20 Best Email Marketing Tools & Platforms (By Use Case)
Published on September 7, 2025
Email marketing is one of the most effective channels for driving conversions, with rates of 2.8% for B2C and 2.4% for B2B, easily outperforming many other organic channels.
But with hundreds of email marketing tools and platforms promising everything from automation to analytics, the challenge lies in choosing the right system to make it work for you.
The best email marketing tools strike a balance between usability and advanced features. For beginners, that might mean intuitive editors and simple automations. For e-commerce brands, it’s advanced segmentation and revenue tracking. For agencies and franchises, it’s multi-brand management and collaboration.
In short, the right tool becomes the infrastructure that determines how efficiently you can grow, monetize, and nurture your audience.
This guide breaks down the top email marketing platforms and tools by use case, highlighting standout features and solutions that help businesses at every stage turn email into a growth engine.
My top picks for email marketing platforms and tools by use case:
Top 3 Email Marketing Platforms for Agencies & Franchises
- BigMailer: Multi-brand management at scale
- Emma: Simple brand control for smaller franchises
- Mailjet: Collaboration-focused campaign building
Top 3 Email Marketing Platforms for E-commerce
- Omnisend: Pre-built automations and omnichannel campaigns
- Klaviyo: Advanced segmentation and revenue tracking
- Sendlane: Personalization tailored for e-commerce growth
Top 3 Newsletter Platforms
- Substack: Simple publishing with built-in monetization
- Kit: Flexible monetization and automation for creators
- Beehiiv: Growth‑focused alternative with ad network
Top 2 Email Marketing Platforms for Small Businesses & Beginners
Top 2 Email Marketing Platforms for Automation
7 Add-On Tools to Complement Your Email Marketing Solution
- SparkLoop: Referral tool for newsletter growth
- Leadpages: Conversion-focused landing pages & opt-ins
- Unlayer: Embeddable template builder for ESP
- Beefree: Export-ready email template editor
- Google Analytics 4: Analytics & reporting to measure ROI
- Maverick: Personalized video add-on
- Bouncer: Clean lists, stronger deliverability
Best Email Marketing Platforms for Agencies and Franchises
Franchises and agencies face these unique email marketing challenges:
- Personalizing content for large lists or multiple clients
- Managing multiple client lists in a variety of industries
- Maintaining brand consistency across diverse locations
An ESP that centralizes control in a single platform is the only option for effectively managing email marketing across multiple accounts or locations.
I’ve listed the top 3 email marketing tools that seamlessly support agencies and franchises.
1. BigMailer: Multi-brand management at scale
BigMailer is designed for agencies and franchises that manage large lists or multiple locations. From a single account, you can manage up to 100 sub-brands and 100 users, with fine-tuned access controls to balance corporate oversight and local flexibility.
Features like shared templates across sub-accounts, domain-level reporting for inboxing issues, and white-label options make it an excellent fit for agencies and expanding franchises. BigMailer also stands out for its affordability, excellent deliverability rates, and responsive live chat support.
BigMailer comes with the tools you need to avoid the spam folder. Built-in email validation weeds out invalid addresses and typo‑driven spam traps when importing contacts.
For high-volume senders, email throttling controls the number of emails sent at one time to improve your deliverability for large lists, especially after changing providers or IP addresses.
It supports all major email types, including newsletters, automations, transactional emails, and RSS-to-email. And engagement metrics down to the email-domain level make troubleshooting easier and more efficient, which helps when managing multiple locations, brands, or clients.
2. Emma: Simple brand control for smaller franchises
Emma is a good choice for franchises with fewer than 20 locations. It combines an intuitive interface with brand controls that allow corporate teams to share assets while maintaining consistency across local campaigns.
With built-in SMS, quick customer support, and integrations with tools like Shopify and OpenTable, Emma is especially popular with restaurants, gyms, and retail businesses that want easy-to-manage campaigns without overly complicated workflows.
3. Mailjet: Collaboration-focused campaign building
Mailjet is designed for teams that need to collaborate on campaigns in real time. Its editor works like Google Docs, allowing multiple users to edit and comment simultaneously, while permissions can be used to lock down brand elements for consistency.
Mailjet also offers AI copy tools, A/B testing, and built-in email validation. While template sharing across sub-accounts can be time-consuming, its collaboration features make it a strong choice for agencies and distributed teams.
Best Email Marketing Tools for E-commerce
For online retailers, email marketing is a great way to send updates, but the real magic lies in driving repeat purchases and fostering customer loyalty. The best e-commerce email marketing platforms go beyond newsletters, offering automation, segmentation, and omnichannel tools that are directly integrated with e-commerce platforms.
These solutions make it easier to recover abandoned carts, recommend products, and deliver personalized campaigns that drive revenue growth.
1. Omnisend: Pre-built automations and omnichannel campaigns
Omnisend is designed for online retailers who want to get their email marketing up and running quickly. Its pre-built workflows cover key touchpoints like cart abandonment, post-purchase follow-ups, and product recommendations, making it easy to start engaging customers without heavy setup.
Beyond email, Omnisend supports SMS and push notifications on a single platform, featuring dynamic discount codes and product pickers that unify and enhance personalization. It integrates with Shopify, Shopifyplus, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, ShopPlazza, nopCommerce, and Ecwid by Lightspeed. Omnisend is an intuitive and scalable solution for e-commerce brands looking to save time while boosting conversions.
2. Klaviyo: Advanced segmentation and revenue tracking
Klaviyo is one of the best email marketing platforms for e-commerce brands wanting deep customer insights and automated revenue growth. It integrates seamlessly with Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce to sync purchase data, facilitating personalized campaigns triggered by browsing, purchase, or lifecycle behavior.
Its standout features include predictive analytics, advanced segmentation, and automated flows for cart recovery, replenishment, and product recommendations. With built-in revenue tracking, Klaviyo makes it easy to connect email performance directly to sales.
3. Sendlane: Personalization tailored for e-commerce growth
Sendlane is another strong option for e-commerce, especially for DTC brands that want email and SMS under one roof. It integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, and includes advanced automation for cart recovery and post-purchase campaigns.
While priced above entry-level tools, Sendlane is a solid email marketing solution for growing online retailers because of its real-time behavior tracking and user-friendly intelligent automation for personalized customer journeys.
Best Email Marketing Platforms for Newsletters
Newsletters have become one of the most powerful ways for brands to build direct relationships with their audience. In fact, 71% of B2B marketers use an email newsletter. The right platform supports growth, monetization, and community building.
Whether you’re looking for a simple publishing tool, advanced automation, or growth-focused features, these newsletter platforms offer some of the best email marketing tools for turning readers into loyal subscribers.
1. Substack: Simple publishing with built-in monetization
Substack makes it easy to launch and grow a paid or free newsletter, handling hosting, publishing, and subscriptions in one place. It’s free to use, you only pay a % on sales from paid subscribers.
They just announced that their own ad network is in development, so users will soon have yet another avenue for monetizing content.
Its community-driven model is great for growing your subscribers organically via its referral system + social network.
With minimal setup and no need for extra tools, Substack is ideal for beginners who want a no-nonsense, free platform. It’s important to note that Substack’s email design and list management are limited. Also, the customer support is slower and less personal than other alternatives.
2. Kit: Flexible monetization and automation for creators
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) gives writers more control than Substack’s subscription-only model. Creators can sell memberships, products, and bundles with low fees, add paywalls to content, and use the Sponsor Network to connect with brands. A very generous free tier supports up to 10,000 subscribers with landing pages, forms, and recommendations.
Beyond revenue, Kit excels at automation with visual workflow builders, advanced segmentation, and reusable templates. While it requires more setup and has a steeper learning curve, Kit offers greater flexibility for creators who want to run their newsletter like a business.
3. beehiiv: Growth‑focused alternative with ad network
Built by former Morning Brew employees, beehiiv is designed as a growth engine for newsletters. The monetization options really set beehiiv apart. You can easily get started making money by running ads via their network and earning fees from other newsletters for referring subscribers. You can also pay for referrals from other newsletters to grow your list.
It offers a recommendation network for cross-promotion, dynamic segmentation, and analytics that track engagement, revenue, and predictive trends.
beehiiv is a strong option for creators focused on growth and monetization with a clean editorial experience.
Best Email Marketing Platforms for Small Businesses and Beginners
The best platforms for beginners keep things simple with intuitive editors, ready-made templates, and easy automations, while still offering room to grow as your business scales.
These tools are budget-friendly, approachable, and designed to help small businesses build confidence in their email marketing system from day one.
1. MailerLite: Simple and beginner-friendly
MailerLite is my top choice for small businesses just dipping their toes into email marketing. Its clean interface and intuitive drag-and-drop editor make it more approachable for beginners. Extras like landing pages, signup forms, and surveys make it easy to grow your audience right away.
Simple automations like welcome emails, birthday greetings, and drip sequences can be set up in minutes, giving newbies confidence without requiring advanced technical skills.
What sets MailerLite apart among email marketing providers is its balance of simplicity and growth potential. You can start with the essentials and, as your campaigns mature, tap into A/B testing, segmentation, and real-time analytics. The free plan covers up to 1,000 subscribers, making it a budget-friendly option to experiment before scaling.
2. Mailchimp: Highly versatile with features for growth
Mailchimp is one of the most well-known names in email marketing tools, offering a straightforward starting point for beginners and ample room to scale for small businesses. Hundreds of templates and an AI-powered content assistant make polished campaigns easy, while guided customer journeys and automation workflows simplify setup.
Beyond email, its built-in CRM, predictive analytics, and ecommerce integrations make it versatile for growing businesses. With a free plan and flexible pricing, Mailchimp lets beginners start small and scale over time.
Best Email Marketing Software for Automation
Automated workflows let you deliver the right message at the right time, whether it’s a welcome email, a cart recovery reminder, or a complex customer journey triggered by behavior.
The best email marketing solutions for automation go beyond basics, offering visual builders, advanced segmentation, and real-time personalization so small teams can run sophisticated campaigns that drive results on autopilot.
1. ActiveCampaign: Advanced automation
ActiveCampaign stands out as a stellar email marketing solution for businesses that need powerful automation. Its visual automation builder lets you design complex workflows using triggers, branching logic, conditional wait steps, goals, and actions. All workflows are tailored to real-time customer behavior, like form submissions, email opens, or page visits.
The platform also features an AI-powered automation builder and supports omnichannel messaging, encompassing email, SMS, and even WhatsApp, all integrated within a single workflow. With its pre-built automation recipes, ActiveCampaign is a versatile email marketing solution for teams ready to scale through advanced automation.
2. Customer.io: Data-driven journeys for behavior-first engagement
Customer.io excels at helping teams build highly targeted experiences through focused marketing emails. Its drag-and-drop visual workflow builder allows you to create multi-step campaigns triggered by real-time custom events and user attributes, from email, SMS, push, to in-app messages.
This platform’s strength lies in its advanced segmentation and behavioral targeting, which enable you to deliver personalized messages based on an unlimited number of profile attributes, live behavior data, and lifecycle events. Combined with APIs, reverse ETL, and ad-audience sync capabilities, Customer.io allows you to run scalable, automated campaigns that align precisely with user behavior and data-driven triggers.
7 Tools to Complement Your Email Marketing Solution
Your ESP is the engine that powers your campaigns, but even the best engines are stronger with aftermarket upgrades to help smoke the competition. That’s where these complementary tools come in.
They’re specialized add-on tools that fine-tune and boost performance. They don’t replace your email marketing platform, they enhance it, helping you capture more leads, optimize engagement, and accelerate growth.
1. SparkLoop: Referral tool for newsletter growth
SparkLoop helps grow your newsletter by turning subscribers into loyal followers. Its referral programs integrate with major ESPs for one-click tracking, while automated reward fulfillment makes incentives easy to manage.
With its Upscribe Network, you can cross-promote with other creators to quickly and cost-effectively scale your audience.
2. Leadpages: Conversion-focused landing pages & opt-ins
Leadpages helps capture and convert leads before they reach your list. Its drag-and-drop builder and 200+ templates make it easy to build landing pages, pop-ups, and alert bars that sync with your campaigns.
With built-in A/B testing, real-time tips, and lead enrichment, plus integrations with CRMs and ESPs, Leadpages makes creating high-converting funnels simple.
3. Unlayer: Embeddable template builder for ESP
Unlayer is a drag-and-drop template builder that embeds directly into platforms with built-in email marketing capabilities. It allows you to design responsive emails with elements like timers, videos, and merge tags, then export directly to your ESP.
Offered as a standalone studio or white-label embed, it’s developer-friendly with SDKs for React, Vue, and Angular, plus SOC 2 compliance and real-time collaboration for secure, team-friendly design.
4. Beefree: Export-ready email template editor
Beefree is the leading option for marketers who need to create and export professional templates into their ESP quickly and easily. It offers one of the largest template libraries on the market, spanning newsletters, promotions, and transactional emails, with responsive, deliverability-optimized designs.
Features like real-time collaboration, approval workflows, and compatibility with major ESPs make Beefree ideal for teams who want design freedom and seamless template exports.
5. Google Analytics 4: Analytics & reporting to measure ROI
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) helps track how your emails drive traffic, conversions, and revenue by adding UTM parameters to links.
With event-based tracking, cross-device attribution, and custom reports, it bridges your ESP to your broader digital strategy, making ROI easier to prove and campaigns easier to optimize.
6. Maverick: Personalized video add-on
Maverick integrates with your existing email marketing platform to add a unique, personalized element. This tool generates personalized, AI-driven videos to be delivered through your ESP, turning a single video into customized clips for every subscriber.
Its “record once, personalize forever” feature helps e-commerce brands boost conversions and customer lifetime value by delivering personalized, face-to-face-style messages at scale.
7. Bouncer: Clean lists, stronger deliverability
Bouncer helps keep your email marketing system healthy by verifying emails in real time and bulk, weeding out invalid, disposable, or risky addresses that could harm your sender reputation. Its toxicity check can help you identify and remove many spam traps that otherwise hurt your deliverability and inboxing.
Its Deliverability Kit adds inbox placement testing, domain authentication checks, and blacklist monitoring, so your campaigns have a better chance of landing in the inbox. With GDPR and SOC 2 compliance plus fast integrations with major ESPs, Bouncer makes list cleaning secure and straightforward.
Keep Email Deliverability Top-of-Mind
Even the best-designed campaigns won’t matter if they never reach the inbox. Deliverability refers to your ability to bypass spam filters and land in subscribers’ primary inboxes. It’s one of the most important factors when choosing an email marketing platform.
High deliverability rates mean your messages are seen, opened, and acted on. Not to harp, but that’s the whole point of email marketing.
Strong deliverability depends on list quality, sender reputation, authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and how your ESP handles bounces and complaints. The best email marketing tools support deliverability with features like built-in validation, domain-level reporting, and IP warming.
But deliverability doesn’t stop with your ESP. Add-on tools like list cleaners (e.g., Bouncer) and reporting solutions (e.g., Google Analytics) help you maintain a healthy list, avoid spam traps, and fine-tune inbox placement. Together, the right ESP and complementary tools protect your reputation, improve inboxing, and maximize the reach of every campaign.
Your Next Step in Smarter Email Marketing
The best email marketing platforms fit your stage, goals, and audience. From simple tools for beginners to advanced automation for e-commerce and agencies, there’s a solution built to help you grow.
Focus on deliverability, pair your ESP with the right add-ons, and continue to optimize.
If you’re a franchise, agency, or high-volume sender ready to boost your email marketing ROI, schedule a free BigMailer demo to see what we have to offer.
Author: Jacob Statler
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