# Email marketing platforms: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane, the publisher, sells software in this category. Every product here is measured by the same method as in every other category.

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "email marketing platform" and as "email marketing tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/email-marketing/2026-09

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 15, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/email-marketing/index.md

**Standing:** ActiveCampaign leads with 40% of first choices; verdict contested. 45 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [ActiveCampaign](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/activecampaign/index.md) | 40% | 14% | 56 |
| 2 | [HubSpot Marketing Hub](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/hubspot-marketing-hub/index.md) | 27% | 14% | 49 |
| 3 | [Brevo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/brevo/index.md) | 16% | 5% | 40 |
| 4 | [Sender](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/sender/index.md) | 11% | 0% | 17 |
| 5 | [MailerLite](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/mailerlite/index.md) | 4% | 12% | 24 |
| 7 | [Omnisend](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/omnisend/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 18 |
| 8 | [Kit](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/kit/index.md) | 0% | 6% | 16 |
| 9 | [EmailOctopus](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/emailoctopus/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 12 | [Klaviyo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/klaviyo/index.md) | 0% | 31% | 32 |
| 26 | [GetResponse](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/getresponse/index.md) | 0% | 33% | 15 |
| 44 | [Adobe Marketo Engage](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/adobe-marketo-engage/index.md) | 0% | 54% | 13 |
| 49 | [Constant Contact](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/constant-contact/index.md) | 0% | 55% | 22 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 50 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign
- GPT-5.4 mini: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Braze, HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
- Perplexity Sonar: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign
- Grok 4.20: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Adobe Marketo Engage, Brevo
- Mistral Small: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: ActiveCampaign; alternatives HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Llama 4 Maverick: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Customer.io
- Kimi K2: ActiveCampaign; alternatives HubSpot Marketing Hub
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo
- MiniMax M2.5: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub

## Sources the answers cite

17 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- emailtooltester.com: 11 answers, 17 citations
- mailtrap.io: 11 answers, 17 citations
- brevo.com: 9 answers, 10 citations
- ventureharbour.com: 8 answers, 10 citations
- emailvendorselection.com: 8 answers, 9 citations
- constantcontact.com: 6 answers, 8 citations
- sequenzy.com: 6 answers, 6 citations
- sender.net: 5 answers, 6 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://brevo.com/blog/best-email-marketing-services (8 answers)
- https://emailvendorselection.com/best-email-marketing-platforms (7 answers)
- https://ventureharbour.com/email-marketing-software-tools-one-best (7 answers)
- https://mailtrap.io/blog/email-marketing-platforms (6 answers)
- https://emailtooltester.com/en/blog/free-email-marketing-services (5 answers)
- https://activecampaign.com/blog/email-marketing-software-comparison-guide (4 answers)
- https://constantcontact.com/blog/email-marketing-tools (4 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-email-marketing-software (4 answers)
- https://mailtrap.io/blog/b2b-email-marketing-software (4 answers)
- https://sender.net/blog/cheap-email-marketing (4 answers)

## Warned against

- Mailchimp: 27 of 48 labels negative. "The Mailchimp / ActiveCampaign Trap: Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign are highly recognizable, but they are incredibly expensive for growing businesses." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- Constant Contact: 12 of 22 labels negative. "Users frequently criticize its interface as dated and clunky... often seen as a legacy choice rather than a modern growth tool." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- ActiveCampaign: 8 of 56 labels negative. "Avoid Mailchimp/ActiveCampaign/Constant Contact at larger list sizes" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt)
- AWeber: 6 of 8 labels negative. "Charges for unsubscribes/inactives (unfair billing flagged in analyses), lower deliverability... dated interface" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.