6 Best Campaign Monitor Alternatives Tested in 2026
Campaign Monitor still builds the best email in its class, and our own scoring says so: 8.0 for ease of use, which is the highest ease score on this entire page and a mark none of the six alternatives below beats. The problem is everything attached to that editor. Campaign Monitor scores 6.4 overall, 5.5 on automation and 5.5 on pricing value, and the entry plan meters your sending: Lite costs $13/mo at 500 contacts and caps you at roughly 2,500 emails a month, about five times your contact count. That works out to $5.20 per thousand emails before you have sent a single extra campaign.
We ranked six alternatives against those numbers using our own category scores, not vendor claims. All six beat Campaign Monitor’s 6.4 overall and all six beat its 5.5 automation. None of them beats its editor. Three tie it. So this page is not a list of things that are simply better — it is a map of what each swap costs you, and the editor is the line item most Campaign Monitor users will feel first.
Why look for a Campaign Monitor alternative in 2026
Three measured reasons, all of them arithmetic rather than opinion.
The send cap is the one that surprises people. Campaign Monitor prices by contact count, then limits how often the cheapest tier may mail those contacts: Lite at $13/mo allows about 2,500 sends a month at 500 contacts, which two campaigns and a welcome sequence will consume. Removing the ceiling means Essentials at $31/mo, a 138 percent jump for the same list. Brevo bills by email instead and gives 5,000 for $9/mo; Moosend puts unlimited sending on every paid tier from $9/mo.
The curve gets steeper, and there is no free plan under it. Moving from 500 to 2,500 contacts takes Lite from $13 to $47/mo and Essentials from $31 to $74/mo — a list that grows five times costs roughly 3.6 times more. Campaign Monitor offers a trial and a small test sandbox, not a permanent free tier; four of the six alternatives here do have one, and Kit’s runs to 10,000 subscribers.
And one reason to stay, stated up front: the automation gap is narrow at the top of the list. Brevo and MailerLite sit at 6.0 against Campaign Monitor’s 5.5. Only Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign at 9.5 are a genuine step change — and both cost you ease of use.
6 Campaign Monitor alternatives at a glance
Ranked by our overall score. Every platform listed has a full SMTPedia review, so every score in the Score column is a real measured rating rather than a number invented for this comparison.
| Platform | Score | Starting $ | Free plan | Best for | MCP | Deliverability | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | 7.7 | $9/mo | Yes — 300 emails/day | Teams whose bill is driven by sending volume, not list size | Yes | Medium | Value 8.5 vs 5.5. 5,000 emails at $9 against 2,500 at $13 |
| MailerLite | 7.4 | $19/mo | Yes — 250 subs, 2,500 emails | Design-led senders who refuse to downgrade the editor | Partial | High | Ease 8.0 vs 8.0, deliverability 8.0 vs 6.5. The like-for-like swap |
| Klaviyo | 7.3 | $30/mo | Yes — 250 profiles, 500 emails | Shopify and e-commerce stores that need revenue per email | Yes | High | Automation 9.5 vs 5.5, API 9.5 vs 6.0 — but value 3.5 vs 5.5 |
| Moosend | 7.2 | $9/mo | No — 30-day trial | Anyone who hit the Lite send cap and refuses to pay $31 to lift it | No | High | Support 8.5 vs 7.0, ease 8.0 vs 8.0, unlimited sends at $9/mo |
| ActiveCampaign | 7.2 | $19/mo | No — 14-day trial | B2B teams whose real problem is the automation builder, not the price | Yes | High | Automation 9.5 vs 5.5, deliverability 8.5 vs 6.5 — but ease 5.5 vs 8.0 |
| Kit | 7.0 | $39/mo | Yes — to 10,000 subs | Writers and creators sending text-first newsletters | Yes | Medium | Free to 10,000 subs, ease 8.0 vs 8.0 — but deliverability 6.0 vs 6.5 |
Score is each platform’s overall rating out of 10, taken from its own SMTPedia review. Deliverability bands are derived mechanically from our deliverability rating: High is 8.0 and above, Medium 6.0 to 7.9, Low under 6.0. Campaign Monitor itself scores 6.4 overall and 6.5 deliverability, which puts it in the Medium band.
1. Brevo — the exit that ends contact-based billing
Brevo
Better for: the sender whose list is large but whose sending is modest
Brevo is the highest-scoring platform here at 7.7 overall, and the gap that matters is pricing value: 8.5 against 5.5. The mechanism is the billing model. Brevo charges for emails sent and ignores database size — its free tier carries up to 100,000 contacts at 300 emails a day. Paid starts at $9/mo for 5,000 emails, $1.80 per thousand against Campaign Monitor’s $5.20, with CRM and a transactional relay included.
What you give up: the editor. Brevo scores 7.5 on ease of use against Campaign Monitor’s 8.0, and that half point is exactly the part users like. The automation gain is thin too — 6.0 against 5.5 is not a new capability. If campaigns already take too long to build, this is the wrong direction.
Medium
4 to 8 hours
Contacts and segments export cleanly. Templates do not port — budget most of that time for rebuilding your two or three most-used designs.
$9/mo
Starter, 5,000 emails per month
Permanent free tier: 300 emails a day, up to 100,000 contacts, CRM and transactional included. Next tier $29/mo at 20,000 emails.
2. MailerLite — the swap that costs you nothing on the editor
MailerLite
Better for: the Campaign Monitor user who is leaving on price and nothing else
The recommendation for most people reading this page. MailerLite is the only alternative that matches Campaign Monitor’s 8.0 ease score while scoring higher on overall (7.4 vs 6.4), deliverability (8.0 vs 6.5, Medium into High) and value (8.0 vs 5.5). Paid starts at $19/mo for 1,000 subscribers — twice Lite’s allowance for $6 more, with no 5x send cap.
What you give up: the agency layer. Campaign Monitor was built for agencies reselling email to clients, with client accounts and markup billing; MailerLite has no equivalent, so an agency has no like-for-like move here. It scores 6.5 on API and MCP against 6.0 — a wash — with partial MCP coverage rather than a full official server, and automation at 6.0 against 5.5 is again no step change.
Easy
2 to 4 hours
The closest editor model on this page, so rebuilt templates land near the original first time. Subscriber import and custom fields map directly.
$19/mo
Growing Business, 1,000 subscribers
Free tier covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Next step is $33/mo at 2,500 subscribers, against $47/mo for Lite at the same list size.
Read our MailerLite review
We may earn a commission on this link. It does not affect the score, which is our own.
3. Klaviyo — only if the email is attached to a store
Klaviyo
Better for: Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce stores that can attribute revenue per send
Klaviyo carries the widest single gap on this page: 9.5 automation against 5.5, plus 9.5 on API and MCP against 6.0 and an official MCP server where Campaign Monitor has none. That buys browse-abandonment, predictive lifetime value and per-flow revenue attribution, and moves deliverability from Medium to High (8.0 vs 6.5). From $30/mo at 1,000 profiles.
What you give up: the worst value score on this page, and a harder tool. Klaviyo scores 3.5 on pricing value — two full points below Campaign Monitor’s 5.5 — and ease of use drops from 8.0 to 6.5. The curve is why: $30 at 1,000 profiles becomes $100 at 5,000 and $150 at 10,000, SMS on top. Without a store that can prove revenue per send, this is a pricier Campaign Monitor with a harder editor.
Hard
2 to 5 days
The list import is trivial; the store integration and the flows are not. Expect to rebuild automations from scratch and to spend a full day on historical order data alone.
$30/mo
Email, 1,000 active profiles
Free tier is 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month. Scales to $100/mo at 5,000 profiles and $150/mo at 10,000; SMS priced separately.
Read our Klaviyo review
We may earn a commission on this link. It does not affect the score, which is our own.
4. Moosend — the direct answer to the send cap
Moosend
Better for: the sender who hit the 2,500-email ceiling and will not pay $31 to remove it
Moosend is the narrowest, most specific answer here. It removes the exact constraint that pushes Campaign Monitor users into a 138 percent upgrade: sending is unlimited on every paid tier, and entry is $9/mo at 500 contacts — $4 less than Lite for the same list, with no cap. It ties the 8.0 ease score, posts the best support score here at 8.5 against 7.0, and moves deliverability into our High band at 8.0 against 6.5.
What you give up: the developer side and any free fallback. Moosend scores 5.0 on API and MCP against Campaign Monitor’s 6.0 — the only alternative here that is worse on that axis — and has no MCP server. There is no free plan either — the trial runs 30 days without a card and nothing catches you afterwards — and automation at 6.5 against 5.5 is better, not transformative.
Easy
2 to 4 hours
A similar drag-and-drop model, so templates rebuild fast, and the 30-day no-card trial lets you run both platforms in parallel for a full billing cycle before cutting over.
$9/mo
Pro, 500 contacts, unlimited sends
No free plan; the trial runs 30 days without a card. Annual brings Pro to $7/mo, and the curve reaches $315/mo at 50,000 contacts — still with no send cap.
Read our Moosend review
We may earn a commission on this link. It does not affect the score, which is our own.
5. ActiveCampaign — the automation upgrade, and it hurts
ActiveCampaign
Better for: B2B teams whose complaint is the automation builder, not the invoice
ActiveCampaign posts the highest deliverability score on this page at 8.5 against 6.5, and ties Klaviyo’s 9.5 automation without needing a store to justify it. Conditional branching, lead scoring, a built-in CRM and an official MCP server all sit where Campaign Monitor has nothing. Entry is $19/mo at 1,000 contacts monthly, $15/mo annual — roughly Lite money for twice the list.
What you give up: the steepest usability drop on this page, by a wide margin. Ease of use falls from 8.0 to 5.5 — two and a half points, where the next worst is Klaviyo’s one and a half. Support is 6.5 against 7.0 and value 5.0 against 5.5 — the only alternative here worse on both at once — and there is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. If nobody on the team wants to learn a new builder, this fails in week two.
Hard
3 to 6 days
Contacts and tags import fine. Automations do not translate — the model differs enough that rebuilding beats porting, and the learning curve is the real cost.
$19/mo
Starter, 1,000 contacts, monthly billing
Annual billing brings it to $15/mo. No free plan; the trial runs 14 days. The CRM is part of the product, not a separate subscription.
Read our ActiveCampaign review
We may earn a commission on this link. It does not affect the score, which is our own.
6. Kit — the free tier Campaign Monitor does not have
Kit
Better for: writers, authors and creators whose email is text first and design second
Kit is the only platform here that lets a Campaign Monitor user stop paying entirely. Its free tier runs to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, forms and landing pages — twenty times Lite’s list allowance, at $0 against $13/mo. It ties the 8.0 ease score, beats Campaign Monitor on API and MCP (8.0 vs 6.0) with an official server, and is built for the newsletter model Campaign Monitor’s agency heritage never targeted.
What you give up: deliverability and the visual editor. Kit is the only alternative here scoring below Campaign Monitor on deliverability — 6.0 against 6.5, both in our Medium band — so this move does not fix an inbox problem. The free tier excludes visual automations, and Kit’s design model is deliberately plain text: if you chose Campaign Monitor for the editor, this abandons it most completely. Paid is $39/mo at 1,000 subscribers, three times Lite.
Medium
3 to 6 hours
Subscribers and tags import cleanly, and the free tier lets you rebuild at zero cost before switching. Templates do not carry over at all, but on Kit that is largely the point.
$39/mo
Creator, 1,000 subscribers, monthly billing
Free to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, forms and landing pages, but no visual automations. Annual brings Creator to $33/mo; Pro is $79/mo monthly, $66 annual.
Read our Kit review
We may earn a commission on this link. It does not affect the score, which is our own.
Leaving Campaign Monitor: what transfers and what breaks
Three things move without difficulty, two do not move at all, and one is easy to forget until it bites.
What transfers: subscribers, custom fields and segment definitions. Every platform here accepts a CSV export with custom fields intact, and segment rules restate by hand in under an hour. Suppression lists also export — import those first, because mailing a previously unsubscribed address is the fastest way to start a new account badly.
What does not transfer: templates and automations. Campaign Monitor’s templates are bound to its own editor and export into no form these six can read, and the automation models differ enough that rebuilding beats translating — which is why the ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo blocks carry multi-day estimates. Budget that rebuild rather than discovering it on cutover day.
The thing people forget: sending reputation does not come with you. A new account starts with no history, and a list quiet for months reads as cold. Warm up over two to three weeks by mailing your most engaged segment first, and expect the first two campaigns to underperform whichever of the six you pick.
Campaign Monitor alternatives: frequently asked questions
Is there an alternative with an editor as good as Campaign Monitor’s?
Three tie it, none beats it. Campaign Monitor scores 8.0 on ease of use. MailerLite, Moosend and Kit each score 8.0 too; Brevo is 7.5, Klaviyo 6.5, ActiveCampaign 5.5. Of the three that tie, MailerLite is the closest match in editor model and design output, which is why it is the recommendation for anyone whose only complaint is the bill.
What exactly is the Campaign Monitor send cap?
The Lite plan meters sending at roughly five times your contact count per month. At 500 contacts that is about 2,500 emails for $13/mo, or $5.20 per thousand. Lifting it means Essentials at $31/mo for the same 500 contacts, a 138 percent increase. Moosend and Brevo, both $9/mo, are the two direct answers to this constraint.
Which alternative is genuinely the cheapest?
It depends which number drives your bill. If sending volume is the constraint, Brevo at $1.80 per thousand emails is cheapest. If list size is the constraint and you send often, Moosend at $9/mo with unlimited sends wins. Under 10,000 subscribers and without visual automations, Kit costs $0 and beats both. Klaviyo is the most expensive here, scoring 3.5 on pricing value against 5.5.
Can I move my Campaign Monitor templates across?
No. Templates are bound to Campaign Monitor’s own editor and none of these six can import them. Contacts, custom fields, tags and suppression lists all move; designs and automations are rebuilt by hand. On MailerLite and Moosend that runs two to four hours. On Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign it runs into days, because of the automations rather than the templates.
Does any of these have an official MCP server?
Campaign Monitor does not, and scores 6.0 on our API and MCP rating. Brevo, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign and Kit all do; MailerLite‘s coverage is partial; Moosend has none and is the only one here below Campaign Monitor on this axis, at 5.0. For an AI agent reading and writing campaign data, Klaviyo at 9.5 and Brevo at 8.5 are strongest.
Who should stay on Campaign Monitor?
Two groups, and we will say so plainly. First, agencies reselling email to clients: the client-account and markup-billing model has no equivalent among these six, so leaving means rebuilding a commercial process, not a template library. Second, small teams where a non-marketer builds the campaigns: the 8.0 ease score is not a rounding detail, and three of the six alternatives only match it while three are worse. If your list is small, your sending fits inside the 2,500-email Lite allowance and nobody is complaining about the tool, the case for moving is weaker than the headline scores suggest. Everyone else — and anyone paying $31/mo purely to escape a send cap — has a cheaper and better-scoring option above.
This review follows our email infrastructure testing methodology. We disclose affiliate relationships in our editorial independence policy.
