# Email marketing platforms for small business buyers: 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 small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/email-marketing/2026-09/smb

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 15, 2026 and superseded since.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/smb/index.md

**Standing:** ActiveCampaign leads with 36% of first choices; verdict contested. 50 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) | 36% | 4% | 53 |
| 2 | [Brevo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/brevo/index.md) | 14% | 3% | 64 |
| 3 | [MailerLite](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/mailerlite/index.md) | 14% | 7% | 46 |
| 4 | [Sender](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/sender/index.md) | 14% | 4% | 24 |
| 5 | [HubSpot Marketing Hub](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/hubspot-marketing-hub/index.md) | 10% | 21% | 43 |
| 6 | [Mailchimp](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/mailchimp/index.md) | 6% | 41% | 51 |
| 7 | [Moosend](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/moosend/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 16 |
| 10 | [Omnisend](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/omnisend/index.md) | 0% | 10% | 21 |
| 11 | [Kit](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/kit/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 13 |
| 12 | [EmailOctopus](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/emailoctopus/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 13 | [Klaviyo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/klaviyo/index.md) | 0% | 39% | 23 |
| 47 | [Constant Contact](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/constant-contact/index.md) | 0% | 48% | 25 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 49 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: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Mailchimp
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Instantly, Lemlist
- Perplexity Sonar: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, MailerLite
- Grok 4.20: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp, MailerLite
- Mistral Small: ActiveCampaign; alternatives HubSpot Marketing Hub, Loops, Sender, Sequenzy
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: MailerLite; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Sender
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Customer.io
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Brevo, Mailchimp, MailerLite
- Kimi K2: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, GetResponse, HubSpot Marketing Hub, MailerLite
- MiniMax M2.5: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub

## Sources the answers cite

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

- emailtooltester.com: 11 answers, 15 citations
- mailtrap.io: 10 answers, 15 citations
- emailvendorselection.com: 8 answers, 8 citations
- sequenzy.com: 7 answers, 11 citations
- brevo.com: 6 answers, 7 citations
- ventureharbour.com: 6 answers, 7 citations
- klaviyo.com: 6 answers, 6 citations
- youtube.com: 5 answers, 20 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://emailvendorselection.com/best-email-marketing-platforms (8 answers)
- https://brevo.com/blog/best-email-marketing-services (6 answers)
- https://mailtrap.io/blog/email-marketing-platforms-for-startups (6 answers)
- https://ventureharbour.com/email-marketing-software-tools-one-best (6 answers)
- https://klaviyo.com/blog/best-email-marketing-platforms (5 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-email-marketing-software (5 answers)
- https://emailtooltester.com/en/blog/best-b2b-email-marketing-software (4 answers)
- https://insiderone.com/best-email-marketing-platforms-small-businesses (4 answers)
- https://mailtrap.io/blog/email-marketing-platforms (4 answers)
- https://sequenzy.com/blog/best-email-marketing-tools (4 answers)

## Warned against

- Mailchimp: 21 of 51 labels 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: 12 of 25 labels 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: 7 of 12 labels 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: 9 of 23 labels negative. "Klaviyo/Omnisend: Overkill for pure B2B" (Mistral Small, direct 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.