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Best email marketing automation platforms

Almost every provider claims automation. The differences are in what a workflow can branch on, how many workflows you get, and which tier unlocks them, and the last one is where the marketing pages are least forthcoming.

A plan advertising automation that allows exactly one workflow is not the same product as one allowing unlimited branching with scoring and split-path testing, even though both tick the same box on a comparison table. Where a plan restricts automation, this page says so in the limits column.

What we weighted

Stated up front so you can disagree with the criteria rather than only with the conclusion.
  • Branching depth: conditions, splits, and whether whole paths can be A/B tested
  • Trigger range, especially site behaviour and store events
  • How many workflows the tier actually allows
  • Lead and contact scoring
  • Cost of the cheapest tier where automation is genuinely usable

Ranked by cost

5,000 subscribers is where automation stops being optional and starts paying for itself. Annual billing, because a business committing to automation is usually committing for a year.

Cost calculator

Contacts you actually hold, after bounces.

Campaigns plus automated sends. This is what breaks plans.

Billing
Features you need

Ticking a box removes every plan that does not include it. Leave them all clear to see the full field.

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Cheapest

EmailOctopus

Pro

£22/mo

Lowest effective monthly cost of every plan that meets your requirements.

Visit EmailOctopus

Best value

Moosend

Pro

$38/mo

≈ £28.02/mo

Of the plans costing up to 2x the cheapest paid option, the one with the highest capability score.

Visit Moosend

Best automation

ActiveCampaign

Starter

£67/mo

Highest automation score among plans that actually include automation on that tier.

Visit ActiveCampaign
  • £22
    ≈ £22/mo
    Cheapest
    Monthly
    £24.50
    Annual (per mo)
    £22
    Subscribers
    5,000
    Emails/mo
    50,000
    AutomationLanding pagesForms

    Unlimited landing pages, forms and users. Reports kept indefinitely. Send allowance is 10x your subscriber band, with a 10,000-email floor.

    Visit EmailOctopusRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • $38
    ≈ £28.02/mo
    Best value
    Monthly
    $48
    Annual (per mo)
    $38
    Subscribers
    5,000
    Emails/mo
    Unlimited
    AutomationLanding pagesEcommerceForms

    Unlimited email sends on every band. SMTP server and transactional emails included.

    Visit MoosendRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 3Sender

    Standard

    £28.79
    ≈ £28.79/mo
    Monthly
    £28.79
    Annual (per mo)
    Same
    Subscribers
    5,000
    Emails/mo
    60,000
    AutomationLanding pagesEcommerceSMSForms

    3 role-based seats. Send allowance is 12x the subscriber band up to 50,000; above that Sender quotes the allowances shown per band, which step up in blocks.

    Visit SenderRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 4GetResponse

    Starter

    £31.98
    ≈ £31.98/mo
    Monthly
    £39
    Annual (per mo)
    £31.98
    Subscribers
    5,000
    Emails/mo
    Unlimited
    AutomationLanding pagesForms

    One custom automation workflow plus a welcome series. No ecommerce tools, SMS or webinars.

    Visit GetResponseRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 5MailerLite

    Comfort

    $44.10
    ≈ £32.52/mo
    Monthly
    $49
    Annual (per mo)
    $44.10
    Subscribers
    5,000
    Emails/mo
    50,000
    AutomationLanding pagesEcommerceForms

    50 automations, 10 landing pages, 10 signup forms, 3 user seats. Send allowance is 10x your subscriber band.

    Visit MailerLiteRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 6AWeber

    Lite

    $50
    ≈ £36.87/mo
    Monthly
    $60
    Annual (per mo)
    $50
    Subscribers
    5,000
    Emails/mo
    50,000
    AutomationLanding pagesForms

    1 email list, 3 landing pages, 3 automations, 1 custom segment, 3 users. AWeber branding.

    Visit AWeberRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 7Brevo

    Standard

    £48.08
    ≈ £48.08/mo
    Monthly
    £53
    Annual (per mo)
    £48.08
    Subscribers
    Unlimited
    Emails/mo
    30,000
    AutomationLanding pagesEcommerceSMSFormsCRM

    Unlimited automated workflows, A/B testing, web and event tracking, send-time optimisation, 1 landing page. No Brevo logo.

    Visit BrevoRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 8Kit

    Creator

    $74.17
    ≈ £54.69/mo
    Monthly
    $75
    Annual (per mo)
    $74.17
    Subscribers
    5,000
    Emails/mo
    Unlimited
    AutomationLanding pagesEcommerceForms

    Unlimited sends. Visual automation builder, email sequences and third-party integrations included.

    Visit KitRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 9Omnisend

    Standard

    $81
    ≈ £59.73/mo
    Monthly
    $81
    Annual (per mo)
    Same
    Subscribers
    5,000
    Emails/mo
    60,000
    AutomationEcommerceForms

    Send allowance is 12x your contact band. Unlimited web push.

    Visit OmnisendRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 10Drip

    Drip

    $89
    ≈ £65.63/mo
    Monthly
    $89
    Annual (per mo)
    Same
    Subscribers
    5,000
    Emails/mo
    Unlimited
    AutomationEcommerceSMSForms

    Every feature is included on every band. Unlimited sending up to 30,000 contacts; above that the allowance is 12 sends per contact. Up to 50 workflows.

    Visit DripRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • £67
    ≈ £67/mo
    Best automation
    Monthly
    £67
    Annual (per mo)
    £67
    Subscribers
    5,000
    Emails/mo
    50,000
    AutomationLanding pagesForms

    Send allowance is 10x your contact band. 1 user, limited segmentation, 5 actions per automation.

    Visit ActiveCampaignRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 12HubSpot

    Marketing Hub Starter

    $100
    ≈ £73.74/mo
    Monthly
    $120
    Annual (per mo)
    $100
    Subscribers
    5,000
    Emails/mo
    25,000
    AutomationLanding pagesFormsCRM

    Send allowance is 5x your marketing contact band. Simple automation only.

    Visit HubSpotRead more
    Needs review8 September 2026source

Ranked by the effective monthly cost on your chosen billing cycle, converted to pounds where a provider quotes in another currency. Only the cheapest qualifying plan per provider is shown. Prices are the provider’s own published rate. Always confirm before buying.

Our shortlist

Who we would actually look at first for this use case. This is an editorial judgement and it is deliberately separate from the price ranking above, where the two disagree, both are shown.

  1. 1.ActiveCampaign

    #11 on price for this preset

    The deepest builder here by a clear margin: unlimited branching, scoring, split-path testing and goal tracking. Also the most expensive.

    Read the full reviewVisit ActiveCampaign

  2. 2.Kit

    #8 on price for this preset

    The best automation builder for content and course businesses, with a tag-based model that suits audience businesses better than lists.

    Read the full reviewVisit Kit

  3. 3.Drip

    #10 on price for this preset

    Behavioural segmentation on store events is stronger than anything else at this price, and every feature is on every plan.

    Read the full reviewVisit Drip

  4. 4.GetResponse

    #4 on price for this preset

    Mature workflows with ecommerce and web-event triggers, but note the Starter tier allows only one workflow.

    Read the full reviewVisit GetResponse

Who this page is not for

If your automation need is a welcome sequence and a monthly newsletter, everything on this page is overbuilt. MailerLite Comfort or Moosend Pro will do it for a fraction of the price.

Other use cases

Open this preset in the full calculator →

Affiliate disclosure

Email King may earn a commission if you sign up through some of the links on this page, at no additional cost to you. Commission never affects the ranking: results are ordered by the price you would actually pay, calculated from published rate cards. Read the full disclosure.