Category: Automation

Email marketing platforms are the second most important medium after social media marketing to build brand awareness, boosting a 4200% ROI for every $1 spent. And with 21% of emails opened within the first hour of delivery, there’s no reason why email marketing is one of the determining factors for a brand’s success.

There’s a great deal of difference between ordinary and extraordinary email campaigns. The latter puts customers at the heart of email marketing efforts, often elevated by feature-rich email marketing providers (ESP).

What Is An Email Service Provider?

An email service provider or ESP is an email marketing software that assists email marketers set up flawless email campaigns, manage contacts, among others. 

How To Choose An Email Marketing Platform

With multiple ESPs offering a wide range of products, you need to make an informed choice based on your business goals. Let’s have a quick lowdown on what to look forward to while selecting an ESP:

1. Free vs Paid features. Most of the well-known ESPs have features that are completely free for use. These can include templates, subject line checkers, A/B testing, and so on.
2. Integrations with other tools. What are the different tools the ESPs integrate with? How can they benefit your email marketing efforts?
3. What are the designs like? If you’re getting the option of landing page designs, do they align with your brand/business designs?
4. Does it include email automation?
5. What are the different types of personalization available (for customers)?
6. What are the reporting features like?
7. What’s the cap on free resources that you can create?
8. How does the customization features for your brand work?
9. Do they have great customer support?

 Best Email Marketing Platforms Comparison

Tool	Price (1000 subscribers/contacts)	Free Plan/Trial	Unique Feature
SendInBlue	$25/month	Yes	SMS marketing options
MailChimp	$60/month	Yes	Multi-step custom workflows
ConvertKit	$15 for 300 contacts	Yes	Customizable landing page templates
HubSpot	$20/month	Yes	Powerful CRM tool
MailerLite	$10/month	Yes	Open rate by location
Klaviyo	$20 for 500 contacts	Yes	Detailed insight into campaign performance
AWeber	$40/month	Yes	Email testing across devices
ActiveCampaign	$29/month	Yes (14-day trial)	Event tracking options
GetResponse	$19 for 1,000 contacts	Yes	Automated sales funnels
Campaign Monitor	$9 for 500 contacts	Yes	Branded transactional emails
Benchmark	$49/month	Yes	User-friendly email editor
Moosend	$16/month	Yes (30-day free trial)	Advanced audience segmentation
Omnisend	$16/month	Yes	Best for ecommerce automation
Mailjet	Free	Yes	Good transactional service
Constant Contact	$35/month	Yes (60-day trial)	Event invitations management
DotDigital	Flexible pricing	NA	Several CRM-like capabilities
Drip	$39/month	Yes (14 day trial)	N/A

The caveat is that a deluge of ESP options out there, it can get extremely frustrating for email marketers to take a pick.

Does this problem statement resonate with you? Fret not as we’ve done the groundwork for you.

SendInBlue

Sendinblue goes beyond your typical email marketing software. It offers a complete sales and marketing toolkit. Whether you are looking forward to transactional messages, integrated CRM or multichannel marketing tools including Whatsapp campaigns, live chat, push notifications, SMS and more, this one ESP takes care of it all like a boss.

Sendinblue email marketing also comprises of powerful features that includes – 

• Focused audience segmentation
• personalized content
• A/B testing
• Send time optimization
• Intuitive drag-and-drop email editor
• Fully responsive templates 

Marketing automation – Sendinblue also offers a range of marketing automation tools, which helps you leverage –

• Autoresponders like welcome emails
• Complex workflows based on user behavior
• If/then scenarios
• Lead scoring
• Automated contact management

The Tracker feature also lets you trigger emails based on a visitor’s interaction with your website. Sendinblue also comes with the option to send transactional emails such as – order updates, account confirmations, password recovery and more. In addition, there are several ready-to-use plugins that allow integrations with ecommerce platforms such as – Woocommerce and Shopify.

What We Love:

• View detailed heat maps, which are extremely handy for your future email campaigns.
• Store unlimited contacts at no cost, which is also included as a part of their Free or basic plan.

Scope For Improvement:

• Reporting: Some users have noted that Sendinblue’s reporting and analytics features may be more limited compared to some of its competitors, particularly for businesses looking for more detailed insights into their email campaigns.
• Customer Support: While Sendinblue offers customer support, some users have reported that the response time may be slower compared to some of its competitors, particularly for more complex technical issues.

Mailchimp

Think email, and the layman would think of Mailchimp.

Over the years, the ESP has gained tremendous popularity levels, especially among rookie marketers. And there’s a valid reason for the same – a simple user interface of the drag-and-drop email builder with professional templates available on fingertips, anyone can create spectacular emails within no time.

With Mailchimp it’s also possible to create unlimited landing pages using its pre-loaded templates, use advanced tools like A/B testing, segmentation, add sign up forms, and send time optimization.

What We Love:

• Option to personalize email copy such as adding product recommendations
• Pre-built workflows that lets you craft your own customer journeys
• Amplify multichannel marketing with social media scheduling and ads

Scope For Improvement:

• Deliverability Issues: Mailchimp has been known to have deliverability issues in the past, with emails sometimes ending up in subscribers’ spam folders.
• Complexity: While Mailchimp is user-friendly overall, some users may find certain aspects of the platform, such as creating automations, to be more complex or difficult to navigate.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is an email marketing service targeting online creatives like bloggers and YouTubers. Email marketing features include the ability to segment your list and personalize email campaigns using tags, as well as A/B testing for subject lines.

You can grow your audience with customizable landing page templates and signup forms designed to increase conversions. And if you’re using downloadable content as an incentive, it’s easy to automatically send materials after someone fills out your form.

ConvertKit’s automation software provides a visual way to set up email drip campaigns powered by subscriber behavior. The workflow editor shows you what your sequences look like in action and makes it easy to alter the path subscribers take. And if you need help getting started, there are automation templates for use cases like webinars and product launches.

All plans let you send unlimited emails and come with live chat and email support. For paid plans, pricing is based on how many subscribers you have.

What We Love:

• Visual Automation Builder: ConvertKit offers a visual automation builder that makes it easy for businesses to create complex email automations without needing to know how to code.
• Integrations: ConvertKit integrates with a wide range of third-party tools and platforms, including WordPress, Shopify, and more.

Scope For Improvement:

• Limited A/B Testing: ConvertKit’s A/B testing features may be more limited compared to some of its competitors, particularly for businesses looking to run more complex tests.
• Price: ConvertKit’s pricing may be relatively high compared to some of its competitors, particularly for businesses with larger email lists or those just starting out with email marketing.

HubSpot

HubSpot provides email marketing capabilities through its Marketing Hub and Sales Hub (CRM). The Marketing Hub is dedicated to growing traffic and generating leads through email campaigns, landing pages, social media ads, live chat, video, SEO, and content.

In addition to these features, the Sales Hub adds email tracking and scheduling, CRM, predictive lead scoring, sales automation, email sequences, and reporting. For businesses requiring ticketing and support features, HubSpot’s Service Hub provides these capabilities.

HubSpot’s offerings cater to sales-oriented businesses like SaaS and cover all digital marketing areas. The free plan allows users to send up to 2,000 emails per month and store up to 1,000,000 contacts. The Starter Marketing plan starts at $50 per month for 1,000 contacts.

What We Love:

• All-in-one Platform: HubSpot is one of the best email platforms that offers a wide range of tools, including email marketing, CRM, social management, and more.
• Advanced Features: HubSpot offers advanced email marketing features, including A/B testing, personalization, segmentation, and automation, making it a great option for businesses looking to create more complex campaigns.

Scope For Improvement:

• Complexity: HubSpot’s all-in-one platform can be complex and overwhelming, particularly for beginners or businesses with limited technical expertise.
• Price: HubSpot’s pricing can be relatively high, particularly for businesses with smaller email lists or those just starting out with email marketing.

MailerLite

MailerLite is one of the best email marketing softwares that is perfect for beginners. With their drag-and-drop editor, you can create any type of email campaign. Additionally, you can expand your email list with signup forms, and even create a complete website with their website builder. To send transactional emails, MailerSend is an option.

MailerLite also includes email marketing automation and personalization based on user behavior. Abandoned cart emails can be sent for Shopify and WooCommerce stores. Contact management and segmentation are also covered.

You can optimize your campaign results with A/B testing and smart delivery by time zone features. Furthermore, MailerLite offers reports and analytics to track your performance.

The free plan allows you to send up to 12,000 emails per month to 1,000 contacts. Additionally, MailerLite offers a variety of paid plans, starting at $10 per month for 1,000 subscribers.

What We Love:

• Affordable Pricing: MailerLite’s pricing is affordable, particularly for businesses with smaller email lists or those just starting out with email marketing.
• Advanced Automation: MailerLite offers advanced automation features, including workflow-based automation, making it a great option for businesses looking to create more complex campaigns.

Scope For Improvement:

• Limited Features: While MailerLite offers many useful features, some businesses may find that it lacks certain advanced features that are available in other email marketing platforms.

Klaviyo

Klaviyo’s email marketing platform is designed to meet the needs of online shops, offering SMS and advanced email features to increase revenue. The user-friendly editor includes responsive templates, with options for personalizing emails with product recommendations and dynamic blocks.

Klaviyo tracks website interactions and events, allowing for targeted automations and segmentation based on individual customer profiles. Advanced reporting features and customized benchmarks provide detailed insight into campaign performance.

Klaviyo’s free plan provides up to 250 email contacts and 50 SMS contacts, with a limit of 500 emails and 150 SMS sent. Paid plans start at $20 per month for 500 contacts, with the free plan offering 500 emails per month for 250 contacts.

What We Love:

• Robust Automation: Klaviyo offers robust automation options, such as triggered emails and flow-based campaigns, allowing businesses to create highly targeted and personalized email sequences.
• Advanced Reporting and Analytics: Klaviyo offers advanced reporting and analytics features that provide detailed insights into email campaign performance, audience engagement, and revenue generated.
• Integrations: Klaviyo integrates with third-party tools and platforms, allowing businesses to easily connect and automate various parts of their marketing and sales funnels.

Scope For Improvement:

• Limited Phone Support: While Klaviyo provides support to its users, some businesses may find the support options limited or slow to respond, particularly when it comes to phone support.

AWeber

AWeber offers user-friendly services with features suited for beginners. Its drag-and-drop editor and templates library are accompanied by an AI-powered design assistant that creates on-brand templates for your email newsletters.

To reach individual customers at scale, AWeber provides tags that you can add manually or automatically. This lets you tag subscribers based on signup information, email opens, and link clicks.

With AWeber’s email marketing you can run drip campaigns for welcoming new subscribers or launching a product. The campaign marketplace offers pre-made workflows with templates for each campaign stage, which you can customize to your brand and audience.

Additionally, AWeber offers a drag-and-drop landing page builder with templates and a stock image gallery. All templates include signup forms, and subscribers can be automatically tagged for better list management.

The price tag: AWeber’s pricing is based on subscriber count, with all plans including chat, email, and phone support. The free or basic plan offers 3,000 emails for up to 500 subscribers, and paid plans start at $19.99 per month for the Pro version.

What We Love:

• Easy-toUse: AWeber has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create, launch and manage campaigns.
• Robust Email Design Tools: AWeber offers a variety of templates and customization options for businesses to create professional-looking emails that are on-brand.

Scope For Improvement:

• You are charged to host unsubscribed contacts on your account.
• Can’t include or exclude multiple segments at once when sending an e-newsletter.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign offers an all-in-one marketing platform. With ActiveCampaign, you can personalize your emails using contact data and split test up to five different email versions to optimize your content. You can also segment your audience based on insights like email activity and track website visits and actions for even more targeted messaging.

The platform offers a range of premade automation workflows and the ability to create custom automations using various triggers, including website activity. Upgrading to the Plus plan unlocks advanced automation features such as contact scoring and split testing workflows. In addition, it includes SMS and landing page features.

Plans: ActiveCampaign offers a 14-day free trial with limited contacts and email sends. All plans come with live chat and email support. The prices start at $15 per month for up to 500 subscribers.

What We Love:

• Advanced Automation Workflows: ActiveCampaign email marketing provides advanced automation workflows that allow businesses to create complex automation sequences. These automation workflows can save businesses time and effort in designing and executing their email marketing campaigns.
• Deep Segmentation: ActiveCampaign’s segmentation features are highly advanced, allowing businesses to create complex audience segments based on a range of variables. This feature can help businesses to deliver highly targeted and personalized campaigns.
• Multichannel Marketing: ActiveCampaign allows businesses to execute multichannel marketing campaigns, including email, SMS, social media, and more. This can help businesses to reach their audiences across multiple channels and maximize their reach and engagement.

Scope For Improvement:

• Support: While ActiveCampaign provides support to its users, some businesses may find the support options limited or slow to respond.

GetResponse

GetResponse provides a range of marketing tools for small businesses, with comprehensive services at its core. The platform offers a library of professionally designed email templates with a drag-and-drop editor, allowing users to easily create beautiful, branded messages.

Using powerful segmentation tools, businesses can personalize their campaigns based on customer behavior and interests. Additionally, marketing automation allows users to automatically tag and score contacts, triggering targeted emails. Time-based drip campaigns are also available, and users can view their email sequence on a calendar to see exactly when subscribers will receive messages.

Transactional emails can be sent alongside campaigns, and ecommerce plugins allow businesses to promote their products via email and landing pages. GetResponse also offers tools for creating and managing Facebook ads, running webinars, and pre-made automated sales funnels designed for various industries and purposes.

What We Love:

• Advanced Automation Workflows: GetResponse offers advanced automation workflows that allow businesses to create complex, multi-step automation sequences. This feature can save businesses time and effort in designing and executing their campaigns.
• Landing Page Builder: GetResponse provides a landing page builder that allows businesses to create high-converting landing pages without needing any coding skills.

Scope For Improvement:

• Limited Reporting: GetResponse’s reporting features may be more limited than some of its competitors, particularly for businesses looking for more advanced analytics and reporting capabilities.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact offers a comprehensive marketing suite that goes beyond email marketing. In addition to a vast selection of free email templates, the platform includes an AI-powered tool that generates branded templates based on your website or Facebook page.

Email marketing features include A/B testing for email subject lines and automatic resend to subscribers who didn’t open a campaign. Upgrading to the Email Plus plan unlocks advanced automation functionality such as multi-step automated email series and tools for surveys and online donations.

Advanced email segmentation tools allow you to automatically manage contacts based on their email link clicks or create custom segments based on subscriber engagement or purchase activity using Shopify or WooCommerce plugins. Moreover, Constant Contact lets you create landing pages or even build an entire website or online store from scratch.

You can also manage social media activities such as scheduling posts, responding to comments, and running ads from the platform.

Although there is no free plan, the paid plans come with almost unlimited emails and email and chat support. Prices increase based on the number of contacts you have.

The plans start at $9.99 per month for up to 500 subscribers.

What We Love:

• Customizable Pop-Ups: Constant Contact allows businesses to create customizable email pop-ups that can be used to capture email leads or promote special offers to website visitors.
• Event Marketing Features: Constant Contact includes event marketing features that allow businesses to create and promote events, manage registrations, and track attendance all from within the platform.

Scope For Improvement:

• Limited Automation Features: Constant Contact’s automation features may be more limited compared to some of its competitors, particularly for businesses looking for more advanced automation workflows.
• Limited Customization: While Constant Contact provides a range of templates, businesses may find the customization options limited compared to some of its competitors.

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor’s email marketing service offers an array of user-friendly features that are perfect for beginners who want to build a loyal following. With a vast collection of responsive email templates, the platform’s drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to customize your messages, while personalization features allow you to add a unique touch with contact data.

Optimize your email send time using the platform’s send time optimization tool, and create custom segments of subscribers using multiple filters with the segmentation tool. With Campaign Monitor, you can also create branded transactional emails that are just as personalized. Use the platform’s simple visual journey editor to create email automation sequences with conditions based on subscriber behavior and past interactions.

Caveat: You can use the platform for free for as long as you like, though you can only send campaigns to up to five contacts.

Pricing: The Basic plan is limited to 2,500 emails a month, while the Unlimited plan has no sending limit. As your contact list grows, pricing will increase. Both plans offer email support, but priority support is given to those on the Unlimited plan. 

What We Love:

• Visual Journey Designer: Campaign Monitor offers a visual journey designer that allows businesses to create complex, multi-step automation workflows in a user-friendly interface. This feature can save businesses time and effort in designing and executing their campaigns.
• Spam Testing: Campaign Monitor includes spam testing features that analyze emails for potential issues that could cause them to be flagged as spam by email providers.

Scope For Improvement:

• Limited A/B Testing: Campaign Monitor’s A/B testing features may be more limited than some of its competitors, particularly for businesses looking to test more than two variables at once.
• Limited Lead Capture Features: Campaign Monitor’s lead capture features may be more limited than some of its competitors, particularly for businesses looking to capture leads through more advanced methods like pop-ups or quizzes.

Moosend

Moosend isn’t perhaps the most well-known email marketing platform out there, but it’s a haven for those looking for a feature-rich, affordable email marketing solution.

Moosend provides a user-friendly platform that enables you to create and execute effective email marketing campaigns, landing pages, and subscription forms.

The drag-and-drop editor allows you to create customized email newsletters using interactive features like videos, or choose from a variety of responsive templates. With advanced automation features, you can create tailored campaigns for different audience segments or design custom workflows such as welcome, engagement, or abandoned cart sequences.

Moosend’s real-time reporting and analytics tools provide measurable insights into campaign performance and user engagement, allowing you to make informed, data-backed decisions. Additionally, the A/B Testing feature allows you to experiment with different element variations to optimize your email marketing strategy for better results.

What We Love:

Moosend’s got a nice selection of around 70 email templates to choose from, spam testing, A/B testing and marketing automation.

Pricing: Moosend offers a subscriber-based pricing model that includes three pricing tiers. The free trial provides access to most features and allows users to send unlimited email campaigns.

With the Pro plan, starting at $9 per month, you can send unlimited emails, create automation workflows, forms, and landing pages, as well as send transactional campaigns to up to 500 contacts. If you need more advanced functionality and additional support, the Enterprise plan is available at custom pricing.

What We Love:

• Advanced Automation Features: Moosend provides advanced automation features, including abandoned cart reminders, welcome series, and post-purchase follow-ups. These features can help businesses save time and improve their customer engagement.
• Personalization: Moosend offers personalization features that allow businesses to create personalized messages for their subscribers, leading to higher engagement rates.

Scope For Improvement:

• Limited Customization: While Moosend offers a range of templates and design options, it may not offer as much customization as some of its competitors. Businesses that require more customization options may need to look for other solutions.

Omnisend

Omnisend provides an all-in-one platform that simplifies automation workflows for all stages of the customer journey. What sets Omnisend apart from other email marketing tools is its omni-channel capabilities, enabling greater control over how and where you engage with your audience.

You can incorporate email, SMS, push notifications, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and more in your automation workflows.

With Omnisend email marketing you can build and manage customized, targeted communication workflows. This approach provides a more personalized, less disruptive experience for your contacts while improving audience engagement.

With user-friendly segmentation and omni-channel features, you can deliver the right message to the right person, at the right time, and on the right channel. Omnisend also provides email capture, campaign, and automation workflow templates to streamline your workflow.

Omnisend is one of the best and free email marketing tools if you run an ecommerce business.

It provides behavioral segmentation dimensions based on store activity and shopping behavior, and pre-defined customer segments as well. It also offers pre-built automation workflows organized by type or goal, making it super handy for marketers, even those who are novice.

The drag-and-drop editor can help you get started from a number of ecommerce-focused templates. Alternatively, you can build your own templates with easy-add blocks for product listing, discounts, product recommendations, and more.

Pricing: Regarding pricing, Omnisend has three plans, including a free version with limited features and a customizable pro plan. You can try out the platform with a free trial to determine which plan best suits your needs.

What We Love:

• Omnichannel Marketing: Omnisend provides omnichannel marketing features that allow businesses to connect with their customers across different channels, including email, SMS, social media, and more. This can help businesses reach customers where they are most active and increase engagement.
• Advanced Segmentation: Omnisend offers advanced segmentation features that allow businesses to target specific audiences with tailored messages. This can lead to higher engagement rates and better results from email campaigns.

Scope For Improvement:

• Limited Customization: While Omnisend offers a range of templates and design options, it may not offer as much customization as some of its competitors. Businesses that require more customization options may need to look for other solutions.
• Pricing: Omnisend’s pricing plans may be more expensive than some of its competitors, particularly for businesses with large email lists.

Benchmark

Benchmark offers cutting-edge features like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve your email marketing without breaking the bank. The free one includes 25 credits for the app’s “Smart Content” feature, which uses AI to write your email copy for you.

It also includes Smart Sending, which optimizes your list with every send to increase engagement and improve email deliverability.

In addition to AI, Benchmark offers a well-rounded app with a free pricing plan that includes quality templates, user-friendly email marketing automation, basic segmentation, and your choice of drag-and-drop, code, or plain-text editors.

You can also automate more of your email marketing by connecting Benchmark with Zapier.

Benchmark’s email designer is speedy and easy to use, with templates suitable for a wide variety of businesses. The free plan allows you to have 500 subscribers and send up to 3,500 emails per month, but you can send multiple newsletters to those subscribers each month.

Upgrading to the $15 per month premium plan for 500 subscribers and unlimited monthly sends unlocks advanced lead generation, reporting, and marketing automation features.

Benchmark is an excellent email marketing software if you want to opt for free surveys, polls, segmentation, and drip campaigns. If you’re a business with very small lists that need to send out multiple newsletters each month, then this is one of the best email marketing services to rely upon.

What We Love:

• Responsive Templates: Benchmark Email provides a range of responsive email templates that can be customized to suit the needs of different businesses. These templates are designed to look great on all devices, including mobile phones and tablets.
• Automation Features: Benchmark Email offers a range of automation features, including autoresponders, triggered emails, and drip campaigns. These features allow businesses to send targeted and personalized messages to their subscribers at the right time.

Scope For Improvement:

• Deliverability: Some users have reported issues with Benchmark Email’s deliverability, with emails sometimes ending up in spam folders. This can be a significant drawback for businesses that rely on email marketing to reach their customers.
• Limited CRM Features: While Benchmark Email does offer some CRM features, it may not be as robust as some of its competitors. Businesses that require more advanced CRM features may need to look for other solutions.

Mailjet

We love the clean templates from Mailjet, monthly email send limits, and unlimited subscriber limits. This free also lets you tap into webhooks, APIs, and SMTP Relays for integrations and customized email marketing.

Mailjet’s email marketing services also includes email automation, and an intuitive email editor with no need to touch a line of code; it’s an entirely drag-and-drop tool where you start with readily available email templates and utilize preset building modules.

You can also use its SMS marketing and embedded forms to give your campaigns the much-needed edge.

Mailjet offers a range of features, including unlimited subscribers and a high monthly sending limit suitable for small businesses and startups. It also provides basic statistics with numerical information on open, click, and non-delivery rates.

Access to webhooks, APIs, and SMTP Relays allows for advanced configurations. Users can create custom emails using the drag-and-drop email builder and beautiful templates.

The platform integrates with popular ecommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, and PrestaShop, as well as with business tools such as Click Funnels, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Google Drive, Salesforce, Jira, and more. Simple subscription forms are available with GDPR compliance, and personalization is possible for all email campaigns.

Free plan: Unlimited number of subscribers, and 6,000 email sends per month. The daily email sending limit is 200.

Premium plan: $15 per month for the Essential plan, with no daily sending limit but a cap of up to 15,000 emails per month. You can also remove the Mailjet logo, segment lists, and add a sub-account.

Use it for – drip campaigns, transactional emails, and smaller newsletter lists.  

What We Love:

• GDPR Compliant: Mailjet is GDPR compliant, meaning that it follows European Union regulations on data protection and privacy. This is essential for businesses that operate in the EU or have customers in the region.
• Transactional Email API: Mailjet’s transactional email API allows businesses to send automated and personalized transactional emails, such as order confirmations or password resets. This can help businesses provide a better customer experience.
• Collaboration Features: Mailjet’s collaboration features allow multiple team members to work on campaigns simultaneously. This can improve team efficiency and productivity.

Scope For Improvement:

• Limited A/B Testing: Mailjet offers limited A/B testing options, which can be a disadvantage for businesses that want to test multiple variations of their email campaigns to optimize their results.
• Limited Automation: Although Mailjet does offer some automation features, it may not be as robust as some of its competitors. Businesses that require more advanced automation may need to look for other solutions.

DotDigital

A Magento premium tech partner, Dotdigital maintains great relationships with CRM platforms including Salesforce and ecommerce platforms such as – Shopify and BigCommerce. This makes it one of the best tools for ecommerce brands owing to the kind of integrations available.

Some salient feature of the ESP include:

• Workflow capabilities to send communications at the right time
• Integrations with renowned CRMs like Salesforce
• Contact management capabilities
• Lead tracking and built-in scoring
• Connectivity into platforms like ecommerce solutions
• Dynamic contact lists that can be automatically populated based on changing contact properties
• Email template creation and content tools
• Build and track effectiveness of marketing campaigns
• Triggering campaigns based on events  
• Multiple communication channels
• Lead tracking and scoring

Dotdigital doesn’t publish prices for their services. It generally depends upon your requirements such as –   

• Number of emails sent per year
• Number of contacts
• Number of contact insights elements
• Support needs (24/5 vs 24/7)

It may not be a true blue CRM, but Dotdigital arrives with several CRM-like capabilities along with marketing automation features.

What We Love:

• Advanced reporting: The platform provides detailed analytics and reporting, allowing businesses to track the performance of their email campaigns and make data-driven decisions.
• Integrations: DotDigital integrates with a wide range of third-party tools, including CRM, social media, and eCommerce platforms, allowing businesses to streamline their marketing efforts.

Scope For Improvement:

• Limited customization: While the platform offers a range of templates and design options, businesses may find the customization options limited.
• Support: Some users have reported issues with customer support, citing slow response times and limited availability.

Drip

Launched in 2013, Drip is a common email marketing service prevalent in the ecommerce businesses with state-of-the-art CRM features and intuitive sales and marketing automation. If you own an ecommerce business, Drip is a go-to email marketing software for you to get well-organized with the leads.

The caveat – you’ll get access to all features on all the paid plans except for chat support. Here’s why you should give it a shot:

• User-friendly interface of the automation workflow editor, which is well-designed and flexible
• Range of automation triggers such as – page views, tags, purchases, link clicks, etc.
• Brightly-colored icons make it fun to use

What We Love:

• Improved engagement: Drip email services can help businesses keep subscribers engaged with their brand by sending relevant and timely messages.
• Better analytics: Most drip email services provide detailed analytics, allowing businesses to track open rates, click-through rates, and other metrics that help measure the effectiveness of their email campaigns.

Scope For Improvement:

• Learning curve: Setting up and managing a drip email campaign can be complex, requiring a learning curve for those unfamiliar with the technology.
• Spam concerns: If businesses send too many emails or irrelevant messages, subscribers may mark them as spam, which can harm their email reputation.
• Limited creativity: While drip email services can automate the sending of emails, they may limit creativity in email design and content.

The Wrap

Now that you’ve a fair idea of the most popular ESPs, it should be easy for you to compare and contrast to figure out which one will suit your brand or business the most. Since the pricing structure keeps changing from time to time, make sure that you get the latest pricing to see which of these fit your budget. If you need help in selecting best ESP for your business then check our ESP Vendor Evaluation and Migration services

HTML email email template builders or editors are powerful tools that can assist you in creating effective emails that can increase your return on investment (ROI). Currently, the ROI for email marketing stands at $38 for every $1 spent, making it an excellent investment opportunity for businesses looking to convert leads into loyal customers.

Whether you are a developer or a marketer, choosing the right email HTML builder from the hundreds of options available can be a daunting task. This guide is designed to help you make an informed decision and select a tool that best fits your needs.

Let’s dive right in!

What is An HTML Email Template Builder?

An HTML template builder is a tool used to create reusable HTML files that can be utilized to build email marketing campaigns. Using an HTML mail template creator provides numerous benefits over coding the file yourself, including being time-efficient, creating more advanced and visually appealing templates, having a selection of ready-made customizable templates to get started quickly, ensuring compatibility with various email clients, facilitating teamwork, and being accessible from any device as most are online tools with autosave functionality.

What Defines a Good Email Template Builder?

Not all email template creators are created equal, and there are several key factors that you should consider when selecting a builder for your business. A good email template builder should have the following characteristics:

Easy to Use:

Many users who are tasked with creating email templates may not have extensive design or coding experience, so it’s essential that the builder provides an intuitive and straightforward interface that allows them to create professional-looking emails quickly and efficiently. The builder should provide a range of customizable templates that users can select and adapt to suit their needs.

Customizable:

The builder should offer a wide range of customization options so that users can create emails that are unique and reflective of their brand. 

Responsive Design:

The templates created should be responsive, meaning that they should be optimized for all devices, including desktop, tablet, and mobile. With an increasing number of users accessing their emails via mobile devices, it’s critical that your templates are responsive, meaning that they adapt seamlessly to any screen size. A good template builder should offer a range of responsive designs that look great on any device.

Drag and Drop Functionality:

The builder should allow users to drag and drop different elements, such as images and text, into their templates. This feature should be intuitive and straightforward to use, allowing users to create visually appealing emails without any coding knowledge.

Integration with Third-Party Tools:

It should be able to integrate with third-party tools such as CRM systems, marketing automation software, and social media platforms. Integration ensures that your efforts are aligned with your broader marketing strategy, and that you can track the success of your email campaigns in the context of your overall marketing goals.

Analytics and Reporting:

The builder should provide analytics and reporting features that allow users to track the success of their email campaigns. This includes data such as open rates, email click-through rates, and conversion rates, which can help you optimize your future email campaigns for maximum impact.

Good Support:

It should have a good support system in place that is available to assist users with any issues or questions they may have. This might include live chat, email support, or phone support, depending on the level of assistance required. The support team should be knowledgeable and responsive, ensuring that any issues or questions are resolved quickly and efficiently.

 Overall, a good email template builder should provide users with the tools they need to create visually appealing and effective emails quickly and easily.

How To Choose the Correct Email Builder? 

To begin building HTML emails, it’s important to first understand the unique needs of your business and customers. One of the primary goals of an HTML email builder should be to create responsive emails that provide customers with a positive experience, regardless of the device they’re using. Therefore, when selecting an email builder, it’s essential to choose one with a user-friendly interface that can help you achieve this goal efficiently. 

Additionally, consider options with reasonable pricing and extra features such as an extensive library of illustrations to help enhance the visual appeal of your emails.

Here are some quick questions to ask yourself before selecting an HTML email builder:

• Will you need the email code to be edited?
• Do you already use an email marketing platform?
• What’s the frequency of creating new email templates for you?
• Based on questions like these, you’ll find four main types of HTML email builders that will come to your rescue. In no particular order, these are:

HTML email generators

They are primarily aimed at developers who are responsible for building the email functionality and require simple solutions without investing significant effort.

They allow for the conversion of input data to the correct HTML format, and in some cases, an alternative format, which can be compiled into a template for further use.

Once generated, the resulting template can be imported into an email sending system or pasted directly into the source code of your application. HTML email generators share similarities with template engines, as they both aid in streamlining the email creation process.

Responsive email frameworks

are an excellent option for developers who require more advanced functionality when building emails. Essentially, an email framework is a markup-based language that allows developers to write code that is later converted to a responsive HTML format.

Email frameworks are designed to simplify email coding by offering pre-built options and various components that can be used to streamline the process.

Using an email framework can significantly reduce the time and effort required to build responsive email templates. With pre-built components and options available, developers can quickly create templates that meet their specific requirements without starting from scratch.

Additionally, email frameworks often include built-in support for responsive design, which ensures that emails look great and function well across different devices.

Some popular email frameworks include Foundation for Emails, MJML, and Cerberus. Each of these frameworks offers unique features and capabilities, allowing developers to choose the framework that best suits their needs.

Overall, using an email framework is an excellent option for developers who require advanced functionality and want to streamline the email coding process while ensuring that their emails are responsive and optimized for various devices.

Built-in email templates.

Most email sending systems come with their own template builders, offering decent functionality for designing customized templates.

These systems also allow the import of custom templates or the creation of HTML from scratch. If advanced features are required, third-party email building tools can be used, and the result can then be imported to the email sending system.

However, it’s worth noting that using a different email sending provider to create a template and then sending it with another would be an unusual approach.

Independent HTML email builders.

Tools falling under this category offer a broad range of functionality to create customized, as well as pre-defined templates for developers and marketers alike.

They provide a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface, along with HTML email editors, image libraries, and typically allow for integration with the most popular ESPs and CRM systems.

Drag and drop editor won’t require any additional skills as you can use pre-designed blocks to add images and edit texts or switch to a source HTML code to edit for a customized design.

16 Best HTML Email Template Builders 

1. Mailmodo

Mailmodo is an all-in-one email solution that enables you to effortlessly create and send interactive emails using its no-code editor. You can handle your email campaigns, manage your email lists, customize your content, select from a range of ready-to-use templates, save and reuse email blocks, and monitor performance with smart reports, all in one place. 

Mailmodo is also able to integrate with multiple CRMs to manage your workflow effectively.

Key Features of Mailmodo:

• The no-code builder allows you to create and send interactive AMP and HTML emails.
• There are over 20 interactive AMO widgets to choose from, including carousels, polls, quizzes, and shopping carts.
• You can customize over 200 pre-made email templates.
• Over 100 pre-made blocks are available for use, including headers, footers, layouts, and CTA buttons.
  A fallback version of your email is automatically added if the email client doesn’t support AMP emails.

2. Stripo

Users can create interactive email elements such as image rollover effects, CSS-animated buttons, and countdown timers with Stripo’s cool interactive AMP for Email functionality built-in. With over 600 free HTML email templates, users can easily choose a responsive email template from various categories such as type, e-commerce, industry, or season.

Besides their ready-to-use email templates, Stripo also provides custom email templates for $145, based on user information and requests. Stripo’s templates can be exported to over 60 ESPs, or exported as HTML to use with any other email tool.

The service is multilingual, available in English and seven other language choices such as Deutsch, Spanish, French, etc. Users can download emails as PDF for client or colleague approval, and test emails using Stripo’s embedded email testing tool.

Overall, Stripo is an excellent builder that offers various features to simplify the email creation process.

3.    Chamaileon

A collaborative and responsive email template builder and editor, Chamaileon helps businesses design beautiful, responsive and high-quality emails.

Chamaileon is a highly flexible and customizable email editor that allows users to create email designs with advanced styling options. It offers hundreds of pre-designed responsive email templates that are ready to use.

One of the unique features of Chamaileon is the ability to nest structure elements into each other, allowing users to add any number of columns and adjust the size of each column individually by pixels. The tool also allows for adding borders, paddings, and margins that can be changed by pixels.

Chamaileon has two features that are not commonly found in other email builders: the “Show on Mobile / Show on Desktop” feature, which enables users to create different versions of an email for mobile and desktop, and the block saving function that lets users save drag and drop element groups for future projects. This feature allows teammates to reuse specific headers, footers, or product blocks.

The responsive email generator engine of Chamaileon ensures that any template created with the tool will look great in most email clients. The tool supports all Apple and Android devices and works on all versions of Outlook, which significantly reduces the time spent on email testing and fixing.

Chamaileon also offers a collaboration feature that allows team members to share the same workspace while designing a campaign. Each member of the marketing team can access and edit the template according to their customized account.

4.    Unlayer Studio

Unlayer Studio is a free email template builder created by the same team behind MailMunch form builder. The platform provides a variety of modern and professional email templates that are already pre-made and ready to use. You don’t need any coding skills to create custom templates, and the platform includes a library of free stock photos and templates to create emails with relevant content. 

These emails are bundled around topics like welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, holiday emails, etc., making it easy to find what you need. You can download your HTML template in a few clicks, and user management allows you to control what can and cannot be done, such as disallowing edits to certain parts of a message or restricting access to certain clients.

Unlayer Studio’s interface is proficient, but it is still a smaller player compared to the email creator features in BEE and Stripo. Unlayer Studio designer works with popular email service providers like ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, and MailChimp, and it even has a plugin for Gmail. This allows you to push the email directly into the ESP and insert dynamic merge tags, unsubscribe links, etc. Marketers can also save a quick access list of these tags.

Unlayer is free to use, and you can start a free email creator account here. The pro version, which costs just $15, provides more templates and allows you to save HTML templates and blocks, return to editing, and collaborate with your team.

5.    BEE – Online Email Template Builder

BEE has gained a reputation as one of the leading email template builders and editor in various online communities and forums, aiming to provide an all-in-one solution for email template building. Its pre-built templates are customizable to fit your preferences, and it utilizes a drag-and-drop system to enhance efficiency without requiring coding skills.

BEE offers a variety of features that facilitate the creation of email templates with ease and speed, including a vast template library covering multiple industries such as eCommerce, non-profit, wellness, and real estate. It also provides intelligent integrations with all major email marketing platforms, including MailChimp, Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, SalesForce, and Amazon SES.

Moreover, BEE features a responsive landing page designer with complete design flexibility, and the “design once, use forever” functionality allows the reuse of design assets across different templates.

Some quick pros and cons:

•     Projects: It offers separate folders for better organization of templates.
•     Integrations: The platform provides one-click integrations with other email marketing suites and solutions.
•     Landing page builder: There is an in-built landing page builder available.
•     Navigation: The navigation in and out of the email builder can be confusing when checking preview text.
•     Customer support: The platform’s customer support is slow, especially for international users.
•     Pricing: The pricing plan is generous but steep, considering the available functionality.
•     Free plan: A free plan is available, but it has limits on the number of templates created and feature restrictions.

6.    Topol

Topol is known for being a great newsletter builder that offers a time-saving solution for email newsletter creators, marketers, and design professionals. It is available for free and can be used as a standalone system or integrated into existing tools or SaaS platforms as a plugin.

The platform features a drag-and-drop email generator with an intuitive interface and supports various design blocks, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced newsletter creators. All the standard features and functionalities of visual builders are available on Topol.

The comprehensive email builder also includes several useful features to make the lives of marketers and business owners easier such as:

•     Drag and drop builder with pre-made blocks and design template library.
•     Custom HTML code builder for complete flexibility and control over design.
•     Direct addition of product information to emails with XML imports/exports.
•     Personalization of design blocks and emails using merge tags.

While Topol is a valuable tool, especially considering its price point, its rudimentary layout may feel somewhat basic at times. Here are some additional pros and cons to consider when choosing Topol:

• Easy and intuitive, even for beginners.
• Limited design library and customization options.
• Great library of templates and design elements
• Developer panel and integrations.
• Layout of test emails and actual email campaigns may differ sometimes

7.    MailChimp

 Mailchimp doesn’t need an introduction. Although it is an email service provider, we also love the built-in builders. 

Mailchimp targets small and medium businesses looking for an easy and fast way to create simple email templates. While it may not offer much flexibility in terms of elements and blocks, Mailchimp email marketing allows users to create nice, responsive emails using pre-coded templates or by creating one from scratch. However, the free version of Mailchimp no longer allows users to import their own HTML, limiting customization options. 

Despite this limitation, Mailchimp is a good alternative for those with basic requirements and who do not want to worry about integration and compatibility features. Other email editors built into email tools that may not allow users to export the HTML code, which can be problematic for testing email compatibility.

The downside of using an ESP’s built-in email editor is being locked into that service, but the upside is not needing to use another provider for email design. Users who start with a free package of an ESP and become familiar with its email creator and other features are unlikely to switch providers. If they do, they may have to rebuild their email templates.

8.    Moosend 

Moosend is an email marketing platform that offers a range of features suitable for businesses of any size. With A/B testing, data analytics, and list segmentation, Moosend’s built-in drag and drop builder is particularly noteworthy.

One of the platform’s standout features is the device-specific preview, allowing users to preview their templates on various devices in real-time. 

Moosend offers a forever-free plan, providing access to their extensive email template library, featuring ready-made, responsive templates compatible with desktop, mobile, and tablet devices.

Users can browse the different categories and find a template that suits their needs, before using the editor to personalize it to their brand.

It includes a range of different elements that can be used to create professional-looking email campaigns. Moosend also offers an image picker that integrates with Stock Photos, Google Drive, and social media platforms to provide stunning visuals for templates. Templates can be saved in the custom library and exported as HTML files for future use. 

Like other email editors, Moosend’s drag-and-drop design technology allows for the inclusion of advanced marketing elements such as videos, animations, and countdown timers without any HTML coding knowledge. The platform also offers integration with stock photo platforms, Google Drive, GIPHY, and social media, as well as a ready-made templates, images, and fonts library that supports extensive customization.

9.    Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is a popular email marketing tool that offers a responsive template creator. Its template builder integrates with Unsplash to help you find stock images for your campaigns and allows you to customize emails to match your brand style with just one click. Some salient features of the tool include:

• Drag and drop and HTML email template generator for no-code and custom email creation.
• Automated customization based on brand logo, colors, or website URL.
• Free image gallery powered by Unsplash within the email builder.
• Extensive email template library.

Campaign Monitor also comes with its fair share of pros and cons, including:

• Excellent email template testing and dummy campaign capabilities.
• Large and flexible template library.
• Responsive design blocks.
• Can be costly for large email lists.
• Obsolete UI and functionalities in some areas.
• Lack of deep reporting integrations with CRM suites.

10.    Mosaico

Mosaico is a free and open-source builder that offers several unique templates to help users get started. The drag-and-drop email editor allows for complete customization of email designs. One of the key features of Mosaico is that it automatically resizes images to ensure responsive email designs.

Users can try the email editor for free, and even download its code to self-host it on their server for complete control of their data. Other features of Mosaico include a no-code editor that supports HTML and visual drag-and-drop workflow, the ability to download HTML code for use with self-hosted solutions or email service providers, and basic email templates and design blocks to speed up the template design.

While Mosaico is fast and easy to use with minimum dependencies, it has some disadvantages, such as basic layout bugs like alignment issues with templates and limited customization capabilities.

The builder takes a minimalist approach to template designs. However, the biggest advantage of Mosaico is that it is completely free with no paid plans or limits. As a result, support may not be as prompt as it would be with a paid service.

11. Stensul

Stensul is an enterprise-focused email creation platform that offers collaborative features to streamline the email creation process. 

One of their primary selling points is their brand compliance features, including guardrails and permission levels. They also provide multi-stage or agile workflows that simplify reviews and approvals, making it a popular choice for large teams with complex email creation processes. In addition, Stensul offers integrations with popular project management tools like Asana and Workfront. 

Other notable features include annotated comments and approval workflows, flexible integrations with ESPs, a no-code, drag-and-drop visual editor, and onboarding services for an extra fee.

12.  Postcards

Postcards, an email template software created by Designmodo, aims to help business owners build emails quickly and efficiently. The software provides an extensive template library and supports major tools. 

One great feature of Postcards is its compatibility with all major tools, allowing users to export templates directly to their email tools.

However, the software’s large block libraries are behind a paywall, limiting email creation possibilities for those using the free version. Despite this, users have unlimited exports in the free version. 

Postcards has many useful features such as a drag-and-drop builder, one-click export system, version history, and cloud image hosting, making it a powerful builder. 

The software’s pros include a modular design system, unique design blocks and layouts for templates, project backup and management among large teams, and support for Retina-ready images and 900+ Google Fonts. However, Postcards can be costly for users who want to use it for unlimited templates, and the design and template library is restrictive to higher paid plans or behind a paywall.  

Furthermore, the software is dependent on other email service providers for full marketing functionality.

13. Taxi for Email

Taxi for Email is an email template builder that was founded in 2012 and was later acquired by SparkPost in 2021. The company blog covers both email and digital marketing topics.

While the builder doesn’t offer any pre-designed templates, it provides hundreds of ready-made modules that you can use to create your own.  

One of the builder’s unique features is its translator, which can automatically translate your email into several preset languages. 

Additionally, you can invite up to 10 colleagues to send test emails and save them in the builder’s database. Taxi for Email also offers direct export to Litmus for testing your emails, but this feature requires a Litmus account.

The builder supports exporting directly to 25 email service providers, making it easy to integrate with your existing workflow.

14. MailerSend

MailerSend is a transactional messaging service that’s perfect for developers who want to increase their efficiency. Its interface is user-friendly, allowing anyone to create transactional emails and SMS messages with ease. With MailerSend’s powerful sending infrastructure and flexible payment plans, scaling your message sending capabilities is a breeze.

Created by deliverability experts, MailerSend comes with an email verification tool to ensure that your messages are delivered successfully. In addition, inbound routing enables customers to engage with your messages. 

Try it out for yourself! You can start for FREE with up to 12,000 messages per month, and only pay for what you send thereafter. No contracts are necessary. The free plan includes all the essential features you need, and technical support is available 24/7.

15. Dyspatch

 Dyspatch is an excellent email template editing and building tool that offers a completely visual interface. With Dyspatch, you don’t need any coding skills to personalize free templates, and the best part is that you don’t need to sign up for any free trial.

To get started, simply visit the Dyspatch templates portal, choose any of the 12 pre-built email templates, and access the editor to select the campaign mode you want, such as Update, Coupon, Receipt, Birthday, Activation, and more.

Dyspatch is a popular no-code email creator that allows users to speed up the email template-building process. You can use its free designs as HTML files anywhere. You can use the drag-and-drop builder within Dyspatch or export the templates to your existing ESP to make the most out of these templates.

The advanced drag-and-drop builder by Dyspatch can add interactive content blocks like email surveys, live product data, and more, making it one of the most versatile tools out there.

 Dyspatch has all the essential email-building features you need for your daily marketing activities, including:

• Advanced email template builders with interactive content block
• Export email templates to use with other email service providers
• Template localization and AMP capabilities

However, one drawback of the tool is its steep learning curve.

16. Litmus — Powerful Email Template Software  

Litmus is an email template software that offers both a drag-and-drop editor and an HTML code editor, giving you the best of both worlds. It offers a suite of powerful features to design, test, optimize, personalize, and improve all your email templates.

With Litmus, you can use the drag-and-drop editor to create your templates, or you can use the HTML code editor to create templates from scratch. The template library helps you get started quickly, and the in-built design library allows you to add brand guidelines and create reusable blocks and templates quickly.

Litmus also has an in-built email preview feature that supports 100+ email clients, ensuring that your emails are responsive and look great across all devices. 

In addition to its standard features, Litmus also offers excellent personalization options. You can use in-built blocks, live email content, AI capabilities, and custom targeting to personalize your emails at scale.

However, there are a few cons to consider, such as the lack of preview header and subject line testing features and inadequate collaboration features. Overall, Litmus is a great option for marketers and entrepreneurs who want to create professional, personalized email campaigns with ease. 

How To Choose The Best Email Editor For Designing Responsive Emails?

When searching for the best email editor, it’s crucial to prioritize essential functions and test out various options. Don’t solely focus on price, as most