Marketing automation is broader than sending a newsletter: it triggers multi-step campaigns from what a contact does, scores leads on behavior and fit, and syncs the result to a CRM so sales knows who to call.
This guide ranks the platforms on how quickly one marketer can build a working journey, what the price becomes once contacts and channels grow, how much lead-scoring and workflow depth is actually included, and whether the automation can be rebuilt somewhere else if you leave.
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In short
What marketing automation software does
Marketing automation software tracks contact and, on some platforms, product behavior, then branches that contact through multi-step journeys across email and other channels, adjusts a lead score, and hands qualified contacts to a CRM. It differs from a plain email tool in where the center of gravity sits: the logic between messages, not the messages themselves.
In this order: setup effort, what it really costs, how your data comes back out, whether
you can leave, and who each marketing automation tool is built for. One rule sits on top of those tests:
Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. Why those five, and why there is no
score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
Published plans priced by subscriber count, with Premium adding the Salesforce, HubSpot and Segment integrations
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Automation triggered by product usage and Stripe billing events
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Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a
different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the
entry says so.
Behavioral lead scoring and RFM segmentation as the product, not a workflow feature
Ranked #1 of 11 in Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
Built by the Polish company Benhauer and now renamed Manago AI (formerly SALESmanago), it puts behavioral tracking and RFM-style scoring at the center, with email, SMS, WhatsApp, web push and conversational AI as the channels it acts through.
Pricing scales gradually per 1,000 active contacts rather than jumping between bands, which also means there is no fixed price list to compare at a glance.
What stands out
Deep lead scoring
RFM segmentation
Calculator-based pricing
PolandQuoted via an interactive calculator, priced by active contacts from 3,000
A multidimensional customer database driving journeys across email, SMS and push
Ranked #2 of 11 in Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
Built by the Amsterdam company Copernica B.V., its Marketing Suite centers on one layered customer database rather than a list, so segmentation, personalisation and real-time website-trigger campaigns all read from the same record across email, SMS and push.
You can open a trial account yourself, but the licence price is quoted rather than listed, and the integration catalogue is smaller than the larger platforms in this list.
What stands out
Customer database
Real-time triggers
Quote-based
NetherlandsMarketing Suite from EUR 99/month, licence tailored to platform usage and quoted on request; self-serve trial account
The deepest journey builder a generalist marketer can run without an ops team
Ranked #3 of 11 in Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
This is the most capable automation engine at mid-market pricing, with multi-branch logic and conditional content; a CRM is included, but pipelines and lead scoring are paid add-ons and Starter limits an automation to five actions.
Teams that invest a week in mapping their lifecycle get something the simpler tools cannot approach. Teams that do not end up paying for a machine they never start, and that is the common outcome. Be honest about whether anyone will own the automation before you buy on the strength of it.
What stands out
Flexible journeys
CRM-neutral
Contact-tier pricing
Where it costs you
The automation builder rewards setup time you may not have
Overkill, and overpriced, if you only send newsletters
Right for
A team that will actually build multi-step lifecycle automation
Wrong for
A company that sends one newsletter a month
United StatesPer month by contact tier, published through an on-page calculator; 14-day trial
Send-volume pricing and a free tier instead of a per-contact bill
Ranked #4 of 11 in Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Charging by send volume rather than by stored contact is the whole point: a list of 50,000 people you email monthly costs a fraction of what the per-contact platforms charge.
Transactional email runs on the same account, which removes a second vendor for most small teams. Where it disappoints is reporting — the analytics answer what happened but rarely why — and shared-pool deliverability needs a proper warm-up before a first big send.
What stands out
Volume pricing
Free tier
SMS and WhatsApp
Where it costs you
Reporting is the weakest part of the product
Deliverability on the shared pool needs warming up
Right for
A large but quiet list where per-contact pricing would hurt
Wrong for
A team that needs deep segmentation and revenue reporting
FranceFree tier; paid plans by monthly send volume, published
Workflows and reporting on the same database your sales team already uses
Ranked #5 of 11 in Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Marketing Hub is sold as the marketing half of a suite, and judged that way it is strong: the email tool reads from the same contact record as sales, so attribution and lifecycle reporting work without a data project.
Judged as an email tool on its own it is poor value, because you are paying for a platform. Watch the tier boundaries rather than the headline price — the features most buyers actually want sit above the first paid tier, and higher tiers carry a mandatory onboarding fee.
What stands out
CRM built in
Full marketing suite
Steep tier jump to Professional
Where it costs you
Tier jumps are steep and contact-based
Onboarding fees on higher tiers
Right for
A company already running HubSpot CRM that wants one system
Wrong for
Anyone who needs email and nothing else
United StatesFree tier; Starter per seat and higher tiers per month, plus marketing-contact tiers, published; real automation starts at Professional
Automation, landing pages, funnels and webinars in one subscription
Ranked #6 of 11 in Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
GetResponse bundles things most competitors sell separately: landing pages, forms and, on the Creator plan, a webinar platform that is good enough to replace a dedicated one at the small end.
For a company running monthly lead-gen events that bundle is worth real money. What you give up is polish in the automation editor and the last few percentage points of inbox placement, which matters less for a fortnightly newsletter than for an abandoned-cart flow.
What stands out
Webinars on Creator
Landing pages
Published price
Where it costs you
Automation builder feels dated
Deliverability trails the leaders
Right for
A small business that runs webinars and needs the list in one place
Wrong for
A high-volume ecommerce sender chasing every point of deliverability
PolandFree to 500 contacts; paid plans by list-size band from 1,000 contacts, published
Built for ecommerce, with order and browse data native to the segmentation
Ranked #7 of 11 in Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Klaviyo treats an email list as an extension of the store rather than a separate database, so browse history, order value and product affinity are available in segmentation without a connector.
For a store doing meaningful revenue that produces flows the general-purpose tools cannot match, and the reporting attributes revenue per message. Away from ecommerce the value collapses: you are paying a premium per contact for a data model you are not using.
What stands out
Ecommerce data model
Revenue reporting
Deep Shopify link
Where it costs you
Expensive for a list that is not attached to a store
Setup assumes ecommerce data you may not have
Right for
A Shopify or WooCommerce store that wants revenue per email
Wrong for
A B2B newsletter with no product catalogue behind it
United StatesFree tier to 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month; paid by active profiles, published
Prebuilt ecommerce automations without the Klaviyo bill
Ranked #8 of 11 in Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Omnisend ships the flows a small store actually needs — abandoned cart, browse abandonment, win-back, post-purchase — already built and reasonably worded, so the first useful automation is live the same day.
Email and SMS sit in one flow builder rather than two products. Segmentation is where it trails Klaviyo: once your catalogue has real structure and you want to segment on product affinity, you will feel the difference.
What stands out
Prebuilt ecommerce flows
Email and SMS
Published pricing
Where it costs you
Segmentation is shallower once the catalogue gets complex
Only makes sense for ecommerce
Right for
A small store that wants abandoned-cart flows working today
Marketing automation and transactional email on one API
Ranked #9 of 11 in Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Mailjet earns its place on the pricing model and the hosting. Paying per email rather than per contact suits a company with fifty thousand addresses that hears from it twice a year, which is the case that makes contact-priced tools expensive.
EU data residency is available and documented, which for some buyers ends the discussion. The trade is capability: the automation builder handles a welcome series comfortably and runs out of room after that.
What stands out
Transactional and marketing
EU hosting
Priced on volume
Where it costs you
Automations only from the Premium plan
Roadmap set by the parent company
Right for
A team that wants product email and campaigns on one bill
Wrong for
A marketer who wants sophisticated lifecycle automation
FranceFree to 6,000 emails a month; paid by send volume, published
A genuinely free plan to 5,001 contacts, with full automation unlocked on Pro
Ranked #10 of 11 in Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
The free plan is the most usable entry point in this list, covering 5,001 contacts and 15,000 emails a month at no cost. Full workflow automation, WhatsApp and ecommerce features only unlock on the Pro tier, so a team that wants real automation from day one needs to budget past the free plan and Base.
What stands out
Generous free tier
WhatsApp on Pro
Prepaid option
PortugalFree plan to 5,001 contacts and 15,000 emails/month; Base from EUR 8.92/month; Pro from EUR 33.79/month
Automation triggered by product usage and Stripe billing events
Ranked #11 of 11 in Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Built for a founder or first marketer at a small software company, it reacts to product events and Stripe billing events like a failed payment or a trial ending, not just email clicks.
A small vendor means a smaller integration list and no push channel; SMS goes out through a Twilio integration rather than a built-in gateway, and it offers a trial rather than a permanent no-cost plan.
What stands out
SaaS focus
Stripe triggers
Small vendor
BulgariaPublished plans priced by subscriber count, with Premium adding the Salesforce, HubSpot and Segment integrations
Marketing automation software tracks contact and, on some platforms, product behavior, then branches that contact through multi-step journeys across email and other channels, adjusts a lead score, and hands qualified contacts to a CRM. It differs from a plain email tool in where the center of gravity sits: the logic between messages, not the messages themselves. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
9 of the 11 tools here publish what they cost; the other 2 quote per organisation. The ones you can compare without a sales call: ActiveCampaign, Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, GetResponse, Klaviyo, Omnisend, Mailjet, e-goi, Encharge.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 11 vendors are established in 7 countries across 2 regions (Europe 8, North America 3). That decides whose disclosure law applies to what the vendor holds, wherever the servers are.
Contacts stored or messages sent: two meters with opposite winners
ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Omnisend, GetResponse and Encharge bill on the number of contacts you hold, while Brevo and Mailjet bill on what you send.
A large list mailed occasionally is cheap on a volume meter and expensive on a contact meter; a small list mailed daily is the reverse. SALESmanago counts active contacts through a calculator, so no list price exists to compare.
Write down contacts held and emails sent per month, then price both meters against those two numbers.
Ask whether unsubscribed and bounced contacts still count towards the billed tier.
For SALESmanago and Copernica, get the quote in writing at today's list size and at next year's expected size.
Journeys can only branch on data the platform holds natively
Klaviyo and Omnisend are built around orders and browsing, so they fit a shop and little else. HubSpot Marketing Hub reads sales data without a sync when the CRM is HubSpot, and loses most of that edge otherwise.
Encharge triggers on product usage and Stripe billing events. ActiveCampaign stays neutral, connecting to Pipedrive, Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, though it lists the last two as premium integrations.
Name the three events your most valuable journey would branch on and check each one is native, not a connector.
If the list belongs to a store, ask to see revenue per flow on your own catalogue.
If the CRM is not HubSpot, ask exactly what Marketing Hub can still see about a deal.
The journey builder often sits one tier above the advertised price
HubSpot Marketing Hub has a free tier, but real workflow automation starts at Professional, a steep step from Starter. e-goi's free plan covers 5,001 contacts, yet full workflows, WhatsApp and ecommerce features unlock only on Pro.
Brevo's automation starts on Standard, not Starter, and ActiveCampaign's Starter plan caps each automation at five actions. Encharge offers a trial and no permanent free plan. A free tier in this market is frequently an email tool with the branching logic held back.
Find the lowest plan that allows multi-step branching and price that one.
Check whether lead scoring comes with that plan or with the one above it.
Ask HubSpot about onboarding fees on the higher tiers before comparing annual costs.
Extra channels are easy to find; reporting that proves a journey worked is not
Brevo adds SMS through separately bought credits and WhatsApp on its Professional plan; Copernica drives email, SMS and push from a single customer database; Encharge has no push and sends SMS only through a Twilio integration.
Reporting is the common weak spot: it trails the automation in ActiveCampaign and is the thinnest part of Brevo. Klaviyo is the exception for shops, with revenue reporting tied to order data.
Confirm the channels you will use this year live in the same journey builder, not a separate module.
Ask for a report that attributes revenue or pipeline to one specific automation.
Check how you would see every automation a single contact is currently enrolled in.
What goes wrong most often when buying marketing automation software
Paying a contact-tier bill for a list that receives one newsletter a month, when a send-volume tool would do that job for less.
Choosing Klaviyo or Omnisend for a B2B list with no product catalogue behind it.
Building dozens of overlapping automations before agreeing who owns them, then finding nobody can explain why a contact received a message.
Switching on lead scoring before sales has agreed which score triggers a handover to them.
07
Frequently asked questions
6 answers
What is the best marketing automation in 2026?
Manago AI (formerly SALESmanago) leads our ranking of 11. Built by the Polish company Benhauer and now renamed Manago AI (formerly SALESmanago), it puts behavioral tracking and RFM-style scoring at the center, with email, SMS, WhatsApp, web push and conversational AI as the channels it acts through.
Pricing scales gradually per 1,000 active contacts rather than jumping between bands, which also means there is no fixed price list to compare at a glance.
Which marketing automation tools publish their pricing?
9 of the 11, with the pricing model each one publishes:
ActiveCampaign: Per month by contact tier, published through an on-page calculator; 14-day trial.
Brevo: Free tier; paid plans by monthly send volume, published.
HubSpot Marketing Hub: Free tier; Starter per seat and higher tiers per month, plus marketing-contact tiers, published; real automation starts at Professional.
GetResponse: Free to 500 contacts; paid plans by list-size band from 1,000 contacts, published.
Klaviyo: Free tier to 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month; paid by active profiles, published.
Omnisend: Free tier; paid per contact, published.
Mailjet: Free to 6,000 emails a month; paid by send volume, published.
e-goi: Free plan to 5,001 contacts and 15,000 emails/month; Base from EUR 8.92/month; Pro from EUR 33.79/month.
Encharge: Published plans priced by subscriber count, with Premium adding the Salesforce, HubSpot and Segment integrations.
The other 2 quote per organisation.
Is there a free marketing automation tool?
Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, GetResponse, Klaviyo, Omnisend, Mailjet, e-goi offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these marketing automation vendors established?
In 7 countries across 2 regions: Europe 8, North America 3.
Manago AI (formerly SALESmanago): Poland.
Copernica: Netherlands.
ActiveCampaign: United States.
Brevo: France.
HubSpot Marketing Hub: United States.
GetResponse: Poland.
Klaviyo: United States.
Omnisend: Lithuania.
Mailjet: France.
e-goi: Portugal.
Encharge: Bulgaria.
What should you use instead of Manago AI (formerly SALESmanago)?
Copernica and ActiveCampaign are the next two on this page. Copernica is for a multidimensional customer database driving journeys across email, SMS and push; ActiveCampaign is for a team that will actually build multi-step lifecycle automation.
Who should not buy Manago AI (formerly SALESmanago)?
Built by the Polish company Benhauer and now renamed Manago AI (formerly SALESmanago), it puts behavioral tracking and RFM-style scoring at the center, with email, SMS, WhatsApp, web push and conversational AI as the channels it acts through.
Pricing scales gradually per 1,000 active contacts rather than jumping between bands, which also means there is no fixed price list to compare at a glance.
If your marketing automation product belongs among these 11, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
