# Email marketing platforms for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, October 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, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "email marketing platform" and as "email marketing tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/email-marketing/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/email-marketing/smb/index.md

**Standing:** ActiveCampaign leads with 25% of first choices; verdict contested. 55 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) | 25% | 14% | 50 |
| 2 | [HubSpot Marketing Hub](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/hubspot-marketing-hub/index.md) | 24% | 14% | 42 |
| 3 | [Brevo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/brevo/index.md) | 18% | 3% | 64 |
| 4 | [MailerLite](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/mailerlite/index.md) | 13% | 2% | 51 |
| 5 | [Sender](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/sender/index.md) | 11% | 0% | 22 |
| 6 | [Mailchimp](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/mailchimp/index.md) | 5% | 42% | 53 |
| 7 | [EmailOctopus](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/emailoctopus/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 12 |
| 8 | [Zoho Campaigns](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/zoho-campaigns/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 12 |
| 9 | [Klaviyo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/klaviyo/index.md) | 0% | 21% | 24 |
| 11 | [Kit](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/kit/index.md) | 0% | 21% | 14 |
| 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: HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp
- GPT-5.4 mini: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Apollo.io, Brevo, MailerLite
- Perplexity Sonar: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, MailerLite
- Grok 4.20: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp
- Mistral Small: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Sequenzy, Zoho Campaigns
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Llama 4 Maverick: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Constant Contact, Mailtrap Email Marketing
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, MailerLite
- Kimi K2: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Zoho Campaigns
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, MailerLite, Sequenzy
- MiniMax M2.5: Brevo, MailerLite; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Zoho Campaigns
- GPT-6 Luna: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Brevo
- Muse Glimmer 30B: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Sender

## Sources the answers cite

74 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- capterra.com: 37 answers, 39 citations
- sequenzy.com: 30 answers, 44 citations
- emailvendorselection.com: 30 answers, 33 citations
- mailtrap.io: 27 answers, 31 citations
- brevo.com: 25 answers, 33 citations
- fitsmallbusiness.com: 23 answers, 27 citations
- learn.g2.com: 22 answers, 23 citations
- activecampaign.com: 21 answers, 32 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://capterra.com/resources/best-email-marketing-software-small-business-reviews (34 answers)
- https://emailvendorselection.com/best-email-marketing-platforms (27 answers)
- https://fitsmallbusiness.com/best-email-marketing-software (23 answers)
- https://hostinger.com/tutorials/best-email-marketing-platforms (19 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-email-marketing-software (17 answers)
- https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/marketing/email-marketing-platforms (17 answers)
- https://sequenzy.com/blog/best-email-marketing-tools (17 answers)
- https://brevo.com/blog/best-email-marketing-services (15 answers)
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-email-marketing-services (14 answers)
- https://sender.net/blog/cheap-email-marketing (14 answers)

## Warned against

- Mailchimp: 22 of 53 labels negative. "Mailchimp ... has undergone major changes that make it a risky choice for budget-conscious teams" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Constant Contact: 12 of 25 labels negative. "charges per contact, not per email, which means costs can scale quickly" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- HubSpot Marketing Hub: 6 of 42 labels negative. "a small-business-oriented review says to avoid HubSpot at the small-business stage because pricing rises aggressively beyond the entry tier" (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)
- ActiveCampaign: 7 of 50 labels negative. "step up to Klaviyo/ActiveCampaign only when automation needs justify the higher cost and steeper learning curve" (Muse Glimmer 30B, budget prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: ActiveCampaign at 28%.

- HubSpot Marketing Hub: 10% to 21%, +11. Cleared the floor by 0 points · rank 5 → 2 of 42.
- ActiveCampaign: 36% to 28%, −8. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 1 of 42, unchanged.
- Brevo: 14% to 17%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 2 → 3 of 42.
- Sender: 14% to 11%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 4 → 5 of 42.
- EmailOctopus: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 12 → 7 of 42.
- Zoho Campaigns: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 32 → 8 of 42.
- Moosend: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 10 of 42.
- MailerLite: 14% to 13%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 3 → 4 of 42.
- Mailchimp: 6% to 6%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 of 42, unchanged.
- Klaviyo: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 13 → 9 of 42.
- Kit: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 of 42, unchanged.
- Omnisend: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 12 of 42.

## Record

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