10 Best Email Marketing Software For Small Businesses [2024]

Email marketing is vital in today’s competitive digital marketing world, so users and business owners are right in searching for the best email marketing software for small businesses.

For a business to grow, the right tools are needed to automate repetitive tasks, acquire new customers, and build strong customer relationships.

In this article, we’ll focus on 10 tools that can help you boost your email marketing efforts and scale your business.

Disclaimer: The information is accurate as of June 2024. 

How To Choose the Best Email Marketing Software for A Small Business

Small businesses and newly established startups often need to do more with less to streamline their marketing initiatives. They require a service that’s easy to use to master it quickly.

Here are the main points to look for before selecting email marketing software:

• Cost-effective plans
• Email templates
• Audience segmentation options
• Forms and landing pages
• Marketing automation
• Variety of integrations
• Customer support

If you have more requirements, visit the feature page of each platform and see if you can check that extra box.

Best Email Marketing Services for Small Businesses: Comparison Table

Let’s look at the top email solutions for a small business in terms of pricing and unique features.

Top Small Business Email Marketing Software by Use Case

• Moosend – Best affordable email marketing software for small businesses
• Mailchimp – Best for pre-built customer journeys
• Constant Contact – Best for event management
• MailerLite – Best for simple email marketing
• Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) – Best for multi-channel marketing
• GetResponse – Best for effortless A/B testing
• AWeber – Best for creating landing pages
• HubSpot – Best all-in-one marketing platform
• Klaviyo – Best for eCommerce businesses
• ActiveCampaign – Best for more advanced automation

Let’s compare the above small business email marketing software in more detail.

1. Moosend

Pricing: Paid plans start at $9/month, 30-day free trial (Sign up here)

Best feature: Powerful drag-and-drop editor with advanced functionality

Moosend is an excellent choice for small businesses seeking an affordable email marketing service. It stands out due to its diverse range of advanced features as well as its easy-to-implement automation.

The platform has a modern UI and a fast drag-and-drop builder that allows you to craft stunning email newsletters in minutes. The email template library has more than 100 professionally designed templates that can be customized to match your brand and style.

Moosend offers advanced email automation tools, enabling you to automate marketing campaigns, segment your email list, and deliver highly personalized email content to engage your audience. The visual workflow builder makes even sophisticated journeys effortless to create.

With Moosend, you can preview your campaigns on various devices, ensuring they always appear flawless. For maximum results, you can conduct spam and delivery tests to enhance your email deliverability. With an impressive sender reputation of 98%, you can rest assured that your contacts receive your messages.

Last but not least, the platform features real-time analytics that are easy to read and A/B testing capabilities to optimize your marketing strategy.

Pros

• User-friendly experience with a minimal learning curve
• AI powerful generated tools to write better content and subject lines
• Impressive deliverability score of 98% to rest assured that your emails are delivered
• Scalable pricing plans with unlimited emails
• 24/7 responsive customer support team
• Robust real-time analytics

Cons

• No direct CRM solution
• Limited form design features
• No free plan available

Best Features

• User-friendly drag-and-drop email editor
• Responsive email newsletter templates
• AI writing assistant
• Easy-to-implement automation with pre-built journeys
• List segmentation tools and audience tagging
• Signup forms and landing pages
• Transactional emails
• 24/7 live chat and email support
• Integrations with many popular marketing apps

Pricing

Moosend’s paid plans are cost-efficient, starting at $9/month with unlimited emails, signup forms, landing pages, and more.

Sign up for a Moosend account or request a free trial to test the platform’s full functionality and see if it fits your needs.

2. Mailchimp

Pricing: Paid plans start at $20/month, limited free plan

Best feature: Pre-built automation journeys

Mailchimp is a well-known email marketing platform that offers a complete suite of digital marketing tools. First, the platform has a robust email editor that enables effortless campaign creation. While it may be overwhelming for first-time users, it is fast and sports various advanced functions.

Overall, Mailchimp excels in automation. It has various pre-built automation templates that are handy and enables users to craft multi-step journeys. Whether you want to create complex onboarding sequences or simple drip campaigns, Mailchimp is an ideal solution.

To target your audience better, Mailchimp lets you manage your contacts using groups, segments, and/or tags. Furthermore, you can boost lead generation with its customizable landing pages and signup forms.

Finally, the tool offers cross-device email testing to find out which elements work best for your audience. We were also impressed with the sheer number of integrations available, with apps like Shopify, WordPress, Magento, and more.

Pros

• Complex automation sequences to nudge your customers at the best timing
• Seamless integrations with eCommerce websites such as Shopify
• Perfect solution for inbound marketing and lead generation
• Robust analytics and great reporting capabilities

Cons

• Rigid pricing structure, not suitable for businesses with limited budget
• If you choose a free plan, you don’t get access to customer support
• The tool can be a little overwhelming for new users

Best Features

• Powerful automation options
• A/B testing
• Customizable forms and landing pages
• CRM tool
• Creative Assistant that enables you to send stunning emails

Pricing

Mailchimp’s paid plans start at $20/month, giving you personalization, optimization tools, and enhanced automation features.

There is also a limited free plan to test the platform, which includes 500 contacts and 1,000 monthly email sends. However, payment information is required for a free trial of the service.

Read the Mailchimp review

3. Constant Contact

Pricing: Paid plans start at $12/month, 14-day free trial

Best feature: Event management options

Constant Contact is a fast-growing email marketing service with great solutions for small businesses. The platform has a simple and user-friendly email editor that allows you to craft new campaigns or customize the available templates with ease.

Moving on to contact management, Constant Contact has its own CRM solution, so you can store everything there. To personalize your campaigns, you can create segments or tag subscribers. There are also auto-generated segments, but the tool doesn’t offer “if/then/else” logic which is needed for advanced personalization.

As for email automation, Constant Contact features basic autoresponders, drip email campaigns, and an automated resend feature for non-openers. You can also conduct A/B testing, but only for your subject lines, unlike other Constant Contact alternatives.

We kept the best feature for the end. Users will appreciate the service for its event management options. With the RSVP tool, you can promote events like webinars, online courses, and more, by collecting responses straight from the email.

Pros

• End-to-end event management options
• Very user-friendly platform and email editor
• Advanced audience segmentation and list segments
• Broad list of integrations to streamline your marketing strategy

Cons

• Sometimes the platform can get unresponsive
• Limited A/B testing capabilities
• Some email templates look outdated

Best Features

• AI content generator
• Event invitations, surveys, coupons, and polls
• Instagram and Facebook ads and insights
• Native CRM solution
• SMS and social media marketing
• Integration with popular eCommerce platforms and more

Pricing

Constant Contact’s paid plans start at $12/month giving you the essential email and social media tools.

While there is no free plan, Constant Contact offers a 14-day free trial to try the platform.

Read our Constant Contact review

4. MailerLite

Pricing: Paid plans start at $10/month, free plan

Best Feature: Sell digital products and subscriptions

MailerLite is another great email marketing solution for small businesses with a limited budget due to its affordable pricing model. You get a beginner-friendly email editor with interactive content blocks and an HTML editor if you aim to build custom campaigns. Plus, the software has an AI writing assistant and subject line generator that is very handy.

With MailerLite, you can build advanced marketing workflows with an intuitive automation builder. You can automatically deliver personalized messages to the right people using various triggers and utilize the auto-resend feature to give subscribers an extra opportunity to connect with you.

The platform equips you with customizable signup forms and landing pages to acquire new leads and convert them into paying customers. Plus, landing pages can be A/B tested to ensure maximum results. If you have a growing business, you may find their website builder useful.

MailerLite’s unique feature though, is its ability to sell digital products and subscriptions via its Stripe integration. Overall, you get ample functionality at a fair price.

Pros

• Affordable pricing model for small businesses
• User-friendly automation builder and auto-resend features
• ECommerce builder and Stripe integrations to sell your digital products

Cons

• Long approval process for business plans
• No design and spam testing features
• Basic reporting and analytics features

Best Features

• Intuitive drag-and-drop email builder
• Multi-trigger email automation
• Email delivery by timezone
• Integration with Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe, etc.
• Unsubscribe page builder
• Website builder

Pricing

MailerLite’s pricing starts at $10/month, providing you with generous functionality like dynamic emails, an unsubscribe page builder, and a website builder.

Alternatively, you can try the tool via their free plan, which allows up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 monthly emails.

Read MailerLite’s review

5. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

Pricing: Paid plans start at $9/month, free plan

Best feature: SMS and WhatsApp campaigns

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is a complete marketing platform combining the power of email marketing with SMS. The platform is easy to use, and the drag-and-drop editor helps even beginners create and deliver stunning email marketing campaigns.

As for automation features, Brevo allows you to set up all kinds of automated workflows, from welcome email series to abandoned cart emails. What’s more, it’s possible to automatically segment contacts according to behavior, interests, and other attributes. In this way, you can deliver unique offers that attract attention and personalized product recommendations.

Furthermore, the platform’s AI algorithm helps you deliver email campaigns at the best time to ensure optimal deliverability. Moreover, you get customizable signup forms and landing pages to fuel lead generation. The landing page builder is great when compared to other Brevo alternatives.

Pros

• SMS and WhatsApp campaigns for omni-channel marketing
• Beginner-friendly email editor and UI
• AI-powered solutions for optimal campaigns

Cons

• Cost-efficient plans have limited features
• Lack of consistent email deliverability
• Advanced features available only on pricier plans

Best Features

• Modern drag-and-drop editor
• Advanced segmentation options
• SMTP relay service to deliver transactional emails and SMS
• SMS marketing
• Facebook ads

Pricing

Brevo’s offers various paid plans starting at $9/month for 5K emails but with limited capabilities. For instance, to remove Brevo branding you’ll need to pick a more expensive plan.

There is also a free plan allowing you to send up to 300 free emails per day.

Read the full Brevo review

6. GetResponse

Pricing: Paid plans start at $19/month, 30-day trial

Best feature: Conversion funnels

GetResponse is an excellent email marketing tool for small businesses looking for ease of use and a robust set of email marketing features. Its dashboard is intuitive, and the drag-and-drop editor makes campaign creation as easy as it gets.

What’s great about GetReponse is its A/B testing capabilities. You can test different subject lines, images, and layouts, as well as calls-to-action to increase click-through rates. Plus, you can sell more with less effort through automated customer journeys and get an unlimited number of emails to fuel your behavior-based automation campaigns.

With the landing page creator, you can craft SEO-optimized pages for your small business to convert more visitors into customers. But the best feature among others is the sales funnels. You have some pre-defined scenarios that you can use to form an effective email marketing strategy.

Pros

• Good solution for small eCommerce businesses
• Complex list segmentation options for better personalization
• Sales and conversion funnels to boost your leads

Cons

• Advanced automation solutions only for high-tiered plans
• Needs improvement in deliverability rates
• Inflexible landing page builder

Best Features

• Drag-and-drop editor with 200+ email templates
• AI email generator
• Web push notifications
• Website and landing page builder
• Contact scoring and tagging

Pricing

GetResponse’s paid plans start at $19/month giving you all the necessary tools for email marketing except for automation.

For marketing automation or eCommerce-oriented features, you’ll need a more expensive plan.

7. AWeber

Pricing: Paid plans start at $15/month, free plan

Best Feature: Efficient landing page builder

AWeber is another email marketing solution known for its responsive customer support team. The platform has an intuitive drag-and-drop email builder, making it easy to create engaging campaigns for your audience.

AWeber is also great at automation. Its robust tools allow for personalized and targeted messaging, enhancing customer engagement and helping you build long-lasting relationships.

Apart from that, this email marketing platform equips you with rich reporting and analytics to measure your campaign performance. This is immensely valuable if you want to improve your email marketing strategy.

Last but not least, we were impressed with its landing page builder. You can easily create beautiful landing pages to get more email subscribers from your social media channels or make money with sales pages that enable you to collect payments at the checkout or via recurring subscriptions.

Pros

• Great reporting and analytics tools to track email performance
• Sales tracking options and PayPal integration
• Loads of landing pages and email templates

Cons

• Inconsistent delivery rates that can hinder email performance
• Lack of spam and design testing
• Sophisticated features are available in high-tiered plans

Best Features

• Intuitive drag-and-drop email builder
• Robust automation options
• A/B split testing
• Responsive customer support
• Various integrations with popular tools

Pricing

AWeber’s paid plans start at $15/month giving you the basic tools to start with email marketing. For more functionality and increased limits, you’ll need a more expensive plan.

The platform also offers a free plan allowing you to have up to 500 subscribers and send 3,000 emails/month.

8. HubSpot

Pricing: Paid plans start at $20/month, free tools

Best Feature: All-in-one solution with CRM

HubSpot is an all-in-one inbound marketing solution with a beginner-friendly interface and robust marketing capabilities. The platform has a simple drag-and-drop email creator that’s easy to use and a few email templates to save time.

HubSpot’s “superpower” is its CRM. Its integration with the marketing platform enables you to send personalized emails, track opens and clicks, and nurture leads based on their engagement. What’s more, you can segment and organize contacts easily, as well as track communication history, view contact activity, and gain insights into customer behavior.

Regarding automation, you can set up workflows powered by your CRM for welcome purposes, lead nurturing, and personalized offers. Everything is straightforward, making the service a powerful tool in marketers’ hands.

With Hubspot, you also get signup forms for your website and landing pages to convert your audience. Pick one of the customizable templates or start from scratch. Finally, you can have live chat and bots, as well as ad management tools.

Pros

• Inclusive CRM and email marketing solution
• Perfect for lead generation and management
• Straightforward and advanced automation options

Cons

• Expensive for users with basic email marketing needs
• A bit outdated email templates
• Several features take long to set up

Best Features

• Beginner-friendly UI
• Robust and easy-to-implement automation
• Signup forms and landing pages
• CRM solution for contact management
• Live chat and bots

Pricing

HubSpot’s paid plans start at $20/month giving you all the necessary tools to grow your business with email marketing.

However, you can use the free tools available, which are a great starting point if you’re tight on your budget.

9. Klaviyo

Pricing: Paid plans start at $20/month, free plan

Best feature: Marketing automation capabilities

Klaviyo is one of the best email marketing solutions for eCommerce entrepreneurs and small businesses searching for an inclusive tool at a reasonable price. It offers integrations with well-known eCommerce platforms such as WooCommerce, Shopify, and Magento to help businesses build a powerful marketing engine.

The platform sports three email editor types: a drag-and-drop, a text-only, and an HTML builder to craft emails using a custom code. You can also use static or dynamic content feeds to promote your product recommendations based on a customer’s behavior and activity.

You can select from 60+ built-in flows, including abandoned cart emails, cross-sell/upsell campaigns, and in-stock alerts, to name a few. Klaviyo also offers top-of-the-art list management, enabling users to build customer profiles to target the right audience at the right time.

The platform has an easy to interpret analytics dashboard, where you can track essential metrics, such as open rates and click-throughs. You can also access more advanced data to monitor your revenue.

Pros

• Enriched and user-friendly email editors
• Marketing automation also available for SMS
• Great analytics and custom reporting capabilities

Cons

• Customer support is occasionally slow at responding
• No spam testing available
• E-commerce features may take long to set up for beginners

Best Features

• E-commerce friendly automation workflows
• Multi-step signup forms
• A/B testing
• SMS marketing
• Enhanced email segmentation

Pricing

Klaviyo’s pricing starts at $20/month for up to 500 customers and 5,000 email sends. If you want to combine emails with SMS, you need to get a pricier plan.

It also offers a free plan with limited functionality for those who want to explore this software before purchasing it.

Read our Klaviyo review

10. ActiveCampaign

Pricing: Paid plans start at $19/month, 14-day free trial

Best Feature: Huge variety of automation templates

ActiveCampaign is a versatile email marketing and automation platform that excels in helping SMBs automate their marketing processes. Its email editor offers various templates you can customize to save time.

Moving on to automation, it’s an area where ActiveCampaign shines. You can set up automation workflows using a visual builder, creating complex sequences triggered by user behavior. For example, you can automate welcome series, abandoned cart reminders, and post-purchase follow-ups.

Another valuable feature is lead scoring. The platform assigns scores to your contacts based on their interactions with your email campaigns and website. This way, you can find your most engaged and interested leads and follow-up with them.

Pros

• Complex automation sequences based on user behavior
• Lead management and scoring for better sales
• Great at email deliverability

Cons

• Not the most beginner-friendly email marketing software for small businesses
• Expensive compared to other platforms
• No free plan available

Best Features

• Responsive email templates
• Pre-built automation journeys
• Event tracking
• Time zone sending
• In-built CRM system

Pricing

Paid pricing starts at $19/month, offering basic functionality for personalized marketing campaigns.

While ActiveCampaign is not a free email marketing service, it has a 14-day free trial that users can leverage to test the platform.

How We Selected the Tools

All of the tools in this list have been tested by our team to provide an unbiased description of their features and capabilities.

We spent hours setting up new accounts and trying each software to provide an accurate experience and show users exactly what they will come across when they sign up. Find more information about our software selection methodology on how we choose tools to feature on the Moosend Blog.

Finding The Best Software for Your Small Business

Selecting one of the top email marketing software for small businesses is no easy task. First, you need to consider your goals and your team’s capabilities. A complex or very advanced tool can take time to master and block your email marketing efforts.

What’s more, an expensive solution is a serious commitment when your budget is on the lower end of the scale. This is why it’s important to take advantage of any free plans or trials offered to get a clear idea of what to expect from each email marketing platform.

In case you want to give Moosend a go, feel free to create an account and explore our features.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here’s what small business owners would like to know about this topic:

1. What’s the best email platform for a small business?

Here are ten options to choose from: 1. Moosend, 2. Mailchimp, 3. Constant Contact, 4. MailerLite, 5. Brevo, 6. GetResponse, 7. AWeber, 8. Hubspot, 9. ActiveCampaign, and 10. Klaviyo.

2. Does Mailchimp have a free plan?

Mailchimp has a free limited plan for up to 500 contacts and a maximum of 1,000 emails per month or 500 emails per day.

3. What should I look for in email marketing software for small business?

Choose an email marketing solution with scalable and affordable pricing, premade email templates, user-friendly marketing automation and segmentation, signup forms and landing pages, integrations with a plethora of tools, and customer support.

4. Can I manage multiple lists with email marketing software?

Yes–most email marketing software like Moosend and Klaviyo offer advanced audience management tools, enabling businesses to send highly targeted campaigns to subscribers.

5. What is the most cost-effective email marketing software for a small business?

Moosend has affordable and scalable plans for small businesses, powered by advanced tools to help you streamline an effective email marketing strategy. MailerLite is a good choice, too.