Campaigner is a mid-market email and SMS marketing automation platform now owned by Ziff Davis. See 2026 pricing, features, pros and cons before you sign up.
Campaigner's history is longer than most people assume for a tool that reads as a fairly modern marketing platform. It launched in 1999 as a product of Protus IP Solutions, an Ottawa-based communications company that also built fax and messaging services. In 2010, j2 Global Communications, the internet services company perhaps best known for eFax, acquired Protus for a reported 213 million dollars, bringing Campaigner into its portfolio. j2 Global spent the 2010s acquiring a wide range of digital businesses, including the media company Ziff Davis in 2012. In 2021, j2 Global restructured, spinning off its cloud-services businesses into a separate public company and renaming its remaining media and software holding company Ziff Davis, after the brand it had purchased almost a decade earlier.
That corporate history matters for buyers mainly as a signal of stability: Campaigner has operated under essentially the same ownership lineage for well over a decade, which is unusual in the email marketing space where standalone startups frequently get acquired, merged, or shut down. It also means Campaigner sits alongside a number of other software and media brands inside Ziff Davis's portfolio rather than being a venture-backed independent company chasing its next funding round.
Campaigner's pricing scales by contact count across three core plans, publicly listed around 59 dollars a month for the Starter tier (up to 5,000 contacts), 179 dollars a month for Essential (up to 25,000 contacts, adding dynamic content and exclusion lists), and 649 dollars a month for Advanced (up to 100,000 contacts, adding automation workflows, purchase-behavior reporting, API access, and dedicated sales support). Two add-ons extend any tier: an eCommerce package (roughly 79.95 dollars a month) that adds Shopify and Magento integration with unlimited contacts, and an SMS bundle (roughly 45 dollars a month) that adds native text-message marketing. Annual billing brings roughly an 18 percent discount versus paying monthly.
This pricing places Campaigner above budget tools like Mailchimp's entry tiers or Mailerlite, but below true enterprise marketing clouds. The tradeoff buyers are making is access to more sophisticated automation workflows, dedicated onboarding support, and native SMS, in exchange for a higher starting price and a credit-card-required trial rather than a free forever plan. That makes Campaigner a more natural fit for established small and mid-sized businesses with real marketing budgets than for very early-stage startups or solo creators looking for a free entry point.
Campaigner is owned by Ziff Davis, a publicly traded digital media and software company. It has been under the same corporate lineage since j2 Global acquired its original parent, Protus IP Solutions, in 2010; j2 Global renamed itself Ziff Davis in 2021.
As of 2026, core plans are priced by contact count: Starter (up to 5,000 contacts) starts around 59 dollars a month, Essential (up to 25,000 contacts) around 179 dollars a month, and Advanced (up to 100,000 contacts) around 649 dollars a month, with an approximately 18 percent discount for annual billing.
No. Campaigner offers a 30-day free trial, but it requires credit card details to start and does not offer a permanent free tier.
Yes, via an optional SMS bundle that can be added to any plan, providing a dedicated phone number and text-campaign tools alongside email.
Yes, through a paid eCommerce add-on that connects Shopify and Magento stores and also removes the contact limit on the plan it's attached to.
Campaigner's entry Starter plan is usable by small businesses, but its most distinctive features (automation, purchase-behavior data, API access) are reserved for the higher-priced Advanced tier, making it best suited to businesses with an established list and marketing budget.
Campaigner launched in 1999 as part of Protus IP Solutions, making it one of the longer-running names in email marketing software.
Yes, the Advanced plan includes automation workflows and purchase-behavior reporting, moving beyond simple autoresponders into multi-step, trigger-based customer journeys.