Agency, 40000 contacts for $10 - $350/mo

14 Email Marketing Tools with a Referral Programme

Marcus Taylor
Data refreshed on: 22nd February 2023
Fact checked by Anna Hamzah

Our algorithm used 113k data points to whittle 678 email marketing tools down to 14 with the best performance among agencies. We may receive a commission if you sign up with a company below.

Your results (14)

ActiveCampaign

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14-day free trial included

Campaigns by Pipedrive

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1 month free trial included

MailerLite

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1 month free trial included

Constant Contact

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1 month free trial included

Keap

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No free trial

SendX

Visit website
14-day free trial included

ClickFunnels

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14-day free trial included
🏆 Recommended for you
1 of 7
1 of 3
1 of 2

Who uses it and why?

78% of ActiveCampaign's small business users are very satisfied with it.
😃Great
Great satisfaction score · all users
74% of Omnisend's small business users are very satisfied with it.
😃Great
Great satisfaction score · all users
74% of Sendinblue's small business users are very satisfied with it.
😃Great
Great satisfaction score · all users
55% of Benchmark Email's small business users are very satisfied with it.
😐Okay
Okay satisfaction score · all users
55% of Campaigns by Pipedrive's small business users are very satisfied with it.
😐Okay
Okay satisfaction score · all users
42% of GetResponse's small business users are very satisfied with it.
😐Okay
Okay satisfaction score · all users
No data for MailerLite
No data for MailerLite
no data
No data for Customer.io
No data for Customer.io
no data
No data for Constant Contact
No data for Constant Contact
no data
No data for Pabbly Email Marketing
No data for Pabbly Email Marketing
no data
No data for Keap
No data for Keap
no data
No data for SendX
No data for SendX
no data
No data for Aweber
No data for Aweber
no data
No data for ClickFunnels
No data for ClickFunnels
no data
👍

Exceptional range of features, customer support & integrations.

👎

CRM functionality is okay but not great.

👍

Comprehensive range of integrations & omni-channel sending options.

👎

Relatively expensive.

👍

Great for transactional email.

👎

Send limits and throttling can be sensitive causing emails being delayed or not sent. 

👎

For the same price there are more established, higher-quality alternatives.

👎

As a CRM, Pipedrive lacks some functionality you'd expect from a high-end email marketing platform. 

👍

Users tend to choose GetResponse for its affordability and wide range of features.

👎

GetResponse's product has struggled to keep up with the competition.

👍

Affordable & good support.

👎

Reporting features are basic.

👍

Great omni-channel sending options (SMS, push notifications and email)

👎

Expensive compared to similar products

👍

An affordable and simple email marketing tool.

👎

Lacks advanced features and reporting is relatively basic.

👎

For some users their features may be too basic and lacking in value.

👍

Well-known for its advanced event-based marketing automation builder.

👎

There interface can be quite complicated to use.

👍

Accepts users from all industries.

👎

Relatively basic features compared to other platforms.

👍


👎

It's arguably a bit behind the times in functionality.

👍

Good for businesses looking to visually build sales funnels with upsells, offers and membership areas.

What people are saying

4 · 588 ratings

Agencies often highlight the quality of ActiveCampaign's automations, email builder and ease of use.

4.2 · 52 ratings

Users tend to highlight Omnisend's templates, integrations and in-depth reporting.

4.4 · 3,016 ratings

Users often highlight SendInBlue's responsive support team, ease of set up and email traceability.

· no ratings

Users often highlight Benchmark being user-friendly and easy to create templates.

· no ratings

Users typically highlight how easy it is to manage leads and deal flow in Pipedrive.

4.2 · 494 ratings

Users tend to highlight GetResponse's unlimited sending and ease of designing emails.

· no ratings

Users often highlight Mailerlite's high deliverability rate and ease of building attractive newsletters inside their platform.

2.8 · 4 ratings

Agency users tend to highlight Customer.io's ease of integrating data and good customer support.

1.4 · 701 ratings

Users tend to highlight Constant Contact's email list management features and streamlined functionality.

· no ratings

Users often highlight Pabbly's ease of use and breadth of features.

3.8 · 443 ratings

Users often highlight Keap's deep integration into their business.

· no ratings

Agencies often highlight the intuitiveness of SendX's platform and the quality of their templates.

· no ratings

Users often highlight how simple and easy to use Aweber is.

· no ratings

Users often highlight the effectiveness and intuitiveness of building sales funnels inside ClickFunnels.

Growth Marketing Manager at Narrative
Taegan Baxter
Growth Marketing Manager at Narrative

In terms of features, I love using ActiveCampaign’s powerful automation builder. More generally, I love the sense of momentum I get from ActiveCampaign and their drive to continue to constantly improve their product.

Senior Marketing Manager, FiGPiN
Alison Caufield
Senior Marketing Manager, FiGPiN

We see amazing results from our automated emails. Our cart abandonment especially stands out with an 87% conversion rate and $7.44 revenue per email.

Founder @ Edwart Chocolatier
Edwin Yansané
Founder @ Edwart Chocolatier

As a small team, simplifying our workflow is a top priority, so having our contacts, SMS, and email in one place helps us a ton!

BetterU, Inc.
Nick Nilsson
BetterU, Inc.

I've been with them for a long time and I'm not going anywhere. I love GetResponse's tracking, stats and features.

Senior Director at Billie
Michelle Ballen-Griffin
Senior Director at Billie

Customer.io integrates perfectly into our data / CRM architecture. The flexibility of their API has allowed us to seamlessly update user attributes, create highly targeted workflows, and run experiments.

Owner, A&J King Bakery
Andy King
Owner, A&J King Bakery

Constant Contact is my marketing department.

MiSyte
Jamie Gilleland
MiSyte

Ultimately, ALL the success MiSyte.com has enjoyed comes back to my decision to purchase Keap.

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Used MailerLite before?

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Used Constant Contact before?

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Used Pabbly Email Marketing before?

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Used Keap before?

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Used SendX before?

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Used Aweber before?

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Your recommended plan

Lite
$/mo
for up to 50K contacts

14-day free trial

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Standard
$/mo
for up to 50K contacts

Start for free

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Premium
$/mo
for up to 50K contacts

Start for free

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Pro
$/mo
for up to 50K contacts

Start for free

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Essential
$/mo
for up to 200K contacts

One month free trial

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Custom
Custom
Contact for more information

Free trial

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Growing business
$/mo
for up to 50K contacts

One month free trial

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Custom
Custom
Contact for more information

Free trial

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Core
$/mo
for up to 50K contacts

One month free trial

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Advanced
$/mo
for up to 50K contacts

Free trial

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Custom
Custom
Contact for more information

Free trial

Migration services available

No cancellation fees

Business Plan
$/mo
for up to 50K contacts

14-day free trial

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Custom
Custom
Contact for more information

Free trial

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Basic
$/mo
for unlimited contacts

14-day free trial

Free migration

No cancellation fees

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

Features

A/B Testing

Custom branding

Referral programme

Sub-accounts

Integrations

Calendly

Facebook

Google Ads

Instagram for Business

Monday.com

Slack

Typeform

Zapier

ActiveCampaign has 1 plan starting at $339/mo. This plan is the cheapest based on your list size & requirements.

$339/mo is higher than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with 50000 contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

Omnisend has 2 plans starting at $330/mo. This plan is the cheapest based on your list size & requirements.

$330/mo is higher than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with 50000 contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

Sendinblue has 1 plan starting at $94/mo. This plan is the cheapest based on your list size & requirements.

$94/mo is lower than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with 50000 contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

Benchmark Email has 2 plans starting at $279/mo. This plan is the cheapest based on your list size & requirements.

$279/mo is higher than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with 50000 contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

Campaigns by Pipedrive has 4 plans starting at $35/mo. This plan is the cheapest based on your list size & requirements.

$35/mo is lower than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with 200000 contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

GetResponse has 0 plans that are customised based on your specific requirements. For pricing visit their website.

$0/mo is lower than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

MailerLite has 2 plans starting at $205/mo. This plan is the cheapest based on your list size & requirements.

$205/mo is higher than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with 50000 contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

Customer.io has 0 plans that are customised based on your specific requirements. For pricing visit their website.

$0/mo is lower than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

Constant Contact has 2 plans starting at $300/mo. This plan is the cheapest based on your list size & requirements.

$300/mo is higher than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with 50000 contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

Pabbly Email Marketing has 1 plan starting at $83/mo. This plan is the cheapest based on your list size & requirements.

$83/mo is lower than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with 50000 contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

Keap has 0 plans that are customised based on your specific requirements. For pricing visit their website.

$0/mo is lower than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

SendX has 1 plan starting at $179.99/mo. This plan is the cheapest based on your list size & requirements.

$179.99/mo is lower than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with 50000 contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

Aweber has 0 plans that are customised based on your specific requirements. For pricing visit their website.

$0/mo is lower than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

ClickFunnels has 2 plans starting at $97/mo. This plan is the cheapest based on your list size & requirements.

$97/mo is lower than the average cost of $194/mo for plans that cover 40K contacts. This plan comes with unlimited contacts.

$0$84$169$254$339

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Used Omnisend before?

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Used Sendinblue before?

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Used Benchmark Email before?

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Used Campaigns by Pipedrive before?

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Used GetResponse before?

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Used MailerLite before?

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Used Customer.io before?

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Used Constant Contact before?

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Used Pabbly Email Marketing before?

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Used Keap before?

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Used SendX before?

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Used ClickFunnels before?

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How to choose email marketing software with referral programme

A referral programme feature is important for helping you grow your agency, but sadly not all email marketing tools offer it.
Having analysed 678 different tools across 113k data points, we’ve found 19 tools that offer referral programme and should meet your needs. In this interactive guide, we’ll help you whittle this down to a small handful of tools to consider.
🪄 This guide is personalised to you based on your contacts, budget and business type. If you haven’t already entered these, we recommend doing so to improve this guide.

1. What’s your budget?

How much you spend on email marketing software is going to depend on the size of your contact list, the features you need and what your organisation can afford to invest in an email marketing platform.
Based on 40000 contacts, the average monthly cost of an email marketing tool with referral programme is $384/month. As your maximum budget is currently set to 350 you may want to consider increasing this a little.
While it’s true that you get what you pay for with email marketing software, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the cheaper platforms are worse.
Firstly, effective email marketing is about communicating the right message to the right person at the right time – at scale. The more leads you have (and the higher value they are) the higher the potential ROI of your email marketing activity.
As a agency with 40000 contacts, you'll most likely get a better ROI with a mid-level/premium platform that offers functionality beyond basic newsletters.
Secondly, the price you pay today is unlikely to be the price you pay one year from now. As such, it’s prudent to consider how much you might pay if your mailing list doubled or tripled. Don’t worry, we’ve done the maths for you for the top three tools!
40K contacts
$339/mo
40K contacts
$330/mo
40K contacts
$94/mo
80K contacts
$549/mo
80K contacts
$720/mo
80K contacts
$124/mo
120K contacts
Custom $
120K contacts
Custom $
120K contacts
$229/mo
Visit website
14-day free trial included
Visit website
Start for free
Visit website
Start for free
Sendinblue is the most affordable platform today, and will also provide you with affordable list growth longer term.
Lastly, while it’s helpful to have a clear budget in mind it’s also worth noting that the features (and therefore the results you can produce) with different tools are different. At 40000 contacts, you'll have plenty of scope to improve your results with features like A/B testing and automation sequences, so it makes sense to consider these in your evaluation process.
Which brings us neatly onto our next question.

2. What features do you need?

Besides needing Referral programme functionality, it’s worth considering what other critical features you might need from your email marketing software.
Most basic features like templates, an easy-to-use visual editor, and segmentation are table stakes and found in virtually all tools. You may, however, want to consider some of the more unique email marketing requirements that your team needs.
As an
it would be prudent to rule out any tools that don’t offer important functionality for managing clients and your team, such as a white-label platform, sub-accounts, and ideally a referral programme that enables you to grow your business by reselling the software to your clients.
If there are any specific features that you need, you can enter them here to automatically filter out any of the 19 tools that don’t have them.

3. Does it integrate with your tech stack?

At a minimum, your email marketing software should communicate with whichever platform you use to collect and store customer or user data. This not only helps you hit your marketing objectives by having up-to-date segment information, but it also makes personalising your emails (and therefore increasing engagement) much easier.
As a agency you’ll also want to consider whether or not it’s important for your email marketing software to integrate with:
  • Any software used for generating or tracking proposals
  • Any e-signature software used for client contracts
  • Any client management software you use
  • Any tools that you'll need to connect on behalf of your clients if white-labelling
  • Any reporting tools or dashboards you use
  • Any marketing channels you heavily use (e.g. Google Ads, Instagram Ads)
  • Any internal communication or project management tools you use as a team
While it’s ideal to find an email marketing platform with the native integrations that are critical to your business, most tools rely on integrating with a service like Zapier, Make or Automate.io that enables you to connect almost any imaginable combination of tools.
Feel free to enter any integrations you need in the box below to further whittle down your list of 19 email marketing tools.

4. What do other companies like you think?

The email marketing software recommendations on StackUp are made algorithmically – and most influenced by Satisfaction Score.
This score is based on 100,000’s of ratings we’ve collected from real users of these tools. The reason we use this metric is that it highlights the platforms that deliver a good overall experience.
This matters because, let’s face it, every email marketing tool says the same thing – easy to use, a wide range of templates and lots of features.
Yet, much of what separates the wheat from the chaff is revealed through actual usage. From email deliverability rates, to support quality, security and platform stability, these are all things that can make or break an email marketing tool.
Satisfaction Score is a good proxy for this, as the tools with low scores are typically plagued by these issues, whereas those with high scores tend to get these things right.
Based on this, our algorithm has recommended MailerLite as the best-fit for your business with the highest user satisfaction score.

5. Can you try it for free?

All email marketing providers worth considering will offer a free trial. If not, that should probably trigger some alarm bells.
The top three recommendations above all offer free trials, and we’d recommend signing up for a trial with at least two of them so you can make a good comparison.
We hope this data-led approach has helped narrow your search and find the right email marketing service for you.
  1. ActiveCampaign (here's the link to start a 14 day free trial- no credit card required)
  2. Moosend (here’s the link to start a 14 day free trial - no credit card required)
  3. HubSpot (here’s the link to start a 30-day free trial - credit card required)

About the author

Marcus Taylor

Marcus Taylor is the Founder & CEO of Venture Harbour. Marcus is also an early-stage tech investor & the youngest Patron of The Prince's Trust.