Comprehensive comparison of the best marketing automation platforms for AI-powered workflows, lead nurturing, and campaign optimization
Last updated: February 2026
Written & tested byDaan de VriesConversational AI & Automation SpecialistExpert in conversational AI and marketing automation. Tests and compares AI chatbots, workflow automation, and customer engagement platforms.
Marketing automation platforms are the backbone of every modern marketing strategy. In 2026, AI makes marketing automation smarter than ever: from predictive lead scoring and smart send times to automated content optimization and cross-channel orchestration. We extensively tested the 10 most popular platforms on automation capabilities, AI features, ease of use, integrations, and pricing.
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Comparison Table: Top 10 AI Marketing Automation Platforms
HubSpot Marketing Hub is the most complete all-in-one marketing automation platform on the market. The platform combines email marketing, workflow automation, lead management, CRM, analytics, and AI-powered tools in a single integrated ecosystem. What makes HubSpot unique is the seamless connection between marketing, sales, and customer service — everything runs on the same CRM database.
HubSpot's AI features are impressive: Breeze AI generates content, predicts lead quality, optimizes send times, and automates workflows based on behavioral data. The free CRM provides an accessible entry point, while the Professional and Enterprise plans offer enterprise-grade marketing automation. The HubSpot Academy offers the best marketing training in the industry.
Key features
Breeze AI for content and workflow automation
Visual workflow builder with conditional logic
Predictive lead scoring with AI
Email marketing with smart send optimization
Landing page and form builder
CRM with complete customer view
Blog, SEO, and content management
Advanced reporting and attribution
Integrations
HubSpot integrates with Salesforce, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Shopify, WordPress, Zapier, and 1,500+ other apps via the Marketplace.
Price: From $29/monthFree trial: 14 daysRating: ★ 4.7/5
ActiveCampaign is the king of email marketing automation with the most powerful workflow builder in its price range. The platform combines advanced email automation, CRM, lead scoring, and AI-powered features at a price point accessible to SMBs. With 900+ automation recipes (ready-made templates), you're quickly up and running.
ActiveCampaign's AI features are practical and effective: Predictive Sending determines the optimal send time per individual contact, Predictive Content shows the most relevant email variant, and Win Probability predicts which deals will close. The combination of power and affordability makes it the best choice for growing businesses.
Key features
Visual automation builder with 900+ recipes
AI Predictive Sending and Content
Built-in CRM with deal pipelines
Lead scoring with machine learning
Site and event tracking
Dynamic email content
SMS marketing and automation
Split testing of automations
Integrations
ActiveCampaign integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Salesforce, Facebook, Google Analytics, Zapier, Slack, Microsoft 365, Calendly, and 900+ other apps.
Price: From $895/monthFree trial: Demo availableRating: ★ 4.5/5
Marketo Engage (part of Adobe Experience Cloud) is the most powerful B2B marketing automation platform for enterprise organizations. The platform excels in lead management, Account-Based Marketing (ABM), multi-touch attribution, and AI-driven marketing analytics. For organizations with complex sales cycles and large marketing teams, Marketo is the gold standard.
Marketo's AI (powered by Adobe Sensei) provides predictive lead and account scoring, automated audience segmentation, and smart content recommendations. The platform supports complex multi-channel campaigns across email, web, mobile, social, and offline channels. The integration with Adobe Experience Cloud provides a seamless connection with analytics, personalization, and content management.
Key features
Advanced lead management and nurturing
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) capabilities
AI-driven lead and account scoring
Multi-touch revenue attribution
Cross-channel campaign orchestration
Dynamic content personalization
Advanced analytics and BI integration
Sandbox environment for testing
Integrations
Marketo integrates with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Adobe Experience Cloud, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Facebook, Webex, Zoom, Slack, and hundreds of enterprise applications.
Price: From $1,250/monthFree trial: Demo availableRating: ★ 4.4/5
Pardot (now officially Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) is the marketing automation platform natively built for organizations that use Salesforce CRM. The integration is unparalleled: marketing and sales share the same data, lead scoring is bidirectional, and ROI attribution runs directly from CRM to marketing campaigns.
Einstein AI (Salesforce's AI) provides predictive lead scoring, behavioral scoring, and campaign insights that go far beyond what standalone marketing automation platforms offer. For B2B organizations that already use Salesforce, Pardot is the logical choice for marketing automation with the deepest CRM integration available.
Key features
Native Salesforce CRM integration
Einstein AI lead and behavioral scoring
B2B marketing analytics (B2BMA)
Engagement Studio for visual workflows
Dynamic content and personalization
Landing page and form builder
Email marketing with A/B testing
Multi-touch attribution reporting
Integrations
Pardot integrates natively with Salesforce CRM, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Tableau, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Facebook, Webex, Zoom, Slack, and the Salesforce AppExchange ecosystem.
Price: Free / From $25/monthFree plan: 300 emails/dayRating: ★ 4.5/5
Brevo is the most affordable multi-channel marketing automation platform with a unique pricing model based on emails sent rather than contacts. This makes it ideal for businesses with a large contact database but moderate sending frequency. The platform combines email marketing, SMS, WhatsApp, CRM, and marketing automation in one affordable package.
Brevo's AI features include send time optimization, predictive analytics, and smart segmentation. The automation builder is intuitive and supports multi-channel workflows: start with an email, follow up with SMS, and finish with a WhatsApp message. The free plan (300 emails per day) makes it the most accessible automation platform to get started.
Key features
Multi-channel: email, SMS, WhatsApp, push
Visual automation workflow builder
Send time optimization with AI
Built-in CRM with deal tracking
Transactional email and SMS
Landing page builder
Facebook and Instagram ads integration
Advanced segmentation and personalization
Integrations
Brevo integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Magento, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Facebook, Instagram, Zapier, Stripe, PayPal, and 60+ other platforms.
Price: Free / From $19.99/monthFree plan: 100 tasks/monthRating: ★ 4.7/5
Zapier is the world's most popular integration and workflow automation platform with support for 7,000+ apps. Although not a traditional marketing automation platform, Zapier is essential for marketers who want to connect their tools and automate workflows between different systems. The no-code approach makes it accessible to everyone.
Zapier's AI features are revolutionary: with natural language you can describe what you want to automate and the AI builds the complete workflow. Zapier Central goes even further with AI agents that proactively work on your tasks. For marketers using multiple tools, Zapier is the glue that holds everything together and eliminates manual data transfer.
Key features
7,000+ app integrations
AI-powered workflow builder
Zapier Central with AI agents
Multi-step Zaps with conditions
Filters, formatters, and data transformations
Tables (built-in database)
Interfaces (custom apps without code)
Team collaboration and shared workspaces
Integrations
Zapier integrates with virtually every marketing tool including HubSpot, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Google Workspace, Slack, Trello, Asana, Shopify, Facebook, LinkedIn, and 7,000+ other apps.
Price: Free / From $9/monthFree plan: 1,000 operations/monthRating: ★ 4.6/5
Make is the visual workflow automation platform that excels in complex data transformations and multi-step automations. The visual scenario builder shows exactly how data flows between your apps, making it easier to build and debug complex marketing automations. Make supports 1,500+ apps and offers more flexibility than Zapier for advanced use cases.
For marketing teams, Make is particularly valuable for complex data workflows: enriching leads from multiple sources, syncing CRM data with marketing tools, automating reporting, and building custom marketing pipelines. The AI-powered scenario builder helps you set up complex automations from natural language descriptions.
Key features
Visual scenario builder with data flow
1,500+ app integrations
Advanced data transformations
Error handling and retry logic
Webhooks and custom HTTP requests
Data stores (built-in database)
Execution history and debugging
Team workspaces and permissions
Integrations
Make integrates with HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Workspace, Slack, Shopify, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mailchimp, Airtable, Notion, OpenAI, and 1,500+ other apps.
Price: From $100/monthFree trial: 14 daysRating: ★ 4.5/5
Customer.io is the marketing automation platform built specifically for event-driven, behavioral messaging. Where traditional platforms work with static lists and segments, Customer.io reacts in real-time to user behavior: page visits, clicks, purchases, app events, and API calls. This makes it ideal for SaaS companies, apps, and tech businesses that want to communicate based on actual behavior.
The power of Customer.io lies in its flexibility and data-driven approach. You define custom events and attributes, and the platform automatically triggers relevant messages across email, push, SMS, and in-app. The visual workflow builder supports complex branching logic, delays, and multi-channel orchestration based on real-time data.
Key features
Event-driven automation and triggers
Real-time behavioral segmentation
Multi-channel: email, push, SMS, in-app, webhook
Visual campaign builder with branching
A/B testing and experimentation
Data pipelines and custom integrations
Transactional messaging
Advanced reporting and conversion tracking
Integrations
Customer.io integrates with Segment, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Stripe, Shopify, Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Twilio, Zapier, and via API and webhooks with any system.
Price: From $249/monthFree trial: 14 daysRating: ★ 4.3/5
Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) is specifically built for small businesses and solopreneurs who want to combine marketing and sales in one platform. The platform offers a unique mix of CRM, marketing automation, invoicing, and appointment scheduling — everything a small business needs to acquire and retain customers.
Keap's automation builder focuses on practical workflows for small businesses: automatic follow-ups after quotes, payment reminders, appointment confirmations, and lead nurturing. The “Easy Automations” feature makes it possible to set up effective automations in minutes with pre-built templates. Keap is less powerful than enterprise platforms but compensates with simplicity and all-in-one functionality.
Key features
CRM with sales pipeline management
Easy Automations with templates
Email marketing and follow-ups
Invoicing and payments (Stripe/PayPal)
Appointment scheduling and forms
Lead scoring and tagging
SMS marketing and text messaging
Landing page builder
Integrations
Keap integrates with QuickBooks, Xero, Stripe, PayPal, Gmail, Outlook, Zapier, WordPress, LeadPages, Calendly, and 250+ other apps via the Keap Marketplace.
Price: From $509/monthFree trial: 14 daysRating: ★ 4.4/5
Ortto (formerly Autopilot) is a marketing automation platform that distinguishes itself through the combination of customer journey automation, built-in analytics, and a customer data platform (CDP). The platform offers a visually appealing journey builder that lets you design complete customer journeys, from first interaction to repeat purchase.
Ortto's strength lies in its integrated analytics. Where other platforms redirect you to Google Analytics or external tools, Ortto provides real-time insight into how customers move through your funnels. The AI features predict churn, identify upsell opportunities, and automatically optimize your campaign timing and content.
Key features
Visual customer journey builder
Built-in customer data platform (CDP)
Real-time analytics and dashboards
AI-powered predictive analytics
Multi-channel: email, SMS, in-app, push
Dynamic segmentation and audiences
Talk (live chat and chatbot)
No-code data activation
Integrations
Ortto integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, Stripe, Segment, Intercom, Slack, Zapier, BigQuery, Looker, and dozens of other data and marketing platforms.
Price Comparison AI Marketing Automation Platforms
Tool
Free plan
Starter
Pro
Enterprise
HubSpot Marketing Hub
Yes (basic CRM)
$20/mo
$800/mo
$3,600/mo
ActiveCampaign
No
$29/mo
$49/mo
$149/mo
Marketo (Adobe)
No
$895/mo
$1,795/mo
On request
Pardot (Salesforce)
No
$1,250/mo
$2,500/mo
$4,000/mo
Brevo
Yes (300 emails/day)
$25/mo
$65/mo
On request
Zapier
Yes (100 tasks)
$19.99/mo
$49/mo
$99/mo
Make
Yes (1,000 ops)
$9/mo
$16/mo
$29/mo
Customer.io
No
$100/mo
$1,000/mo
On request
Keap
No
$249/mo
$349/mo
On request
Ortto
No
$509/mo
$899/mo
On request
How We Select Marketing Automation Platforms
Our editorial team tests each platform for at least 6 weeks in a realistic marketing environment. We evaluate based on the following criteria:
Automation Capabilities (30%)
We test the workflow builder on flexibility, conditional logic, triggers, and actions. We build the same campaigns in each platform and compare capabilities and limitations.
AI Features (20%)
How well do the AI features work? We evaluate predictive scoring, smart sending, content suggestions, and automatic optimization on accuracy and usability.
Ease of Use (15%)
How quickly can a marketer without technical background become productive? We measure the time to first working automation and evaluate the interface, documentation, and onboarding.
Integrations (15%)
Which marketing tools, CRM systems, and data sources are supported? How smoothly do integrations work in practice? We test the most important connections per platform.
Scalability (10%)
How does the platform perform with growth? We evaluate price scaling, performance with large contact lists, and the availability of advanced features on higher plans.
Value for Money (10%)
What do you get for your money? We compare features and limits per price tier and assess whether the investment pays back for different business sizes.
How to Choose the Right Marketing Automation Platform?
The best marketing automation platform depends on your specific situation. Here are our recommendations per use case:
For SMBs (up to 50 employees)
Choose ActiveCampaign for the best balance between power and affordability. It offers professional automation from $29/month. Brevo is the alternative when budget is the priority, with a free plan and multi-channel marketing.
For enterprise B2B companies
Choose Marketo if you need advanced ABM, lead management, and analytics. Already using Salesforce? Then Pardot is the logical choice thanks to its deep CRM integration.
For an all-in-one solution
HubSpot Marketing Hub is the best choice if you want to combine marketing, sales, and service in one platform. The free CRM provides an accessible entry point.
For workflow automation between apps
Choose Zapier for the most integrations and simplicity, or Make if you need more complex data transformations at a lower price.
For SaaS and tech companies
Customer.io is ideal if you want to set up event-driven behavioral messaging. Ortto is the choice if you value integrated analytics and customer journey mapping.
Trends in Marketing Automation (2026)
The marketing automation market is evolving rapidly. These are the key trends we see in 2026:
AI-driven hyper-personalization — Platforms use AI to optimize content, timing, and channel per individual contact
Predictive analytics as standard — Lead scoring, churn prediction, and next-best-action are becoming standard AI features
Cross-channel orchestration — Email, SMS, WhatsApp, push, in-app, and social media are managed from one platform
No-code and AI workflow builders — Building workflows from natural language makes automation accessible to everyone
Customer Data Platform (CDP) integration — Marketing automation and CDP are merging for a unified customer view
Privacy-first automation — GDPR, cookieless tracking, and consent management are becoming core functionality
Frequently Asked Questions
HubSpot Marketing Hub is the best all-in-one marketing automation platform thanks to its integrated CRM, AI-powered workflows, and excellent ease of use. For B2B companies with complex funnels, Marketo is a strong alternative. ActiveCampaign offers the best value for money for SMBs.
Yes, multiple platforms offer free plans. HubSpot offers a free CRM with basic automation capabilities. Brevo provides 300 emails per day for free. Zapier offers 100 tasks per month for free, and Make offers 1,000 operations per month. For serious marketing automation, a paid plan is recommended.
Email marketing specifically focuses on sending emails to contact lists. Marketing automation goes much further: it includes lead scoring, multi-channel campaigns (email, SMS, push, social), behavioral workflows, CRM integration, customer journey mapping, and advanced segmentation across all channels. Marketing automation uses data and AI to send the right message at the right time through the right channel.
For SMBs, ActiveCampaign and Brevo are the best choices. ActiveCampaign offers powerful email automation with built-in CRM from $29/month and is ideal for businesses that want to set up serious nurture campaigns. Brevo is the most budget-friendly alternative with a free plan and multi-channel capabilities. Keap is ideal for small businesses that want to combine sales, marketing, and invoicing.
Prices vary significantly depending on scale. Budget options start at $9-$29 per month (Make, Brevo, ActiveCampaign). Mid-range platforms cost $100-$800 per month (Customer.io, HubSpot Professional, Keap). Enterprise solutions like Marketo and Pardot start from $895-$1,250 per month. Most platforms offer discounts for annual billing and scale pricing based on the number of contacts or operations.
Yes, platforms like HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, and Brevo are designed for marketers without technical backgrounds. They offer visual drag-and-drop workflow builders, ready-made templates, and comprehensive onboarding programs. Zapier and Make even make it possible to build automations from natural language with AI. More complex platforms like Marketo and Pardot require more technical expertise and often a dedicated administrator.
HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaign
Marketo (Adobe)
Pardot (Salesforce)
Brevo (Sendinblue)
Zapier
Make (Integromat)
Keap
Ortto