Email marketing delivers a return of between $36 and $42 for every $1 spent, making it the highest-ROI digital channel available. But that return depends heavily on one factor most businesses underinvest in: automation. Email automations deliver 30 times more revenue per recipient than one-off promotional campaigns, with automated flows earning an average of $1.94 per recipient compared to just $0.11 for standard campaigns. The problem is that picking the wrong platform wastes that potential entirely. This guide covers the best email marketing automation tools for 2024, what separates them, and how to match the right one to your business.
Key Takeaways
- Automated emails represented only 2% of email volume but generated 37% of all email-attributed sales in 2024.
- Automated emails average a 70.5% higher open rate and 152% higher click-through rate than standard marketing messages.
- ActiveCampaign leads on automation depth for most small to mid-size businesses; Klaviyo is the strongest pick for ecommerce; HubSpot suits B2B and SaaS teams with complex sales cycles.
- 58% of businesses included automation as part of their email marketing strategy in 2024.
- Free plans exist across Brevo, MailerLite, Mailchimp, and Klaviyo, but automation features vary significantly between tiers. Match the tool to your actual use case before committing.
Why Email Marketing Automation Matters More in 2024
As of early 2024, email was the channel that relied the most on marketing automation, with 58% of surveyed professionals choosing it over both content and social media management. That adoption is not coincidental.
Automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated emails. Meanwhile, 63% of companies that outperform their competitors use marketing automation, and small businesses see a 25% increase in marketing ROI when they start using it.
The shift from batch-and-blast to behavior-triggered sequences is where most businesses find the biggest performance gains. Email marketing automation platforms help businesses send targeted, personalized emails at scale by automating workflows, segmenting audiences, and integrating with CRM and ecommerce tools.
If you want to see how automation fits into a broader strategy, our email marketing automation tips guide covers nine specific ways teams use it to save time and lift results.
What to Look for Before You Choose a Tool
Not every automation platform is built for the same job. Choosing the right software is not about finding the tool with the longest feature list. Two platforms can both claim "automation" while delivering wildly different experiences: one might offer simple drip sequences while another orchestrates multi-step behavioral journeys across email, SMS, and web.
Today's marketing teams need platforms that offer predictive analytics, journey-based targeting, drag-and-drop journey builders and behavioral triggers, unified customer data for accurate segmentation, AI-powered content and optimization features, strong deliverability and compliance safeguards, and transparent pricing and easy migration support.
The key criteria to evaluate:
- Automation depth: Can you build multi-step conditional workflows, or just simple autoresponders?
- Segmentation: Does the tool segment by behavior, purchase history, and lifecycle stage, or only by basic demographics?
- Deliverability: The best platforms have their own SMTP servers and offer high deliverability, meaning your emails land in the inbox and not in spam.
- Pricing structure: Transparent pricing models help you avoid hidden costs and plan budgets, but pricing varies widely across the market and may increase as features become more in-depth.
- Scalability: Choose a platform that can grow alongside your business. Even if you don't need advanced features right now, pick a tool that offers upgrades, higher list limits, and additional functionality as your audience and goals expand.
The Best Email Marketing Automation Tools for 2024
1. ActiveCampaign: Best for Advanced Automation
ActiveCampaign is an AI-driven, autonomous marketing platform that unifies CRM and cross-channel messaging in one system. Rather than forcing you to choose between simple tools that limit growth or enterprise platforms that require dedicated admins, ActiveCampaign delivers enterprise-grade automation with a learning curve softened by AI assistance.
Its visual workflow builder lets you use deep conditional logic and triggers tied to real behavior, like site activity, purchases, and custom events, then optimize paths with goals and automation-level testing. One standout feature is its library of automation templates, called "recipes," with over 750 options categorized by industry.
EmailToolTester's latest email deliverability tests scored ActiveCampaign with a 94.2% deliverability rate, placing it first out of 15 tools tested.
ActiveCampaign holds a 4.5 out of 5 G2 rating across 14,000+ reviews.
Pricing: Entry-level pricing starts at $15/month for up to 1,000 contacts. Most B2B teams need the Plus plan at $49/month for 1,000 contacts to access CRM and lead scoring.
Best for: Growing businesses, B2B teams, and any marketer who needs complex, behavior-based customer journeys.
Watch out for: The entry-level Starter plan has very limited automation features, with only five actions per automation.
2. Klaviyo: Best for Ecommerce
Klaviyo is a data-driven email and SMS platform built primarily for ecommerce brands. Its email marketing software is deeply integrated into the Shopify ecosystem and treats every contact interaction as a potential data point for smarter targeting.
Klaviyo organizes its features around ecommerce data models, including ecommerce-first segmentation based on purchase behavior and browse history, and strong lifecycle flows with pre-built automations for cart recovery, browse abandonment, post-purchase follow-up, and winback campaigns.
Its AI-powered predictive purchasing analytics focus on revenue outcomes including next order date, churn risk, and spending potential.
Pricing: Klaviyo prices by total active profiles. Email-only plans start at $30/month for 1,000 profiles, scaling to $150/month at 10,000 profiles.
Best for: Shopify and WooCommerce stores that need deep behavioral segmentation and revenue attribution.
Watch out for: As of February 2025, Klaviyo bills on total active profiles rather than just emailed contacts, which increased costs for brands with large unengaged lists.
If you're running an online store, pair Klaviyo with the strategies in our ecommerce email marketing guide to maximize revenue from your automated flows.
3. HubSpot: Best for B2B and SaaS Teams
HubSpot offers a unified platform that combines CRM capabilities with email marketing, automation, and sales tools. The streamlined data flow makes it easier to coordinate your marketing and sales efforts.
HubSpot's email marketing features are spread between their Marketing Hub and Sales Hub. The Marketing Hub focuses on tools for growing traffic and finding prospects, including emails, landing pages, social media ads, live chat, video, SEO, and content.
For most scaling teams in B2B, SaaS, and services, HubSpot's Marketing Hub is the most complete option. The automation depth, native CRM, AI tools, and usable free tier make it the lowest-risk starting point for teams that expect to grow into more sophisticated programs.
Pricing: Starter is $15/month per seat with 1,000 contacts. The Professional plan at $890/month includes 10,000 contacts and is where real automation lives, but requires a $3,000 onboarding fee and annual commitment.
Best for: B2B companies, SaaS businesses, and any team that needs marketing and sales working from a single system.
Watch out for: Cost scales steeply once you need Professional-level automation.
For a deeper look at how SaaS teams use email automation to convert more users, see our SaaS email marketing strategy guide.
4. Brevo: Best Budget-Friendly Option with Multichannel Automation
Brevo is one of the best email marketing platforms for growing businesses because it offers up to 100,000 contacts on the free plan, far more than most competitors, and paid plans are priced based on email volume rather than contact tiers. This means your costs scale with how much you actually send, not just how large your list is.
Its marketing automation tools are very impressive. It supports website tracking so you can trigger automated sequences from website visits, and it has 12 pre-built workflow templates covering lead nurturing, abandoned carts, personalized follow-ups, and more.
Brevo lets you send multi-channel campaigns including SMS and WhatsApp messages. Businesses can send transactional emails like receipts and order confirmations alongside promotional emails, and it also has a sales CRM to track customer interactions across marketing and sales.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $9/month. The free plan allows 300 emails per day with unlimited contacts.
Best for: Budget-conscious businesses, high-volume senders, and teams that want email, SMS, and CRM in one place without enterprise pricing.
5. Mailchimp: Best for Beginners and Simple Campaigns
Mailchimp is a strong starting point: quick setup, approachable tools, and a good fit when your program is mostly newsletters and straightforward campaigns. More than 11 million users trust Mailchimp's data-driven tools.
Mailchimp's Marketing Automation Flows handle basic sequences like welcome series and abandoned cart reminders. But teams needing sophisticated conditional branching, goal tracking, or multi-step behavioral workflows will find the platform restrictive compared to ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo.
Pricing: Mailchimp paid plans start at $26.50/month for 1,000 contacts.
Best for: Solo founders, small businesses, and early-stage teams sending newsletters and basic triggered emails.
Watch out for: Mailchimp charges for unsubscribed and inactive contacts unless you manually archive them, which can inflate your bill 10 to 20% over what you'd expect.
6. MailerLite: Best Value for Small Businesses
For its price, MailerLite's automation tools stand out as a major strength. Welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, audience segmentation, and more are all available. You can build relatively advanced workflows with multiple triggers and actions, and the automation editor is simple to use, even for beginners.
The free plan includes 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. MailerLite's paid plans start at just $9 per month, which includes unlimited emails and three account users.
Best for: Small businesses and content publishers that need solid automation without paying enterprise prices.
How to Choose the Right Tool for Your Business
The right tool depends on your use case, not the feature count on a marketing page.
ActiveCampaign wins on raw email automation depth. Klaviyo wins for ecommerce without question. Mailchimp and Brevo are both reasonable entry points for simpler programs: Mailchimp if ease of use is the priority, Brevo if send-volume pricing works better for your list size.
Here is a quick decision framework:
- Ecommerce store (Shopify/WooCommerce): Klaviyo or Omnisend
- B2B or SaaS with a sales team: HubSpot or ActiveCampaign
- Advanced automation on a budget: ActiveCampaign or Brevo
- Beginner or simple newsletter: Mailchimp or MailerLite
- High-volume sender with a large list: Brevo
Beyond the tool itself, your automation results depend heavily on what you send and to whom. Automation workflows let you set up recurring campaigns without the need to send them manually. But the campaigns inside those workflows still need to be relevant. Pair your automation setup with strong email list segmentation strategies to make sure each trigger fires to the right audience segment.
For a full picture of how to build out your strategy around these tools, our email marketing strategy template walks through the complete planning process.
Free Plan Comparison at a Glance
| Tool | Free Plan Contacts | Free Emails/Month | Automation on Free? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | Unlimited | ~9,000 (300/day) | Yes |
| MailerLite | 1,000 | 12,000 | Yes |
| Mailchimp | 500 | 1,000 | Limited |
| Klaviyo | 250 | 500 | Limited |
| HubSpot | Unlimited | 2,000/month | Basic |
| ActiveCampaign | None | None | 14-day trial only |
ActiveCampaign has no free plan, only a 14-day trial, but it is where most businesses land once they outgrow the free tiers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best email marketing automation tool for small businesses in 2024?
For most small businesses, ActiveCampaign is still the best general email automation platform, particularly given their impressive AI offering. However, if budget is the primary constraint, MailerLite and Brevo both offer automation at entry-level prices starting from $9/month. Match the tool to how complex your workflows actually need to be, rather than paying for features you won't use.
How much do email marketing automation tools cost?
Costs vary significantly by platform and contact count. ActiveCampaign uses tiered pricing based on both contact count and plan level, with the Starter plan at $15/month for 1,000 contacts, though most B2B teams need the Plus plan at $49/month for CRM and lead scoring. Brevo starts at $9/month based on email volume rather than list size, which works well for businesses with large but infrequently mailed lists.
Is email marketing automation worth it for ecommerce?
The data is clear. Abandoned cart emails achieve an average click-through rate of 23.33%, the single highest-performing email type by click engagement across all automation types. Automated emails drove 37% of all ecommerce email revenue in 2024 despite representing just 2% of email volume. For ecommerce brands, automation is not optional; it is where the majority of email revenue is generated.
What features should I prioritize when choosing an email automation platform?
A powerful email marketing platform should provide personalization, automation, analytics, and integration capabilities to help your business build meaningful customer relationships while optimizing performance. Specifically, prioritize automation depth (multi-step behavioral workflows), deliverability infrastructure, segmentation quality, CRM integration, and pricing transparency. A tool that handles basic sends well but caps out on conditional logic will require a costly migration once your program matures.
