Last update: August 22, 2024
Many people think that email marketing has become an outdated marketing channel — that is false. While social media like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tik Tok are growing marketing mediums, countless studies show that email marketing is still more effective at attracting and converting users than any existing social media channel.
One of the reason small business owners say they are not using email marketing is because they are busy and don’t know where to start. To help you choose the right tool for your business, we create a list of the top 10 best email marketing platforms in Canada, based on Capterra reviews. This list will help you choose the right marketing tool for you to create profitable marketing campaigns.
Note: The order in which the email marketing platforms are presented below is random and not based on performance. Pricing for the various plans for each solution is based on the companies’ websites as of August 2024.
Why choose a Canadian email marketing platform?
If your business is located in Canada, using a Canadian email marketing solution has many advantages:
- Be compliant with Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)
- Use a tool in your native language (English or French)
- Send bilingual emails or in the language of your choice
- Get customer service that understands your needs
- Billing in Canadian dollars
- Keep your data safe within Canadian borders
- Support local businesses
10 best email marketing platforms
1. Cyberimpact
Cyberimpact is a Quebec-based emailing solution that allows Canadian businesses and organizations to send promotional emails while complying with the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). All data is hosted on Canadian servers.
With Cyberimpact, you can manage your subscribers and their consent, create effective marketing campaigns and display clear statistics. The email automation feature allows you to create various scenarios based on contact actions. The tool is easy to use, even for non-marketers. The drag and drop editor allows a great flexibility in the design of your emails.
The email marketing platform is offered in English and French, and Cyberimpact distinguishes itself by its exceptional customer service in both languages.
Four types of plans are available (Free, Basic, Plus and Pro) and scale as your business grows (number of contacts). The cheapest paid plan starts at $20.99 CAD/month. Unlike other emailing solutions, Cyberimpact allows you to create an account for free, without having to enter a credit card and without having a time limit to test the software.
You can even test the features of the Pro plan for several days to discover the full advantages.
Check out how Cyberimpact compares to other email marketing solutions in the market.
What are the key features of Cyberimpact?
- Advanced Image Editor: Allows you to modify each element in a image using the layer system (text, shape, color, size, etc.)
- An intuitive and easy-to-use platform, even for non-marketers
- Up-to-date email templates (new templates every month)
- Tools that allows you to generate smart email templates: simply import your company logo and your brand color
- Unlimited number of users on the platform, regardless of the plan
- Affiliate/white label/reseller program
- Discount for ONGs
- Compliance with Canadian laws (CASL, Law 25, etc.).
- Email templates can be shared with one or more sub-accounts.
2. Envoke
Envoke offers a secure and compliant emailing tool based in Toronto. The solution is designed for marketing and communication professionals working in businesses, educational institutions and public sector organizations. Envoke places great importance on data security and the fact that all data is hosted on Canadian servers.
Several email templates are available and the drag and drop editor allows you to easily create the different sections that make up your newsletter. With the automation tool, you can send emails to your subscribers for their birthday or when they subscribe to your newsletter.
The email marketing platform also allows you to manage multiple departments using sub-accounts. This feature can be very useful when your organization does not want to share data between departments.
Although Envoke allows you to send emails in English and French, customer service is only in English.
Three plans are available (Standard, Professional and Multi-account). Prices vary depending on the number of contacts. The cheapest plan starts at $42 CAD/month. You have the possibility to do a free 30-day trial and test all the features, without a credit card. Afterwards, you will have to choose a paid plan.
What are the most powerful features of Envoke?
- Manage multiple departments under one corporate account
- Users can have different permissions to access only the features related to their role
- Email templates can be shared with one or more sub-accounts
- Lock down email zones according to your company’s branding.
3. Knak
Knak offers an advanced email marketing platform for large enterprise marketing teams (100 to 1,000 employees). The solution was created in 2017 in Ontario and allows marketers to create emails without code and that integrate with today’s leading automated marketing platforms such as Marketo, Eloqua, Salesforce, Adobe Campaign, etc.
Knak also allows you to create emails using a drag and drop editor. With the platform, you can even manage and configure your brand identity (fonts, colors, etc.) all in one place to save some time.
Depending on the type of subscription you choose, you and your colleagues will be able to work simultaneously on the same email by leaving comments and feedback.
There are four plans to choose from (Free, Solo, Starter and Enterprise). Although there is no time limit on the free plan, it only allows you to download pre-made templates and you must have Marketo or Eloqua software to use them.
In addition, the solution is mainly aimed for large companies with a considerable marketing budget since the cheapest plan (Solo) is $10,000 USD per year.
Features that make Knak unique:
- Save your brand identity (colors, fonts, etc.)
- Email design flexibility
- Direct integration with many marketing automation platforms.
4. ActiveDEMAND
ActiveDEMAND is a email marketing platform based in Alberta. It offers several services such as an emailing solution, call tracking, appointment scheduling and many more. The email marketing software is aimed at small businesses as well as marketing agencies and allows for multi-clients management.
The email marketing platform offers a drag and drop tool to facilitate the creation of your emails. It allows you to segment your contacts into multiple lists based on your criteria. ActiveDEMAND’s predictive personalization feature gives you the ability to send emails to the top of a contact’s inbox based on their activity profile. The reporting tool provides specific statistics for each of your campaigns in real time.
The four plans offered are based on the number of contacts you will have in your database (up to 100, 1000, 5,000 and over 5,000 contacts). The cheapest plan starts at $15 USD/month (approximately CAD $20). It is possible to request a free trial to test the platform.
What other tools does ActiveDEMAND offer?
- Call tracking
- Appointment scheduling
- Pop-up forms
- Landing pages.
5. Maropost
Maropost is a Toronto-based company that offers several services, including emailing software. The solution is aimed at marketing agencies, companies in the health, technology, retail and entertainment industries.
The email marketing platform provides a 360-degree view of each of your customers, allowing you to create unique experiences. You will be able to segment, schedule and develop dynamic content based on your contacts’ unified data. The drag and drop tool allows you to add text, images and buttons, without needing HTML knowledge. It is possible to build personalized paths to trigger automatic emails based on a subscriber’s action and even send transactional emails.
Maropost offers three different plans for its email marketing platform (Essential, Professional and Enterprise). The cheapest plan starts at $251 USD/month (approximately CAD $341) and includes more features than the email marketing platform. Unlike other companies, the prices are based on the number of emails sent per month instead of the number of contacts. A 14-day free trial is available before upgrading to a paid account.
What other tools does Maropost offer?
- Email campaign optimization tool: allows you to display different images, offers or calls to action (CTA) depending on the date and time the email is viewed by a person
- Send transactional emails
- Connect customers via SMS and push notifications
- Social media marketing management platform.
6. Campayn
Campayn’s Toronto-based email marketing platform is designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. You will find a drag and drop editor to create professional emails in a few clicks. Campayn offers a dozen pre-built email templates to save you time or simply to inspire you. The templates intuitively adjust to your recipients’ devices, such as smartphones or tablets.
The solution allows you to configure one or more automated follow-up emails that are sent when a new contact is added to a list. A report is also available from the application’s dashboard allowing you to see basic statistics about the performance of your marketing campaigns, but also the number of shares on your social networks. You can even view the statistics from a mobile application.
Plans are based on the number of contacts. You can choose between the basic plan which starts at $19 USD/month (approximately CAD $26) or the unlimited plan starting at $39 USD (approximately CAD $53).
It is also possible to pay only per use, depending on the number of emails sent which can be an ideal solution for a company that sends a lot of emails. Campayn offers you the possibility of a free trial, without entering your credit card, as long as you don’t exceed 500 contacts.
What are the special features of Campayn?
- Detailed profile of your contacts: activity overview, number of views, etc.
- Detailed report for each of your emailing campaigns
- Mobile application to consult your statistics or add contacts.
7. Courrielleur
Courrielleur, a Quebec-based company, offers a email marketing platform for both small and medium-sized enterprises and non-profit organizations. The tool offers all the necessary tools to help you communicate with your audiences and send personalized follow-ups. Courrielleur uses the Cakemail API to manage your contacts, create your emails and send them.
Several pre-made newsletter templates are available, or you can create your own templates using the drag and drop editor. Prepare your campaigns in advance and select the date and time of the mailing. Courrielleur also allows you to schedule a sequence of emails following an event such as an online subscription.
Two plans are offered by Courrielleur, the Growth plan (starting at $12 CAD/month) or the Premium plan (starting at $19 CAD/month) for up to 500 contacts. It is possible to do a free trial without entering a credit card.
What are the unique features of Courrielleur?
- Send transactional emails
- Over 700 email templates (by Cakemail)
8) Emailicious
Emailicious is an emailing company based in Quebec. It uses the SendGrid technology by Twilio to ensure a good delivery rate of emails to recipients. However, if you are sending emails within the country, please note that SendGrid’s servers are located in the United States, which could affect your delivery rate in Canada. The email marketing platform can work for small and medium businesses as well as large companies with a volume of more than one million emails sent per month. Emailicious is sold as a simple, intuitive and powerful solution.
You will benefit from the drag and drop tool to create your newsletters from a pre-made template or from scratch. You’ll enjoy designing contact lists with customizable fields and managing subscriber profiles. You can also segment your lists based on customer attributes such as location, age and gender.
Emailicious allows users to track campaign KPIs and campaign visitor activity through Google Analytics integration.
The email marketing platform no longer offers the possibility to try the solution for free. To start using Emailicious, you will have to create a paid account called Starter for $25 CAD/month that allows you to send up to 5,000 emails per month. After that, you will be charged $10 CAD/month for each 1,000 emails sent.
There is also the Growing Business plan that starts at $100 CAD/month to send up to 25,000 emails. Then you will be charged $8.50 CAD/month for each additional 1,000 emails.
What are the key features of Emailicious?
- Insert all the content for your different target audiences from a single email template and define the lists of contacts who will be able to see each section
- Multilingual platform
- Target your contacts by filtering them using various demographic parameters.
9) Cakemail
Cakemail is a Quebec-based email marketing platform that allows you to create, send and track email campaigns that reflect your brand and contribute to the growth of your business. The software is mainly aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, regardless of the industry sector.
Cakemail allows you to easily manage your contact lists, send personalized emails, track activity and generate analyses on the performance of your email campaigns. The platform is quick to learn thanks to its ease of use. The drag and drop email editor allows you to create newsletters without any HTML knowledge.
It is possible to try the platform for free without entering a credit card as long as you have under 1,000 contacts. Otherwise, you will have the choice between two paying plans, either Growth plan which starts at 12$ CAD/month from 500 contacts or the Premium plan, which starts at 19$ CAD/month for 500 contacts.
What are the advantages of Cakemail?
- Easy-to-use interface
- Over 700 email templates
- Affiliate/white label/reseller program
- Unlimited number of users.
10) CentrixOne
Based in Quebec, CentrixOne offers a simple, intuitive and affordable all-in-one emailing solution. Designed for small businesses, the 3-in-1 promotional email marketing platform (newsletter, new products and promotions) allows you to manage your customer relationships.
Create personalized emails from professional templates, with no programming required, using a drag and drop editor. You will also be able to segment your contact lists with custom fields and automate your tasks and emailing.
Enjoy a free 14-day trial to test the email platform. CentrixOne offers four paid plans (Essential, Pro, Growth and Enterprise) with prices based on the number of email sends per month and the number of contacts. The cheapest plan starts at $24.50 CAD/month for up to 750 email sends and contacts. The Pro plan is $43.50 for up to 2,500 email sends and contacts.
Additionally, the email marketing service is available by request only and the features appear to be limited.
What other products does CentrixOne offer?
- CRM tool: track in real time your team’s activities and the status of your various sales and opportunities
- CRM with Quickbooks: centralize and manage efficiently your accounting, sales and marketing information
- CRM engine for Acomba: automatically synchronize your customer data
- Email synchronization with G-Suite and Office 365
- Social network connector.
What to look for in an emailing solution?
All email marketing platforms offer the possibility to send emails to your contacts in order to generate leads and then convert them into customers. However, they should also save you time through automation processes.
Here is a list of important criteria to look at when choosing the best email marketing platform. The importance of the criteria will vary depending on your business needs, so you will need to determine which ones are essential.
- The cost
- Design flexibility
- Ease of use of the platform
- Deliverability rate
- The different features
- Reports and statistics on campaign performance
- The possible integrations
- The quality of customer service
- Security measures in place
- Compliance with regulations and laws depending on the region.