8 Best Marketing Automation Tools in 2026 (Free and Paid, Compared)

Quick comparison

The best marketing automation tools

#1

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Best for: Small and mid-size teams that want CRM, email, landing pages and automation in one account

★★★★★★★★★★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)

Free planYes — free CRM and marketing tools

HubSpot Marketing Hub is the all-in-one pick in this list: CRM, email, landing pages, forms, live chat and ad management share one contact record, so a lead that opens an email, fills in a form and books a call is one person, not three records in three tools. Starter costs $20 a month per seat and includes 1,000 marketing contacts, and the free tools cover the basics before you pay anything.

The catch is the price curve. Professional costs $890 a month plus a $3,000 one-time onboarding fee, and the bill grows on seats and contacts at the same time, so a growing team and a growing list both push the price up. Choose HubSpot when the team wants one account for marketing and sales; choose ActiveCampaign or Brevo when automation depth or price matters more than the CRM.

What we like

• One account covers CRM, email, landing pages, forms, live chat and ad management
• Starter includes 1,000 marketing contacts and removes HubSpot branding
• Workflows, lead scoring and reporting share the same contact record as Sales Hub

Watch out for

• Professional jumps to $890/month plus a $3,000 one-time onboarding fee, a steep step from Starter
• The bill grows on two axes at once: seats and marketing contacts, so list growth raises the price fast
• White-label reporting and advanced attribution sit on the higher tiers, not on Starter

#2

ActiveCampaign

Best for: Small businesses that want deep visual automation and a built-in CRM at a low entry price

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (14,838 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit activecampaign.com

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

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

ActiveCampaign is the automation-first pick: its visual builder lets a small business map a whole customer journey — welcome series, abandoned browse, re-engagement, win-back — and see the logic on one screen, with site tracking feeding behaviour into every branch. Starter costs $15 a month for 1,000 contacts on annual billing and includes email, forms, landing pages and a built-in CRM.

The limits are the contact count and the five-action cap on Starter automations. Every contact in the account counts toward billing, including unsubscribes and bounces, and the price climbs fast: Starter is $149 a month at 10,000 contacts. Pick ActiveCampaign when automation is the job; pick HubSpot when the CRM and the wider team matter more.

What we like

• The visual automation builder is the strongest at this price, with multi-step journeys and site tracking
• Starter includes email, forms, landing pages and a built-in CRM from $15/month
• Predictive sending and conditional content arrive on Plus ($49/month) without an enterprise jump

Watch out for

• No free plan, only a 14-day trial, and every contact in the account counts toward billing, including unsubscribes
• Starter caps automations at five actions each, so complex journeys need Plus or Pro
• The $15 headline only holds at 1,000 contacts; at 10,000 contacts Starter costs $149/month

#3

Mailchimp

Best for: Beginners and small teams that want a free start and the widest template and integration library

★★★★★★★★★★4.3/5 on G2 (12,997 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit mailchimp.com

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

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

Mailchimp is the easiest start in this list: a new team can build a list, send a first campaign and set up a simple welcome flow in an afternoon, with a large template library and more than 300 integrations doing the heavy lifting. Essentials costs $13 a month for 500 contacts and adds A/B testing, scheduling and 24/7 email and chat support.

The catch is depth. Essentials caps automation flows at four steps, so a real nurture journey needs Standard at $20 a month, and unsubscribed contacts still count toward the billing tier until they are archived. Choose Mailchimp when ease and a free start matter most; choose ActiveCampaign when the automations need more than four steps.

What we like

• The easiest setup here, with a large template library and over 300 integrations
• Essentials includes A/B testing, scheduling and 24/7 email and chat support
• Free plan lets a new list start sending before any payment

Watch out for

• Essentials caps automation flows at four steps, so real journeys need Standard at $20/month
• Unsubscribed contacts count toward the billing tier until they are archived or deleted
• The free plan covers only 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with no automation

#4

Brevo

Best for: Budget-conscious teams that send infrequently to a large list and want SMS and CRM in the same account

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

Visit brevo.com

Starting price$9/month (Starter, 5,000 emails a month, billed monthly)

Free planYes — free plan (300 emails a day)

Brevo is the budget pick, and its pricing model is the reason: it charges by emails sent, not by contacts stored, so a team with a large list that emails twice a month pays far less than on a contact-priced rival. Starter costs $9 a month for 5,000 emails, and the free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts while sending 300 emails a day.

The catch is the contact cap on the small tiers: Starter at $9 stores only 500 contacts, so a bigger list pushes the price up even when sends stay low, and the Brevo logo stays on emails until a $12 a month add-on removes it. Pick Brevo when the list is large and sends are light; pick Mailchimp when the list is small and simple.

What we like

• The cheapest paid start here at $9/month, and pricing follows sends rather than list size
• Free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts and sends 300 emails a day
• Email, SMS, WhatsApp and a CRM sit in one account from the entry plan

Watch out for

• Starter caps stored contacts at 500 on the 5,000-email tier, so a bigger list costs more even if sends stay low
• The Brevo logo stays on Starter emails unless a $12/month removal add-on is bought
• Automation is capped at around 2,000 contacts on Starter, and A/B testing needs Standard

#5

Klaviyo

Best for: Online stores that want purchase-based segmentation, flows and SMS in one platform

★★★★★★★★★★4.6/5 on G2 (1,371 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit klaviyo.com

Starting price$20/month (Email plan, 500 active profiles, billed monthly)

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

Klaviyo is the ecommerce pick in this list: it segments and triggers flows on what customers actually bought, viewed and abandoned, not just on opens and clicks, and its Shopify and WooCommerce integrations keep that store data in sync without manual imports. The Email plan costs $20 a month for 500 active profiles, and every paid tier unlocks the same features, including predictive analytics.

The catch is the price curve, which is the steepest here after Keap: $20 at 500 profiles becomes $100 at 5,000 and $400 at 25,000, and SMS is a separate credit meter on top. Choose Klaviyo when the store is the business; choose Drip when a flat price with every feature included matters more.

What we like

• Every paid tier unlocks the same features, including predictive analytics and 350+ integrations
• Segments and flows use real purchase behaviour, not just opens and clicks
• Deep Shopify and WooCommerce integrations keep store data in sync automatically

Watch out for

• The price climbs steeply with profile count: $20 at 500 profiles becomes $100 at 5,000 and $400 at 25,000
• SMS is a separate credit meter on top of the email price
• Auto-downgrade is off by default, so a shrinking list keeps paying the higher tier until changed manually

#6

Constant Contact

Best for: Small businesses and nonprofits that want simple email plus event marketing and strong phone support

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

Visit constantcontact.com

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

Free planNo — 60-day free trial

Constant Contact is the simplest pick for event-led small businesses and nonprofits: the editor is plain, event registration and social posting are built in, and every paid plan includes phone, chat and email support from real people. Lite costs $12 a month for 500 contacts, or $10.20 a month prepaid for a year, and the 60-day trial is the longest free evaluation in this list.

The catch is Lite itself: it allows just one automation template, jumps to $30 a month at 501 contacts, and leaves segmentation and A/B testing to Standard at $35 a month. Pick Constant Contact when events drive the work and support matters; pick Mailchimp when a free plan and deeper automation matter more.

What we like

• The simplest editor here, with event registration and social posting built in
• Every paid plan includes phone, chat and email support
• A 60-day trial is the longest free evaluation in this list

Watch out for

• No free plan, only a 60-day trial, and Lite allows just one automation template
• Lite jumps from $12 to $30 a month the moment the list passes 500 contacts
• Segmentation and A/B testing need Standard at $35/month, not Lite

#7

Drip

Best for: Online stores that want every feature at one price and revenue attribution on every email

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (482 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit drip.com

Starting price$39/month (up to 2,500 people, billed monthly)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

Drip is the flat-price ecommerce pick: one plan, one price per list size, every feature included, with no upgrade walls hiding the good parts behind a higher tier. It costs $39 a month for up to 2,500 people, sends are unlimited up to 25,000 people, and revenue attribution ties each email and workflow directly to purchases.

The catch is the starting price and the band jumps: $39 is a premium start for a small list, $89 at 5,000 people and $154 at 10,000, and workflows are capped at 50 on the entry bands. Choose Drip when one price with everything included beats a cheaper start; choose Klaviyo when purchase-based segmentation is the priority.

What we like

• Every feature is included at every price, with no upgrade walls inside the plan
• Unlimited email sends up to 25,000 people, so sending volume never rations campaigns
• Revenue attribution ties each email and workflow directly to purchases

Watch out for

• No free plan, only a 14-day trial, and $39/month is a premium start for a small list
• The price rises steeply by list band: $89 at 5,000 people and $154 at 10,000
• Workflows are capped at 50 on the entry bands, which can bind a store with many journeys

#8

Keap

Best for: Service businesses that want CRM, sales automation, invoicing and payments in one system

★★★★★★★★★★4.2/5 on G2 (1,561 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit keap.com

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

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

Keap is the service-business pick in this list: CRM, email, sales pipeline, appointments, quotes, invoicing and payments live in one platform, and the visual automation builder follows a customer from first lead to final payment. The single plan costs $249 a month on annual billing, or $299 a month billed monthly, for 1,500 contacts and two users.

The catch is the total first-year cost: a mandatory implementation fee starts at $500, there is no free plan, and extra users cost $39 a month each. Keap only earns its price when the business sells services, books appointments and invoices clients in the same system. Pick Keap for that job; pick HubSpot when the team is smaller and the budget is tighter.

What we like

• CRM, email, sales pipeline, appointments, quotes, invoicing and payments live in one platform
• The visual automation builder covers the full customer lifecycle, from lead to payment
• Guided implementation is included, so setup is done with a specialist rather than alone

Watch out for

• The most expensive start here at $249/month, plus a mandatory implementation fee from $500
• No free plan, and the single flat plan means small teams pay the full platform price
• Additional users cost $39/month each on top of the base price

The best marketing automation tools do one job well: they turn a new subscriber into a customer without someone sending every email by hand. We ranked the eight tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a small team choosing its first automation platform — and every price was checked on November 4, 2026.

How to choose the best marketing automation tools

• Name the billing unit first. HubSpot bills per seat and per marketing contact, ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp bill per contact, Klaviyo bills per active profile, Brevo bills per email sent, and Drip and Keap bill per person on the list. The unit decides the real price.
• Match the tool to the business, not the brand. Stores need purchase-based flows, so Klaviyo or Drip fit; service businesses need CRM and invoicing, so HubSpot or Keap fit; newsletters need simple sends, so Mailchimp or Constant Contact fit.
• Count the automation depth you actually need. A welcome series and a cart reminder run on any tool here, but branching journeys with scoring and sales alerts need ActiveCampaign, HubSpot or Keap.
• Check the free plan limits, not just the word free. HubSpot, Mailchimp, Brevo and Klaviyo all offer $0 starts, but the contact and send caps differ sharply, and none of them includes full automation for free.
• Test the trial on a real journey. Build one welcome series and one abandoned-cart flow in the trial, send them to a test list, and check the reporting. That week tells you more than any review can.

Automation is one system in your stack, not the whole stack. If the business also needs to be found online, our guide to marketing automation for small business covers the strategy side of the same problem. And before you send traffic to a new landing page, run its links through the free UTM builder — it tags every campaign link so the reporting in these tools can tell you which email actually drove the sale.

Whatever you shortlist, try it with real data before you pay. The trials in this list run from 14 to 60 days, which is long enough to build two genuine journeys — your welcome series and your best-selling product flow — and check that the reports show revenue, not just opens. If either journey fights the builder, the price does not matter.

Best marketing automation tools pricing: what you will actually pay

Take a team with one marketer and a list of 5,000 contacts, paying monthly for a year. On list prices, the subscription costs $108 a year on Brevo Starter at the 5,000-email tier, $144 on Constant Contact Lite at 500 contacts — but that Lite price no longer fits a 5,000-contact list, so the real Constant Contact bill is $80 a month, or $960 a year. Mailchimp Essentials costs $75 a month at 5,000 contacts, or $900 a year. ActiveCampaign Starter costs $149 a month at 10,000 contacts, and $69 a month at 5,000 contacts on the annual rate, or $828 a year. HubSpot Starter costs $20 a month per seat plus $50 a month per extra 1,000 contacts, so one seat with 5,000 contacts costs $220 a month, or $2,640 a year. Klaviyo Email costs $100 a month at 5,000 profiles, or $1,200 a year. Drip costs $89 a month at 5,000 people, or $1,068 a year. Keap costs $249 a month on annual billing, or $2,988 a year, plus a $500 implementation fee in year one.

Two of those numbers need adjusting before they are real. First, the billing unit changes the answer: Brevo is cheapest here only while sends stay low, because its price follows email volume, and a team sending weekly to 5,000 contacts pays far more than $9 a month. Second, the step jumps are brutal on contact-priced tools: Constant Contact Lite jumps from $12 to $30 a month at 501 contacts, and Mailchimp Essentials jumps from $13 at 500 contacts to $75 at 5,000.

Three costs sit outside every number above. First, the second seat: HubSpot charges per seat, Keap charges $39 a month per extra user, and ActiveCampaign Starter allows one user. Second, SMS: Klaviyo, Brevo and Constant Contact all charge SMS separately, so a store adding text messages pays a second meter. Third, the setup: Keap charges a mandatory implementation fee from $500, and HubSpot charges $3,000 for Professional onboarding. If you are choosing tools for a small practice, our guide to marketing platforms for small business shows how the wider platform market compares on price.

Know the difference: email automation vs marketing automation

The confusion in this category is between two different jobs that share the word automation. Email automation sends messages on triggers: a welcome email after signup, a reminder after a cart is abandoned, a birthday offer once a year. Mailchimp Essentials and Constant Contact Lite live mostly here — they send well, but they do not score leads, branch journeys on behaviour, or tell sales who is ready to buy.

Marketing automation goes further. It scores leads, branches journeys on behaviour, updates the CRM, alerts the sales team and tracks revenue back to the campaign that drove it. HubSpot, ActiveCampaign and Keap are built for this: a lead that visits the pricing page twice gets a higher score, a sales alert and a different email sequence than a lead that only opened one newsletter.

There is a second, quieter confusion: ecommerce automation is not the same as B2B automation. Klaviyo and Drip trigger on purchases, views and abandoned carts; HubSpot and Keap trigger on lead score, form fills and sales stages. Buying a store tool for a service business, or a B2B tool for a store, is the most common expensive mistake in this category. The practical rule is simple: if the trigger is a purchase, buy an ecommerce tool; if the trigger is a lead score, buy a B2B tool.

Quick comparison: tool type by need

Mistakes to avoid

• Budgeting on the headline price. The $9, $12 and $13 headlines only hold at the smallest list size. Price your real list — 5,000 contacts costs $75 a month on Mailchimp and $80 on Constant Contact Lite.
• Buying an ecommerce tool for a service business. Klaviyo and Drip trigger on purchases; a consultancy needs lead scoring and sales stages, which is HubSpot, ActiveCampaign or Keap territory.
• Buying a B2B tool for a store. HubSpot and Keap do not segment on purchase behaviour the way Klaviyo and Drip do, so a store pays more for weaker flows.
• Forgetting the billing unit. Seats, contacts, profiles and sends are four different meters. A team of three on HubSpot pays three seat prices; a list of 10,000 on ActiveCampaign pays $149 a month, not $15.
• Skipping the trial on a real journey. A demo video hides the builder. Build a welcome series and a cart flow in the trial and check that the reports show revenue, not just opens.

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 — per seat, per contact, per profile or per email volume — and we ranked the tools by fit for the most common buyer, a small team choosing its first automation platform, not by brand size. All eight prices come from the vendors' own pricing pages, read on November 4, 2026; the only figures that needed a second source were the list-size steps, which the vendors publish on the same pages through their contact selectors. 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 free plan or trial of your top pick and build two real journeys in it: a welcome series for new subscribers and the flow for your best-selling product or service. Check that the reports show revenue, not just opens, and that the price at your real list size still fits the budget 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 email marketing for local business. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.

Sources we checked (16)

• HubSpot Marketing Hub pricing — hubspot.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• ActiveCampaign pricing — activecampaign.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Mailchimp pricing — mailchimp.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Brevo pricing — brevo.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Klaviyo pricing — klaviyo.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Constant Contact pricing — constantcontact.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Drip pricing — drip.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Keap pricing — keap.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)
• Mailchimp reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Brevo reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Klaviyo reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Constant Contact reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Drip reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)
• Keap reviews on G2 — g2.com (checked November 4, 2026)