Email automation is one of the highest-leverage moves in marketing. Automated email flows deliver 30 times more revenue per recipient than one-off promotional campaigns, with the average return per recipient for campaigns sitting at $0.11 compared to $1.94 for automated flows. Yet many businesses still run their campaigns manually, leaving that gap entirely on the table.
If you are evaluating the top email marketing automation tools for 2024, this guide covers the platforms that serious marketers, growth teams, and business owners are using to build real returns, and explains exactly which type of team each tool serves.
Key Takeaways
- Automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated emails.
- Automated emails drove 37% of all ecommerce email revenue in 2024 despite representing just 2% of email volume.
- ActiveCampaign holds a 4.5 out of 5 G2 rating across 14,000+ reviews, making it the highest-rated general automation platform by user volume.
- As of early 2024, email was the channel that relied the most on marketing automation, with 58% of professionals choosing it over both content and social media management.
- The right tool depends on your use case: ecommerce brands, B2B teams, and budget-conscious small businesses each have a clear winner.
Why Automation Now Matters More Than Ever
On average, email marketing delivers a return of between $36 and $42 for every $1 spent, the highest ROI of any digital marketing channel. For context, paid search returns $2 per $1 and social advertising returns $2.80.
That gap narrows sharply when campaigns are sent manually. Automated emails average a 70.5% higher open rate and 152% higher click-through rate than "business as usual" marketing messages. The compounding effect of behavioral triggers, segmentation, and personalization is where automation earns its cost.
63% of marketers report using automation for email marketing, making it the most automated channel. 58% of businesses had included automation as part of their email marketing strategy by 2024.
That adoption is not slowing. The marketing automation platform market is expected to grow to $18.5 billion by 2030, per a 2024 forecast.
What to Look for Before You Choose a Tool
Picking a platform is a long-term infrastructure decision, not a short-term tool swap. Email marketing automation platforms help businesses send targeted, personalized emails at scale by automating workflows, segmenting audiences, and integrating with CRM and ecommerce tools. Today's marketing teams need platforms that offer predictive analytics, journey-based targeting, drag-and-drop journey builders, behavioral triggers, unified customer data for accurate segmentation, AI-powered optimization, strong deliverability safeguards, and transparent pricing.
Before committing, evaluate these five criteria:
- Automation depth: Can you build multi-step sequences with conditional logic, or only basic autoresponders?
- Segmentation: Good email software should let you slice and dice your audience based on behavior, traits, or lifecycle stage, without needing to call in a data analyst.
- Deliverability: If an email lands in the spam folder, the chances that the recipient reads it dramatically decrease. Deliverability is a deal-breaker, and the right tool can get emails through spam filters.
- Pricing model: Most platforms charge based on subscriber count or email volume. Costs increase quickly as lists grow, so scalability matters.
- Integrations: Your email tool does not live in a vacuum. It needs to sync with the rest of your systems, including CRMs, ecommerce platforms, lead capture tools, and ad platforms.
For a practical framework on connecting your chosen platform to your CRM from day one, see our Email Marketing Automation CRM Setup Guide.
The Top Email Marketing Automation Tools in 2024
1. ActiveCampaign: Best for Advanced Automation Workflows
ActiveCampaign holds a G2 rating of 4.5 out of 5 across 14,000+ reviews and is best for marketing teams that need behavior-based automation with deep conditional logic and CRM integration. If automation depth is the deciding factor, ActiveCampaign wins.
The system adapts based on subscriber behavior: if a contact opens an email, they get tagged as a sales lead, sent tailored content, and logged in the CRM for sales follow-up. If they did not open it, they receive content geared toward less-engaged users. This level of conditional logic and behavioral targeting makes ActiveCampaign a top choice for teams who want their drip campaigns to feel less generic.
In the visual workflow builder, you can use deep conditional logic and triggers tied to real behavior like site activity, purchases, and custom events. Automations can coordinate email, SMS, WhatsApp, site messaging, and CRM actions like lead scoring and deal stage updates in one connected sequence.
Pricing: ActiveCampaign's entry-level Starter plan starts at $15 per month and gives access to multi-step marketing automation right away.
Watch out for: In 2024, long-time customers saw bills jump 30 to 40% overnight with little warning, so review pricing carefully before committing to an annual plan.
Best for: Growing SMBs, B2B teams, and SaaS companies that need sophisticated lifecycle automation without enterprise-level costs.
2. Klaviyo: Best for Ecommerce Brands
Klaviyo is a B2C CRM and AI marketing platform that unifies customer data and automates email, SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, and mobile push to drive personalized, revenue-generating campaigns.
Klaviyo's flow builder creates automated sequences triggered by customer behavior: abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase follow-up, welcome series, win-back, price drop alerts, and back-in-stock notifications.
Performance benchmarks from Klaviyo's Q4 2024 data show welcome series achieving 45 to 50% open rates and 8 to 12% conversion rates, and abandoned cart flows achieving 35 to 40% open rates with 15 to 20% conversion rates.
Klaviyo is deeply integrated into the Shopify ecosystem and treats every contact interaction as a potential data point for smarter targeting. Its ecommerce-first segmentation lets you build segments based on purchase behavior, browse history, and predicted customer lifetime value. It also includes strong lifecycle flows for cart recovery, browse abandonment, post-purchase follow-up, and winback campaigns, with email and SMS tightly integrated.
Pricing: At 10,000 contacts, Klaviyo costs $150 per month for email alone, and at 50,000 contacts, it reaches $720 per month before adding SMS or other add-ons.
Best for: DTC brands, Shopify stores, and ecommerce operations that need purchase-driven behavioral automation. For more on ecommerce-specific strategy, see our Ecommerce Email Marketing Tips guide.
3. HubSpot Marketing Hub: Best All-in-One for B2B and SaaS
HubSpot covers all digital marketing areas and caters to sales-oriented businesses like SaaS. It offers a unified platform that combines CRM capabilities with email marketing, automation, and sales tools.
For most scaling B2B and SaaS teams, HubSpot's Marketing Hub is the most complete option. The automation depth, native CRM, AI tools, and a usable free tier make it the lowest-risk starting point for teams that expect to grow into more sophisticated programs.
HubSpot's Professional plan at $890 per month includes 10,000 contacts and is where real automation lives, but requires a $3,000 onboarding fee and annual commitment.
Pricing note: HubSpot's Marketing Hub Professional plan starts at $890 per month for 2,000 contacts plus a required $3,000 one-time onboarding fee. The free Marketing Hub tier covers basic email, forms, and CRM, which is enough for early-stage teams.
Best for: B2B companies, SaaS teams, and businesses that run sales and marketing together and need tight alignment between the two. For SaaS-specific strategy, see our SaaS Email Marketing Strategy guide.
4. Brevo: Best Budget-Friendly Multichannel Option
Brevo is one of the best email marketing platforms for growing businesses because it offers up to 100,000 contacts on the free plan and paid plans are priced based on email volume rather than contact tiers. This means costs scale with how much you actually send. The platform combines core email features, automation, and multichannel tools including SMS, WhatsApp, and live chat in one place.
Brevo's marketing automation tools are 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.
Pricing: Brevo's paid Starter plan begins at $9 per month.
Best for: Budget-conscious teams, small businesses, and brands that want to run email, SMS, and WhatsApp from a single platform without paying per-contact fees.
5. Mailchimp: Best for Beginners and Simple Campaigns
Mailchimp is a solid email marketing tool with an intuitive interface and a wide range of templates that make it easy to get started quickly. The segmentation and automation features cover the basics well.
Mailchimp is a strong starting point: quick setup, approachable tools, and a good fit when your program is mostly newsletters and straightforward campaigns.
Compared to more advanced tools like Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp reaches its limits fairly quickly, especially when it comes to complex automation flows, deep CRM integration, and sophisticated personalization at scale. Advanced features and automation are locked behind higher-priced plans, which can be limiting for small businesses or beginners.
Pricing: Mailchimp paid plans start at $26.50 per month for 1,000 contacts, and pricing scales significantly based on list size.
Best for: New senders, solopreneurs, and teams running simple newsletters who want to get started quickly without a steep learning curve.
6. MailerLite: Best Value for Small and Midsize Teams
For its price, MailerLite's automation tools are a major strength. They support welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, audience segmentation, and more. 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. Paid plans start at just $9 per month and include unlimited emails and three account users.
Best for: Small and midsize teams that need solid automation without the complexity or cost of enterprise tools.
7. Omnisend: Best for Shopify Stores on a Budget
Omnisend is one of the strongest Shopify email platforms available, with the product picker, abandoned-cart flows, and revenue attribution plugging straight into your store, while undercutting Klaviyo at every contact tier.
Omnisend offers Standard ($16+/month) and Pro ($59+/month) plans. Standard at 1,000 contacts is $16 per month with email send limits of 12 times your contact count. The Pro plan offers unlimited emails plus monthly SMS credits matching your plan cost.
Best for: Ecommerce brands that want Klaviyo-caliber automation at a lower price point, particularly on Shopify and WooCommerce.
Quick Comparison Table
| Tool | Best For | Starting Price | Free Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | Advanced automation, B2B | $15/month | No (14-day trial) |
| Klaviyo | Ecommerce, DTC | $20/month | Yes (250 contacts) |
| HubSpot | B2B, SaaS, CRM alignment | Free (limited) | Yes |
| Brevo | Budget multichannel | $9/month | Yes (300/day) |
| Mailchimp | Beginners, newsletters | $26.50/month | Yes (limited) |
| MailerLite | SMBs, value | $9/month | Yes (1,000 contacts) |
| Omnisend | Shopify stores | $16/month | Yes (500 emails/month) |
How to Match the Right Tool to Your Business
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.
Before you pick, ask three questions:
- What is your primary use case? Lead nurturing, ecommerce recovery, or newsletter distribution each point to different platforms.
- How complex will your automation be? Simple drips need a different tool than multi-branch behavioral journeys.
- What does your tech stack look like? Your platform should connect with ecommerce platforms, CRMs, analytics tools, and advertising systems.
Platforms become expensive as lists scale. Choosing based solely on starting price often leads to costly migrations later. Pick for where you will be in 18 months, not where you are today.
To make the most of whichever tool you choose, pair it with strong email list segmentation strategies and a proven set of email marketing automation tips to get results from day one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best email marketing automation tool in 2024?
ActiveCampaign takes the top spot for automation depth with a 4.5 out of 5 G2 rating across 14,000+ reviews. However, the best tool depends on your use case. For ecommerce, Klaviyo is purpose-built and hard to beat. For B2B and SaaS teams with CRM needs, HubSpot is the stronger fit.
How much does email marketing automation cost in 2024?
Entry-level pricing ranges widely. Brevo's Starter plan begins at $9 per month, MailerLite's paid plans start at $9 per month, and ActiveCampaign's Starter plan starts at $15 per month. Costs scale with contact count, email volume, and feature tier, so always model pricing at your projected list size, not your current one.
Is email automation worth the investment for small businesses?
Small businesses see a 25% increase in marketing ROI when they start using automation. Combined with the fact that automated messages generated 37% of all email-attributed sales in 2024 despite representing only 2% of email volume, the case for automation at any business size is clear.
What features should I look for in an email automation platform?
The core features to evaluate are: automation for sending triggered messages based on subscriber behavior, segmentation to divide your list into smaller targeted groups, A/B testing to optimize campaign elements, integrations with your CRM and ecommerce platform, drag-and-drop editors for building professional emails without code, and AI tools to write copy, suggest subject lines, and optimize sending times.