9 Best Inbound Marketing Software in 2026, Compared

Quick comparison

The best inbound marketing software

#1

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Best for: Small and growing teams that want CRM, email, automation and reporting in one platform

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (16,014 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit hubspot.com

Starting price$20/month per seat (Starter; includes 1,000 marketing contacts; new-customer promo from $7/month per seat)

Free planYes — free plan (free CRM and marketing tools)

HubSpot Marketing Hub is the default all-in-one pick for teams that already live in HubSpot's CRM: email, landing pages, forms, live chat and automation all read from the same contact record, so a lead's downloads, opens and page views land in one timeline instead of three separate tools. Starter costs $20 a month per seat and includes 1,000 marketing contacts, email marketing, forms, landing pages and 500 HubSpot Credits for AI-assisted content.

The catch is the billing model. Every seat costs $20, so a five-person team pays $100 a month before contact add-ons, and extra contacts cost about $50 per 1,000. Professional then jumps to $890 a month plus a $3,000 onboarding fee. Choose HubSpot when the CRM is the centre of your marketing; choose ActiveCampaign when email automation matters more than the CRM.

What we like

• CRM, email, landing pages, forms and automation share one contact record, so nothing needs syncing
• Free plan covers the CRM and basic marketing tools, and Starter removes HubSpot branding
• Breeze AI and 500 HubSpot Credits are included on Starter for AI-assisted content
• 1,000+ integrations and the largest user community in this list

Watch out for

• Starter is priced per seat, so a team of five pays $100 a month before contact add-ons
• Professional jumps to $890 a month plus a $3,000 one-time onboarding fee
• Advanced automation, A/B testing and custom reporting need Professional or above

#2

ActiveCampaign

Best for: Email-first teams that need serious automation and a built-in CRM at a low starting price

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (14,579 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit activecampaign.com

Starting price$19/month (Starter, billed monthly; $15/month billed annually, 1,000 contacts)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

ActiveCampaign is the automation-first pick in this list: a visual builder with branching workflows, behavioural triggers and split testing, plus a built-in CRM with deals and pipelines, so the handoff from marketing to sales never leaves the tool. Starter costs $19 a month billed monthly, or $15 a month billed annually, at 1,000 contacts, and includes email marketing, multi-step automation, A/B testing and 250 templates.

The limits are the seat and the action cap. Starter includes one user and caps each automation at five actions, so a team of three is pushed toward Pro, and a 10,000-contact list costs $149 a month on Starter. New accounts are also billed for every contact, including unsubscribed ones. Pick ActiveCampaign when automation depth matters most; pick HubSpot when the CRM and reporting matter more.

What we like

• Visual automation builder with branching workflows and behavioural triggers across email, SMS and WhatsApp
• Active Intelligence AI generates campaigns from plain-language prompts on every plan
• Built-in CRM with deals and pipelines, so sales follow-up lives next to the campaigns
• 250+ templates and 1,000+ integrations, including Shopify and WooCommerce

Watch out for

• Starter caps each automation at five actions and includes only one user seat
• The price rises with every contact band, so a 10,000-contact list costs $149 a month on Starter
• No free plan, and new accounts are billed for every contact, including unsubscribed ones

#3

Brevo

Best for: Budget-conscious teams that send a lot of email and want SMS, WhatsApp and a CRM in one account

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (2,747 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit brevo.com

Starting price$9/month (Starter, billed monthly; 5,000 emails and 500 contacts)

Free planYes — free plan (300 emails a day, up to 100,000 contacts)

Brevo is the cheapest paid start in this list, and it bills differently from almost everything else here: you pay for the emails you send, not for seats or contacts. Starter costs $9 a month for 5,000 emails and 500 contacts, and the same account covers email, SMS, WhatsApp, web push, transactional email and a sales CRM, with 22 automation templates included.

The trap is the contact cap. Starter stores only 500 contacts at the $9 tier, while the free plan stores 100,000, so a free account with 3,000 contacts cannot buy the $9 tier — it needs the 20,000-email tier at $32 a month. Removing Brevo branding also costs $12 a month extra. Choose Brevo when sends are frequent and the list is small; choose ActiveCampaign when automation depth matters more.

What we like

• Cheapest paid start in this list at $9 a month, and you pay for emails sent, not seats
• Email, SMS, WhatsApp, web push, transactional email and a sales CRM in one account
• Free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts with 300 emails a day
• 22 automation templates and cohort and lifetime-value reporting on every plan

Watch out for

• Starter stores only 500 contacts at the $9 tier, while the free plan stores 100,000
• Removing Brevo branding costs $12 a month extra on Starter
• WhatsApp and phone support start on Professional at $499 a month

#4

Mailchimp

Best for: Small businesses that want polished email campaigns and simple journeys without a steep setup

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (5,442 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit mailchimp.com

Starting price$13/month (Essentials, billed monthly; 500 contacts)

Free planYes — free plan (250 contacts, 500 emails a month)

Mailchimp is the beginner-friendly pick: the easiest editor in this list, with templates, a drag-and-drop builder, landing pages and signup forms that a new business can learn in an afternoon. Essentials costs $13 a month for 500 contacts, includes up to 3 user seats, 5,000 monthly sends and 24/7 email and chat support, and the free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 emails a month.

The limits are automation depth and list growth. Essentials caps each automation flow at four steps, so real multi-step journeys need Standard at $20 a month, and the price climbs with every contact band — $75 a month at 5,000 contacts. Unsubscribed contacts also count toward billing until archived. Pick Mailchimp for polished campaigns on a small list; pick Brevo when the budget is tighter.

What we like

• The easiest editor in this list, with templates and a drag-and-drop builder beginners learn fast
• Essentials includes up to 3 user seats and 24/7 email and chat support
• Built-in landing pages, signup forms and basic segmentation on every paid plan
• Free plan lets a new business start sending before paying anything

Watch out for

• Essentials caps automation flows at four steps, and real journeys need Standard at $20 a month
• The free plan now covers only 250 contacts and 500 emails a month
• Unsubscribed contacts still count toward the billing tier until archived or deleted

#5

Constant Contact

Best for: Small businesses and nonprofits that run events and want phone support on the cheapest plan

★★★★★★★★★★4.1/5 on G2 (7,625 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit constantcontact.com

Starting price$12/month (Lite, billed monthly; $10.20/month prepaid for a year, 500 contacts)

Free planNo — free trial (no credit card)

Constant Contact is the support-first pick in this list: phone, chat and email support on every paid plan, including the $12 Lite tier, which suits small businesses and nonprofits that want a person to call. Lite costs $12 a month for 500 contacts, includes 5,000 monthly sends, email and social tools, and event registration in the same dashboard.

The trade-offs are automation and the price ladder. Lite includes exactly one automation template, with no segmentation or A/B testing, and the price jumps from $12 to $30 a month the moment you add contact number 501. SMS also costs $10 a month extra on Lite and Standard. Choose Constant Contact for events and human support; choose Mailchimp for a free plan and deeper templates.

What we like

• Phone, chat and email support on every paid plan, including the $12 Lite tier
• Event registration, social posting and SMS sit next to email in one dashboard
• Unsubscribed contacts do not count toward the billing total
• Prepaying 12 months cuts Lite to $10.20 a month, and nonprofits get up to 30% off

Watch out for

• Lite includes only one automation template and no segmentation or A/B testing
• The price jumps sharply at 501 contacts, from $12 to $30 a month
• No free plan, and SMS costs $10 a month extra on Lite and Standard

#6

Zoho Marketing Automation

Best for: Teams already on Zoho CRM that want multi-channel journeys without paying for a second platform

★★★★★★★★★★4.2/5 on G2 (116 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit zoho.com

Starting price$19/month (Standard, billed monthly)

Free planYes — free edition

Zoho Marketing Automation is the natural pick for teams already running Zoho CRM: email, social, SMS and web journeys in one tool, with lead scoring and lifecycle stages on the Standard plan, and a native two-way sync so sales sees the same lead record as marketing. Standard costs $19 a month billed monthly, covers 10 users, and includes unlimited social campaigns, signup forms and pop-ups.

The weakness is depth. The journey builder and scoring trail HubSpot and ActiveCampaign, advanced AI features sit on Professional and Enterprise, and setup takes more patience than Mailchimp or Brevo. The G2 review base is also small at 116 reviews. Pick Zoho when the business already runs on Zoho; pick HubSpot when the CRM itself is still up for grabs.

What we like

• Email, social, SMS and web journeys in one tool, with lead scoring and lifecycle stages on Standard
• Native two-way sync with Zoho CRM, so sales sees the same lead record as marketing
• Unlimited social campaigns, signup forms and pop-ups on every plan
• Free edition lets a Zoho shop test journeys before paying

Watch out for

• Standard covers 10 users but the journey builder and scoring depth trail HubSpot and ActiveCampaign
• Advanced AI features and deeper analytics sit on Professional and Enterprise
• The interface takes patience: setup is heavier than Mailchimp or Brevo

#7

Keap

Best for: Service businesses that sell, schedule, invoice and follow up from one system

★★★★★★★★★★3.9/5 on G2 (32 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit keap.com

Starting price$299/month (billed monthly; $249/month billed annually; 1,500 contacts, 2 users)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

Keap sells the whole platform at one flat price instead of feature tiers: CRM, marketing automation, sales pipeline, quotes, invoicing and payments in a single system, built for service businesses that run on appointments. The plan costs $299 a month billed monthly, or $249 a month billed annually, and covers 1,500 contacts, 2 users, the visual automation builder and appointment scheduling.

The price is the story. At $299 a month it is the steepest small-business entry in this list, and every new account also pays a mandatory implementation fee starting at $500, with $39 a month for each extra user. The G2 review base is small at 32 reviews. Choose Keap when invoicing and appointments matter as much as marketing; choose ActiveCampaign when email automation alone will do.

What we like

• CRM, marketing automation, sales pipeline, quotes, invoicing and payments in one platform
• Visual automation builder with AI Plays and predictive send-time intelligence
• Appointment scheduling and checkout forms are built in, not add-ons
• Guided implementation with a dedicated manager, so setup is done with you, not alone

Watch out for

• One flat plan starts at $299 a month, the steepest small-business entry in this list
• A mandatory one-time implementation fee starts at $500 for every new account
• Extra users cost $39 a month each, and ending an annual contract early costs $299

#8

Account Engagement

Best for: B2B teams already running sales on Salesforce that need nurture and scoring inside the CRM

★★★★★★★★★★4.0/5 on G2 (2,403 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit salesforce.com

Starting price$1,250/month per organization (Growth+, billed annually; 10,000 contacts)

Free planNo — demo only (no free trial)

Account Engagement, the product Salesforce formerly called Pardot, is the default pick when Salesforce is already the CRM: prospects sync with leads and contacts every few minutes, Engagement Studio builds multi-step nurture tracks without a developer, and Connected Campaigns push engagement data straight into Salesforce reports. Growth+ costs $1,250 a month per organisation on an annual contract, with 10,000 contacts included.

The price rules it out for small teams. The first commitment is $15,000 for the year, extra contacts cost $100 per 10,000 a month, and the email builder and reporting feel dated next to HubSpot and ActiveCampaign. Einstein AI also needs a higher edition. Pick Account Engagement when Salesforce is the system of record; pick Marketo when the team needs deeper B2B automation at enterprise scale.

What we like

• Native to Salesforce: prospects sync with leads and contacts every few minutes
• Engagement Studio builds multi-step nurture tracks without a developer
• Lead scoring and grading plus ROI reporting are included on Growth+
• Connected Campaigns push engagement data straight into Salesforce reports

Watch out for

• Growth+ costs $1,250 a month and the contract is annual, so the first commitment is $15,000
• The email builder and reporting feel dated next to HubSpot and ActiveCampaign
• Extra contacts above 10,000 cost $100 per 10,000 a month, and Einstein AI needs a higher edition

#9

Marketo Engage

Best for: Enterprise B2B teams running complex, multi-channel programs at large database scale

★★★★★★★★★★4.1/5 on G2 (3,343 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit adobe.com

Starting priceCustom quote (no published pricing; Growth, Select, Prime and top-tier packages)

Free planNo — demo only (no free trial)

Marketo Engage is Adobe's enterprise B2B automation platform, and the most mature in this list for lead management, segmentation and multi-channel orchestration at large database scale. Growth includes 10 users and 20,000 API calls a day, Select adds custom data objects and Dynamic Chat, Prime adds predictive audiences and journey analytics, and the top tier adds multi-touch attribution.

Adobe publishes no price for any package: every deal is a custom annual quote shaped by database size and add-ons, and implementation commonly adds tens of thousands of dollars in the first year. The learning curve is also steep — new users need training before the platform pays off. Choose Marketo for enterprise B2B programs; choose HubSpot or Account Engagement when the budget needs a published number.

What we like

• The most mature B2B automation in this list: lead management, segmentation and multi-channel orchestration
• Growth includes 10 users and 20,000 API calls a day; Select and above add 25 users and 50,000 calls
• Predictive audiences and journey analytics on Prime; multi-touch attribution on the top tier
• Deep Adobe Experience Cloud integration for teams already on Adobe

Watch out for

• No published price: every package is a custom annual quote shaped by database size
• Implementation commonly adds tens of thousands of dollars in the first year
• Steep learning curve: new users need training before the platform pays off

The best inbound marketing software turns strangers into customers without buying every click: it attracts visitors with content, captures them with forms and landing pages, nurtures them with email and automation, and hands the warmest leads to sales with a full history attached. We ranked the nine tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a growing business choosing its main marketing platform — and every price was checked on November 4, 2026.

How to choose the best inbound marketing software

• Start with the billing unit, not the headline price. HubSpot charges per seat, ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp per contact, Brevo per email sent, and Account Engagement per organisation. The same 5,000-contact list costs $9 a month on Brevo and $299 a month on Keap.
• Match the tool to your CRM situation. HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Keap and Zoho include a CRM, so the contact record and the campaign live together. Marketo and Account Engagement expect a CRM behind them — Salesforce for Account Engagement, Adobe for Marketo.
• Check the automation ceiling on the entry plan. ActiveCampaign Starter caps each automation at five actions, Mailchimp Essentials caps flows at four steps, and Constant Contact Lite includes one template. If your journeys need branching, the entry plan may not be enough.
• Count the seats and the sends. A free plan that stores 100,000 contacts but sends 300 emails a day, like Brevo's, is a different deal from one that stores 250 contacts, like Mailchimp's. Multiply every price by your team size and your list size before you compare.
• Test the trial on a real campaign. Every paid tool here except Marketo and Account Engagement offers a free plan or trial. Run one genuine campaign through it — your list, your offer, your deadline — and check that the reports tell you what happened.

Inbound marketing is one system in your stack, not the whole stack. If the team also needs to be found online, our guide to marketing automation for small business covers the workflow side of the same tools. And before you send a campaign, build the tracking links with the free UTM builder — it keeps every campaign source tagged so the reports in these tools actually tell you what worked.

Whatever you shortlist, try it with real data before you pay. The trials in this list are long enough to run one genuine campaign through — your list, your offer, your landing page — and that campaign tells you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that the automation does what the sales page promises, and that the reports show which emails and pages produced the leads. If either fails, the price does not matter.

Best inbound marketing software pricing: what you will actually pay

Take a business with 5,000 contacts and one marketer for a year. On list prices, the subscription costs $384 on Brevo at the 20,000-email tier, $960 on Constant Contact Lite, $900 on Mailchimp Essentials, $948 on ActiveCampaign Starter, $228 on Zoho Marketing Automation Standard, and $240 on HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter for one seat. Keap costs $2,988 a year on annual billing for the same list, Account Engagement costs $15,000 a year, and Marketo Engage is a custom quote.

Two of those numbers need adjusting before they are real. First, the contact band: Brevo's $9 tier stores only 500 contacts, so a 5,000-contact list needs the $32-a-month tier, which is the $384 above. Constant Contact Lite jumps from $12 to $80 a month at 5,000 contacts on monthly billing, so the $960 above assumes the lower published ladder — check the band before you budget. Second, the seat count: HubSpot's $240 assumes one seat, and a three-person team pays $720 a year before contact add-ons.

Three costs sit outside every number above. First, onboarding: Keap charges a mandatory implementation fee from $500, HubSpot Professional adds $3,000, and Marketo implementation commonly adds tens of thousands in year one. Second, the second tool: teams on Mailchimp or Constant Contact often pay for a separate CRM or landing page tool, while HubSpot and Keap include them. Third, the send overage: Brevo and Constant Contact charge per extra email once the allowance is used, so a heavy month costs more than the headline. If you want the email side compared on its own, our guide to email marketing for local business breaks down the send-based pricing in detail.

Know the difference: all-in-one suites vs email-first tools

The confusion in this category is between two different products that share the name inbound marketing software. All-in-one suites — HubSpot, Keap and Zoho — combine CRM, email, automation, landing pages and reporting in one record, so a lead's whole history lives in one place and sales can pick it up without a sync. Email-first tools — Brevo, Mailchimp and Constant Contact — start with campaigns and add automation and a light CRM around them, which keeps the price low and the setup fast.

There is a second, quieter confusion: marketing automation is not the same as email marketing. Email marketing sends campaigns to a list; marketing automation reacts to what each contact does, scores them, branches the journey and alerts sales at the right moment. ActiveCampaign sits in the middle: email-first in price, automation-first in power, with a built-in CRM that makes the handoff real.

The practical rule is simple. If the deliverable is one shared record from first click to closed deal, buy a suite. If the deliverable is regular campaigns to a list you already manage elsewhere, buy an email-first tool and spend the saving on content. If the deliverable is enterprise B2B pipeline, buy Marketo or Account Engagement and budget for the implementation. Buying an email tool and expecting a sales pipeline is the most common expensive mistake in this category.

Quick comparison: tool type by need

Mistakes to avoid

• Comparing headline prices without the billing unit. A $9 tool that charges per email and a $299 tool that charges a flat rate are not $290 apart for your list — price the same 5,000 contacts and the same team size on every tool before you choose.
• Buying an email tool and expecting a sales pipeline. Mailchimp and Constant Contact send campaigns well, but neither gives sales a shared pipeline. If the handoff to sales matters, buy a suite with a CRM.
• Ignoring the contact cap on the entry tier. Brevo's $9 tier stores 500 contacts, Constant Contact Lite jumps from $12 to $30 at 501 contacts, and Mailchimp counts unsubscribed contacts toward billing. The cheap tier often ends at 500 contacts.
• Forgetting onboarding and implementation. Keap's $500 implementation fee, HubSpot Professional's $3,000 onboarding and Marketo's five-figure setup are real first-year costs that never appear in the monthly headline.
• Skipping the trial on a real campaign. A demo video hides the automation ceiling. Run one genuine campaign through the trial and check that the reports show which emails and pages produced the leads.

How we chose

We checked each vendor's own pricing page on November 4, 2026 and recorded the starting price exactly as shown, including the billing unit the vendor prices by — per seat, per contact, per email or per organisation — and we ranked the tools by fit for the most common buyer, a growing business choosing its main marketing platform, not by brand size. Two prices come from the vendors' own pricing pages as reported by independent checks of those pages in October 2026, because the pages render their prices through calculators that do not expose plain text: Brevo's $9 Starter tier and Constant Contact's $12 Lite tier, both confirmed against the vendors' published pricing catalogues. Marketo Engage publishes no price, so it is listed as a custom quote, and SharpSpring was left out because Constant Contact has discontinued it and no longer takes new signups. Ratings come from G2 review pages read on November 4, 2026. No vendor paid for a place in this list, and none of the links here are affiliate links.

What to do next

Start with the trial or free plan of your top pick and run one real campaign through it. Check that the automation does what the sales page promises and that the reports show which emails and pages produced the leads before you commit to a year. If the tools are sorted but new customers are not finding you, our monthly SEO service handles the visibility side — or compare providers in our guide to marketing platforms for small business SEO. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.

Sources we checked (18)

• HubSpot Marketing Hub pricing — hubspot.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• ActiveCampaign pricing — activecampaign.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Brevo pricing — brevo.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Mailchimp marketing pricing — mailchimp.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Constant Contact pricing — constantcontact.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Zoho Marketing Automation pricing — zoho.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Keap pricing — keap.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud pricing — salesforce.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Adobe Marketo Engage pricing — business.adobe.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• HubSpot Marketing Hub reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• ActiveCampaign reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Brevo Marketing Platform reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Mailchimp reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Constant Contact reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Zoho Marketing Automation reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Keap reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Account Engagement reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Marketo Engage reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)