The small-business email marketing decision in 2022 is not whether to do email — almost every operator has accepted that the channel produces the best ROI in the marketing mix — but which platform to do it on. The category has segmented into roughly four tiers, each with a different cost structure and different fit for different business types.
The Major Platforms
Mailchimp remains the default starting point for small businesses with sub-1,000 email lists. The free tier supports up to 500 contacts. The interface is approachable. The integrations with Shopify, WordPress, and the major small-business tools are mature. Mailchimp's 2021 acquisition by Intuit has pulled the platform toward the small-business accounting and tax-prep adjacency, with mixed reactions from the existing user base.
The downside is that Mailchimp's pricing scales steeply once a list crosses 2,500 contacts, and the segmentation tools have not kept pace with what Klaviyo offers at the same price point for ecommerce specifically.
Constant Contact is the legacy small-business platform, founded in 1995 and still in active use. The strengths are simplicity, customer support, and integration with traditional small-business workflows. The weaknesses are an interface that feels dated and a feature set that has fallen behind the newer platforms on segmentation, automation, and ecommerce integration.
Constant Contact remains a reasonable choice for service businesses, professional practices, and non-profits where the email program is straightforward newsletter distribution rather than transactional ecommerce.
Klaviyo has become the dominant email platform for Shopify-based ecommerce in 2022. The product was built from the ground up for ecommerce email and SMS, with native Shopify integration and segmentation tools that allow the kind of granular customer-behavior-triggered messaging that drives ecommerce repeat purchase. Klaviyo went public via direct listing in 2022 at a multi-billion-dollar valuation, validating the category.
For any small business running an ecommerce store on Shopify with a list approaching 5,000 contacts, Klaviyo is now the default recommendation. The price step up from Mailchimp is meaningful but the revenue lift typically justifies the cost.
ConvertKit is the platform that has emerged as the favorite of creators, writers, and small-publisher operators. The product is built around the use case of a single creator running a list of paid and free subscribers, with simple landing pages, automation sequences, and creator-friendly pricing. Most independent newsletter writers, online course creators, and one-person consulting operations land on ConvertKit.
Beehiiv, launched in late 2021 by former Morning Brew team members, is the newest entrant. The product is built specifically for newsletter publishers, with strong analytics, monetization tools (ads, referrals, paid subscriptions), and a free tier that supports up to 2,500 subscribers. Beehiiv has been growing fast in 2022 among newsletter operators who find ConvertKit too restrictive on the monetization side.
HubSpot is the upper-end option for small businesses that are growing toward mid-market. The email function is one part of a much larger marketing automation, CRM, and sales platform. The platform is heavier to implement and more expensive than the others on this list, but for a business that needs marketing, sales, and customer-service tools to integrate, the consolidated stack can pay back faster than running point solutions.
How to Choose
The right platform depends mostly on what business is being run.
A service business with under 1,000 contacts on a simple monthly newsletter: Mailchimp on the free tier or Constant Contact for the simpler interface.
A Shopify ecommerce business with 1,000+ contacts: Klaviyo. The ecommerce-specific segmentation and automation will produce a revenue lift that justifies the cost step-up.
A creator, writer, or coach running a content business: ConvertKit or Beehiiv. ConvertKit if simplicity matters more than monetization features; Beehiiv if newsletter monetization is the strategy.
A B2B small business growing toward 25 employees: HubSpot. The integration with sales and CRM functions will matter as the company scales.
What Does Not Work
The pattern that produces the worst small-business email outcomes is switching platforms too often. Each migration loses some portion of the list to the verification process, breaks the automation flows that took months to build, and resets the engagement reputation with the inbox providers. The brands getting good outcomes on email are the ones that picked a competent platform and ran it well for several years, not the ones that chased the newest feature set every 18 months.
The platform decision matters less than the discipline of the program. A weekly email sent consistently on Mailchimp will outperform a monthly email sent inconsistently on Klaviyo every time.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
