The best Marketing automation tools
About Marketing automation
Marketing automation uses software to nurture leads, send messages at scale and track engagement. Tools include email platforms, CRMs and marketing software. Start with email automation: welcome sequences, nurture campaigns and re-engagement messages. Then layer on other automation as you grow. But remember that automation amplifies what you do; a bad message sent at scale is still bad. Focus first on having something worth saying, then use automation to say it efficiently.
Top picks
Keap
Consolidates customer management, email marketing, sales pipelines and invoicing into one system for small businesses.
Best for: Small service businesses, coaches, consultants and agencies that want CRM, email and text marketing automation, appointments, invoicing and payments in one system instead of juggling separate apps.
- Free plan
- No
- Price
- From $249/mo
- MCP server
- No
- API
- Yes
Postscript
SMS, RCS and email retention marketing for Shopify stores, with flows, opt-in tools and per-message pricing.
Best for: Shopify brands that want SMS, with RCS and email alongside, as a proper revenue channel and need opt-in tools, automated flows and compliance support in one platform.
- Free plan
- Yes
- Price
- From $100/mo
- MCP server
- API
- Yes
ActiveCampaign
Automates email, SMS and sales follow-up through visual workflows with a built-in CRM and contact lists.
Best for: Small and B2B teams that want behaviour-triggered email, SMS and a built-in CRM in one tool, and accept that the CRM side can be outgrown.
- Free plan
- No
- Price
- From $15/mo
- MCP server
- Yes
- API
- Yes
Omnisend
Email, SMS and web push marketing for online stores, with ready-made automations and a free plan to start.
Best for: Small and mid-sized online stores that want email, SMS and push campaigns plus automated flows in one place, and want to start on a free plan.
- Free plan
- Yes
- Price
- From $16/mo
- MCP server
- Yes
- API
- Yes
The top 4 side by side
| 9 points compared | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $249/mo | $100/mo | $15/mo | |
| Free plan | No | Yes | No | No |
| API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | Yes | Yes | |
| SMS / multi-channel | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Visual automation builder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in CRM | Yes | Yes | ||
| Built-in outreach/sequences | Yes | Yes | ||
| Ecommerce focus | Yes | No | ||
| Links |
All Marketing automation tools
- Consolidates customer management, email marketing, sales pipelines and invoicing into one system for small businesses.
- SMS, RCS and email retention marketing for Shopify stores, with flows, opt-in tools and per-message pricing.
- Automates email, SMS and sales follow-up through visual workflows with a built-in CRM and contact lists.
- Email, SMS and web push marketing for online stores, with ready-made automations and a free plan to start.
Put Marketing automation to work
How we rank
Every tool in a category is ranked by the same rule, worked out from the data we hold, not by who pays us. In order:
- How many of the category's shared features it has.
- Whether there is a free plan to start on.
- How open it is to AI: an API and an MCP server.
- Whether its pricing is public.
- Name, A to Z, when all else is equal.
When we add a tool or learn more about one, the ranking updates by itself.