How is this email marketing ranking decided?

Mechanically. The 20 approved email marketing listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.

Is this list re-ordered for startups?

No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the startups framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.

How much does email marketing software cost?

Across the 20 email marketing tools listed here, paid plans start between $0.25 and $39 a month, with a median entry price of $15. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $350 a month (Moosend). 8 of 20 also publish a $0 plan.

What is the cheapest email marketing software?

3 of the 20 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Flodesk has the lowest published entry price at $0.25 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.

Is there free email marketing software?

Yes, 8 of 20 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 3 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.

How is email marketing software usually billed?

freemium (6), quote (5), One-time purchase (1), Open source, no licence fee (1), plus 6 less common arrangements, counted across the 20 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 11 of 20 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.

What does email marketing software actually cover?

The 20 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are email-marketing (11), automation (4), ecommerce (3), self-hosted (3), email-api (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under email marketing may overlap on very little.

How many pricing tiers do email marketing tools offer?

19 of 20 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 11 of 20 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.

How many email marketing tools are listed on Softwr?

20 approved email marketing listings appear on this page, including Amazon SES, Attentive, AWeber, Brevo. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/email-marketing, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Email Marketing · ranked shortlist

Best Email Marketing software for Startups in 2026

20 approved email marketing listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.

Tools ranked: 20
Entry price range: $0.25-$39
Publish a $0 plan: 8 of 20

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.

Where the ratings come from

No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.

What the pool is

Approved email marketing listings, capped at 20 per page; 20 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the email marketing category page.

The ranking

Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.

#1
Amazon SES
Highest rated here
Raw transactional email infrastructure priced per thousand messages, with no campaign UI at all
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
Per 1,000 emails sent, tiered by volume, no campaign features included
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
Transactional Email, email-api, AWS, infrastructure
Amazon SES breakdown Compare with Attentive
#2
Attentive
Enterprise SMS and email marketing for retail brands, sold on quarterly minimum spend commitments
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
quote
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
sms-marketing, email-marketing, ecommerce, retail
Attentive breakdown Compare with AWeber
#3
AWeber
Email marketing and automation for small business
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $15 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $30.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
3 tiers
AWeber breakdown Compare with Brevo
#4
Brevo
Email, SMS, and CRM in one platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
freemium
Brevo breakdown Compare with Campaign Monitor
#5
Campaign Monitor
Email marketing platform priced by contact tier, with unlimited sends only from the mid tier up
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
Per month by contact tier and plan level
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
email-marketing, automation, campaigns, Marigold
Campaign Monitor breakdown Compare with Dotdigital
#6
Dotdigital
UK-listed email and cross-channel marketing platform with deep Adobe Commerce and Dynamics connectors
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
quote
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
email-marketing, marketing-automation, ecommerce, crm-integration
Dotdigital breakdown Compare with EmailOctopus
#7
EmailOctopus
Affordable email marketing
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $9 a month.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
2 tiers
EmailOctopus breakdown Compare with Flodesk
#8
Flodesk
Email marketing built for creators and small business
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $0.25 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $0.54.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
4 tiers
Flodesk breakdown Compare with Keila
#9
Keila
AGPL newsletter tool from Germany, self-hostable or hosted in the EU with no free plan
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $8 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $256.
Billing
Per month by emails sent
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
email-marketing, newsletter, Open Source, gdpr
Keila breakdown Compare with Listmonk
#10
Listmonk
Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager that ships as a single Go binary
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
Open source, no licence fee
Published tiers
2 tiers
Tags
Open Source, newsletter, email-marketing, Self-Hosted
Listmonk breakdown Compare with Loops
#11
Loops
Email platform for modern startups
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
1 tier
Loops breakdown Compare with Moosend
#12
Moosend
Low-cost email marketing from 9 US dollars a month, owned by Sitecore since 2021
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $9 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $350 plus a tier sold by quote.
Billing
Per month by contact count
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
email-marketing, automation, ecommerce, Sitecore
Moosend breakdown Compare with Ortto
#13
Ortto
Australian marketing automation with a customer data platform and analytics included rather than sold separately
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
quote
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
marketing-automation, Customer Data Platform, email-marketing, Saas Lifecycle
Ortto breakdown Compare with RD Station Marketing
#14
RD Station Marketing
Marketing automation for growing businesses
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $16 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $159 plus a tier sold by quote.
Billing
subscription
Published tiers
4 tiers
RD Station Marketing breakdown Compare with Resend
#15
Resend
Email API for developers to send transactional and marketing email
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $20 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $90.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
email-api, Transactional Email, Marketing Email, developer-tools
Resend breakdown Compare with Sailthru
#16
Sailthru
Retail and publisher email personalisation, now one product inside the Marigold portfolio
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
quote
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
email-marketing, publishing, Personalisation, Retail Marketing
Sailthru breakdown Compare with SAP Emarsys
#17
SAP Emarsys
Retail-focused engagement platform now sold and contracted through SAP
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
quote
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
Retail Marketing, customer-engagement, email-marketing, sap
SAP Emarsys breakdown Compare with Sendy
#18
Sendy
Self-hosted newsletter app bought once for $69 that sends through your own Amazon SES account
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $39 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $79.
Billing
One-time purchase
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
email-marketing, Self-Hosted, Amazon Ses, one-time-purchase
Sendy breakdown Compare with Shortwave
#19
Shortwave
AI-powered email assistant for intelligent inbox management
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $30 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $120.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
email, ai, productivity, team-collaboration
Shortwave breakdown Compare with Zoho Campaigns
#20
Zoho Campaigns
Email marketing tool with a genuine free tier, priced by contact count once paid
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
Per month by contact tier once on a paid plan
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
email-marketing, zoho, automation, Small Business
Zoho Campaigns breakdown

What email marketing software costs

Counted from the published pricing of the 20 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.

Cheapest paid plan: $0.25Flodesk
Median entry price: $15across 9 priced
Dearest entry price: $39Sendy
Publish a $0 plan: 8of 20

Paid email marketing plans in this set start anywhere from $0.25 a month for Flodesk to $39 for Sendy. The median entry price across the 9 tools that publish one is $15, half of them start below that figure and half above it.

Entry price is not the ceiling. The dearest published tier anywhere in this category is Moosend's at $350 a month, 9× the highest entry price on the page. Read the top of each ladder as well as the bottom, because that is where you land after two years of growth.

8 of 20 publish a $0 plan, and 3 of those charge nothing at all. 4 tools have no free tier of any kind.

11 of 20 keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote, which in practice means the number you end up paying at the top end is not on this page or on theirs.

Flodesk pricing Sendy pricing Moosend plans

How these vendors bill

The billing model each of the 20 email marketing listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.

freemium: 6
quote: 5
One-time purchase: 1
Open source, no licence fee: 1
Per 1,000 emails sent, tiered by volume, no campaign features included: 1
Per month by contact count: 1
Per month by contact tier and plan level: 1
Per month by contact tier once on a paid plan: 1
Per month by emails sent: 1
subscription: 1

Separately, 11 of 20 publish at least one tier with no price attached. Those are sold by quote, so the top of the ladder is negotiable, and unknowable, until you talk to sales.

What “Email Marketing” covers in practice

The subject tags that recur across these 20 listings, with the number of tools carrying each. A category label is a filing decision; this is the closer read of what is actually filed under it.

email-marketing11
automation4
ecommerce3
Self-Hosted3
email-api2
marketing-automation2
newsletter2
Open Source2
Retail Marketing2
Transactional Email2

Carried by a single tool: ai, crm-integration, dtc, infrastructure, one-time-purchase, productivity, Saas Lifecycle, smb. If one of those is the reason you are here, the category page is the wrong lens, go straight to that product.

How to choose between them

Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.

Start with the free tiers if there are enough of them

8 of 20 email marketing tools here publish a $0 plan, which is enough to run a real trial without a purchase order. A free tier is worth more than a free trial when you are evaluating: a trial expires on the vendor's schedule, a free plan expires when you outgrow it. The thing to check before you commit is which of the capabilities below sit above the free line, starting with unlimited email sends, the single most frequently named capability in this category's published tiers.

Read the spread before you read the features

$0.25 to $39 is a $38.75 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $39 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.

Check which tier you actually land on

11 of 20 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 3 of them. The advertised price is the first rung, and the things teams tend to need, unlimited email sends, are named in higher plans far more often than in entry ones. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.

The billing model matters more than the headline number

This category splits across 10 billing models: freemium on 6 listings, quote on 5, and 8 other arrangements across the rest. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.

Compare email marketing tools directly

Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.

Go straight to the numbers

Build your own comparison See the shortlist instead

Questions people ask about email marketing software

Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.

How is this email marketing ranking decided?: Mechanically. The 20 approved email marketing listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
Is this list re-ordered for startups?: No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the startups framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.
How much does email marketing software cost?: Across the 20 email marketing tools listed here, paid plans start between $0.25 and $39 a month, with a median entry price of $15. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $350 a month (Moosend). 8 of 20 also publish a $0 plan.
What is the cheapest email marketing software?: 3 of the 20 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Flodesk has the lowest published entry price at $0.25 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
Is there free email marketing software?: Yes, 8 of 20 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 3 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.
How is email marketing software usually billed?: freemium (6), quote (5), One-time purchase (1), Open source, no licence fee (1), plus 6 less common arrangements, counted across the 20 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 11 of 20 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.
What does email marketing software actually cover?: The 20 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are email-marketing (11), automation (4), ecommerce (3), self-hosted (3), email-api (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under email marketing may overlap on very little.
How many pricing tiers do email marketing tools offer?: 19 of 20 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 11 of 20 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
How many email marketing tools are listed on Softwr?: 20 approved email marketing listings appear on this page, including Amazon SES, Attentive, AWeber, Brevo. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/email-marketing, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Keep reading

Neighbouring categories

Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Where the ratings come from

What the pool is

The ranking

Amazon SES

Attentive

AWeber

Brevo

Campaign Monitor

Dotdigital

EmailOctopus

Flodesk

Keila

Listmonk

Loops

Moosend

Ortto

RD Station Marketing

Resend

Sailthru

SAP Emarsys

Sendy

Shortwave

Zoho Campaigns