Original research · AI recommendations
Which email marketing tools does AI recommend to small businesses?
When a small business asks an AI assistant which email marketing tool to buy, a few brands get most of the mentions. We asked Claude 25 real buyer questions and counted.
Data collected 1 November – 2 November 2026 · 75 answers · Claude with web search · run 3 of 3
- Named in answers
- 84%MailerLite, the most named
- Never named
- 19of 49 email marketing tools tracked
- Brands per answer
- 6.4on average
- Searched the web
- 98.7%of answers
Key findings
- MailerLite was named in 84% of answers and placed in the top three 45 times (average position 2.7).
- MailerLite, Brevo and Mailchimp together took 47% of the share of voice, weighted by position.
- 19 of the 49 email marketing tools tracked were never named in any answer.
- A typical answer named 6.4 email marketing tools, and Claude searched the web before answering in 99% of answers.
- Claude read benchmarkemail.com in 13% of answers but never named Benchmark Email: being found is not the same as being recommended.
- Apart from the tracked email marketing tools' own sites, it read emailtooltester.com (56%), emailsoftwareinsights.com (47%) and emailvendorselection.com (45%) most often.
Which email marketing tools get named
Share of all 75 answers that named each email marketing tool, the 12 most named. 30 of 49 were named at least once.
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By kind of question
The three email marketing tools named most often for each kind of buyer question.
| Question type | Questions | Most named |
|---|---|---|
| Shortlist | 6 | MailerLite (100%), Brevo (100%), Mailchimp (94%) |
| Constraint | 10 | Mailchimp (87%), MailerLite (80%), Brevo (67%) |
| Alternatives | 3 | MailerLite (100%), Brevo (100%), Klaviyo (100%) |
| Comparison | 3 | Mailchimp (67%), Brevo (44%), Klaviyo (44%) |
| Validation | 3 | MailerLite (100%), Kit (67%), Mailchimp (67%) |
What it read
Share of answers in which Claude retrieved a page from each site while searching. Sites marked brand belong to a email marketing tool in the study.
Read, but not recommended
Email marketing tools whose own site was read in more answers than named them: the engine looked at these brands more often than it recommended them.
| Brand | Site read | Named |
|---|---|---|
| Omnisend | 41.3% | 38.7% |
| SendX | 30.7% | 1.3% |
| Moosend | 24% | 22.7% |
| Benchmark Email | 13.3% | 0% |
| Drip | 10.7% | 2.7% |
| Encharge | 5.3% | 0% |
| Mailmodo | 4% | 1.3% |
| Campaign Monitor | 4% | 0% |
| Audienceful | 1.3% | 0% |
All 49 email marketing tools
Every brand tracked, including those never named. Each name opens that brand's own card. Download the data (CSV).
Show the full table
| Brand | Named | Avg. position | Top three | Share of voice | Site read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | 84% | 2.7 | 45 | 19.1% | 16% |
| Brevo | 73.3% | 2.8 | 39 | 15.3% | 26.7% |
| Mailchimp | 82.7% | 4.1 | 27 | 12.4% | 12% |
| Klaviyo | 53.3% | 3.9 | 22 | 9.4% | 0% |
| Omnisend | 38.7% | 4.4 | 15 | 7.5% | 41.3% |
| Kit | 48% | 4.9 | 18 | 6.9% | 2.7% |
| Constant Contact | 34.7% | 3.7 | 13 | 5.6% | 29.3% |
| ActiveCampaign | 34.7% | 4.9 | 8 | 5.4% | 6.7% |
| beehiiv | 20% | 5.5 | 7 | 2.7% | 17.3% |
| Sender | 25.3% | 5.6 | 3 | 2.2% | 21.3% |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | 29.3% | 7.4 | 1 | 1.9% | 4% |
| Moosend | 22.7% | 6.5 | 1 | 1.6% | 24% |
| EmailOctopus | 13.3% | 6.6 | 2 | 1.5% | 2.7% |
| Substack | 8% | 2.7 | 5 | 1.5% | 0% |
| Zoho Campaigns | 12% | 5.6 | 2 | 1.1% | 0% |
| GetResponse | 10.7% | 7.5 | 1 | 0.8% | 1.3% |
| Sendy | 4% | 4 | 2 | 0.8% | 1.3% |
| Buttondown | 6.7% | 4.4 | 1 | 0.7% | 0% |
| MailPoet | 4% | 3 | 3 | 0.6% | 0% |
| AWeber | 8% | 8.5 | 0 | 0.5% | 2.7% |
| CleverReach | 5.3% | 5.3 | 1 | 0.5% | 0% |
| Mailjet | 5.3% | 8 | 0 | 0.4% | 0% |
| SendPulse | 4% | 6.3 | 0 | 0.3% | 4% |
| SendX | 1.3% | 2 | 1 | 0.3% | 30.7% |
| Drip | 2.7% | 6 | 0 | 0.2% | 10.7% |
| Dotdigital | 2.7% | 6 | 0 | 0.2% | 0% |
| Ghost | 2.7% | 4.5 | 0 | 0.2% | 0% |
| Flodesk | 2.7% | 9.5 | 0 | 0.1% | 0% |
| Campaigner | 1.3% | 7 | 0 | 0.1% | 0% |
| Mailmodo | 1.3% | 5 | 0 | 0.1% | 4% |
| Campaign Monitor | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 4% |
| Benchmark Email | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 13.3% |
| iContact | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Systeme.io | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Customer.io | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| SendGrid | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Emma | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Keap | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Ontraport | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Encharge | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 5.3% |
| Acumbamail | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Robly | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Elastic Email | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| VerticalResponse | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Privy | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Sendlane | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| SmartrMail | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Bento | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Audienceful | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 1.3% |
Method
Brands. 49 email marketing tools sold to small businesses, compiled from G2 and Capterra listings and buyer's guides and the top search results for “email marketing software for small business”. A brand counts as named when the answer uses its name or domain. Names that are everyday words (Kit, Constant Contact, Sender) count only when used as a name.
Questions. 25 questions written the way buyers ask them, across 5 kinds: shortlists, constraints, alternatives, comparisons and validation. Each was asked on its own, with no system prompt and web search on, through the official API.
Measures. Named is the share of answers naming the brand. Average position is where it first appears among the brands an answer names. Share of voice weights each mention by position (first counts 1, second ½, third ⅓). Site read is the share of answers in which the engine retrieved a page from the brand's own domain.
Limits. This is one engine and 3 runs. Answers vary from day to day, so the study repeats every question on 3 days. So far, the email marketing tools named for the same question overlapped by 72% between runs on average. It shows what the engine said, not why: read the differences as correlation, not cause. CoScale.DM is not a CRM vendor and has no commercial tie to any brand here.
The 25 questions
- What's the best email marketing software for a small business? shortlist
- Which email marketing tool should a small business start with? shortlist
- What are the top email marketing platforms for small businesses in 2026? shortlist
- Best email newsletter tool for a local business with about 2,000 customers shortlist
- What email marketing software do most small businesses use? shortlist
- Best free email marketing software for a small business constraint
- Cheapest email marketing tool for a list of 5,000 subscribers constraint
- Best email marketing platform for a small Shopify store constraint
- Best tool for sending a weekly newsletter as a solo creator constraint
- Best email marketing software with good automation for a small business, like welcome series and abandoned cart emails constraint
- Which email marketing service has the best deliverability so my emails don't go to spam? constraint
- Best GDPR-compliant email marketing tool for a small business in the UK or EU constraint
- Easiest email marketing software for a non-technical small business owner constraint
- Best email marketing tool that integrates with WordPress and WooCommerce constraint
- Best email marketing software for a small business with 25,000 contacts that doesn't get too expensive constraint
- What are the best alternatives to Mailchimp for a small business? alternatives
- Klaviyo is getting too expensive for my store. What should I switch to? alternatives
- Alternatives to Constant Contact for a small business alternatives
- Mailchimp vs MailerLite for a small business comparison
- Klaviyo vs Omnisend for a small ecommerce store comparison
- Brevo vs Mailchimp for a small business on a budget comparison
- Is Mailchimp's free plan good enough for a small business? validation
- Is Kit (ConvertKit) worth it for a small newsletter? validation
- Is ActiveCampaign too complicated for a small business? validation
- I run a small online shop and a local café with about 3,000 email subscribers between them. I want to send a monthly newsletter and some automated emails for new customers without spending much. What would you recommend and why? shortlist
Where does your brand stand?
We run the same check for one brand against its rivals, across the engines your buyers use, and fix what keeps it out of the answers.