5 Powerful Email Marketing Tools Compared – Which One Is the Best?
Email marketing offers one of the best ROIs (return on investments) you can get for your money in the marketing world — averaging $33 for every $1 spent, so it’s no wonder that there’s a variety of email marketing tools looking to capitalize on such a lucrative market.
In this guide, we’ll introduce you to the 5 best email marketing services currently available and their prices. We also thoroughly checked each tool in an in-depth review. So if you want to learn more about one of them, click the button below each introduction and head to the review.
Table of Contents
The 5 Best Email Marketing Tools
1: Mailchimp
Source: Screenshot https://mailchimp.com
An Introduction to Mailchimp
Mailchimp is the most popular email marketing platform; in fact, it absolutely dominates with over a 69% market share, eclipsing competitors which are all under 10%.
Originally started by Ben and Dan who founded a web design company together they started Mailchimp as a side hustle in response to massively expensive email marketing platforms of the day.
In some cases going door to door to pitch Mailchimp and signing up customers one-by-one. Today they may be a big business, but they keep that small business ethos in everything they do.
Mailchimp Functionality
Naturally having such a large market share gives Mailchimp the revenue to innovate and iterate at-will meaning you’ll see all the common email marketing software functionality such as:
Newsletter builder to create a stunning newsletter every timeMarketing automationReal-time campaign analyticsTransactional emails and more
But recently Mailchimp has expanded beyond just being another email marketing software you can now build landing pages, digital ads, postcards, and more.
Mailchimp Pricing
Even though Mailchimp offers so many different products they’ve done a reasonably good job at keeping their pricing straightforward.
In total, they offer four plans.
Free — Includes 2,000 contacts and basic functionality. Essentials — Up to 50,000 contacts, more functionality such as A/B testing and 24/7 support.Standard — Up to 100,000 contacts, all other functionality plus behavioral targeting, dynamic content and more. Premium — 200,000+ contacts, all other functionality plus advanced segmentation, phone support and more.
Pricing wise, Essentials starts from $9.99/month, Standard starts at $14.99/month and premium starts at $299/month.
And we say “starts from” as Mailchimp charges based on the number of contacts you have so pricing can vary.
Get Mailchimp Read Our Mailchimp Review
2: GetResponse
Source: Screenshot https://sendy.co/
An Introduction to GetResponse
GetResponse is one of the smaller players in the email marketing world with just a 0.90% market share compared to Mailchimps 69%. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider using them.
Initially founded in 1997 and with the domain registered in 1998 GetResponse has certainly been around a while which is why it’s won awards for the best email template and landing page builder as they’ve had time to perfect their craft.
GetResponse Functionality
Like Mailchimp, GetResponse is more than an email marketing software offering landing pages, marketing funnels, and more. It’s more of a full-service marketing platform.
It offers all the functionality you’d expect from an email service provider such as:
Advanced list managementEmail statistics Newsletter builderPre-built templatesAnd much more!
GetResponse Pricing
There are no free plans for GetResponse, which means if you’re a small startup or a mom & pop business you might want to look elsewhere to save some dollars. However, if you’re willing to spend some money then GetResponse does have a range of fairly priced plans including:
Basic — which includes email marketing, funnel builder for one funnel, and more. Plus — includes everything from basic plus automation support, webinars, and more. Professional — includes everything from Plus along with an unlimited automation builder, on-demand webinars, and more. Max — includes everything from Professional along with dedicated support, a dedicated IP address, and more.
The pricing for GetResponse is also based on the number of contacts you have. The plans are respectively priced at $15/month, $49/month, and $99/month based on 1,000 contacts while the Max plan is a custom plan which requires you to message the GetResponse team.
Get GetResponse Read Our GetResponse Review
3: MailerLite
Source: Screenshot https://www.mailerlite.com/
An Introduction to MailerLite
MailerLite was originally created after the founder read ReWork — a book by Jason Fried and DDH, a popular book on how the workplace doesn’t have to be 80+ hour weeks and manic.
It was a slow burner having revenue of just over €1,600 in year one but then in year 3 they hit a million euros in revenue and never looked back.
More than 900,000 businesses use MailerLite to send over a billion emails every month.
MailerLite Functionality
MailerLite has a stunning modern interface that makes it a delight to build email campaigns and landing pages alike. Just like the other email marketing softwares we’ve explored so far MailerLite also has a range of marketing functionality.
You’ll find everything you expect from an email marketing software but you’ll also find unexpected surprises like a drag and drop website builder.
MailerLite Pricing
MailerLite has a more straightforward pricing structure than most other email marketing softwares offering a free plan and a paid plan.
The free plan includes 1,000 subscribers although you can also upgrade to the paid plan starting at $10/month for 1,000 subscribers if you want additional functionality.
All paid plans include a wide array of features including:
Website builderLanding pagesA/B Split testing and much more
For the full range of what’s included check out the MailerLite pricing page.
Then in addition to the 2 plans, there are also add-ons which can be added:
SitesPro — build unlimited websites and landing pages (the paid plans are usually limited to 5 pages and one website). This comes in at $10/month. MailerPro — priority email and chat support along with a dedicated support member to help you create templates, analyze your sending and be GDPR compliant all for $100/month.Dedicated IP — perfect for people who send a large number of emails that don’t want to be impacted by other senders. Available for a reasonable $50/month.
Get MailerLite Read Our MailerLite Review
4: ConvertKit
Source: Screenshot https://convertkit.com/
An Introduction to ConvertKit
ConvertKit was founded by Nathan Berry out of passion and a need. He’d dabbled in apps before and had already successfully sold $12,000+ worth of product in 24hrs by writing a book and sending a mailing out via Mailchimp.
But he had a passion and desire to build something powerful and yet easy to use. Something that makers could use to easily sell and market their products.
And that’s the short story of how ConvertKit was born. Today ConvertKit has over 50 employees and does more than $1.4 million in monthly revenue.
ConvertKit Functionality
ConvertKit is a powerhouse email marketing software with a range of features including:
Email marketing automationFunnel builderPersonalized content sendingLanding pagesAnd much more
Then there’s also the ability to sell digital products directly via your ConvertKit sent newsletters making this a great tool for digital creators.
ConvertKit Pricing
Honestly, ConvertKit has some of the best pricing in the email marketing world.
Free — $0 forever, includes 1,000 subscribers and most importantly unlimited landing pages and forms, this is something competitors charge hundreds of dollars for. Creator — starting from $29/month Creator includes everything in free along with marketing automation funnels, premium support, integrations, and more. Creator Pro — starting from $59/month Creator Pro includes everything from Creator along with Facebook custom audiences, deliverability reporting, subscriber engagement scoring, newsletter referral system, priority support and more!
Like most other email marketing softwares ConvertKit charges on the number of subscribers. Head on over to their pricing page to calculate your price.
Get ConvertKit Read our ConvertKit Review
5: Sendy
Source: Screenshot https://sendy.co/
An Introduction to Sendy
Sendy is a different premise in the email marketing world. In contrast, almost all email marketing tools are SaaS apps (meaning they are hosted applications you pay monthly to use). Sendy is a self-hosted app (you host it on your own server) and it sends via Amazon SES (again your own Amazon SES account).
So overall Sendy is a more DIY solution than the other tools we’ve mentioned here but definitely an interesting prospect.
Sendy Functionality
Like we’ve mentioned Sendy is self-hosted, and it includes less functionality than the other email marketing services we’ve covered but nonetheless if all you need is an email sending platform without all the extra functionality of landing pages then Sendy could prove to be a great choice.
Being self-hosted, it’s more for the tech-minded and shouldn’t really be considered by those that don’t want to tinker with settings and get the best out of it.
Sendy Pricing
Because Sendy is so different from all the other email marketing software we’ve covered so is the pricing. Sendy comes in at $59 as a one-time fee for installation on one domain.
You then have the cost of sending the emails via Amazon SES which is roughly $1 for every 10,000 emails.
Working out far cheaper than SaaS-based alternatives. In fact, if you have a large enough list you could save thousands a month.
Get Sendy Read our Sendy Review
Wrapping Up
There is a range of fantastic email marketing tools available to send your newsletters from and deciding on exactly what one works for you can be tricky. We hope that this introduction helped you to get a good overview and find a suitable tool for your needs.
Check out the in-depth reviews we posted for each email marketing platform too to learn more about them. And you could also have a play around with softwares that offer a free plan like ConvertKit and Mailchimp to see which one works best for your use case.
And remember it’s not all about price. Deliverability is important too! After all its no good sending 1,000 emails if 999 end up in the spam box is it?
