5 Best Bronto Alternatives In 2024 For eCommerce Stores

Are you on the hunt to find one of the best Bronto alternatives?

If you aren’t, you definitely should…

Because as of 31st May 2021, Oracle Netsuite has declared the “end of life” status for Bronto. In simple terms, it means that Bronto will no longer provide email marketing services or support to its clients.

Hopefully, being a Bronto customer, you should have received this notice via an email.

Nevertheless, by this time, you should have explored and moved on to an active and better Bronto alternative.

Now that there’s no time to waste and there are plenty of alternatives to explore, I am going to help you find the best software quickly.

For this, I am narrowing down the list of alternatives for you. Here’s an…

Overview Of Top Bronto Alternatives

Before we start exploring them in detail, allow me to briefly shed some light on some basic stuff, such as…

What Is Bronto?

Bronto was a marketing platform that specialized in email marketing. In addition to this, it has also provided other omnichannel marketing features as well to boost your email marketing performance.

It included social media and SMS marketing. And, it was the “go-to” software for all the mid-tier and enterprise-level businesses.

Besides this, if we talk about its origin, it was founded way back in 2002. And since then it was offering exceptional email marketing services to all kinds of businesses.

However, it was primarily known for being eCommerce business-friendly.

The years went by and in April 2015, NetSuite acquired Bronto, and the year after that, Oracle acquired NetSuite.

So after 2016, it was officially known as the Oracle NetSuite Bronto marketing platform.

Why Is Bronto Shutting Down?

Since Bronto was already in business for almost two decades now, the software had catered to a huge user base already.

Over the years, technology improved and so did the marketing practices.

Unfortunately, the software never saw any significant improvements in its technology & features. And, after a certain period of time, its users started to feel that Bronto has become obsolete and couldn’t keep up.

The team at Oracle NetSuite also felt this and in March 2021, they formally announced the “end of line” status for its users.

Just to give you an idea, here’s an excerpt of the official email from the Oracle NetSuite Bronto team –

“This notice is to inform your company that the Bronto Marketing Platform has been assigned End of Life status and the last date of service will be May 31, 2022. The Bronto service and any related ACS or Professional Services you may have ordered will be supported until the end of the last date of service. You will be able to continue to use the Bronto service until the end of the last date of service and if you choose, you may renew your services until our last date of service, May 31, 2022.”

So as of now, Bronto does not offer any kind of email marketing or other omnichannel marketing services.

Apart from this, there are several other reasons behind the downfall of Bronto –

• It did not offer any kind of free plan or free trial to its users. Believe it or not, it is very important to test the features while choosing new software.
• Bronto was also notoriously famous for taking a lot of time to integrate with your eCommerce store or website.
• Also, in order to use Bronto, you’d have to sign up for its paid plans with 2-3 years of commitment. For this, you’d have to pay thousands of dollars.

And, the list goes on…

Now, you are left with no other choice but to look for Bronto alternatives. But wait..!!

You can’t simply go out on the web and pick a random tool. There’s a checklist of features and characteristics that you must follow.

Characteristics Of An Ideal Bronto Alternative

Before you look for all the software, you should check if the tool has any software roadmap. If it has an extensive roadmap planned out, you should be assured to know that the software will be active for years to come.

After this, here’s a checklist of things that you should keep in mind while looking for your Bronto alternative –

1. Simple To Use – An ideal alternative should be easy to use, unlike Bronto. To start things off, there should be a sleek onboarding process. After this, you should be able to use its features without any learning curves.

2. Mobile Responsive Email Templates – It is absolutely a basic feature to allow you to create email templates. But an ideal alternative should automatically make your templates mobile responsive. It will help you save a lot of time and from diving into coding.

3. Contact Segmentation – To reap maximum benefit from your email marketing campaigns, the chosen software must allow you to segment your email lists on diverse factors.

4. Marketing Automation – The application should also offer you a means to automate your email marketing campaigns. This is very easily achieved with the help of the marketing automation feature. So it is one of the core features that an ideal Bronto alternative must-have.

5. Easy Integration – Unlike Bronto, the software must be easily integrable with your eCommerce store, website, or any other third-party software. This way, you’d get to amplify your marketing performance.

6. Affordable Plans – Last but not least, the software must offer a generous free plan or free trial. The free trial/plan would allow you to test out each of its features thoroughly. And, once you are satisfied, you can upgrade to its premium plans. Speaking of which, the subscription plans should be affordable and grants you the power to opt-out whenever you want.

Based on these crucial factors, I have devised a list of best Bronto alternatives.

Now is the perfect time for you to explore each of them in detail…

1. Omnisend

Out of all the current eCommerce email marketing services, Omnisend for me is the best software. And naturally, it qualifies to be one of the top Bronto alternatives for me.

Omnisend has been in the business for more than 7 years now. It started as a simple email marketing service in 2014 by the name of Soundest. Over the course of the next three years, it transformed into Omnisend and specialized in eCommerce email marketing campaigns. A year after this, Omnisend also employed SMS marketing features, hence allowing you to carry out omnichannel marketing campaigns.

After attaining such high efficiency and feature set, Omnisend came into the top 5 marketing automation tools for Shopify. And yes, it offers an extensive guide and tool to easily migrate your Bronto account into Omnisend.

Features That Make Omnisend The Best Bronto Alternative

• Simple To Use & Easy To Setup – Unlike Bronto, Omnisend is very simple to get started with. The team at Omnisend offers you extensive webinars for the onboarding process so that you quickly get a hang of the software.
• Mobile Responsive Templates – The software is also known for creating mobile-responsive email templates with its drag & drop email builder. Not to forget, it comes with tons of readymade email templates as well.
• Detailed Marketing Automation – Omnisend provides you the ability to automate your marketing efforts with the help of the marketing automation feature. You also have the flexibility to either create new automation from scratch or use the pre-built workflows.
• Gamified Email Capture – In comparison with Bronto or any of its alternatives, Omnisend is better when it comes to growing email lists. It offers a unique feature that allows you to gamify the lead generation process. Next, it offers a landing page builder which Bronto doesn’t. And, it also allows you to capture leads via pop-ups as well.
• Customer Segmentation – After importing your contact lists, Omnisend allows you to segment them on different factors such as geographic location, gender, etc. Also, once you have sent enough campaigns to your customers, Omnisend also permits you to segment them on the basis of their actions and behaviors.
• Omnichannel Marketing – Apart from conventional email marketing, the software allows you to conduct SMS marketing as well. In addition to this, Omnisend is also capable of providing other marketing features such as web push notifications, social media ads, Google retargeting, etc. If you didn’t know, Bronto lacked when it comes to offering omnichannel marketing.
• Multiple Integrations – Not only does Omnisend is easier to integrate than Bronto but it offers several integration options. For starters, it can be easily integrated with all the eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, etc. Next, it can also connect with various other tools such as surveys, quizzes, shippings, etc.

Pricing Of Omnisend

When it comes to pricing, Omnisend is way cheaper and flexible than Bronto. For starters, unlike Bronto, it offers a forever free plan that allows you to send 500 emails/month to 250 contacts. It also now offers a complete set of features in the free plan.

Additionally, you will now have access to all the amenities like email marketing, sign-up forms, segmentation, workflows, marketing automation, push notifications, reports, etc. in all the plans. But if you require higher emailing volume, you can subscribe to its premium plans at any time.

There are monthly and yearly subscription billing options. But before you pick the plan, you should know that the pricing is built on the total number of contacts imported/captured.

Just to give you an idea, here’s the pricing breakdown for 500 contacts –

• Free – A forever free plan to send 500 emails to 250 contacts along with 60 international SMS, and 500 web push notifications. All the Omnisend features are also available in this plan.
• Standard (Email) – This plan starts at $16/month and will offer you the emailing volume of 12 times your list size, for example 6,000 emails/month to 500 contacts. Additionally, you also get to send 60 international SMSs and unlimited web push notifications.
• Pro (Email & SMS) – Next, the Pro plan starts at $59/month for 500 contacts and with this, you get to send unlimited emails. You will also have the liberty to send 3,540 international SMS and unlimited web push notifications. Advanced reporting is also unlocked in this plan.

Lastly, to increase your SMS sending limits, you can purchase SMS credits separately.

2. Drip

Moving forward, we come to Drip. It is one of the most sophisticated marketing software to exist, especially for eCommerce businesses. The team at Drip calls it an eCommerce revenue engine since it significantly improves your engagement and conversion rate. Therefore, it would be logical to consider Drip as one of the best Bronto alternatives.

The software was developed and launched in 2013. Since then it is serving more than 27,000+ high-end customers from around the world. Some of its most notable customers include Polaris, Craft, Spice House, etc.

If you would notice, you’d see that the major segment of its clientele includes eCommerce businesses. So after seeing this trend, Drip quickly established itself as a top ECRM or eCommerce CRM software. It currently connects with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, etc.

Features That Make Drip The Best Bronto Alternative

• Visual Builder – Whether you are looking to create email templates or workflows, Drip allows you to create them with the help of its drag & drop builder. At the same time, it also offers readymade templates for emails and workflows to save your time. And, both of these can be edited according to your needs.
• Behavior-based Automation – The prime goal of Drip is to automate all of your marketing efforts. To be able to achieve this, it allows you to create behavior-based automation workflows. These workflows use the “if this then that” type of conditions to trigger your emails or SMSs.
• Segmentation Capabilities – After importing your contacts from Bronto, Drip allows you to segment your email list on different criteria. The software enables you to also add relevant tags to your customers while this is not possible in Bronto. Speaking broadly, Drip offers better segmentation capabilities to distill down your email list for a specific email marketing campaign.
• Multiple Modes Of Marketing – Just like Bronto, Drip is also capable of carrying out email, SMS, as well as social media marketing from one dashboard. Moreover, you can combine all of your marketing campaigns to yield better engagement and conversions.
• Ease Of Implementation – Hands-down Drip is easier to set up and use than Bronto. It comes with tons of tutorials, documentation, and has prompt support by the customer success team for a one-on-one consultation.

Pricing Of Drip

Drip takes a step further and impresses us when it comes to pricing. But before this, it offers a whopping 14 days free trial period. The free trial allows you to send 500 emails to the list size of 1,500 subscribers.

Here it gets interesting, besides SMS & MMS marketing, Drip grants complete access to its software. In simple terms, you’d be able to use all of its basic as well as advanced features.

Once the trial period ends, you’d have to subscribe to its monthly subscription plans. Again, you will have full access and will be able to send unlimited email campaigns. You will be only charged for the number of contacts imported or acquired.

Here’s a brief breakdown of its pricing plans –

• 500 contacts – $19/month
• 1,000 contacts – $29/month
• 2,500 contacts – $39/month
• 5,000 contacts – $69/month
• 7,500 contacts – $124/month
• 10,000 contacts – $154/month

And, the list goes on… 

3. Klaviyo

If we are talking about email marketing for eCommerce businesses, we simply cannot miss out on Klaviyo. It is one of the most used eCommerce email marketing software and hence it is logical to also term it as one of the top alternatives to Bronto.

To have an idea about its popularity, you should know that it currently caters to 265,000+ businesses of all sizes. Some of its notable clients include Huckberry, Custom Ink, Chubbies, etc. Klaviyo has helped all of its clients to build, scale, and ultimately grow their brand with the help of its features.

Speaking of which, you should also know that it offers a wide array of integration with all the leading eCommerce platforms. It includes Shopify, Shopify Pro, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento, etc. If you have a custom store, you can also integrate it with the help of Klaviyo API.

Features That Make Klaviyo The Best Bronto Alternative

• WYSIWYG Email Editor – All the emails created in Klaviyo are supported by a drag & drop email editor. Additionally, there are plenty of readymade email templates as well. You simply have to pick the required email element and drag & drop it in the builder area.
• Pre-built Autoresponders – Klaviyo is advanced enough to allow you to send autoresponder emails. The emails are triggered on the basis of different actions performed by your contacts such as sign up, placed an order, made a payment, etc. The prompt response from you in the form of an autoresponder email ensures that you leave a good impression.
• Omnichannel Advertising – While Bronto only allowed basic email and social media marketing, Klaviyo takes a step further by allowing you to conduct email, SMS, as well as social media marketing. The best part about this is that you can combine all the three channels in Klaviyo for maximum impact.
• ROI-based Reporting – Klaviyo, provide you with a basic reporting module that tells you about your email campaigns performance such as open, clicks, unsubscribes, etc. But it also provides insights on sales from your email marketing campaigns. This feature is only available in a few other Bronto alternatives software.
• Data Science & Segmentation – This alternative to Bronto is also capable of leveraging data science to predict important metrics for you such as next payment date, future spending, probable churn rate, etc. This feature isn’t available in Bronto. Additionally, Klaviyo can also segment your contacts on different criteria.
• Dedicated Onboarding Assistance – Unlike Bronto where it didn’t offer any onboarding or transition partner, Klaviyo offers it all. Not only your migration from Bronto would be smooth but the team at Klaviyo teaches you how to manage your account. For this, the team often conducts webinars and also has extensive training videos.

Pricing Of Klaviyo

If we compare the pricing structure of Klaviyo with Bronto then you’d find that Klaviyo is much more affordable and flexible than Bronto. Not only this but it also offers a free trial that enables you to send a maximum of 500 emails to 250 contacts. After crossing this limit, you will be prompted to upgrade.

Next, the premium plans or tiers provide complete access to its features and facilitate unlimited email sends. You will be only billed for the number of contacts imported.

Here’s the brief description of its pricing tiers –

• $20/month for 500 contacts
• $30/month for 1,000 contacts
• $60/month for 2,500 contacts
• $100/month for 5,000 contacts 
• $150/month for 10,000 contacts
• $350/month for 15,000 contacts

As I have said, the pricing is very flexible and can be calculated manually by just entering your total number of contacts.

4. ActiveCampaign

No list of email marketing software would be complete without ActiveCampaign. Such is the efficiency and popularity of this email marketing software. Similarly, it would be unfair if we don’t consider ActiveCampaign as one of the best Bronto alternatives.

Make no mistake, ActiveCampaign possesses all the important features to make the cut. In fact, in the past couple of years, ActiveCampaign had an unparalleled email delivery rate. So you should be assured to know that your email marketing campaigns are going to convert well.

Besides this, just like Bronto, ActiveCampaign can furnish all the email marketing needs for eCommerce businesses. It seamlessly connects with Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.

Features That Make ActiveCampaign The Best Bronto Alternative

• Expertly-crafted Email Templates – ActiveCampaign you with more than 125 types of readymade email templates that are completely mobile responsive. To match your brand, you can pick the one you like and edit it with the help of its drag & drop email designer.
• Multipurpose Emails – Apart from sending conventional emails, ActiveCampaign extends its usability by allowing you to send broadcast and triggered emails as well. In comparison to Bronto, ActiveCampaign will also give you the liberty to create email funnels in the software.
• Advanced Segmentation – Like other Bronto competitors, ActiveCampaign also enables you to segment your email list. There could multiple segmenting factors and these factors can be later used to create targeted and personalized email campaigns.
• Email Automation – ActiveCampaign enables you to automate your email marketing campaigns. You can create automated abandoned cart, customer win-back, and product recommendation email campaigns in the software.
• Omnichannel Marketing Capabilities – Just like Bronto, ActiveCampaign also supports omnichannel marketing. You can carry out marketing campaigns for email, SMS, and social media with the software. But it also allows you to leave an everlasting impression on your leads with the help of web personalization and live chat features.

Pricing Of ActiveCampaign

When we compare ActiveCampaign with Bronto and a few other Bronto alternatives in terms of pricing, you’d initially find that it offers a 14 days free trial period.

Once you test out the application and your free trial period ends, you will have the option to upgrade to any of its four subscription plans. The billing frequency available is monthly and yearly.

Besides this, you should also know that the pricing is based on the number of contacts imported. In addition to this, a different set of features are available in different plans. Speaking simply, as you go higher up the plan, you’d unlock more advanced features.

Since pricing is very dynamic and depends on the number of contacts, allow me to give an overview of the pricing for 500 contacts –

• Lite – You can start by paying $15/month (for 500 contacts) and get access to its essential email marketing features such as marketing automation, unlimited email sends, segmentation, reporting, etc.
• Plus – This plan starts at $70/month (for 500 contacts) and grants access to features like omnichannel marketing, landing pages, FB ads, SMS marketing, revenue reporting, etc.
• Professional – At the same time, you can start on this plan by paying $159/month (for 500 contacts). It would provide you the ability to use its advanced features like personalized product experiences, predictive sending & content, split automation, etc.
• Enterprise – At last, you can sign up for this plan by paying $279/month (for 500 contacts). All the advanced features and a couple of unique features are included in this plan such as like custom mailserver domain, custom reporting, contact enrichment, etc.

5. GetResponse

GetResponse has come a long way from being just a simple email marketing service to a complete marketing software. You’d love to know that recently it has launched a website builder. The builder comes with all the conversion-oriented modules like pop-ups, sign-up forms, live chat, etc.

But the characteristic that made GetResponse popular is its niche-friendly email marketing service. Not only can an eCommerce business opt for it but the software also caters to affiliate marketers. The bottom line is that GetResponse will encourage you to use the software irrespective of your niche. And, that is why I consider it to be one of the top Bronto alternatives.

Besides this, you should also know that GetResponse has a great reputation in the digital marketing arena. 100,000+ users are currently using the software and the number keeps getting stronger day by day.

Features That Make GetResponse The Best Bronto Alternative

• Drag & Drop Builders – Ideally, all the email marketing software boast about the drag & drop builder for creating email templates. But GetResponse takes a step further and allows you to create automated workflows, landing pages, websites, with the drag & drop mechanism. It ultimately helps you from getting entangled in coding.
• Marketing Automation – GetResponse is completely capable of taking your eCommerce marketing efforts to an automated level. With the help of this feature, you can automatically send abandoned cart emails, follow-ups, welcome emails, and more.
• List Building & Segmentation – The software offers multiple ways to build your email lists. Some of it includes sign-up forms, pop-ups, landing pages, etc. Once you have built your email list, GetResponse allows you to segment your list on different factors. This ensures that you send the right email to the right contact.
• Different Channels For Marketing – Besides email marketing, GetResponse is also capable of carrying out marketing campaigns in the form of webinars, social media ads, Google ads, web push notifications, etc.
• Insightful Reporting – GetResponse not only offers basic email marketing performance such as opens, clicks, unsubscribes, etc. but it also gives you a complete picture of how well your email campaign has performed in terms of sales.

Pricing Of GetResponse

For starters, GetResponse has launched a new forever free plan that offers basic marketing features.

Next, unlike all the other Bronto alternatives, GetResponse offers the biggest free trial period of 30 days for all of its premium plans. You have the liberty to use the application and figure out if it really suits your emailing needs.

Once you have completed the free trial, you will have then the option to upgrade to its premium plans. Unlike Bronto that only allowed bigger commitments, it offers four flexible pricing plans with monthly, yearly, and two-yearly billing options.

You will be charged on the basis of the number of contacts imported. Also, higher plans include advanced features.

Just to give you an idea about the feature distribution, here’s a brief rundown of the plans for 1,000 contacts –

• Free – A forever free plan that offers basic email marketing for 500 contacts, 1 website with 10 pages, a single landing page with sign-up forms, and pop-ups.
• Basic – It starts with $15/month and offers basic amenities like email marketing, autoresponders, a single sales funnel, etc.
• Plus – Similarly, this plan starts at $49/month and includes slightly advanced features like automation builder, webinars (for 100 attendees), contact scoring, sales funnels, etc.
• Professional – At the same time, it starts at $99/month and provides unrestricted access to web push notification, automation builder, sales funnels, etc.
• Max – Lastly, this plan invites you to get in touch with the sales team for custom pricing. Besides this, it also offers advanced features like transactional emails, account migration support, team management, single sign-on, assisted IP warm-up, etc.

Wrapping Up

Now that you have explored all the Bronto alternatives, I hope you have found an ideal replacement.

Although, if you are still having trouble figuring out which software is ideal for you, I would recommend you sign up for their free trial. Unlike Bronto, all of its alternatives offer free trials.

Moreover, they also facilitate interacting with their customer support team to help you make a better decision.

Just sign up for their free plan and shoot your queries to the support team. It will definitely help you choose the right product.

But if you are looking for my recommendation then I would suggest you go with Omnisend. The software packs all the essential features and also offers relatively cheaper pricing plans. For me, it is one of the best Bronto alternatives.

At last, here are a couple of relevant blog posts that you may want to go through –

• Top email marketing software for Shopify
• Best email marketing services for affiliate marketers
• Better alternatives to Benchmark Email