Product-led growth changes how email works. In a sales-led company, email nurtures leads toward a demo. In a PLG company, email responds to what users are actually doing inside your product. Someone stalls during onboarding? Email nudges them forward. Someone uses a feature heavily? Email suggests the upgrade. Someone goes inactive? Email brings them back.

The problem is that most email tools were built for the sales-led world. They think in terms of lists, campaigns, and scheduled blasts. PLG email thinks in terms of events, behaviors, and real-time triggers. You need a tool that speaks the same language as your product.

Here's what actually works for PLG email in 2026.

What PLG Email Tools Need

A good PLG email tool must:

Accept custom events from your product. User signed up, completed onboarding, created a project, hit a usage limit. Your email tool needs to receive these events via API.
Trigger automations on events, not just time delays. "Send email when user completes step 2" is PLG email. "Send email on day 3" is traditional email.
Segment by product behavior. Not just email engagement (opened, clicked) but product engagement (features used, frequency, actions taken).
Support product-qualified lead (PQL) identification. The ability to tag users who show buying signals based on product usage and route them to sales or upgrade sequences.

The 8 Best PLG Email Tools

1. Sequenzy

Best for: SaaS founders who want event-driven email without complex setup

Sequenzy handles PLG email well because it was built around events and behavioral triggers rather than list-based campaigns. You track events from your product (via API), and those events trigger email sequences automatically.

The event tracking is straightforward: send an event with a name and optional properties, and it's immediately available as a trigger. No event mapping, no data transformation, no waiting for syncs. Track "onboarding.completed" from your app, and you can trigger a sequence on that event within minutes.

The Stripe integration adds another dimension: payment events (subscription, cancellation, upgrade) are tracked automatically alongside your custom product events, giving you a complete behavioral picture.

Pricing: Starts at $29/month Event handling: API-based, real-time, no mapping required PLG strength: Event triggers, behavioral sequences, auto-tagging Pros:

Simple event tracking API
Behavioral triggers work out of the box
Combined transactional + marketing
Native Stripe integration for payment events

Cons:

Newer platform
No in-app messaging
Simpler segmentation than enterprise tools

2. Customer.io

Best for: Technical teams needing sophisticated event-driven workflows

Customer.io is the most popular PLG email tool for a reason. Its event-driven data model was designed for exactly this use case. You send events and user attributes through their API, and those power complex multi-step workflows.

The workflow builder is powerful. You can branch on event data, create wait conditions based on user behavior, and build sophisticated multi-path automations. For technical teams who want maximum flexibility, Customer.io is the gold standard.

The trade-off is complexity. Setup takes longer, the learning curve is steeper, and the pricing reflects the enterprise positioning. But if your PLG motion is sophisticated and you have engineering resources, it's hard to beat.

Pricing: Starts at $100/month Event handling: Flexible API, Segment integration, webhooks PLG strength: Best-in-class event-driven workflows Pros:

Industry-leading event-driven automation
Powerful workflow branching and logic
Multi-channel (email, push, SMS, in-app)
Flexible data model for complex user properties

Cons:

Expensive starting price
Steep learning curve
Requires engineering resources for setup
Complex for simple use cases

3. Loops

Best for: Early-stage PLG startups wanting simplicity

Loops is popular with indie hackers and early-stage PLG companies. The interface is clean and modern, and the event-driven model works well for basic PLG sequences.

You send events through their API, define triggers, and build sequences. It doesn't have the depth of Customer.io, but for teams that need onboarding sequences, trial conversion emails, and re-engagement campaigns, it covers the basics well.

The free tier (1,000 contacts) is generous enough to get started, and the pricing stays reasonable as you grow.

Pricing: Free for 1,000 contacts, paid from $49/month Event handling: API-based, straightforward PLG strength: Simple event triggers, clean UX Pros:

Clean, modern interface
Good free tier
Simple event-driven automations
Fast to set up

Cons:

Limited workflow complexity
Basic segmentation
Fewer integrations than mature tools
Limited analytics

4. Userlist

Best for: B2B SaaS with company-level PLG

Userlist differentiates by supporting both user-level and company-level data. This matters for B2B PLG where multiple users belong to the same account, and you want to trigger emails based on company-wide behavior (e.g., "when 3+ team members are active").

The event-based automation is solid, and the company-level segmentation is genuinely useful for PLG B2B. You can target "admin users at companies on a trial that have been active for 7+ days."

Pricing: Starts at $149/month Event handling: API with user + company model PLG strength: Company-level behavioral tracking Pros:

User + company data model
Good for multi-user B2B PLG
Event-driven automation
Built specifically for SaaS

Cons:

Higher starting price
Smaller ecosystem
Less flexible than Customer.io
Limited marketing campaign features

5. Encharge

Best for: Non-technical teams wanting visual PLG automation

Encharge combines visual automation building with event-driven triggers. You can connect product events and build visual flows that respond to user behavior. The visual builder makes it easier to understand and modify automations compared to code-based tools.

The PLG features include user scoring, segment-based triggers, and integration with common PLG tools (Segment, HubSpot, Intercom). For teams without dedicated engineering resources, the visual approach reduces the barrier to building behavior-based automations.

Pricing: Starts at $79/month Event handling: API and integrations (Segment, webhooks) PLG strength: Visual automation with behavioral triggers Pros:

Visual automation builder
User scoring for PQL identification
Good integration ecosystem
Non-technical friendly

Cons:

Less flexible than code-based tools
Visual builder can get cluttered for complex flows
Mid-range pricing
Smaller user community

6. Intercom

Best for: Teams wanting in-app + email PLG messaging

Intercom isn't primarily an email tool, but it handles PLG communication across channels: in-app messages, email, push, and chat. If your PLG motion relies heavily on in-app guidance alongside email, Intercom unifies both.

The behavioral triggering works across channels. A user stalls during onboarding? Show an in-app tooltip AND send an email. A user hits a usage milestone? Celebrate in-app AND email a case study about the next step.

The downside is cost. Intercom is expensive, and the email features specifically are less sophisticated than dedicated email platforms. You're paying for the multi-channel integration.

Pricing: Starts at $39/seat/month (gets expensive quickly) Event handling: API, built-in product events PLG strength: Cross-channel behavioral messaging Pros:

In-app + email + chat in one
Good behavioral targeting
Product tours and tooltips
Built-in chat for support

Cons:

Expensive, especially with multiple seats
Email features are secondary to messaging
Less sophisticated email automation than dedicated tools
Per-seat pricing adds up fast

7. Vero

Best for: Data teams wanting SQL-based email automation

Vero takes a unique approach by letting you use SQL to define segments and trigger conditions. If your team thinks in SQL (many data-driven PLG companies do), this is incredibly powerful.

You can write queries like "users who created a project in the last 7 days but haven't invited a team member" and target them with specific emails. For companies with strong data teams, this is more flexible than any visual builder.

Pricing: Starts at $54/month Event handling: API-based with SQL querying PLG strength: SQL-based behavioral segmentation Pros:

SQL-based segmentation is extremely flexible
Great for data-driven teams
Event-driven automations
Clean interface

Cons:

Requires SQL knowledge
Not for non-technical users
Smaller user community
Limited visual automation building

8. Braze

Best for: Enterprise PLG companies at scale

Braze is an enterprise customer engagement platform that handles PLG email as part of a broader multi-channel strategy. It's what you graduate to when you've outgrown everything else on this list.

The behavioral engine is incredibly sophisticated. Real-time event processing, complex multi-step journeys, AI-powered optimization, and deep analytics. It handles millions of events and thousands of segments without breaking a sweat.

The trade-off: it's expensive, complex, and requires dedicated resources to operate. Not for early or mid-stage startups.

Pricing: Custom (typically $50K+/year) Event handling: Enterprise-grade real-time event processing PLG strength: Most sophisticated behavioral engine at scale Pros:

Enterprise-grade event processing
Extremely sophisticated automation
Multi-channel (email, push, in-app, SMS, webhooks)
AI-powered send time and content optimization

Cons:

Enterprise pricing ($50K+/year)
Complex implementation
Requires dedicated team to operate
Massive overkill for most SaaS companies

Choosing the Right Tool for Your PLG Stage

Pre-product-market-fit (0-100 users): Don't over-invest in email tooling yet. A simple tool like Loops or even manual emails work fine. Focus on the product.

Early growth (100-1,000 users): Set up basic event-driven sequences. Sequenzy or Loops give you behavioral triggers without complex setup.

Growth stage (1,000-10,000 users): Invest in proper behavioral email. Customer.io, Sequenzy, or Userlist can handle sophisticated PLG flows at this scale.

Scale (10,000+ users): Consider enterprise tools like Braze if your needs justify the cost, or optimize your current tool with better segmentation and personalization.

Key PLG Email Sequences Every Tool Should Support

Regardless of which tool you choose, make sure it can handle these core PLG sequences:

Behavioral onboarding: Trigger emails based on which steps users have/haven't completed
Activation nudges: Email users who stall at specific points in the user journey
Feature discovery: Introduce features based on user behavior and readiness
Trial conversion: Escalate messaging as trial expiration approaches, adjusted for engagement level
Usage milestone celebrations: Acknowledge user achievements to reinforce engagement
PQL identification: Flag and route product-qualified leads to upgrade sequences or sales
Re-engagement: Automatically reach out when activity drops below a threshold

FAQ

Do I need to send events from my product to use these tools? Yes. PLG email requires your product to communicate user behavior to your email tool. This typically means adding API calls in your codebase at key moments (signup, feature use, milestone reached). Most tools make this straightforward with SDKs or simple HTTP calls.

What events should I track for PLG email? Start with: signup completed, onboarding step completed, key feature first use, subscription change, and login. Add more specific events as you identify which behaviors predict conversion and retention.

Can I use a regular email tool for PLG? You can use Zapier or webhooks to connect product events to traditional email tools, but it's fragile and limited. Purpose-built PLG tools handle events natively and make behavioral automation much easier.

How many events is too many? Track events that drive decisions, not everything. 10-20 well-chosen events are more useful than 200 granular ones. You can always add more later.

What's the difference between PLG email and marketing automation? Traditional marketing automation is based on email behavior (opened, clicked, visited page). PLG email is based on product behavior (used feature, completed task, hit limit). The data source is different, and PLG email is more relevant because it's based on what users actually do, not just what they read.