Campaign Monitor: What It Is, Pricing and How to Use It (2026)

What is Campaign Monitor?

Campaign Monitor is an email marketing platform known for well-designed emails and an easy drag-and-drop builder. It is part of Marigold and is branded “Campaign Monitor by Marigold”. You design campaigns from templates or your own code, send them to segmented lists, and automate welcome series, drip campaigns and other journeys. It also sends transactional email, and in 2026 it added a website builder, landing pages and a set of AI content tools.

The problem it solves: producing professional, on-brand email without a designer on every send, while letting a team (or an agency serving many clients) work in one account. Every paid plan includes unlimited users with roles and permissions, which is rarer than it should be in this category.

In 2026 the product has moved quickly on AI. AI Email Booster and Segment Mapper arrived in January, AI-generated website templates in March, and in August Marketing Studio, which generates an on-brand email from your website URL and a campaign goal.

Who it is for

• Brands with a strong visual identity that want every email to look polished, using branded templates built from their website.
• Agencies that run email for several clients and need sub-accounts, shared templates and automations, and client billing in local currencies.
• Small and mid-sized marketing teams that want unlimited users and role-based permissions without paying per seat.
• Content publishers that send RSS-driven newsletters and drip series.

Who should not use it: very small businesses on a tight budget (Essentials at 2,500 contacts costs $74 a month, against $24 to $32 a month on Moosend Pro around that size); ecommerce stores whose priority is cart and browse automation, which Moosend and GetResponse build their plans around; and B2B teams that need lead scoring and a CRM (ActiveCampaign fits better).

Key features

• Drag-and-drop builder and templates. 100+ templates, custom coded templates, and branded templates imported from your website URL. Countdown timers, dynamic content and custom fields are supported, and Premier adds email section locking so teams cannot break key parts of a template.
• Automation and journeys. Automated emails and prebuilt journeys, Drip Campaigns in Basic and Advanced versions (July 2026), RSS feed triggers, time zone sending and, on Premier, send time optimization.
• AI tools. AI Writer for copy, AI Email Booster for one-click content and design suggestions in the builder, Segment Mapper for building segments from a plain-language description, subject line recommendations, and an AI Support Agent for help questions.
• Marketing Studio. Added in August 2026 and included from Essentials up: Email Workspace generates an on-brand email from your URL and goal, Creative Lab produces images, Brand Hub stores brand assets, plus Translation and a Social Suite for Instagram posts. Lite gets limited trial access.
• Growth tools. Unlimited signup forms, landing pages (May 2026), a Preference Center for subscribers, and a Website Builder (February 2026; $10/month add-on on Lite and Essentials, included in Premier).
• Reporting. Real-time analytics, Worldview reporting, Marketing Monitor benchmarks against peers, and Campaign Score for individual campaigns.
• Transactional email and integrations. Transactional emails (volume limited to your subscriber tier), 250+ integrations and API access.

Pricing

At the time of writing Campaign Monitor has a 30-day trial, three self-serve plans priced by contact count and a quoted Enterprise plan. Prices are US dollars per month on monthly billing, verified on campaignmonitor.com/pricing on 2026-10-12. Annual billing takes 10% off Lite, Essentials and Premier.

Contacts	Lite (monthly send cap)	Essentials	Premier
0-500	$13 (2,500 sends)	$31	$171
501-2,500	$47 (12,500)	$74	$182
2,501-5,000	$75 (25,000)	$117	$203
5,001-10,000	$117 (50,000)	$182	$300
10,001-15,000	$155 (75,000)	$268	$440
15,001-25,000	$241 (125,000)	$429	$547
25,001-50,000	$397 (250,000)	$644	$1,074
50,001+	Contact sales	Contact sales	Contact sales

What each plan includes:

Plan	Key limits and inclusions
Free trial	30 days, 500 contacts, 500 emails
Lite	Sends capped at 5x contacts per month; limited AI; automated emails limited to send volume; unlimited users, segmentation, A/B testing, forms, transactional email, API
Essentials	Unlimited sends, unlimited automated emails and AI features, inbox preview, Marketing Studio, priority support
Premier	Essentials plus phone support, advanced engagement segments, send time optimization, section locking, advanced link tracking, team template management, Website Builder included
Enterprise	Custom annual contract, account manager, multi-brand and multi-team management, deliverability monitoring, invoice billing

Points to keep in mind:

• Billing counts active subscribers across all lists, at send time and on the billing date. A subscriber on two lists counts twice; unsubscribed, bounced, unconfirmed and suppressed contacts do not count.
• Going over a tier triggers an upgrade, with an early-upgrade charge if you send before your billing date. On Lite, exceeding the send cap means a paid temporary waiver or an upgrade.
• Design and spam tests cost extra on Lite.
• Nonprofits can get 15% off through sales. The annual discount does not apply to agency or multi-team plans.

How to use Campaign Monitor: step-by-step

1. Start the trial and add your subscribers

1. Start the 30-day free trial at campaignmonitor.com. It covers up to 500 contacts and 500 emails, enough to test real campaigns on a small list.
2. Authenticate your sending domain before your first real send and use a sender address on a domain you own.
3. Create a list and import subscribers from a CSV or an integration. Keep to one main list and use segments rather than duplicate lists, because the same person on two lists is billed twice.
4. Invite teammates and set their roles; every paid plan includes unlimited users.

2. Build a branded template and signup form

1. Create a branded template by entering your website URL so Campaign Monitor imports your branding, or start from one of the 100+ templates.
2. Adjust it in the drag-and-drop builder and save it as your house template. On Premier, lock the sections (header, footer, legal text) that editors should not change.
3. Open the Signup Forms section and create a form for your site, and set up the Preference Center so subscribers can choose what they receive instead of unsubscribing.
4. For campaign pages that need heavy testing, pair Campaign Monitor with a builder such as Unbounce or Leadpages.

3. Create a welcome journey

1. Open automation and pick a prebuilt welcome journey, or create a Drip Campaign.
2. Set the trigger to a subscriber joining your list through your form, then add two to four emails with delays between them.
3. Turn on time zone sending so emails arrive at a sensible local hour, then activate the journey and test it with your own address.

4. Send and score your first campaign

1. Create a campaign from your branded template. Use AI Writer for a draft or Email Workspace in Marketing Studio to generate one from your URL and goal, then edit.
2. Choose recipients. Segment Mapper can build a segment from a description such as “subscribers who clicked in the last 90 days”.
3. Run AI Email Booster for suggestions, check inbox preview (Essentials and up), and send a test.
4. Set up an A/B test for the subject line, then send or schedule. Afterwards, review Campaign Score, real-time analytics and Worldview, and compare results with Marketing Monitor benchmarks.

Tips to get better results

• Pick Essentials unless your list is tiny and your sends rare. Lite’s 5x send cap and limited AI and automation make it a starter plan.
• Use one list plus segments. It keeps billing honest and reporting clean.
• Lean on branded templates. Building from your URL saves design time and keeps every send consistent.
• Watch the tier boundaries. At 5,001 contacts Essentials jumps from $117 to $182 a month; pruning inactive subscribers before the billing date can keep you in the lower tier.
• Treat AI output as a first draft. Give Marketing Studio a specific goal and offer, and edit for voice. Our guide on how to write better prompts helps with any AI writing tool.
• Keep personal data out of AI prompts. Campaign Monitor’s acceptable use policy prohibits entering personal data into its generative AI services.
• Use the Preference Center. Letting people reduce frequency keeps more of them subscribed than a single unsubscribe link.

Limitations and common problems

• Price at scale. Essentials and Premier climb quickly: Premier costs $300 a month at 10,000 contacts, and Essentials $644 at 50,000.
• Double counting. Contacts on several lists are billed several times. Consolidate lists before the billing date.
• Lite is restrictive. The send cap, limited AI and paid design and spam tests mean Lite suits only very small, infrequent senders.
• AI data handling is undisclosed. The pages we read do not say which AI models power the features, whether customer data trains them, or where data is hosted. Check the trust portal and ask for the DPA if this matters to you.
• Agency AI gaps. Campaign Monitor says some AI features may not be available on agency accounts.
• Small annual discount. 10% off annually is less than GetResponse (18%) or Moosend (20%) offer, so monthly billing costs you relatively little extra while you evaluate.

Alternatives

• Moosend - much cheaper email and automation with unlimited sends and behaviour tracking, capped at 5 users on Pro.
• GetResponse - email plus landing pages, webinars and courses, with a permanent free plan.
• ActiveCampaign - deeper automation and CRM for businesses whose sales depend on email.
• Kit - creator-focused email with a free plan and built-in digital product sales.

See every option in our marketing tools directory.

For prices at the same list size across eight platforms, see our guide to the best email marketing software.

Verdict

Sign up for Campaign Monitor if design quality, unlimited team access or agency client management matter to you, and plan on Essentials as the realistic tier. Use the 30-day trial to build a branded template, a welcome journey and one real campaign. Skip it if price is your main concern, if your list is growing fast into the tens of thousands, or if you run a store whose email programme is mainly abandoned cart and product-view automation.