We’ve tried a lot of different email marketing software programs over the years, and we’re going to share what we liked and didn’t like about each one. We’ll tell you how easy or difficult it was to set up and use, how much it cost us, and what kinds of results we saw.
We want you to have the information you need to make the best decision possible when it comes to your email marketing software.
Table of Contents
Email Marketing Software Reviews Cnet
The Best Email Marketing Software
Constant Contact
Benchmark
Salesforce
FreshWorks-Email-Marketing
monday.com
Sendinblue
MailChimp
ActiveCampaign
iContact
HubSpot
Email marketing has one of the highest returns on investment of any digital marketing channel, with the potential to earn around $44 for every dollar spent. For small businesses, the question isn’t whether they should invest in email marketing; it’s what software solution they should use to manage it. The best email marketing services are easy to use and affordable, and they provide list-building tools and the ability to create eye-catching messages. To help you choose the right software for your business, we evaluated the top options on their usability, affordability and features.
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HOW WE DECIDED
Our team spends weeks evaluating dozens of business solutions to identify the best options. To stay current, our research is regularly updated.
25
Considered
10
Researched
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Selected
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Email marketing software Use case Starting price Free trial period Free version available Max number of contacts in standard plans Monthly billing option Live chat support A/B testing Automation features Campaign analytics
Constant Contact Small businesses $20 per month 60 days No 50,000 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Larger businesses $400 per month No No 500,000 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Freshworks Marketing integrations $19 per month 21 days No 5,000 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Monday.com Planning campaigns Free N/A Yes N/A Yes No No Yes No
Benchmark Low-cost Free N/A Yes 175,000 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ActiveCampaign E-commerce $9 per month 14 days No 100,000 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sendinblue Growing businesses Free N/A Yes Unlimited Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Mailchimp Beginners Free N/A Yes 100,000 Yes No Yes Yes Yes
iContact Scalable option Free N/A Yes 50,000 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
HubSpot Bundled solution Free N/A Yes 15 million Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
REVIEWS
Constant Contact Email Marketing: Best Email Marketing Service for Small Businesses
Constant Contact Email Marketing
Constant Contact Email Marketing
Constant Contact’s affordable monthly plans and robust feature set should meet the needs of most small businesses.
You’ll have plenty of time to test out all of Constant Contact’s features with its 60-day free trial.
Unlike other popular email marketing options, Constant Contact does not offer a free version.
Constant Contact is our choice as the best email marketing service for small businesses. This software comes with everything you need to easily create effective email campaigns at an affordable price. Constant Contact’s plans, which are priced based on the number of subscribers you have, allow you to send an unlimited number of emails, whereas many of its competitors impose send limits.
Editor’s score: 9.5/10
In mid-November, Constant Contact announced updates to its platform to “strengthen security, improve efficiency, and empower customers to drive results.” These updates to the company’s marketing automation, campaign design and e-commerce features will allow small business users to create effective content more efficiently. Constant Contact’s product enhancements include significant campaign builder updates, including a Canva integration, Vimeo integration, new email templates, subject line recommendations and more.
The company also announced new marketing automation enhancements, like behavioral triggers and automated email campaign flows that create hyper-relevant experiences for customers based on real-time data, as well as new methods for users to manage personal data and account privacy.
Constant Contact offers two email marketing plans starting at $20 per month, which should fit into most small businesses’ budgets. Both the Email and Email Plus plans include customizable email templates with an image library, contact management and list-building tools, detailed tracking and reporting features, a mobile app, and comprehensive self-service and direct customer support resources. We were impressed with its easy-to-use email editor, which automatically pulls your logo, brand colors and social profile links from your business’s website to help you customize the available templates.
We like how Constant Contact offers a 60-day free trial, the longest trial period of all the providers we researched. The trial is limited to 100 contacts but gives you access to all of Constant Contact’s features.
READ CONSTANT CONTACT EMAIL MARKETING REVIEW
HubSpot: Best Bundled Email Marketing Service
HubSpot
HubSpot
HubSpot’s bundled Starter CRM Suite includes email marketing to kickstart your inbound marketing efforts.
You can access “lite” versions of HubSpot’s other marketing tools.
HubSpot may be too advanced for a small business’s basic marketing needs, and the pricing options can be confusing.
HubSpot offers a robust marketing product suite that includes its Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub and Operations Hub. Each of these tools is built upon HubSpot’s popular CRM platform and included in its Starter CRM Suite. This bundled option is the same price as the Starter Marketing Hub ($45 per month when you pay for a year upfront), making it an excellent and affordable solution for a growing business’s marketing needs.
Editor’s score: 9.2/10
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Sendinblue: Best Email Marketing Service for Growing Businesses
Sendinblue
Sendinblue
The flexible, no-commitment pricing of Sendinblue is ideal for growing businesses that want a volume-based email marketing plan.
Sendinblue offers a free plan with unlimited contacts, as well as prepaid email credits to increase your send limit.
Sendinblue’s free version limits you to 300 email sends per day, so you may not be able to send out a large campaign.
Most email marketing software providers charge a monthly subscription fee for a limited number of sends. While Sendinblue does offer email service pricing tiers like these, it also offers the option to purchase email credits. These non-expiring credits allow you to pay only for what you send, which makes Sendinblue a great email marketing solution for growing businesses that don’t send out hundreds or thousands of marketing emails.
Editor’s score: 9/10
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Benchmark Email Marketing: Best Low Cost Email Marketing Service
Benchmark Email Marketing
Benchmark Email Marketing
Benchmark’s free, convenient drag-and-drop email editor is a great way to get started with email marketing.
The lowest paid Benchmark plan starts at just $13 a month, which is affordable for most small businesses.
You will need to invest in a paid plan to access all of Benchmark’s features.
Small businesses that want an affordable email marketing service with excellent features should consider Benchmark. Paid plans start at $13 per month, with unlimited sends to 500 contacts. This provider also has a free plan that maxes out at 250 emails per month.
Editor’s score: 9.2/10
All Benchmark plans include automation, lead generation and reporting features. We found these functions to be somewhat limited and simplistic in the free version, though, which is missing some key features that businesses may find useful. Fortunately, the lowest-priced Pro plan ($13 per month) is still very affordable for businesses on a budget and gives you access to more advanced automation features like behavior-based email follow-up, list management and website engagement automation, automated customer journey templates, and A/B testing.
Benchmark’s drag-and-drop email editor is exceptionally easy to use, and it offers an HTML code editor for more complex customizations. This company also provides numerous customer support options, including phone, email, live chat, blogs, newsletters and videos.
READ BENCHMARK EMAIL MARKETING REVIEW
monday.com Email Marketing: Best Email Marketing Service for Planning Campaigns
monday.com Email Marketing
monday.com Email Marketing
monday.com’s workflow management capabilities can help you plan and create email marketing campaigns.
You can configure automations and workflows in monday.com to track email campaigns in progress.
You can’t send campaigns or directly manage your email contacts through monday.com, as it is not a dedicated email marketing platform.
One of a marketing department’s most difficult tasks is gathering, tracking and executing every campaign idea that its members present. Monday.com’s workflow management capabilities can help your team track email marketing campaigns through their entire lifecycle, from brainstorming to execution.
Editor’s score: 7.5/10
Monday.com users can leverage the platform’s many template options, workflow automations and views to process incoming requests and monitor progress. You can track and filter email marketing campaigns by account, priority, goal, audience, send date, reviewer, and request status. The automation functions, such as notification and update triggers, can reduce the manual work of handling requests and updating campaign progress.
Monday.com users can also take advantage of WorkForms, a new product that lets you create personalized business forms and visualize campaign progress in columns. This tool can be particularly useful for collecting, tracking, and analyzing data from your email subscribers. WorkForms offers the ability to create automated columns that connect existing documents to its boards, which means teams can access all their email campaign materials in one place.
Businesses should be aware that Monday.com is project management software, not dedicated email marketing software, so you won’t be able to send out or track the performance of your email campaigns from within the platform. However, it’s a great tool for planning campaigns and analyzing internal workflow data around email marketing.
Monday.com recently announced a new partnership with Tata Consultancy Services that will help companies streamline their intricate business processes. TCS offers IT services, in-depth consultancy, and tailor-made digital and business solutions. By integrating TCS’s decades of experience and professional team into Monday.com’s modern, no-code work operating system (Work OS), users can increase productivity and connect operations silos. The combination of Monday.com’s Work OS and TCS’s industry expertise offers solutions for businesses so they can “offload, migrate and simplify work” by bridging dashboards to build cross-organizational alignment.
READ MONDAY.COM EMAIL MARKETING REVIEW
Freshworks Email Marketing: Best Email Marketing Service for Marketing Integrations
Freshworks Email Marketing
Freshworks Email Marketing
Freshworks CRM has numerous marketing integrations, including a robust email marketing platform.
Freshworks offers a 21-day free trial, as well as add-on packages to boost lower-tier plans.
If your marketing team is large or growing, Freshworks’ monthly per-user payment models may become too expensive.
If you want to automate and integrate your sales and marketing processes at a small business-friendly price, Freshworks CRM may be the right choice for you. We like how this provider offers an all-in-one marketing solution with an email marketing function that integrates seamlessly with Freshworks’ CRM platform. This enables your business to easily and effectively communicate with prospects using custom email marketing campaigns.
Editor’s score: 9.2/10
The email marketing tool has helpful features and engagement options that benefit both your marketing team and your customers. From promotional emails and product updates to monthly newsletters and event invitations, Freshworks’ email marketing capabilities are suitable for any type of email campaign.
The Freshworks Growth, Pro and Enterprise plans are priced on a monthly per-user basis, starting at $19 per month. You can purchase individual add-on services that will boost the capabilities of your current subscription without increasing your tier. A nice option we like is the free trial. You can take advantage of the platform’s 21-day free trial before committing to a plan.
The Freshworks pricing model can quickly become expensive if you need a seat for every member of a large or growing marketing team, but if you only need one or two user accounts, it’s an affordable, user-friendly integrated marketing and CRM option for a business of any size.
READ FRESHWORKS EMAIL MARKETING REVIEW
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Marketing: Best Email Marketing Service for Larger Businesses
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Marketing
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Marketing
Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s data-first marketing tools are excellent for large businesses that want to improve their customer relationships.
You’ll get top-tier marketing features and excellent customer support with Salesforce.
With its plans starting at $400 per month, small and midsize businesses may not have the budget for Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Larger companies that want to improve their overall marketing strategy with effective email campaigns should consider Salesforce Marketing Cloud, a suite of marketing tools designed to streamline and enhance data-driven email marketing campaigns.
Editor’s score: 9/10
The feature-rich Marketing Cloud is built on Salesforce’s core CRM offering, which seamlessly integrates with your sales, marketing and customer service data. The included Email Studio tool is excellent at personalizing messages using customer data, which strengthens relationships between your business and its customers. It offers a variety of useful features with countless options for customizing your campaigns and workflow. With all its capabilities, Email Studio lets you easily create and scale campaigns for audiences of any size.
With a starting price of $400 a month, Salesforce Marketing Cloud may be out of reach for a small business with a limited budget. However, we think larger businesses that can afford Salesforce will find its features incredibly useful.
READ SALESFORCE MARKETING CLOUD EMAIL MARKETING REVIEW
ActiveCampaign: Best Email Marketing Service for E-Commerce Businesses
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign includes sales automation and advanced segmentation tools that are perfect for growing online retailers.
Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and other popular e-commerce software can integrate seamlessly with ActiveCampaign.
To access ActiveCampaign’s best e-commerce integrations and features, you’ll have to invest in the Plus tier (starting at $49 per month).
ActiveCampaign is an excellent choice for e-commerce businesses that need to send frequent customer communications such as transactional notifications, product updates and sale announcements. It has a multitude of marketing features and tools for online sellers, like custom order management, revenue reporting, customer service management, product landing pages and contact scoring.
Editor’s score: 8.8/10
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Mailchimp: Best Email Marketing Service for Beginners
Mailchimp
Mailchimp
Mailchimp’s interface is easy to learn and ideal for new users.
The free version of Mailchimp has numerous useful features.
You can only create one audience on the free plan, limiting your segmentation options.
For businesses just starting to explore the world of email marketing, Mailchimp is a solid option. Even if you’ve never used an email marketing platform before, this platform is very easy to learn and use. It’s simple to find all the features you need to start creating and running email campaigns from the dashboard.
Editor’s score: 9.4/10
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iContact: Best Email Marketing Service for Scalability
iContact
iContact
iContact is a scalable solution that allows you to increase your contact limits easily as your subscriber list grows.
You get 500 contacts and 2,000 sends per month with iContact’s free plan.
iContact’s free and standard plans have relatively few automation features.
If you want to start with a free email marketing plan and scale up as your audience grows, iContact is an ideal solution. The free version of this software allows 500 contacts and up to 2,000 sends per month. We like that it includes all the features you need to get started with email campaigns as you build up your subscriber base.
Editor’s score: 8.8/10
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HOW MUCH WILL YOU SPEND ON AN EMAIL MARKETING SERVICE?
Most email marketing service providers charge a monthly subscription fee based on the number of contacts you want to engage with and the number of emails you plan to send. Plans then vary further based on specific features. Some providers offer free versions of their software with limited features, subscribers, and sends, which can be a great risk-free way for businesses to try out email marketing for the first time.
On average, monthly plans range in price from $10 per month for 500 contacts to $4,000 per month for 1 million contacts. For businesses that only occasionally need an email marketing service, some providers offer per-email or pay-as-you-go pricing. This is a flexible option ‒ you only pay for what you use rather than paying the same amount each month for a subscription that may largely go to waste.
Email marketing services that do not offer a free version often allow you to sign up for a free trial so you can test out the software and see how it works for you. The services we examined offer trials ranging from 14 to 60 days.
TipTip: We recommend trying as many free trials as you can during your search so you truly get a feel for which email marketing service is right for your business. Pay attention to how easy it is to design emails and build your audience with each platform.
BUYING GUIDE
Email Marketing Services Features
As you compare email marketing services, here are some core features you want to look for:
A/B Testing
Many services offer A/B testing, which is the ability to test out various components of an email message to see what will resonate more with your audience. Before you do, it is important to understand how A/B testing works. A specific example is to try out two different subject lines. You can send a portion of your email list one subject and another section of your list a different subject line. Whichever gets more engagement can be used for the majority of your audience. Drag-and-Drop Email Design Tools
Most services provide a user-friendly drag-and-drop tool that allows you to customize your emails, or customizable premade templates. Some providers have templates that show you how your email will look on multiple devices (laptops, tablets and mobile phones), which can help you design a flexible and responsive email.
Analytics and Reporting
The ability to measure your campaigns’ performance is critical to understanding your ROI. Email marketing services typically include a detailed analytics platform that provides information such as your open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, audience geolocation, conversions and customer behavior trends. Some integrate with Google Analytics, while others provide their own analytics platforms that present the info in easy-to-read charts and graphs.
Marketing Automation
With marketing automation features, you can configure your email marketing software to automatically send targeted emails to certain customers when they take a specific action. For example, if a visitor to your website signs up to receive emails from you, a marketing automation workflow triggers a welcome email to go to that customer’s inbox.
FYIFYI: Marketing automation can be an effective timesaver, and many email marketing services offer ways to make automated emails more personal, which leads to higher engagement and ROI.
Segmentation
Segmentation is another helpful way to improve email deliverability to your audience by grouping or tagging them by factors like age, location, gender, industry or interests. Email segmentation allows you to target different groups, rather than sending one mass email that may not be relevant to your entire customer base.
Contact Management
A contact management tool helps you acquire, sort and manage email contacts. It also provides features like automatic deletion of dead or duplicate contacts, importing, exporting, grouping, and integrating with other management tools, like a CRM or CMS.
Social Media Integration
Integrating your social media with email marketing helps make the most of multichannel marketing by providing more information about your customers as well as more opportunities for them to see messages from you. You’ll be able to grow your contact list, schedule posts, and track your followers’ engagement to determine what’s popular.
How Will My Business Benefit From Email Marketing?
Email marketing is an effective, low-cost method of communicating with your customers and building loyalty to your company. Here are just a few of the benefits of investing in a software solution for email marketing:
- Easily manage your campaigns and contacts.
An email marketing service provides a centralized place to create, manage and analyze your email campaigns. The software manages the entire process of creating and sending your email campaigns. It also gives you feedback on how your campaigns are performing. - Improve click-throughs and engagements on your website.
A professional-looking email campaign will entice customers to click on the links you include in the email, which means higher click-through rates, increasing traffic to your website. - Provide personalized, one-to-one communications with your customers.
Today’s customers expect content that is personally tailored to them, rather than a rote email going out to a company’s entire customer base. Email marketing services allow you to segment your customers by qualifiers such as age, gender, location and interests to help you customize your messages. - Integrate email with your other digital marketing channels.
Many email marketing services allow you to embed or link to your social media platforms in your emails, which creates the opportunity for your business to advertise through multiple channels. This helps to increase brand awareness and the likelihood of return customers.
Bottom LineBottom Line: Choosing the right email software for your business can be a tough task. So, it is important to prioritize your needs and the benefits you are looking for to make sure the software you ultimately select hits all of those notes.
- Environmentally-friendly
According to a recent analysis by the email marketing company, one email produces 0.174 grams of carbon dioxide. In contrast, a paper letter sent by mail produces an average of 19.5 grams of carbon dioxide. Though email has a much smaller footprint than “snail mail,” email marketing campaigns often send hundreds or thousands of emails at a time, which means the impact can add up.
How to Choose an Email Marketing Solution
If you’re looking for a new email marketing solution, here is a step-by-step guide to help you choose the right one.
- Set goals and a budget.
Before you look for an email marketing solution, define your goals for your campaigns and determine how much you want to spend. Consider the campaign frequency and overall types of campaigns you want to run, such as special sales, general brand awareness, or customer engagement. - Research the top email marketing providers.
Search for the best email marketing software providers online or ask fellow business owners which solutions they use. The top services will often appear high up in your search results and be featured on numerous “best picks” lists. - Explore product reviews.
Online customer reviews and reviews on sites like business.com can give you a better idea of an email marketing company’s pricing, features, benefits, limitations and disadvantages, and customer support. This research will help you determine which solutions fit in your budget and deliver the features you want. - Try out a few different solutions.
Whether you sign up for a free trial of a paid plan or use a free “starter” plan, make an account with each of your top email marketing providers and get to know each one. Try using their templates, email builders, contact management tools and other features. As you use the software, note how easy (or difficult) it is to use, which software integrations it supports, and what the limitations of your plan would be. It also helps to contact customer service to ask any questions you have and to gauge how well each provider supports its customers. - Decide on your email marketing software and begin running campaigns.
When you find a software provider you love, sign up for a plan and start building your first official campaign.
10 example of email marketing service provider
Want to jump straight to the answer? The best email marketing service for most people is Sendinblue or Constant Contact.
Email is one of the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal. It can drive engagement, build relationships, and deliver a higher ROI than every other type of marketing campaign.
Success with your email strategy starts with finding the right email marketing service. Whether you’re starting a new list from scratch or just need an easier way to reach your audience, this guide has a solution for you.
Top 10 Best Email Marketing Services
Sendinblue — Best for growing your customer base
Constant Contact — Best drag-and-drop builder
MailerLite — Best for the essentials at an affordable price
Omnisend —Best omnichannel email marketing platform
HubSpot — Best for automated email marketing
Moosend — Best for ecommerce
AWeber — Best value for low subscriber count
GetResponse — Best for automated lead generation
Drip — Best for new ecommerce businesses
ConvertKit — Best for influencers, bloggers, and creators
How to choose the best email marketing services. Quicksprout.com’s methodology for reviewing email marketing services.
Over my career, I’ve managed email lists with more than 100,000 subscribers and used about every email marketing tool in existence.
Whether you’re starting a new email list from scratch or looking to switch to a new provider, this guide will help you find the best email marketing service for your situation.
Your customers miss 100 percent of the emails you don’t send. Get started today for free with one of my top recommendations.
Email Marketing Service Reviews
Sendinblue – Best for Growing Your Customer Base
SendinBlue
Visit SendinBlue
PRICE STARTS AT FREE
UNLIMITED CONTACTS
DRAG & DROP EDITOR
HIGHLY CUSTOMIZABLE
TRY IT FOR FREE TODAY
Sendinblue offers one of the most popular email marketing services on the market. Everything you need to launch and track an email campaign is built in. Add your content to their machine and watch your outreach take flight.
Don’t just take my word for it–you can use the free forever version of Sendinblue right now. You can send up to 300 emails per day without paying a cent. Once you see how it drives, you’ll understand why it’s so popular.
This is a mature platform–it’s got all of the features you expect and more. You can add live chat to your site and grab new email addresses from folks browsing your store or learning about your company.
There’s a lot to like. More than 40 customizable templates, simple tools to build workflows, and a built-in CRM with room for as many contacts as you like.
In terms of reaching more people, Sendinblue has everything you need. They provide a host of lead nurturing tools to help you grow your contact list:
Landing pages. Create actionable and engaging web pages to collect leads for you.
Sign up forms. Place forms anywhere on your website to get user information.
Facebook ads. Leverage the power of Facebook marketing to nurture more leads.
Retargeted ads. Powerful ads based on a user’s previous online interactions.
Make it as simple as possible to build that list with eye-catching forms that turn website traffic into subscribers. Sendinblue’s intuitive interface makes embedding a form no harder than a few clicks.
Screenshot of how to embed a form on a landing page in Sendinblue
It’s easy to see how these tools help you cultivate audience, lead, and customer growth. And, unlike other email marketing services, Sendinblue can support chat and SMS if you want to drive leads on your site or by text.
The platform is available via a fantastic free plan that gives you unlimited contacts and up to 300 emails per day. That’s a pretty great deal—especially if you’re running a bootstrap startup or solo operation.
Their email builder has a beginner-friendly editor that allows you to easily create the look and feel of your email.
They currently offer four different pricing tiers:
Free — 0$ per month
Up to 300 emails per day
Unlimited contacts
Chat
SMS marketing
Email template library
Lite — $25 per month
Up to 100k emails
No daily sending limit
A/B testing
Remove the Sendinblue logo
Premium — $65 per month
Up to 1MM emails
Marketing automation
Facebook ads
Retargeted ads
Landing pages
Telephone support
Enterprise — Customized pricing
Customized email volume
20+ landing pages
Customer success manager
Access for 10+ users
Dedicated IP
The Lite plans should be more than enough for most small businesses and startups.
However, as your business scales, the Premium option is always a great option. That comes with even more marketing features such as Facebook and retargeted ads, along with telephone support.
Try Sendinblue today. Start out for free, and upgrade when it’s time to grow.
Constant Contact – Best Drag-and-Drop Builder
Constant Contact
Visit Constant Contact
PRICE STARTS AT $20/MO
DRAG-AND-DROP EMAIL BUILDER
100+ MOBILE-FRIENDLY TEMPLATES
SIMPLE AUTOMATION TOOLS
GET A 60-DAY FREE TRIAL
Constant Contact is a great platform for those newer to the email marketing world.
Their intuitive drag-and-drop email builder allows you to easily create new emails that look good and on-brand—no coding knowledge is needed. Adding text, images, videos, coupons, polls, and events to any message is simple and straightforward.
Plus they provide more than 100 pre-built, mobile-optimized templates.
Constant Contact’s template options page.
It’s a really welcoming platform to work with. People who aren’t “techy” will quickly find themselves producing much more polished newsletters.
With Constant Contact, you can track the results of your campaigns in real-time. You’ll see everything from open rates to click-through rates, as well as data for each individual subscriber.
This is so important–how else are you going to know which strategies are working and which need to be put on pause?
Automation is a key benefit of Constant Contact. A lot of the legwork can be set on autopilot. For example, you can trigger welcome messages for new subscribers and set up drip campaigns based on their actions.
Constant Contact even offers a 60-day free trial, which is one of the best you’ll find in the industry.
Constant Contact Free Trial
Pricing for Constant Contact’s email software is straightforward. There are two plans for you to choose from—Email and Email Plus.
Like most email marketing platforms, your rate will be based on the number of subscribers on your list. Both plans allow you to send unlimited emails.
Here’s what some of the prices look like for each plan:
0 – 500 Subscribers — Starting at $20 per month
501 – 2,500 Subscribers — Starting at $45 per month
2,501 – 5,000 Subscribers — Starting at $65 per month
5,001 – 10,000 Subscribers — Starting at $95 per month
Plus
0 – 500 Subscribers — Starting at $45 per month
501 – 2,500 Subscribers — Starting at $70 per month
2,501 – 5,000 Subscribers — Starting at $95 per month
5,001 – 10,000 Subscribers — Starting at $125 per month
The Plus tiers continue all the way up to 50,000. Once you eclipse 10,000 subscribers, you’ll automatically be upgraded to the Email Plus plan.
For basic and professional emails, the cheaper plan will be fine. But for those of you who want to get the most out of your email campaigns, I highly recommend Email Plus.
This plan comes with more advanced features like subject line A/B testing, dynamic content, and automated behavioral campaigns. You’ll also get access to personalized demographic data, coupons, polls, and surveys.
Learn more and sign up for a free 60-day trial at Constant Contact.
MailerLite – Best For the Essentials at an Affordable Price
MailerLite
Visit MailerLite
PRICE STARTS AT $0
PREMIUM PLANS START AT $10/MO
ALL BASIC EMAIL FEATURES
A/B TESTING TOOLS
TRY MAILERLITE FOR FREE
MailerLite offers all of the essentials with none of the frills.
It’s a great option for anyone who wants a straightforward email marketing service. You’re a creator who doesn’t need a ton of bells and whistles. You just need the tools to start your newsletter or manage a simple campaign.
It’s also nice for teams. Nobody is going to be intimidated by this platform, which means everyone is going to use the core features at their disposal.
The platform still offers tools for automation, landing pages, pop-ups, and surveys, so it’s not like you’re extremely limited. But even the UI for each one is fairly spartan and straightforward.
MailerLite has a drag-and-drop editor, which makes it easy for anyone to design a high-quality message. Segment your subscribers to enhance personalization and optimize your campaigns with features like A/B testing.
MailerLite AB Testing
I’d recommend MailerLite for those of you who want simple email software at an affordable rate.
Here’s a look at the price points for MailerLite:
Up to 1,000 subscribers — $10 per month
1,001 – 2,500 subscribers — $15 per month
2,501 – 5,000 subscribers — $30 per month
5,001 – 10,000 subscribers — $50 per month
10,001 – 15,000 subscribers — $75 per month
15,001 – 20,000 subscribers — $100 per month
20,001 – 25,000 subscribers — $120 per month
25,001 – 30,000 subscribers — $140 per month
The pricing tiers continue to rise at about $20-$40 per 10,000 subscribers. MailerLite offers a 30% discount if you sign up for annual billing, making it one of the most affordable options on our list.
There is a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers, but you’re limited to just 12,000 emails per month, and you don’t get every feature. You can use this option as an extended free trial when you’re just starting out. Learn more and try Mailerlite for free.
Omnisend – Best Omnichannel Email Marketing Platform
Omnisend
Visit Omnisend
PRICE STARTS AT $0
TAILOR-MADE FOR ECOMMERCE BUSINESSES
PRE-BUILT AUTOMATIONS
CROSS-CHANNEL SALES TRACKING
TRY OMNISEND FOR FREE
Omnisend is an easy-to-use email marketing solution that’s tailor-made for ecommerce sites. They offer multiple features such as automated email and SMS messaging in order to convert leads into customers.
They do this by going a step further than most, combining text messages, web browser push notifications, email marketing, Google Customer Match, and Facebook ad retargeting to ensure you connect with the most customers as possible.
All of their channels allow for segmented campaigns. That means you’ll be able to target exactly the customer you need for your product or services.
They also have pre-built automations for actions your customer might take such as cart abandonment emails/messages, along with welcome emails/messages.
Omnisend automated actions for customers.
Their library of themed drag-and-drop templates makes creating gorgeous, on-brand emails simple.
Below is the Omnisend pricing breakdown:
Free — $0
Up to 500 emails per month and reach up to 50 contacts
Omnisend-branded email campaigns
Signup forms, boxes, and pop-ups
Reports
Standard — $16 per month
Up to 6000 emails per month and reach up to 500 contacts
Email campaigns
Signup forms, boxes, and pop-ups
Reports
SMS campaigns and automation
Audience segmentation
24/7 email and chat support
Pro — $99 per month
Unlimited emails per month
Up to 3933 SMS per month
Email campaigns
Signup forms, boxes, and pop-ups
Reports
SMS campaigns and automation
Audience segmentation
24/7 email and chat support
Web push notifications
Facebook custom audiences
Google Customer Match
Priority support
Advanced reporting
Omnisend does not base its plans on annual contracts.
I highly recommend at least the Standard plan. Having unbranded emails alone is worth the cost and you’ll also get access to their email and SMS automation tools. The 24/7 email and chat support are a must-have, too.
Learn more and signup now at Omnisend.
HubSpot – Best for Automated Email Marketing
HubSpot
Visit HubSpot
PRICE STARTS AT $0
POWERFUL EMAIL AUTOMATION
STUNNING EMAIL TEMPLATES
TRAFFIC AND CONVERSION ANALYTICS
TRY HUBSPOT FOR FREE
HubSpot is the king of marketing automation–so it’s no surprise they offer a fantastic email marketing solution for any size business.
Hubspot’s tool allows you to quickly and easily create, personalize, and optimize your emails without the need for designers or IT.
Where the software really shines is in the automated workflows. This allows you to easily set triggers for your email subscribers and nurture the leads into customers (or whatever else you want them to do).
The software’s handy mapping tool also lets you visualize this for greater clarity and easy optimization.
Hubspot mapping tool.
Think of it as a choose-your-own-adventure journey that you set for your subscribers. Depending on the specific actions they take, you can have them branch off to experience different, targeted things via email.
The email marketing service is just one tool in the Swiss Army Knife that is Hubspot. It can stand alone or be used in tandem with other offerings such as Marketing Hub and their CRM. Your email marketing only becomes stronger when coupled with those products, too.
Hubspot also has plenty of pre-made email templates to help you get the results you want. With their drag-and-drop builder, you can create great emails with no coding or development knowledge needed.
HubSpot is simple to use and allows you to customize your layout, add calls-to-action and images, and modify your content and colors to match your brand.
Use their advanced personalization tools to personalize your emails in order to boost your open and clickthrough rates with ease. You can use any information in an email subscriber’s contact records to automatically serve up the most relevant subject lines, content, links, attachments, and calls-to-action.
Their A/B testing tool is top-notch. Use it and dive into the in-depth analytics after you send your emails to see which performed better—and why.
Hubspot email reports
Use this data to determine which subject lines get the most opens and the content and calls-to-action that will earn you more sales. You can also leverage this with landing pages and signup forms to accurately get a sense of the ROI of email campaigns.
The HubSpot email tool is free for up to 2,000 email sends per month, with paid plans starting at $50/month.
Join HubSpot for free to create and send email campaigns that look professionally designed and display perfectly across any device—all by yourself.
Moosend – Best for Ecommerce
Moosend logo
Visit Moosend
STARTS AT $0
AI-POWERED ECOMMERCE
UNLIMITED EMAILS
REPORTING & ANALYTICS
TRY IT FOR FREE
Moosend offers an email marketing solution no matter if you’re a complete beginner or if you’re a seasoned pro. If you have an online store, this is the perfect tool.
From their easy drag-and-drop email builder, to their easy segmentation tool, to their accurate real-time analytics, they have all the features you need to nail your email marketing campaigns.
Our favorite thing about Moosend is their ecommerce AI. It leverages machine learning and collaborative filtering to target customers with products they might like based on the shopping habits of similar customers.
Moosend AI ecommerce tool.
You’ll also be able to easily cross sell based on customer shopping habits, and keep track of how often they buy certain products (e.g. perishables) so you can regularly promote the products they need to them when they need it.
I haven’t seen any other email marketing service do this. But it has the potential to really help out the newer ecommerce business looking to level up their targeting and segmentation game.
Moosend targeting and segmentation tool and dashboard.
Moosend also does the basics of email marketing very well. Their advanced personalization features allows you to create emails unique for your target customer. Their segmentation tool allows you to spit your audience by purchasing behavior, cart abandoned products, and more.
They don’t offer that many themes with just 40 responsive themes to choose from. However, they’re all highly customizable and eye-catching.
Pricing starts free with their premium plans starting at $8 per month. More detailed information is below:
Free — $0/month
Unlimited emails
Signup and subscription forms
Reporting and analytics
No credit card required
Pro — $8/month
Landing pages
Transactional emails
Phone support
SMTP server
5 team members
Enterprise — Custom pricing
Custom reporting
Dedicated account manager
SSO & SAML
On-boarding and migration
10 team members
Service-level agreement
Try Moosend for free for 30 days.
AWeber – Best Value For Low Subscriber Count
AWeber
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PRICE STARTS AT $19/MO
GREAT FOR <500 SUBSCRIBERS
A/B TESTING AND AUTOMATION TOOLS
700+ PRE-BUILT TEMPLATES
GET STARTED FOR FREE
AWeber is a traditional email marketing service that’s reliable and very affordable.
Where AWeber really shines, though, is its simple pricing structure. In fact, it’s very lucrative to those with small lists (500 subscribers or less).
Unlike other platforms that add features and capabilities for plans at different price points, AWeber offers all of its features with every plan.
Pricing is based strictly on the number of subscribers on your list. So you’ll get the same features whether you have 20 contacts or 20,000 contacts.
Here’s an overview of the pricing tiers.
0 – 500 Subscribers — $19 per month
501 – 2,500 Subscribers — $29 per month
2,501 – 5,000 Subscribers — $49 per month
5,001 – 10,000 Subscribers — $69 per month
10,001 – 25,000 Subscribers — $149 per month
AWeber email campaign page.
With AWeber, you’ll get all of the basic features that you expect with an email marketing service:
700+ pre-built templates
Drag-and-drop email builder
Email analytics
A/B testing
Sign up forms
Automation
Third-party integrations
Subscriber segmentation
AWeber is an industry leader in email deliverability rates. They make sure that your content is optimized to reach your subscribers’ inboxes.
You can try AWeber for free.
GetResponse – Best For Automated Lead Generation
GetResponse
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PRICE STARTS AT $15/MO
AUTOMATED SALES FUNNELS
200+ EMAIL TEMPLATES
24/7 LIVE CHAT SUPPORT
GET A 30 DAY FREE TRIAL
GetResponse is a bit more than a basic email marketing service. It’s more of an all-in-one solution that specializes in automation.
And when we say all-in-one, we mean it.
With tools and features such as audience segmentation, autoresponders, landing page builders, automated emails, advanced analytics, and even a webinar software, you’ll be able to collect beaucoup leads, put them in the right workflows, and turn them into returning customers.
One standout tool that GetResponse offers is called Autofunnel. It can be used to create funnels for sales, leads, webinars, and more. It’s fully automated and very easy to use.
Funnels include things like emails, landing pages, exit popups, marketing automation, Facebook ads, and ecommerce integration. It all depends on your goals and how you want to set it up. But GetResponse provides all the tools you need to grow your subscriber list and monetize those contacts.
Once a user enters your funnel, everything is fully automated by GetResponse. It’s the perfect way to guide customers through the conversion process with multiple digital touchpoints.
GetResponse Features
Let’s take a closer look at GetResponse’s plans and pricing.
Basic — Starting at $15 per month
Autoresponders
Unlimited landing pages
1 sales funnel
Unlimited lead funnels
Sell e-products
Plus — Starting at $49 per month
Automation builder with 5 workflows
5 sales funnels
Contact scoring capability
Webinars with up to 100 attendees
CRM software
Professional — Starting at $99 per month
Automation builder with unlimited workflows
Paid webinars with up to 300 attendees
Unlimited sales funnels
Unlimited webinar funnels
Max (enterprise tier) — Custom pricing
Transactional emails
Dedicated IP
Webinars with up to 500 attendees
Consulting services for email campaigns
Dedicated account manager
These prices are all based on 1,000 subscribers. The rate will increase as your list grows. As you can see, even the entry-level plan offered by GetRetresponse comes with advanced features like autoresponders, lead funnels, and sales funnels.
All plans come with 220 email templates, 180 landing page templates, 700 form templates, 40 autofunnel templates, 150 integrations, and 24/7 live chat support.
But to really get the most out of this software, I’d recommend the Plus plan, especially if you don’t already have CRM software. The base rate is definitely higher compared to the other services we’ve seen. However, the plan just comes with so much more.
Instead of just getting email software, you’re benefiting from building automated lead funnels, landing pages, webinars, and lots of other extras that just aren’t included from other providers.
GetResponse offers discounts for annual and 24-month contracts if you pay in advance. At the very least, you can try GetResponse free for 30 days.
Drip – Best for New Ecommerce Businesses
Drip
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PRICE STARTS AT $49/MO
24/7 LIVE CHAT AND EMAIL SUPPORT
CRM FOR ECOMMERCE STORES
AUTOMATIC REVENUE ATTRIBUTION
GET A 14 DAY FREE TRIAL
Drip is a relatively new platform. It’s a CRM that offers email marketing for ecommerce businesses.
I like Drip because they’re great for new ecommerce merchants since they focus on offering smaller, independent shops the same powerful automation and segmentation tools for email marketing as larger ecommerce stores.
As such, they’re great for newer brands looking to get a leg up.
With Drip, you can track valuable commerce metrics related to customer intent and purchase behavior.
You’ll be able to segment new website visitors from returning customers. Drip also lets you target users who abandoned their carts.
Get nitty-gritty without hours of data mining–Drip gives you tools that make it easy to target the right people with timely offers.
Drip data mining tool.
Their CRM helps you reach customers through multiple touchpoints online, including email. Drip also has a revenue attribution feature, giving you a clearer view of which campaigns are actually making you money.
Again, this is ideal for ecommerce shops.
With personalization capabilities, powerful segmentation options, and detailed analytics, Drip has everything you need to succeed with email marketing.
Pricing is based on the number of customers in your account. All plans come with the same features and benefits.
1-500 subscribers — $19 per month
501-2,000 subscribers — $29 per month
2,001-2,500 subscribers — $39 per month
2,501-3,000 subscribers — $49 per month
3,001-3,500 subscribers — $59 per month
3,501-4,000 subscribers — $69 per month
4,501-5,000 subscribers — $79 per month
5,001-6,000 subscribers — $99 per month
6,001-7,000 subscribers — $109 per month
This stretches all the way up to plans that allow for up to 140,000 subscribers before pricing becomes custom.
All Drip plans come with 24/7 live chat and email support. You can try it out free for 14 days and have access to all of the features.
ConvertKit – Best for Influencers, Bloggers, and Creators
ConvertKit
Visit ConvertKit
PRICE STARTS AT $29/MO
EXCELLENT FOR INDEPENDENT CREATORS
CUSTOM FORMS & REPORTING
EASY TAGGING AND SEGMENTING
GET A 14 DAY FREE TRIAL
ConvertKit is one of my favorite email marketing services.
It’s a perfect choice for creators of all stripes. That includes influencers, bloggers, video producers, musicians, artists, and more. That’s because their platform focuses more on engaging your audience and nurturing them with landing pages, ecommerce platforms, and membership sites.
You’ll be able to create leads out of casual visitors to your social media accounts, blogs, YouTube videos, Facebook pages, and more.
For those of you who want to build automated email funnels at an affordable price, ConvertKit will be a top option for you to consider.
ConvertKit Features
To set up automated emails, you’ll be guided through a simple visual flow chart.
Instead of having multiple lists of contacts, ConvertKit groups all of your subscribers into one list. But you’ll still be able to tag them manually for segmentation purposes or with auto tags based on their behavior to improve the personalization of your campaigns. That’s great for creators with big audiences.
ConvertKit is best for sending quick emails with clean formatting. There are no complex designs or distracting elements here.
Like most email marketing software, ConvertKit pricing is based on the number of subscribers you have.
0 – 1,000 Subscribers — $29 per month
1,000 – 3,000 Subscribers — $49 per month
3,000 – 5,000 Subscribers — $79 per month
If you switch to ConvertKit with more than 5,000 subscribers, you’ll benefit from their free concierge migration service. You can save some money and get two months for free if you sign up for an annual plan.
ConvertKit has more than 70 third-party direct integrations, customizable forms, and custom reporting. Email and live chat are available for 12 hours per day, Monday through Friday, with limited support on nights and weekends.
Still not sold? Take advantage of ConvertKit’s free 14-day trial to test it out on your own.
How to Find the Best Email Marketing Service for You
The best available email marketing service is going to be unique to you. After all, the multi-million dollar info product business is going to have very different needs than the humble blogger.
But there are specific factors that we took into consideration, because we believe that they tend to be the most important ones for most businesses.
I’ll break down the details of our process for making this list and explain what matters, what doesn’t, and what you need to know to find the best option for you.
Use our methodology to help guide your ultimate decision.
Plenty of Email Templates
There are a lot of reasons to want an email marketing service. You might want to create your first sales funnel and incorporate email into your marketing strategy. Or maybe you just want to send the occasional newsletter out to subscribers.
Whatever your reason, you want your emails to look good while you do it.
That’s why you should find an email marketing service that takes the stress out of things like formatting and typesetting by giving you a list of great email templates for any of your needs.
Many of the offerings above offer drag-and-drop email templates to help take the headache out of designing a great-looking email. With tools like MailChimp’s email builder, you’re filling out the basic info and a stunning email takes shape on its own.
They’ll also offer a variety of different email template types to fit specific purposes.
For example, Hubspot comes with a library of pre-built sales email templates ready for you and your business to use. If you want, they’ll even allow you to create your own templates unique to your business. You can customize them to your exact needs and save them for use whenever you need them.
MailChimp is another great service with tons of different email templates for different needs such as selling a product or promoting a blog post. It’s also highly customizable, allowing you to create specific ones for your brand’s goals.
Simple Segmentation
As your business grows, you’re going to want to target different parts of your audience for different products. After all, if you offer a variety of different services and products, not everyone on your list will want the same thing.
A good email marketing service gives you easy but powerful ways to segment your audience.
For example, a service like MailChimp allows you to tag segments of your audience depending on how they subscribed to your email list. That way, you can put those segments into specific targeted funnels easily and automatically (more on that later).
A service like Omnisend (pictured above) allows you to send segmented campaigns based on things like your subscriber’s interests, demographics, email open rates, and the products they’ve purchased.
It’s important to note: If you want segmentation features (and if you’re serious about email marketing, you should), you’re going to have to pay for it. This often doesn’t come with a service’s free plan. However, it’s well worth it, especially if you’re focused on growth and conversions.
In-Depth Analytics
As the old business adage goes: “If you can measure it, you can improve it.”
To that end, a good email marketing service will give you all the reporting tools you need to provide you with in-depth metrics and KPIs.
Knowing this information will give you vital data about where your subscribers live, who they are, and what they want from your business.
It’ll also help you create better services and marketing strategies in the future. For example, you’ll be able to better segment your audiences with the right analytics.
HubSpot has some of the best traffic and conversion analytic tools available. Along with their A/B testing feature, their analytics tools will let you know exactly how each of your emails perform and why.
Easy Automation
There’s nothing quite like the “set it and forget it” approach to business.
When an email marketing service is automated, you don’t have to worry about making sure that each and every one of your new subscribers is in the right sales funnel. Once you’ve set it up, they’ll receive the emails they should receive automatically.
That’s why you want to find an email marketing service that will let you easily set up automated emails without a lot of fuss and complex tagging schemes.
Constant Contact (pictured above) is a standout when it comes to automating emails. It lets you trigger welcome messages for any new subscribers and put them into specific drip campaigns depending on their actions. The simple design allows you to do this easily, too, with no headaches involved.
GetResponse is another option to definitely consider if automation is your game. Its Autofunnel platform allows you to easily create fully automated sales, leads, and webinar funnels in just a few clicks.
Top Email Marketing Services for 2022 in Summary
What’s the best email marketing service? I wish I could point you to just one, but your strategy, goals, audience, and budget are going to determine the right solution.
Use the reviews and methodology above to home in on the perfect one for you. Here’s a recap of what we covered:
Sendinblue — Best for growing your customer base
Constant Contact — Best drag-and-drop builder
MailerLite — Best for the essentials at an affordable price
Omnisend —Best omnichannel email marketing platform
HubSpot — Best for automated email marketing
Moosend — Best for ecommerce
AWeber — Best value for low subscriber count
GetResponse — Best for automated lead generation
Drip — Best for new ecommerce businesses
ConvertKit — Best for influencers, bloggers, and creators
Whether you’re starting a new list from scratch, switching providers, or looking for a full-service CRM, there’s an option for you above.
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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