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Last Updated on 19th October 2026

Comparing and choosing the best email autoresponder for small businesses

The 8 Best Autoresponders – Which One’s Right For Your Business?

This blog is reader supported. If you click one of our links and make a purchase, we may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. In that event we thank you so much for supporting our blog, it means the world to us. Have a great day!

Email marketing is a core part of any successful business. It has been ever since the birth of the internet and will continue to be.

It goes without saying then, that choosing the best autoresponder for your business is very important.

While there are loads to choose from, it can get a bit confusing. Some have cool, innovative, and fancy features, while others just offer the tried and tested basics.

On top of that, some autoresponders are better suited to certain types of businesses. If you sign up for the wrong one then it can be a pain to change later down the road.

In this article, you will learn about the different features and benefits of the top autoresponders on the market along with the pricing so you can decide which one is right for you.

Several of these autoresponders also have a free plan so if you’re on a budget be sure to read about each one before making your decision.

CompanyMain FeaturesRatingPricing
Great Deliverability
ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign

  • Excellent deliverability
  • Excellent automation capabilities
  • Can run split tests on your automations
  • Sophisticated tagging system
  • Good segmentation capabilities
9.6
Get Free Trial
Best For Funnels
GetResponse

GetResponse

  • Best selection email marketing tools on this list
  • Includes sales funnels
  • Powerful marketing automation
  • Plans to suit every business size
  • Easy to use
  • Affiliate marketing friendly
9.5
Get 30 Day Trial
Great For Affiliate Marketing
Aweber

Aweber

  • Aweber is competitively priced
  • Generous 30-day free trial period
  • Aweber allows you to use all the features during your free trial period
  • Easy to use (is newbie friendly)
  • Affiliate marketing friendly
9.4
Get Free Account
Best For SMS
Omnisend

Omnisend

  • Pricing starts at $16 p/m
  • Powerful automation capabilities
  • User-friendly interface
  • Mobile-responsive designs
  • SMS marketing for direct mobile communication
9.3
Get Free Account
Great Automation
SendLane

SendLane

  • Excellent deliverability
  • Affiliate marketing-friendly
  • Advanced automation and segmentation features
  • SMS messaging
  • Automation funnels
  • Affiliate marketing friendly
9.3
Get 14 Day Trial
Best For Bloggers
SamCart

SamCart

  • ConvertKit has a free plan
  • Very good segmentation capabilities
  • Includes a landing page builder
  • Very easy to use
  • No traffic limits to landing pages and opt-in forms
9
Get Free Account
Best Free Plan
MailerLite

MailerLite

  • Has a free plan
  • Very easy to use
  • Great automation editor
  • Easy to use drag-and-drop editor
  • Very reasonable pricing overall
8.9
Get Free Account
Great For Larger Businesses
COnstantContact

COnstantContact

  • Generous 30-day free trial with no credit card needed
  • Full use of all the features during your trial period
  • Cool branding tools
  • Branded email templates
  • Email automation available on both pricing plans
8.8
Get 30 Day Trial

Take The Quiz: Find Your Perfect Email Platform
Answer a few questions to discover which email marketing platform fits the way your business actually works. Instant answer – no opt-in required.

What To Look For When Choosing The Best Autoresponder

When you’re choosing an autoresponder, there are a few important things to look for to make sure you choose the best one for your business.

1. Automation

Email automation is the facility to be able to set an email or a series of emails to be delivered automatically based on a trigger or a set of triggers. This is extremely useful for all types of businesses and can save you a lot of time.

Most commonly, people use email automation to set an email or even a whole campaign to trigger an opt into your list.

However, you can also automate your blog posts to be sent to your subscribers’ inboxes, set automation by date when leading up to a promo or an event, and even send your subscribers a personalized birthday message.

2. Deliverability

Email deliverability is the success rate an autoresponder has in being able to deliver your email to the inbox of your subscriber.

Unfortunately, not all autoresponders have a great deliverability rate. While some can consistently deliver your emails directly into the inbox of your subscribers, others have a lower success rate.

If you’re using an autoresponder company that doesn’t have good deliverability, then your emails will often end up in the Promotions box for your Gmail subscribers or trigger spam filters and end up in the spam folder.

It goes without saying, this can really hurt your email marketing campaigns.

3. Segmentation

Email segmentation is basically a way to separate your subscribers into different lists so you can send them more relevant info based on what they’re interested in.

For example, if you run a fitness blog that covers a range of topics, then some of those topics will appeal to some of your site visitors and not others. However, you may also have a lead magnet that appeals to people across more than one of the different interest groups.

So, rather than sending everyone on your list the same emails, you can segment your subscribers into different lists based on things like interests, location, purchase history, age, and so forth.

Email statistics show that sending more laser-targeted emails to your subscribers based on what they’re interested in can increase your revenue by as much as 760%.

4. Ease of use

If you’re a tech nerd and you love to figure things out then you may not be too worried about how easy it is to use your autoresponder.

However, most entrepreneurs want a solution that is straightforward and easy to set up.

Particularly if you’re new to working online or if you’re a solopreneur with not enough hours in the day, you’re gonna want to choose a solution that can get the job done without having to spend hours figuring things out.


My Top 8 Autoresponder Services On The Market

Now let’s take a look at my top seven recommended autoresponders that are great for solopreneurs and small-medium-sized businesses.