You seriously need an email marketing service provider. After all, email marketing has the highest ROI compared to any other marketing channel.
The only problem? Which email marketing platform should you choose?
The best tool for the job depends exactly on your marketing needs.
In this post, I’ll be comparing 9 powerful email marketing services and sharing recommendations for various use cases towards the end.
Let’s jump right into it:
The Best Email Marketing Services
Here is a quick summary of each of platform:
- ActiveCampaign – Best all-around email marketing + automation service.
- ConvertKit – Best email marketing platform for bloggers and content creators.
- Drip – Best email service and CRM for ecommerce.
- GetResponse – Great all-in-one platform that includes email marketing, automation, sales funnels, and more.
- Sendinblue – Great free plan. Supports transactional emails and SMS marketing.
- Mailerlite – Best free email marketing service but support is not great even for those on a paid plan.
- AWeber – Long-standing email marketing service with a solid feature set.
- Sendlane – Powerful email marketing service but not ideal for beginners due to their starting price point.
- SendX – Budget friendly provider but lacking some important email marketing features.
1. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a leading email marketing platform known for having the most effective balance between functionality and affordability.
This tool has a very rich feature-set that goes beyond email marketing. It has an extremely powerful visual automation builder – one of the most effective I’ve tested.
When it involves the core emailing functionality, you’ve got all the features you would like. For example, you’ll be able to choose between a variety of email templates or design your own with a drag & drop editor.
You have several different options for sending your campaign emails, choose from: one-off emails, timed campaigns, automated emails, RSS-based, A/B testing, or auto-responder.
ActiveCampaign features a lot to offer in terms of contact management. You get lots of ways to filter contacts, and full history of how your contacts have interacted with you – this works in sync with their site & event tracking functionality. List cleaning functionality is included, which might even be done via automation sequences.
Segmenting your email list is straightforward, and you will have access to advanced functionality such as A/B testing and dynamic content. These two features alone can assist you get more opens, clicks, and conversions.
Balancing functionality, price, and performance, ActiveCampaign is the greatest all-round email marketing service.
ActiveCampaign’s offering is configured in such a way that it makes industry-leading marketing automations available to individual content creators and small businesses, while also supporting larger businesses with enterprise-specific functionality.
You’ll find user accounts available for your team, live chat, on-site messaging, custom domains, CRM & sales automation, and lots more.
Key Features:
- Powerful marketing automation – ActiveCampaign has one of the best feature-rich visual automation builders around.
- Large library of automation sequences saves you a lot of time & effort – Don’t waste your time building long automation sequences from scratch. Import pre-made sequences you’ll be able to edit in moments.
- Site & event tracking – Automate your email marketing campaigns based on triggering of events, and the way your visitors interact with your website to maximize ROI.
- Inclusive live chat functionality – Add live chat to your website in minutes that connects to your automation sequences effortlessly. Use mobile apps to quickly reply to live chat messages from anywhere.
Pricing:
Plans start at just $9/month (paid yearly) for their lite plan which includes all the necessary email & automation features most people need. You can upgrade your plan to unlock additional features such as site messaging, custom domains, CRM, SMS marketing, and more.
Try ActiveCampaign Free
2. ConvertKit
ConvertKit is an email marketing service with a strong focus on bloggers & content creators.
Most platforms specialize in trying to please everyone. ConvertKit doesn’t. Instead, they cater to the wants of a specific audience – bloggers & content creators.
The result’s a well-crafted tool that’s incredibly simple to use. You will get the all-important features necessary to start such as visual automation, with the addition of opt-in forms & landing pages. While you’ll get more mileage out of a dedicated landing page builder, it’s a pleasant choice to have for building your email list.
Simple reporting gives you an honest top-level view of how your forms are performing, and the way your email list is growing overall, and tagging/segmentation is extremely easy.
You can add different email sequences, then pull them into the visual automation builder. You’ll do the same with forms too. With most platforms, you’d need to jump between these options, but you’ll be able to open both directly while editing your automations.
Given ConvertKit’s simplicity, there are some limitations. For instance, filtering your subscribers isn’t as easy as other platforms, there’s no spam scoring, and there’s no visual email builder as such.
But, if you’re new email marketing and you’re after simplicity without sacrificing powerful email automation functionality, make certain to give ConvertKit a try.
Key features:
- Simple user interface – The interface makes it very easy for you to get your email list started without too much of a learning curve.
- Powerful but simple visual automation – If you’re a beginner to email marketing, you’ll appreciate the simplicity that ConvertKit offers. That said, you’ll be able to do quite a lot with their email automation builder without any prior experience.
- Ideal for those with multiple lead magnets – Each form or landing page you create can deliver a special lead magnet.
- Opt-in forms and landing pages included – Create opt-in forms and landing pages in minutes without needing any other tools.
Pricing:
A free plan is available for up to 1,000 subscribers but doesn’t include visual automations or email sequences. Paid plans start from $29/month up to 1,000 subscribers but it allows for unlimited email sends.
Try ConvertKit Free
3. Drip
Drip position themselves as an ecommerce CRM, and while they do that job incredibly well, they’re one of the most effective all-round email marketing services I’ve tested.
You can create drip email campaigns, individual broadcasts, or use their robust visual automation builder. One particularly great feature is the ability to split test within different automations.
You can send simple emails that do a good job of getting out of the promotions tab or you can choose to use their visual email builder for branded emails.
They have lots of reporting functionality available. And for those of you that are running ecommerce sites, you’ll find ecommerce specific reports that are actually very useful.
Even if you’re not running an ecommerce site, Drip is well worth testing out if you are looking for an email marketing service. Hands down, it’s one of my favorite email marketing platforms to use for my websites.
Key features:
- Robust email automation with split testing – Drip’s visual automation builder is very straight-forward to use, and it allows you to split-test your automations directly.
- Power more sites for less – If you run multiple sites Drip becomes much more affordable. rather than having to get individual accounts for every site, you’ll be able to simply add a secondary user account to your main account.
- A strong-focus on ecommerce – Drip’s feature sets are uniquely catered to ecommerce sites and even has ecommerce specific reporting.
- On-site tracking for complete history – Like some other platforms on this list, you only get a full view of everything your subscribers do on your website and can only use that data to build out your email automation sequences.
Pricing:
Plans start from $19/month for 500 subscribers with unlimited email sends.
4. GetResponse
GetResponse is a veteran amongst other email marketing software platforms.
While there was a time when GetResponse was losing ground to other platforms, they have recently stepped up their game by adding a slew of new features and services.
While their core email marketing product has always been strong since the beginning, the addition of visual marketing automations, landing pages, webinars, CRM, and other new features has helped GetResponse become more of an all-in-one platform.
There is an excellent selection of email templates, which are organized by industry. Split testing is also available for your newsletters too. The visual email builder is drag & drop and has built-in preview functionality & spam scoring.
Contact management provides for easy filtering, list hygiene, and reporting. You’ll find a visual automation builder that’s functional, and like ActiveCampaign, as it comes with automation templates to get you up and running.
Out of all the features that GetResponse offers, what impressed me most was their Conversion Funnel feature. In conjunction with their other features, they’ve created a platform that provides you with everything you need to create an entire sales funnel.
This includes ad creations to fill your funnel, the creation of your landing pages, webinar creation, exit-intent popovers, sales page creation, ecommerce integrations & payment processor integrations. You’ll also be able to build your own store within the platform.
And since you can do all this within a single tool, analytics & reporting are exceptionally convenient.
The only issue I have with GetResponse is it’s complex pricing. It seems designed to confuse. For instance, some basic automation functionality such as segmentation, and on-site tracking isn’t available until you get to the higher plans.
Key features:
- Powerful email marketing automations – The visual automation builder is very straightforward to use and comes with templates to assist you get started.
- Create entire sales funnels fast – Autofunnel allows you to create well designed sales funnels in within a couple of minutes.
- Landing page & form creation made easy – While plenty of email marketing tools may offer a landing page builder, it’s typically quite limited. This isn’t the case with GetResponse.
- Built-in tools for store creation – you’ll be able to build your own mini ecommerce store within GetResponse which is great for those selling digital products. Alternatively, you can integrate payment gateways or additional ecommerce platforms.
Pricing:
Plans start at £11/month with access to basic features. Higher plans unlock more features. Unfortunately, not all of the automation features are available until you subscribe to those higher plans.
Try GetResponse Free
5. Sendinblue
Sendinblue stands out amongst competitors as an email marketing tool that delivers incredible value without sacrificing functionality.
You’ll find valuable core features like a drag & drop email builder, feature-rich marketing automation, and more specialized features such as spam testing & A/B split testing.
Sendinblue stands out in a couple of ways. Firstly, they provide transactional email.
What is transactional email? Well, there are two types of email. Marketing & transactional. If you send newsletters, then this is often classed as marketing email.
The difference is that transactional emails are related to product purchases and account sign ups – the sort of emails needed by default. So, if you run an ecommerce website or any other site that has to send account related emails – you’ll find this especially useful.
Not only that, but Sendinblue also prices its services based on the number of emails you send, not the number of subscribers you have. So, if you find yourself sending emails on a regular basis, you may save a lot of money with Sendinblue.
It’s also worth noting that automations are capped at 2,000 contacts unless you upgrade to the Premium or Enterprise plans.
Overall, Sendinblue offers a deep feature set which is extremely impressive once you consider their low price point. and that they have a powerful user interface which makes the platform enjoyable to use.
Key features:
- Excellent email automation – Amazing to see such powerful automation at such a reasonable price point.
- Transactional email tool – If you run a website that needs transactional emails, you’ll be able to run everything through Sendinblue. Transactional SMS messages are also supported on higher tier plans.
- Landing page builder & Facebook Ads – On higher tier plans, you get access to a landing page builder, and Facebook Ads integration.
- Integrated live chat – Live chat is offered on higher plans. this is great because you can integrate it along with your email automation and it’s one less tool you need in your marketing stack.
Pricing:
You can send up to 300 emails per day for free with limited features. Opt for the Lite plan in order to send 100,000 emails per month and unlock more features. Higher tier plans unlock even more features, and “Pay as you go” style pricing is available.
6. Mailerlite
Mailerlite is an email marketing software that has gained tons of recognition in recent years due to its feature-rich free plan.
You get access to a very simple to use interface, effective subscriber management, drag & drop email builder, and a full-featured visual automation builder.
You can segment your subscribers, remove inactive subscribers with a few clicks, and look at subscriber activity. you can split test your campaign emails or send emails via RSS.
The visual email builder has some great templates included and it can be used to design emails used within your automations (paid plan required).
In recent years I’ve started using Mailerlite for my smaller sites as a replacement for MailChimp. I began to notice open rates dropping with MailChimp, and it makes sense – all the people adding me to newsletters without my permission seem to use MailChimp. Whereas Mailerlite must approve all new customers before they’re allowed to send emails.
Overall, I was very impressed by the simplicity of the platform overall, given the features included. and I love that there’s a simple paid plan that unlocks all features not included in the free version. So, whether you’re paying $10/month or $1,000/month – you’ve got access to all features.
I have had variety of glitches with Mailerlite. Support couldn’t resolve them and every time their team took 3+ weeks to return with an answer of “we don’t know” or “we couldn’t find a problem” – that is why I chose not to feature it highly on this list.
Key features:
- Great free plan – Get a free plan for up to 1,000 email list subscribers, and hardly any feature limitations. Custom domains, promotional popups, visual email builder, email templates, live chat support, auto-resend, and a couple of other features require a paid plan. Still, not bad at all!
- One of the most cost-effective email providers I’ve found – It’s just crazy how much cheaper Mailerlite is compared to other providers. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is difficult to say.
- Built-in landing page & opt-in form builder – You won’t get as much mileage as you would normally get from a purpose-built platform like Leadpages but it’s great in comparison to what comes with some other competitors on this list.
Pricing:
A free starter plan is offered with access to most features and limited support. You’ll get a free trial of premium features. Paid plans start at just $10/month which offers access to all features.
7. AWeber
AWeber was one of the first email marketing tools I ever used. They’re one of the few platforms to remain true to its core focus – email marketing.
If you would like a robust solution for sending emails that’s simple (but not too simple), AWeber is a good choice.
They offer an excellent drag & drop email builder with a huge selection of over 700+ templates to make your emails look stunning. And since they’re a preferred platform, you’ll find that a lot of tools integrate with them.
Adding tags is straightforward, and split testing allows you to test your subject lines, email content, and more.
You can also filter your email subscribers and have access to robust reporting analytics. AWeber does in fact offer automation but there’s no visual builder which may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your preferences.
One significant downside to AWeber is that unsubscribes count towards your plan and they need to be manually deleted.
Key features:
- AI powered email template designer – Designing emails that look great has never been easier using Aweber.
- Landing page creation – Create landing pages in minutes to support your email list growth.
- Large selection of email templates – Access to over 700+ email templates.
- Choice of traditional autoresponder or automation – If you don’t need full email automation, you’ll be able to use AWeber’s auto-responder. Automation is easy to use but they don’t have a visual builder like other tools on this list.
Pricing:
Plans start from $19/month for 500 subscribers and unlimited email sends.
Try Aweber Free
8. Sendlane
Sendlane is a relative newcomer to the email marketing space, in comparison to some on this list. That said, they have a rich feature set.
You can do all of the basic campaigns and newsletters that every other platform offers. Select from a variety of email templates or build your own with the drag & drop builder. You can also use tags and custom fields to segment your list and view real-time analytics.
Sendlane features a particularly well-refined visual editor for creating emails. It’s drag & drop with a very slick user interface.
Like some other platforms on this list, you’ll find that some features are locked behind higher tier plans. However, some plans are only available after a certain size email list.
Regardless, Sendlane features a lot to offer and is really sticking it to some of the more established email marketing heavy hitters with its deep feature set. give it a go for yourself!
Key features:
- Machine learning to optimize send times – If you would like to boost your open rates, this will help you.
- Automated list hygiene – When adding a brand-new list, you’ll be able to automatically clean your list and choose exactly which parameters to choose.
- Visual automation builder – Create automation sequences easily using Sendlane’s visual automation builder.
- Pre-built automation sequences – Want to re-engage with inactive subscribers? Or deliver a digital product? You can easily import pre-built automation sequences to help you get started.
Pricing:
Plans start at from $99/month while additional features are only available on higher tier plans.
9. SendX
SendX is one of the newer email marketing services on the market compared to others on this list.
Despite competing with tons of established brands, they’ve come out of the gates swinging with a feature-rich platform that’s a lot cheaper than a number of their competitors. In fact, in comparison to a per subscriber basis, it beats out most other platforms on this list.
The interface is super simple and easy to find your way around, and it’s easy to manage your contacts. Unsubscribed and bounced contacts are easy to find as well. In your contact history you’ll be able to see a timeline of their activity.
Campaigns can be either be setup as a newsletter or a drip campaign. You can also do split A/B tests for your campaigns or trigger campaigns based on site activity.
They have a drag & drop email builder and an affordable selection of templates you can use.
SendX sadly doesn’t have a visual automation builder yet (it’s on their product roadmap). However, what they do have is a rule-based if X happens then Y happens style system.
If you have any issues integrating SendX with other tools, you’ll be able to use Zapier to open up the ability to connect to 1,500+ other apps.
Key features:
- Simple landing page & popup builder – You get a couple of nice-looking templates to get you started, and some pretty deep functionality. for instance, popovers allow you to select trigger behavior such as scroll depth, time spent on site, and exit-intent.
- Team accounts – Considering SendX is fairly new to the email marketing world, I wasn’t expecting to have team accounts, but they have that too which is nice.
- Click-heat maps for email campaigns – See where people are clicking on your email campaigns.
- 500,000+ stock photos included – Want to feature stock photos to your emails? you can now.
Pricing:
Plans start from $9.99/month up to 1,000 email subscribers and an unlimited amount of email sends.
Try SendX Free
How To Choose The Best Email Marketing Service For Your Business
The best email marketing service will depend exactly on your business’s needs.
Here are a couple of recommendations based on specific needs:
- You want the most effective tool for email marketing & automation – ActiveCampaign and Drip are two platforms to think about.
- You need sales, CRM & live chat functionality combined with best-of-breed email marketing – ActiveCampaign is for you.
- You need an all-in-one tool for email marketing, automation, sales funnel, and selling digital products – GetResponse is for you.
- You’re searching for the simplest email marketing tool, but you still want visual automation – look into ConvertKit.
- You want the best value for money – Sendinblue, Mailerlite, and SendX are the platforms to consider.
- Are you a blogger or content creator? ConvertKit is built for you.
- Do you run an ecommerce website? Consider ActiveCampaign, Drip, or Sendinblue.
- You need transactional email as well as marketing email – check out Sendinblue.
- You want a basic free plan to get you started – Sendinblue and Mailerlite are the platforms to look at.
Wrapping It Up
Email marketing has a higher ROI than any other marketing channel. It’s not just important for businesses – it’s critical.
With the email marketing services we’ve discussed throughout this post; you’ll be able to find a tool that aligns perfectly with the needs of your business.
Everything from simple email marketing to all-in-one platforms to help power your entire sales funnel. For instance, some providers offer marketing automation, landing pages, and live chat on top of their core email functionality.
The best part is most of these tools offer free trials, and most of them won’t require a credit card to get started. So, try a few on this list and see what you think – ultimately, it’s your opinion that matters most.
You can read more related content here: Marketing Sprouts Blog