About This Site and How Tools Are Covered
AI Email Marketing Software (aiemailmarketingsoftware.com) compares email platforms that offer AI writing or optimisation features, along with the billing, automation and data tools that often sit beside them. If you want one place to start on a small list, Mailchimp\u2019s free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, and its Standard plan starts at $20 a month for 500 contacts. Larger lists and product-triggered messages need the plans described below.
What This Site Covers
The site has two kinds of tool. Sending platforms hold your contacts, build campaigns and deliver them: Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Customer.io, Close and Loops. Supporting tools do not send the main campaign but decide when and to whom it goes: payment platforms that emit subscription events, automation builders, a customer data platform and a website experimentation product. Each supporting tool is labelled as such so you do not mistake it for an email sender.
Each vendor is described from its own pricing page and documentation. The site does not run output tests, so it makes no claims about how well a vendor\u2019s AI writes. It states which AI features a plan includes, where the vendor says so, and leaves quality judgments to a trial on your own list.
Tools Covered at a Glance
| Tool | Best for | Starting price (plan, billing) | Key limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | Small lists that want to start on a free plan | Free up to 250 contacts; Standard from $20/month for 500 contacts, monthly | Send allowance and price move with the contact tier |
| ActiveCampaign | Email, automation and a standard CRM under one subscription | Starter $15/month at 1,000 contacts; same price billed annually | Starting prices assume 1,000 contacts and rise with the list |
| Customer.io | Product and SaaS teams sending event-triggered messages | Essentials from $100/month base; $145/month at 10,000 profiles, billed monthly | Priced by profiles; Premium uses custom profile volume |
| Close | Sales teams that also send bulk email | Essentials $49/user/month, or $35 billed annually | Priced per user; calling and SMS usage passed through at cost |
| Loops | Early-stage products wanting a low-cost start | Early Stage free; Growing Audience $99/month | Free plan adds a Loops footer and caps sends at 4,000 per rolling 30 days |
| Make | Custom flows that connect email to other apps | Free; Core $9/month billed annually for 10,000 credits | Free plan limited to 2 active scenarios and 1,000 credits a month |
| Zapier | Connecting tools without custom code | Free: 100 tasks a month; Professional $19.99/month | Free plan is limited to two-step Zaps |
| Stripe | Card payments that trigger billing emails | Per-transaction pricing; no monthly fee on standard payments | No permanent free plan |
| Paddle | Merchant-of-record billing for software sellers | Per-transaction pricing; no monthly platform fee listed | Cost depends on transaction volume |
| Lemon Squeezy | Merchant-of-record sales for digital products | $0 monthly plan; fees charged per sale | Fees are charged on each sale |
| Segment | Teams building a customer data platform | Pricing on request | No published prices or free-plan limits |
| Convert | Website experiments run alongside email tests | Growth $299/month billed annually, 100,000 monthly tested users | Not an email sender; priced by tested users |
The Sending Platforms, One by One
Mailchimp
Mailchimp suits a small list that needs to start without a bill. The free plan allows 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a daily cap of 250. Paid plans scale by contact tier: the Standard plan starts at $20 a month for the 500-contact selector, which allows up to 6,000 emails a month at that size. Its limitation is that the send allowance and the price move together as the list grows, so a list just over a tier boundary can cost noticeably more. Check the tier you land in before you import everything. Mailchimp pricing
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign suits teams that want email, marketing automation and a standard CRM under one subscription. The Starter plan lists $15 a month at 1,000 contacts, with the same price billed annually. Plus is $49 and Pro is $79 at the same contact start point, and Enterprise is $145 with a dedicated account team. The limitation is that the published starting prices assume 1,000 contacts, so a larger list costs more, and the advanced segmentation you may need is tied to higher tiers. ActiveCampaign pricing
Customer.io
Customer.io suits product and SaaS teams that want messages triggered by events such as sign-ups, trial milestones or failed payments. The Essentials plan lists AI Agent core skills, a visual workflow builder and basic data integrations. Pricing is by profile volume: $145 a month at 10,000 profiles, $235 at 20,000, $325 at 30,000, $415 at 40,000 and $505 or more at 50,000, all billed monthly. Premium adds elevated AI Agent limits and custom profile volume. The limitation is that cost rises with every profile you store, not only with the messages you send. Customer.io pricing
Close
Close is built for sales teams that also run bulk email to the same accounts. Essentials lists $49 per user per month, or $35 billed annually, and includes unlimited contacts and leads, email, calling, SMS and 1,000 AI credits per user a month. Growth adds automated workflows and bulk email for $109 a month, or $99 billed annually, with 1,500 AI credits per user. The limitation is that cost scales per seat, and calling and SMS usage is passed through at cost. Close pricing
Loops
Loops suits early-stage products that want to send product and lifecycle email without a large fixed cost. The Early Stage plan is free, with up to 4,000 sends in any rolling 30 days to the 1,000 newest contacts, all features included, a Loops footer and 10 emails per second. The Growing Audience plan is $99 a month and removes the send cap on subscribers, with transactional sends to users outside your audience included. The limitation is the free-plan cap, which a growing product reaches quickly. Loops pricing
Supporting Tools
Stripe, Paddle and Lemon Squeezy are payment platforms. They are relevant because their billing events, such as a successful renewal or a failed card, are the most common triggers for lifecycle email. Stripe has no permanent free plan, and Paddle and Lemon Squeezy both price per transaction, so this site does not give a monthly figure for them. Make and Zapier connect email to other applications when a built-in trigger does not exist. Segment is a customer data platform with custom pricing and no published limits. Convert runs experiments on websites and is priced by monthly tested users; it is not an email sender, and it appears here only for teams that test email and landing pages together.
What the Plans Cost at Realistic List Sizes
The table below uses only the list sizes that each vendor publishes. Where a vendor does not state a price for a size, the site does not estimate one.
| Tool and plan | List or usage size | Price and billing | What the price includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp Free | Up to 250 contacts | $0, free | Up to 500 sends a month, maximum 250 a day |
| Mailchimp Standard | 500 contacts (default selector) | $20/month, monthly billing | Up to 6,000 emails a month at this size |
| Mailchimp contact tier | 2,501 to 5,000 contacts | $100/month | Up to 60,000 emails a month |
| ActiveCampaign Starter | 1,000 contacts | $15/month, same billed annually | Email marketing, automation, standard CRM |
| Customer.io Essentials | 10,000 profiles | $145/month, billed monthly | AI Agent core skills and visual workflows |
| Customer.io Essentials | 20,000 profiles | $235/month, billed monthly | Same plan at the next profile tier |
| Customer.io Essentials | 50,000 profiles or more | From $505/month, billed monthly | Shown as $505+ on the pricing page |
| Close Essentials | Per user | $49/user/month, or $35 billed annually | 1,000 AI credits per user a month |
| Loops Growing Audience | Contact-based; no size stated on the pricing page | $99/month | Unlimited sends to subscribers |
Worked example: a 10,000-profile Customer.io account costs 12 \u00d7 $145 = $1,740 a year when billed monthly. At 20,000 profiles the same plan is 12 \u00d7 $235 = $2,820 a year. Use the vendor\u2019s own calculator before you commit, because profile counts can differ from contact counts.
How to Choose
Pick by the question that drives the bill first: how many contacts, profiles or users you pay for, and whether you need the AI features listed on a specific plan. The decision table below turns that into a starting point, not a verdict.
| If you need | Start with | Because |
|---|---|---|
| A free start on a very small list | Mailchimp Free or Loops Early Stage | Mailchimp allows 250 contacts and 500 sends a month; Loops allows 4,000 sends in a rolling 30 days |
| Email, automation and a CRM at a low fixed price | ActiveCampaign Starter | $15 a month at 1,000 contacts, with standard CRM included |
| Messages triggered by product events and AI agent workflows | Customer.io Essentials | AI Agent core skills are listed on the plan, and the workflow builder is visual |
| Bulk email for a sales team | Close Essentials or Growth | Bulk email and AI credits are listed per user from the Essentials tier upward |
| Billing events to trigger lifecycle email | Stripe, Paddle or Lemon Squeezy, plus a sending platform | These platforms emit the billing events; pricing is per transaction, so check the rate on the vendor page |
| Connecting email to apps with no native trigger | Make or Zapier | Free plans exist, with Make limited to 2 active scenarios and Zapier to 100 tasks a month |
Setup and Migration Checklist
Before you move a list or sign a plan, confirm the following. The checklist applies to any tool on this site.
| Step | What to confirm | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Count what you pay for | Contacts, profiles or users, whichever the vendor bills on | The vendor\u2019s pricing page |
| 2. Check the free ceiling | Contact cap, send cap, or task and credit limits | The free-plan row on the vendor page |
| 3. Confirm the AI features on your plan | Which AI items appear on the tier you will buy | The tier table, not the marketing page |
| 4. Map your billing events | Renewal, failed payment and cancellation events, and how they reach the sender | The payment platform\u2019s and the sender\u2019s documentation |
| 5. Migrate one segment first | Import a small segment, send a test, and check suppression and unsubscribe handling | Your sending tool\u2019s import guide |
| 6. Save the price on the day you sign | A dated copy of the plan and price you accepted | Your own records |
How This Page Is Compiled
The editorial team reads each vendor\u2019s public pricing page and documentation on a stated date, and records the plan name, price, billing view and the list size the price applies to. Tools are included when a vendor\u2019s own pages show that it sends email or feeds email triggers. Where a vendor does not publish a price, the page says so.
Editor: Claire Mendoza, a pen name for the site\u2019s editorial team. Articles carry a byline and a verification date. A date changes only when the figures on that page are actually updated.
- Tools are listed in the order of the criteria on this page, applied the same way to each vendor.
- AI features are described only where the vendor\u2019s pricing or product pages say a plan includes them.
- Prices come from the vendor\u2019s pricing page; the vendor page always takes precedence.
Corrections and Contact
Vendors change tiers constantly. If you find a stale figure, check the official pricing page linked on the relevant guide first. If the site is wrong, use the contact details in the footer with the page address, the claim and the vendor link. Corrections are made in the next editorial pass, and the page\u2019s verification date is updated at the same time. For the full comparison, start at the home page or the pricing guides.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which tool should a small team start with for email?
If you need the lowest-cost place to start, Mailchimp\u2019s free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. When you outgrow it, the Standard plan starts at $20 a month for a 500-contact list. Check the pricing page for the features your plan includes before you commit.
Does this site rate the quality of AI-written emails?
No. The site does not score AI output or publish ratings. It reports what each vendor\u2019s pricing page says is included, such as AI Agent core skills on Customer.io\u2019s Essentials plan or the AI credits per user listed on Close\u2019s tiers. Judge the output yourself with a trial on your own list.
How current are the prices?
Prices were checked against each vendor\u2019s pricing page on 7 October 2026. Vendors change tiers and promotions often, so the official pricing page is authoritative. If it differs from this site, follow the vendor page and tell us about the difference.
Why do some rows show no monthly price?
Stripe, Paddle and Lemon Squeezy charge per transaction, and Segment does not publish prices. Rather than invent a figure, the site shows the pricing model and links to the vendor page. Where a plan or size has no published price, the site says pricing on request.
Why are payment and automation tools included in an email guide?
Many email programmes are triggered by billing events, form submissions or data changes. Payment platforms and automation tools often decide whether those triggers exist at all, so they appear as supporting tools rather than senders.
How do I report an error or suggest a tool?
Use the contact details in the footer. Include the page address, the figure or claim in question, and a link to the vendor source. Corrections are made in the next editorial pass, and the verification date on the page is updated when a price changes.