The 14 Best Marketing Automation Tools

Revised December 14, 2022
Revised September 15, 2020
Revised December 12, 2018

Marketing automation software tools can be very helpful in making lead nurturing and sales acceleration efforts more effective—even if the category is badly misnamed. (Marketing can’t be automated.) But “segmented prospect email followup sequence design and automation,” while a more accurate label for the category, certainly isn’t as catchy.

Recent research shows that 63% of B2B companies that are growing faster than their competitors use marketing automation. These firms are also  much more likely to be “best in class,” and most see sales pipeline opportunities increase by 10-15%.

Smaller firms often start off using email service providers, then implement marketing automation platforms as their prospect database grows, their segmentation becomes more complex, and they develop more granular marketing and sales content.

Options range from fairly simple, moderately priced systems targeted at midmarket companies to sophisticated suites for enterprise users. Here are 14 of the best marketing automation tools based on their popularity with reviewers.

1) Marketo
Google Review Count: 196

An enterprise-grade marketing automation and analytics platform with solutions for lead management, email marketing, consumer marketing, customer base marketing, and mobile marketing.

Pricing: contact vendor

Showcase reviews: SnapApp

2) JumpLead
Google Review Count: 188

System includes email marketing (broadcasters and autoresponders), lead scoring, CRM, landing page builder, and analytics with live web chat capabilities.

Pricing: free to $299 per month

Showcase reviews: 201 Digital

3) HubSpot
Google Review Count: 179

HubSpot’s “all in one” marketing software includes a complete content management system (CMS) for building a website and blog, SEO and social tools, analytics, a landing page builder, and email segmentation and sequence automation. The company also offers a popular free CRM tool.

Sample review: “The software, analytics, and support are amazing. HubSpot handles inbound holistically. Which means that it takes inbound from many angles – it’s not just your social that brings in people, there are landing pages with helpful information, blog posts, newsletters, etc. All of these are covered inside of HubSpot and you can create campaigns and CTAs (calls to action) that inside every point and hub that brings people to where you want them to go.” — Hunter & Bard

Pricing: $200 to $2,400 per month, plus option add-ons; the $800 per month “Pro” option is most popular with midmarket companies

Showcase reviews: MarketingLand, SmartBug Media, Lilach Bullock, SnapApp, Hunter & Bard

4) OpenEMM
Google Review Count: 174

OpenEMM is an Open Source web-based enterprise application for e-mail and marketing automation. This tool enables you to create and send e-mail newsletter and service e-mails (such as transaction e-mails and event or date triggered e-mails).

Sample review: “OpenEMM is first and foremost an email marketing package, with contacts database, subscriber list management, email targeting, and event-triggering. There’s a reporting function, and facilities to create email templates.” — 201 Digital

Pricing: free

Showcase reviews: 201 Digital

5) Customer.io
Google Review Count: 172

Contact management, email segmentation/personalization/automation, message scheduling, A/B testing, and activity tracking for SMB companies.

Pricing: free to $1,250 per month

Showcase reviews: 201 Digital

6) InTouch
Google Review Count: 170

CRM functionality combined with email marketing, lead nurturing, team collaboration/project management, sales pipeline management, and survey tools, particularly well suited for professional services firms.

Sample review: “InTouch is a sales CRM and automated marketing tool, targeted at smaller businesses. The free version gives an unlimited number of client contacts and organisations, but is limited to two users, and 100 emails per month.” — 201 Digital

Pricing: $89 per month plus $22 per user

Showcase reviews: 201 Digital

7) Act-On
Google Review Count: 169

Provides support for inbound (SEO and social media management, forms and landing pages) and outbound (email marketing and webinar management) marketing, plus reporting and features for account-based marketing automation.

Pricing: $600 to $2,000 per month

Showcase reviews: SnapApp

8) Pardot
Google Review Count: 141

Marketing automation tool combining email marketing, lead management, and reporting with sales alignment. Now owned by and tightly integrated with Salesforce.com, Pardot should at least be on the consideration list of marketing automation tools for any SMB already using Salesforce.

Pricing: $1,000 to $3,000 per month

Showcase reviews: SnapApp

9) Oracle Eloqua
Google Review Count: 123

Enables marketers to create campaigns across channels including email, display search, video, and mobile, combined with lead management/nurturing and sales acceleration features. Best suited (like Marketo) for large enterprises.

Pricing: $2.000 to $4,000 per month, plus enterprise pricing by quote

Showcase reviews: SnapApp

10) dotmailer
Google Review Count: 120

Email marketing, campaign management, landing page design, lead nurturing and reporting. Integrates with popular platforms like Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce.com.

Sample review: “With a simple drag and drop interface and great segmentation and automation features, this tool is another easy one for beginners to pick up but also capable of performing some of the more advanced email marketing techniques.” — Econsultancy

Pricing: $500 to $1,750 per month

Showcase reviews: Econsultancy

11) Drip
Google Review Count: 110

In the company’s own words, Drip is “lightweight marketing automation that doesn’t suck.” While it lacks some of the broad functionality of midrange and enterprise systems, it offers SMB companies ease of use and integrates with popular landing page builders like Gravity Forms, LeadPages (which recently acquired Drip) and Unbounce.

Sample review: “These top sales tools will help you grow your startup. Drip (is ideal) for sending trigger-based and educational-based email campaigns.” — Marketing Insider Group

Pricing: $49 to $149 per month

Showcase reviews: Marketing Insider Group

12) SalesAutopilot
Google Review Count: 109

Includes modules for email marketing automation, CRM, ecommerce, multichannel communication (direct mail and text messaging), and help desk services.

Sample review: “Automation facilities take in email and sales, with associated modules for event-triggering, CRM, and e-commerce. There’s support for text messaging, telemarketing, and the creation of personalised PDF documents. Troubleshooting is assisted by an onboard Help module.” — 201 Digital

Pricing: free to $259 per month, plus charges for additional users and larger email database levels

Showcase reviews: 201 Digital

13) Leadsius
Google Review Count: 97

SMB marketing automation platform that includes email automation, landing page/forms designer, lead analysis, and website tracking. Also features a marketing dashboard and WordPress plugin.

Pricing: free to $1,195 per month

Showcase reviews: 201 Digital

14) SimplyCast
Google Review Count: 93

Simple marketing automation with anonymous web tracking and signup forms, CRM, sales pipeline management, automated email/fax/text messaging, landing page designer, and campaign analytics.

Pricing: $99 to $499 per month for marketing automation, plus per-module fees for functions like email and messaging, landing pages and forms, social media integration, and surveys

Showcase reviews: 201 Digital

More Tools

GetResponse
Google Review Count: 198

A flexible, scalable platform marketers can stay with as their companies’ needs grow from basic email marketing to sophisticated email marketing. Features include email marketing, landing page creation, autoresponders, webinar tools, lead scoring, tagging, web event tracking, and abandoned cart retargeting.

Pricing: four levels from $15 to $799 per month

Albacross
Google Review Count: 98

Capture website visitor (company) information along with pages each visitor was most interested in. Launch and manage campaigns to target companies with personalized ads.

Pricing: lead generation is free; ABM starts at $584

Moosend
Google Review Count: 96

An all-in-one marketing platform including functionality for email marketing (drag-and-drop editor, list segmentation, A//B testing); marketing automation (drag-and-drop automation editor, reporting, website and user tracking); landing page design; subscription forms; reporting and analytics; and integration with dozens of popular CMS, CRM, email, ecommerce, and other tools.

Pricing: free; $8 per month; enterprise pricing by quote

Genoo
Google Review Count: 83

A full-featured marketing automation providing email marketing and lead nurturing functionality (with campaign assignment and nurturing sequences); built-in lightweight CRM plus integration to popular systems; lead generation and lead management (landing pages, lead activity tracking, segmentation, automatic de-duping); and analytics.

Pricing: $199/$599/$1,495 per month

Hatchbuck
Google Review Count: 50

A combination CRM plus marketing automation tool for lead generation, email marketing, lead nurturing, and sales tracking. Can be integrated to a wide range of tools for functions like webinar registration, landing page / form building, conducting surveys, and setting appointments, using Zapier.

Pricing: $29/$99/$199/$299 per month

EngageBay
Google Review Count: 47

EngageBay is a low-cost, integrated sales and marketing software platform that includes functionality for email marketing / marketing automation, social media engagement, building landing pages, organizing contacts, and tracking sales opportunities.

Pricing: $3/$9/$24/$75 per month

NotifyVisitors
Google Review Count: 47

Engage with customers and prospects using email, SMS/text, push notifications, signup forms, and popups. Segment your audience into the most relevant categories for message targeting, and add personalization to increase conversion rates. Turn your website visitors into leads or buyers using automated campaigns across multiple channels. Nudge users with relevant messages based on their actions on your site.

Pricing: Web and App Push: from $49/month Web Survey / Banner: from $59/month In App Survey / Banner: from $59/month Attribution: from $59/month Contact NotifyVisitors for more information. (per SoftwareAdvice.com)

PlugTalent
Google Review Count: 35

A broad-featured marketing automation platform for small-to-midsized business and agencies. Includes functionality for lead capture (web forms and landing pages), lead nurturing (*email marketing, multi-channel automated campaigns, lead scoring, progressive profiling, contact segmentation), and known-visitor web visit tracking.

Pricing: $49/$99/$199 per month for SMBs; $69/$159/$299 per month for agencies

User.com
Google Review Count: N/A

A comprehensive marketing automation / email marketing system that also includes functionality for customer service, sales, displaying dynamic page content, visitor tracking, live chat, push notifications, list-builder popups, CRM, and more. Analytics dashboards track activities and performance. The company’s Freemium Starter Pack includes basic tracking, live chat, CRM with up to 50,000 contacts, integration with Google Calendar, and a knowledge base.

Pricing: free; $49 per month; enterprise pricing by quote

Showcase Reviews

201 Digital
Lilach Bullock
Econsultancy
Hunter & Bard
Marketing Insider Group
MarketingLand
SmartBug Media
SnapApp

This was the ninth post in the Best Online Business Tools series.

#1: Best Online Business Tools Series Kicks Off Today

#2: The 12 Best Competitive Intelligence and Benchmarking Tools

#3: The Nine Best Facebook Marketing Tools

#4: The 14 Best Content Planning and Research Tools

#5: The 23 Best Content Ideation Tools

#6: The 24 Best Online Writing Tools and Apps

#7: The Six Best Google+ Marketing Tools

#8: The Four Best Online Education Tools For Business Pros

#9: The 14 Best Marketing Automation Tools