Best Email Drip Software Compared: Features, Pricing and Best Fit

How we chose

A drip tool earns its place here by doing one job well: sending the right email at the right time after a trigger, without manual work. Each pick was checked for its automation depth, what the entry plan leaves out, and what it costs at a realistic list size. Prices and limits come from each vendor's pricing page or published pricing documentation, checked on 14 November 2026. No hands-on testing was done, so this post compares published pricing and documentation, checked on 14 November 2026. Two vendors price by contact count and show no single starting figure on their pricing page, and this post says so rather than quoting a stale number.

1 1. Brevo: best for cheapest drips with SMS included

Brevo is the lowest-cost entry point on this list. Starter costs $9 a month for 5,000 emails, or $8.08 a month billed annually, and the free plan sends 300 emails a day with no credit card needed. The catch is that marketing automation, the engine behind multi-step drips, arrives on Standard at $18 a month, or $16.17 billed annually. Standard adds A/B testing, AI send-time optimization, landing pages and web tracking, and the free plan already includes advanced segmentation and forms.

Brevo fits a small business that sends regular campaigns and wants drip automation without a $39-a-month commitment. Pricing follows email volume rather than contact count, so a large list of quiet subscribers costs less here than on contact-based tools. The weakness is the automation gate: at $9 a month you get sending and segmentation, not the drip builder itself, and SMS credits are sold separately.

Skip Brevo if you need multi-step automation and your budget is under $18 a month. MailerLite includes automations on its free plan instead.

2 2. MailerLite: best for simple drips for small lists

MailerLite rebuilt its plans around four tiers, and the free plan is genuinely usable. It covers 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, campaigns, automations, a website, a landing page and signup forms, with 14 days of premium features to try first. Comfort starts at $12 a month and adds unlimited templates, dynamic emails, campaign auto-resend and multivariate testing. Power starts at $25 a month and adds unlimited monthly emails, unlimited automations and 24/7 live chat.

MailerLite fits a creator or small team that wants a drip running this week with no learning curve. Pricing is based on subscriber count and send volume, and the automation builder is included from the free plan, which is rare at this price. The weakness is scale. The free plan's 250-subscriber cap is low, and the price steps up with each subscriber tier, so a growing list needs regular budget checks.

Skip MailerLite if your list is over 250 subscribers and you will not pay $12 a month. Brevo's free plan has no subscriber cap, only a daily send limit.

3 3. ActiveCampaign: best for branching drips with a built-in CRM

ActiveCampaign is the automation-first pick. Starter costs $15 a month for 1,000 contacts billed annually, or $19 a month billed monthly, and includes multi-step automation with branching, a built-in CRM, AI campaign and automation builders, and 10x your contact limit in monthly sends. Plus starts at $49 a month for 1,000 contacts and adds lead scoring, SMS and deeper CRM features. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial.

ActiveCampaign fits a team whose drips need decisions, not just delays: if a subscriber clicks, buy, or goes quiet, the flow branches. The CRM sits in the same account, so a drip can update a deal stage or a lead score without an integration. The weakness is the price curve. At 1,000 contacts it is cheap, but the bill grows with the list, and the features that justify the price, such as revenue attribution, need the Pro plan.

Skip ActiveCampaign if you need a free plan rather than a 14-day trial. MailerLite and Brevo both offer one.

4 4. Drip: best for ecommerce revenue from email drips

Drip is built for online stores and prices accordingly. It costs $39 a month for up to 2,500 active people, and every plan includes every feature: unlimited email sends, dynamic segmentation, onsite popups, the visual workflow builder and revenue per person tracking. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial with no credit card required. Drip bills on active people only, so unsubscribed and bounced contacts do not count against you.

Drip fits a store that earns real money from email and wants to know which email earned it. Revenue per recipient is a standard metric on every plan, and the workflow builder maps branching customer journeys with delays, decisions and goals. The weakness is the floor price. At $39 a month it sits above the freemium tools, and it is built for ecommerce, so a newsletter or a B2B list gets little extra for the money.

Skip Drip if your budget is under $39 a month or you only send occasional newsletters. MailerLite covers that job for $12 a month.

5 5. GetResponse: best for drips plus landing pages and funnels

GetResponse bundles more than email into its entry plan. Starter costs $19 a month billed monthly, or $15.58 a month billed annually, for 1,000 subscribers, with unlimited monthly sends, AI content generators, a welcome email series, one custom automation workflow, a landing page builder and signup forms. Marketer costs $59 a month and removes the workflow limit, adding abandoned-cart recovery, sales funnels and advanced segmentation. A free account exists, with premium features for the first 14 days.

GetResponse fits a small business that wants drips, landing pages and a funnel in one subscription rather than three tools. The unlimited sends on every paid plan remove the send-count anxiety that shapes other tools' pricing. The weakness is the single-workflow limit on Starter: one automation workflow covers a welcome series, but a store that also wants post-purchase and win-back flows needs Marketer at $59 a month.

Skip GetResponse if you need unlimited automation workflows and your budget is under $59 a month. ActiveCampaign includes multi-step automation from $15 a month.

6 6. Kit: best for creators selling to a newsletter audience

Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is built for creators rather than stores. The free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts, and no sending limits on any plan. Creator and Pro add the visual automation builder, automated email sequences, paid newsletters, digital product sales and, on Pro, subscriber engagement scoring and a custom tracking domain. Both paid plans carry a 14-day free trial.

Kit fits a creator whose newsletter is the business: the audience, the product and the sales page live in one place, and the free plan is generous enough to grow on. The weakness is price transparency. Kit's pricing page shows plan features but prices paid plans by subscriber count, so no single starting figure is published, and the bill rises automatically as the list grows past each tier.

Skip Kit if you need a published per-month price before signing up. Brevo and MailerLite both publish theirs.

7 7. Mailchimp: best for small teams wanting one familiar tool

Mailchimp is the familiar default, and its pricing follows contact count. The free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with email support for the first 30 days. Essentials adds testing and scheduling, Standard adds enhanced automations, dynamic content and custom-coded templates, and Premium adds phone support, multivariate testing and predictive segmentation. Standard and Essentials both carry a 14-day free trial.

Mailchimp fits a small team that wants one tool for campaigns, automations and landing pages without learning a new interface. Its automation flows cover up to 200 steps on Standard and Premium, and the free plan is enough to test the product properly. The weakness is the automation ladder. Essentials caps automation at four flow steps, so a real multi-step drip needs Standard, and the price is set by contact count, so a large list costs more even if most contacts never open.

Skip Mailchimp if you need multi-step automation on the cheapest paid plan. Brevo includes it from $18 a month and ActiveCampaign from $15.

What a 1,000-subscriber list costs in a year

At 1,000 subscribers the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive paid pick is about $360 a year, and the difference is automation depth, not sending. A welcome series alone runs fine on MailerLite or Brevo. Branching journeys and revenue tracking are what the extra money buys.

How to pick the right email drip software

• A first drip on the smallest budget: Brevo Starter at $9 a month, or MailerLite free up to 250 subscribers.
• Simple drips with no learning curve: MailerLite Comfort at $12 a month.
• Drips that branch on behaviour, with a CRM: ActiveCampaign Starter at $15 a month for 1,000 contacts billed annually.
• An online store that earns from email: Drip at $39 a month for up to 2,500 active people.
• Drips plus landing pages and funnels in one bill: GetResponse Starter at $19 a month, or $15.58 billed annually.
• A creator newsletter that also sells products: Kit, free up to 10,000 subscribers.
• One familiar tool for a small team: Mailchimp, free up to 250 contacts.

Mistakes to avoid with email drip software

• Buying on the starting price and missing the automation gate. Brevo's $9 plan does not include multi-step automation, and Mailchimp's Essentials caps flows at four steps. Check which plan holds the drip builder before you commit.
• Pricing by contacts when your list is mostly quiet. Contact-based tools charge for every address, including people who never open. Brevo charges by send volume instead, and Drip bills only on active people.
• Building a five-email welcome series with no exit. A drip needs a stop rule: when a subscriber buys, replies or goes quiet, the flow should end or branch. Without one, new subscribers get stale emails for weeks.
• Skipping the free plan test. MailerLite, Brevo, Kit and GetResponse all let you run real drips for free. Test deliverability and the builder before paying.

Five email drip terms worth knowing

• Drip campaign: a timed series of emails sent after a trigger, such as a signup or a purchase.
• Trigger: the event that starts a flow, for example a form submission, a first purchase or a cart abandonment.
• Branching: a flow that splits by subscriber behaviour, sending different emails to clickers, buyers and non-openers.
• Active people: contacts who can receive marketing email, the billing unit Drip uses instead of total list size.
• Send limit: the monthly cap on emails, usually a multiple of your subscriber count, as on ActiveCampaign Starter at 10x contacts.

To compare the wider email market, see the best email marketing platforms for creators and the best mass email service. The email marketing funnel guide shows where drips fit in a full funnel, and the email automations for online stores guide covers store-specific flows. Adziq's email services cover setup and automation for teams that want it done for them.

Email Drip Software Compared at a glance

Common questions

Sources

• Brevo pricing
• MailerLite pricing
• ActiveCampaign pricing
• Drip pricing
• GetResponse pricing
• Kit pricing
• Mailchimp pricing

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