You’re getting traffic. Some of it even buys. But roughly 70% of online shoppers abandon their carts, and if you have no way to capture an email address and follow up, most of those people are gone forever.
I learned this the expensive way. My first store had zero email capture. We paid for ads to bring visitors in, then watched seven out of ten of them vanish without a trace. Adding proper follow-up sequences nearly doubled our revenue per visitor. Nothing else we tried came close.
Social networks throttle your reach unless you pay them. Email is the one channel where you actually own the audience. No algorithm change can take your list away.
The catch? You can’t run this from a personal Gmail account, either. Deliverability, automation, list management, all of it needs a dedicated platform, and hundreds of them are competing for your money. Every single one claims to be the answer.
We test this stuff for a living at BriskPick. Below is what actually survived real-world use, with prices and flaws included.
## TL;DR: Key Takeaways
* **Best overall for beginners:** Mailchimp stays the easiest platform for small businesses.
* **Best for big lists:** Brevo charges by emails sent, so contact count doesn’t hurt you.
* **Best for automations:** ActiveCampaign is a powerhouse if you’ll invest the learning time.
* **Best for creators:** ConvertKit, now called Kit, makes audience growth and digital product sales simple.
## Mailchimp: The Best Email Marketing Tool for Beginners
I’ve used Mailchimp on and off for nearly a decade, and it’s still the first name out of my mouth when a small business owner asks where to start. If you can drag a text box around a page, you can build a campaign here.
The drag-and-drop editor works the way you’d expect. Templates render properly on mobile, which sounds like a low bar until you’ve tested platforms where they don’t.
### Standout Features
* **Content Studio:** Keep every image and logo in one place.
* **Predictive Demographics:** Mailchimp’s AI predicts subscriber details like gender, so targeting gets sharper.
* **Free Website Builder:** Handy if you don’t have a site yet.
### Real Pricing
The Free plan covers 500 contacts and 1,000 sends per month. Essentials starts at $13/month and strips the Mailchimp branding off your messages. Standard, from $20/month, adds the more advanced automation.
Now the honest warning: costs climb fast. Past 10,000 contacts, Mailchimp gets notoriously pricey. I’ve watched client bills triple on audiences that weren’t even especially engaged.
### Pros and Cons
**Pros:**
* Easiest editor on this list.
* Integrates with practically every app on the planet.
* A genuinely useful free tier for absolute beginners.
**Cons:**
* Support is thin on lower-tier plans.
* The dashboard feels cluttered with upsells.
* Costs balloon once your list scales.
Check Mailchimp pricing here.
## Brevo: The Best for Unlimited Contacts
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) flips the pricing model on its head. Most platforms charge per subscriber. This one bills per email sent.
That structure is a lifesaver when your database is stuffed with inactive people. Last year I moved a client with 25,000 contacts to Brevo, and their monthly bill dropped by over 60%. Same audience, a fraction of the cost.
It’s also more than an email tool. You get a built-in CRM, SMS marketing, live chat, even Facebook ad management, all under one roof.
### Standout Features
* **Send-Time Optimization:** The AI learns when each subscriber tends to open, then schedules accordingly.
* **Built-in CRM:** Track deals and customer relationships in the same dashboard as your campaigns.
* **SMS Campaigns:** Reach people directly by text.
### Real Pricing
The Free plan stores unlimited contacts but caps you at 300 emails per day. Starter costs $9/month for 5,000 messages with no daily limit. Business is $18/month and adds advanced statistics plus A/B testing.
### Pros and Cons
**Pros:**
* Cheapest way to keep a massive list.
* Deliverability rates are genuinely strong.
* Marketing and sales in one login.
**Cons:**
* The 300/day cap makes big broadcasts crawl on the free tier.
* The interface takes longer to learn than Mailchimp’s.
* Templates feel a bit rigid.
Try Brevo here.
## ActiveCampaign: The Best for Email Automations
If complex, behavior-driven sequences are what you need, ActiveCampaign is the yardstick every competitor gets measured against. I run it for a B2B software company, and honestly, nothing else here matches its personalization depth.
The visual automation builder is a dream for data nerds. Rules can trigger off site tracking, purchase history, engagement with past sends, custom fields, whatever you’ve got.
A real example from one of my setups: cart gets abandoned, wait two hours, send a nudge. Still no sale after 24 hours? Fire off an SMS with a 10% discount code. You can stack logic this deep all day.
### Standout Features
* **Site Tracking:** See exactly which pages a subscriber visits on your website.
* **Lead Scoring:** Assign points automatically based on how people engage.
* **Split Actions:** Run infinite A/B tests inside the automations themselves.
### Real Pricing
Don’t expect a permanent free plan here. There’s a 14-day trial, nothing more.
Starter runs $15/month for up to 1,000 contacts and handles the basics. Plus, at $30/month, is where things get interesting: landing pages, lead scoring, ecommerce integrations. Professional sits at $70/month and brings predictive sending and split automations.
My take? If you’re buying ActiveCampaign at all, budget for Plus. The entry tier undersells what this machine can do.
### Pros and Cons
**Pros:**
* Deepest automation builder on the market.
* Site tracking changes how you segment entirely.
* Scales beautifully for B2B.
**Cons:**
* Steeper learning curve than everything else reviewed here.
* No free plan.
* The interface occasionally feels dated.
* Overkill if you just want to send a weekly newsletter.
Start a free ActiveCampaign trial here.
## ConvertKit (Now Kit): The Best for Creators and Bloggers
ConvertKit rebranded to Kit in 2024, and the new name suits it. This platform was built for people selling their own work: courses, ebooks, paid newsletters, sponsorships.
Where Mailchimp optimizes for polished marketing campaigns, Kit optimizes for audience. The tagging system is the best I’ve used. Someone downloads your free checklist? Tagged. Opens three emails about one topic in a row? Tagged. When you eventually pitch a product, you’re only mailing people who showed real interest.
Landing pages and forms are baked in too, so you can start collecting subscribers without a separate website. Paid newsletter subscriptions are supported natively, which removes the need for a third-party paywall tool.
### Standout Features
* **Visual Automations:** Simple funnels for welcome sequences and product launches.
* **Creator Network:** Grow your list by getting recommended by other newsletters.
* **Paid Subscriptions:** Charge for your newsletter without extra software.
### Real Pricing
The free Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, which is remarkably generous. Paid tiers begin at $29/month (Creator), with Creator Pro at $59/month for advanced reporting and better deliverability tools.
### Pros and Cons
**Pros:**
* Built for how creators actually work.
* Best tagging and segmentation for content people.
* Extremely generous free plan.
**Cons:**
* Weak for ecommerce compared to the others.
* Reporting stays basic on cheaper tiers.
* The rebrand means half the tutorials online still reference the old interface.
Try Kit here.
## Quick Comparison
| Platform | Free Plan? | Starts At | Billing Basis |
|—|—|—|—|
| Mailchimp | Yes, 500 contacts | $13/month | Contacts |
| Brevo | Yes, 300 emails/day | $9/month | Emails sent |
| ActiveCampaign | 14-day trial only | $15/month | Contacts |
| Kit (ConvertKit) | Yes, 10,000 subscribers | $29/month | Subscribers |
## Which One Should You Pick?
There’s no single winner, and to be frank, anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
Simple store, small list, zero patience for learning curves? Go Mailchimp. Huge database full of inactive people? Brevo, easily. ActiveCampaign is the answer for complex funnels, provided someone on your team will actually maintain them. Newsletter or digital products at the center of everything? Kit.
One last piece of advice from someone who’s migrated platforms more times than I’d like to admit: choose for where your list will be in two years, not where it sits today. Migration is a headache. Pricing that scales badly is the reason most people end up doing it.