10 Best Email Automation Tools compared (2021)

With a lot of email marketing solutions today providing an almost identical set of general functionalities, choosing the suitable one with your needs will depend on your budget limit.

There are premium and very useful tools that provide a more powerful set of functions; however, expect them to come at an expensive cost. On top of that, some solutions are free or very cheaper. However, the functions they provide are quite basic.

So, how can you balance everything, and ensure you don’t have to break the bank for fulfilling your email marketing requirements?

Well, you don’t have to do anything accept paying attention here for next 10-12 minutes!

After all, our 13 member team has spend a total of 336 hours before narrating top 10 email automation tools. Meet these giants now!

10 Best Email Automation Tools in 2021

What is an Email Automation Tool?

Marketing automation tools are software platforms designed for more effectively marketing on a variety of online channels such as email, social media, websites, and automated repetitive tasks. Marketing experts and consultants benefit from these automation tools by specifying criteria and outcomes for tasks and methods.

These are then interpreted, stored, and executed by software. This increases efficiency and reduces human error. Initially focused on email marketing automation, marketing automation refers to a broad range of automation and analytic tools for marketing, including inbound marketing.

Marketing automation platforms are used as a hosted or web-based solution, and for customers that require no software installation.

Consultants benefit from these automation tools by specifying criteria and outcomes for tasks and methods. These are then interpreted, stored, and executed by software.

This increases efficiency and reduces human error. Initially focused on email marketing automation, marketing automation refers to a broad range of automation and analytic tools for marketing, including inbound marketing. Marketing automation platforms are used as a hosted or web-based solution, and for customers that require no software installation.

Why Use Email Automation Tools?

There are a wide variety of benefits regarding the use to email automation tools:

• Accurate post-campaign analysis: Open rates, click-through rates, engagement levels, and detailed feedback reports include all of these important metrics and calculate the cost-benefit rate. It also accounts for each campaign’s budget.
• Better CRM: Better data analysis, keep track of tickets and mailing list monetization.
• Social media promotions: Some Automation Tools provide a cross channel promotion. This is one great way to migrate your subscribers.
• Get measurable ROI: Tracking details of every campaign to its last details is easy with automation tools. This helps business personnel make the best decisions and receive better results.
• Helps to choose the best methods: Automation tools provides an A/B testing feature with valuable details. With detailed reports, choosing the best method is easy.

1) Constant Contact Review – Overall Best Email Automation Tool

Constant Contact boasts a marketplace with more than 400 integrations and apps that cater to almost every niche of items. It’s pretty unique about this, being one of the great email marketing tools that permits you to handle registrations, event invitations, and tickets (if you pick out for the Email Plus plan).

Keep in mind that every new user wanna manage their events by Constant Contact would be eligible to integrate with Eventbrite; that was not earlier the case.

Constant Contact provides very important eCommerce functionalities like WooCommerce Integration and Automated Abandon Cart Email. It’s perfectly developed to help every type of online business grow.

Segment contacts based on the detailed content they click on to make differently targeted lists, and they deliver more relevant and extraordinary emails. While you are at it, reach more users by automatically posting to the social networks.

PROS

• Drag-and-drop email editor
• Comes with various flawless and optimized templates
• Extra functionalities including polls, coupons, and donations
• Many useful services and guides (Helpful for those who are new to email marketing)
• Basic analytics that gets the task done
• An array of tool integration.
• A/B testing
• Good segmentation ability

CONS

• The software lacks a workflow editor that makes automation management quite inconvenient

PRICING/COST

• Email Plan: Starting from $20, the email plan comes with all the things you require to make proficient emails, find new users and drive deals for the business. Ratings depend on the amount of email contacts in the account.
• Lite Plan : Get started with 10,000 emails at $5 monthly.

EXPERT’S VERDICT

Constant Contact is an advantageous tool for newbies, tiny business owners, and freelancers who really want more than just email marketing. Beginning at $20, the email plan comes with everything you require to make proficient emails, find new users and drive new deals for the business.

We always feel awesome whenever we review Constant Contact, and right from its UI to marketing feature to pricing, everything is worth praising. You feel satisfied with each and every segment, and that’s the reason it owns the top spot in this Best Email Automation Tools guide. 

2) SENDINBLUE Review 

Sendinblue is the best tool for transactional and trigger-based emails. Its automation workflow designer permits you to develop campaigns triggered by just random clicks, opens, and webpage visits. And its committed transactional part permits for messages like sign-up, purchase confirmations, and password resets– the tasks!

There is even a service to send SMS. Sendinblue comes out to be a ton cheaper than any other tool if you send a few emails to identical people. If you are after a value-for-money, then service with automation, dynamic personalization, and modern segmentation is a noteworthy option.

With features like modifiable triggers based on buying data, the capability of importing customer orders, and modified;e KPIs, Sendinblue is well-developed to serve each eCommerce business.

Few actually impressive automation tools here. Sendinblue’s workflow editor will let you set up clever triggered campaigns, which are based on email engagement, contact data, web behavior, and many e-commerce activities. It scores bonus points for special lead scoring and for the capability of testing workflows prior to executing them.

Sendinblue is different in its transactional email providing, letting you send messages like buying receipts and confirmations through SMTP. Side note – there is a handy ‘Best time’ function that will automatically send your emails in the optimal time, based on earlier campaign performance.

PROS

• Extensive variety of templates to select from
• Drag-and-drop designer
• Emails that are mobile-friendly
• Campaign tracking
• Contact management
• Integration with APIs
• Capability of sending SMS in addition to email
• Magento, WordPress plugin, Drupal, and PrestaShop among other interesting functions

CONS

• Most of the useful functions are only accessible in higher-paid plans
• Some amount of templates are accessible

PRICING

• Free Plan: Gets you began with SendinBlue. Send Three-hundred emails per day to unlimited contacts.
• Lite Plan: This plan is ideal for newbies in the market. With everything included, it expenses $25/month and $22.50/month if you choose to pay annually. This comes with 40,000 emails per month. All functions are free, and there’s no limit to daily sending.
• Essential Plan: The Essential plan is best for growing businesses. This plan costs $39/month and $35.10/month if you choose to pay annually. Send 60,000 emails per month.

EXPERT’S VERDICT

SendinBlue is ideal for companies, freelancers, and others who regularly send a great number of emails since the rating is based on the number of emails, not on contacts you have.

Email marketing is an essential segment for a lot of online businesses, and there is a good reason. With the SendinBlue free plan, you could test the tool with zero investment; you can see if you love it for yourself.

Then, if you require, you could upgrade to a premium plan and get some extra perks + more send volume. Searching at value-for-money, SendinBlue is an incredible tool. The features you get for what you pay are unheard of for email marketing applications. It could very well serve your email marketing requirements.

3) AWEBER Review 

Pennsylvania-based AWeber has been in the email marketing business since before 2000. One of their hugest claims is that they have invented the autoresponder; that is no tiny thing to consider. With that in your mind, it’s no surprise at all that one of their promoted functions is marketing automation, seen in some competitors.

Aside from automation, AWeber provides split testing and their ‘Email Web Analytics,’ permitting you to utilize your domain in links you wanna track clicks for and tracking item sales easily. Oh, and they’ve not one, but 3 mobile applications!

They provide an intelligent email designer who gathers images, logos, text, and brand colors from social media channels and websites to make “ready-to-send” email templates.

You could make ‘filters’ that serve as parts based on the contact field behavior and criteria (email opens, clicks). You could set up automated workflows to make new lists based on behavior, demographics, and lead scores.

It is good to see that they’ve certain automation functions. AWeber has good list segmentation, permitting you to handle subscribers through their automation functions. You could easily set up a rule, for instance, that unsubscribes someone from a specific list after leaving another.

PROS

• Over 150 templates with drag-and-drop functions.
• Ultra easy-to-send email newsletters
• Segment your list easily and quickly by subscriber location, clicks, or visited pages on your website
• Easy drag-and-drop, pixel-perfect email building
• Custom HTML and CSS and could add attachments with your emails
• Easy to read metrics dashboard
• An android/ios app to track campaign performance on the go

CONS

• There is no survey function
• It hasn’t implemented Google Analytics in its function set

PRICING

Aweber provides several pricing options

• 25,001+ subscribers: Get a custom quote
• 10,001-25,000 subscribers: $149/month
• 5,001-10,000 subscribers: $69/month
• 2,501-5,000 subscribers: $49/month
• 501-2,500 subscribers: $29/month
• 0-500 subscribers: $19/month

EXPERT’S VERDICT

Aweber is made for entrepreneurs, small businesses, bloggers, freelancers, and startups. Its services are pretty efficient and employ quicker and simpler working ways.

Aweber provides pre-developed email marketing campaigns that come with automatic trigger emails when a newbie subscribes, sending daily updates to keep you in touch. There are 4 types of campaigns that you could select from. It is fast and easy to utilize and advantageous for those who are totally new to email marketing. This tool is worth trial! 

 

4) GETRESPONSE Review

GetResponse is a broad marketing application platform that helps you boost sales, create content, and grow traffic to your website. Integrated autoresponders, email marketing, and landing pages let you automate important tasks and launch efficient marketing campaigns.

Latest analytics make it pretty easy to track leads, conversions, and ROI and learn what users desire. Modifiable template scenarios will do the work for you – no programming necessary.

Its flagship service is one of the best in the industry. Making beautiful emails, the subscribers would want to open made easy utilizing GetResponse. Instead of making a design from scratch, you can just choose which template you would like to utilize for your email campaign. You could preview the template first and see if it suits the appearance and feel you are looking for in the email.

To help you make finding the correct template much easier, show those templates from the category that fits your requirements best. There is also an Ecommerce part in the email editor where you could include the Product box and Suggested products blocks. But, you could only utilize these if you are setting up the store on GetResponse.

PROS

• Extensive design and spam testing
• Intelligent automation tool
• New unique features like perfect timing
• Build auto and landing pages

CONS

• Average deliverability
• Could be tough to navigate in template design

PRICING

• ENTERPRISE Plan: Produce high profits with solutions tailored to your requirements. List size: 100,000+–$1,199/month
• PROFESSIONAL Plan: Optimize results with integrations and pro-automation. List size: 1,000–$99/month
• PLUS Plan: Produce leads, grow profits, and sell products. List size: 1,000–$49/month
• BASIC Plan: Send emails and develop an engaged contact base. List size: 1,000–$15/month

EXPERT’S VERDICT

This automation tool is ideal for huge and medium-sized companies looking for an ultimate solution. It’s valuable for both non-technical and technical persons as no additional skill is required apart from that; this application is still enhancing.

Judging from its functions above, it’s pretty easy to see why GetResponse is one of the top software in the email marketing industry. It is hard to beat the email marketing and automation services it provides to users.

However, what further contributes to utilizing GetResponse is the host of templates for emails, forms, landing pages, funnels, and workflows. Even if you’ve no idea how an email marketing application like this works in standard, the template helps you fill in the gap so you could communicate messages more efficiently.

Nonetheless, GetResponse is the best choice for engaging with your audience and converting them into your customers. At least, you must sign up for a thirty days free trial of this software.

 5) BENCHMARK EMAIL Review

Like all of the tools reviewed, Benchmark Email provides the best selection of pre-developed email templates and the best selection of high-quality pictures for utilization in the email campaigns. The email design process is fully drag-and-drop, making crafting the message a breeze.

Benchmark Email has a solid list of pre-developed email capture forms which are fully modifiable utilizing a drag-and-drop interface. They have got a plugin for WordPress and a javascript embed programming option.

Email to RSS is a basic yet efficient way to streamline your communication process with the audience. You could set it up so that if you publish a new post on the website in a particular category, the email service would be notified and could develop a custom email and send it to the audience without having to do anything manually. This is a big timesaver.

Most software suppliers provide Email Sequencing/ Drip Campaigns, Autoresponders, Customer Tagging, and also Segmentation.  Benchmark Email offers all of these services included at an affordable price. The automation is very visual and very basic, which means you could really see the journey of your customer through the process.

 

PROS

• Many template selection with mobile view details
• Easy to utilize newsletter editor
• Behavior-based automation of the email marketing campaign

CONS

• Email deliverability could be spotty
• Sometime email might get flagged as spam

PRICING

• Pro Plan: Latest tools that increase with your business.
• Free Plan: Begin the program for free and upgrade anytime you desire. This plan comes with unlimited subscribers at 250 emails/month.
• Automation Pro
• Premium Support
• 29+ Enterprise Features
• Pricing begins at $13 .99 per month and $11.89 annually

EXPERT’S VERDICT

Benchmark’s functions are accessible in the free plan as well, so it’s pretty helpful for tiny businesses, start-ups. Freelancers and medium-sized businesses. On top of that, Benchmark Email has a powerful portfolio of tools, including smooth A/B testing, effective visual automation, and good analytics.

Social integrations to Twitter, LinkedIn, Slack, Facebook show a well-rounded item feature set. A CRM for small businesses is included. Beginning at Free for 2,000 contacts, however, even the Pro service is competitively priced and worth considering. Benchmark Email is 100% recommendable.

6) CAMPAIGN MONITOR COMMERCE Review

Like every e-marketing tool, Campaign Monitor permits you to send autoresponders – ‘drip’ emails that you can program inside the system so when a customer joins a mailing list; they can automatically receive pre-programmed emails in Campaign Monitor parlance.

Campaign Monitor’s registration forms are easy to implement and configure. You could easily make embeddable lightboxes and forms (the latter being triggered by embeddable keys).

Additionally, getting ‘big picture’ stats on open prices, unsubscribe and click-throughs, you could get good more individual level information: for instance, you could see what an individual customer has done with your emails – ignored, clicked, opened, etc. – and when and where they have done it.

You could also export stats smoothly to PDF format as well, which is very easy for sending reports over to consumers in a digestible, simple format.

Split testing inside Campaign Monitor is accessible and very easy to do. However, the functionality is rather standard – you could only test 2 versions of an email against each other (depends on sender, subject header, or content).

PROS

• An extensive variety of responsive templates
• Fabulous , easy-to-use API
• Exceptional segmentation of subscribers

CONS

• Some functions and configurations could be tough to figure out without a technical background.
• Many functions are available in the higher-priced plans

PRICING/COST

• Premier Plan: Optimize the strategy for the ideal results. Rated at $149/month.
• Unlimited Plan: important for often email campaigns. This plan is rated at $29/month. Unlimited emails across campaigns as well as automated emails
• Basic Plan: This plan provides core functions for one low price at $9/month.

EXPERT’S VERDICT

Campaign Monitor’s main strength lies in the flexibility, quality, and robustness of the templates. It is also an ultra-easy product to utilize by comparison to a few competing email marketing software. The bottom line for us is that Campaign Monitor is a robust product with beautiful templates and an ideal interface… that’s sadly prohibitively costly to utilize (But yes, it’s value for money).

7) MAILCHIMP Review

Brand of the Mailchimp is likely the most robust in the email service provider (ESP) market. Additionally, the company’s free feature is surprisingly kind, making it quite hard to beat, with no one on the horizon threatening it yet. It helps that Mailchimp actually shines with a function-set that increases more enticing every time we review it.

Paid users get high-level marketing functions, including spam filter diagnostics, list segmentation by time zone, autoresponders, and many tools for social networking integration. With over 16 million customers ranging from community groups to popular companies, like The Economist, Vice UK, and TED, Mailchimp sends out millions of emails each month.

You do not get all of MailChimp’s functionalities on the free plan. However, you get most of them. And when you compare what you get to the cheapest tier of any other email marketing solutions, you get a lot more.

For instance, automation (being capable of setting up autoresponders, primarily) is generally a premium function on most tools. It is only accessible at an extra cost. On MailChimp, it is available on each plan, including the free plan. In addition, the free plan provides reporting and A/B testing. This offer is one of the mightiest reasons that MailChimp rose to vogue in the first place.

PROS

• Ultra detailed reports allow you to learn each detail about your campaign.
• Mailchimp provides a basic yet robust template editor.
• The free plan is accessible for 2,000 subscribers.

CONS

• Mailchimp has a number of modern email automation tools in a cheaper pricing plan.
• Mailchimp’s policies are so strict. It doesn’t permit any affiliate marketing from their own platform.

PRICING/COST

• Premium Plan: modern functionalities for professionals who require more customization. Beginning at $299.00/month.
• Standard Plan: Better insights for increasing businesses that want more consumers with ratings starting at $14.99/month.
• Essentials Plan: Should-have functions for email senders who wanna added support that begins at $9.99 per month
• Free Plan: This plan comes with the basics for businesses that are just getting began.

PRICING

• Drip changes per user. There is not any fixed plan on Drip’s site. You could slide and choose the numbers. For instance, for max of 2,500 consumers, it would cost $49 per month. From 2,500 – 5,000, it would expense $122 per month.
• Drip offers a free plan for a limited period of fourteen days.

EXPERT’S VERDICT

This email automation tool gets most of its consumers from a free plan in that you could utilize 2,000 contacts and send up to 10,000 emails in thirty days. It’s ideal for new businesses, tiny businesses, bloggers, and freelancers.

Mailchimp ticks a ton of boxes in email marketing functions and is continuously enhancing value to all plan levels by including new services and more functionalities. The Mailchimp brand is pretty much mature, easy to pick up, and time-tested.

Not only does it provide an ideal choice of features at an affordable price. However its privacy and security policies are at the top end of the industry as well. Yes, it’s a recommendation from us.

 

8) DRIP Review

Drip is the CRM developed especially for eCommerce products, promising to help online business owners turn leads into paying users. The self-titled E-CRM aims to help you guide prospective users along the purchasing process and personalize the whole experience to maximize your sales, customer value, and repeat purchases.

There is a ton to like about Drip, as well; however, there are some places where it doesn’t live up to the hype, though. Thus, here is our no-nonsense Drip article to tell you where this platform shines and where it does not.

There is a heavy emphasis on automation of email marketing; that is generally where the concentration must be for eCommerce products. Email builder of Drip would help you make designs faster, although it would be nice if this platform had a good range of templates on offer to speed up the process even more further.

Drip aims to fill its personalization, permitting you to make unique user journeys. This is a critical strategy for eCommerce products to repeat purchases and maximize sales after the initial conversion. To achieve this, you require a CRM platform that permits you to track contacts as they engage with your site in unique ways. This email automation tool makes this pretty straightforward for you with its eCommerce-focused tracking system.

PROS

• Strong automation features
• Specialist eCommerce CRM
• Easy-to-use
• Solid integrations

CONS

• Email templates could be better
• Kind of pricey
• Platform can be buggy
• Form builder is limited
• Lacks CRO features

PRICING

Forever-free up to a hundred contacts. Ratings are based on the number of subscribers you have. Drip kicks off its ratings at $49 per month for the Standard version of its platform. This includes a limit of 2,500 contacts, which is about correct at this rate range, although it is a touch lower than you get with many alternatives (like ActiveCampaign, which provides you 2,500 contacts for $39 per month).

This is a part of Drip’s revised rating policy, so keep in mind when reading other articles, which may be out of date. You used to get 1,000 contacts for $49 per month on the standard version, and this was a basic complaint – so this is one place where Drip has enhanced in recent years.

EXPERT’S VERDICT

We’d recommend you Drip if:

• You would like to utilize more modern marketing methods.
• You’ve many unique segments (types of people) of traffic
• You’ve high levels of traffic

However, if you get some hundred visitors per month or just want a solution that sends out standard emails, you will not be capable of getting the most out of Drip.

 

9) EMMA Review

Emma is a cloud-based email marketing solution that helps consumers design their email campaigns and review performance as well. The solution could be utilized on multiple devices, including tablets and smartphones, utilizing native applications.

Emma helps marketing teams develop email programs, part audiences depend on tenure, demographics, or spending history, and then send automated emails. This system helps users track performance metrics for particular emails or for the whole program and offer visual insights utilizing reports and dashboards.

Emma lets customers deliver follow-up emails by analyzing when the recipient has opened that email or clicked the URL sent to them. Emma provides 4 differentially-priced plans that are specially targeted to unique user segments, including agencies, universities, nonprofit organizations, and franchises.

If you are a retailer, then you already know about the pressure to stand in the inbox is far higher than ever. With this email automation tool, you could deliver customizable, mobile-ready email campaigns which catch your user’s attention — and make it easy to purchase for the 1st or 15th time.

PROS

• Numerous templates
• Easy to utilize WYSIWYG template. This permits editors to make dynamic emails with improved personalization through merged-fields.
• Well-designed User Interface
• Emma support to make new connections to new platforms as required
• A wide API index which connects to various different platforms, along with the capability of with.

CONS

• Many functions are available in paid plans only
• A UI can be complex for new users
• The CMS aspect of this platform is a bit weak and probably not the ideal fit for B2B or SAAS clients

EXPERT’S VERDICT

Website owners, freelancers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, and small businesses who need affordable software that is easy to utilize would love Emma a lot. This email automation tool offers award-winning, friendly expert services, thought leadership, and thoughtful product development.

Overall, Emma helps every marketer globally do their exact best work. If you’re not willing to choose any of the top email marketing software, then you can try this one as an alternative.

 

10) MAILERLITE Review

MailerLite incorporates with eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify; It syncs with data and makes modified email marketing campaigns for the customers based on customers’ purchasing behavior; it lets you set up an automated email series depending on the buying data, follow up emails, and abandoned cart emails.

Developed for people of every skill level, MailerLite empowers you to make professional campaigns from beginning to finish.

Grow your users with modified forms, landing pages, and pop-ups, utilize the intuitive drop and drag editor and pre-designed templates to make beautiful newsletters, and interact with your subscribers on a much human level with customization, automation, surveys, and segmentation (just to name a few).

MailerLite is with you at all steps of your email marketing journey using the solutions you require to succeed. And, their integration list continues to increase with Zapier, WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce, and much more.

To make sure users succeed, this email automation tool offers a lot of educational content like product tutorials, monthly webinars, and email marketing guides. All free accounts include a fourteen days trial of premium functionalities so you could fully experience the MailerLite difference for yourself and make a detailed decision on your email tool.

PROS

• Cheap pricing and free plan
• Simple and easy to use UI
• Lets you create beautiful landing pages.
• Pre-designed templates

CONS

You miss out on modern automation solutions and full reporting.

EXPERT’S VERDICT

MailerLite is specifically made for small to medium businesses and consumers looking for a convenient however powerful email marketing solution.

MailerLite is at par (if not better) than MailChimp, with MailerLite’s premium plans being more affordable as well. The free plan does not have all the functionalities; however, with thousand free subscribers and twelve thousand monthly emails, it is still a better deal.

MailerLite packs a ton of automation for basic triggers; however, do not expect it to operate the modern automation seen in ActiveCampaign and other sophisticated solutions.

Thus, is MailerLite best for you? If you’ve got a budget limitation, however, requires a email automation tool that does more than sending email campaigns, then MailerLite will fit the bill.

Conclusion: Choose the Best Email Automation Tool for You

If you want to paint up your email marketing campaigns with success, you definitely need to depend upon specific tools. A few of these do nothing except attracting you with shiny features, which “don’t work in real life,” while a few may price high but do the job perfectly.

Every single campaign is unique, and it depends upon the marketer, what sort of tool he needs. Yes, a few tools are fit at everything, and considering tons of things, we narrated this guide. Just tap for something that you feel will truly assist you.

Got some recommendations for the Best Email Automation Tools? Feel free to put them forth via the comment box below.