Best Marketing Automation Software 2021

Read our comprehensive reviews of the best marketing automation systems to help grow your business.

Highest Rated Marketing Automation Software

Marketing automation software automates common marketing processes like email marketing, capturing leads, lead nurturing, and developing customer relationships. This type of software reduces the workload for repetitive tasks, so your team can focus on more important efforts.

HubSpot
Rating: 91
Starting Price: $50 per month

Founded in 2006, HubSpot is a leading inbound marketing and sales software that helps businesses attract visitors, improve lead conversion and gain more customers. HubSpot places a strong emphasis on educating companies about inbound marketing concepts, while providing an extensive range of free and paid tools to provide marketing support for its users.

Pros:
  • All-in-one inbound marketing solution for businesses, providing valuable insights into each stage of the marketing funnel
  • Closed loop reporting making it easy to analyze the ROI of your inbound strategy
  • Free CRM
Cons:
  • An extensive range of features also comes with a bit of a learning curve
  • Steep price increase between paid plans and as your contact list grows
Mailchimp
Rating: 90
Starting Price: $9.99 per month

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Atlanta, MailChimp has quickly grown into one of the most recognized email marketing services in the world, and is currently used by over 14 million businesses. One of MailChimp's primary selling points is that it requires minimal technical expertise, and no coding capabilities, in order to create professional marketing campaigns.

Pros:
  • The platform includes a wide range of marketing tools thare are well-organized and easy to use
  • Using Mailchimp does not require advanced technical expertise
  • Mailchimp includes over 250 built-in integrations to third-party platforms
Cons:
  • Paid plans are less affordable than many of its competitors
  • Marketing automation tools are less robust than some competitors
  • Mailchimp does not offer built-in integrations with Shopify
GetResponse
Rating: 86
Starting Price: $15 per month

GetResponse is a popular marketing automation platform with over 350,000 customers in 183 countries. GetResponse’s core offering is email marketing, but offers a variety of marketing tools such as webinar and sales funnel software. The majority of GetResponse customers are small to medium sized businesses with less than 30 employees. If you want a solid email marketing solution packaged with webinar and sales funnel functionality, you should consider testing GetResponse. 

Pros:
  • GetResponse allows you to optimize email designs for different devices and ESPs
  • GetResponse includes webinar and sales funnel software
  • GetResponse offers 24/7 live chat and email support
Cons:
  • A/B testing tools are limited compared to similarly-priced solutions
  • Segments are limited to 8 conditions
  • Phone support is only offered in the Max Plan
ActiveCampaign
Rating: 86
Starting Price: $9 per month

ActiveCampaign is a Chicago-based tech company with over 250 employees. Their SaaS-based marketing platform helps small and medium-sized businesses automate a wide range of marketing processes, to help grow their business. ActiveCampaign is reasonably priced, making it a suitable option for small and medium-sized businesses.

Pros:
  • ActiveCampaign includes a sales CRM platform
  • ActiveCampaign offers advanced automation capabilities including customizable triggers and workflows
  • ActiveCampaign allows you to split test automation workflows
Cons:
  • CRM and A/B testing is not included in ActiveCampaign’s Lite Plan
  • Some users find ActiveCampaign to have a steep learning curve
  • ActiveCampaign limits the number of conditions you can add to a segment
Mailshake
Rating: 84
Starting Price: $59 per month

Mailshake is a sales engagement platform that sends automated cold emails to prospects through your existing email software solution. Mailshake has more than 45,000 customers worldwide, and is primarily used by small B2B businesses with less than 15 employees. Mailshake connects with all of the most popular email service providers, and integrates with a variety of third-party CRM solutions.

Pros:
  • Mailshake connects with all of the most popular email service providers
  • Mailshake integrates with many third-party CRM solutions
  • Mailshake includes a VoIP phone dialer in its Sales Engagement Plan
Cons:
  • Mailshake is not an all-in-one email marketing solution
  • Mailshake is not a sophisticated sales solution
  • Mailshake does not offer live chat or phone support
Sendinblue
Rating: 77
Starting Price: $25 per month

Sendinblue is a marketing automation platform used by more than 200,000 businesses worldwide. Sendinblue’s core offering is email and SMS marketing, but includes other tools including a CRM and live chat. The majority of Sendinblue customers are small and medium-sized businesses. Sendinblue is a solid option if you prefer to pay solely based upon monthly email volume.

Pros:
  • Sendinblue includes unlimited contacts in all subscription plans
  • Sendinblue’s free plan includes many of the major features found in its paid plans
  • In addition to email marketing, Sendinblue includes SMS marketing, live chat, and CRM in all subscription plans
Cons:
  • Sendinblue does not offer as many pre-designed email templates as competitors
  • Sendinblue integrates with less third-party platforms than many of its competitors
  • Sendinblue does not include live chat support, and only includes phone support in its high-tier plans
Moosend
Rating: 83
Starting Price: $10 per month

Moosend is an affordable email marketing platform used by businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. With an easy-to-use interface, intuitive automation and advanced list segmentation, Moosend provides a robust set of tools needed to build and maintain strong customer relationships.

Pros:
  • Automation workflows are robust relative to similarly-priced competitors
  • Free plan includes most of the features found in paid plans
  • You can create unlimited custom data fields and segments in this platform
Cons:
  • Moosend only includes about 70 pre-designed email templates
  • Customer support in free plan is limited
  • Moosend’s third-party integrations are limited compared to competitors
Streak CRM
Rating: 88
Starting Price: $49 per month

Streak is a CRM that integrates directly with your Gmail inbox and helps you organize all of your emails. Using customizable workflows, Streak enables you to track different processes (such as sales, recruitment, project management), in addition to helping you manage different customer profiles by conveniently organizing all of their relevant contact information, personal details and attached files. Streak offers a range of other tools to improve efficiency, such as mail merge, email tracking, and pre-written templates. You can also assign tasks, set reminders, and share pipelines to facilitate collaboration within your company.

Pros:
  • Excellent free CRM
  • Sits discreetly within your Gmail inbox
  • Allows you to build and manage any type of process
  • Provides excellent productivity tools including mail merge, email tracking, and snippets
Cons:
  • Only works with Gmail
  • Lacks the functionality of a fully-fledged CRM
MailMunch
Rating: 78
Starting Price: $6.99 per month

Mailmunch is a lead generation and email marketing platform used by more than 100,000 businesses. Mailmunch’s core offering is lead capture, but has grown to include other tools like landing pages and email marketing. Mailmunch is primarily used by B2B businesses, and about 80% of Mailmunch customers are SMBs. Mailmunch’s email marketing features are very limited compared to standalone email marketing systems, like Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor.

Pros:
  • Mailmunch allows you to easily embed lead capture forms into your website
  • Mailmunch offers a wide range of feature types - lead generation, landing pages, and email marketing
  • Mailmunch's email marketing module is basic, but is more affordable than standalone email marketing systems
Cons:
  • Mailmunch’s email marketing tools are far more limited than competitors
  • Mailmunch does not allow you to create complex drip campaigns
  • Mailmunch does not include A/B testing for email marketing campaigns
Follow Up Boss
Rating: 80
Starting Price: $199 per month

Follow Up Boss allows real estate agents to track and measure all aspects of their leads and deal activity. Laser-focused on lead generation, conversion and follow-up, the system is designed to push its users to be the fastest and most organized real estate agent around. Using Follow Up Boss's system, the company claims, results in "a 5 times greater lead conversion rate than your peers".

Pros:
  • Helps you stay in touch with leads, and prioritize them to maximize your chances of closing your deals
  • Integrates with your Gmail to provide exceptional automation capabilities
  • Good analytics tools to track lead-related data
Cons:
  • Requires access to your email in order to leverage its capabilities
  • Mobile app capabilities are lacking compared to desktop functionality
Constant Contact
Rating: 71
Starting Price: $20 per month

Constant Contact is an email marketing platform used by more than 600,000 businesses worldwide. Its target audience is small businesses with basic email marketing needs. Pricing starts at $20 per month, and subscription costs increase depending on your number of contacts. Constant Contact offers a large library of integrations and email templates, but its segmentation, automation, and A/B testing capabilities are not as robust as top competitors.

Pros:
  • Includes over 300 pre-designed email templates
  • Offers live chat and phone support in all subscription plans
  • Offers over 500 built-in integrations to third-party platforms
Cons:
  • Drip campaigns are very limited – they do not allow for workflow branching
  • A/B testing is not as robust as competitors – you can only A/B test subject lines
  • Segmentation capabilities are also limited compared to competitors
Zoho CRM
Rating: 89
Starting Price: $20 per month

Zoho CRM is a CRM platform that is used by over 150,000 customers. It's ideal for those who need a more affordable, advanced solution and currently use other Zoho products.

Pros:
  • Zoho CRM is an affordable, advanced CRM solution
  • Zoho CRM offers seamless integrations with its other products – including Zoho Forms and Zoho SalesIQ
  • Zoho CRM is HIPAA compliant
  • Zoho CRM offers a free plan
Cons:
  • Zoho CRM has a slight learning curve
  • Zoho CRM’s UI is clunky
  • For an advanced platform, some of Zoho CRM’s features are basic – i.e. its task management feature
AWeber
Rating: 74
Starting Price: $19 per month

With over 150,000 customers, AWeber has gained a strong reputation in the industry with its easy-to-use software and award-winning customer service. The software incorporates an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and has over 700 customizable templates, making it quick and easy to build simple autoresponder sequences. The company is available 7-days per week via phone or online chat, while an online knowledge base of video tutorials helps to educate customers and provide valuable email marketing information.

Pros:
  • AWeber is more affordable than many of its competitors
  • AWeber includes unlimited email sends and lists
  • AWeber offers 24/7 customer support by email, live chat, and phone
Cons:
  • AWeber is not as robust as many of its competitors
  • Automation functionality is limited to sequential emails
  • Contacts that have unsubscribed or on multiple lists count towards your total subscriber quota

Marketing Automation Software FAQs

Marketing automation software is utilized by various types of businesses in order to streamline, automate, and analyze their marketing efforts. Marketing automation software can optimize common marketing tasks such as email marketing, lead nurturing, developing customer relationships, and moving prospects through the conversion funnel.

Marketing automation software pricing depends on the type of features found in the solution. Solutions that focus on email marketing cost between $10 to $225 depending on the number of subscribers and add-on features. Solutions that are built for customer relationship management, inbound marketing, and lead nurturing typically cost $20 to $800 per month.

The best marketing automation software for you will depend on which marketing tasks you want to optimize. If you want to conduct email marketing campaigns, solutions like MailChimp and Mailshake are useful tools. If your primary goal is to improve customer relationships and increase lead generation, you should consider testing CRM or inbound marketing and sales software like Streak CRM and HubSpot.

MailChimp is the most popular email marketing solution servicing over 15 million businesses. With over 50,000 customers, HubSpot is a market leading solution used for inbound marketing and sales.

Here’s the most popular features found in marketing automation software:

  • Mail merge
  • Mail tracking
  • Drag-and-drop editors
  • Customizable templates
  • Project management tools
  • Email software integration
  • Customer segmentation
  • Multivariate testing