Email marketing generates an average ROI of 36 euros for every euro invested. It is the most profitable channel in digital marketing, ahead of social media, SEO, and paid advertising. But this potential is only truly realized with the right tool. And choosing the wrong one means paying for an underutilized platform that doesn't meet your real needs.
This comparison helps you see clearly, according to your profile and your goals.
What is an email tool?
An email tool, or email marketing software, is a platform that allows you to create, send, automate, and analyze email campaigns on a large scale. It replaces manual sending from Gmail or Outlook, which are neither designed for this nor capable of ensuring correct deliverability beyond a few dozen recipients.
A good email tool does several things at once: managing your contact database, segmenting your audience, automating email sequences based on your subscribers' behavior, personalizing content, and providing you with precise statistics to improve your performance.
The features to prioritize before choosing are: the quality of automation, the depth of segmentation, integrations with your e-commerce platform, ease of use, deliverability, and of course, the features/price ratio.
The different types of email tools
Before comparing platforms, it's important to understand that there isn't just one type of email tool. There are three, which address very different uses.
Email marketing: newsletter campaigns, promotions, segmentation, automations. This is what we're talking about in this article.
Transactional email: order confirmations, password resets, automatic notifications. These emails are triggered by a user action and require a different technical infrastructure.
Prospecting email (cold emailing): approaching new prospects cold, in B2B. Tools like Lemlist specialize in this use, which is distinct from traditional email marketing.
If you need the first two, choose a platform that handles both. If you need all three, use two different tools rather than trying to do everything with one that will do everything halfway.
1. Klaviyo, the benchmark for e-commerce
Klaviyo is not just an email tool. It's a marketing automation platform designed specifically for e-commerce brands, with a depth of data and personalization capabilities that generalist tools cannot match.
Its main strength: centralizing all your customer data (purchases, browsing, email engagement, SMS) into unified profiles, and transforming them into dynamic segments and ultra-targeted automated flows. A customer who has purchased twice in the last 30 days receives a different message from one who hasn't opened your emails in 90 days. And all of this can be configured without a developer.
The results speak for themselves. Automated flows on Klaviyo generate on average 18 times more revenue per recipient than traditional campaigns. The abandoned cart flow averages 2.82 euros per recipient, and up to 24.95 euros for the top 10%.
Klaviyo manages email, SMS, and WhatsApp in a single interface. It integrates natively with Shopify, WooCommerce, Prestashop, and Magento. It offers predictive analytics (CLV, churn risk), A/B tests, dynamic product recommendations, and a comprehensive template editor.
Pricing: free version up to 250 contacts. Paid plans starting from 20€/month, scalable according to contact volume.
For whom: any e-commerce brand that wants to make email a real profitability lever. It is the absolute benchmark in the sector.
The limit: a longer learning curve than Brevo or Mailchimp. And not very suitable for B2B uses or prospecting needs.
2. Brevo, the accessible French solution
Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, is the most popular email tool in France for VSEs and SMEs. Its main particularity: it charges per volume of emails sent and not by the number of contacts. For large but infrequently used databases, this is a considerable economic advantage.
The interface is intuitive, quick to get started, and the features cover a wide range: email marketing, SMS, WhatsApp Business, live chat, simplified sales pipeline, and marketing automation. It is an all-in-one tool that avoids multiplying subscriptions.
Its deliverability is good, the email templates are polished, and GDPR compliance is natively managed, which is a real plus for the French market.
Pricing: free plan up to 300 emails per day and unlimited contacts. Paid plans starting from 7€/month for 5,000 emails, 15€/month for the Standard plan with automation and A/B testing.
For whom: VSEs and SMEs looking for a comprehensive tool without a large budget. Beginner e-commerce brands. Companies that want to manage email, SMS, and chat in one tool.
The limit: less powerful than Klaviyo on behavioral segmentation and the depth of e-commerce data. Ambitious brands often end up migrating to Klaviyo once their email strategy is structured.
3. Mailchimp, the most well-known (but not necessarily the best)
Mailchimp is the most well-known email tool in the world. Since 2001, it has established itself as the benchmark for beginners thanks to its intuitive interface and generous free version. The platform has evolved a lot: it now offers an integrated design studio, behavioral segmentation, AI-based predictive sending, and integrations with social networks.
Honestly, Mailchimp remains an excellent starting point. But for serious e-commerce, it quickly shows its limits compared to Klaviyo or even Brevo on the depth of automation and personalization.
Pricing: free plan up to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month. Paid plans starting from 13€/month.
For whom: very small businesses, content creators, small online stores starting in email marketing. Good tool for learning, less suitable for scaling.
The limit: pricing quickly becomes high as the list grows. Less powerful than Klaviyo for e-commerce and than Brevo for value for money.
4. HubSpot, for structured marketing teams
HubSpot is much more than an email tool. It is a complete platform that combines CRM, marketing automation, lead tracking, sales pipeline, and customer service in a single environment. For a B2B marketing team or an SME that wants to centralize everything, it is a benchmark.
Email marketing is solid, with Smart Content (dynamic content based on contact properties), advanced segmentation, and detailed reporting. But email is not the core of the product: it is one brick among others.
Pricing: limited free plan. Paid plans starting from 9€/month (Starter) up to several hundred euros for advanced plans. The Professional version starts at 792€/month.
For whom: SMEs and B2B or mixed B2C scale-ups, with sales and marketing teams to align. Less suitable for pure e-commerce that wants to maximize its email revenue.
The limit: expensive as soon as you go up in features. And for pure e-commerce email marketing, Klaviyo remains far superior.
5. Mailerlite, the best value for money for tight budgets
Mailerlite is often underestimated. Yet it is one of the highest-rated tools on the market for user experience, with a generous free plan: 12,000 emails per month, 10 landing pages included, and access to support. Its templates are varied and well-designed, its editor is smooth, and its automation features cover essential needs.
Pricing: free plan up to 1,000 contacts and 12,000 emails/month. Paid plans starting from $9/month.
For whom: VSEs, content creators, small online stores looking for a reliable tool without paying a lot. Good entry point before migrating to Klaviyo.
6. ActiveCampaign, for advanced automations
ActiveCampaign is probably the most powerful tool for marketing automation in the generalist category. Its "if/when/then" logic allows for the construction of very complex customer journeys, with an integrated CRM to manage leads and prospects.
It is a tool appreciated by agencies and brands with complex multi-step customer journeys. Less e-commerce-focused than Klaviyo, but more powerful than HubSpot on pure automation.
Pricing: starting from 15€/month for the Starter plan.
For whom: SMEs and agencies that need complex cross-channel automations. Not the most intuitive choice to start with.
How to choose your email tool according to your profile
A simple summary to get to the point.
You have an e-commerce store on Shopify or WooCommerce and you want to make email a real revenue driver: Klaviyo, without hesitation. It's the absolute benchmark for this use case.
You are starting with email marketing on a small budget and need an accessible multi-channel tool: Brevo. It's the best value for money on the French market, with quick setup.
You have a marketing and sales team to align in a single tool, in B2B or mixed B2C: HubSpot. Powerful, but beware of the budget.
You are looking for a free or very inexpensive tool to start with: Mailerlite or Mailchimp. Two good entry points, with limitations as you grow.
You have very complex automation needs with multi-step customer journeys: ActiveCampaign.
The golden rule: start with the tool suited to your current level, not the one you hope to reach in two years. And don't wait too long to migrate to a more powerful solution when your needs evolve. A well-planned migration takes a few weeks. Staying on the wrong tool costs revenue every month.
What The Modern Letter does with Klaviyo
At The Modern Letter, we support e-commerce brands with their email strategy via Klaviyo: configuration, segmentation, flows, campaigns, copywriting, design, and performance monitoring. Because choosing Klaviyo is good. Utilizing its full potential is another story.
If you are already using an email tool and are not reaching 30 to 40% of your revenue through email, there are very likely revenues to be found.
