The best email marketing software in 2025: Expert tested

4 hours ago 2

AI has completely changed the way email marketing works. The best tools in 2025 don't just send or host emails anymore. They help you write them, pick the right audience, choose when to send, and even tweak things in real time based on how people react. They'll come up with subject lines, personalize each message, and keep improving as they go. Honestly, if you're still just sending the same email to everyone, you're already falling behind.

At ZDNET, we tested many email marketing platforms against real-world use cases, from solo creators and startups to growing teams running complex automations. We focused on AI features, deliverability, ease of use, and privacy compliance.

Right now, Mailchimp is my go-to pick for most people. That's because it's simple, does the job well, and has enough features without feeling too cluttered. But, if you're looking for something more advanced, like a full CRM alongside email, HubSpot is a great option, especially if you already use it for other parts of your business. I'd also suggest MailerLite if you're big on automation and want to create more personalized, behavior-based flows.

HubSpot is built for marketers who want their email to work hand-in-hand with CRM data, sales outreach, and long-term customer journeys. That was my biggest advantage during testing, meaning everything was already connected. Creating an email starts with three options: regular, automated, and blog-triggered. I went with a regular campaign. From there, you land inside a clean editor where the modules are laid out clearly.

Once you draft your email and select your contact list, you can move toward the automation segment. Here, you can build visual workflows with branching logic, lead scoring, and goal tracking. A campaign can start from a form fill, email click, or even a blog visit. From there, HubSpot handles the branching, like what content goes to which segment, who gets a follow-up, and when to pause. All this makes me feel like I'm managing a system instead of drafting emails.

The reporting tools are also better than what I saw in most platforms. The Analyze and Health tabs give you real-time deliverability benchmarks, and you can build custom dashboards that pull metrics from email, sales, and web behavior together. If you're looking to tie campaign results back to business outcomes, this is the feature to look out for.

For further assistance, Copilot is built into the interface on the right-hand side of the editor. You can use it to summarize contact info, research companies, or even rewrite subject lines based on tone. This saved me time during testing, especially when I wanted to clean up the tone of a promo without sounding robotic.

As for limits, the free plan gives you 2,000 sends per month, and that's actually enough for most small lists. But if you're ready to build more complex workflows or remove branding, you'll need to upgrade to the Marketing Hub Pro plan.

Under this, the Paid tiers include Marketing Hub Starter ($9 per month), Marketing Hub Professional ($800 per month, includes 2,000 contacts), and Marketing Hub Enterprise ($3,600 per month, includes 10,000 contacts). Each tier increases your send limit based on contact count and unlocks more features like dynamic personalization, journey automation, and advanced analytics. The Professional plan includes a one-time $3,000 onboarding fee, and Enterprise onboarding starts at $7,000, so it's a serious investment once you scale.

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