Visibility in this ranking can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the
shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review. The largest vendors in marketing automation software
cannot hold places 1 to 3. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category,
wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure ·
editorial process.
The 15 tools, reviewed
#1 Zoho Marketing Automation
Low-cost journeys and scoring inside the Zoho family · India · zoho.com
Low price Zoho CRM sync Rough edges
Formerly sold as Zoho MarketingHub, Zoho Marketing Automation gives small teams behavior-triggered journeys, lead scoring, website tracking and multichannel campaigns at a price far below Western competitors. Its sync with Zoho CRM is native, so for a company already in the Zoho ecosystem the handoff from marketing to sales works without middleware.
- Pricing: Per contact tier / month. Published plans priced by contact count at a low entry point, with lead scoring from the Professional plan. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Zoho CRM users on a budget
- Strengths: Journey builder; Lead scoring; Web behavior tracking.
Where it falls short
The interface is busy and some flows feel unfinished. Integrations outside Zoho's own products are limited. Reporting is serviceable but not deep.
Wrong for
Companies on Salesforce, HubSpot or Pipedrive CRM, or teams that value polish; ActiveCampaign or Ortto integrate more evenly.
Visit Zoho Marketing Automation →
#2 ActiveCampaign
Flexible journey builder for small marketing teams · United States · activecampaign.com
Flexible journeys CRM-neutral Contact-tier pricing
ActiveCampaign gives a one- or two-person marketing team most of what the enterprise suites do in a form they can operate without training courses. Automations branch on site visits, email behavior, custom fields, deal stages and events, with goals that pull contacts forward when they convert.
- Pricing: Per contact tier / month. Published plans priced by contact count. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Small B2B and B2C marketing teams
- Strengths: Visual automation builder with goals; Site and event tracking; Lead scoring via the Pipelines add-on.
Where it falls short
Price jumps between contact bands are sharp, attribution and some reporting sit on the pricier tiers, and lead scoring needs a paid CRM add-on on top of the plan.
Wrong for
Software companies whose triggers live in product data, or B2B teams needing account-based views across large buying groups.
Visit ActiveCampaign →
#3 Ortto
Customer data platform with journeys and analytics · Australia · ortto.com
Built-in CDP Clean interface Smaller ecosystem
Ortto, known as Autopilot until 2022, combines a customer data platform, a journey builder and analytics that most teams would otherwise buy as three products.
- Pricing: Per contact tier / month. Published plans priced by contact count, with higher tiers for advanced data and analytics features. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Growth teams wanting data and journeys together
- Strengths: Customer data platform; Visual journey builder; Email, SMS and in-app messages.
Where it falls short
The integration ecosystem is smaller than ActiveCampaign's, and some CRM syncs are less mature than native ones. Advanced analytics and data features require higher plans.
Wrong for
Teams wanting the broadest integration catalog, or enterprises needing strict governance and multiple business units; ActiveCampaign or Marketo Engage suit them better.
Visit Ortto →
#4 Customer.io
Product-event messaging for software companies · United States · customer.io
Event-driven Warehouse syncs Needs developers
Customer.io is built for companies whose most important marketing signals come from their own product: signed up but never invited a teammate, used a feature three times, hit a plan limit.
- Pricing: Usage-based. Published plans from $100 a month for Essentials, priced by profiles with an email allowance. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: SaaS and app companies with engineers
- Strengths: Event-triggered campaigns; Email, push, SMS and in-app; Data pipelines and reverse ETL.
Where it falls short
It depends on clean event data, so without developer time it underdelivers. There are no landing pages, forms or social tools, and B2B lead scoring and CRM handoff are limited.
Wrong for
Traditional B2B marketing teams without engineering support, or companies needing landing pages and forms; ActiveCampaign or HubSpot Marketing Hub are closer fits.
Visit Customer.io →
#5 HubSpot Marketing Hub
Inbound marketing suite tied to HubSpot's CRM · United States · hubspot.com
Native CRM record All-in-one inbound Pro edition jump
Marketing Hub's advantage is the database it sits on. Workflows, forms and landing pages act on the same records sales works in HubSpot's CRM, so there is no sync to break and reports can trace a closed deal back to the fifth page view.
- Pricing: Per seat plus contact tier / month. Free tools, then Starter, Professional and Enterprise editions priced by seats plus marketing contact tiers; workflows begin at Professional. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Companies standardized on HubSpot CRM
- Strengths: Workflows and branching; Forms, landing pages and blog; Lead scoring.
Where it falls short
Real workflow automation starts at Professional, a steep step from Starter, and comes with a required onboarding fee. Marketing contact tiers add cost as the database grows.
Wrong for
Companies on Salesforce, Pipedrive or another CRM that want neutral automation, or tight budgets; ActiveCampaign or Ortto deliver comparable automation for less.
Visit HubSpot Marketing Hub →
#6 Adobe Marketo Engage
Enterprise B2B marketing automation from Adobe · United States · business.adobe.com
B2B depth Needs certified admin Quote-only
Marketo Engage remains the standard toolkit of B2B marketing operations. Programs, smart lists and tokens let a skilled operator build reusable campaign templates across regions and product lines, scoring can run at both lead and account level, and the Salesforce and Dynamics syncs are mature.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote-only Select, Prime and Ultimate packages priced per thousand contacts. Free plan: none.
- Best for: B2B marketing operations teams
- Strengths: Smart campaigns and programs; Lead and account scoring; Target Account Management add-on.
Where it falls short
The interface is old and unforgiving, and a mistake in a smart campaign can email the wrong thousands of people.
Wrong for
Any team without a dedicated marketing operations person or a partner budget; ActiveCampaign, Ortto or Act-On deliver most B2B programs with far less overhead.
Visit Adobe Marketo Engage →
#7 Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
B2B marketing automation built for Salesforce CRM · United States · salesforce.com
Salesforce-native Scoring and grading High entry price
Account Engagement, still widely called Pardot, lives inside Salesforce. Prospects sync with leads and contacts, engagement history shows on the CRM record, Salesforce campaigns drive reporting, and admins manage permissions in one place. Its combination of behavioral scoring and fit-based grading remains a practical way to tell sales which leads matter.
- Pricing: Flat monthly per org. Org-level editions with published list prices starting above a thousand dollars a month, billed annually, plus add-ons. Free plan: none.
- Best for: B2B teams running Salesforce CRM
- Strengths: Engagement Studio journeys; Prospect scoring and grading; Salesforce campaign sync.
Where it falls short
Without Salesforce CRM it makes little sense. The entry price is high for small teams, and useful features sit in higher editions. Engagement Studio is less flexible than ActiveCampaign's builder.
Wrong for
Any company not running Salesforce CRM, or a small team on a limited budget; HubSpot Marketing Hub or ActiveCampaign are the realistic alternatives.
Visit Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement →
#8 Act-On
Mid-market B2B marketing automation · United States · act-on.com
Active contact pricing B2B focus Dated interface
Act-On targets the B2B company that needs more than an email tool but cannot staff Marketo. It covers nurture journeys, scoring, landing pages, web visitor tracking and native Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics syncs, though on the Professional plan the CRM integration is a paid add-on.
- Pricing: Per active contact tier / month. Professional starts at $900 a month for 2,500 active contacts on an annual contract. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Mid-market B2B marketing teams
- Strengths: Automated journeys; Lead scoring; Account-based marketing tools.
Where it falls short
The interface and journey builder feel dated beside ActiveCampaign or Ortto. The integration ecosystem is modest. It is B2B-focused, with little for ecommerce or product-led use.
Wrong for
SaaS teams driven by product events or consumer brands; Customer.io or Braze are built for those jobs.
Visit Act-On →
#9 Encharge
Behavior-based email flows for small SaaS companies · Bulgaria · encharge.io
SaaS focus Stripe integration Small vendor
Encharge sits between a basic email tool and Customer.io for small software companies. It ingests product events through Segment or its own tracking, reacts to Stripe billing events such as trial end or failed payment, and lets a founder or first marketer build onboarding and upgrade flows visually.
- Pricing: Per contact tier / month. Published plans priced by contact count, with higher tiers for team features and advanced integrations. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Early-stage SaaS companies
- Strengths: Visual flow builder; Product event tracking; Stripe and billing triggers.
Where it falls short
A small vendor means a smaller integration list, less documentation and more risk of slower development. Deliverability tools and reporting are basic.
Wrong for
Mid-sized SaaS firms with multiple products and channels, or non-software businesses; Customer.io or ActiveCampaign are safer choices.
Visit Encharge →
#10 Drip
Ecommerce automation on store events · United States · drip.com
Ecommerce workflows Visual builder Losing ground
Drip was one of the first platforms to build automation around ecommerce events, and its visual workflow builder is still pleasant to use. Store events from Shopify or WooCommerce drive segmentation, workflows and revenue reports, and onsite pop-ups feed new subscribers into those workflows.
- Pricing: Per contact tier / month. Plans priced by contact count with unlimited sends; trial available. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Small ecommerce brands
- Strengths: Visual workflow builder; Shopify and WooCommerce events; Onsite pop-ups.
Where it falls short
The ecommerce market has moved toward specialists with larger data teams, and Drip's feature pace has slowed. Connections outside Shopify and WooCommerce are thin. There is little for B2B lead management.
Wrong for
B2B companies that need lead scoring and sales handoff, or growing stores wanting predictive segmentation; ActiveCampaign or a dedicated ecommerce email platform fit better.
Visit Drip →
#11 Braze
Customer engagement platform for consumer apps · United States · braze.com
Mobile-first Real-time Enterprise scale
Braze orchestrates messages across push notifications, in-app messages, email, SMS and content cards for consumer apps with millions of users. Events stream in real time, journeys in Canvas react within seconds, and experimentation is built in.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote-only contracts built from a platform edition, monthly active users and a pool of Action Credits spent on messages. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Consumer apps with large user bases
- Strengths: Canvas journey orchestration; Push, in-app, email and SMS; Real-time event streaming.
Where it falls short
Contracts are quote-only and substantial, with pricing tied to monthly active users and credits consumed by messages. Implementation needs engineering and data resources.
Wrong for
B2B companies selling through a sales team, or small consumer brands without engineering support; Customer.io or ActiveCampaign are far more proportionate choices.
Visit Braze →
#12 Oracle Eloqua
Enterprise B2B marketing automation from Oracle · United States · oracle.com
Enterprise governance B2B campaigns Heavy to run
Eloqua runs the marketing of large, often regulated B2B organizations with many regions and product lines. Campaign approvals, security controls, data governance and integrations with Oracle and third-party CRMs are its strengths. For a global enterprise with a marketing operations team and an Oracle relationship, it is a defensible choice.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote-only enterprise contracts, typically multi-year. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Global B2B enterprises
- Strengths: Campaign canvas; Lead scoring; Account-based marketing.
Where it falls short
It is expensive, slow to implement and complicated to operate. The interface and email design tools lag modern platforms, and innovation has been slower than at Adobe or Salesforce.
Wrong for
Any small or mid-sized company; ActiveCampaign, Ortto or Act-On provide the necessary automation at a fraction of the cost and effort.
Visit Oracle Eloqua →
#13 Brevo
Email, SMS and WhatsApp automation from Paris · France · brevo.com
Volume-based billing EU vendor Multi-channel
Brevo, the company formerly called Sendinblue, bills mostly on emails sent, not on contacts held. For a business with a large but quiet database, such as a training provider with 60,000 past attendees, that alone can cut the bill by several times against a contact-tier platform.
- Pricing: Per email volume / month. A free plan with a daily sending cap, then paid tiers priced mainly by monthly email volume rather than stored contacts. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Budget-minded SMBs with big lists
- Strengths: Visual automation workflows; Email, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns; Transactional email.
Where it falls short
Lead scoring, account-level views and a two-way sync with Salesforce or Dynamics are thin compared with ActiveCampaign or Act-On. Workflow reporting shows little about why contacts exited a branch.
Wrong for
A B2B team whose sales reps live in Salesforce and expect scored, routed leads with account context.
Visit Brevo →
#14 Keap
Small-business CRM with built-in campaign automation · United States · keap.com
All-in-one Service businesses Owner-operated
Keap, once Infusionsoft and owned by Thryv since 2024, suits a business where the owner is also the marketer and the salesperson.
- Pricing: Per contact tier / month. One published plan priced by contact count, from $299 a month billed annually with two users included, extra users at $39 each and a required paid implementation package. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Coaches, consultants and local service firms
- Strengths: Visual campaign builder; Contact CRM and pipelines; Lead scoring.
Where it falls short
The price starts high for a very small business, a paid implementation package is compulsory, and contact tiers push the bill up quickly.
Wrong for
A company that already runs a separate CRM, or a SaaS business automating around product usage.
Visit Keap →
#15 Klaviyo
Ecommerce email and SMS automation on purchase data · United States · klaviyo.com
Ecommerce Email and SMS Market leader
Klaviyo reads a store's order history, product catalog and browsing events directly from Shopify and other commerce platforms, then drives flows from them: browse abandonment, back-in-stock, replenishment reminders timed to how long a product lasts, and win-back when a customer drifts past their usual reorder date.
- Pricing: Per active profile tier / month. A free plan for up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, then tiers priced by active profiles, with SMS and other mobile messages billed separately. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Direct-to-consumer brands on Shopify
- Strengths: Pre-built ecommerce flows; Predicted lifetime value and churn risk; Email and SMS in one flow.
Where it falls short
It has no lead scoring, sales handoff or account views, so B2B companies get little from it.
Wrong for
Any B2B company whose leads go to a sales team, and software firms automating around product usage rather than orders.
Visit Klaviyo →
Questions and answers
What is the best marketing automation software in 2026?
Zoho Marketing Automation ranks first of 15, best for zoho CRM users on a budget. ActiveCampaign is second (small B2B and B2C marketing teams) and Ortto third (growth teams wanting data and journeys together). Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands, wherever the category has them.
What is the difference between email marketing and marketing automation software?
Email marketing tools focus on sending campaigns to lists, with simple sequences like a sign-up welcome.
Do we need a CRM before buying marketing automation?
If a sales team follows up on leads, yes. Marketing automation scores and routes leads, but reps work them in a CRM, and without one the handoff has nowhere to land.
How does lead scoring work, and is it worth setting up?
Lead scoring assigns points for attributes such as job title and company size, and for behaviors such as pricing page visits or demo requests, then flags leads above a threshold to sales.
Why is Salesforce's or Adobe's marketing automation so expensive?
Marketing Cloud Account Engagement and Marketo Engage are built for B2B organizations with complex CRM data, multiple business units and dedicated operations staff, and they are priced for that.
Can marketing automation send SMS and in-app messages as well as email?
Many platforms can.
How many workflows should a small team build at first?
Fewer than you think. Three to five well-tested programs, such as a welcome nurture, a demo request flow, a trial onboarding sequence and a re-engagement series, cover most of the value.
How long does a marketing automation implementation take?
For a small team on ActiveCampaign, Ortto or Encharge, the basics, meaning tracking, forms, a CRM sync and two or three journeys, can be live in two to four weeks. Customer.io takes longer if product events need engineering work.
Does marketing automation help with multi-touch attribution?
Some platforms offer it on upper tiers, including HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise, Marketo Engage Ultimate, which bundles Marketo Measure and Account Engagement's attribution models.
Can we run marketing automation from our data warehouse?
Increasingly, yes. Customer.io can sync audiences and attributes from warehouses such as Snowflake and BigQuery, and Ortto and Braze accept data from customer data pipelines.
What should be checked before migrating from one automation platform to another?
List every active workflow, form, scoring rule, dynamic content block and integration, and decide which ones are still worth rebuilding. Export contacts with consent status and key engagement fields.
