11 Best Email Marketing Software For Startups In 2024

Finding the best email marketing software for your startup can be tricky.

Does the software scale with your business as you acquire more customers? Does it include the required features for both present and future needs? Can it integrate with other marketing tools you use?

Today, we’ll explore popular email marketing platforms that can perfectly match your business depending on your needs and budget.

Disclaimer: The information is accurate as of June 2024.

How To Choose The Best Email Marketing Software For Your Startup

Selecting the right email marketing software for your business is an important decision that can impact your marketing efforts and overall success.

Here are a few things to consider before you get to the actual selection process:

• Define your email marketing goals and determine your budget
• Make a list of the features you need
• Evaluate how user-friendly each platform is
• Use any free trials or request demos from the ESPs on your shortlist
• Assess the deliverability rates and sender reputation
• Check whether the software integrates with other tools you use
• Ensure that the email marketing software can scale with your business as your email list and marketing needs grow
• Evaluate the level of customer support and training offered
• Ensure the tool complies with data protection regulations
• Review the pricing plans carefully for any hidden costs

Remember that the choice of email marketing software should be based on your unique requirements and long-term goals. Take your time to make an informed decision, as the right software can significantly contribute to the success of your startup’s marketing efforts.

Best Email Marketing Platforms For Startups: Features & Pricing

To get the most out of your new software, you need to aim for a tool that won’t break the bank. Moreover, it needs to have a small learning curve and favor simplicity and ease of use.

Here’s a quick overview of the top tools.

Now, let’s take a look at some use cases and a full analysis of each tool.

Top Startup Email Marketing Software By Use Case

• Moosend – Best for powerful automation with easy setup
• ActiveCampaign – Best for advanced marketing automation and personalization
• Constant Contact – Best for event management
• Mailchimp – Best for complex customer journeys and pre-made templates
• Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) – Best for email and SMS marketing
• GetResponse – Best for combining email with webinars
• Drip – Best for advanced eCommerce functionality
• AWeber – Best for ease of use and great customer support
• MailerLite – Best for simple marketing automation and landing pages
• Campaign Monitor – Best for customization and autoresponders
• SendX – Best for a user-friendly email marketing experience

1. Moosend

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

Best feature: Advanced marketing automation with easy setup

Moosend is one of the best email marketing software for startups and small businesses that enables you to build and automate your email marketing strategy. This cost-effective solution is known for its user-friendly and intuitive interface, making it a good choice for startups without extensive experience with email marketing software.

Moosend’s intuitive email builder comes with various advanced features, such as countdown timers, to craft professional email campaigns for your audience. Moreover, you can use the available newsletter templates to save time and effort. The AI Writer assists with generating email copy, providing inspiration and proofreading for mistakes.

Regarding automation, this tool provides robust automated workflows, allowing startups to create targeted and personalized email campaigns. You can set up automated sequences from scratch or use pre-made recipes to nurture leads and engage customers.

Speaking of personalized email marketing campaigns, effective email marketing often relies on sending the right message to the right audience. Moosend’s segmentation will help you target specific customer groups based on their behavior, demographics, and interactions with your emails.

Tracking the performance of your campaigns becomes effortless through the real-time analytics and reporting feature. The platform monitors important email metrics to help you make data-driven decisions to improve your email marketing strategies.

Of course, to optimize them, you need A/B testing. Moosend lets you test different subject lines, email copy, and send times to determine what works best for your audience.

Lastly, startups can use the flexible email API to scale their business and enhance and customize the user experience.

Best Features

• User-friendly email editor
• Premade email newsletter templates
• Personalization and audience segmentation
• Sign-up forms and landing pages
• High email deliverability to inbox providers (Gmail, Outlook, etc.)
• Transactional emails (SMTP server)
• Integrations with CRM, eCommerce, social media, etc.

Pricing

Moosend is a great email marketing software for startups as it offers affordable pricing with paid plans starting at $9/month for 500 subscribers and unlimited emails. A Moosend+ plan and enterprise custom plan are also available.

You can also create a free account and test the platform before committing – no credit card is required.

Try Moosend

2. ActiveCampaign

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

Best feature: Advanced automated email workflows

ActiveCampaign is a pricier yet advanced marketing solution, so if you are a complete beginner, you should consider another beginner-friendly alternative. This versatile email marketing tool can be a good choice for startups looking to build and automate their email marketing campaigns fast.

You get robust automation features that allow you to create complex, behavior-triggered email sequences. This is particularly useful for startups looking to automate lead nurturing, onboarding, and customer retention campaigns. You can target new leads with drip campaigns to build strong customer relationships and get more conversions.

Moreover, you can benefit from the advanced segmentation capabilities, enabling you to create and target segments based on specific criteria. Startups can also personalize their email campaigns using dynamic content and merge tags to create tailored messages for individual subscribers.

ActiveCampaign includes lead scoring functionality, which helps you prioritize and focus your efforts on the most promising leads. This can be valuable for startups aiming to make the most of limited resources and improve their marketing efforts.

Lastly, split testing is also available to test your email marketing campaigns and optimize your strategy based on customer data.

Best Features

• HTML email builder
• Advanced automated workflows
• Pre-built email templates
• Popups for lead generation
• Smart email list segmentation
• Integrations with CRM tools, Shopify, etc.

Pricing

ActiveCampaign offers a free 14-day trial to test the platform. Paid plans start at $19/month (billed monthly) for 1,000 contacts giving you bacic functionality to get started.

For SMS marketing, transactional emails (Postmark), ActiveCampaign CRM, and custom reporting, you need to pay extra.

Note: ActiveCampaign changes its pricing quite often, so keep an eye out for their pricing page for the latest information before you pick a plan.

Read our ActiveCampaign review

3. Constant Contact

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

Best feature: Event marketing tools

Constant Contact has a long-standing reputation as a reliable and user-friendly email marketing tool. But is it email marketing software for startups?

The platform can be a great fit for brands looking for an all-in-one solution to start their email marketing efforts. To begin with, Constant Contact has a drag-and-drop email builder with numerous templates. However, it is worth noting that it lacks in the A/B testing department. Compared to other competitors, Constant Contact only equips you with subject line split testing.

Analytics and reporting tools are also available, enabling you to track the performance of your email campaigns, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversion metrics. To make everything more accessible, the platform offers integrations with various eCommerce platforms, CRMs, and third-party tools to connect your email marketing efforts with other parts of your business.

Lastly, Constant Contact includes features for event marketing, making it useful for startups that host events or webinars and need to promote them via email.

Best Features

• Free email newsletter templates
• Contact list management tool
• Autoresponders
• Drip campaigns
• Dynamic content
• Surveys and polls

Pricing

Constant Contact offers three paid subscription options starting at $12/month for the Lite, $35/month for the Standard, and $80/month for the Premium for 500 subscribers.

You can also sign up for the 14-day trial to test the platform before you purchase.

Read our Constant Contact review

4. Mailchimp

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

Best feature: Multi-step customer journeys

Mailchimp is a popular email marketing tool often recommended for startups and small businesses. It offers a range of features to help you grow your email marketing efforts.

When it comes to email creation, Mailchimp provides a library of customizable responsive email templates to match your brand’s style and messaging. You can also create custom templates if needed to use on the spot.

Moreover, you can benefit from the Customer Journey feature, Mailchimp’s marketing automation tool that lets you map dynamic, automated marketing paths for your target audience. Creating them is pretty straightforward, and you can craft various sequences for your blog or eCommerce business.

A/B testing is also included in the package. This powerful feature will let you test different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, content, and send times, to determine what resonates best with your audience. A more advanced split testing tool called Multivariate testing is available for higher-tiered plans.

While Mailchimp is among the best email marketing services, it can get pricey fast. Also, it’s worth noting that the software will charge you for duplicate contacts and unsubscribes, so keep that in mind before you commit.

Best Features

• Responsive email templates
• Automated workflows
• Multivariate testing feature
• Powerful list segmentation
• Push notifications
• Retargeting ads

Pricing

Mailchimp’s pricing consists of four different plans. The Standard starts at $20/month for 500 subscribers and 6K monthly sends, while the Premium is $350/month for the same number of subscribers and 150K monthly sends.

A free plan is also available, but it’s pretty limited. Nevertheless, it’s advisable to test the platform before you get a paid subscription. If Mailchimp breaks the bank for you, you can check some other affordable competitors.

Read our Mailchimp review

5. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

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

Best feature: Email and SMS marketing

Brevo provides a user-friendly and intuitive interface, making it easy for startups to create, design, and send emails without extensive technical expertise.

The platform offers a library of mobile-friendly email templates that you can customize to match your brand’s identity. This helps you create professional-looking emails without the need for design skills. It’s a great asset for your digital marketing strategy as you can minimize costs.

Moreover, Brevo’s marketing automation will let you craft and automate drip campaigns to nurture your leads and turn them into customers of your brand.

Brevo’s API allows easy integration with other tools, including eCommerce platforms like Shopify, CRMs, and content management systems. This ensures your email marketing efforts are seamlessly connected to your broader business processes.

Apart from that, startups often need to send transactional emails such as order confirmations, password resets, and receipts. Brevo will equip you with an SMTP server to send these types of emails alongside your marketing campaigns.

Lastly, this email marketing software for startups lets you reach customer support through various channels, including email and chat.

Best Features

• Email and SMS marketing capabilities
• Popups and landing pages
• List segmentation
• A/B Testing tool
• Reporting and analytics
• Great customer support

Pricing

Brevo’s new pricing starts at $9/month for 500 contacts and 5,000 monthly emails. For marketing managers and eCommerce pros, this email marketing software for startups recommends the Business plan for $18/month.

A limited free plan is also available.

Read the full Brevo review

6. GetResponse

Pricing: Paid plans start at $19/month, free plan

Best feature: AI-generated marketing campaigns

GetResponse is a comprehensive email marketing tool that can help you power up your email marketing strategy.

First, GetResponse offers a user-friendly interface with a drag-and-drop email builder, making it suitable for startups without extensive design or technical expertise. If your team values ease of use and want to create and manage email campaigns quickly, GetResponse will help you achieve it.

Moreover, GetResponse provides robust automation capabilities, allowing you to set up automated workflows and autoresponders. If your startup plans to nurture leads and engage with customers through automated email sequences, this feature can be quite useful to you and your team.

Of course, to enhance your lead nurturing and conversion efforts, GetResponse will provide you with advanced segmentation options to tailor your messages to specific groups of subscribers.

Lastly, GetResponse’s AI Email Generator, powered by OpenAI technology, will further assist you in creating goal-optimized subject lines and email content for your marketing campaigns.

Best Features

• AI-generated campaigns
• Detailed reporting
• Conversion funnels
• AI recommendations
• eCommerce integrations
• Web push notifications

Pricing

The platform’s pricing starts at $19/month for the Email Marketing Plan. For advanced functionality and marketing automation, you need to get a pricier plan.

GetResponse has a 30-day trial to test its capabilities and a limited free plan after that. If pricing seems intimidating and you want something that will give you all the tools in a single plan, you should consider one of its alternatives.

7. Drip

Pricing: Paid plans start at $39/month, 14-day free trial

Best Feature: Convenient user tagging

Drip is a customer-centric marketing automation tool that allows you to connect and engage your audience with marketing campaigns. Through customer data tracking, the software provides useful data about which subscribers open your email links, look at products, or interact with your content. Then you can assign a lead score and segment your audience to target them better.

Of course, you can automate your efforts and save time, no matter if we’re talking about simple shipping confirmations or full drip campaigns. You can choose from multiple templates and customize them with the drag-and-drop editor.

What’s also interesting about Drip is the ability it gives you for conditional formatting. This means that you can add an “if” clause to your email campaigns. So, for example, if a customer hasn’t subscribed to a certain list, you can add a “subscribe” link to the campaign.

Finally, it must be mentioned that Drip is easily integrated with many popular tools that enhance your overall strategy. This way, you can make informed decisions and grow for the long term.

Best Features

• Visual workflow builder
• Conditional formatting
• Advanced segmentation options
• Detailed analytics
• 150+ integrations with eCommerce, CRM, CMS, and more

Pricing

Drip has a simple pricing structure with a single paid plan. It starts at $39/month for 2,500 contacts, including all the platform features.

While the software doesn’t offer a free plan, you can take advantage of the 14-day free trial that gives you free rein to use all the features.

8. AWeber

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

Best Feature: Powerful landing page builder

Aweber is a feature-rich email marketing solution that can cater perfectly to the needs of a startup business. First of all, the service has a user-friendly interface that’s easy to master even with minimal prior expertise.

What’s more, the drag-and-drop email builder makes campaign creation effortless, so even complete beginners can design stunning marketing campaigns. Regarding the available email templates, they are professionally designed, and even though they aren’t extensive, they can cover all the needs of a startup business.

Moving on to email automation, you can set up autoresponders or more advanced behavior-triggered emails to nurture your leads and convert them into customers. Furthermore, the platform allows users to perform effective segmentation, thus delivering content that really resonates with the audience.

Unfortunately, analytics isn’t one of AWeber’s strong points. They are not as detailed as in other AWeber alternatives, but you surely get a basic understanding of your campaign performance. Finally, AWeber can be integrated with numerous CRM, eCommerce and other marketing tools to streamline your marketing stack.

Best Features

• List management and segmentation options
• Email testing across devices
• Autoresponders and drip campaigns
• A/B split testing
• Integrations to boost productivity

Pricing

AWeber’s paid pricing starts at $15/month, giving you the platform’s basic features. For advanced features, you’ll need a more expensive plan.

The tool also offers a free plan for 500 subscribers and 3,000 email sends per month.

9. MailerLite

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

Best Feature: Sell digital products

MailerLite is a top-notch email marketing solution for startups due to its straightforward UI and advanced features at an affordable price. Specifically, the drag-and-drop email builder simplifies the process of designing stunning emails. And if you don’t want to start from scratch, MailerLite’s email templates help you save time and still create cool email newsletters.

The platform is also powerful when it comes to automation capabilities. The visual workflow builder is straightforward, so you can easily craft welcome series, abandoned cart emails, and follow-up sequences to nurture subscribers automatically.

MailerLite also equips you with newsletter signup forms and landing pages to boost your lead generation. But what’s really interesting about the tool is the ability to sell digital products. This could be a game changer for many businesses out there.

Last but not least, you can see your open rates by location (unlike other similar services), while you can also build websites and blogs without the need to purchase another tool.

Best Features

• A/B testing options
• Dynamic emails
• Facebook integration
• Sell digital products
• Unsubscribe page builder

Pricing

MailerLite’s pricing plans start at $10/month for 500 subscribers and unlimited emails. You can also take advantage of the free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 monthly emails.

Read our MailerLite review

10. Campaign Monitor

Pricing: Paid plans start at $9/month, free plan (purely testing)

Best Feature: Strong reporting and analytics tools

Our list of the best email marketing tools for startups continues with Campaign Monitor. Despite its position at the bottom of the list, the software is a decent service with a robust set of features that can help startups grow bigger.

Apart from its modern email editor, the platform features more than 80 email templates that are beautifully designed. Both beginners and advanced users will be able to set up their automated sequences with the Journey Builder, no matter the complexity of the sequence. As for personalization, you can insert dynamic content based on subscriber data in order to increase engagement and conversions.

Reporting and analytics are another great aspect of Campaign Monitor. The tool offers detailed information about key metrics like click-through rates, open rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated. Finally, you’ll be surprised to know that with Campaign Monitor you can schedule email campaigns to be sent at specific times or optimize send times based on each subscriber’s time zone. Overall, it is a decent package for an affordable email marketing solution.

Best Features

• Extensive library of responsive designs
• Inbox previews
• Time zone sending
• Comprehensive reporting and analytics tools
• Spam testing

Pricing

Paid pricing of Campaign Monitor starts at $9/month, offering the platform’s core features and the ability to send up to 2,500 emails.

If you want to test Campaign Monitor, there is a free plan allowing you to send a test campaign to 5 subscribers.

11. SendX

Pricing: Paid plans start at $9.99/month, 14-day trial

Best Feature: User-friendly interface with robust automation

SendX is an all-in-one email marketing software for startups that stands out for its intuitive interface and powerful features. The platform offers a drag-and-drop email builder with access to 500,000+ free stock photos, making it simple to design attractive emails without coding knowledge. What’s more, its advanced automation capabilities allow startups to set up complex workflows, from welcome series to abandoned cart reminders, helping to nurture leads and drive conversions.

One standout feature is SendX’s emphasis on deliverability. The platform provides dedicated IPs (for larger senders) and offers deliverability consulting services to ensure your emails reach the inbox. Additionally, SendX includes A/B testing that helps you optimize your campaigns for maximum engagement.

For startups looking to grow their list, SendX offers customizable forms and landing pages that can be easily embedded into websites or used as standalone pages. Furthermore, with its comprehensive analytics and heat mapping tools, startups can gain valuable insights into their email performance and make data-driven decisions. Finally, SendX integrates with popular tools including WooCommerce, Stripe, and Zapier.

Best Features

• User-friendly drag-and-drop email editor
• Advanced automation workflows
• A/B testing capabilities
• Robust segmentation and tagging
• Deliverability consulting services

Pricing

SendX’s pricing is based on the number of subscribers. Paid plans start at $9.99/month (billed monthly) for up to 1,000 subscribers, including all features. You can also try SendX for free for 14 days if you want to test the platform before committing.

How We Selected The Tools

All of the tools in this list have been tested by our team to provide an unbiased description of its 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.

Selecting The Best Software For Your Startup

Before making your final decision, consider your startup’s specific requirements, such as budget constraints, the complexity of your email marketing strategy, and the need for integrations with other tools.

Make sure to take advantage of the free trials or free plans that these tools provide, so you can test them to see which one aligns best with your startup’s goals and objectives.

If you feel that Moosend ticks all the boxes, create a free account and start experiencing email marketing with a service that evolves along with your business.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are some frequently asked questions among users.

1. What features should I look for in email marketing software?

Key features to look for include an easy-to-use email editor, robust automation that’s easy to implement, contact segmentation, A/B testing, rich reporting and analytics, integration with other tools (CRM, eCommerce platforms, social media), and most importantly, high email deliverability rates.

2. What is the best email software for small businesses?

Some of the top options to consider are Moosend, ActiveCampaign, and Mailchimp. Moosend is great at automating tasks with ease and without breaking the bank, ActiveCampaign offers advanced options for more experienced users, while Mailchimp has a suite of tools that help you create a strong digital marketing strategy if your budget allows it.

3. How much does email marketing software typically cost?

The cost usually depends on the features and the number of subscribers. Entry-level plans for startups start around $10-$30 per month, while for larger email lists and more advanced functionality, you can expect to pay anything from $100 to $500 per month.

4. Is it better to choose a platform with a pay-as-you-go plan or a subscription plan?

The choice depends greatly on your email volume and budget. Pay-as-you-go plans offer flexibility for businesses whose email volume fluctuates, while subscription plans have a predictable monthly cost and usually offer better support and more features. It’s also worth mentioning that many email marketing services have both options available.