Which Email Marketing Platform Is Right for Your Business?

Who is each email marketing platform for?

Klaviyo

Best for

Best for growing DTC and eCommerce brands that want email and SMS to drive repeat revenue. Klaviyo is built around store data, so segments and flows can react to purchase history, predicted lifetime value and browsing behaviour in real time. Email and SMS sit in one account and share the same customer profiles.

We're an official Klaviyo partner and our Klaviyo agency team runs accounts like this every day. Klaviyo pays us partner commission. We use it to fund a better service for our clients and it never decides which platform we recommend.

Watch out for

Klaviyo bills on active profiles, so an unclean list pushes your bill up. It also rewards proper set-up. Left on its defaults, it's an expensive newsletter tool.

Mailchimp

Best for

Best for smaller businesses, content-led newsletters and brands with simpler needs where cost comes first. It's easy to pick up, has a free plan for very small lists and has added more eCommerce features over the years, including SMS as a paid add-on in the UK.

Watch out for

As repeat purchases become a bigger share of revenue, brands tend to hit limits on flow logic, behavioural segmentation and revenue reporting. Our Klaviyo vs Mailchimp comparison covers where those limits sit.

HubSpot

Best for

Best for B2B and lead gen businesses that want email inside the same system as their CRM, sales pipeline and website forms. Marketing and sales work from one record, which makes handovers between the two much cleaner. You can start on HubSpot's free tools.

Watch out for

Costs climb as you add contacts, seats and higher tiers. For pure eCommerce retention it's rarely our first choice.

ActiveCampaign

Best for

Best for small and mid-sized businesses that want strong automation without enterprise pricing. The automation builder is flexible and there's a CRM built in, so it suits service businesses and B2B as well as smaller online shops.

Watch out for

There's a free trial but no free plan. SMS and some other features can cost extra and its eCommerce data doesn't go as deep as Klaviyo's.

Dotdigital

Best for

Best for mid-market and larger retailers that want email, SMS and other channels run from one platform, with account support from a UK-headquartered business. Segmentation and multichannel features are strong.

Watch out for

Pricing is quoted to your volumes rather than published. You'll also need someone who knows the platform well to get full value from it.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Best for

Best for enterprise brands already invested in Salesforce, with large databases, several markets and technical teams in-house. At that scale it can do almost anything.

Watch out for

It's priced and built for enterprise. Set-up and day-to-day running need specialist skills, so it's rarely the right call for a brand that's still growing.

Vendor features and pricing models last checked November 2026.

How do they compare side by side?

A quick view of all six. Platforms change their features and pricing often, so we check this table every quarter. Last checked: November 2026.

1. Write down where your revenue and leads come from.

   Online shop, sales team, bookings or donations? The answer decides whether store data or CRM data matters most.

2. List the five emails that earn you most.

   For most shops that's welcome, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase and win-back. For B2B it's usually lead nurture, demo follow-up and re-engagement. Check each platform can build all five properly.

3. Count your engaged contacts, not your whole list.

   Look at how many people opened or clicked in the last 90 days. That's the list you'll actually be paying to reach.

4. Map your integrations.

   Store platform, CRM, reviews, loyalty, SMS and ads. Anything that can't connect natively will need a workaround or a developer.

5. Decide who will run it.

   A platform your team can't use every week will underperform a simpler one that they can.

6. Shortlist two and test them.

   Build one real flow in each, using a trial or free plan, before you commit.

• Choosing on the monthly fee alone.

  The flows you can't build usually cost far more than the subscription you saved.

• Importing the whole list.

  Paying to store and email people who stopped opening years ago drags down deliverability as well as your budget.

• Copying old automations across.

  A move is the best chance you'll get to rebuild flows properly. Copying them recreates the old problems in a new tool.

• Forgetting authentication.

  SPF, DKIM and DMARC need setting up again on the new platform before your first send.

• Ignoring who runs it.

  Buying an enterprise platform without the people to run it is the most expensive mistake on this list.

• Switching for one feature.

  If one missing feature is the only reason, check whether an integration fixes it first.

Our email marketing agency team runs all six of these platforms for UK brands, from small online shops to large B2B businesses. We'll tell you straight which suits you, even when the answer is to stay where you are.

We don't have a sales team. Your first call is with the specialists who'd actually run your account.

Frequently asked questions

• What is the best email marketing tool for a small business?

  It depends on what you sell. A small online shop that wants to grow repeat sales should look hard at Klaviyo. A service business sending a simple newsletter will often be fine on Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign. If your sales team works from a CRM, HubSpot keeps everything in one place.

• What is the best email marketing platform for eCommerce?

  For most growing DTC and eCommerce brands we recommend Klaviyo, because it's built around your store data. Larger retailers with complex needs may also look at Dotdigital or Salesforce Marketing Cloud. As an official Klaviyo partner we receive commission from Klaviyo. It funds a better service for our clients and never decides what we recommend.

• Is free email marketing worth it?

  For a new business with a small list, it's a sensible place to start. Once email is bringing in sales, the limits on contacts, sends and automation usually cost more than a paid plan would.

• How much do email marketing tools cost?

  Most platforms charge on list size, either all contacts or active profiles, with extra for SMS, seats or premium features. Enterprise platforms quote on volume. Your platform subscription is separate from any agency fee. Our own Klaviyo management is charged on time, with indicative tiers starting from around £400 a month.

• Can you help us choose and move to a new platform?

  Yes. We'll audit what you have, tell you honestly whether a move makes sense and handle it if it does. If you'd rather stay where you are, we can run your current platform for you.

• How do I know if my current platform is holding us back?

  Look at what you can't do rather than what you can. If you can't trigger a flow from a product someone browsed, segment by purchase history or see revenue per email, the platform is likely the limit. If you can do all three but don't, it's a set-up problem, not a platform problem.

• Can we run email on one platform and SMS on another?

  You can, but it usually means two sets of customer data and no shared view of who received what. Most brands we work with prefer email and SMS in one account so messages can be coordinated.

• What should we check before signing a contract?

  How you're billed (contacts, active profiles, sends or seats), what happens if your list grows, which integrations are native and how easily you can export your data if you leave.

• What is an email marketing platform?

  It's the software you use to collect subscribers, send campaigns, run automated emails and report on results. Most also handle sign-up forms, segmentation and A/B testing. Some, like Klaviyo, also connect to your online shop, so emails can react to what customers buy and browse. The right platform depends on where your revenue comes from and who will run it day to day.

• Is Klaviyo free to use?

  Klaviyo has a free plan for up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month. Free accounts carry Klaviyo branding on emails and forms, with email support for the first 60 days only. Once you go over either limit, sending pauses until you upgrade or the month resets. It's a sensible way to start, but most growing shops outgrow it quickly.

• Is Mailchimp good for eCommerce?

  It can be, for smaller shops with simpler needs. Mailchimp connects to the main store platforms and has added more eCommerce features over the years. As repeat purchases become a bigger share of revenue, brands tend to hit limits on flow logic, behavioural segmentation and revenue reporting. That's usually the point where we see eCommerce brands look at Klaviyo.

• Which email marketing platforms are based in the UK?

  Of the six platforms we compare, Dotdigital is headquartered in the UK, which some brands value for account support and data questions. Klaviyo, Mailchimp, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign and Salesforce Marketing Cloud are all used widely by UK businesses. Where a platform is based matters less than whether it fits how you sell and whether your team can run it.

• What's the difference between an email platform and a CRM?

  An email platform is built to send marketing messages and report on them. A CRM is built to manage relationships, deals and sales activity. Some tools do both. HubSpot puts marketing and sales on the same record, which suits B2B teams. For online shops, your store platform often acts as the customer record, with Klaviyo reading that data directly.

• Do we need an agency to run our email platform?

  Not always. If you have someone with the time and skills to plan, build and test every month, you can run it in-house. Brands come to us when email has become a real revenue channel but nobody owns it properly, or when flows were set up once and never touched again. A free audit will show you where the gaps are.