The short answer
- Just you, one market: a spreadsheet or your email platform’s calendar. Free, and enough.
- Several markets, or sign-off from clients or stakeholders: an email-specific tool. Mailfois (our product) covers planning, sign-off and translation; Dyspatch suits large teams building localised emails.
- Your company already runs on a project tool: build it in Asana or monday.com and add a proofing tool for the final email.
- Approving the final email, with previews: Litmus Proofs. No reviewer accounts needed.
- Free shared calendar for every channel: CoSchedule’s Marketing Calendar.
Who’s writing this: I’m Liam Kane. I’ve planned and built email campaigns for seven years on Marketo, Bloomreach and Silverpop, and I built Mailfois, which is in this list. I’ve tried to be fair: it isn’t right for everyone, and I say where. Features and prices come from each company’s own website and help pages, checked on 14 October 2026, and are in the currency they publish. They change, so check before you buy.
Why a normal calendar isn’t enough for email
The calendar is the easy part. What makes email planning hard is everything around the send date: the same campaign going out on different days in different markets, copy going to translators and coming back, an approval that has to match the exact version that sends, and approvers who aren’t in your team. Most planning tools were built for tasks or social posts, so they handle the dates and leave the rest to you.
Getting sign-off is still one of the slowest parts of making an email. In Litmus’s 2023 survey of more than 440 email marketers, 62% of teams said building an email took two weeks or more, and “collecting feedback” was the biggest bottleneck, named by 35%. (Litmus, State of Email Workflows 2023)
The email planning test: how we compared them
Instead of a generic feature list, we scored every tool on eight things email teams actually need:
- Plans by send date and market. Each campaign has a send date, and can have different dates and progress in each market or language.
- Built for email. Knows about subject lines, preheaders, preview links and your email platform, not just generic tasks.
- Sign-off built in. Review rounds, versions, comments and a record of who approved what, when.
- Outside approvers without paid seats. Clients, legal or market leads can approve without each needing a paid account.
- Translation and localisation. Tracks copy going out to translators and coming back, per language.
- Pre-send checks. Checks brand, links or accessibility before an email is approved.
- Works with any email platform. Sits alongside your ESP rather than replacing it or only working with one.
- Fair price for a small team. What a team of five, plus three outside approvers, pays each month.
Scorecard
| Tool | Plans by send date and market | Built for email | Sign-off built in | Outside approvers without paid seats | Translation and localisation | Pre-send checks | Works with any email platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailfois | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google Sheets or Excel | Partly | No | No | Partly | Partly | No | Yes |
| CoSchedule Marketing Calendar | Partly | Partly | Partly | Partly | No | Partly | Partly |
| monday.com | Partly | No | Partly | Partly | No | No | Yes |
| Asana | Partly | No | Partly | Partly | No | No | Yes |
| Airtable | Partly | No | Partly | Partly | Partly | No | Yes |
| Notion | Partly | No | Partly | Partly | Partly | No | Yes |
| Trello | Partly | No | Partly | Partly | No | No | Yes |
| Planable | Partly | Partly | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Dyspatch | No | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | No | Yes |
| Litmus (now part of Validity) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Ziflow or Filestage | No | Partly | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Your email platform’s own calendar | Partly | Yes | Partly | No | No | Partly | No |
| Knak or Stensul | No | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | Partly |
Yes Yes Partly Partly, or only if you build it yourself No No
All 14 at a glance
| Tool | What it is | Best for | Published price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailfois | Email planning and sign-off workspace | Multi-market email teams and agencies that need planning, sign-off and translation in one place | Free plan; Pro £12/month; Team £24 per seat/month; Agency £39 per agency seat/month |
| Google Sheets or Excel | Spreadsheet | One person or a small team sending to one market, with nobody outside to approve | Free with a Google account; Excel comes with Microsoft 365 |
| CoSchedule Marketing Calendar | Marketing calendar (social-first) | Small marketing teams who want a free, shared calendar for every channel | Marketing Calendar "forever-free"; social plans from $29/month billed annually |
| monday.com | Work management | Companies already running marketing projects in monday.com | Free for up to 2 seats; Basic £8, Standard £11, Pro £17 per seat/month billed annually |
| Asana | Work management | Teams already on Asana who want approvals and proofing on the Advanced plan | Free for up to 2 users; Starter $10.99, Advanced $24.99 per user/month billed annually |
| Airtable | Build-your-own database | Teams with someone who enjoys building their own system | Free plan (1,000 records per base); Team $20, Business $45 per user/month billed annually |
| Notion | Docs and databases | Small teams who already keep their briefs and plans in Notion | Free plan; paid plans from $10 per member/month billed annually |
| Trello | Kanban boards | Very small teams who think in cards and columns | Free for up to 10 collaborators; Standard $5, Premium $10 per user/month billed annually |
| Planable | Content planning and approval | Social-first content teams who also plan a newsletter | Basic $33, Pro $49 per workspace/month; free trial of 50 posts |
| Dyspatch | Email production platform | Larger teams building lots of localised emails from shared modules | Starter $149/month, Teams $499/month, Teams+ custom |
| Litmus (now part of Validity) | Email testing and QA | Teams who need previews across email clients and a sign-off on the final email | Pricing through sales since joining Validity Engage |
| Ziflow or Filestage | Creative proofing | Marketing teams approving lots of creative, of which email is one part | Ziflow: free for 2 users, Standard $199/month; Filestage: free tier, Starter €199/month |
| Your email platform’s own calendar | Built into Klaviyo, HubSpot, Mailchimp and others | One brand, one market, everything in one email platform | Included with your email platform plan |
| Knak or Stensul | Enterprise email creation | Large enterprises on Marketo or Salesforce with brand and legal review | Pricing on request |
What a team of five really pays
Per-seat prices hide the real cost, because the question is usually who else needs access. Here’s what a team of five, with three people outside the team who approve emails (a client, legal, a market lead), would pay each month on the plan that does the job, using published prices.
| Tool | Team of five, plus three outside approvers, per month |
|---|---|
| Google Sheets or Excel | £0 (with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 you already pay for) |
| CoSchedule Marketing Calendar | Free calendar; paid tiers not published |
| Your email platform’s own calendar | Included in your plan (HubSpot: calendar needs Marketing Hub Professional, approvals Enterprise) |
| Planable | $49/month (Pro, per workspace; unlimited users) |
| Trello | $50/month (5 Premium seats at $10 for the calendar view) plus any approval Power-Up |
| Notion | About $50/month (5 Plus members from $10, billed annually; guests free) |
| monday.com | £55/month (5 Standard seats at £11, billed annually; minimum 3 seats) |
| Asana | $125/month (5 Advanced seats at $24.99, billed annually; guests free) |
| Airtable | $100–$160/month (Team plan at $20 per editor; read-only viewers free) |
| Dyspatch | $149/month (Starter; translation needs Teams+, on quote) |
| Mailfois | £120/month (5 Team seats at £24; outside approvers free) |
| Ziflow or Filestage | $199/month (Ziflow Standard, 15 users, billed annually) or €199/month (Filestage Starter) |
| Knak or Stensul | Not published (on quote) |
| Litmus (now part of Validity) | Not published (contact sales) |
Currencies as each company publishes them. Annual billing where that’s the headline price. Tools without published prices are listed as such.
Which one suits you? A 20-second check
The tools, one by one
1. Mailfois (our product)
Mailfois is our product, so read this one with that in mind. We built it because none of the tools below did the email-specific jobs well: a plan where each market has its own send date and progress, sign-off tied to the exact version of the email, outside approvers who don't need an account, and translations tracked line by line.
- Planning: an email-native calendar with build-by, sign-off and send dates kept in order, a stage and send date per market, spreadsheet import, read-only share links and a calendar feed.
- Sign-off: review rounds with versions and comments; clients and other outside approvers approve from a private link with no account or seat; optional two-stage sign-off and automatic reminders.
- Checks and translation: Brand Guard checks every email against your brand rules, accessibility and deliverability, and Copy Bank sends copy to translators and tracks it per language.
Where it falls short: it doesn't build or send emails (your email platform still does that) and it doesn't render previews across email clients, so pair it with a rendering tool if you need one. It's newer and smaller than everything else on this list.
2. Google Sheets or Excel
Most email calendars start here, and for good reason: it costs nothing, everyone knows how to use it, and you can shape it around any market or language. Our free email marketing calendar template gives you the columns that matter.
Where it falls short: a spreadsheet can't tell you who approved which version, can't send a reviewer a link to approve, doesn't remind anyone, and quietly goes out of date. It stops working at about the point where a second market, a translator or a client joins in. More on that in spreadsheet or software?
3. CoSchedule Marketing Calendar
CoSchedule's Marketing Calendar is free and puts every channel on one drag-and-drop calendar, with colour labels, tags and saved filters. It connects to Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor and ActiveCampaign, and has a free subject line tester.
Where it falls short: its approval features are aimed at social posts and the higher plans, it has nothing for markets or translation, and its pricing page now covers only its social product, so the cost of the paid calendar features isn't published. (pricing)
4. monday.com
monday.com has a ready-made Marketing Calendar template with a calendar view, and you can add a column per market and automations for hand-offs. Guests (people outside your company) can be invited to boards from the Standard plan.
Where it falls short: approvals are something you assemble from status columns and automations rather than a sign-off feature, there's no link to the actual email or its versions, and nothing for translation. It's a good fit if your company already lives in it, and a lot of setting up if it doesn't. See Asana or monday.com for email marketing?
5. Asana
Asana handles the project side of campaigns well: timelines, dashboards and, on the Advanced plan, approvals and proofing where reviewers can mark up images and PDFs. Guests are free from Starter upwards.
Where it falls short: it approves tasks and files, not emails, so the final sign-off isn't tied to the live email or its versions. Per-market send dates and translation are up to you to build. See Asana or monday.com for email marketing?
6. Airtable
Airtable can be shaped into almost anything, including a very good email calendar with a record per market and a calendar view. People who only view, fill in forms or use share links are free on paid plans.
Where it falls short: everything email-specific (approval steps, versions, translation tracking, reminders) is yours to design and maintain, and approvers who need to change a field count as paid editors.
7. Notion
A Notion database with a calendar view makes a tidy campaign calendar that sits next to your briefs, and guests are free (unlimited on paid plans).
Where it falls short: there's no approval step to speak of, so sign-off happens in comments or somewhere else, and nothing ties a decision to a specific version of an email.
8. Trello
A Trello card per campaign moving from "Planned" to "Sent" is simple and clear. The calendar view needs the Premium plan.
Where it falls short: approvals come from third-party Power-Ups (some let people without a Trello account approve through a portal), and there's nothing for markets, translation or the email itself.
9. Planable
Planable is excellent at getting content approved: a calendar with campaigns, required approvals on Pro, and multi-level approvals (for example team lead, then client, then legal) on Enterprise. Paid plans have unlimited users, and clients can be added as free approvers.
Where it falls short: it's built for social. Email isn't a channel, only "universal content" you can plan and approve, and there's nothing for markets or translation. Its own help docs say a client needs a (free) account to approve. (help article) See Mailfois vs Planable.
10. Dyspatch
Dyspatch is a no-code email builder with approval workflows built in on every plan, and a proper localisation workflow on Teams+: the design is locked after approval, text goes out to translators (or Phrase and Smartling), and each language version is approved again before it's published to your email platform.
Where it falls short: it's about building and approving emails, not planning them, so you'll still need a calendar. The translation features are on the top, custom-priced plan.
11. Litmus (now part of Validity)
Litmus is the best-known email testing tool, and its Proofs feature is a strong way to approve the finished email: unlimited reviewers inside or outside the company, no Litmus account needed, one-click approval and a version timeline you can download as an audit trail.
Where it falls short: it starts once the email is built, so there's no planning or calendar. Litmus became part of Validity in 2025 and no longer publishes prices. See our Litmus alternatives comparison.
12. Ziflow or Filestage
Both are proper proofing tools: staged approval workflows, unlimited reviewers inside and outside the company without accounts, and support for websites and HTML as well as images and PDFs.
Where it falls short: neither is email-specific or does planning, so you'd run them alongside a calendar. Worth it if email is a small part of a lot of creative you need approved.
13. Your email platform’s own calendar
Klaviyo has a campaign calendar with day, week and month views and holiday calendars. Mailchimp shows scheduled and sent campaigns on a monthly calendar on paid plans. HubSpot has a marketing calendar on Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise, and email approvals with up to 10 approvers on Enterprise. (HubSpot, Mailchimp)
Where it falls short: these calendars only show what's already in the platform, so they're a record of sends rather than a plan. Outside approvers usually need an account, and if you use more than one platform, or switch, the history doesn't come with you.
14. Knak or Stensul
Both build on-brand emails (and landing pages) with governed templates, approval routing (Knak blocks the hand-off until approvals are done, with legal, brand and compliance reviewing in parallel) and translation through providers such as Smartling. Stensul launched "Governed Creation" in January 2026.
Where it falls short: they're enterprise tools with enterprise pricing and set-up, built mainly around big marketing automation platforms, and neither is a planning calendar. (Knak, Stensul)
When a spreadsheet is enough
Honestly, often. If one person plans and builds, you send to one market, and nobody outside needs to approve, a spreadsheet and your email platform’s calendar will do. The time to move on is when you notice the signs: approvals happening in email chains, “which version is final?”, a market sending on the wrong day, or translations tracked in someone’s head. That’s when a tool earns its cost.
If you’re staying with a spreadsheet, start from our free email marketing calendar template, add the key dates from the 2027 email marketing calendar, and run every send through the pre-send checklist.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best email marketing calendar tool?
It depends on your team. For one person sending to one market, a spreadsheet or your email platform’s own calendar is enough. For teams that send to several markets or languages, or need sign-off from clients or stakeholders, an email-specific tool such as Mailfois (planning and sign-off) or Dyspatch (email production and localisation) does more than a general project tool. Companies already on Asana or monday.com can build a workable calendar there.
Is there a free email marketing calendar?
Yes. A spreadsheet with the right columns works well, and Mailfois has a free email marketing calendar template for Excel and Google Sheets that imports straight into its planner. CoSchedule’s Marketing Calendar is free, and Mailfois, monday.com, Asana, Airtable, Notion and Trello all have free plans with limits.
Can I use Asana, monday.com or Notion as an email marketing calendar?
Yes, many teams do. They are good at tasks, timelines and calendars. What they don’t do is tie an approval to a specific version of an email, give each market its own send date and progress without custom set-up, or track translations line by line. If you need those, an email-specific tool will save set-up time.
Do approvers need an account to sign off an email?
Not always. In Mailfois, Litmus Proofs, Ziflow and Filestage, outside reviewers can approve without an account or paid seat. In Planable, a client needs a free approver account. In general work-management tools, outside approvers are usually guests, and what guests can do varies by plan.
What should an email marketing calendar include?
At minimum: campaign name, send date and time with time zone, audience or segment, market and language, owner, builder, the dates copy and translations are due, the build-by and sign-off dates, and a status for each market. Our free calendar template has these columns ready to use.
How far ahead should you plan email campaigns?
Most teams plan two to three months ahead in detail and a year ahead for key dates such as seasonal sales and holidays. Our 2027 email marketing calendar lists the key dates by country.
Liam Kane is an email and marketing automation specialist with over ten years in marketing and seven in email, planning and building campaigns on Marketo, Bloomreach and Silverpop. He founded Mailfois to fix the admin around email: the plan, the approvals and the record of what went out. More about Liam.
Sources, checked 14 October 2026: CoSchedule, Planable, monday.com, Asana, Airtable, Notion, Trello, Dyspatch, Litmus, Ziflow, Filestage, Klaviyo, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Knak, Stensul. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we’ll fix it.