5 tools compared
Best marketing automation software
Lifecycle journeys across email, SMS and in-app, plus the lead scoring and attribution that justify the spend.
The field
Every automation platform worth considering
Cheapest first. Ranked properly once you tell us about your team.
ActiveCampaign
Serious automation depth at small-business prices, with a light CRM attached.
Usage
Braze
Enterprise cross-channel engagement for consumer apps with very large user bases.
Usage
Customer.io
Behavioural messaging driven by product events, built for teams with engineers.
Usage · free tier
HubSpot Marketing Hub
Marketing automation welded to a CRM, so sales and marketing argue over one contact record.
Usage · free tier
Marketo Engage
Adobe’s B2B automation platform, built around lead scoring and long sales cycles.
Usage
Prices are unverified estimates — useful for comparing orders of magnitude, not for budgeting. Confirm the current figure with the vendor before you commit to anything.
Feature matrix
What each automation platform can do
Generated from the dimensions this category is compared on, so it stays true as the catalogue changes. Blank means we have not established it either way.
| Capability | ActiveCampaign | Braze | Customer.io | HubSpot Marketing Hub | Marketo Engage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channels | Email, SMS | Email, SMS, Mobile push, In-app, On-site | Email, SMS, Mobile push, In-app | Email, On-site | Email, On-site |
| Visual journey builder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lead scoring | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in customer data platformUnified profiles fed from your product and warehouse, not just a mailing list. | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Attribution | Last touch | Multi-touch | Last touch | Multi-touch | Multi-touch |
| Two-way CRM sync | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Needs engineering to set up | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| SAML single sign-onAvailable on some tier — check which, it is usually the expensive one. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| EU data residency | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No | No | No |
| Public API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Native mobile apps | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
How to choose
The questions that actually decide a automation platform
Everyone asks about price and seat count. These are the ones specific to this category — and the ones our questionnaire asks you.
- 01
Which channels do you need to reach people on?
Email · SMS · Mobile push · Inside the product
- 02
What should trigger a message?
Someone joining a list or filling a form · A lead reaching a score threshold · What they actually did in the product
- 03
Who will build and maintain the journeys?
Marketing, with no engineering help · Marketing, with engineering for setup · Engineering, in code
- 04
Do you need to prove which campaign produced revenue?
Yes, across the whole journey · Last touch is good enough · Not a requirement
The trade-offs
What each one asks you to accept
No tool here is strictly better than the others. These are the prices of admission.
Best automation-per-dollar in the category, wrapped in an interface that shows its age.
The right answer at consumer-app scale, and dramatic overkill below it.
Excellent if your product emits events and you have engineers; close to useless if neither is true.
The easiest platform for a marketing team to run unaided, and the hardest to leave once you have.
Powerful for enterprise B2B, on the condition that somebody whose job is Marketo is running it.
10 comparisons
Head to head
If you have narrowed it to two.
Questions
Choosing a automation platform
What is the best automation platform?
There is no single best one, and any page that names one without asking about your team is guessing. The credible options are ActiveCampaign, Braze, Customer.io, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Marketo Engage. Which fits depends on the answers to the 4 questions this category turns on, plus your team size and budget — our questionnaire scores all 5 against them in about three minutes.
Is there a free automation platform?
Customer.io, HubSpot Marketing Hub all have a free tier. The limits differ sharply though — usually on history, seat count, or exactly the features that pass a security review. Check what the free tier withholds before you plan around it.
How much should we expect to pay for a automation platform?
This category is not priced per seat, so headcount is the wrong unit. Costs track volume or a flat account fee instead. Model both against your own numbers before comparing vendors, because the headline prices are not like for like.
When is it worth switching automation platform?
When the problem is a capability the current tool does not have — a price that scales the wrong way, a compliance control it cannot enforce, an integration that does not exist. When the problem is how your team uses the tool, a new one reproduces the same mess in a fresh interface within six months, and you will have paid for the privilege.
What should we compare automation platforms on?
The dimensions that actually separate them: channels, visual journey builder, lead scoring, built-in customer data platform, attribution, two-way crm sync. Price matters, but it is rarely the thing that decides whether a tool survives contact with your team.