Email Marketing Tools Ranked by Deliverability Rates

Your email campaigns mean nothing if they never reach the inbox. According to recent testing, 17% of all marketing emails fail to reach their intended recipients. That's money wasted and customers lost. The tool you choose matters more than you think.

What Deliverability Rates Actually Mean

Deliverability measures how many emails land in the inbox. It's different from delivery. Delivery just means the server accepted your email. Deliverability tells you if people can see it.

Testing across 15 major platforms showed an average deliverability rate of 83%. That means one in six emails gets filtered to spam or blocked. Your platform choice directly affects this number.

Top Performers Based on Recent Testing

Independent testing from January 2024 revealed clear winners. ActiveCampaign led the pack with a 94.2% deliverability rate. This means 94 out of 100 emails reached the primary inbox.

Constant Contact came second at 91.7%. GetResponse followed with 90.9%. These tools consistently outperform their competitors in getting messages to subscribers.

Other solid performers include:

• Moosend at 90.1%
• CleverReach at 90.0%
• Aweber at 83.1%

Some platforms struggled. Benchmark scored just 47.1%. That's less than half your emails reaching the inbox. The gap between best and worst is massive.

Why These Differences Exist

Your sending infrastructure matters. Top platforms invest heavily in server reputation and authentication protocols. They implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication properly.

List quality plays a role too. Platforms that enforce good list hygiene see better results. They help you remove inactive addresses and avoid spam traps.

Email providers like Gmail and Microsoft apply strict filters. Recent data shows Microsoft uses the toughest screening. Office 365 deliverability dropped 26.73% in early 2025 compared to the previous year. Your platform needs strong relationships with these providers.

Recent Changes Affecting Deliverability

Gmail and Yahoo implemented stricter requirements in 2024. Senders must now use DMARC authentication if they send over 5,000 emails daily. Spam complaint rates must stay below 0.3%.

These changes hit some platforms hard. Recent reports show Mailgun saw deliverability drop 27.5% in Q1 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. MailChimp fell 19.63%. Amazon SES dropped 14.60%.

Platforms that adapted quickly maintained better rates. Those slow to implement new authentication standards suffered.

What Affects Your Personal Rate

Your platform choice is just the starting point. Several factors influence your actual results.

Send volume matters. Data shows senders pushing over one million emails monthly saw rates drop from 50% to 27.63% in early 2025. Mid-volume senders (200,000 to one million monthly) actually improved to 60.96%.

Your content triggers filters too. Avoid spam words. Keep your HTML clean. Test before sending.

Engagement drives everything. High open and click rates signal to providers that people want your emails. Low engagement marks you as spam.

Features That Improve Performance

Look for these tools in your platform:

• Built-in authentication setup for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
• Automatic list cleaning and bounce suppression
• Sender reputation monitoring
• One-click unsubscribe options
• IP warm-up guidance for new accounts
• Real-time deliverability reports

Platforms like ActiveCampaign and Constant Contact include all these features. Budget options may skip critical tools.

Provider-Specific Performance

Different email providers treat platforms differently. Testing shows variation across Gmail, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

Gmail tends to sort promotional emails into tabs. Setting up DMARC properly reduces this filtering. Microsoft applies the strictest rules overall.

Yahoo showed more consistency across platforms. Your subscriber base composition affects which platform works best for you.

Key Takeaways

• Platform choice directly impacts deliverability. Choose tools scoring above 90%.
• ActiveCampaign (94.2%) and Constant Contact (91.7%) lead current testing results.
• Avoid platforms scoring below 75%. You're wasting money on undelivered messages.
• Implement full authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) regardless of platform.
• Clean your list regularly. Remove inactive subscribers every 3-6 months.
• Monitor your complaint rate. Stay well below the 0.3% threshold.
• Test send times and content. Small changes can boost inbox placement.
• Track your actual rate. Platform averages don't guarantee your results.

Making the Right Choice

Deliverability matters more than features you won't use. A platform with 95% deliverability beats one with 70% deliverability, even if the second offers more templates.

Start with proven performers. ActiveCampaign works for advanced users. Constant Contact serves beginners well. Both deliver strong inbox placement.

Test before committing. Most platforms offer free trials. Send test campaigns to your actual list. Check where messages land. The data will guide your decision better than any review.