If you are a marketing manager or ops lead at an Indian business, you have probably noticed that the email marketing landscape looks completely different in 2026 compared to even two years ago. Global tools have hiked prices. Indian platforms have matured. And WhatsApp integration has gone from “nice to have” to “we need this yesterday.”

This guide breaks down the best email marketing platforms available in India right now, with real pricing in INR, feature comparisons, and honest takes on where each tool shines (and where it falls short). No fluff, no affiliate rankings. Just what actually works for Indian businesses.

Why Indian Businesses Need a Different Email Marketing Stack

Most “best email marketing tools” listicles are written for US or European audiences. That creates a few problems for Indian teams:

• Pricing in USD hurts. With the rupee hovering around 86-87 to the dollar, a $50/month plan is over ₹4,300. Many global tools that seem affordable are actually expensive for Indian SMBs.
• WhatsApp is table stakes. In India, WhatsApp has 500M+ users. Your customers check WhatsApp before email. Platforms that combine both channels give you a serious edge.
• Deliverability to Indian inboxes matters. Sending infrastructure optimized for Gmail and Outlook is great, but Indian businesses also deal with corporate domains on Zoho Mail, Rediffmail, and local ISPs.
• GST billing and INR invoicing. Getting reimbursed for a tool that bills in USD with no GST invoice is a finance team nightmare.

With that context, let us look at the platforms worth your time.

1. CampaignHQ

Best for: Indian businesses that want email + WhatsApp in one platform without enterprise pricing.

CampaignHQ is built specifically for the Indian market, though it works globally. It combines email marketing, WhatsApp Business API messaging, and automation workflows in a single dashboard. The pricing model is straightforward: you pay based on email volume, not contacts, which makes it significantly cheaper if you have a large list but send targeted campaigns.

Key features:

• Email campaigns with drag-and-drop builder and HTML editor
• WhatsApp Business API integration (broadcast, templates, two-way chat)
• Marketing automation workflows across email and WhatsApp
• AWS SES integration for ultra-low sending costs
• Contact segmentation with behavioral triggers
• INR pricing with GST invoices

Pricing: Starts at ₹1,500/month for up to 50,000 emails. WhatsApp messaging billed per conversation as per Meta’s rates. No per-contact charges.

Where it stands out: The AWS SES integration means you can send emails at roughly ₹0.07 per email instead of the ₹0.50-1.00 that most platforms charge. For high-volume senders doing 100K+ emails per month, the savings are massive.

Limitations: Smaller template library compared to Mailchimp. The platform is newer, so the ecosystem of third-party integrations is still growing.

2. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

Best for: Small businesses wanting a free plan with decent limits.

Brevo rebranded from Sendinblue in 2023 and has become one of the more popular choices for Indian startups and small businesses. The free plan gives you 300 emails per day (about 9,000/month), which is generous enough for early-stage companies.

Key features:

• Email, SMS, and WhatsApp campaigns
• Marketing automation with visual workflow builder
• Built-in CRM
• Transactional email API
• Landing page builder (paid plans)

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at roughly ₹1,575/month (€18) for 20,000 emails. Billed in EUR, so the actual INR amount fluctuates.

Where it stands out: The free plan is genuinely useful, not just a trial. And the combination of marketing + transactional emails in one platform saves you from managing multiple tools.

Limitations: The free plan includes Brevo branding on emails. Customer support on lower tiers is email-only with slow response times. No INR billing or GST invoices unless you go through a local reseller.

3. Zoho Campaigns

Best for: Teams already in the Zoho ecosystem.

If your company uses Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk, or Zoho One, then Zoho Campaigns is the obvious choice. The integration is seamless, and since Zoho is an Indian company, you get INR pricing and proper GST invoices.

Key features:

• Deep Zoho CRM integration with contact sync
• A/B testing for subject lines and content
• Autoresponders and workflow automation
• Subscriber management with merge tags
• Ecommerce integrations (Shopify, WooCommerce)

Pricing: Free plan for up to 6,000 emails/month to 2,000 contacts. Paid plans start at ₹225/month for 500 contacts. Pricing scales with contact count.

Where it stands out: If you are running Zoho CRM, the bi-directional sync means your sales and marketing teams see the same data without any manual imports. The pricing is also very competitive for small lists.

Limitations: The email builder feels dated compared to newer tools. Automation workflows are basic compared to platforms like ActiveCampaign. No WhatsApp integration within Campaigns (you need Zoho’s separate tools for that).

4. Mailchimp

Best for: Solopreneurs and very small businesses who want simplicity.

Mailchimp is the most recognized name in email marketing globally. It works fine for Indian businesses, but the pricing has gone up significantly since the Intuit acquisition. The free plan now caps at 500 contacts and 1,000 sends per month, which is barely enough for testing.

Key features:

• Intuitive drag-and-drop email builder
• Huge template library and integrations marketplace
• Customer journey builder
• AI-powered content suggestions
• Built-in analytics and reporting

Pricing: Free plan for 500 contacts. Standard plan starts at $13.99/month (roughly ₹1,200) for 500 contacts. Gets expensive quickly as your list grows: 10,000 contacts costs about $100/month (₹8,600).

Where it stands out: The template ecosystem is unmatched. If you want beautiful emails with minimal design effort, Mailchimp still leads. The integrations library is also the largest of any email platform.

Limitations: Pricing escalates fast once you grow past a few thousand contacts. No WhatsApp integration. USD billing only, and no GST invoices for Indian businesses. The free plan has become almost unusable for real marketing.

5. Mailmodo

Best for: Teams that want interactive AMP emails without coding.

Mailmodo is an Indian email marketing platform that has carved out a niche with AMP email support. AMP emails let recipients fill forms, take surveys, book appointments, and even browse product catalogs directly inside the email without clicking through to a website.

Key features:

• AMP email builder (no-code, interactive emails)
• Regular HTML email campaigns
• Journey builder for automated sequences
• AI subject line generator
• E-commerce integrations with Shopify

Pricing: Starts at roughly ₹6,500/month for 2,500 contacts. Pricing is contact-based, and the per-contact cost is higher than most competitors because of the AMP capability.

Where it stands out: If you have use cases where in-email interactivity would boost conversions (think: surveys, NPS scores, product recommendations, booking forms), Mailmodo is genuinely unique. The AMP emails can improve click-through rates by 2-3x in the right scenarios.

Limitations: AMP email support depends on the recipient’s email client. It works in Gmail but not in Apple Mail or Outlook. So you are building two versions of every campaign: AMP for Gmail users and fallback HTML for everyone else. The pricing is also steep for what you get if you are not using AMP features.

6. WebEngage

Best for: Mid-size to enterprise companies wanting a full customer engagement platform.

WebEngage is an Indian marketing automation platform used by brands like Myntra, Unacademy, and FirstCry. It goes well beyond email into push notifications, in-app messaging, SMS, WhatsApp, and web personalization.

Key features:

• Omnichannel campaigns (email, SMS, WhatsApp, push, in-app, web overlays)
• Journey designer with branching logic
• Advanced segmentation with real-time user profiles
• Product analytics and funnel tracking
• Dedicated customer success manager

Pricing: Custom pricing only. Typically starts at ₹50,000-75,000/month for small implementations. Enterprise deals can run into lakhs per month.

Where it stands out: If you need a platform that handles every customer touchpoint and you have the budget, WebEngage is one of the best Indian options. The journey designer is powerful, and the real-time segmentation is genuinely useful for advanced segmentation strategies.

Limitations: The price point puts it out of reach for small businesses and most startups. Implementation takes weeks, not hours. Overkill if you primarily need email marketing.

7. Amazon SES (with a front-end like CampaignHQ)

Best for: High-volume senders who want the lowest possible per-email cost.

Amazon SES is not a marketing platform by itself. It is raw email sending infrastructure. But paired with a front-end like CampaignHQ, it becomes possibly the most cost-effective email marketing setup available in India.

Key features (SES + CampaignHQ):

• Email sending at $0.10 per 1,000 emails (roughly ₹0.07 per email)
• Full campaign management, templates, and automation via CampaignHQ
• Dedicated IPs available for reputation management
• 99.9% uptime SLA from AWS
• Scalable to millions of emails per day

Pricing: SES costs $0.10/1,000 emails. CampaignHQ adds its platform fee starting at ₹1,500/month. Combined cost for 100,000 emails: roughly ₹2,360 total. Compare that to Mailchimp at ₹8,600+ for the same volume.

Where it stands out: Pure economics. If you send 500K+ emails per month, the cost difference between SES and traditional platforms is dramatic. You could save ₹50,000-1,00,000 per month on a large list.

Limitations: SES alone is just an API. You need a front-end tool for list management, templates, and reporting. Initial setup requires some technical knowledge (DNS records, domain verification). Not ideal for teams without any technical resources.

8. CleverTap

Best for: Mobile-first businesses (apps, fintech, food delivery).

CleverTap is another Indian martech platform that competes with WebEngage. It is particularly strong for businesses with mobile apps, offering deep analytics, push notifications, and in-app messaging alongside email.

Key features:

• Omnichannel messaging (email, push, SMS, WhatsApp, in-app)
• Real-time user segmentation with RFM analysis
• Product analytics and cohort tracking
• AI-powered optimization (Clever.AI)
• Webhooks and custom integrations

Pricing: Custom pricing. The Essentials plan starts around ₹40,000-50,000/month for up to 5,000 MAUs. Enterprise plans are significantly higher.

Where it stands out: The mobile analytics capabilities are best-in-class among Indian platforms. If your business is app-driven and you want a single tool for both analytics and engagement, CleverTap is worth evaluating.

Limitations: Like WebEngage, it is expensive for small businesses. The platform has a steep learning curve. If you only need email marketing, you are paying for a lot of features you will not use.

Quick Comparison Table

How to Choose the Right Platform for Your Business

Instead of getting lost in feature comparisons, ask yourself these four questions:

What is your monthly email volume?

If you send fewer than 10,000 emails per month, almost any platform works. The free tiers from Brevo or Zoho Campaigns are fine. But once you cross 50,000 or 100,000 emails per month, pricing differences become massive. At 100K emails, Mailchimp costs roughly ₹8,600 while CampaignHQ with SES costs about ₹2,360. That is a ₹75,000+ annual difference.

Do you need WhatsApp integration?

If your customers are in India and you are doing any kind of multichannel marketing, WhatsApp is not optional. Platforms like CampaignHQ, Brevo, and WebEngage offer it natively. With Mailchimp or Zoho Campaigns, you will need a separate WhatsApp tool, which means managing two platforms and two billing relationships.

How technical is your team?

If you have developers who can handle API integrations and DNS configuration, the SES + CampaignHQ route gives you the best economics. If your marketing team is non-technical and wants to be self-sufficient, Mailchimp or Brevo offer the most plug-and-play experience.

What is your actual budget in INR?

Be honest about this. Factor in the exchange rate fluctuation risk if you are paying in USD or EUR. A tool that costs $50 today could cost $55 next quarter. Indian-billed platforms like CampaignHQ, Zoho, Mailmodo, and WebEngage remove that uncertainty.

Common Mistakes Indian Businesses Make When Choosing Email Platforms

After working with hundreds of Indian marketing teams, here are the patterns that keep repeating:

1. Choosing based on brand name alone. Mailchimp is famous, but fame does not equal fit. A D2C brand sending 200K emails per month will save lakhs annually by switching to a volume-based pricing model.

2. Ignoring WhatsApp until it is too late. Many teams set up email on one platform, then realize they need WhatsApp and add a second tool. Now they are managing two dashboards, two contact lists, and two billing cycles. Starting with a platform that handles both from day one saves you a painful migration later.

3. Not testing deliverability. Sign up for the free plan or trial. Send test campaigns to Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and a few corporate domains. Check spam rates. A tool with great features but poor inbox placement is worse than a basic tool with excellent deliverability.

4. Overlooking per-contact vs per-email pricing. This is the single biggest pricing trap. If you have 50,000 contacts but only email 10,000 of them per month, a per-contact plan charges you for all 50,000. A per-email plan charges you only for what you send. For businesses with large but partially active lists, this difference is significant.

5. Forgetting about GST compliance. Your finance team will thank you if the tool issues proper GST invoices. International tools that bill via Stripe or Paddle typically do not provide Indian tax documentation, which creates quarterly headaches.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which email marketing platform is cheapest for Indian businesses?

For low volumes (under 10K emails/month), Brevo and Zoho Campaigns offer usable free plans. For high volumes, the CampaignHQ + AWS SES combination is hard to beat. At 100,000 emails per month, you are looking at roughly ₹2,360 total, which works out to less than ₹0.03 per email. Most other platforms charge 5-10x that rate at similar volumes.

Can I use WhatsApp and email marketing from the same platform in India?

Yes. CampaignHQ, Brevo, WebEngage, and CleverTap all support both email and WhatsApp Business API campaigns from a single dashboard. This matters because running separate tools for each channel creates data silos and makes it harder to build cohesive customer journeys. If multichannel is important to you, choose a platform that handles both natively rather than bolting on integrations later.

Is Mailchimp still worth using in India in 2026?

It depends on your situation. For solopreneurs with small lists (under 2,000 contacts), Mailchimp is still a solid choice because of its ease of use and template library. But for growing businesses, the per-contact pricing model gets expensive fast. A 25,000-contact list on Mailchimp costs roughly ₹15,000-18,000/month, and that is before you add WhatsApp (which Mailchimp does not support). Indian alternatives offer better value at that scale.

What is the difference between per-contact and per-email pricing?

Per-contact pricing charges you based on how many subscribers are in your list, regardless of how many emails you send. Per-email pricing charges based on actual emails sent. If you have 50,000 contacts but only email 15,000 of them monthly, per-email pricing could save you 60-70%. CampaignHQ and Amazon SES use per-email pricing. Mailchimp, Zoho Campaigns, and Mailmodo use per-contact pricing.

How do I migrate from one email marketing platform to another?

The basic process is: export your contact list as a CSV, import it into the new platform, re-create your email templates and automation workflows, update your DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for the new sending domain, and run a warm-up period where you gradually increase sending volume. Most platforms offer migration assistance. The whole process typically takes 1-2 weeks for a straightforward setup, or 4-6 weeks if you have complex automations. Start by running both platforms in parallel before fully cutting over.