Campaign Monitor
Designer-first email tool with the prettiest templates in the category.
About Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is an email marketing platform aimed at design-conscious brands. On the strengths side, prettiest templates in email marketing; on the depth side, strong brand controls for teams. The product centres on Email designer and Brand kit — everything else is scaffolding around those. It's quick to pick up, with pricing from $11/mo. Still a strong design-first choice, especially for lifestyle and media brands. Reviewers keep pointing to the same thing: reliable deliverability.
Available on
Integrates with
Who it's for
A quick filter before you spend time on Campaign Monitor — read both sides before committing.
Use it if…
- Design-conscious brands and agencies
- Teams prioritizing template quality
- Mid-market B2B wanting polish
Skip it if…
- Tech-forward teams wanting automation
- Shopify stores (Klaviyo wins)
- Startups on tight budgets
Pros and cons
Pros
- Prettiest templates in email marketing
- Strong brand controls for teams
- Reliable deliverability
- Hits the core email marketing workflow without forcing a hunt for second tools
- Pricing lands in the right band for its target buyer
Cons
- Automation is weaker than ActiveCampaign
- Less innovation under Marigold ownership
- Pricing creeps vs. MailerLite/Brevo
- Not the cheapest option in the category — the free alternatives cover basics
- Advanced features sit behind higher-tier plans most small teams won't need
Features
The capabilities you actually get when you sign up for Campaign Monitor.
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01
Email designer
Beautiful drag-and-drop editor
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02
Brand kit
Enforce brand colors and fonts across sends
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03
Transactional email
Built-in via CM's transactional service
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04
Core workspace
The main editor or dashboard where day-to-day email marketing work happens
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05
Integrations hub
Connects to the tools your stack already uses so data doesn't live in silos
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06
Reporting and dashboards
Built-in reports and exportable dashboards for stakeholder reviews
Pricing
No free plan — here's what you get at each paid tier.
Lite
$11 /mo
- 500 contacts
- 2,500 emails
- Core features
Essentials
$19 /mo
- 500 contacts
- Unlimited emails
- A/B testing
Frequently asked questions
What people usually want to know before signing up for Campaign Monitor.
Is Campaign Monitor still being developed?
Under new owner Marigold, updates have slowed but core product is stable.
Does CM have automation?
Yes, but shallower than ActiveCampaign — basic sequences only.
How is pricing calculated — contacts or sends?
Usually contacts (every email in your list counts). A few tools price on sends, which is friendlier for inactive-heavy lists.
Can I migrate from Mailchimp without losing automations?
Lists and templates import cleanly. Automations have to be rebuilt — budget half a day per complex sequence.
Does it handle transactional email too?
Most ESPs separate transactional from marketing. Expect to pair with Postmark, Resend or an SMTP service for high-volume transactional sends.
Bottom line
Should you use Campaign Monitor?
Still a strong design-first choice, especially for lifestyle and media brands. Automation-heavy teams should look elsewhere.