The 10 Best Email Marketing Services Compared (2024)
Are you tired of spending thousands of dollars on your marketing and ad spend, without getting decent results? If you’re looking to reduce the cost of consumer acquisition, you need to work on building an email list. Email marketing is just as relevant as ever before, and it’s not something that you can afford to ignore.
Email marketing remains the most effective path to positive ROI in online marketing – and the numbers really do speak for themselves:
- By 2023, more than 4.3 billion people are expected to use email (Statista, 2020).
- By 2022, the number of emails sent in a day are expected to rise to 347.3 billion. (Statista, 2020)
- When compared with other marketing strategies, email marketing offers the highest ROI. The average return is $42 for every $1 you spend. (DMA, 2019).
To put it simply, email marketing is one of the best ways to grow your business. Not only will it help you increase your sales, but you will gain a dedicated list of customers, increasing repeat visits on your platform.
But how do you find the best email marketing service? With so many email marketing solutions on the market, it can get a bit confusing. To help you get started, we compiled a list of the 10 best email marketing services, depending on your needs.
1. Constant Contact
Constant Contact is an incredibly popular email marketing service that offers users an extensive selection of email templates. Once you register, the platform guides you through all of the features that the platform offers, and gives you access to a dedicated dashboard from where you can get an overview of how your emails are performing.
It uses a simple drag and drop builder so you can customize your email templates however you see fit. As well as allowing you to resend emails to non-openers, and create nurturing campaigns based on triggers.
Who is Constant Contact For?
Constant Contact is popular among SMBs and nonprofit organizations. Many individuals also use the service to grow their social following because of its intuitive product features. However, that doesn’t mean that experienced email marketers or larger businesses can’t take advantage of the platform, they just might find it lacking some functionality offered by some other services..
How Much Does Constant Contact Cost?
Constant Contact offers two pricing plans to its customers:
- Email (starting at $20/month)
- Email Plus (starting at $45/month)
The prices increase depending upon the number of contacts you have. For Email, it starts from $20 for up to 500 subscribers, with the priciest option costing $335 for up to 50,000 subscribers.
The Email Plus plan costs $45 for up to 500 subscribers and goes up to $335/month for up to 50,000 subscribers.
The standard Email plan does not provide email segmentation, customizable pop-up forms, coupons, the ability to accept online donations, or to conduct polls and surveys. Creating automated welcome series or behavioral series is also not available with the standard plan.
Users can save 20% when they prepay for 6 months, and 30% if they prepay for 12 months.
Interested in Constant Contact? Choose your payment plan and get started today!
2. MailChimp
MailChimp is widely considered by many as an industry leader in the email marketing sector. It’s much more than just an email marketing service, however, primarily because it comes with an array of features that make marketing incredibly easy for online brands.
With MailChimp, you get access to a bunch of creative tools for creating content, landing pages, and email templates, and you can even start your own website. They also offer marketing automation tools to simplify customer journeys and add integrations.
If you are an ecommerce store owner, MailChimp is an excellent investment. It offers excellent value for money and makes integration incredibly easy with your store. You can schedule emails to reduce shopping cart abandonment and set up multiple email campaigns.
Who is MailChimp For?
MailChimp targets a broad audience and offers something for everyone. It’s ideal for ecommerce store owners, agency owners, multinational companies, bloggers, and content creators.
How Much Does MailChimp cost?
MailChimp offers four packages to its customers:
- Free ($0/month for up to 2,000 contacts)
- Essentials (starts at $9.99/month with 500 contacts)
- Standard (starts at $14.99 with 500 contacts)
- Premium (starts at $299/month with 10,000 contacts)
They also have an intuitive price calculator on their website that tells you how much it’s going to cost depending on your audience.
Prices can ramp up quite fast, but they’re still lower than most of the top competitors. For example, if you want to use the Standard plan for a list of 5,000 people, it’s going to set you back $52.99 a month.
MailChimp is used by thousands of businesses around the globe. Try it out today!
3. Kit (ConvertKit)
Kit (ConvertKit), founded in 2013, offers much more than just a template builder and an automation service. Nathan Barry, the creator, wanted to provide something other than standard email marketing features, and really stand out in a highly competitive market.
Kit (ConvertKit)’s features are designed to help you grow your audience, connect with your followers, and build your business. Some of these features include:
- Email sign-up forms
- Landing page creator
- Email designer
- eCommerce tools like Creator for building product pages
You can also connect Kit (ConvertKit) with MailOptin, or an automation service like Zapier.
Who is Kit (ConvertKit) For?
Kit (ConvertKit)’s broad feature spectrum makes it an ideal choice for small businesses and content creators. However, the interface is slightly complex, so people with prior email marketing experience will be able to extract the most value out of it.
How Much Does Kit (ConvertKit) Cost?
Kit (ConvertKit) offers three pricing plans:
- Free ($0/month for up to 1,000 subscribers)
- Creator ($29/month for up to 1,000 subscribers)
- Creator Pro ($59/month for up to 1,000 subscribers)
If you choose to pay yearly, you get two months free.
As you can expect, the pricing is progressive (the more email subscribers you have, the more you pay). It can go as high as $2,299/month for the Creator plan (up to 400k subscribers), and $2,599/month for the Creator Pro. Custom pricing is available if your subscriber count is above 500k.
Want to start using Kit (ConvertKit)? Sign up and launch your tailored email marketing campaigns!
4. Campaign Monitor
The aptly named Campaign Monitor is a popular email marketing tool that allows you to create custom email templates and campaigns to fuel your business’ growth. You can create personalized customer journeys using smart segments, comprehensive lists, and much more.
Campaign Monitor also reviews links in your emails to make sure they’re not broken, and allows you to create custom signup forms to grow your email list. One of the best features of this tool is the dedicated analytics suite that gives you a comprehensive overview of how your email marketing campaigns are performing.
Who is Campaign Monitor For?
Campaign Monitor is designed for marketers who want to get the best out of their email marketing campaigns and learn the basics through an intuitive and easy-to-use program.
How Much Does Campaign Monitor Cost?
Campaign Monitor offers three pricing plans:
- Basic ($9/month for up to 2,500 emails)
- Unlimited ($29/month for unlimited emails)
- Premier ($149/month for unlimited emails)
Like most other tools on this list, Campaign Monitor also uses a progressive pricing system. The prices listed above are valid for up to 500 contacts. You can check their pricing tool to find the right for your needs.
Get started with Campaign Monitor and start scaling your company today!
5. GetResponse
GetResponse is a powerful email marketing software program that uses a simple drag and drop builder to help marketers and business owners create stylish email templates.
You can build landing pages, design custom opt-in forms, and create tailored campaigns depending upon user behavior. GetResponse also integrates well with plugins like MailOptin, Google Docs, and CRM tools like Salesforce. It even allows users to conduct webinars to grow their audience!
GetResponse is ideal for generating leads and building custom email campaigns to promote awareness about your products.
Who is GetResponse For?
GetResponse is geared towards SMBs that want a simple, easy to use email marketing service to set up drip campaigns and nudge users along their sales funnel.
How Much Does GetResponse Cost?
GetResponse offers four pricing options for their customers. The prices below are for up to 1,000 subscribers:
- Basic ($0/month)
- Plus ($49/month)
- Professional ($99/month)
- Max (custom pricing)
If you prepay for 12 months, you will save 18%. For 24 months, you save 30%.
You can find out how much it’s going to cost you based on the size of your list through their pricing page.
Choose GetResponse as your email marketing service and get started today!
6. SendInBlue
SendInBlue is an excellent SMS and email marketing service with an efficient, easy to use dashboard and a host of tools that you can use to create engaging and good-looking emails.
It has a fantastic drag and drop email editor that’s ideal for beginners. It also allows you to create transactional emails and custom workflows for sending shopping cart abandonment messages and segmenting your audience. The company has added a range of new features as well including a landing page builder, a live chat option, and integration for Facebook ads too!
Who is SendInBlue For?
SendInBlue markets its services towards small to medium-sized businesses that are looking for affordable email marketing solutions to help them grow.
How Much Does SendInBlue Cost?
SendInBlue offers four plans:
- Free ($0/month)
- Lite ($25/month)
- Premium ($65/month)
- Enterprise (custom pricing)
All of their plans are quite flexible, and a detailed comparison list of different plans is available on their pricing page.
Choose SendInBlue as your primary email marketing service to grow your audience and create engaging emails!
7. AWeber
AWeber has been around for more than a decade. It is one of the oldest email marketing services still in play today, thanks largely due to the company’s commitment to update their offering with new features and integrations. AWeber works seamlessly with WordPress and gives you a plethora of options:
- HTML email templates
- Custom autoresponders
- Email insights and tracking
- Subscriber segmentation (tag-based)
It’s used by thousands of companies and offers multiple pricing plans that appeal to all audiences.
Who is AWeber For?
AWeber is ideal for companies that are just getting started with email marketing, and businesses that want to streamline their email marketing campaigns.
How Much Does AWeber Cost?
AWeber keeps things simple with its pricing. There are two plans:
- Free (0-500 subscribers)
- Pro ($16.5/month billed annually for up to 500 subscribers).
The cost increases to $19.99 if you choose to bill monthly. You can check their pricing tool to get a better idea about how much it’s going to cost you.
Start with AWeber today to build a comprehensive email list and improve engagement rates!
8. Drip
Drip is widely considered by many as one of the best email marketing platforms around. It offers users a wide set of tools that will help you grow your audience, build meaningful connections, and create a well-optimized sales funnel.
It includes features like automation based on user behavior, A/B testing to determine the success of your emails, and also gives you heat map tools to determine the effectiveness of your emails. For those who run an ecommerce store, the features included in Drip will allow you to propel your online store to new heights.
Who is Drip For?
Drip refers to itself as the “Ecommerce Revenue Engine,” so it’s obvious that the company markets its services for ecommerce store owners. However, marketers can also take advantage of its features.
How Much Does Drip Cost?
Drip costs $19 monthly for up to 500 contacts, and the pricing increases depending upon the size of your list. You can also add SMS marketing, which costs $0.15 per SMS. Their pricing page allows you to figure out how much it costs based on the size of your current list.
Want to grow your online store? Use Drip to generate maximum engagement and promote your products!
9. MailerLite
MailerLite offers a full-scale email marketing solution to users who want an all-in-one service to manage their email campaigns and newsletters. Despite the fact that it’s packed with features, MailerLite is incredibly easy to use, and it won’t take long for someone who hasn’t used an email marketing tool before to get the hang of it.
MaileLite allows you to segment emails based on tags, create custom lists, and use their drag and drop tool to create custom templates, or choose from the many templates available. It also allows you to build high-converting landing pages with ease.
Who is MailerLite for?
MailerLite appeals to a broad audience. It’s intuitive feature set makes it an ideal choice for both rookie and experienced marketers alike.
How Much Does MailerLite Cost?
Mailerlite uses a tiered pricing structure as shown below:
Get started with MailerLite today to build excellent emails that boost conversions!
10. ActiveCampaign
Finally, there’s ActiveCampaign. This is not just an email marketing service, but it also doubles up as a CRM tool. ActiveCampaign allows you to automate several features of your marketing campaign to drastically reduce your workload.
You can drag and drop different elements to create custom email templates and set up sequences based on user intent. The CRM also does a fantastic job of managing leads and figuring out which part of the sales journey they are at.
There’s also a SMS marketing component which you can use to stay in touch with promising leads.
Who is ActiveCampaign For?
ActiveCampaign is ideal for businesses, bloggers, and marketers who want an all-in-one solution for managing leads and growing their email lists. Many online store owners can also take advantage of the platform.
How Much Does ActiveCampaign Cost?
Active Campaign offers four plans. If you pay yearly, the cost per month for up to 500 contacts is as follows:
- Lite ($9/mo)
- Plus ($49/mo)
- Professional ($120/mo)
- Enterprise ($229/mo)
They have a slider on their pricing page that you can adjust based on the size of your email list to know how much it’s going to cost.
It’s expensive, especially when compared to some of the others on this list. But, due to the plethora of features packed into an all-in-one platform, it definitely pays for itself.
Use ActiveCampaign to grow your audience and improve your customer satisfaction rates. Get started today!
Summary – So, which is the Best Email Marketing Software?
These are all fantastic email marketing platforms, and almost all of them offer similar services to their patrons. With so many options it’s hard to single out one of these as the “best” email marketing software, because you have to look for one that best fits your needs.
So, depending on who you are and what your business does, the best email service is going to vary. To make life easier for you, we’ve a compiled a list of the best email services on the market:
Best Email Software for Bloggers and Content Creators – ActiveCampaign, Kit (ConvertKit)
Best for eCommerce Stores – Drip
Best Email Marketing Software for Small Businesses and Agencies – GetResponse, Constant Contact
Best for Large Corporations, looking to use advanced/custom templates – MailChimp
By carefully comparing features and costs, you can find one that suits your marketing requirements. As your business scales, you may want to switch to another tool that offers better value for money (as pricing with certain providers scales quite quickly with the number of subscribers you have on your email list). Now that you’ve chosen your email marketing service provider, it’s time to start growing your email list, generating leads and integrating it with your WordPress website. Fortunately, instead of having to manage a disarray of plugins & tools all depending on which email marketing platform you chose – with MailOptin, you get access to all the tools you need to convert website visitors & engage with email.
If you haven’t started growing your email list yet, the next best time is now. Don’t fall behind the competition, and build an audience that doesn’t depend on a platform like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn all of which limit how you can reach your followers.