Are you looking for dependable email marketing services, but you don’t know which one to choose?
Don’t worry; you’re not alone in this. There are hundreds of email marketing software tools out there. Each one advertises as the best of the best. However, there are no two tools with the same set of features or pricing plans.
So how do you choose the one that aligns with your marketing goals and needs? I’ve decided to put together a guide. Thanks to my hands-on years-long experience with email marketing services, I can provide you with valuable insights and point out the best platforms.
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Top 10 most popular email marketing services
- Constant Contact Versatile solution for small business
- SendInBlue Great for capturing new leads
- GetResponse Best localization support
- AWeber Great for small businesses
- Drip Best for eCommerce store owners
- ConvertKit Best for bloggers
- Mailchimp Data-driven email marketing platform
- Campaign Monitor Great personalization capabilities
- ActiveCampaign The best for white-labeling
- Mailjet Best for marketing collaboration
Constant Contact — Versatile solution for small business
Constant Contact is email marketing software anyone can use. It comes with a compact and intuitive user interface.
There are over 100 email templates to get you started. People with limited experience in email marketing will find this very useful. Thanks to its versatility, Constant Contact became one of the most popular tools for small businesses used across many verticals.
The most useful perks it offers include email scheduling and automatic unsubscription update. All templates are customizable and mobile-ready. You don’t have to write a single line of code, and you’ll still be able to send engaging and beautiful emails.
Key features
- Drag and drop email editor – edit emails or customize templates with ease.
- Email marketing automation – automatically send emails to leads.
- Ecommerce integrations – keep customers engaged and ensure repeat purchases.
- Contact management – import all your contacts and update them automatically.
- Analytics and reports – track the results of your campaign in real-time.
- Events, coupons, donations, and surveys – engage your customers with irresistible offers.
Plans and pricing
Constant Contact is available in two packages – Core and Plus:
Core
- $9.99 per month
An email plan has prices based on the number of contacts. You can send unlimited emails and get more file storage. You can enjoy features like email marketing, customizable templates, branded and industry templates, and automated email resend to non-openers.
Plus
- $45 per month
The Plus plan gets you everything from the Email plan plus extra features such as advanced eCommerce marketing, customizable pop-up forms, surveys, polls, coupons, and many more.
SendInBlue — Great for capturing new leads
SendInBlue is a powerful email marketing platform you can use to send bulk email and text messages anytime you need it. The developers achieved a great balance between delivering advanced settings and features while keeping the tool easy to use. At the moment, with SendInBlue, you can send approximately 30 million messages per day. It’s obvious that this is a bulk emailing program with great scalability potential.
Besides standard email marketing services, SendInBlue goes the extra mile, offering its users access to the forms tool, so you can capture new leads, segment them, and automatically import them into your email list.
Key features
- Support for email and SMS messages – pursue multiple opportunities to reach your customers with time-sensitive offers.
- Live chat for your website – engage your leads and grow your list of subscribers.
- Marketing automation – automate segmentation and email messages.
- Leads segmentation – data-driven audience segmentation.
- Email personalization – personalize your emails for each segment for greater impact.
- Convert tools – create landing pages and signup forms to boost conversion rates.
Plans and pricing
SendInBlue is available in 5 packages – Free, Starter, Business, and Enterprise:
Free
- Free of charge
Without spending a single dollar, you will be able to benefit from the features such as a mobile-friendly email design, email template library, and email & SMS personalization.
Starter
- $25 per month
-
$22 per month
billed annually
The Starter package comes with all the features from the Free plan, but it removes the daily sending limit.
Business
- $65 per month
-
$58 per month
billed annually
The business package will provide you access to additional features like A/B testing, and advanced statistics, and enable you to remove the company logo from emails.
Enterprise
- Contact sales for pricing
The Enterprise package is available for marketers who need more. The price is custom-tailored for your specific needs. With the Enterprise package you get managed setup and priority support, a dedicated account manager, and dedicated infrastructure.
GetResponse — Best localization support
GetResponse service goes beyond email marketing. The platform comes with easy-to-use features to help you streamline your marketing activities. It looks new and fresh. Onboarding should be easy, given that the dashboard is quite simple. The platform is currently available in over 20 languages.
GetResponse is also convenient for people with less time on their hands. There are over 500 email templates users can put to action right out of the box. The platform also offers access to a variety of tools to enhance marketing efforts, including CRM and landing pages.
Key features
- Easy email design editor – create beautiful emails with a simple email editor.
- Professional email templates – use professionally designed email templates out-of-the-box.
- Autoresponders – automate follow-up emails to keep customers in the loop.
- Automated emails – use triggers to automate emails across the board.
- Segmented emails – boost engagement rates with custom emails for each consumer base segment.
Plans and pricing
GetResponse is available in three packages – Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, and Ecommerce Marketing. On all plans, you can save 18% when you prepay 12 months, or prepay 24 months and get 30% off your total.
Email Marketing
- $13.12 per month
-
$12.06 per month
billed annually
The Email marketing plan has prices based on the number of contacts. It comes with autoresponders, unlimited landing pages, and email marketing features.
Marketing Automation
- $58.14 per month
-
$40.69 per month
billed annually
The Marketing Automation prices depend on your list size. It comes with everything in the Basic plan, plus automation builder, webinars, and contact scoring, and tagging.
Ecommerce Marketing
- $93.55 per month
-
$79.87 per month
billed annually
Ecommerce Marketing plan prices are based on your list size. It unlocks access to additional features such as unlimited automation builder and paid webinars.
AWeber — Great for small businesses
AWeber offers a complete suite of email marketing tools at low maintenance. Due to its simplicity and ease of use, it is a perfect option for small-sized or even one-person teams. It’s quite popular in the small business niche and among solopreneurs.
AWeber user interface is designed to make every feature easily accessible. The settings are not too advanced, making the platform perfect for people who just got started with email marketing. Alongside the standard services, you will also have access to landing pages, sign up forms, and integrations.
Key features
- AI-powered email template designer – automatically create breath-taking emails.
- Drag and drop email editor – create beautiful emails from scratch with ease.
- Landing pages – build landing pages and deploy them to capture new subscribers.
- Auto-newsletters – automatically inform subscribers about the latest content.
- Email automation – create triggers and flows to automate the email marketing strategy.
Plans and pricing
AWeber is available in two plans – Fee, Lite, Plus, and Unlimited:
Free
- Free of charge
The Free plan comes with basic email marketing features like creating and sending newsletters, email automation, and an email template library.
Lite
- $14.99 per month
-
$12.50
billed annually
Lite plan prices depend on the size of the subscription list. It comes with all the Free features, plus email split testing, behavioral automation, and saving and sending to custom segments.
Plus
- $ 29.99 per month
-
$20.00
billed annually
Unlimited subscribers, unlimited landing pages, full template library, etc.
Unlimited
- $899 per month
Unlimited subscribers, single fixed price, unlimited landing pages, sales tracking, and low transaction fees, etc.
Drip — Best for eCommerce store owners
Drip is a comprehensive email marketing software designed to cater to the needs of experienced marketers. It comes with a wide range of tools to help marketers design, launch, monitor, and optimize email marketing campaigns on the go. There is an additional set of features to enable marketers to reach targeted customers and deliver highly personalized messages.
Due to its complexity and the number of features, Drip is a perfect option for medium-sized eCommerce businesses and enterprises in the eCommerce vertical. It comes with perks to enable marketers to boost sales and can be integrated with all popular eCommerce platforms.
Key features
- Visual email builder – create stunning emails with minimal technical knowledge.
- Track and use customer data from different channels – leverage your customers’ data to make data-driven marketing decisions.
- Email segmentation – segment your customers into small clusters based on their preferences and needs.
- Personalization – deliver unique email messages to every customer segment.
- Behavior-based automation – use triggers to send the right message at the right time.
Plans and pricing
Drip offers two packages – Free and Paid:
Free
- Free of charge
Paid
- $19 per month
Paid Drip plan price depends on the number of people in your account. Paid plan grants access to all Drip features. The noteworthy ones include email marketing automation, detailed email analytics, and powerful segmentation.
ConvertKit — Best for bloggers
ConvertKit is a powerful email marketing software with a variety of features, settings, and extra perks. It is quite popular among content creators, including bloggers, YouTubers, and Instagram influencers. All the features are accessible via a beautiful and compact dashboard. Although it’s a robust tool, ConvertKit is still fairly easy to use.
Thanks to built-in landing page support, content creators can launch their email marketing campaigns even without a live website. It comes with automation features to enable users to enjoy the benefits of email marketing hassle- and hands-free.
Key features
- Signup forms – grow your audience with ready-to-use signup forms.
- Landing pages – use landing page templates to support your audience growing efforts.
- Email visual editor – create perfect emails without writing a single line of code.
- Email automation – build custom automation paths with ease.
- Analytics and reports – assess the efficiency of your campaign at a single glance.
Plans and pricing
ConvertKit offers three packages to potential users: Free, Creator, and Creator Pro:
Free
- Free of charge
ConvertKit Free plan comes with an impressive list of features, including unlimited landing pages and forms, subscriber tagging, and mail broadcasts.
Creator
- $15 per month
-
$9 per month
billed annually
For growing creators automating their work.
Creator Pro
- $29 per month
-
$25 per month
billed annually
For established creators scaling their businesses.
Mailchimp — Data-driven email marketing platform
MailChimp is an easy-to-use email marketing tool. You don’t need to have the technical expertise to create an email marketing campaign with it. The strongest selling point of MailChimp is the data it offers to its users. It’s one of the most popular platforms online, with almost 200 million users.
Over the last decade, MailChimp collected the use case data of its platform and offers access to it so that you can develop and launch a data-driven email marketing strategy. MailChimp is designed to cater to the needs of businesses of all sizes. It also comes with support for over 300 integrations.
Key features
- Sign up forms and landing pages – capture new leads and grow your mailing list.
- Visual email builder – benefit from the what-you-see-is-what-you-get email editor.
- Segmentation – segment your subscribers and send them personalized messages.
- Email automation – completely automate your email marketing campaign.
- Analytics and reports – take a front seat and assess the performance of your campaign.
Plans and pricing
MailChimp offers four packages – Free, Essentials, Standard, and Platinum:
Free
- Free of charge
The Free plan comes with all the features for businesses that are just getting started, such as 1-click automations, basic templates, and custom domains.
Essentials
- $13 per month
Essential prices depend on your contact list. It comes with everything in the free plan, plus complete access to email templates, A/B testing, and custom branding.
Standard
- $20 per month
Standard prices scale with the size of the subscriber’s list. It offers all the features from the Essential plan, plus advanced audience insights, custom templates, and behavioral targeting automation.
Platinum
- $350 per month
The Platinum package cost depends on the size of the contact list. In addition to all the features available through Standard plan, you will get access to advanced segmentation, multivariate testing, and phone support.
Campaign Monitor — Great personalization capabilities
A number of customization options and ease of use are the strongest points of Campaign Monitor. This email marketing software comes with a visual email builder and support for drag and drop. With this tool in your hands, you’ll be able to build emails just as you’ve imagined them. The dashboard is minimalistic and comes with intuitive menus and settings.
Campaign Monitor uses data to help you deliver highly personalized emails at the right time. That’s a perfect tool for boosting engagement and conversion rates. Analytics and reporting features can help you improve the efficiency of every email marketing campaign despite its scope.
Key features
- Drag and drop email editor – create appealing email layouts by simply adding new building blocks.
- Professionally-designed templates – use one of the engaging templates to kickstart your email marketing campaign.
- Visual journey designer – create customer journeys and automate email for each one of them.
- Detailed lists and smart segments – cluster your subscribers by their needs and expectations.
- Signup forms – leverage ready-to-use signup forms to grow your list of subscribers.
Plans and pricing
Campaign Monitor offers three subscription plans – Basic, Unlimited, and Premier:
Basic
- $9 per month
The Basic costs scale up with the size of the contact list. It comes with a drag and drop email builder, template library, and marketing automation.
Unlimited
- $29 per month
Unlimited package cost depends on the size of your contact list. Besides removing the limit of email sends, it unlocks access to time zone sending, spam testing, and insights analytics suite.
Premier
- $149 per month
Premier package cost is tied to the size of the subscription base. It comes with all features in the Unlimited package, plus pre-built engagement segments, send-time optimization, and advanced link tracking.
Active Campaign — The best for white-labeling
If you are planning to sell email marketing services under your brand, ActiveCampaign can help you do it without breaking a sweat. The platform also provides access to live chat and CRM tools to help you streamline your marketing activities. Besides the standard email marketing features, this tool comes with handy email automation based on customer experience.
With ActiveCampaign, you will be able to segment the subscribers and deliver each segment a personalized email. There are also analytics tools to help you measure the efficiency of your email marketing campaign by segment or overall.
Key features
- Email segmentation – send people what they expect to see.
- Subscription forms – deploy forms without writing code to capture new leads.
- Dynamic content – leverage tagging and conditional content to deliver personalized messages.
- Split testing – test the performance of every email and choose a template bound to deliver results.
- White-label – add value to your services by fueling your own branded campaigns with the ActiveCampaign platform.
Plans and pricing
ActiveCampaign has four main packages – Lite, Plus, Professional, and Enterprise:
Lite
- $29 per month
The Lite plan price is based on how many contacts you want to use in a campaign. It comes with all basic marketing automation features including newsletters, subscription forms, and unlimited sending.
Plus
- $49 per month
Plus plan price scales up with your contact list. In addition to all the features in the Lite package, you will also be able to use Facebook custom audiences, lead and contact scoring, and dynamic content.
Professional
- $149 per month
Professional plan price goes up as your contact list grows. It comes with everything Plus package has to offer, plus predictive sending, predictive content, and split automation.
Enterprise
- Contact sales for pricing
Enterprise price is also tied to the contact list size. It enables you to access all the features in the Professional package, plus custom reporting, custom mail server domain, and white-labeling.
MailJet — Best for marketing collaboration
Mailjet is a simple email marketing tool enabling marketers around the globe to run efficient campaigns even on a limited budget. It’s easy to use and comes with a really cool design. Mailjet delivers all the features you need to create and launch an effective campaign.
There is one thing that makes Mailjet unique. It offers access to a collaboration feature so the team of marketers can cooperate on the email strategy in real-time. The software also supports over 80 integrations, which is great news if you already have some software tools in your marketer’s toolbox.
Key features
- Online email marketing builder – build visually stunning emails from your web browser.
- Personalization – add a human touch to your emails.
- Contact management – use a browser widget to capture emails on the go and update your contact list.
- Email marketing role management – enable your team to work and collaborate on a single platform.
- Analytics and reports – gauge the performance of your email marketing campaign.
Plans and pricing
Mailjet comes with four packages – Free, Premium, Essential, and Custom:
Free
- Free of charge
Although completely free this package will provide you with access to an advanced email editor and email marketing statistics.
Premium
- $15 per month
-
$13.50
billed annually
Basic plan costs depend on how many emails you want to send per month. It comes with all the Free features, plus free sub-accounts, no Mailjet logo, and online customer support.
Essential
- $25 per month
-
$22.50
billed annually
The Essential plan costs scale up with the number of sent emails. It offers all the features in the Basic plan, plus A/B testing, marketing automation, and segmentation.
Custom
- Contact sales for pricing
The Custom package is a customized solution for your unique email marketing needs. You’ll have to request a quote to get the price. It comes with all the Premium features, plus a dedicated technical account manager, custom onboarding and migration, and infinite scalability.
How to choose the best email marketing software for you
After closely examining our list of the best email marketing services, you’ve probably figured out that although all tools are similar, in essence, they offer quite different feathers at different price points.
So, how do you choose the best email marketing software for you? To help you out we have put together a short checklist you can consult before you go shopping.
Analytics and reporting
One of the most important things to look for in email marketing software is analytics. You can’t simply launch your campaign and hope for the best. Analytics and reporting features will put you in a position to track the performance of your campaign in real-time.
These features will empower you to track the open rate, identify the high-performing emails, and provide you with other useful data. You can use all of this to fine-tune your approach and get better results.
Integration potential
At the root of email marketing success, you have a database of your subscribers. Most of the businesses build this list via landing pages and contact forms. The list of personal details, including email addresses and up in a CRM solution.
Transferring this list into an email marketing platform manually is a daunting task. A tool with great integration potential will enable you to effortlessly import/export and manage your list of subscribers.
Mobile-ready
We live in a world where more than half of the population owns a smartphone. You definitely have to take this fact into account when choosing the right email marketing software. The chances are that most of your subscribers will read your email on a smartphone.
Acknowledge this fact and let it guide you when you go shopping. Look for email marketing solutions with mobile-ready email templates. You have to ensure that all subscribers have the same experience.
Automation
Sending out a bulk email is not automation. The automation encompasses various features that enable you to respond to your subscribers and send automated email messages to different segments of subscribers.
When your list of subscribers is not long, you can do this manually, but if you are handling a list that has several hundreds of subscribers, you will definitely need the help of automation.
Scalability
Today’s volatile markets demand from business owners and managers to be able to react. In terms of email marketing, you need to be able to downscale or upscale your operation. Some tools support this type of activity and allow users to use the services they need at any given time.
While we are talking about scalability and cost-efficiency of email marketing efforts, you also have the option to pay per campaign – a pricing plan we saw in the Campaign Monitor’s offer. Consider your options, assess your ability to cross to other subscription plans, and make a smart decision.
Affordability
Scalability and affordability go hand in hand. A marketing budget is not indefinite. You have to find the best service for your money. When shopping, look at the number of features and limitations in terms of emails sent per month and the number of allowed subscribers.
If you want to use email marketing software and sell the services as your own, you also have to take into account the profit margin. Being able to provide dependable service while still making money is a recipe for success.
Best email marketing services for different use
Since the number of available options can confuse you, especially if you are new to this, we decided to go one step further to help you out. Below you’ll be able to find the best email marketing services for different use cases. Once you clearly define your business goals and needs, the following list will help you choose the right services for you.
Best free software
If you don’t want to invest your hard-earned cash before you see the results, you can still create an email marketing campaign for free. You may not use some of the advanced features, but the free tool will put you in a position to reach out to your customers and leads and keep them in the loop with your offer.
Best for beginners and bloggers
If you are just about to make your first steps as a marketer in the world of email marketing, you need a powerful yet easy to use tool. There’s no need to invest in email marketing services you won’t use. There’s a simple yet powerful solution to help you promote your content and reach your audience.
Best for small businesses
Small businesses usually operate with a small subscription base. Nevertheless, they still need access to features to streamline and automate email marketing. They need to prepare for the future, grow an email list, and be able to scale up and pursue business growth opportunities.
With all this in mind, it becomes easy to pinpoint specific email marketing software ConstantContact.
Best for agencies (white label)
If you are running a marketing agency and want to extend your offer with email marketing services, you need a platform that offers white labeling abilities. With such a tool in your hands, you can brand your reports and analytics while launching and managing automated email marketing campaigns.
White labeling is not that common in the world of email marketing. One of the few platforms that offer it is ActiveCampaign.
FAQs
Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy. It encompasses sending emails to prospects, leads, and customers. The goal of every email marketing strategy is to convert prospects into leads, leads into customers, and one-time customers into loyal customers.
Email marketing cost is not something that is set in stone or equal for all businesses. It depends on a variety of factors. Some email marketing services are completely free for up to 1,000 subscribers while limiting access to certain features.
The cost depends on the email marketing software you choose, the number of subscribers, and the number of emails you send every month.
Getting the first 1,000 subscribers can appear like a daunting task, but there are a variety of methods to do it. Whether it’s a content, service, or product that you offer, you can’t just expect people to find it and give you their email. You will have to work for it.
Start by telling your friends, colleagues, and people in your network to take a look at it. You can go the extra mile and ask them to share it if they like it personally. Engage with the communities in related niches and talk about your offer. Finally, you should come up with a value proposition and use it to fuel your paid advertising on social media and Google.
When collecting email addresses, you need affirmative consent from prospects or customers. This practice is encouraged by the CAN-SPAM Act. To legally collect email addresses, you need to use landing pages and sign-up forms where you can ask visitors to click a box and give you permission to collect their email addresses.
You can go one step further and inform them what you’ll do to keep their private data protected and how you’ll use their email addresses in the future. Purchasing email addresses from 3rd party companies, online directories, email address collection service providers is not an option if you want to keep things legal.
According to the CAN-SPAM Act, you can send emails to your customers as long as you have permission. The best way to ask for permission to send commercial emails is to ask for affirmative consent.
Make sure to edit your forms and landing pages and ask for permission to send emails. It will be proof that you asked for permission should you face any complaints, including the legal ones.
Getting started with email marketing may not be as hard as you’ve previously imagined. First, you will have to define your audience and clearly establish your goals. With this in mind, you can select the right email marketing software to use.
Then, you have to build a list of subscribers and create engaging emails that people would want to open, read, and take action. Now comes the fun part. You will have to schedule your emails and measure the success of your efforts to be able to make fine-tunes and achieve success.
The short answer is yes. Both Gmail and Outlook have support for bulk email marketing. However, Outlook is an email client that comes with a limit of 500 emails per day. The same limit applies to Gmail.
There is also a problem related to several supported contacts. The contact list capacity on both Gmail and Outlook is not indefinite. Both currently support up to 25,000 contacts, but Outlook has slight performance issues once the contact list goes about 10,000 entries.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a powerful digital marketing strategy bound to help you enhance your marketing efforts, reach more customers, and start building relationships with them. To do it efficiently, you need to use email marketing services.
As you could see, these ten email marketing software solutions are the most popular ones. Take your time when choosing the right email service. Each one of these solutions is unique. Each one of them offers different features and comes with subscription plans which impose certain limits.
