How We Evaluate Email Nurturing Tools

What we read

The editor works from public sources only: each vendor's pricing page, its documentation and help centre, its changelog or release notes where one exists, and its legal pages (a data processing addendum, for example) when a page makes a compliance statement. Review sites, forum threads and sales decks are not used as a source for any price or limit.

A fact only goes on a page if it can be tied to one of those vendor pages. When the page is linked next to the number, you can open it and compare. When the vendor does not publish a number, we say so instead of filling the gap.

How prices are recorded

• Plan, list size and billing cycle are always stated. A price such as "$15 a month at 1,000 contacts, billed annually" is only meaningful with all three, so a price is never shown without them. Where a vendor shows both monthly and annual billing, we say which one a figure refers to.
• Sliders are read at specific stops. Vendors such as Drip, Customer.io, Postmark and Loops price by a slider. We write down what the slider displayed at each list size on the date we looked, and we only quote those stops. We do not extend a slider with our own arithmetic into a list price.
• No estimates. If a vendor does not publish a price we can read (we could not read one for Marketo Engage), the page says "pricing on request" and links to the vendor. We do not publish a guessed range.
• Currency and tax are as displayed. We use the US-dollar price list where a vendor has one and note it when a screenshot shows another currency. Sales tax, VAT, add-ons and overage charges are excluded unless a page says otherwise.
• Unreadable pages are left out. If a pricing page does not render its paid prices in a way we can read (some sliders only appear after a script runs), we report the free-plan limits we could read and nothing more for that vendor.

Screenshots

Screenshots of pricing pages are captured from the live public page in a headless browser and carry the capture date and source URL in the caption. They are not edited, cropped to hide prices, or composed from several captures. A page that cannot be captured cleanly carries a short note instead of an image. When a capture shows something that affects how you read it, such as a cookie banner or euro prices, the caption says so.

How a best pick is chosen

A page that names a best tool names it for a particular reader and gives the reason beside the pick. The order of a list follows fit for that page's audience, not payment and not a score. The questions we ask for B2B nurturing are practical ones:

• What does it cost at the list sizes this audience actually has, and where does the price step up?
• What automation limits sit on the entry plan (for example, how many actions a workflow may contain)?
• Does it include a CRM or need one, and which CRMs does it integrate with?
• Can it score leads and route them to sales, and on which plan?
• How hard is it to leave: what exports, and what has to be rebuilt by hand?

We do not publish star ratings, "editor's choice" labels without a stated reason, or percentage claims about opens, clicks or revenue unless they link to a real source.

What we do not do

• We do not run campaigns on these tools. The reviews are desk research. We make no claims about inbox placement, open rates or hands-on testing results.
• We do not accept payment for placement in a ranking. No vendor pays for a position on a list or for a favourable verdict.
• We do not invent data. No made-up customer quotes, reviewer names, case studies or benchmark figures.

Comparing different pricing meters

Some tools price by contacts stored, others by emails sent or by profiles. Those meters cannot be compared as headline prices, so the comparison pages convert them into worked costs: a list size multiplied by a stated sending cadence gives a monthly volume, and each tool is priced at that volume on the date shown. Head-to-head pages always say where the other tool is the better choice, so a reader whose volume or audience points elsewhere leaves with a clear answer.

Dates and corrections

Each page shows the date its prices were last read. Vendors change plans without notice, so treat any figure as correct on that date and confirm it on the linked vendor page before you buy. If you find a price, limit or claim that is out of date, tell us on the contact page; we correct the page and change its date.

More about who writes this site is on the About page.