September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › Marketing › Email marketing › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Email marketing platforms for small business buyers

Asked as “email marketing platform”, and as “email marketing tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

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

Standing · first-choice share
36%
Contested · Brevo 14%
36ActiveCampaign14Brevo14MailerLite36others

36% of first choices, contested.

ShowinginAll 112 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01ActiveCampaign36%4%53endorsed leader
02Brevo14%3%64accepted challenger
03MailerLite14%7%46accepted challenger
04Sender14%4%24accepted challenger
05HubSpot Marketing Hub10%21%43accepted challenger
06Mailchimp6%41%51criticized challenger
07Moosend2%0%16accepted challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13GetResponse0%58%12criticized challenger
12Constant Contact0%48%25criticized challenger
11Klaviyo0%39%23criticized challenger
08Omnisend0%10%21accepted challenger
09Kit0%8%13accepted challenger
10EmailOctopus0%0%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
All ten head-to-head pages: the top five products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01ActiveCampaign36%
02Brevo14%
03MailerLite14%
04Sender14%
05HubSpot Marketing Hub10%
06Mailchimp6%
07Moosend2%
08Omnisend0%
09Kit0%
10EmailOctopus0%
11Klaviyo0%
12Constant Contact0%
13GetResponse0%

What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick and GLM 4.7 FlashX changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Mailchimp
41%
21 of 51 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 9 hard negative
“Mailchimp has lost some of its email marketing roots and started limiting the free and basic version of its software” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Constant Contact
48%
12 of 25 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Constant Contact is described as a "Traditional Email Service with Legacy Interface," and its automation capabilities aren't well-suited to complex customer journeys.” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
GetResponse
58%
7 of 12 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“one review calls it the weakest fit for SMBs because it tries to do too much as an all-in-one suite and ends up mediocre in core email tasks” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Klaviyo
39%
9 of 23 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Klaviyo/Omnisend: Overkill for pure B2B” Mistral Small, direct prompt

What they cite

Four of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

18 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 233 links across 88 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

11 answers · 15 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Mailtrap10 answers · 15 citations · 3 models
8 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Sequenzy7 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Brevo6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Klaviyo6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · YouTube5 answers · 20 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Sender5 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Capterra5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Mailchimp5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best email marketing platform”, “email marketing platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
ActiveCampaign activecampaign.com36%43718,100307235,709$1,42432
Brevo brevo.com14%44040,50032781,741$17,8471069
MailerLite mailerlite.com14%15049,50031159,716$851157
Sender sender.net14%759,90010,34969,07813
HubSpot parent site
HubSpot Marketing Hub 10%
10%991368,0009,776
Intuit mailchimp.com
Mailchimp 6%
6%328368,0006,8621,931,402$1,2141073
Moosend moosend.com2%301,9001971,5152
Apollo.io apollo.io2%101033,100396111,60894
HubSpot Starter Customer Platform2%
Omnisend omnisend.com0%1999,90010851,545$11366

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 11 sites; 6 of them are among the sites the models cited here (brevo.com, emailtooltester.com, emailvendorselection.com, mailchimp.com, mailtrap.io, ventureharbour.com). The first result for “best email marketing platform” is emailvendorselection.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best email marketing platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which email marketing tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top email marketing platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best email marketing platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an email marketing platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which email marketing platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceHubSpot Marketing Hub, MailchimpChanged
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Constant Contact, GetResponse
Constant Contact, MailerLite
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, EmailOctopus, Omnisend
Mailchimp
One alternativeBrevo
no first choiceagainst: Constant Contact, Mailchimp
GPT-5.4 miniHubSpot Marketing Hub
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Mailchimp
ActiveCampaignChanged
Two alternativesBrevo, Mailchimp
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub
Mailchimp
Five alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Campaign Monitor, Kit, Klaviyo
MailerLite
One alternativeBrevo
against: Mailchimp
no first choiceagainst: Constant Contact, SendGrid
Gemini 3.5 FlashActiveCampaign
Five alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Instantly, Lemlist, MailerLite
Apollo.io, HubSpot Starter Customer PlatformChanged
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Instantly, Lemlist
MailerLite
Three alternativesBrevo, Kit, Omnisend
against: Klaviyo, Mailchimp
Sender
Three alternativesBrevo, EmailOctopus, Kit
against: Constant Contact, Mailchimp, MailerLite
ActiveCampaign
Five alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Kit, Klaviyo, MailerLite
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Constant Contact, Keap, Mailchimp, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Perplexity SonarActiveCampaign
Two alternativesBrevo, MailerLite
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaignHeld
Two alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp
Brevo, MailerLite
Six alternativesActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend
Brevo
Three alternativesMailerLite, Sender, Zoho Campaigns
no first choiceagainst: Constant Contact, GetResponse, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Kit, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Substack
Grok 4.20ActiveCampaign
Four alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp, MailerLite
ActiveCampaignHeld
Three alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp
Brevo, MailerLite
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend
Sender
Two alternativesBrevo, EmailOctopus
against: Mailchimp, MailerLite
Brevo, MailerLite
Seven alternativesActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Moosend, Omnisend, Sender
against: Constant Contact, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Mailchimp
Mistral SmallActiveCampaign
Five alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, Loops, Sender, Sequenzy, Userlist
against: Brevo, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend
ActiveCampaignHeld
Three alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Sender
MailerLite
Seven alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Constant Contact, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Kit, Mailchimp, Moosend
Sender
Four alternativesBenchmark Email, Brevo, EmailOctopus, MailerLite
Mailchimp
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo
against: AWeber, Benchmark Email, Constant Contact, Drip, GetResponse, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Mailjet, Mailmodo, SendGrid, SendMails, SendX
DeepSeek V4 FlashMailerLite
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Sender
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaignChanged
Two alternativesBrevo, MailerLite
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub
MailerLite
Five alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Kit, Klaviyo, Omnisend
against: Mailchimp
Sender
Three alternativesBrevo, EmailOctopus, MailerLite
against: Constant Contact, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend
no first choiceagainst: AWeber, ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Constant Contact, GetResponse, Mailchimp, MailerLite
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Customer.io
ActiveCampaign, Brevo, HubSpot Marketing HubChangedno first choiceMailerLite
Three alternativesBrevo, Mailercloud, Sequenzy
no first choiceagainst: GetResponse
Qwen 3.7 FlashActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
Three alternativesBrevo, Mailchimp, MailerLite
ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing HubHeld
Two alternativesBrevo, MailerLite
ActiveCampaign, MailerLite
Four alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Moosend, Omnisend
against: Klaviyo, Mailchimp
MailerLite
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Systeme.io
against: Mailchimp
Brevo
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
against: Mailchimp
against: AWeber, Constant Contact, GetResponse, Klaviyo, SendFox, Sender
Kimi K2ActiveCampaign
One alternativeBrevo
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaignHeld
Two alternativesBrevo, MailerLite
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub
Brevo, MailerLite, Sender
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Mailchimp
Sender
Two alternativesBrevo, MailerLite
against: Mailchimp
Brevo, MailerLite, Moosend, Sender
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo
against: AWeber, Benchmark Email, Constant Contact, GoHighLevel, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, SendPulse, Zoho Campaigns
GLM 4.7 FlashXActiveCampaign
Four alternativesBrevo, GetResponse, HubSpot Marketing Hub, MailerLite
BrevoChanged
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp
MailerLite
Twelve alternativesAWeber, ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Constant Contact, Drip, EmailOctopus, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Kit, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Moosend, Omnisend
Brevo
One alternativeSender
against: Mailchimp
no first choiceagainst: AWeber, Benchmark Email, Constant Contact, Drip, GetResponse, Mailchimp, Mailmodo
MiniMax M2.5ActiveCampaign
Two alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaignHeld
Two alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, Sender
no first choice
Eight alternativesActiveCampaign, Campaign Monitor, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Mailjet, Omnisend, Sender
MailerLite, Sender
Three alternativesBrevo, Mailjet, Omnisend
no first choiceagainst: ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Keap, Mailchimp
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:10no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:17yes45 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:05yes1022 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:02yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 04:22yes06 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:54yes06 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:31yes012 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:48yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:31yes045 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:18yes026 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:08yes016 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:42no08 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:45no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:16yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:18yes1623 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:11yes185 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 01:37yes05 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:57yes04 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:18yes016 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:50yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:53no052 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:04yes039 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:55yes020 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:33yes012 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:22yes77 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:46yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:15yes2224 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:08yes186 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 00:39yes09 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:27yes011 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:06yes09 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:29yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:24yes033 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:57yes038 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:33yes035 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:20yes014 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:56no05 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:39yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:12yes2322 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:19yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 05:06yes06 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:22yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:38yes035 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:17yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:23no024 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:28yes021 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:49yes0115 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:11yes013 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:41no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:59no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:55no017 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:46yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 02:29yes010 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:23no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:59yes025 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:09yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:55yes020 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:41yes059 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:57yes018 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 22:54yes012 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:08yes137 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:55yes45 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:46yes819 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:35yes1811 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:19yes09 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:22yes010 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:13yes034 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:44yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:03yes037 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:06yes059 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:45yes026 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:29yes014 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
HubSpot read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot (Marketing Hub Starter or Professional) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot (Starter) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
Unresolved, counted raw
HubSpot Starter Customer Platform
SendFox
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
← Email deliverabilityEmail signatures →