Email newsletters are a great way to communicate your brand message for very little outlay. And, there are some great tools out there that will help you build and manage email newsletters with ease.
If you're keeping it simple, then most of the tools in our list will have you covered. However, if you want to up the ante and include more specific or advanced features then you need to do a little more research to make sure you get what you want. If you want to add top quality templates to your chosen plan, check out our free newsletter templates (opens in new tab) post.
In this roundup of the best email newsletter tools, we've outlined the particular strengths of each service so you can pick the right one for you the first time around. We've included some pricing information that will give a quick guide to the basic plans, but they are more plans available.
01. AWeber
- Price: Starts at $19 a month
AWeber (opens in new tab) is a long-standing tool with a host of powerful features including its free Smart Designer that allows you to create good-looking templates in seconds. What else does it do? It automatically creates emails from blog posts, has a drag and drop editor with over 700 mobile responsive email templates and the option to apply tags to trigger automated email campaigns. There is a suite mobile apps to use, subscriber management and segmenting and email tracking to gauge performance with analytics.
02. MailChimp
- Price: Get started with a Free account
MailChimp (opens in new tab) is the first thing to pop into many people's head when they think of email newsletters, and for good reason. There's a huge template selection and loads of features that make it easy to run a great-looking campaign that displays well on nearly all email clients. MailChimp integrates with the major ecommerce providers including WooCommerce, Shopify and Magento, so you can use your purchase data to improve your emails.
03. Benchmark
- Price: Start with a Free account
Benchmark (opens in new tab)'s superpower is its international focus – if you need things in lots of languages this is probably the one for you. It's available in nine different languages. The email newsletter tool also emphasises its high-quality, international customer support as a key selling point, and the company has offices in 15 countries including China and Japan.
04. Campaigner
- Price: Starts at $19.95 a month
If you want fine control over your campaign, Campaigner (opens in new tab) has some really advanced features that enable you to send emails based on very specific triggers. For example, you can send email based on what customers did with a previous email, when they fill in particular forms on your website, or when they make a purchase.
05. GetResponse
- Price: Starts at £11 a month
Sometimes marketing activities end up growing beyond what was initially intended. GetResponse (opens in new tab) has a pricing structure that enables you to start with email marketing and move into landing pages, webinars, autoresponders and enterprise features if and when you need to. The email editor has a built-in mobile preview function, 220 email templates, 700 webform templates, 5000 stock images, and segmented lists which enable you to target customers more accurately.
06. Mailjet
- Price: Starts at $8.69 a month
Timing is often a big factor in the effectiveness of your email newsletter strategies, and that could be ruined by a service that's too slow to deliver. Performance is a strong focus for Mailjet (opens in new tab), as are resources for developers (opens in new tab) – if you want to build something that sends email, this one is a good choice for you.
Like Benchmark, it also has good international capabilities with offices in seven countries and support in four languages. Mailjet also emphasises its capacity to work at scale – it is a good option if you're a large company with huge email lists.
07. MailUp
- Price: Depends on features and delivery speed
In situations where cost is more important than timing, MailUp (opens in new tab) is a good pick. It has a clever pricing structure where you pay according to how quickly you need the messages to arrive. As an example, you can send 6,000 mails in 2 hours using the Web plan for just $60 a month. It's a great price if slower mail is OK.
08. Emma
- Price: Starts at $89 a month
Emma (opens in new tab) distinguishes itself from the rest of the email newsletter tools with its exceptional design and user experience. It's a joy to use (as far as these things can be!), and it has a lot of powerful marketing features that are presented in a way that won't intimidate a new user.
The built-in templates are beautiful and easy to customise, and it has all the features you'd expect from a serious email newsletter service. There's also editions tailored to the needs of universities, restaurants, retailers and non-profits, which we haven't seen elsewhere.
09. Constant Contact
- Price: Starts at £15 a month
Constant Contact (opens in new tab) is often said to be one of the more reliable services for its price bracket, and you can try that out thoroughly for yourself, as you can trial this email newsletter tool free for 30 days. Includes WooCommerce integration, dozens of mobile-friendly templates, landing pages and access to a free gallery of stock images.
10. Sendloop
- Price: Get started with a free account
We like Sendloop (opens in new tab) for its combination of powerful features and pricing that offers good value for money. It's great if you want a really easy builder for non-technical people, and marketing tools to target your campaign just the way you want. There's also a developer platform for building marketing apps that you can sell to other users.
11. Campaign Monitor
- Price: Starts at $9 a month
Campaign Monitor (opens in new tab) is easy to use, has loads of features and is reasonably priced, but Campaign Monitor's major advantage is its AppStore, which facilitates integrations with a large number of other apps and services. Check out the AppStore (opens in new tab) to see what it can do.
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- The creative's guide to email management (opens in new tab)
- 19 tips for great email newsletter design (opens in new tab)
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