Email marketing remains one of the highest-ROI marketing channels. But with so many tools available, it is hard to know where to turn. Features, pricing, technical complexity, e-commerce or B2B compatibility: every platform has its strengths and its limitations. This guide compares the 8 essential solutions on the market to help you make the right choice based on your profile and your objectives.
The criteria for choosing the right email marketing tool
Before comparing tools, you need to know what you are looking for. Here are the six criteria that genuinely make a difference day to day.
- Ease of use: some tools take 20 minutes to learn, others require several weeks. Assess the resources available within your team.
- Automation: behaviour-triggered workflows, lead scoring, multi-step scenarios. A decisive criterion once your contact base exceeds a few hundred contacts.
- Available integrations: compatibility with your CMS, CRM, e-commerce platform and analytics tools. A missing integration can be costly to develop around.
- GDPR compliance: data hosting, double opt-in management, consent tracking. Non-negotiable for any activity in Europe.
- Pricing: pay close attention to the billing model. Some charge per contact, others per email sent. The difference can be considerable depending on your usage.
- Deliverability: the actual ability of your emails to land in the inbox, not in spam. A criterion often underestimated at purchase and highly impactful in production.
Summary comparison table of the 8 tools
Here is an overview to quickly compare the 8 solutions across the key criteria.
| Tool | Ideal profile | Strength | Limitation | Entry price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | SMBs, startups, multichannel | Affordable all-in-one | Limited templates | Free / €9/month |
| MailerLite | Freelancers, creators | Design simplicity | Few integrations | Free / $10/month |
| HubSpot | B2B teams, inbound | Powerful native CRM | Very high pricing | Free / €800/month |
| ActiveCampaign | Advanced marketers | Advanced automation | Learning curve | From $29/month |
| Klaviyo | Advanced e-commerce | E-commerce segmentation | Expensive at scale | Free / $35/month |
| Mailchimp | Beginners, SMBs | Ease of use | High price per contact | Free / €13/month |
| Systeme.io | Entrepreneurs, solopreneurs | Ultra-affordable all-in-one | Less suited to large accounts | Free / €17/month |
| GetResponse | E-commerce, webinars | Integrated webinars | Price grows quickly | Trial / €13/month |
Prices shown are indicative and may change. Check the official websites for exact pricing at the time of your decision.
Detailed overview tool by tool
Brevo, the affordable French all-in-one alternative
Formerly Sendinblue, Brevo has established itself as the go-to French-speaking reference for affordable email marketing. The platform covers email, SMS, WhatsApp, CRM and landing pages in a unified interface fully available in French.
- Key features: drag-and-drop editor, advanced automation, segmentation, integrated CRM, transactional sending, A/B testing.
- Who it’s for: SMBs, startups, organisations looking for a multichannel tool without managing multiple subscriptions.
- Pricing: free plan up to 300 emails/day with unlimited contacts. Paid plans from €9/month based on sending volume.
✅ Strength: Unbeatable value for money, data hosted in Europe
⚠️ Limitation: Templates less varied than some competitors
MailerLite, simplicity above all
MailerLite bets on a clean user experience and immediate onboarding. It is the ideal tool for those who want to send beautiful campaigns without getting lost in complex menus.
- Key features: elegant visual editor, basic to intermediate automation, landing pages, pop-up forms, newsletter websites.
- Who it’s for: freelancers, content creators, associations, small businesses with simple to intermediate needs.
- Pricing: free plan for 500 contacts and 12,000 emails/month. Paid plans from $10/month.
✅ Strength: The simplest interface on the market, excellent template design
⚠️ Limitation: Only 60 native integrations, no SMS or WhatsApp
HubSpot, the complete ecosystem for B2B teams
HubSpot is not just an email tool — it is a complete marketing suite built around a very powerful native CRM. It centralises marketing, sales and customer service in a single environment.
- Key features: email, CRM, automation, landing pages, blog, SEO, multi-touch reporting, lead scoring.
- Who it’s for: B2B teams, companies practising inbound marketing, organisations with the resources to train their users.
- Pricing: very limited free plan. Functional Marketing Hub from €800/month. Enterprise plans above €3,000/month.
✅ Strength: The most complete suite on the market, powerful native CRM
⚠️ Limitation: Prohibitive pricing for SMBs, one to two week learning curve
ActiveCampaign, the power of automation
ActiveCampaign is the reference for marketers who need advanced automations: conditional workflows, behavioural scoring, granular segmentation and integrated CRM. A platform built for performance, not simplicity.
- Key features: advanced visual automation, CRM and sales pipelines, lead scoring, A/B testing, SMS, integration with 900 applications.
- Who it’s for: experienced marketers, agencies, SMBs with complex nurturing sequences.
- Pricing: from $29/month for 1,000 contacts. Note: since 2024, ActiveCampaign charges overages at $0.005 per additional email.
✅ Strength: The most powerful automation in this price range
⚠️ Limitation: One to two week onboarding, overage billing to monitor
Klaviyo, the e-commerce specialist
Klaviyo was designed from the ground up for e-commerce. Its native integration with Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento, and its behavioural segmentation based on purchase data, make it the reference for online merchants who want to run their email marketing on data.
- Key features: purchase history-based segmentation, pre-configured e-commerce automations, SMS, customer lifetime value predictions, native e-commerce integrations.
- Who it’s for: e-commerce businesses generating over €50,000 in monthly revenue, for whom email represents more than 15% of sales.
- Pricing: free plan up to 250 contacts. From $35/month for 1,250 contacts. The price grows rapidly with list size.
✅ Strength: The best e-commerce segmentation on the market
⚠️ Limitation: High cost at scale, less suited to non-e-commerce uses
Mailchimp, the veteran still going strong
Mailchimp is often the first email marketing tool people discover. Its reputation is well-earned on ease of use and breadth of integrations. But beware: its pricing has increased significantly since its acquisition by Intuit in 2021.
- Key features: intuitive editor, 300 native integrations, customer journey mapping, landing pages, A/B tests.
- Who it’s for: email marketing beginners, small organisations that prioritise simplicity and have a modest contact list.
- Pricing: free plan for 500 contacts and 1,000 emails/month. Essentials plan from €13/month. Advanced automation requires the Standard plan from €20/month.
✅ Strength: The fastest onboarding, 300 integrations available
⚠️ Limitation: Among the highest prices per equivalent volume, deliverability behind competitors
Systeme.io, the all-in-one made in France
Systeme.io is a French solution designed for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. Its main asset: bringing email marketing, sales funnels, course hosting, affiliate programmes and CRM together in a single tool at unbeatable prices.
- Key features: unlimited emailing, sales funnels, opt-in pages, course hosting, affiliate programme, automated webinars, simple CRM.
- Who it’s for: digital entrepreneurs, online course creators, solopreneurs wanting a single tool without multiple subscriptions.
- Pricing: free plan for 2,000 contacts with access to all core features. Paid plans from €17/month. Unlimited plan at €97/month.
✅ Strength: Unbeatable value for money, 100% French tool with responsive support
⚠️ Limitation: Less suited to large organisations with complex marketing needs
GetResponse, the complete tool for e-commerce and webinars
GetResponse stands out with two assets rarely combined at this price point: a genuine integrated webinar platform and solid e-commerce features. A versatile solution for organisations that want to combine email marketing, events and conversion.
- Key features: email, webinars for up to 500 participants, landing pages, automation, e-commerce integrations, pop-ups, integrated website builder.
- Who it’s for: organisations combining e-commerce and training, SMBs that regularly run webinars or online events.
- Pricing: 14-day free trial. Starter plan from €13.12/month. Marketer plan with advanced automation from €44.48/month.
✅ Strength: Native webinars for up to 500 participants, solid e-commerce features
⚠️ Limitation: Price increases quickly with contact volume
How to choose based on your profile
You are an e-commerce merchant
Your priority is behavioural segmentation, purchase-triggered automations and integration with your sales platform. Klaviyo is the reference if your sales volume justifies it. Brevo and GetResponse are excellent more accessible alternatives with solid e-commerce integrations.
You are a marketing manager at an SMB or agency
You need advanced automations, a CRM and a multichannel view. ActiveCampaign is the reference for automation. Brevo offers an excellent features-to-price ratio with a French-language interface. HubSpot if you have the budget and want to centralise everything.
You are an entrepreneur, content creator or solopreneur
Simplicity, price and all-in-one are your criteria. Systeme.io stands out as the most cost-effective choice if you sell courses or digital products. MailerLite is ideal if you simply want to send beautiful campaigns without the hassle.
What if email alone is no longer enough?
Email marketing is a solid channel. But it has a structural limitation every marketer knows: your messages are only seen if your contacts open their inbox. Declining open rates, increasingly aggressive spam filters, inbox saturation — email alone leaves a growing share of your audience out of reach.
Web Push is the natural complement to email marketing. Where email waits to be opened, a push notification appears directly on the user’s screen, in real time, without an inbox to pass through. It requires neither an email address nor an app download: a single click on “Allow” is enough for a visitor to become a subscriber.
The two channels complement rather than compete with each other. Email nurtures the relationship in depth, with rich, contextualised content. Web Push acts on timing, reaching the audience at the right moment, wherever they are. A subscriber who has not opened your emails for three weeks may very well click on a push notification sent at the right time. As a pioneer of Web Push in France since 2018, Adrenalead supports more than 2,000 businesses and publishers in activating this complementary channel: 10-minute integration, a network of more than 60 million opt-in profiles, and a 100% GDPR-compliant solution.
💡 Our advice: Whichever email tool you choose from this comparison, Web Push integrates naturally alongside it as a complement. Both channels share the same logic of segmentation, automation and performance tracking in GA4 via UTMs. Building both bases in parallel means doubling your touchpoints without doubling your budget.
In summary: which tool should you choose?
There is no universal email marketing tool. The best tool is the one that matches your level of marketing maturity, the size of your base and your growth objectives.
- You are just starting out and have a tight budget: Systeme.io or MailerLite.
- You want a French all-in-one tool: Brevo or Systeme.io.
- You have a growing e-commerce site: Klaviyo or GetResponse.
- You manage complex marketing campaigns: ActiveCampaign or HubSpot.
- You are starting out with no precise objective yet defined: Mailchimp or MailerLite for their ease of use.
Whatever your email platform, think about building your Web Push subscriber base in parallel. It is a complementary safeguard for reaching the audience that today slips through the cracks of inboxes.
