The time has come for brands to dust off their vendor evaluation playbooks because, in 2025, many will need to reconsider their ESP (Email Service Provider) partnerships. The seeds of this reckoning were sown back in 2020 when the COVID-19 lockdowns forced brands to hit the brakes on ESP RFPs, delaying the search for new platforms and, in many cases, avoiding long-term contract extensions. By 2021 and 2022, as the business landscape stabilized, brands finally moved forward with those postponed RFPs and contract renewals. Fast forward to today, and many of those deals inked during that window are nearing their expiration, with contracts set to end in late 2025 and early 2026.
That means a fresh wave of evaluations is coming. And this time around, the vendor landscape looks very different from what it did even a few years ago. Brands looking to secure the right partner for the next three to six years must weigh these shifts carefully before signing on the dotted line again.
Three significant changes in the market stand out:
1. The Diminishing Interest in Standalone CDPs
Not long ago, standalone Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) were all the rage. Many brands saw them as a must-have for creating unified customer views and powering personalized marketing efforts. However, in the years since, interest in standalone CDPs has waned significantly. The reason? Much of what brands were hoping to achieve with a CDP can now be found in next-generation ESP platforms built on NoSQL databases. These modern ESPs are fully equipped to handle customer data aggregation, segmentation, and activation, rendering a separate CDP unnecessary in many cases.
Brands that rushed to implement standalone CDPs are now re-evaluating the necessity of maintaining a separate system when an ESP upgrade could provide the same functionality in a more streamlined, cost-effective manner. Additionally, one of the core value propositions of CDPs was their ability to activate customer data across multiple channels. However, as next-gen ESP platforms have expanded their multichannel capabilities—including email, SMS, push notifications, and social integrations—the standalone CDP’s role in activation has been significantly diminished. Brands must now consider whether a CDP is truly necessary when a modern ESP can handle the same cross-channel execution more efficiently and at a lower cost.
2. The Stagnation of Legacy Marketing Clouds
Another critical development is the increasing realization that the large, legacy marketing cloud platforms have failed to keep pace with innovation. These platforms, once seen as the safe and stable choice, have become bloated, slow-moving, and resistant to meaningful technological advancement. Their inability to adapt to evolving marketing needs—especially in areas like real-time personalization, AI-driven automation, and cross-channel orchestration—has become glaringly obvious to brands that have been stuck with them for years.
For many, the decision to renew with a legacy provider is becoming harder to justify. These platforms require extensive workarounds and custom integrations just to meet modern marketing requirements, which ultimately diminishes their value. Meanwhile, newer ESP entrants and next-generation platforms are proving to be more agile, flexible, and equipped with the features marketers actually need. The old assumption that the biggest name in the industry is the best choice no longer holds, and brands that fail to recognize this will risk locking themselves into another cycle of inefficiency and frustration.
3. The Shifting Cost Dynamics of ESP Platforms
Price has always been a factor in vendor decisions, but the pricing gap between legacy marketing clouds and multichannel next-gen ESPs has widened significantly. This is especially true when it comes to mobile push, where costs have come down substantially. As push notifications become an increasingly critical channel for customer engagement, brands must evaluate not just email functionality, but the total cost of ownership (TCO) across all messaging channels.
Legacy providers, with their rigid pricing structures and added costs for newer features, are becoming harder to justify from a budgetary standpoint. In contrast, modern ESP platforms offer greater functionality, more flexibility, and often at a more competitive price. This shift places TCO at the forefront of decision-making in a way that hasn’t been the case before. Brands need to scrutinize vendor pricing models more carefully than ever, ensuring they aren’t overpaying for features that should be standard in a best-in-class platform.
What Brands Should Do Now
With these changes in mind, brands approaching contract expiration need to be proactive in assessing their options. Here’s what should be top of mind as they navigate the ESP RFP process in 2025:
- Audit the Current State – Brands should take stock of their current ESP, assessing what’s working, what’s not, and what gaps need to be filled. If their current provider has stagnated in innovation or is charging a premium for outdated technology, it’s time to move on.
- Look Beyond the Brand Name – The biggest names in the space are not necessarily the best fit anymore. A vendor’s ability to innovate, support evolving customer engagement needs, and provide transparent pricing should carry more weight than legacy reputation.
- Consider the Role of CDPs in the Stack – If a brand already has a standalone CDP, it should evaluate whether that investment is still necessary or if a next-gen ESP can handle those same functions more efficiently.
- Weigh the True Cost of Ownership – TCO should be a key metric in vendor comparisons, factoring in not just licensing costs, but also implementation, maintenance, and channel-specific expenses like mobile push.
- Plan for the Next 3-6 Years, Not Just the Next 12 Months – The marketing technology landscape is evolving rapidly, and any ESP decision made in 2025 needs to align with long-term business goals rather than just solving immediate challenges.
The Bottom Line
The ESP vendor landscape has undergone significant transformation in the past few years, and brands that fail to recognize these shifts risk making costly mistakes when renewing contracts or selecting new partners. The diminishing interest in standalone CDPs, the stagnation of legacy marketing clouds, and the widening pricing gap between old and new platforms all point to one conclusion: brands must rethink their ESP strategies carefully.
With many contracts expiring in late 2025 and early 2026, now is the time to begin planning. The brands that take a strategic, forward-thinking approach will be the ones best positioned for success in the next era of digital engagement.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash