start from $9.26/mo for 500 contacts and 5,000 emails/mo.
Klaviyo	Premium Omnichannel Marketing for ECommerce	FREE plan allows up to 250 contacts, 500 emails/mo, and 150 FREE SMS credits/mo; Email-only plan starts at $20/mo for 500 contacts, 5,000 emails/mo, and 150 FREE SMS credits/mo; Email + SMS plan starts at $35/mo and includes 500 contacts, 5,000 emails/mo, and 1250 SMS credits/mo.
Campaign Monitor	Reliable Email Marketing System	No FREE plan; Paid plan starts from $9/mo and includes 500 contacts, and 2,500 emails/mo.

Let's take a closer look at these email marketing tools, their key features, pros & cons, and pricing plans, among other things.

5 Must-Have Email Marketing Tools of 2023

Without further ado, let's walk you through our list of email marketing software.

1. Sender — Email Marketing Automation Tool for ECommerce

Trusted by over 240,000 users, Sender is the all-in-one email marketing and automation platform of choice for businesses that seek a simple yet powerful solution to deliver high-performance marketing campaigns.

• User-friendly UI & UX
• High Inbox Deliverability;
• 24/7 LIVE Customer Support.

With Sender's rich library of ready-to-use email designs and simple drag-and-drop email builder, you can compose emails quickly and effortlessly.

You can also create high-converting signup forms and popups in easy steps and integrate them into your landing pages, websites, and blogs to convert casual visitors into valuable leads.

Leverage the power of automation to set up fully automated email funnels such as welcome series emails, abandoned cart sequences, win-back campaigns, and more, using the simple automation builder.

Furthermore, Sender supports SMS marketing and automation, so your business can use this medium's high open and click rates.

Sender’s Key Features

• Email & SMS Automation;
• Smart Segmentation & Personalization;
• High-converting Popups & Forms;
• Drag-and-drop Email Builder & Premade Templates;
• Detailed Performance Analytics.

Sender Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Intuitive, user-friendly interface;
• Extremely generous free forever plan (must try);
• Unlimited email automation & LIVE chat support for all plans (including free).

Cons:

• No landing page builder (presently in the works);
• Sender logo branding is present in the free plan.

Sender Plans & Pricing

Free Forever plan

• Max 2,500 contacts;
• 15,000 emails/ month;
• Unlimited popups & forms;
• Unlimited email automation.

Standard plan starts at $8.33/mo

• 2,500 contacts;
• 30,000 emails/ month;
• Unlimited popups & forms;
• Unlimited email automation;
• SMS messaging;
• No ‘Sender’ branding.

Professional plan starts at $29.17/mo

• 2,500 contacts;
• 60,000 emails/ month;
• Unlimited popups & forms;
• Unlimited email & SMS automation;
• Animated countdown timers;
• Survey & feedback blocks, and more.

For a simple and cost-effective way to start an email marketing campaign, Sender is the ideal email marketing software. Featuring premium features, excellent support, and a promise of improved deliverability, it's a solution that's definitely worth checking out.

2. Drip — Email Marketing Software for Small Businesses

Drip is an e-commerce marketing automation platform that provides small businesses with a suite of tools to manage their customer-facing relationships, including email, onsite messaging, and more.

• Dynamic Segmentation;
• 50+ Professional Email Templates;
• Form Builder.

Drip’s segmentation isn’t list-based like other platforms. It is dynamic in that the segments update in real-time, depending on whether the subscriber signing up meets specific criteria.

Combine data from your e-commerce store, apps using integrations, onsite, and email to maximize the impact of your marketing strategies on conversion outcomes.

Use the user-friendly email builder to design eye-catching, fully branded emails that bring in sales and revenue. Need emails fast? Choose from over 50+ professional design templates to hit the ground running quickly.

Other key features of this email marketing software include creating dynamic cart URLs, adding your store products directly to emails, and promoting top-sellers to newcomers with the point-and-click builder.

Drip‘s Key Features

• Visual Email Builder;
• 50+ Professional Email Design Templates;
• 20+ Prebuilt Ecommerce Automation Templates;
• Dynamic Product Blocks;
• A/B Testing.

Drip‘s Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Eye-catching UI & smooth UX;
• Strong automation features;
• Unlimited email sends, no matter the plan.

Cons:

• No free tier, only a free trial;
• Paid plans are expensive;
• Limited CRM & reporting capabilities.

Drip‘s Plans & Pricing

Drip doesn’t offer a free tier, only a 14-day free trial.

Paid plans start at $39/mo for 2,500 subscribers;

• Unlimited email sending;
• Onsite campaigns (forms);
• Email support;
• Free migration assistance.

If your requirement is strongly oriented around email marketing and its automation, and you don’t mind a paid plan, Drip could be a great fit for your email marketing requirements.

3. Mailchimp — All-in-One Email Marketing Tool

One of the oldest email marketing platforms in the fray, Mailchimp's portal now offers a complete suite of digital marketing functionalities including, but not limited to, building websites and online stores, running advertising campaigns, and publishing social media marketing campaigns.

• 100+ Email & Landing Page Templates;
• Behavioral Targeting;
• AI-Predicted Demographics.

At its core, MailChimp offers a range of capabilities to help businesses design good-looking emails, grow their subscriber lists, and track the performance of their campaigns.

Choose from a variety of pre-designed email templates, or use the drag-and-drop editor to customize your own email newsletter designs. Among Mailchimp's list management features is the ability to import pre-existing lists from other email marketing platforms or to create your own.

Mailchimp presents detailed reporting capabilities. Businesses can track key metrics such as open, click-through, and conversion rates easily and on demand to always stay on top of their sales performance.

Mailchimp’s automation prowess is second to none, allowing you to configure fully automated email and SMS sequences triggered by specific events or actions.

Sync, store, and edit images and files, creating on-brand designs with help from a creative assistant powered by AI. Mailchimp also offers a subject line helper to help you optimize email subject lines in real-time.

MailChimp’s Key Features

• Website & Landing Page Builders;
• Campaign Manager;
• Predictive Segmentation;
• 20+ AI and Data Tools for Content Creation, Design Customization, and Optimization;
• A/B Testing.

Mailchimp Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Vast template library;
• Truly all-in-one portal that lets you do everything from organic social media and paid ads to email and text marketing;
• Plenty of help documentation & support resources.

Cons:

• Deliverability can be suspect at times;
• UI/UX has a steep learning curve and takes some getting used to;
• Businesses with larger mailing lists can find this email marketing software on the expensive side.

Mailchimp Plans & Pricing

Free plan

• Up to 500 contacts;
• 1000 emails/mo;
• 1 user;
• 1 target audience;
• No advanced features (email scheduling, automation, A/B testing, segmentation, etc.).

Paid plans start from $9.26/mo for up to 500 contacts;

• Free for 1st month;
• 5,000 emails/mo;
• 3 users;
• 3 audiences;
• Includes some but not all of the advanced features.

As a whole, Mailchimp can be a smart email marketing software choice for businesses wanting a platform with comprehensive, 360-degree features for executing and scaling their marketing strategies.

4. Klaviyo — Premium Omnichannel Marketing for ECommerce

Popularly used by Shopify hosted e-commerce stores, Klaviyo is an industry-leading marketing platform that helps businesses communicate better and sell more through fully automated, and personalized email & SMS campaigns.

• Email, SMS & Push Messaging;
• 60+ Pre-built Automation Recipes;
• 80+ Customizable Templates.

Klaviyo's advanced segmentation feature allows you to target audiences based on a combination of factors, including their profile info, behavioral data, geographic location, predicted Life Time Value (LTV), and more. This results in highly relevant messaging that resonates with your subscribers, leading to better sales outcomes.

Turn casual visitors into subscribers and loyal customers through dynamic forms and popups based on time spent on the website or landing pages, and frequency of visits, among other possibilities.

Klaviyo allows you to create complex messaging sequences with email, SMS, and mobile push messages while ensuring coordinated messaging and accurate cross-channel attribution and analytics.

What’s more, by utilizing machine learning algorithms, Klaviyo helps businesses identify trends, segment their audiences, and deliver personalized content that resonates with their customers.

Klaviyo’s Key Features

• Built-in Customer Data Platform (CDP);
• Email, SMS, and Push Messaging Campaigns;
• Pre-built Automation Sequences;
• Advanced Reporting & Analytics;
• A/B Testing.

Klaviyo Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Great onboarding experience;
• Powerful, pre-built automation recipes;
• In-depth reporting and analytics.

Cons:

• Free plan is limited to testing;
• Paid plans can become ridiculously expensive as your list size grows;
• Occasionally buggy email editor interface.

Klaviyo Plans & Pricing

The pricing scales depending on the number of contacts you need and whether you need both emails and SMS or email only.

FREE plan

• Up to 250 contacts;
• 500 emails/mo;
• 150 FREE SMS credits/mo;

Email-only plan starts at $20/mo

• Up to 500 contacts;
• 5,000 emails/mo;
• 150 FREE SMS credits/mo;

Email + SMS plan starts at $35/mo

• Up to 500 contacts;
• 5,000 emails/mo;
• 1250 SMS credits/mo;

Let’s face if Klaviyo is not for all businesses. But if you are a successful e-commerce business looking for cut-throat technological capabilities to scale and don’t mind the premium fee, Klaviyo could be worth a shot.

5. Campaign Monitor — Reliable Email Marketing System

Blending ease of use with powerful features, Campaign Monitor is a digital marketing platform that offers high-impact email marketing and automation tools to help streamline and monetize your marketing efforts.

• Personalized Customer Journeys;
• SMS Marketing Campaigns;
• Sign Up Forms

Campaign Monitor goes beyond just offering you a drag-and-drop email-building experience. Input your landing page URL, and it can create a custom email template with your own branding elements, including logo, color schemes, and typography.

Launch targeted campaigns such as offers, new product announcements, event promotions, and more using a range of professional-looking templates. These pre-built email templates are not only visually eye-catching but also mobile-friendly by default, so your conversions from mobile visitors are maximized.

New to automation? Worry not. The visual journey designer feature can help you create highly profitable email & SMS automation in a user-friendly manner in just a few clicks.

Apart from providing actionable insights through detailed analytics, Campaign Monitor also supports A/B testing of images, email content, subject lines, and more, which enables you to carry out complete, campaign-level optimizations.

Campaign Monitor’s Key Features

• Email & SMS Broadcast Campaigns & Automation Flows;
• Responsive Email Templates Library;
• Granular Segmentation;
• Signup Forms;
• Transactional Emails.

Campaign Monitor Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Intuitive navigation;
• Easy to read reporting;
• Robust customer support.

Cons:

• Limited template and design options;
• No free plan;
• Paid plans are expensive as compared to the competition.

Campaign Monitor Plans & Pricing

Campaign Monitor does not offer a free plan.

Its paid plan starts from $9/mo and includes:

• Approximately 500 contacts;
• Send 2,500 emails/mo;
• Multiple users;
• Branded templates;
• Segmentation features;
• Sign up forms;
• A/B Testing;

Advanced features such as countdown timers and time zone sending are only available in higher-paid plans.

Campaign Monitor is an excellent choice for business owners seeking feature-rich yet stable email marketing software. Whether you are a startup looking to build relationships or an enterprise seeking to fine-tune winning campaigns, Campaign Monitor offers all the tools and resources you need to get started on the right foot.