5 Best CRM Email Marketing Platforms
Jess served on the founding team of a successful B2B startup and has used a wide range of sales and marketing tools over the course of her 15-year career. She uses her industry knowledge to deliver the best answers to your questions about sales tools and sales management.
This article is part of a larger series on CRM.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software with email marketing capabilities lets teams design, deploy, automate, and track email campaigns or direct email messages. Email marketing CRMs allow teams to consistently generate and nurture leads and maintain relationships with current customers all from one interface. We evaluated dozens of products to identify the best CRMs for email marketing.
- Freshsales: Best CRM for email marketing; offers affordable CRM email automation
- HubSpot CRM: Ideal for revenue teams seeking free email marketing features
- Zoho CRM: Excellent CRM and email marketing software for teams wanting artificial intelligence (AI) for email analytics
- Nimble: Great CRM with email marketing tools for smaller teams that want simple data enrichment from email messages
- Salesforce Essentials: Solid CRM for tracking lead activity and CRM emails
Best Email Marketing CRMs Compared
Provider | Free Plan | Starting Price for Paid Plans* | Free Trial for Paid Plans | Key Email Features | Customer Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Yes, unlimited users | $15 per user, per month | 21 days | Automated email sequences and campaigns | 24/5 email, phone, and chat support on all plans |
 | Yes, unlimited users | $45 per month for up to 2 users | 14 days | Free mass email design, deployment, and tracking features | Email, chat, and phone support (7 a.m.-8 p.m. Eastern Time) |
 | Yes, up to 3 users | $14 per user, per month | 15 days | AI email analytics for best time to contact and enrichment | Tier-based chat, email, and phone support |
 | N/A | $19 per user, per month | 14 days | Automated data entry and enrichment from email signatures | Live chat and email support (9 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific Time) |
 | N/A | $25 per user/month | 30 days | Detailed lead activity and email communication logs | Tiered phone and live chat support plus some 24/7 options |
*Based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available for slightly higher rates.
Freshsales: Best Overall Email Marketing CRM
Freshsales
Overall Score:
4.65 / 5
What We Like
- Free plan for unlimited users that includes built-in phone, live chat, and direct emailing
- Easy-to-use lead management, phone, and email marketing tools
- Offers direct, mass, and automated email messaging on Growth plan plus two-way data syncing
What's Missing
- Dedicated account manager for customer support requires Enterprise plan
- Number of automated email sequences is capped at 5, 10, or 25, depending on subscription
- Sending quotes, invoices, and other documents requires add-on
Freshsales Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Unlimited users
- Growth: $15
- Pro: $39
- Enterprise: $69
- Free trial: 21 days
Add-ons
- Configure, Price, Quote: $19 for managing branded invoices, onboarding documents, quotes, and contacts
- Additional workflows and bot sessions: $5 for 10 more workflows and $75 per month for 1,000 bot/automated live chat sessions
- Phone credits: Starts at $5 for additional telephone credits
*Pricing is per user, per month, based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
Freshsales is the sales-specific CRM solution for the Freshworks suite of marketing, service desk, IT management, and human resources software products. Free for an unlimited number of users, Freshsales is both cost-friendly and scalable for new businesses and those undergoing significant growth. The system is simple to navigate and includes easy-to-operate features, including a built-in phone, lead management modules, and deal-tracking capabilities.
Freshsales earns the title for best email marketing CRM because of its email capabilities and overall value. On the Free plan, users can send direct emails to contacts directly from the CRM system. Once subscribed to the low-cost Growth plan, teams can access and customize email templates, manage and respond to messages in a team inbox, and create and deploy automated sales email sequences. Additionally, there’s two-way email data syncing between the email provider and CRM as well as personalized mass email options.
While a solid email marketing CRM solution, Freshsales does not allow you to create and email branded documents such as invoices, quotes, or contracts without purchasing an add-on. Zoho CRM is a great alternative that lets you design and distribute invoices, orders, price books, quotes, and proposals on their Professional plan for just $23 per user, per month.
Freshsales Plan Summary
Free | Growth | Pro | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Contact, Account & Deal Management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Tasks, Appointments & Notes | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Contact Activity Timeline & Lifecycle | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Built-in Telephone | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Live Chat Communications | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Two-way Email Sync | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Automated Email Sequences | ✕ | Up to 5 per user or 500 messages per day | Up to 10 per user or 1,000 messages per day | Up to 25 per user or 2,000 messages per day |
Personalized Bulk Emails | ✕ | Up to 250 per user, per day | Up to 1,000 per user, per day | Up to 5,000 per user, per day |
Team Email Inbox | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Email Templates With Tags | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Quotas, Goals & Sales Forecasting | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Auto-profile Enrichment | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Freshsales Key Features
- Automated sequences: Ability to configure, design, and deploy a series of automated email messages to specific audiences based on their behavior and sales pipeline status to nurture contacts and close deals
- Team inbox: Centralized email inbox for an entire organization, department, or team to access—allowing all users to respond or facilitate conversations
- Email templates: Premade email templates are usable and shareable within an organization and contain template tagging features to easily identify and access the right message template.
- Personalized direct and mass emailing: Options for personalizing email greetings and messages to send directly to individual contacts or on a mass scale
Freshsales Customer Support
Freshsales offers 24/5 support, Monday through Friday, on live chat, phone, and email channels. Plus, Enterprise users are assigned dedicated account managers to quickly resolve product issues, help achieve CRM goals, and incorporate customer feedback for improvements. In addition to direct customer support, Freshsales offers self-help and online resources through their blog, product tours, tutorials, and documentation.
Considering Freshsales for your CRM needs? Find out more about its features, pricing, and use cases in our Freshsales review. Here, you’ll learn everything you need to know to see if it’s the right product for your needs.
HubSpot CRM: Best for Free Email Campaign Features
HubSpot CRM
Overall Score:
4.63 / 5
What We Like
- Free plan for unlimited users that includes mass, scheduled, and team emailing tools
- Tons of advanced email automation, design, and analytics features
- Intuitive, easy-to-use interface
What's Missing
- Paid plans get expensive
- A/B email testing not available until Professional plan
- Shared team inbox limited to one inbox on Free and Starter plans
HubSpot CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Unlimited users
- Starter CRM Suite**: $45 per month for two users
- Professional CRM Suite: $1,600 per month (up to five users)
- Enterprise CRM Suite: $5,000 per month (up to 10 users)
- Free trial: 14 days
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
**CRM Suite includes sales, marketing, customer service, content management system (CMS), and operations software. Individual modules can be purchased for lower monthly costs.
HubSpot CRM is a marketing-heavy CRM platform, well known for its easy-to-use system in terms of setting up an account, operating the features, and navigating the interface. The CRM offers a free-forever plan for unlimited users and also has bundled product package options that include sales, marketing, customer service, a content management system (CMS), and operations modules.
This email marketing CRM platform stands out primarily for its free email features. For instance, simple automated nurturing, access to email templates, audience segmentation, reply tracking, and team inbox are all included in the Free plan for unlimited users. There are also advanced tools for email marketing, including sales sequencing, A/B campaign testing, and advanced content personalization on their higher-priced plans.
While both offer a free plan, solid email tools, and great usability ratings, HubSpot falls behind Freshsales, specifically because of its inability to provide affordable options while scaling. The paid plans start at $45 per month and exponentially get higher to the point where it’s out of reach for some businesses, depending if you choose the individual modules or bundled versions. Freshsales is more suitable for growing businesses that need to scale to their customer, sales, and marketing demands.
HubSpot CRM Plan Summary
Free | Starter | Professional | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Lead, Contact, Deal & Pipeline Management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Automated Email Nurturing | Up to one automated action | Up to 10 automated actions | Unlimited actions plus omnichannel automation | Unlimited actions plus omnichannel automation |
List Segmentation | Up to five active lists | Up to 25 active lists | Up to 1,000 active lists | Up to 1,500 active lists |
Email Templates | Up to five | 5,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
Email Reply Tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Team Inbox | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Sales Automation | ✕ | Task and email notifications for deal changes | Up to 300 custom workflows | Up to 1,000 custom workflows plus sequence triggering |
Payments Processing | ✕ | ACH and cards | ACH and cards | ACH and cards |
A/B Email Testing | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Automated Sequences | ✕ | ✕ | Up to 500 email sends per user, per day | Up to 1,000 email sends per user, per day |
Record Layout Customization | ✕ | ✕ | Limited Features | ✓ |
E-signature | ✕ | ✕ | 10 signatures per month | 30 signatures per month |
Predictive Lead Scoring | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
HubSpot CRM Key Features
- Automated sequences: As a CRM with email marketing automation, teams can automate outreach and follow-up via email based on leads behaviors or pipeline stage changes
- Templates and segmentation: Prebuilt, customizable email templates within the CRM as well as options to filter out contact lists based on customer or lead attributes
- Email scheduling and tracking: Options to schedule direct email messages to prospects along with track opens and replies
- A/B testing: Tool for analyzing performance between two similar email campaigns to optimize channels, audience, and time of deployment to get the best results
HubSpot Customer Support
In addition to phone, email, and live chat support from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time, HubSpot offers an array of online resources. This includes HubSpot Academy, a community page of platform users, and an online library of tutorials and guides.
Learn more about how this CRM helps sales teams manage leads, track conversations, collaborate, and close deals in our HubSpot CRM review.
Zoho CRM: Best for AI Email Analytics Features
Zoho CRM
Overall Score:
4.16 / 5
What We Like
- Affordable, scalable pricing options
- Robust system customization capabilities
- Lots of advanced AI features for email including intent analytics, data enrichment, and best time to contact
What's Missing
- Limited users and email templates, and no mass emailing on free plan
- Zia AI features require Professional plan
- Learning curve required to set up system and account
Zoho CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to three users
- Standard: $14
- Professional: $23
- Enterprise: $40
- Ultimate: $52
- Free trial: 15 days
Other Plans
- Bigin: $7 for basic pipeline management
- Zoho CRM Plus: $57 for added help desk, email and social media marketing, survey, and analytics functions
*Pricing is per user, per month, based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
Zoho CRM is a highly customizable CRM platform with excellent native software integrations, scalable pricing options, and robust workflow automation. This CRM gives plenty of sales, marketing, customer support, and inventory management capabilities for many use-case scenarios. It can serve both teams looking for simple features for basic record and data management as well as businesses seeking more advanced analytics and work automation.
In terms of email features, Zoho CRM stands out for its use of artificial intelligence (AI) analytics for managing emails or campaigns. Using the Zia AI tool, users can auto-enrich contact data using email signatures of recipients who respond and analyze their intent, such as seeking to “purchase” from you. Additionally, Zia will tell users the best time to contact as lead or customer—letting you optimize and schedule direct email messages and campaigns.
Compared to other CRMs on this list, Zoho CRM requires a steep learning curve—specifically when setting up and designing a system for the first time. Both Freshsales and HubSpot are known for their usability scores in terms of setting up, operating, and navigating the CRM platform.
Zoho CRM Plan Summary
Free | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | Ultimate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lead, Account & Contact Management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Tasks, Events, Call Logs & Notes | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Workflow Automation Rules | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Email Recipient Opt-out | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Email Templates | 10 | 100 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Email Insights | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Custom Data Fields | ✕ | 10 per module | 155 per module | 300 per module | 500 per module |
Mass Email & Marketing Campaigns | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Email Association With Deals | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Custom Modules | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | 100 modules | 500 modules |
Customer Segmentation | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Best Time to Contact | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
AI for Emails | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Zoho CRM Key Features
- AI analytics for email: Zia AI features analytics for email, providing users with the best time to contact, enriching CRM data using email signatures, and providing intent and sentiment analysis
- Mass email and marketing campaigns: Ability to design, send, and automate marketing email campaigns to large audiences using premade templates or design tools
- Customer segmentation: Record grouping and email contact lists filterable by lead score, record tags, and demographic data
- Recipient opt-out management: Recipient preference management with enablement options to add “opt-out” buttons on email messages
Zoho CRM Customer Support
Zoho CRM uses a tier-based system where customer support options are dictated by the package you select. Users receive email support on all plans as well as phone and live chat support on paid plans either 24/5 or 24/7, depending on your plan tier. They also offer online resources, including documentation, guided tours, videos, webinars, and tutorials.
Learn more about this CRM product by reading our in-depth Zoho CRM review, where we explore its features and best-for use case scenarios.
Nimble: Best for Simple Email Data Enrichment
Nimble
Overall Score:
4.05 / 5
What We Like
- One low-cost subscription option that includes all features
- Simple CRM interface to operate and navigate
- Unlimited email message syncs, contact segments, email templates, and pipelines
What's Missing
- No free plan
- Limited customer support—only available during standard Pacific Time business hours through email and live chat
- No invoicing or quoting features
Nimble Pricing at a Glance*
- Nimble Plan: $19
- Free trial: 14 days
*Pricing is per user, per month, based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
Nimble has simple CRM features, usability, and pricing structure. It only has one subscription option that includes contact, data, and pipeline management features, social media enrichment, performance reporting, and email marketing. The interface has a clean layout with minimal button and menu options. All the tools also require very little technical skill to use, making them beginner-friendly.
Nimble is an excellent email marketing software for enriching CRM data. The automated enrichment tool pulls updated contact information such as names, email addresses, job titles, organizations, and uniform resource locator (URL) links from email signatures for users to view and one-click approve. Additionally, it can supplement email data with the social profile match feature that finds your contacts’ profiles to create a complete contact CRM record.
Nimble only has one paid option, which does not include any document management feature for creating and sending invoices, quotes, or contracts. If your business prioritizes these features in your CRM, we recommend Zoho CRM. It has multiple scalable pricing options—including the Professional one that contains quote, purchase order, contract, and invoice distribution solutions.
Nimble Plan Summary
Nimble Plan | |
|---|---|
Unified Message Box | Ability to combine email and Twitter accounts into one central messaging inbox |
Contact, Lead & Pipeline Management | Record management with tagging, custom fields, and event and activity logging |
Prospecting Enrichment | 25 enrichment credits per user, per month, to unlock verified email addresses, phone numbers, names, and addresses |
Forecasting & Reporting | Rep performance and revenue reporting as well as sales forecasting based on Pipeline health |
Customer Segmentation | Searchable and savable contact lists based on customer attributes for targeted outreach |
Calendar & Email Sync | Data syncing between CRM and email accounts as well as multi-user calendars synced to a central calendar |
Social & Email Enrichment | Data searching and capturing from email signatures and LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Crunchbase |
Email & Activities Tracking | Email performance, open, reply, and click tracking as well as other activity information such as calls, tasks, and events |
Reminders & Task Management | Scheduled prospect follow-up reminders and task to-do lists |
Nimble Key Features
- Group and mass emailing: Personalized mass email message design and deployment—available for segmented contact lists
- Unlimited email templates: Customizable and shareable email message templates that auto-add contact data for quick message deployment
- Email performance tracking: Ability to view message statuses in real time, such as opens, clicks, and replies
- Email data enrichment: Automated data capture and updates from email signatures
Nimble Customer Support
Nimble offers an array of online resources including FAQ pages, instructional product tutorials, and free onboarding assistance for new users. Additionally, you can contact their customer support team during Pacific Time business hours through email and live chat.
Find out more about the Nimble CRM product by reading our Nimble review for the information on all the social media, email marketing, and lead management features you can use to help develop customer relationships.
Salesforce Essentials: Best for Tracking Lead Email Activity
Salesforce Essentials
Overall Score:
3.44 / 5
What We Like
- All-in-one sales, marketing, and customer support management for small businesses
- Over 2,500+ third-party and native integration options
- Excellent lead management capabilities, including data storage, auto-routing, duplicate block, and communication options
What's Missing
- No free plan
- Considerable amount of technical skill needed to set up interface
- Features such as quotes and invoices, AI analytics, and social monitoring require paid add-ons
Salesforce Essentials Pricing at a Glance*
- Salesforce Essentials: $25
- Free trial: 30 days
Add-ons
- Sales Dialer: $5 for a built-in dialer with click-to-dial and call logging
- CPQ and Billing: $75 for price and quoting tools
- Social Intelligence: $25 for social media data collection and sharing
- Sales Cloud Einstein: $50 for AI analytics and automaton
- Pardot: $1,250 per month for marketing and lead generation automation
- Partner Relationship Management: $25 per user or $10 per login, per month for partner oversight features
*Pricing is per user, per month, based on annual billing (except the Pardot add-on, which is a per-month charge, and the Partner Relationship Management add-on, which is as noted above). Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
Salesforce Essentials is a small business specialty CRM product for managing sales, marketing, and customer support operations. This platform offers excellent features for lead management, custom workflow automation, pipeline management, reporting, and handling customer cases. In addition to the built-in features, Salesforce offers thousands of native and third-party integration options for extended capabilities and data synchronization.
As part of the robust lead management features found in Salesforce Essentials, users can track detailed tasks, events, and activities from a single-view lead record. Additionally, they can send direct emails to a lead from the record profile once they’ve integrated with Gmail or Outlook email systems. These centralized communication tools and activity logs make it especially easy to manage and monitor lead progress from one tab.
Salesforce Essentials does not have a free plan option, nor is it a straightforward CRM to set up and operate. HubSpot is the best email CRM alternative with a free plan for unlimited users and a product usability rating notably high on all fronts compared to other CRMs on this list.
Salesforce Essentials Plan Summary
Salesforce Essentials | |
|---|---|
Record Management | Sales cycle, activity, and data tracking for accounts, contacts, leads, and opportunities |
Email Integration | Interaction tracking, data sync, and ability to send emails through the CRM for Gmail or Outlook services |
Mass Email | Email design and deployment to targeted audiences with performance tracking |
Lead Assignment | Automated lead routing to sales reps based on preconfigured criteria |
Email Templates | Options to create, save, and share email message templates streamlined message sends |
Sales Process Management | Ability to create and track custom sales pipeline stages |
Reporting & System Dashboard | Customizable performance and activity reports presented in document formats or on CRM dashboard |
Case Management | Auto-routing of submitted customer support inquiries and tickets to agents or service reps for remediation and tracking |
Lightning Flow Automaton | Up to five custom processes and five automated workflows using point-and-click automation designer |
Automated Logging | Hands-free activity tracking to monitor touchpoints, communications, and engagement activity with leads |
Salesforce Essentials Key Features
- Mass email and campaigns: Ability to create, send, and monitor email messages on a mass scale to targeted customer and lead lists
- Email templates: Fillable message templates that can be stored and shared in the CRM system to easily plug in contact data and send
- Campaign performance management: Performance tracking on email messages and campaigns in terms of clicks, opens, replies, and responses
- Two-way email sync: Syncable email data between CRM and Outlook or Gmail systems to keep records up to date on activity and previous communications
Salesforce Essentials Customer Support
Salesforce Essentials, as well as the other sales cloud products, uses tiered-based support and customer success system—offering more options and services on the premium plans. They provide live chat and phone support, in which 24/7 availability is offered to Premier Success users and above. There are also numerous online resources, such as Trailhead, the help portal, a community forum, and a self-service success center.
Interested in Salesforce Essentials? Learn more about its features, integrations, and best-for scenarios in our in-depth Salesforce Essentials review.
How We Evaluated the Best CRM for Email Marketing
To determine the best email marketing CRMs, we considered product features relevant for creating, sending, and monitoring email marketing campaigns. These include prebuilt email templates, email automation capabilities, the ability to segment target audience lists, and tools for designing messages. We also looked into each product in terms of typical attributes such as price, general CRM features, ease of use, and customer support.
We found Freshsales to be the best CRM for email marketing as it has a free plan for unlimited users that includes easy-to-use direct email messaging within the CRM system. Additionally, all the primary email features, including template customization, automated sequencing, team inbox management, and personalized mass email deployment, are available on the Growth plan for just $15 per user, monthly.
The tabs below offer insight into our evaluation process of the best CRM and email marketing products:
30%
General Features
20%
Pricing
20%
Ease of Use
20%
Help & Support
10%
Expert Score
30% of Overall Score
The most important evaluation criteria involved the features specific to email marketing. This includes message design tools, campaign performance tracking capabilities, customer journey automation, and options to segment email audience lists based on customer attributes. We also looked at features we feel are necessities for a CRM, like CRM integration options, reporting and analytics tools, system customization, and a mobile app.
20% of Overall Score
Pricing takes into account free plan availability, various scalable pricing options users can purchase affordably, and the availability for a subscriber to either pay monthly or save by paying annually. Additionally, we looked at the costs specifically for accessing email marketing features or integrating with a third-party email marketing software.
20% of Overall Score
The solutions are also evaluated on platform usability. This was analyzed in terms of the expertise required to set up an account and integrate with native or third-party applications, and the skill needed to operate the email marketing features. We also reviewed the overall intuitiveness of navigating the system’s interface.
20% of Overall Score
Extensive support and service help prevent poor user experiences and outcomes users may encounter while using any of these systems. Help and support are evaluated in terms of customer service hours and the availability of support via phone, live chat, and email. We also look at online resources for users to review, like tutorials, forums, and training modules.
10% of Overall Score
In addition to firsthand experience with these software systems, we evaluated what users say about each product. These criteria consider how customers feel, based on their reviews, to gain insight into platform popularity, ease of use, and overall value for the price.
*Percentages of overall score
