According to Edelman’s 2025 Trust Barometer, trust is at an all-time low. This affects everyone but hits marketers and businesses especially hard. Consumers are increasingly skeptical of shiny offers, flashy accessories, and bold promises.
To earn trust, marketers and businesses must now play the long game—building relationships through consistent, meaningful interactions. And when it comes to long-term relationship building, few tactics are as effective as drip email campaigns.
The problem? It’s not always easy to know which drip email campaign software fits your specific needs. Some tools overwhelm you with features you’ll probably never use, while others fall short when you need to scale.
After researching dozens of options, we’ve curated seven drip email campaign software matched to different needs, budgets, and team sizes to help you find your perfect match.
What Does a Drip Email Campaign Software Do?
Think of drip email campaign software as your always-on relationship builder. It’s a tool that lets you send targeted emails to specific segments of your audience at just the right moments—all automated in the background.
Each interaction is tailored and triggered by specific customer actions. For example:
- An ecommerce store automatically sends a welcome series to new subscribers.
- An online bookseller recovers abandoned shopping carts with friendly reminders.
- A local gym follows up with personalized fitness tips after someone downloads a workout guide.
- A SaaS company nurtures free trial users with product features and customer success stories.
Once a specific action triggers the system, a pre-planned series of emails “drips” out over days or weeks. The software learns and adapts, tracking how people engage with each message and adjusting its approach thanks to preset branching logic (if/else).
The best part? With the right software, you can dial up the complexity to mirror your customer’s journey and campaign objectives, from simple automated email sequences to comprehensive drip campaign flowcharts.
What Makes a Great Drip Email Campaign Software?
Before starting your search for your ideal drip email campaign software, consider these non-negotiable elements:
- Automation: The right drip email campaign software doesn’t just send emails automatically; it breathes life into your communication strategy. You need a system that can trigger everything from simple auto-generated emails to robust, multi-step campaigns based on precise customer actions and behaviors.
- Segmentation: One-size-fits-all is a quick way to burn a marketing budget. A solid drip email campaign tool lets you group your email list into granular segments, whether that’s by engagement level, purchase history, website interactions, specific link clicks, etc. The more precise your segmentation, the more personal your communication.
- Deep Personalization: Your chosen software should excel at advanced email personalization. The “Hey {{first_name}}” personalization tactic is played out. Nowadays, you need targeted, dynamic content that shifts based on engagement levels, purchases, browsing history, and personal preferences.
- Integration Ecosystem: Your drip campaign software can’t live in isolation. It needs to play nice with your CRM, ecommerce platform, and other tools in your tech stack. Smooth integrations prevent data silos and keep your entire marketing machine humming without a hitch.
- Ease of Use: If your team needs weeks to understand the platform, it’s probably not the right fit. For easy adoption, opt for clean dashboards, intuitive workflows, and drag-and-drop designs that don’t require a computer science degree to navigate.
- Pricing: The best drip campaign software solutions offer transparent, scalable pricing plans that grow with your business. Avoid tools that lock you into rigid plans or charge excessive fees for additional features.
- Analytics & Reporting: If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. You need drip campaign software that offers deep insights into email marketing KPIs—think open rates, click-throughs, conversion tracking, and behavioral analytics.
7 Drip Email Campaign Software for Your Unique Marketing Needs
Drip email campaigns work best when the right tool powers them. While some platforms specialize in sales automation, others excel at audience segmentation or personalization. Here’s a breakdown of seven top-rated drip email tools for different marketing priorities.
Instantly.ai: Best for Cold Outreach and Lead Nurturing
G2 Rating: 4.8/5 ⭐ from 3,562 reviews
Instantly.ai is much more than a drip email campaign software; it’s an AI-driven sales engagement platform built for sales teams and marketers who need a powerful yet simple way to automate email outreach.
Using Instantly’s Campaign Sequence editor, you can build dynamic, multi-step drip email sequences and subsequences with custom triggers that adapt based on recipient actions—all in a few clicks.
Need help jumpstarting things? Instantly’s Sequence Template library is packed with tons of ready-made campaign formats for SaaS businesses, marketing agencies, ecommerce brands, and much more.
For more control, the Custom Templates feature lets you create entire campaigns from scratch and save them in your template library to be reused for future campaigns.
Beyond drip campaigns, Instantly offers email warmup, AI-powered personalization, robust lead finder, email list validation, and a CRM—all in a simple, minimalist package, making it a powerhouse for outbound prospecting and relationship building.
Core Features
- Advanced email sequences, subsequences, and scheduling
- AI-powered email list segmentation and personalization
- Automated emails with custom triggers, follow-ups, and branching logic
- Built-in email templates for various use cases (Instantly and Custom)
- Email warmup and inbox placement optimization
- Multichannel outreach (email, SMS, calls, etc.)
- Lead database with 260+ million verified contacts and CRM integration
Pricing
- Growth: $37/month (5,000 emails/month)
- Hypergrowth: $97/month (100,000 emails/month)
- Lightspeed: $358/month (500,000 emails/month)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing (500,000+ emails/month)
- All plans include a free trial
MailChimp: Best for All-in-One Marketing Automation
G2 Rating: 4.3/5 ⭐ from 12,544 reviews
Mailchimp has evolved from the simple email marketing tool it once was into a full-fledged marketing automation platform. It’s a good all-around option for businesses of all sizes looking to run drip email campaigns without a steep learning curve.
Mailchimp offers pre-built drip campaign templates for common use cases like welcoming new subscribers, nurturing leads, and re-engaging inactive users. While the template library isn’t the largest, the categories are well-organized, so you can easily find what you need.
What sets MailChimp apart is its ability to make sophisticated marketing feel approachable. Each template provides a clear overview of the campaign’s flow, target audience, and expected outcomes.
If a template doesn’t quite fit, Mailchimp suggests alternatives to better match your goals. The platform also comes with AI-powered tools to generate email copy, design visuals, and analyze content for industry best practices.
Core Features
- Pre-built and customizable drip campaign templates
- AI-generated copy and design recommendations
- Advanced audience segmentation and tagging
- Behavior-based automation triggers
- Built-in analytics for campaign tracking
Pricing
- Free plan available (limit of 500 contacts)
- Essential: $13/month (500 contacts)
- Standard: $20/month (500 contacts)
- Premium: $350/month (10,000 contacts)
Klaviyo: Best for Ecommerce-Driven Drip Campaigns
G2 Rating: 4.6/5 ⭐ from 1,062 reviews
Klaviyo is a favorite of ecommerce marketers thanks to its direct integration with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. Its drip email campaign features are built to help you nurture customers at every stage of their journey.
In practice, you can trigger emails based on purchases, abandoned carts, browsing history, etc. Its visual flow builder stands out for its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, meaning you'll be crafting robust drip campaigns within minutes, not hours.
Klaviyo’s predictive analytics take things even further, using purchase history and behavior to predict churn rates, customer lifetime value, and more.
While the learning curve is simple enough for basic features, it steepens when you dive into advanced segmentation and predictive tools. Even so, Klaviyo provides automation depth few platforms can match.
Core Features
- Behavior-based email automation (cart abandonment, product suggestions, etc.)
- Advanced A/B testing with performance tracking
- Predictive analytics for churn rates and customer value
- Drag-and-drop workflow builder
- Custom analytics dashboards and deliverability reports
Pricing
- Free plan available for up to 250 active profiles
- Email + SMS plans start at $60/month (15,000 emails)
- Email-only plans start at $45/month (15,000 emails)
ActiveCampaign: Best for Advanced Automation
G2 Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐ from 13,722 reviews
ActiveCampaign is a customer experience automation platform that combines email marketing, CRM, and sales automation into one powerful package. It offers a deep, trigger-based drip campaign system that reacts to user behavior in real time.
You can start a sequence when someone opens an email, clicks a link, visits a web page, or even forwards an email. The automations map also lets you visualize all your workflows in one place, helping you see how different campaigns connect.
Notably, ActiveCampaign’s learning curve is steeper than most platforms, but once you grasp its logic, it’s one of the most flexible drip email systems available. You can score leads, predict win probability, and even create “Goal” events that let contacts skip ahead in sequences once they convert.
Core Features
- Visual automation builder with branching logic
- Dynamic segmentation for hyper-targeted emails
- A/B testing for entire email flows
- Lead scoring to prioritize high-intent contacts
- Cross-channel automation (email, SMS, WhatsApp, live chat)
Pricing
- 14-day free trial available
- Starter: From $15/month (up to 1,000 contacts)
- Plus: From $49/month (up to 1,000 contacts)
- Pro: From $79/month (up to 1,000 contacts)
- Enterprise: From $145/month (up to 1,000 contacts)
- All plans include multi-step marketing automation
Kit (Formerly ConvertKit): Best for Creators and Solopreneurs
G2 Rating: 4.4/5 ⭐ from 207 reviews
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) strips away complexity and focuses instead on what creators need most: building genuine connections with their audience. It's perfect for bloggers, course creators, and digital artists, but may feel limiting for larger teams needing advanced features.
The platform offers two ways to set up drip campaigns: Sequences and Automations. Sequences let you send emails based on time delays and list filters. Automations, however, are where Kit shines, with pre-built templates, conditional logic, and behavior-based triggers.
The learning curve is refreshingly simple. That said, the lack of a drag-and-drop email builder means you’ll spend more time formatting messages than you might like.
A/B testing is also missing for Sequences, which might be a dealbreaker for data-driven marketers. But what Kit lacks in design flexibility, it makes up for in subscriber organization and automation logic.
Core Features
- Visual automation builder for drip campaigns
- Tag-based subscriber management
- Basic personalization options
- Pre-built automation templates
Pricing
- Free Plan for Newsletters: Up to 10,000 subscribers
- Creator Plan: From $29/month (up to 1,000 subscribers)
- Creator Pro: From $59/month (up to 1,000 subscribers)
- All paid plans include a 14-day free trial
- Custom pricing for 500,000+ subscribers
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): Best for Budget-Friendly Drip Campaigns
G2 Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐ from 2,209 reviews
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) offers a solid drip email automation suite at an affordable price, which increases its appeal to startups and small businesses looking to punch above their weight.
Its intuitive interface makes it easy to build both basic and advanced drip campaigns. You can start with ready-made templates for common use cases like welcome series and post-purchase follow-ups, or create custom workflows from scratch.
One of Brevo’s standout features is its A/B testing for entire workflows. Instead of testing individual areas like subject lines or email content, you can compare full-fledged workflow structures to see which automation performs better.
Brevo also supports multichannel automation: SMS, WhatsApp, and push notifications. The analytics aren’t as deep as some competitors, but the free plan makes it an excellent entry point for businesses testing drip automation.
Core Features
- Visual workflow builder for easy automation setup
- Multichannel automation (email, SMS, WhatsApp, push)
- A/B testing for workflows to compare automation strategies
- Dynamic segmentation and lead scoring
- Pre-built drip campaign templates for quick setup
Pricing
- Free plan: caps email sends at 300 per day
- Starter: $9/month (from 5,000 emails/month)
- Business: $18/month (from 5,000 emails/month)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Drip: Best for Advanced Personalization and Online Stores
G2 Rating: 4.4/5 ⭐ from 462 reviews
Built specifically for online stores, Drip combines email marketing with advanced segmentation and ecommerce integrations. Its automation builder is intuitive, but you can expect to spend time setting up custom workflows if you want to maximize its potential.
Thanks to deep integrations with major ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento, Drip lets you trigger emails based on specific product views, abandoned carts, purchase history, customer lifetime value, and more.
As for its personalization tools, Drip goes beyond just using a contact’s name. You can dynamically insert product recommendations, discount codes, and tailored content based on past behavior.
Core Features
- Email automation with customizable workflows
- Dynamic segmentation based on purchase behavior
- Product recommendations for personalized messaging
- Workflow split testing to optimize performance
- Pre-built ecommerce workflows for faster setup
Pricing
Drip offers a 14-day free trial. It has a single pricing plan that starts at $39/month for 2,500 contacts. The price increases as your list grows. Users with over 180,000 subscribers get custom pricing.
Building Trust, One Email at a Time
Drip email campaigns are powerful tools for nurturing leads and driving engagement. However, success depends on choosing the right software for your use cases and setting up strategic automation.
To recap:
- The best drip campaign software solutions don’t just automatically send emails; they create personalized journeys that transform strangers into loyal customers.
- Consider factors like ease of use, automation capabilities, segmentation, personalization, integrations, analytics, and transparent pricing before choosing your drip email campaign software.
- Leading drip email campaign software like Instantly, MailChimp, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, Kit, Brevo, and Drip all offer unique strengths to fit various marketing objectives.
Ready to set up your drip campaigns? Instantly.ai offers one of the most intelligent and adaptable drip campaign software, turning cold contacts into your biggest fans, one automated sequence at a time. Sign up for a free trial today!
