12 Best Emma Alternatives

Our Pick for SaaS Companies

Sequenzy

AI-powered email for SaaS. If you're running a software business, Sequenzy offers Stripe integration, transactional emails, and behavior-based automation at a fraction of Emma's price.

At $49/month for 10,000 subscribers (vs Emma's $89-159), you're paying nearly half for features that actually matter to SaaS companies: AI-generated email sequences, native Stripe sync for billing-triggered automations, and unified transactional + marketing sending. Emma's brand management and multi-location features are wasted on software businesses that don't have physical locations or franchise networks. If you're a SaaS founder who ended up on Emma and find yourself ignoring most of its enterprise features, Sequenzy is purpose-built for your actual workflow.

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Best for

SaaS founders who don't need enterprise features

Pricing

$49/month for 10,000 subscribers

Pros

Nearly half Emma's price
AI generates email sequences
Native Stripe integration
Transactional + marketing together
Direct founder support

Cons

No multi-location brand management
Basic team collaboration
No SMS marketing
Newer platform

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Campaign Monitor

Agency-focused email platform from the same parent company (Marigold) as Emma. Clean design, good for agencies managing multiple clients.

Similar enterprise DNA but often better pricing. Campaign Monitor was one of the first platforms to take email design seriously, and their template library remains among the most polished in the industry. At $59/month for 10,000 subscribers, it's significantly cheaper than Emma's $89-159 range. The platform handles client management well for agencies, with separate accounts and brand-level controls. The main sacrifice vs Emma is the multi-location brand governance features — Campaign Monitor is better for agencies managing distinct clients, while Emma is better for organizations managing a single brand across distributed locations.

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Best for

Agencies managing client email campaigns

Pricing

$59/month for 10,000 subscribers

Pros

Beautiful email templates
Agency-friendly management
Same parent company as Emma
Better value for smaller teams
Strong analytics

Cons

Less brand management features
Part of Marigold conglomerate
Support varies by tier
Automation less sophisticated

Mailchimp

The market leader with massive ecosystem. More features than Emma in many areas, though team collaboration isn't as sophisticated.

Good if you need maximum integrations. Mailchimp integrates with virtually every business tool in existence — CRMs, e-commerce platforms, social media, analytics, payment processors — which gives it an ecosystem advantage that Emma can't match. The template library is massive, A/B testing is more comprehensive, and the CRM capabilities are more developed. At $110-135/month for 10,000 contacts, pricing is comparable to Emma's higher tiers. The trade-off is that Mailchimp lacks Emma's multi-location brand management and team approval workflows, so if those are critical to your organization, Mailchimp won't fill that gap.

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Best for

Teams who need maximum integrations

Pricing

$110-135/month for 10,000 contacts

Pros

Integrates with everything
Huge template library
Strong brand recognition
Landing pages included
Better CRM features

Cons

Similar or higher price
Less team collaboration
No multi-location management
Counts unsubscribed contacts

ActiveCampaign

Automation powerhouse at lower prices than Emma. Better marketing automation, solid CRM, but lacks Emma's brand management and team features.

ActiveCampaign's visual automation builder is widely considered the best in the mid-market — you can create complex workflows that branch based on email engagement, website visits, CRM deal stages, and custom events, which goes well beyond Emma's automation capabilities. The built-in CRM with sales pipeline tracking lets marketing and sales teams work from the same platform. At $79/month for 10,000 contacts, it's meaningfully cheaper than Emma. The catch is no brand governance, no multi-location management, and basic team collaboration — so it's a trade-off of automation power for organizational control features.

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Best for

Teams focused on marketing automation

Pricing

$79/month for 10,000 contacts

Pros

Superior automation
CRM included
Lower pricing
Great deliverability
Sales features built-in

Cons

No brand management
Less team collaboration
Steeper learning curve
Can be complex

HubSpot

Full CRM suite with email marketing. More expensive than Emma but offers complete marketing, sales, and service platform.

True enterprise solution. HubSpot is the upgrade path for organizations that need more than Emma's email-centric toolset — it bundles CRM, marketing automation, sales tools, customer service, and content management into one platform with excellent team features and reporting. The Marketing Hub Professional at $800+/month is a significant jump from Emma's pricing, but for organizations that are currently paying for Emma plus a separate CRM plus analytics tools, the consolidated cost can actually make sense. HubSpot's team management, approval workflows, and reporting capabilities match or exceed Emma's, while adding sales pipeline and customer service that Emma doesn't offer.

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Best for

Companies wanting complete CRM + email

Pricing

$800+/month for Marketing Hub Professional

Pros

Complete marketing suite
Excellent team features
Strong reporting
Enterprise-grade
Industry standard

Cons

Much more expensive
Complex to implement
Overkill for email only
Long-term contracts

Brevo

Budget-friendly all-in-one marketing. Formerly Sendinblue. Offers email, SMS, and CRM at much lower prices than Emma.

Good for cost-conscious teams. At $25/month for 20,000 emails with unlimited contacts, Brevo costs a fraction of Emma's $89-159 monthly fee. The platform bundles transactional email, SMS, WhatsApp, live chat, and a CRM — features that would require additional tools alongside Emma. The unlimited-contacts pricing model is particularly attractive for organizations with large but infrequently-emailed contact lists. The trade-offs are clear: no brand governance, no multi-location management, and basic team collaboration features. But for teams where budget matters more than enterprise organizational controls, Brevo delivers solid marketing functionality at dramatically lower cost.

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Best for

Teams who want Emma features at lower cost

Pricing

$25/month for 20,000 emails

Pros

Much cheaper
SMS included
CRM included
Transactional email
Pay by emails not contacts

Cons

No brand management
Basic team features
Less polished UI
Daily sending limits

Klaviyo

E-commerce focused platform with strong data features. If Emma users are retail/e-commerce, Klaviyo offers better product integration.

Otherwise, different focus. Klaviyo has become the standard for e-commerce email marketing with the deepest Shopify and WooCommerce integrations available — product recommendations, abandoned cart flows, browse abandonment, and post-purchase sequences are all built in with sophisticated targeting. At $150/month for 10,000 contacts, it's in a similar price range to Emma's higher tiers. If your organization uses Emma for retail marketing, Klaviyo is likely a better fit with significantly more e-commerce depth. For non-retail businesses, Klaviyo's e-commerce-centric features would be wasted, making it a poor Emma replacement.

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Best for

E-commerce teams with retail stores

Pricing

$150/month for 10,000 contacts

Pros

E-commerce integration
Strong product recommendations
Advanced segmentation
Good for retail
SMS included

Cons

E-commerce focused
Higher price
Less general marketing
No brand management

MailerLite

Clean, affordable alternative for simpler needs. Landing pages, website builder, and good automation.

Lacks Emma's enterprise features but much cheaper. At $50/month for 10,000 subscribers, MailerLite costs less than half of Emma's starting price while covering the core email marketing essentials: visual email builder, automation workflows, landing pages, and a website builder. The interface is clean and modern, making it one of the easiest platforms to learn and use daily. The generous free tier at 1,000 subscribers lets you test before committing. The fundamental trade-off is that MailerLite has no enterprise features — no multi-user management with role-based permissions, no brand governance, and no approval workflows. For small teams that don't need organizational controls, that's a feature, not a bug.

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Best for

Small teams who don't need enterprise features

Pricing

$50/month for 10,000 subscribers

Pros

Much cheaper
Landing pages included
Website builder
Clean interface
Good support

Cons

No team features
No brand management
No enterprise compliance
Basic multi-user

Constant Contact

Legacy SMB platform with event marketing features. Good for local businesses with events.

Similar market position to Emma but different feature focus. Constant Contact has been around since 1995 and has carved out a niche with small businesses that run events — the built-in event marketing tools with RSVP management, ticketing, and attendee tracking are genuinely useful features that most email platforms don't offer. Social media posting and ad management are included alongside email marketing. At $80/month for 10,000 contacts, it's cheaper than Emma. The downside is a dated interface that hasn't kept pace with modern competitors, and the automation capabilities are noticeably weaker than both Emma's and ActiveCampaign's. Best suited for local businesses with event-heavy marketing rather than enterprise teams.

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Best for

Local businesses with event marketing needs

Pricing

$80/month for 10,000 contacts

Pros

Event marketing built-in
Social media tools
Good for local business
Strong SMB support
Easy to use

Cons

Dated interface
Less sophisticated
No brand management
Limited automation

#10

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

True enterprise marketing platform. If you're outgrowing Emma and need more, SFMC offers everything — at a much higher price and complexity.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the upgrade path for organizations that have genuinely outgrown mid-market tools like Emma: multi-channel journey orchestration, advanced personalization with Einstein AI, mobile push and in-app messaging, and deep Salesforce CRM integration. Starting at $1,250+/month with implementation costs often running into tens of thousands, it's an order of magnitude more expensive than Emma. The platform requires dedicated specialists to manage effectively — most organizations hire Marketing Cloud admins or consultants. Only consider SFMC if your marketing operations have genuine enterprise scale requirements that mid-market tools can't serve.

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Best for

Large enterprises who've outgrown Emma

Pricing

$1,250+/month (Contact for pricing)

Pros

True enterprise scale
Salesforce integration
Advanced personalization
Full journey builder
Global capabilities

Cons

Much more expensive
Requires specialists
Long implementation
Complex pricing

#11

Pardot

Salesforce's B2B marketing automation. If you're in B2B and use Salesforce CRM, Pardot might be the upgrade from Emma.

Enterprise-focused with strong lead scoring. Now officially called Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, Pardot specializes in B2B lead nurturing with features like lead scoring, grading, and account-based marketing that Emma doesn't offer. The native Salesforce CRM integration means marketing-qualified leads flow directly into sales pipelines with full attribution tracking. At $1,250/month and up, it's expensive, and it effectively requires Salesforce CRM to be useful. For B2B organizations already invested in the Salesforce ecosystem who need sophisticated lead management beyond what Emma provides, Pardot is the natural upgrade path.

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Best for

B2B teams on Salesforce CRM

Pricing

$1,250/month and up

Pros

Salesforce native
Strong lead scoring
B2B focused
Account-based marketing
Enterprise-grade

Cons

Requires Salesforce
Very expensive
B2B only
Complex setup

#12

Drip

E-commerce marketing automation platform. If Emma users are in e-commerce, Drip offers better product integration.

More affordable than Emma. Drip's visual workflow builder for e-commerce automation is excellent — abandoned cart, post-purchase, browse abandonment, and win-back campaigns can be set up with pre-built templates and customized with conditional branching. Revenue attribution is built in so you can see exactly which automations drive sales. At $39/month for 2,500 subscribers, the entry point is dramatically cheaper than Emma. Drip integrates deeply with Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, pulling in product and purchase data for personalized campaigns. If your team currently uses Emma for retail marketing, Drip offers better e-commerce tools at lower cost, though without the brand management and team features.

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Best for

E-commerce teams who want better automation

Pricing

$39/month for 2,500 subscribers

Pros

E-commerce focus
Good automation
Lower starting price
Product recommendations
Shopify integration

Cons

E-commerce focused
No brand management
Scales expensively
No SMS

Why Consider Alternatives to Emma

Emma is expensive

At $89-159/month for 10k subscribers, Emma is one of the pricier options. If you don't need brand management or multi-location features, you're paying for capabilities you won't use. Platforms like ActiveCampaign or Brevo offer similar features for less.

You don't need enterprise features

Emma's strengths are team collaboration, brand governance, and multi-location management. If you're a smaller team without franchise/distributed locations, Emma's complexity is unnecessary overhead.

You need better automation

Emma's automation is decent but not industry-leading. ActiveCampaign, Customer.io, or Drip offer more sophisticated marketing automation at competitive prices.

You're running a SaaS

Emma isn't built for subscription businesses. No native Stripe integration, no SaaS-specific automations. Platforms like Sequenzy, Userlist, or Customer.io are designed for software companies.

What Users Say About Emma

Trustpilot

Horrible company. Cannot recommend them less. This company is an absolute scam - do not give them your time or money.

Beth2026-02

Trustpilot

I wish I could give 0 stars. They are a bunch of crooks. You are only able to cancel on the yearly timeframes and must do so within the 30 days of your start date.

Jeffrey Chubb2025-03

Trustpilot

The man who helped me listened to my issue and walked me through a solution step by step. I have called the support line several times and always receive great customer service!

Julie Hyland2024-10

Trustpilot

Fantastic support! Saved the day when I was on a tight deadline.

Ken Davis2024-08

Feature

Emma

Campaign Monitor

ActiveCampaign

Brevo

Mailchimp

Sequenzy

Price at 10k subs

$89-159

$59

$79

$25 (20k emails)

$110+

$49

Free tier

None

300/day

500 subs

100 subs

Team features

Advanced

Good

Basic

Good

Basic

Brand management

SMS

Automation

Good

Excellent

Good

Advanced

When to Use Each Platform

Choose Campaign Monitor if...

You're an agency managing client campaigns
Clean design and templates matter
You want similar quality at lower price
Emma's brand features aren't critical

Choose Stay with Emma if...

You're a multi-location business
Brand governance is essential
You need enterprise compliance
Team approval workflows matter

Choose ActiveCampaign if...

Marketing automation is your priority
You want CRM + email combined
You don't need brand management
Budget matters

Choose Brevo if...

Budget is your top priority
You want SMS + email together
Enterprise features aren't needed
You prefer pay-per-email pricing

Choose Sequenzy if...

You're running a SaaS business
Stripe integration is valuable
You need transactional emails
You want simpler pricing

Should you switch from Emma?

Emma by Marigold has been around since 2005 and serves mid-market companies well. But it's expensive and enterprise-focused. See our guide on email marketing for teams for context on what features actually matter. At $89-159/month for 10,000 subscribers — with annual contracts that are notoriously difficult to cancel — Emma sits in an awkward pricing tier: too expensive for small teams but not powerful enough for true enterprise needs. Trustpilot reviews reveal a polarizing pattern: account managers and support staff get genuine praise, but billing practices around contract auto-renewals and cancellation policies draw sharp criticism, with multiple users calling the experience frustrating. The platform's core strength in multi-location brand management is genuinely useful for franchises and distributed organizations, but if that's not your use case, you're paying for capabilities you'll never touch.

Here's when switching makes sense:

If you're paying for features you don't use: Any alternative

Emma's strength is brand management for multi-location businesses. If you don't have franchises, distributed teams, or complex approval workflows, you're paying for capabilities you won't use. Campaign Monitor, ActiveCampaign, or even MailerLite offer what most teams need at lower prices.

If you need better automation: ActiveCampaign or Customer.io

Emma's automation is solid but not industry-leading. If marketing automation is your priority, ActiveCampaign or Customer.io offer more sophisticated workflows. Check our automation guide for what to look for.

If you're running a SaaS: Sequenzy

Emma isn't built for subscription businesses. No native Stripe integration, no trial automation, no churn prevention. Sequenzy is built specifically for SaaS with Stripe integration and transactional emails.

If budget matters: Brevo or MailerLite

At $89-159/month for 10k subscribers, Emma is expensive. Brevo at $25/month or MailerLite at $50/month offer solid marketing email at a fraction of the cost. Use our email validator to ensure list quality.

The pricing comparison

At 10,000 subscribers:

Emma: $89-159/month (depending on plan)
Sequenzy: $49/month
Campaign Monitor: $59/month
ActiveCampaign: $79/month
Brevo: $25/month (20k emails)
Mailchimp: $110+/month

See our full pricing page for more details.

When Emma is still the right choice

Stick with Emma if:

You're a multi-location business needing brand governance
Approval workflows across teams are essential
Enterprise compliance (SOC 2) is required
You need dedicated account management
SMS marketing is important

Emma does multi-location brand management better than most. If that's your need, alternatives may not match it. Read our marketing tools guide and use our A/B test calculator to optimize what you have before switching.

Frequently Asked Questions

All Pricing Tiers

0-100 subscribers: Free (Free annually) - 3k emails/month

101-1,000 subscribers: $19/month ($205/year annually) - 15k emails/month

1,001-5,000 subscribers: $29/month ($313/year annually) - 60k emails/month

5,001-10,000 subscribers: $49/month ($529/year annually) - 120k emails/month

10,001-25,000 subscribers: $99/month ($1069/year annually) - 300k emails/month

25,001-50,000 subscribers: $199/month ($2149/year annually) - 600k emails/month

50,001-100,000 subscribers: $349/month ($3769/year annually) - 1.2M emails/month

100,000+ subscribers: Custom pricing (Custom annually) - Unlimited emails/month

Yearly billing: All plans offer a 10% discount when billed annually.

12 Emma Alternatives for Teams and Agencies

TL;DR

12 Best Emma Alternatives

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Why Consider Alternatives to Emma

What Users Say About Emma

Feature Comparison

When to Use Each Platform

Should you switch from Emma?

If you're paying for features you don't use: Any alternative

If you need better automation: ActiveCampaign or Customer.io

If you're running a SaaS: Sequenzy

If budget matters: Brevo or MailerLite

The pricing comparison

When Emma is still the right choice

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the best Emma alternative for agencies?

Why is Emma so expensive?

Is Emma still worth using in 2026?

Emma vs Mailchimp: Which is better?

What's the cheapest Emma alternative with team features?

Does Emma have a free tier?

What Emma alternative works for multi-location businesses?

Can I migrate from Emma easily?

Is Campaign Monitor the same as Emma?

What's the best Emma alternative for SaaS companies?

Does ActiveCampaign have brand management like Emma?

How do I cancel my Emma subscription?

Is HubSpot worth it over Emma?

Emma vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

What's Emma's refund policy?

Ready to try Sequenzy?

Sequenzy vs Emma: Direct Comparison

More Alternatives

Campaign Monitor Alternatives

ActiveCampaign Alternatives

Sequenzy - Complete Pricing Guide

Pricing Model

All Pricing Tiers

Free Plan Features (2,500 emails/month)

Paid Plan Features (1,000 - 100,000 subscribers)

Enterprise Plan Features (100,000+ subscribers)

Important Pricing Notes

Contact