Marketing Automation

Platforms that automate marketing workflows including email campaigns, customer journey orchestration, audience segmentation, lead nurturing, and behavioral triggers. Includes dedicated email marketing platforms (Mailchimp, Brevo), marketing hubs within CRM suites (HubSpot Marketing Hub), and behavioral messaging tools (Customer.io). These tools enable personalized communication at scale based on subscriber actions, purchase history, and engagement patterns.

Featured Guide

Mailchimp vs Customer.io in 2026: Email Marketing Automation Compared

A comparison of Mailchimp and Customer.io for email and marketing automation in 2026. Covers segmentation models, multi-channel messaging, pricing at scale, and real migration data from a 45,000-subscriber list.

3 tools in this category

Quick Comparison

Tool	Pricing Model	Free Tier	Open Source	Self-Hostable
Brevo	freemium	Yes	No	No
Customer.io	paid	No	No	No
Mailchimp	freemium	Yes	No	No

Brevo

Free Tier

All-in-one marketing platform with email automation, SMS, CRM, and transactional messaging

Marketing Automation by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) 8 integrations

Customer.io

Behavioral messaging platform for sending targeted emails, push notifications, SMS, and in-app messages based on user actions and event data.

Marketing Automation by Customer.io 8 integrations

Mailchimp

Free Tier

Email marketing and automation platform with Customer Journey Builder for targeted campaigns and audience management.

Marketing Automation by Intuit Inc. 9 integrations

Marketing Automation Rankings

Best Marketing Automation Tools in 2026

A ranked list of the best marketing automation tools in 2026. This ranking evaluates platforms across email automation capability, customer journey building, audience segmentation, integration breadth, and pricing value. The ranking includes dedicated email/marketing platforms (HubSpot, Mailchimp, Customer.io, Brevo, ActiveCampaign), behavioral messaging tools (Klaviyo), and ecommerce-native marketing automation (Shopify Flow).

Questions About Marketing Automation

Mailchimp vs Brevo for Email Marketing in 2026

Mailchimp offers an all-in-one marketing platform with landing pages and social ads at $75/month for 5,000 contacts. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) provides multi-channel messaging (email, SMS, WhatsApp) with pay-per-email pricing at $18/month for unlimited contacts. Brevo is more cost-effective for large, infrequently emailed lists.

How to automate email campaigns in Mailchimp

To automate emails in Mailchimp, navigate to Automations > Customer Journeys, click "Create Journey," set an entry trigger (subscriber joins list, tag added, purchase event), add email steps with delays and branching, and activate. The Standard plan ($20/month for 500 contacts) includes the full journey builder.

Can you use Mailchimp with Shopify?

Yes. Mailchimp reconnected with Shopify in 2024 after a multi-year disconnection. As of April 2026, the native Mailchimp for Shopify integration syncs customer data, purchase history, and product catalogs, enabling abandoned cart emails, post-purchase sequences, and product recommendation campaigns. The integration is available on all Mailchimp plans.