The Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026
ActiveCampaign starts at $15 a month, and Salesforce's enterprise Account Engagement plans run from $1,250 to $15,000 a month once you scale up to a B2B budget.
Short answer: ActiveCampaign is the best marketing automation software for most small and mid-size teams in 2026, starting at $15 a month with a real visual automation builder and a built-in CRM. HubSpot Marketing Hub earns the pick once marketing, sales and service need to share one record, currently running a discounted new-customer rate on its Starter plan. Klaviyo and Omnisend lead for ecommerce brands automating around orders and browsing, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement and Marketo Engage are built for B2B teams running account-based programs at enterprise budgets.
Marketing automation software promises the same outcome: fewer manual sends, more messages triggered by what a contact actually does, and leads that get nurtured while nobody is watching.
What separates these ten platforms by thousands of dollars a month is how each one prices that automation: by contact, by seat, by unique profile, or by a quote nobody sees until a sales call.
Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, evaluates 343 marketing automation tools as of September 2026.
This guide narrows that field to the ten platforms an SMB or B2B marketing team actually shortlists, priced on each vendor's own pricing page this month. MarketingShot's own newsletter runs on Beehiiv, not any platform ranked here, so nothing on this list stands to gain from where it lands.
Top Picks
Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.
| Tool | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | Free (2 users). Starter $20/mo/seat (new-customer promo $7); Professional $890/mo; Enterprise $3,600/mo. | Teams already running HubSpot CRM who want marketing, sales and service on one record |
| ActiveCampaign | Starter $15/mo; Plus $49/mo; Pro $79/mo; Enterprise $145/mo (1,000 contacts, billed annually). | Small and mid-size teams that want real behavioral automation without an enterprise price tag |
| Klaviyo | Free up to 250 profiles (500 emails/mo, $5 SMS credit). Paid Email plans: check current pricing. | Ecommerce brands that want automation built around orders, browsing and purchase history |
| Brevo | Free (unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day). Starter from $9/mo; Standard $18/mo; Professional $499/mo. | Budget-conscious teams with a large contact list they do not email every day |
| Mailchimp | Free up to 250 contacts. Essentials from $13/mo; Standard from $20/mo; Premium is quote-only. | Small businesses that want a familiar tool with light automation needs |
| Keap | From $299/mo, billed monthly; one all-inclusive platform tier, price scales with users and contacts. | Small-business owners who want CRM, automation and invoicing bundled with hands-on setup help |
| Omnisend | Free up to 250 contacts. Standard $16/mo (500 contacts); Pro $59/mo (2,500 contacts); 30% off first 3 months. | Ecommerce stores that want email, SMS and push automation in one affordable plan |
| Customer.io | Essentials, Standard, Premium, Elevated, Enterprise: priced by profile count, check current pricing. | Product and lifecycle marketing teams that need event-triggered, cross-channel messaging |
| Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | Growth+ $1,250/mo; Plus+ $2,750/mo; Advanced+ $4,400/mo; Premium+ $15,000/mo (billed annually). | B2B enterprises already on Salesforce CRM running account-based marketing programs |
| Marketo Engage | Quote-only across four editions (Growth, Select, Prime, Ultimate); no published USD price. | Large B2B enterprises running complex, multi-touch account-based marketing at scale |
Pricing read from each vendor's own published pricing page, checked Sep 2026. 2 of 10 do not publish one; those entries say so rather than estimating.
Best for: Teams already running HubSpot CRM who want marketing, sales and service on one record
PricingFree (2 users). Starter $20/mo/seat (new-customer promo $7); Professional $890/mo; Enterprise $3,600/mo.
Best for: Small and mid-size teams that want real behavioral automation without an enterprise price tag
PricingStarter $15/mo; Plus $49/mo; Pro $79/mo; Enterprise $145/mo (1,000 contacts, billed annually).
Best for: Ecommerce brands that want automation built around orders, browsing and purchase history
PricingFree up to 250 profiles (500 emails/mo, $5 SMS credit). Paid Email plans: check current pricing.
Best for: Budget-conscious teams with a large contact list they do not email every day
PricingFree (unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day). Starter from $9/mo; Standard $18/mo; Professional $499/mo.
Best for: Small businesses that want a familiar tool with light automation needs
PricingFree up to 250 contacts. Essentials from $13/mo; Standard from $20/mo; Premium is quote-only.
Best for: Small-business owners who want CRM, automation and invoicing bundled with hands-on setup help
PricingFrom $299/mo, billed monthly; one all-inclusive platform tier, price scales with users and contacts.
Best for: Ecommerce stores that want email, SMS and push automation in one affordable plan
PricingFree up to 250 contacts. Standard $16/mo (500 contacts); Pro $59/mo (2,500 contacts); 30% off first 3 months.
Best for: Product and lifecycle marketing teams that need event-triggered, cross-channel messaging
PricingEssentials, Standard, Premium, Elevated, Enterprise: priced by profile count, check current pricing.
Best for: B2B enterprises already on Salesforce CRM running account-based marketing programs
PricingGrowth+ $1,250/mo; Plus+ $2,750/mo; Advanced+ $4,400/mo; Premium+ $15,000/mo (billed annually).
Best for: Large B2B enterprises running complex, multi-touch account-based marketing at scale
PricingQuote-only across four editions (Growth, Select, Prime, Ultimate); no published USD price.
What it is
Marketing automation software triggers emails, texts, push messages and workflow actions based on what a contact does, such as a signup, a click, a purchase or two weeks of silence, instead of a person sending each message by hand.
The stronger platforms add lead scoring, a CRM or CRM sync, and multichannel sends across email, SMS and sometimes WhatsApp or push.
How we compared: ten platforms with a published free tier, self-serve subscription or public enterprise pricing page.
Prices below were verified in September 2026 on each vendor's own pricing page. Nobody paid for a slot on this list.
How it works
Start with who owns the contact record. A team that already runs its CRM in Salesforce gets the most from Account Engagement or HubSpot's CRM sync; a team with no CRM yet gets more from ActiveCampaign's or Keap's bundled one.
Ecommerce brands should start with Klaviyo or Omnisend, since both build automation around orders and browsing instead of generic email opens.
Size decides the second question. Under a few thousand contacts, free tiers from HubSpot, Klaviyo, Brevo, Mailchimp and Omnisend cover real testing before any card is added.
Past that, per-contact tools like ActiveCampaign and HubSpot scale by list size, while Brevo and Customer.io bill by emails sent or unique profiles, often cheaper for a large, quiet list.
The email marketing software guide covers senders that skip the CRM and automation layer entirely, and the lifecycle marketing tools guide is the next read for product-led teams automating in-app behavior rather than a marketing list.
Why it matters
The platform you pick sets a ceiling on what your automation can do and a floor on what it costs as your list grows.
Buy too little and a marketer hand-sends what should be automated; buy too much and you are paying Salesforce Account Engagement's top enterprise rate for a workflow ActiveCampaign's entry tier would run just as well.
MarketingShot data: this newsletter reaches roughly 35,000 subscribers with a 31% average open rate and a 1.9% average click rate.
A list that size already clears every free tier on this page and lands past the entry paid tier on ActiveCampaign, Brevo and Omnisend too, which is close to where the real monthly bill starts for a growing list.
Key features to look for
Pricing
Four tools here publish no fixed price at all: Klaviyo's paid Email plan only appears after entering a live contact count, Marketo Engage is quote-only across four unnamed-price editions, Mailchimp's Premium tier routes every buyer to a sales call, and Customer.io's Essentials through Enterprise tiers all require a profile count on its own pricing calculator.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is the exception among enterprise tools, publishing a full Growth+ through Premium+ list price for every tier, all billed annually.
HubSpot's Starter tier is running a new-customer promotion at a fraction of its list rate, so budget for the higher list price once the promotional window closes.
ActiveCampaign's four tiers all price at 1,000 contacts billed annually and scale from there. Brevo and Customer.io are the two tools that bill by volume, emails sent for Brevo and unique profiles for Customer.io, rather than by a flat contact tier, which can undercut per-contact pricing once a list is large but quiet.
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot Free | Free | 2 users, no credit card required |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter (promo) | $7/mo/seat | Limited-time new-customer rate; 1,000 marketing contacts, 500 credits |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter (list) | $20/mo/seat | Standard rate once the promotional window ends |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional | $890/mo, or $800/mo annual commit | 3 core seats, 2,000 contacts, 3,000 credits; $3,000 onboarding required |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise | $3,600/mo | 5 core seats, 10,000 contacts, 5,000 credits; $7,000 onboarding required |
| ActiveCampaign Starter | $15/mo | 1,000 contacts, 1 user, 5 actions per automation, billed annually |
| ActiveCampaign Plus | $49/mo | 1,000 contacts, 1 user, unlimited automation actions, billed annually |
| ActiveCampaign Pro | $79/mo | 1,000 contacts, 3 users, predictive and conditional content, billed annually |
| ActiveCampaign Enterprise | $145/mo | 1,000 contacts, 5 users, dedicated account team and uptime SLA, billed annually |
| Klaviyo Free | Free | 250 profiles, 500 emails/mo, $5 each in mobile messaging and Composer credit |
| Klaviyo Email / Email+SMS (paid) | Check current pricing | Scales by active profile count above 250; no fixed rate shown without entering a contact total |
| Brevo Free | Free | Unlimited contacts stored, 300 emails/day (about 9,000/mo) |
| Brevo Starter | From $9/mo | 500 contacts, 5,000 emails/mo; about $8.08/mo billed yearly |
| Brevo Standard | $18/mo | Adds marketing automation and A/B testing; about $16.17/mo billed yearly |
| Brevo Professional | $499/mo | 150,000 emails/mo; about $449.08/mo billed yearly |
| Brevo Enterprise | From $2,499/mo | Custom sending volume with a dedicated account manager |
| Mailchimp Free | Free | Up to 250 contacts |
| Mailchimp Essentials | From $13/mo | 5,000 emails/mo, A/B testing and scheduled sends |
| Mailchimp Standard | From $20/mo | 6,000 emails/mo, behavioral targeting and retargeting ads |
| Mailchimp Premium | Contact sales | 150,000 emails/mo, unlimited seats and audiences; no published price |
| Keap (single platform tier) | From $299/mo | Billed monthly; CRM, automation, invoicing and payments; scales with users and contacts |
| Keap text marketing add-on, tiers 2-6 | $24 to $279/mo | Above the included 500 messages and 100 minutes |
| Omnisend Free | Free | 250 contacts, 500 emails/mo |
| Omnisend Standard | $16/mo | 500 contacts, 6,000 emails/mo; $11.20/mo for the first 3 months (-30%) |
| Omnisend Pro | $59/mo | 2,500 contacts, unlimited emails; $41.30/mo for the first 3 months (-30%); SMS from $0.007/message |
| Omnisend Enterprise | Custom quote | For lists above 150,000 contacts |
| Customer.io Essentials | Check current pricing | Billed monthly; scales by unique profile count on Customer.io's calculator |
| Customer.io Premium | Check current pricing | Billed yearly; higher profile volume and support |
| Salesforce Account Engagement Growth+ | $1,250/mo | Email marketing, lead scoring, Salesforce CRM integration; billed annually |
| Salesforce Account Engagement Plus+ | $2,750/mo | Adds advanced automation, A/B testing and dynamic content; billed annually |
| Salesforce Account Engagement Advanced+ | $4,400/mo | Adds AI-powered scoring and attribution, sandbox testing; billed annually |
| Salesforce Account Engagement Premium+ | $15,000/mo | Multi-business-unit governance and advanced data controls; billed annually |
| Marketo Engage (Growth, Select, Prime, Ultimate) | Contact sales | No published USD price on any of the four editions |
The bottom line
Pick by contact record, not by feature list. ActiveCampaign is the general-purpose choice for most small and mid-size teams: real automation and a built-in CRM without an enterprise price tag.
The ActiveCampaign profile and our full ActiveCampaign review cover the rest.
Open HubSpot when marketing, sales and service need to share one record; our HubSpot Marketing Hub review has the detail.
Open Klaviyo or Omnisend for ecommerce automation built around orders and browsing, Brevo or Mailchimp for a budget-friendly starting point, and Customer.io once event-triggered, cross-channel messaging needs an engineer's input.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement and Marketo Engage are the two built for enterprise B2B programs; only Account Engagement publishes a starting price.
Marketing automation is one half of the funnel.
Cold outbound has its own shortlist in the cold email guide, and SMS-specific sending is covered in the SMS marketing guide.
We re-read these pricing pages in September 2026 on each vendor's own pricing URL, and nobody paid for a slot.
Cite this: MarketingShot, "Best Marketing Automation Software in 2026", September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
ActiveCampaign, for most small and mid-size teams: a working visual automation builder and a built-in CRM at its cheapest entry tier. HubSpot Marketing Hub is the better pick once marketing, sales and service need one shared contact record. Prices were verified on vendor pricing pages in September 2026.
Self-serve tools start free or from about $9 a month: Brevo and ActiveCampaign both have a published entry price under $50. Mid-market platforms like Customer.io price by profile count on a calculator rather than a flat rate. Enterprise B2B tools run far higher, as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement's pricing table below shows, and Marketo Engage publishes no price at all.
Yes, several. HubSpot's free plan covers 2 users, Klaviyo and Omnisend both cap free use at 250 profiles, Brevo's free plan stores unlimited contacts and sends up to about 9,000 emails a month, and Mailchimp's free plan covers up to 250 contacts. None of the free tiers include the automation depth of a paid plan.
ActiveCampaign if you want the deepest automation builder for the price, with a usable CRM included even on its cheapest tier. HubSpot if marketing, sales and service already run, or will run, on HubSpot's CRM, since Marketing Hub shares that record natively. HubSpot costs more once you pass its promotional Starter rate and add Professional's required onboarding fee.
Klaviyo for stores that want the deepest order and browsing data behind every automation, and Omnisend for stores on a tighter budget that still want email, SMS and push in one builder. Omnisend's Standard plan lists at $16 a month ($11.20 for the first 3 months on the current promo), undercutting Klaviyo's pricing at a comparable contact count.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement if the company already runs Salesforce CRM; it is the only enterprise B2B tool here with a published starting price, $1,250 a month for Growth+. Marketo Engage is the alternative for Adobe-standardized enterprises, but every tier is quote-only, so budgeting means a sales call first.
Sources
Prices and plan details come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker.
- ActiveCampaign pricing, checked Sep 2026
- Klaviyo pricing, checked Sep 2026
- Brevo pricing, checked Sep 2026
- Mailchimp pricing, checked Sep 2026
- Keap pricing, checked Sep 2026
- Customer.io pricing, checked Sep 2026
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