While there are clear market share leaders in the email service provider (ESP) and marketing automation platform (MAP) industry, brands still have a long list to choose from. How long? Respondents to Litmus’ 2020 State of Email survey mentioned more than 230 ESPs when asked which platforms they use to send marketing emails.
Twelve companies were used by at least 1% of respondents. Three years ago, there were 20 used by at least 1%—which goes to show how the ESP landscape is constantly changing with mergers, acquisitions, and new players.
In order of popularity among our respondents, the top 12 ESP brands are:
- Salesforce (includes Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Pardot, and Salesforce Core): used by 18.1% of respondents to Litmus’ State of Email survey
- Mailchimp (includes Mandrill): 11.1%
- Adobe (includes Marketo, Adobe Campaign, Magento, and Adobe Sign): 7.6%
- Oracle (includes Oracle Responsys, Oracle Eloqua, Bronto, NetSuite, Siebel, and Dyn): 6.2%
- HubSpot: 5%
- Campaign Monitor (includes Emma and Delivra): 3.5%
- Constant Contact: 3%
- Twilio (includes SendGrid): 2.8%
- Acoustic (formerly Watson Campaign Automation/Silverpop): 2.8%
- ActiveCampaign: 1.5%
- Iterable: 1.2%
- Act-On: 1%
 | Dive deeper into the state of the ESP landscape See the top ESPs and MAPs your peers rely on—by geography, company size, industry, and more—in our latest State of Email Service Providers report. Plus, hear from some of the actual ESPs themselves. And get advice on how to find out what’s best for your needs. |
Please note that the list above is based on user market share, not user value market share.
That means the comparative market shares listed do not necessarily reflect the comparative size of these ESPs as companies. Additionally, these listings don’t consider past changes in market share, the strength of future offerings, your unique business and team requirements, or a myriad of other factors that may be critical to comparing or selecting an ESP. For those reasons and others, these listings shouldn’t be considered as an endorsement or recommendation of one ESP over another.
Litmus works alongside any email service provider and is proudly ESP-agnostic.
 | Litmus works where you do Litmus integrates with the email marketing platforms your team uses every day. Maximize your marketing technology investment, increase efficiencies through simplifying processes, and reduce errors with ESP Syncing and the Litmus Extension. |
The ESP industry’s long tail
While those ESPs control the vast majority of market share, there’s a healthy long tail of ESPs in the marketplace as well. Some are up-and-comers; some specialize in serving organizations in a particular industry vertical; some offer special functionality; some offer email as part of a much larger service. It’s a rich and diverse landscape.
In some cases, it’s also interesting which vendors our respondents described as ESPs. It’s evidence that the definition of an ESP is changing.
In alphabetical order, the remaining ESPs used by the respondents to Litmus’ 2020 State of Email survey are:
- 3birds
- 4Cite
- Accrisoft
- ActionKit
- ACTITO (formerly SmartFocus formerly EmailVision)
- ActiveDEMAND
- Admail
- AdvisorStream
- Agile CRM
- Agillic
- Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo)
- Alterian
- AlumnIQ
- Amazon Web Services (AWS, includes Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Sendy, and Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS))
- Anthology (formerly iModules)
- Apptivo
- Apsis
- Aurea (formerly Lyris, includes List Manager)
- Autopilot
- Aventri (formerly etouches)
- AWeber
- Benchmark Email
- Bizzabo
- Blackbaud (includes Convio and Luminate Online)
- Bloomerang
- Bluecore
- Blueshift
- Braze (formerly Appboy)
- Brick Street CONNECT (formerly KANA)
- Campaigner
- Cerkl
- Chargify
- Chauntry
- Cheetah Digital (formerly CheetahMail)
- CiviCRM
- CanopyCloud (formerly Clang)
- ClearSlide
- CleverTap
- ClickDimensions
- Comarch
- Communicator
- Community Brands (includes Abila)
- Concep
- Conversica
- ConvertKit
- Copernica
- Copper
- Cordial
- Critical Impact
- Customer.io
- Cvent
- Data Axle (formerly Yes/Infogroup)
- Dinamize
- Direct Mail for Mac (formerly e3 Software)
- DonorView
- dotdigital (formerly dotMailer)
- Drip
- Dyspatch (includes Sendwithus)
- Elead (formerly eELead1One)
- EmailOctopus
- Email Studio
- Emarsys
- emBlue
- emfluence Digital Marketing
- Engaging Networks
- Epsilon
- Equator
- e-Relationship
- e-shot
- eTrigue
- EveryAction (formerly Blue State Digital)
- ExpertSender
- Flodesk
- FMG Suite
- Force24
- Freshworks CRM (formerly Freshmarketer)
- Gainsight
- GetResponse
- GoldMine
- Goolara Symphonie
- GoToWebinar
- Granicus (formerly GovDelivery)
- GreenArrow
- GroupMail
- HelpSpot
- Heyloyalty
- Higher Logic (formerly Informz and Real Magnet MagnetMail)
- HCL Unica (formerly IBM Unica)
- iConneqt
- iContact
- Infor
- Intercom
- iPost
- Keap (formerly Infusionsoft)
- Kentico
- Klaviyo
- Liana
- LinkedIn Message Ads (formerly InMail)
- Linx
- Listrak
- LuxSci
- Mad Mimi
- MailerLite
- Mailgun
- Mailjet
- MailUp
- Mapp Cloud (formerly Blue Hornet and Teradata Marketing Applications)
- Maropost
- Mautic Community
- MessageGears
- Microsoft Dynamics 365
- MMS Software
- Moonfruit
- NationBuilder
- NAVIS
- NCR Counterpoint
- Net-Results
- NewBook
- NewZapp
- NGP VAN
- Nuance
- Omeda (formerly Ignite Knowledge Marketing)
- Ometria
- One-to-One iService
- Optimizely (formerly Episerver and Optivo)
- Optimove
- OrangeBoy Savannah
- OutboundEngine
- Outreach
- Paytronix
- Pendo
- PeopleGrove
- Personica (formerly Fishbowl)
- Pinpointe
- Pipedrive (includes Mailigen)
- PoliteMail
- Poppulo
- Postmark
- ProfitWell
- Proofpoint
- Pure360 (includes PureCampaign)
- Radial (formerly eBay Enterprise)
- Radius
- RD Station
- RedEye
- REDLINK
- Redpoint
- Retention Science
- Sailthru
- SugarCRM (includes Sugar Market, formerly Salesfusion)
- SalesLoft
- Salsa Labs
- SAP (includes SAP Marketing Cloud and SAP Sales Cloud formerly CallidusCloud)
- Selligent (formerly StrongView)
- Sendinblue (formerly Newsletter2Go)
- SharpSpring
- Sitecore
- Skyfii IO Engage
- Slate by Technolutions
- SmartEmailing
- SmartSender
- SparkPost (includes SAS Customer Intelligence 360)
- Splash
- Splio
- Spotler (formerly MailPlus)
- Squarespace
- StoryPorts
- StreamSend
- Street Contxt
- Strikedeck
- Swift Digital
- TailoredMail
- TargetX
- Tessitura Network
- ThankView
- Tikit
- TouchBasePro
- TravelClick (formerly Digital Alchemy)
- Tripolis Solutions
- Upland (includes Adestra and PostUp formerly Pulseconnect)
- Vero
- Vertical Response
- Vision6
- Volly
- Vtiger CRM
- Vuture
- Webpower
- WhatCounts
- Woodpecker
- WordFly
- Zendesk
- Zeta (formerly Acxiom)
- Zimbra
- Zoho
- Zuora
- Zywave
Understand the ESP landscape
Your ESP or MAP is the cornerstone of your email program. It can propel email marketing growth through enhanced efficiencies, or it can hold you back. And, it’s your most critical tool and a major budget item.
Based on our State of Email survey of over 2,000 marketers, our State of Email Service Providers report takes a detailed look at the ESP marketplace to better understand the most popular ESPs across various industries, geolocations, company sizes, and more.
Originally published on July 23, 2018, by Chad S. White. Last updated on April 13, 2021.
Blog