Email marketing software for a lean team

Email marketing software for a small team needs to handle a newsletter, an automated welcome or nurture sequence for new leads, and integration with whatever CRM the team already runs, without requiring a dedicated marketing operations person to maintain it.

MailerLite covers all three at a lower price point than most competitors, with an automation builder simple enough to set up without training, which is why it's the platform this site runs on for its own newsletter and lead sequences. ActiveCampaign goes further on automation complexity and CRM-adjacent features, useful for a team that wants to run sales sequences through the same tool rather than a separate CRM, at a meaningfully higher price. Mailchimp remains the most widely recognized name in the category, with a free tier for very small lists, but its pricing has shifted several times in recent years in ways that have made it less competitive at mid-size list volumes than either MailerLite or ActiveCampaign, worth checking current pricing directly rather than assuming its older reputation for value still holds.

For a team sending straightforward newsletters and lead sequences, MailerLite covers the need at the lowest cost; ActiveCampaign is worth the difference only if sales automation is meant to live in the same tool.