Drip Email Tool for Lead Nurturing: Pricing, Alternatives and How to Build the Sequence

For a team that wants to run lead nurturing drips and nothing much more, Drip is the strongest starting point in this comparison. Its published pricing starts at $39 per month for 1 to 2,500 people, with unlimited email sends, dynamic segments, onsite campaigns and up to 50 workflows on that tier. Drip offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, so you can build one full nurture track before you pay anything. Prices are listed monthly on Drip's pricing page at drip.com/pricing.

This page explains how to build a lead nurturing drip, what each tool costs at realistic list sizes, where each one fits and where it falls short. The editors read each vendor's public pricing page and documentation. We did not run accounts or test the products, so every price and limit below comes from those pages and is dated to the check on 7 October 2026. Confirm current figures on the vendor's page before you buy.

What a Nurturing Drip Needs From a Tool

A nurture track is a sequence of emails sent to people who have shown interest but are not ready to buy. The tool has to do four jobs well. It has to enroll people based on what they did, not just on when they joined a list. It has to split the audience into segments that change over time. It has to stop the sequence when a lead replies, books a call or becomes a customer. And it has to hand the lead's status to whatever system your sales team uses.

Most of the friction in nurturing comes from the exit and handoff logic, not from writing the emails. A drip that keeps sending to someone who already booked a demo damages trust faster than a weak subject line. Before you compare tools, list the events that should start, pause and end each track in your business.

• Entry triggers: form fills, downloads, pricing-page visits, webinar attendance, or a tag applied by a person
• Segments that update: a lead should move between groups when its behavior changes, not only once at signup
• Exit conditions: a reply, a meeting booked, a deal created or a purchase should remove the lead from nurture
• Sales handoff: a score, a stage field or a task that tells the sales team a lead is ready
• Reporting by track: conversion and unsubscribe rates for each sequence, not only for the account as a whole

Comparison at a Glance

The table below compares the four tools that come up most often for this job. Starting prices are the figures on each vendor's pricing page at the check date. Where a page does not publish a number for your list size, the table says so.

Drip: Best for Drip-First Nurturing

Drip is built around the sequence. Its strengths for nurturing are the workflow builder, dynamic segments that update as people act, and onsite campaigns for capturing people who arrive on your site. Its plans are sized by how many people are in your audience, and the email volume on the lower tiers is unlimited, so you do not have to estimate how many messages each lead will receive.

The listed price for the smallest tier is $39 per month for 1 to 2,500 people. Larger audiences move up through steps. At 5,000 people the listed price is $89 per month, and at 10,000 people it is $154 per month. The 22,501 to 25,000 people tier is $369 per month and includes free migration and personalized onboarding, according to the pricing page. Drip's prices are monthly. The pricing page does not list annual discounts in the figures we reviewed.

Where Drip falls short is breadth. It is not a full sales pipeline or a customer service desk. If your nurture track has to create deals, assign tasks to reps and report on revenue by rep, you will probably pair Drip with a CRM. The free option is a time-limited trial rather than a permanent free plan, so plan the build inside the trial window. Check the workflow count and people tier that match your list before you commit.

Drip suits a marketing lead who owns nurture tracks for a small or mid-sized list and wants the sequence logic to be easy to read. A team with a three-person marketing function and a separate CRM will usually get the most value from it.

ActiveCampaign: Scoring and Segmentation in One Product

ActiveCampaign combines email, marketing automation, a CRM and lead scoring in one account. For nurturing, the advantage is that a score built from email activity and form fills can sit beside the contact record your sales team uses. Its automation builder supports branching on behavior, and it is a common choice for B2B teams that want one place to manage both marketing and the first steps of sales follow-up.

The pricing is tiered by plan and by contact count. The Starter plan is listed at $15 per month, Plus at $49 per month, Pro at $79 per month and Enterprise at $145 per month. The listed starting prices are for 1,000 contacts, and they rise as your contact count goes up. Monthly and annual billing show the same starting figure on the pricing page. A free trial is offered, but the length is not stated in the figures we reviewed, so check the page before you start.

The main limitation is that the features you probably want for scoring and segmentation are on the higher plans. Standard segmentation and landing pages come with Plus. Advanced segmentation is listed on Pro. Enterprise adds premium segmentation and a dedicated account team. If you want advanced segmentation for your nurture logic, budget for Pro from the start. A team with a small list and a simple sequence may find Plus or Starter enough.

HubSpot Marketing Hub: When the CRM Is Already HubSpot

HubSpot Marketing Hub is the best fit when the rest of the business already runs on HubSpot. Nurture tracks, forms, lead scoring, the contact record and the sales pipeline share one data model, so there is no sync to maintain. HubSpot also has a free set of marketing tools, which lets a team start with forms and basic email before it upgrades.

The pricing page lists Marketing Hub Starter at $7 per month, Professional at $800 per month and Enterprise at $3,600 per month. The jump from Starter to Professional is steep, and it is the decision point most small teams run into. Check which contact count each plan covers on the pricing page before you compare it with Drip or ActiveCampaign, because the list sizes are not directly comparable.

HubSpot's Sales Hub is a separate product. Its Professional tier, listed at $90 per seat per month, includes sequences and workflows, and it carries a required one-time onboarding fee according to the same pricing data. If your nurture track has to feed a sales sequence, price both hubs together rather than comparing Marketing Hub on its own.

Where HubSpot falls short is cost and complexity for a single nurture track. A team that wants one sequence for one product line may find the platform more than it needs. A team that runs sales, service and marketing on one record will find it hard to beat.

Make: The Connector Behind a Drip

Make is not an email sender. It is an automation tool that moves data between apps. It is useful when your nurture triggers begin outside the email tool, for example when a form on a landing page should create a contact, tag it, and enroll it in a Drip or ActiveCampaign workflow. Make's free plan includes 1,000 credits per month, with no time limit, and allows two active scenarios. Scenarios can run at most every 15 minutes on the free plan.

The paid Core plan is listed at $9 per month billed annually, or $10.59 per month billed monthly, for 10,000 credits per month. Each action a module performs in a scenario uses one credit. Credit use grows with volume, so a nurture that tags every page view will consume credits faster than one that tags only form fills.

Use Make when your nurture starts somewhere outside the email tool and you want that connection automated. Do not use it to replace the email tool. Its free plan limits and its 5-minute execution cap make it a poor place to build the sequence logic itself.

Cost at Realistic List Sizes

The table shows the listed price of each tool at four list sizes. Where a pricing page does not publish a figure for that size, the cell says so and you should request a quote or check the calculator on the vendor's site.

For a 10,000-person audience on Drip, the arithmetic is $154 per month, or $1,848 over a year at the listed monthly rate. Add the cost of a CRM if you do not already have one, and the cost of Make if you need to connect external triggers. The total is then the sum of the lines you actually pay for, not the price of one tool.

Building a Lead Nurturing Drip in Drip, Step by Step

The build order matters more than the tool. Start with the entry point, then the sequence, then the exit. Do not begin by writing twelve emails.

1. Define the stages and their signals

Choose three to five stages that describe how a lead moves from curiosity to readiness. Each stage needs one signal that a tool can see. A download, a second page visit, a reply or a booked meeting are all usable. A stage you cannot detect is a guess, so drop it or add the tracking first.

2. Tag people by source topic

Tag each lead with the page, form or campaign that brought it in. Someone who downloaded a pricing guide needs a different first email than someone who read an introductory article. In Drip, source tags become the segment that decides which workflow a lead enters. Keep the tag names short and consistent, because a messy tag set makes segments unreliable later.

3. Build one track per source

Start with the source that converts best for you, not with every source at once. Write three to six emails for that track, each tied to a stage. A short track with a clear next action and a clear exit beats a 12-email stream that treats every lead the same.

4. Add exit and pause logic

Every track needs at least three exits: the lead replies, the lead books a meeting, and the lead becomes a customer. Add a pause for leads who are already in an active sales conversation. Test each exit with a internal test contact before you launch, so a booked meeting actually removes the lead from the nurture.

5. Set the cadence and the final ask

Weekly emails are typical for active nurturing, and bi-weekly works for longer sales cycles. Keep direct asks to the last email of each track. Earlier emails should teach, compare or show proof, and they should not ask for a call.

Lead Scoring and the Sales Handoff

Scoring is optional. Many teams do well with a simple rule: a lead becomes sales-ready after a meeting request, a pricing-page visit followed by a reply, or a set number of high-intent actions in a short window. If you want a numeric score, add points only for actions you can observe, such as a click on a pricing link or a demo request. Do not add points for things the tool cannot see, like a job title that a prospect typed freely.

The handoff needs an owner. Decide who owns a contact when a demo is booked, which automations pause, and what the sales team is expected to do in its first contact. Without that decision, marketing and sales both send, the lead receives two voices, and the unsubscribe rate rises. Write the handoff rule down before you connect a score to a sales queue.

Decision Table: Which Tool Fits Which Situation

Use the table to narrow the options before you run trials. The reasons are the deciding factor, not the brand name.

Setup and Migration Checklist

If you are moving an existing nurture from another tool, or building one from scratch, use the checklist below. Each row is a task you can complete and check off.

Mistakes That Stall a Nurture

Most failed nurtures fail for reasons that have nothing to do with copy. The first is a single track for every lead. A lead who arrived from a webinar and a lead who requested a pricing sheet are at different points, and one sequence cannot serve both well. The second is a missing exit. If a lead who already bought keeps receiving education emails, the sender looks careless, and that cost is hard to measure but easy to feel.

The third mistake is building segments that no one reviews. A segment that was correct at launch can quietly drift. Review each segment at the end of the first month, and remove any that no longer match the stage they were meant to describe. The fourth is judging a track by opens alone. Opens are a weak signal in many inboxes. Track replies, meetings booked and unsubscribes instead, because those show whether the sequence is moving people forward.

Measuring Whether the Nurture Works

Set your success measures before you launch. Useful ones are lead-to-meeting rate by track, the time it takes a lead to move between stages, the unsubscribe rate per email, and the number of leads that reach the sales handoff. Compare each track with the others from the same source. A track that converts fewer leads may still be the right choice if the leads it produces close at a higher rate, so keep the sales team in the review.

Review the numbers after four weeks, and then once a month. Cut the weakest email from each track first, then rewrite the email that gets the most unsubscribes. Expanding to a new source makes sense only after the first track has a clear, repeatable result.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Drip good for lead nurturing, or is it only for ecommerce?

Drip is built around sequences and workflows, and nurturing is one of the most common uses for that design. Its segments, workflows and onsite campaigns fit a lead journey as well as a purchase journey. Check your exit and handoff rules during the trial, because those are where a nurture usually needs the most setup.

How much does Drip cost for my list?

Drip prices by the number of people in your audience. The listed monthly price is $39 for 1 to 2,500 people, $89 for 4,501 to 5,000 people, $154 for 9,001 to 10,000 people and $369 for 22,501 to 25,000 people. Look up the tier that matches your current count on the pricing page at drip.com/pricing, because tiers change as lists grow.

Does Drip have a free plan?

The pricing page lists a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, and it does not show an ongoing free plan. Use the trial to build one full track and test its exits before you decide.

Should I use ActiveCampaign or Drip for nurturing?

Choose Drip if you want a focused tool for nurture tracks and a simple monthly price for a list of up to 2,500 people. Choose ActiveCampaign if you want lead scoring and a contact record that your sales team also uses in the same account, and if you can plan for the Plus or Pro plan. Both can run a nurture, so the deciding question is whether the CRM features belong in the same product.

When does HubSpot Marketing Hub make sense?

HubSpot Marketing Hub makes sense when your sales and service work already runs in HubSpot. Starter is listed at $7 per month and Professional at $800 per month, and the gap between them is large. Check which contact count each plan covers before you compare it with the other tools, because the figures are not measured on the same basis.

Do I need Make if my email tool already has workflows?

Not always. You need Make when a trigger starts outside your email tool, such as a form on a separate landing page, and you want that event to create a contact or enroll someone in a track. If every trigger happens inside the email tool, skip it and keep the setup simpler.

How long should a nurture track be?

Three to six emails is a practical length for most tracks, with each email mapped to a stage rather than a fixed day. Longer tracks are harder to maintain and tend to send emails to people who have already moved on. Start short, measure the exits, and then add emails only where the data shows a gap.