Campaign Monitor by Marigold
Campaign Monitor by Marigold is an email marketing platform focused on ease of visual campaign design and list segmentation, with a long track record in the industry following its integration into Marigold, though with prices that have risen notably in recent years.
May contain affiliate linksA simple, pleasant campaign editor, but Marigold's pricing repositioning has moved it away from being the budget option it once was: it's worth comparing the real cost per contact against Moosend or Brevo before deciding.
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Campaign Monitor is one of the most veteran names in email marketing, now integrated into the Marigold group. This review combines public pricing and feature documentation with verified user reviews and independent analysis of its 2025 pricing repositioning.
What Campaign Monitor by Marigold is and who it’s for
Campaign Monitor is an email marketing platform focused on visual campaign design, audience segmentation and basic customer journey automation (welcome, birthday, re-engagement). Following its integration into Marigold — the group that also includes tools like Cheetah Digital or Sailthru — the brand began being marketed as “Campaign Monitor by Marigold,” keeping its product identity but within a broader relationship-marketing portfolio.
It competes in the same segment as Moosend, Brevo, Mailchimp or Constant Contact: marketing teams that need to send good-looking newsletters and campaigns without relying on a technical team.
What it’s like to use day to day
Campaign Monitor’s campaign editor follows the usual pattern of dragging and dropping blocks onto a template, with a selection of designs that reviews consistently describe as “professional-looking” and easy to customize with the business’s brand. Audience segmentation lets you build dynamic lists based on behavior and demographic data, and journey automations cover the most common scenarios without needing complex configuration.
Several reviews point to limitations in template flexibility for highly custom designs, an area where newer tools offer more editing freedom.
The fine print: the 2025 price increase
The most relevant aspect for anyone evaluating Campaign Monitor today is its pricing structure, which changed notably after the 2025 brand repositioning: several independent software comparison sources agree that prices rose significantly across all tiers. The exact figures vary somewhat depending on the source — the entry plan (Lite) sits between $11 and $13/month, the mid tier (Essentials) between $19 and $31/month, and the top tier (Premier) between $149 and $171/month — but the direction of the change is the same everywhere: Campaign Monitor is no longer the cheapest option in its category, as it once was in the past. There’s no permanent free plan, only a testing environment (“sandbox”) limited to 5 subscribers, meant for evaluating the editor before signing up.
An independent analysis published by Audienceful in 2026 pins these figures down further for a list of 500 contacts: Lite starts at $13/month (with a monthly send cap), Essentials at around $30/month (unlimited sends) and Premier at $171/month. The real problem, according to that same analysis, isn’t so much the entry price as the scaling curve: the Essentials plan, which is the one that covers most businesses’ actual needs (unlimited sends, automation), rises to around $162/month at 10,000 contacts and around $577/month at 50,000 contacts, a notably steeper rate of increase than direct competitors at equivalent list sizes. Beyond 50,000 subscribers, Campaign Monitor stops publishing prices openly and redirects to a consultative sales process, making it harder to compare the real cost for large lists without first talking to the sales team.
User reviews
Reviews available on platforms like G2, Capterra and GetApp consistently highlight the editor’s ease of use and the visual quality of the templates as the most repeated strengths, along with audience segmentation that covers most common use cases well. The most recurring criticisms point to a lack of design flexibility for templates compared with newer competitors and, especially since 2025, to the product becoming more expensive relative to similarly or lower priced alternatives.
Who it makes sense for
If your priority is a comfortable campaign editor and polished-looking templates, and you’re not extremely sensitive to cost per contact, Campaign Monitor still does its job well within the Marigold ecosystem. If price is the main decision criterion, it’s worth comparing closely against Moosend or Brevo, which tend to come out better positioned in cost-per-contact comparisons after the 2025 increase.
How it compares with the alternatives
| Campaign Monitor by Marigold | Moosend | Brevo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | Templates and visual editor | Price/feature ratio for automation | Cheap multichannel (email + SMS) |
| Free plan | No (only a 5-subscriber sandbox) | No (30-day trial) | Yes, 300 emails/day |
| Entry price | ~$11-13/month | ~$9/month | Free / from $9/month |
| Best for | Brands that prioritize visual design | SMBs starting out with automation | Businesses that need affordable multichannel |
Frequently asked questions
Does Campaign Monitor by Marigold have a free plan? Not on a permanent basis: it offers a testing sandbox limited to 5 subscribers and a free trial of the full product, but not a free plan for operating indefinitely.
Why has the price risen so much? It coincides with the brand’s repositioning as “Campaign Monitor by Marigold” in 2025; several software comparison sources document significant price increases at that point versus the product’s earlier stage.
Is it a good option if I’m coming from Mailchimp? It can be, especially if you particularly value the visual editor and templates, but it’s worth comparing the final cost by list size, since it isn’t always cheaper than the competition after the price increase.
Affiliate disclosure
Product Auditors participates in Campaign Monitor by Marigold’s affiliate program through the Partnerize network. If you sign up for a paid plan through the links on this page, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This business relationship has not influenced the editorial rating, which reflects both the product’s features and the price increase documented by independent sources.
Methodology for this review
This analysis is based on public product documentation (official site and pricing table), verified user reviews on G2, Capterra and GetApp, and independent third-party analysis of pricing changes following the 2025 repositioning, checked in September 2026. It does not replace our own extensive testing with a long-term active account. You can read more in our editorial methodology.
- Marketing teams that prioritize a visual campaign editor and professional-looking templates
- Businesses already using other Marigold tools (formerly Cheetah Digital/Sailthru) that want to keep the ecosystem
- Companies with mid-sized lists that aren't extremely sensitive to cost per contact
- Very price-sensitive businesses looking for the lowest possible cost per contact
- Anyone who needs a permanent free plan to operate on a zero budget
- Teams that need very advanced multichannel automation features (SMS, WhatsApp) within the same plan
Visual drag-and-drop editor with pre-built templates, brand customization and multi-device preview.
Dynamic segments based on behavior, demographic data and past campaign activity.
Automated welcome, birthday, re-engagement and ecommerce cart-abandonment flows.
Subject line and content A/B testing available from paid plans to optimize open and click rates.
Campaign performance dashboards with open, click and bounce metrics and industry benchmarks.
Limitation: More advanced reporting and predictive analytics are reserved for higher plans.
There's no permanent free plan, only a testing sandbox for 5 subscribers. Paid plans start at an entry tier (Lite) of between $11 and $13/month depending on the source, move through a mid tier (Essentials) of between $19 and $31/month, and reach a Premier plan of between $149 and $171/month; the final price depends on the number of contacts and has risen since the 2025 brand repositioning. Annual billing adds up to a 25% discount.
Subscription by number of contacts and plan (Lite, Essentials, Premier), with a discount for annual billing.
- Free plan: No
- Free trial: Yes
Price checked on September 12, 2026. Prices can change: check the current price with the provider.
- Clean, easy-to-learn drag-and-drop campaign editor
- Good selection of professional-looking, ready-to-use templates
- Audience segmentation and A/B testing available from accessible plans
- Annual billing with up to 25% discount versus monthly payment
- Backed by Marigold, a group with a long track record in relationship marketing and CRM
- No permanent free plan, only a sandbox limited to 5 subscribers for testing
- Prices rose notably after the 2025 brand repositioning, according to several independent sources
- The price jump between the entry plan and the Premier plan is very steep
- Price scales quickly as the contact list grows, a common pattern in the industry but more pronounced here after the increase
See our editorial methodology.
- Ease of use8 / 10
- Features and automation7 / 10
- Price and value for money5.5 / 10
- Trust and brand track record7.5 / 10