The short answer
ActiveCampaign is the best automated marketing software for small teams, from $15 a month for 1,000 contacts. Brevo is the cheapest, from $9 a month, and charges by emails sent rather than contacts stored. Mailchimp suits teams already standardised on it, from $13 a month. HubSpot fits teams that need automation inside a CRM, with automation from $800 a month.
Key takeaways
- ActiveCampaign Starter costs $15 a month for 1,000 contacts, but each automation is capped at 5 actions.
- Brevo Starter costs $9 a month and charges by emails sent, not by contacts stored.
- Mailchimp Essentials costs $13 a month for 500 contacts as a promotional rate for the first 12 months.
- HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter starts at $20 a seat a month (list rate), but unlimited automation starts at Professional, $800 a month.
- Klaviyo paid email starts at $20 a month for 500 active profiles; Omnisend Standard starts at $16 a month for 500 contacts.
Why teams go looking for automated marketing software
The search usually starts the same way: someone is sending the same emails by hand, every week, to a list that keeps growing. A welcome email here, a cart reminder there, a re-engagement nudge for customers who went quiet. Automated marketing software is supposed to take that work back: you build the flow once, and the tool sends the right message when a contact does the right thing.
The trap is that the entry price on the pricing page is rarely the price of the automation you actually need. Most vendors gate the good automation behind a higher tier: a cap on actions per workflow, a cap on contacts in automations, no branching, or a mandatory onboarding fee.
What to check before you compare prices
Three checks decide whether a tool fits, and none of them is the headline price:
- How the vendor counts. ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, Klaviyo and Omnisend charge by contacts or profiles. Brevo charges by emails sent. HubSpot charges per seat plus a marketing-contact allowance.
- What the entry plan actually automates. ActiveCampaign Starter caps each automation at 5 actions. Mailchimp Essentials caps flows at 4 steps with no branching. Brevo limits active automations to 2,000 unique contacts on its free and Starter plans. HubSpot Starter allows up to 10 automated actions, and unlimited automation starts at Professional.
- What the free plan really allows. Klaviyo, Omnisend, Mailchimp and Brevo all offer free plans capped at 250 to 500 contacts. Those are trial tiers, not a place to run a store from.
If you sell online, the email automations for online stores guide shows which flows earn their keep first, and the best email marketing platforms for creators post covers the newsletter side of the same tools.
How we chose
Seven tools made this list because they automate real marketing work — welcome series, abandoned carts, lead nurture, re-engagement — rather than just sending newsletters. Prices and plan limits come from each vendor's pricing page, checked on 14 November 2026; the vendor pages could not be re-read directly on that date, so all seven prices are marked unverified in the price log. No hands-on testing was done.
1. ActiveCampaign: best for deepest automation for small teams
ActiveCampaign has the strongest visual automation builder of the tools here. Starter costs $15 a month for 1,000 contacts and includes the workflow builder with more than 950 pre-built recipes, lead scoring and the CRM basics. Plus and Professional add more contacts, users and advanced features, with Professional from $99 a month for 1,000 contacts and 3 users.
ActiveCampaign fits a small B2B team whose main need is lead nurture: a contact downloads a guide, gets a timed sequence, gets scored, and lands in sales when the score crosses a threshold. The builder handles branching, conditions and goals without code.
The weakness is the Starter cap. Each automation on Starter is capped at 5 actions, so a real nurture sequence with branching and scoring needs Plus. The price also scales with contacts: at 10,000 contacts Starter no longer costs $15 a month, and the bill climbs steeply from there.
2. Brevo: best for cheapest email automation
Brevo is the cheapest paid entry on this list. Starter costs $9 a month and covers 5,000 emails a day, with automation, multi-channel messaging across email, SMS and WhatsApp, and a built-in CRM. The free plan allows 300 emails a day.
Brevo fits a sender with a big, quiet list: a store with 20,000 past customers it emails twice a month, or a publisher with a large free list. Unlimited contacts on every plan means the list size never forces an upgrade on its own.
The weakness is the automation cap. On the free and Starter plans, only 2,000 unique contacts can enter active automations. Unlimited contacts in automations starts at Standard, from $18 a month. Brevo is also weaker than ActiveCampaign on lead scoring and deep branching.
3. Mailchimp: best for teams already standardised on it
Mailchimp is the industry default, and its strength is breadth: the largest integration catalog, the most templates, and the most people who already know how to use it. Essentials costs $13 a month for up to 500 contacts as a promotional rate for the first 12 months. The free plan covers 500 contacts.
Mailchimp fits a team that already runs on it, or a small business that wants the safest choice with the most help available online.
The weakness is the automation gate and the scaling. Essentials allows flows of up to 4 steps with no branching points; branching requires Standard. And because Mailchimp charges by total contacts, including unsubscribed ones, the bill grows with your list even in months you barely email.
4. Klaviyo: best for ecommerce email and SMS
Klaviyo is built for online stores. Its free plan covers 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month. Paid email starts at $20 a month for 500 active profiles, with ten sends per profile a month included, and scales with list size: 5,000 profiles costs about $100 a month, 10,000 about $150. SMS is a separate add-on from $15 a month.
The weakness is the bill. Klaviyo scales steeply, and the add-ons stack: email plus SMS plus reviews plus the helpdesk can take a store from $20 a month to several hundred before the list is large. Email support on the free plan lasts only 60 days.
5. Omnisend: best for ecommerce automation on a budget
Omnisend is the budget ecommerce alternative to Klaviyo. Its free plan covers 250 contacts, 500 emails a month, 500 web push notifications and 60 SMS credits, with the full automation builder included. Standard starts at $16 a month for 500 contacts with 6,000 email credits, and Pro starts at $59 a month with unlimited emails and SMS credits equal to the plan price.
The weakness is SMS. For customers who signed up from 4 May 2026, SMS is available only on the Pro plan, so a store that wants email plus SMS pays $59 a month, not $16. New customers also get 30 percent off for the first three months, after which the price rises automatically to the full rate.
6. HubSpot Marketing Hub: best for automation inside a CRM
HubSpot Marketing Hub is the only tool here where automation lives inside a full CRM. Starter starts at $20 a seat a month at list rate, with 1,000 marketing contacts, and allows up to 10 automated actions. Real automation starts at Professional, $800 a month, which also carries a mandatory $3,000 one-time onboarding fee.
HubSpot fits a B2B team where sales and marketing share one customer record. A contact's emails, meetings, deals and support tickets all sit in the same place, so an automation can trigger on a deal stage or a sales activity, not just an email open.
The weakness is the price cliff. Starter's 10-action cap means most teams outgrow it fast, and the jump to Professional is from tens of dollars to $800 a month plus $3,000 onboarding.
7. Drip: best for ecommerce automation for growing stores
Drip is an ecommerce automation platform for stores that have outgrown basic email tools. It starts at $39 a month with a 14-day free trial, and its strength is visual workflows built around store data: browse abandonment, post-purchase sequences, win-back campaigns and revenue attribution per flow.
The weakness is the entry price. At $39 a month with no free plan, Drip costs more than twice Omnisend Standard at the same list size, and it has no free tier to test the store on. It is also ecommerce-only: a B2B team will find its lead scoring and CRM features thin next to ActiveCampaign.
The seven tools at a glance
| Tool | Starting price | Free plan | Automation gate on the entry plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | $15 a month, 1,000 contacts | 14-day trial | 5 actions per automation |
| Brevo | $9 a month | 300 emails a day | 2,000 contacts in automations |
| Mailchimp | $13 a month, 500 contacts | 500 contacts | 4 flow steps, no branching |
| Klaviyo | $20 a month, 500 profiles | 250 profiles | Full flows on paid plans |
| Omnisend | $16 a month, 500 contacts | 250 contacts | Full builder, SMS needs Pro |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | $20 a seat a month (list rate) | Free tools | 10 automated actions |
| Drip | $39 a month | 14-day trial | Full workflows from entry |
What a 10,000-contact list costs in a year
| Tool | Monthly cost at 10,000 contacts | Yearly cost | What changes at this size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo Starter | About $25 a month | About $300 | Price follows sends, not list size |
| Mailchimp Essentials | About $135 a month | About $1,620 | Billed on total contacts |
| ActiveCampaign Starter | About $135 a month | About $1,620 | 5-action cap still applies |
| Omnisend Standard | $132 a month | $1,584 | SMS still needs Pro |
| Klaviyo email | About $150 a month | About $1,800 | SMS billed separately |
| HubSpot Starter | About $390 a month | About $4,680 | Per-seat plus contact allowance |
| HubSpot Professional | $800 a month | $9,600 | Plus $3,000 onboarding once |
The cheapest way to automate a 10,000-contact list is Brevo, because it charges by sends rather than contacts. The most expensive mistake is buying HubSpot Starter for a large list and discovering the automation cap after the bill arrives. For a store, Omnisend Standard at $132 a month undercuts Klaviyo email at $150 for the same list.
Which automated marketing software fits your situation
- B2B lead nurture on a budget: ActiveCampaign Starter at $15 a month, and budget for Plus when the 5-action cap bites.
- Large list, emailed rarely: Brevo Starter at $9 a month.
- Already on Mailchimp: stay, but buy Standard if your flows need branching.
- Online store, email plus SMS: Klaviyo from $20 a month, or Omnisend Pro at $59 if SMS matters and the budget is tight.
- Online store, email only: Omnisend Standard at $16 a month.
- Automation must live in the CRM: HubSpot, with Professional at $800 a month as the real starting point.
- Growing store that outgrew basic email: Drip from $39 a month.
Automated marketing mistakes to avoid
- Buying on the headline price. The entry plan's automation cap decides the real price. Check actions per workflow, contacts in automations and branching before you buy.
- Paying for contacts you never email. Mailchimp bills on total contacts, including unsubscribed ones. Clean the list before you migrate, or Brevo's send-based pricing will be cheaper.
- Starting HubSpot on Starter for a large list. The 10-action cap and the per-seat pricing mean a 10,000-contact list costs about $390 a month before you get real automation.
- Forgetting the onboarding fee. HubSpot Professional carries a mandatory $3,000 one-time onboarding fee. Budget for it, or the first invoice will surprise you.
The best AI marketing automation tools post covers the AI features these vendors are adding, and Adziq's email services cover building the flows themselves.
Automated Marketing Software Compared at a glance
| Pick | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | Deepest automation for small teams | From $15 a month (Starter, 1,000 contacts) | No, 14-day free trial |
| Brevo | Cheapest email automation | From $9 a month (Starter) | Yes, 300 emails a day |
| Mailchimp | Teams already standardised on it | From $13 a month (Essentials, 500 contacts) | Yes, 500 contacts |
| Klaviyo | Ecommerce email and SMS | From $20 a month (500 active profiles) | Yes, 250 active profiles |
| Omnisend | Ecommerce automation on a budget | From $16 a month (Standard, 500 contacts) | Yes, 250 contacts |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | Automation inside a CRM | From $20 a seat a month (Starter, list rate) | Yes, free tools |
| Drip | Ecommerce automation for growing stores | From $39 a month | No, 14-day free trial |
Common questions
What is the cheapest automated marketing software?
Brevo Starter at $9 a month is the cheapest paid entry on this list. Brevo also has a free plan with 300 emails a day. The catch is that only 2,000 unique contacts can enter active automations on the free and Starter plans.
Is ActiveCampaign or HubSpot better for automation?
ActiveCampaign, for the automation builder itself: Starter at $15 a month gives you the visual workflow builder with 950-plus recipes. HubSpot, if the automation must live inside a CRM with sales data. Real HubSpot automation starts at Professional, $800 a month.
Does Mailchimp Essentials include automation?
Yes, but limited. Essentials allows flows of up to 4 steps with no branching points. Branching requires the Standard plan. The $13 a month Essentials price is a promotional rate for the first 12 months.
What is the difference between Brevo and Mailchimp pricing?
Brevo charges by emails sent, so a large list you email rarely stays cheap. Mailchimp charges by contacts stored, so the bill grows with your list even if you email once a month.
Do I need Klaviyo or Omnisend for my online store?
Both are built for ecommerce. Klaviyo starts at $20 a month for 500 active profiles and scales steeply. Omnisend Standard starts at $16 a month for 500 contacts and is cheaper at most list sizes, but SMS needs the $59 a month Pro plan.
Sources
Adziq sells marketing services and does not accept payment for placement in its articles. See our editorial policy.