11 Best Email Marketing Services 2021
We searched for the best email marketing services, so you don’t have to.
Once we found them, we tested each one firsthand.
Then we wrote a short review for every tool.
That’s how we can give you an easy-to-digest guide that will help you find the best tools.
We evaluated each service based on:
- Price
- Ease of use
- Features
- Support
All that’s left is for you to choose the perfect tool for your marketing campaigns.
Last Updated: January 5, 2021
1. Mailchimp
Mailchimp gives entrepreneurs a way to put their email marketing on autopilot, making it one of the best free email marketing tools. Full Review
- Easily customisable
- Automated email campaigns
- Integrated with numerous platforms
Mailchimp gives entrepreneurs a way to put their email marketing on autopilot, making it one of the best free email marketing tools. Full Review
2. SendinBlue
SendinBlue is a low-cost email marketing solution that gives you all the instruments you need to reach your customers. Full Review
- Flexible in terms of pricing
- Chat support is terrific
- Predefined fonts in the editor
SendinBlue is a low-cost email marketing solution that gives you all the instruments you need to reach your customers. Full Review
3. ConvertKit
ConvertKit is a good choice for content creators who want to make a difference. If you create your own content and can afford the higher-than-average price, you don’t need to look at other online email marketing tools. Full Review
- Customisable
- Has Built-in personalisation feature
- Hard to get used to the platform
ConvertKit is a good choice for content creators who want to make a difference. If you create your own content and can afford the higher-than-average price, you don’t need to look at other online email marketing tools. Full Review
4. GetResponse
GetResponse is one of the more affordable email marketing platforms with lots of options for customizing how your emails look. Full Review
- User friendly
- Has a built-in SpamScore checker
- Webinar functionality is great
GetResponse is one of the more affordable email marketing platforms with lots of options for customizing how your emails look. Full Review
5. MailerLite
MailerLite is a good email marketing software with flexible pricing and enough functions to justify the money you spend. Full Review
- Plenty of ways to create a newsletter
- Plans are affordable
- Service runs slow at times
MailerLite is a good email marketing software with flexible pricing and enough functions to justify the money you spend. Full Review
6. Benchmark
Benchmark’s capacity to work with massive lists makes it an excellent email newsletter service for large corporations. On the other hand, its Free and Medium plans are quite affortable and suitable for small businesses. Full Review
- Easy to create a newsletter
- Has a decent choice of templates and layouts
- No targeted emailing
Benchmark’s capacity to work with massive lists makes it an excellent email newsletter service for large corporations. On the other hand, its Free and Medium plans are quite affortable and suitable for small businesses. Full Review
7. Active Trail
Active Trail is a fully capable email marketing service, and you can get it for a reasonable price. Full Review
- Easy-to-use marketing automation platform
- Emails get spammed
- 30-day free trial
Active Trail is a fully capable email marketing service, and you can get it for a reasonable price. Full Review
8. SendGrid
SendGrid ranks among the top email marketing services as it is a fully functional platform with superb integration abilities. Full Review
- Building campaign is well explained
- Allows integration into your website or mobile app
- Email support lacks speed
SendGrid ranks among the top email marketing services as it is a fully functional platform with superb integration abilities. Full Review
9. ActiveCampaign
An all-in-one email marketing solution, ActiveCampaign can suit the needs of small and medium enterprises. Full Review
- Can be integrated with many platforms
- Dashboard menu is in detail
- Poor customer care response
An all-in-one email marketing solution, ActiveCampaign can suit the needs of small and medium enterprises. Full Review
10. SendX
With SendX, you get an excellent solution for the price you pay, as long as you don’t want to be the next Picasso of email marketing. Full Review
- Straightforward and easy to use
- Relatively basic email marketing tool
- 14-day free trial
With SendX, you get an excellent solution for the price you pay, as long as you don’t want to be the next Picasso of email marketing. Full Review
11. AWeber
AWeber is a solid email marketing instrument, but it lags behind the competition in terms of automation features. Full Review
- Easy-to-use editor
- Vast choice of templates
- Bit pricey
AWeber is a solid email marketing instrument, but it lags behind the competition in terms of automation features. Full Review
Detailed Reviews
- Easily customisable
- Automated email campaigns
- Integrated with numerous platforms
- Free version available
Free version
Mailchimp offers to host up to 2,000 subscribers for free and grants you a total of 12,000 emails you can send out every month. This is more than most other similar services, making it one of the best options for beginners on a tight budget.
Price
The paid plans start at $10 for 500 subscribers and scale from there. There’s also a “Pro” feature set, that allows you to segment your audiences and conduct split testing. Both of these features are invaluable when it comes to optimizing your profits and make the additional $199/month for the “Pro” package worthwhile. Finally, there’s a “Pay As You Go” plan, where you only get charged when you send emails (there’s no monthly fee).
Ease of use
Generally it’s easy to use – apart from a few settings that weren’t too easy to find in the beggining. Happily, Mailchimp has a wealth of tutorials, which made it easy for me to find my way around it. Overall, it’s easy to hit the ground running with Mailchimp, for more reasons than one.
Features
It is a good fit for anyone from solo entrepreneurs to large organizations. You can create marketing campaigns with email, social ads, landing pages, Google remarketing ads, and more.
It is deservedly one of the most popular email marketing tools worldwide.
Support
Paid plans have email and chat support, while free plans offer email support for 30 days after registration.
Verdict
Mailchimp gives entrepreneurs a way to put their email marketing on autopilot, making it one of the best free email marketing tools. Its enormous user base only confirms this.
- Flexible in terms of pricing
- Chat support is terrific
- Predefined fonts in the editor
- Great free plan
Free version
SendinBlue has put up a nice free plan with a daily limit of 300 emails. It’s tiny compared to other services’ free plans, but could do the job for marketers with short email lists.
Price
SendinBlue offers four paid plans: Lite($25 a month), Essential($39 a month), Premium($66 a month) and Enterprise(custom price). The more you pay for a plan, the more features and subscribers you get to manage. The Enterprise option even includes a dedicated account manager.
Ease of use
Easy to use.
Features
Like any self-respecting email marketing product, SendinBlue lets you build your templates through either an HTML editor, or the drag-and-drop interface. It is effortless to use even if you have no technical skills. You can launch SMS campaigns and check the detailed stats, including a heatmap and open&click-through reports.
Support
It provides both chat and email support for faster resolution of any issues you might encounter.
Verdict
SendinBlue is a low-cost email marketing solution that gives you all the instruments you need to reach your customers.
- Customizable
- Has built-in personalisation feature
- Great for advanced users
- Free trial available
Free version
Unfortunately, ConvertKit doesn’t have one. The only “free” thing you’re going to get is a 14-day trial.
Price
Similar to most other products in the niche, ConvertKit charges based on the number of subscribers. The pricing is on the steep side: $29/month for up to 1000 subscribers, $49/month for up to 3000 subscribers, and $79/month for up to 5000 subscribers. If you have more than 5K subscribers, you will get a custom price plan.
Ease of use
It takes a while to get used to the campaign creation process.
Features
ConvertKit is NOT your run-of-the-mill service. It is tailor-made to help online content creators – bloggers, vloggers, artists and the like. This does explain the more expensive pricing structure, as it adds more value than your basic email marketing tool.
Support
Chat support is pretty great. The reaction was almost immediate, and the agent was polite, answering my question in a matter of minutes.
Verdict
ConvertKit is a good choice for content creators who want to make a difference. If you create your own content and can afford the higher-than-average price, you don’t need to look at other online email marketing tools.
- User friendly
- Has a built-in SpamScore checker
- Webinar functionality is great
- 30-day free trial
Free version
None, just a 30-day free trial.
Price
GetResponse’s core plans are Email (from $15/month), Pro(from $49/month), and Max(from $165/month). Each of them build on the last and offers new features that help you customize your subscribers’ experience and, as a result, earn more money. If you have more than 100,000 subscribers, your only choice is the Enterprise plan, which starts from $1119/month.
Ease of use
Very easy to use.
Features
GetResponse markets itself as an “all-in-one marketing platform to grow your business”. Indeed, you get a nice set of functions. Of course, you have an email builder tool. Anything you build with it, you can then put on autopilot through marketing automation.
That’s what you’d expect to get, right? Well, here’s where things get interesting. With GetResponse you also get to create landing pages and even host webinars, making it a more full-featured offering than most bulk mail marketing tools.
Support
GetResponse has email and chat support. I only tested the chat support option (as it’s the one people prefer) and it was pretty good. A customer care agent showed up about 2 minutes after I asked for help. He instructed me politely on how to solve my problem.
Verdict
GetResponse is one of the more affordable email marketing platforms with lots of options for customizing how your emails look.
- Plenty of ways to create a newsletter
- Plans are affordable
- Very easy to use
- Free plan up to 1,000 subscribers
Free version
The free version allows you to add up to 1,000 subscribers and to send up to 12,000 emails per month. A really good offer, only beaten by Mailchimp and Benchmark’s option to add 2,000 subscribers for free.
Price
One of the most affordable (and still full-featured) services on the market. MailerLte starts at $10/month for 1,000 subscribers with unlimited emails sent and scales from there. A good option for marketers with a bigger list on a budget.
Ease of use
Easy to use.
Features
MailerLite keeps it simple. You get a low-cost solution with essential email marketing functions. No fancy stuff – just the common sense features you’d expect from that type of service. Still, it’s an excellent pick for the best email marketing services list based on value for money alone.
Support
MailerLite’s email support is reasonably good, albeit a bit slow. I sent a request for help and got an answer about an hour later. Email support is available for everyone, while paying customers also get chat support.
Verdict
MailerLite is a good email marketing software with flexible pricing and enough functions to justify the money you spend.
- Easy to use
- Decent choice of templates and layouts
- Free plan available
- Great for newsletters
Free version
Benchmark has a sweet free plan that supports up to 2,000 subscribers. What’s even sweeter is the fact that you can send up to 14,000 emails each month, making it a slightly better offer, at least in terms of quantity, than Mailchimp’s free plan.
Price
The pricing starts at $13.99/month for 600 subscribers and scales from there. Overall, it is in the same price range as Mailchimp.
Ease of use
Easy to use.
Features
One of the unique features of Benchmark is its ability to process large lists with millions of subscribers. Other than that it has all the perks you can expect from an email marketing solution, including a drag&drop editor, a live editing function, and a built-in image editor.
Support
Benchmark has a chatbot that answers some of the most common questions. You can contact an agent through chat, or by sending a ticket. Chat support is timely, and you get the answer to your query right away.
Verdict
Benchmark’s capacity to work with massive lists makes it an excellent email newsletter service for large corporations. On the other hand, its Free and Medium plans are quite affortable and suitable for small businesses.
- Easy to use
- Automation
- 30-day free trial
- Affordable
Free version
A 30-day free trial is all you get with this otherwise flexibly-priced service.
Price
Active Trail offers a total of eight plans. The cheapest costs $9/month, while the most expensive is $229/month. There is a ninth, custom-priced plan. It will suit you if you have more than 60,000 subscribers in your list.
Ease of use
Easy to use.
Features
Key features include predictive delivery, A/B testing and contact management. You can start SMS campaigns directly from your PC. It also has automation and can be integrated with platforms like Zapier.
Support
Chat support is kind of slow. I had to wait a couple of minutes for an agent. That said, the agent answered my questions in a well-mannered way.
Verdict
A fully capable email marketing service, and you can get it for a reasonable price.
- Building campaign is well explained
- Integrations
- Free version available
- API
Free version
Well, kind of. You can send 100 emails per day after the 30-day trial is over.
Price
SendGrid has three premium plans. The “Essentials” offer starts at $14.95/month, and the “Pro” version is quoted at $79.95/month and up. There is also a custom price “Premier” solution. With SendGrid, the more you pay for a plan, the more features you get, and the more emails you can send. You have to pay $10/month extra for every 10,000 contacts above the plan’s limits.
Ease of use
Easy to use.
Features
SendGrid has the standard features of an email marketing tool. What distinguishes it from the rest is its API. You can use it to add email functionality in your app or website.
Support
SendGrid has 24/7 email and chat support. You can get phone support, but it’s only available 7:00 AM – 5:00 PM MST, Monday to Friday.
Verdict
SendGrid ranks among the top email marketing services as it is a fully functional platform with superb integration abilities.
- Numerous integrations
- Dashboard menu is in detail
- Feature-rich
- Marketing automation
Free version
No free version. However, you get a 14-day trial to test the product.
Price
There are several paid plans to choose from: Lite($9/month), Plus($49/month), Professional($129/month), and Enterprise($229/month). Paying more will provide you with more items. For example, the Lite plan lacks most of the support and training features, as well as other functions like removing ActiveCampaign’s logo from emails.
Ease of use
Easy to use.
Features
ActiveCampaign beats most email marketing tools simply because it has the full range of elements to kickstart your campaign. You get split testing, marketing automation (including event tracking and automation map), sales and CRM reporting. And let’s not forget messaging: SMS messages, site messages, etc.
Support
ActiveCampaign offers support by email, chat, and phone. I tested chat support, and it was OK. ActiveCampaign’s knowledge base is also helpful.
Verdict
An all-in-one email marketing solution, ActiveCampaign can suit the needs of small and medium enterprises.
- Straightforward and easy to use
- Features all necessary tools
- 14-day free trial
- Good value for money
Free version
As with some other products in this list, you only get a 14-day free trial.
Price
The Business plan starts at $7.49/month. There is a custom priced Enterprise plan that has more features and charges depending on the number of subscribers.
Ease of use
Very easy to use.
Features
With SendX you can create email marketing campaigns, forms, and follow-ups. It has a simple user interface, making it a good choice for people with no previous experience.
Support
Chat support is fast. The agent I got to chat with answered my question right away. I also got some predefined answers from the chatbot.
Verdict
You get an excellent solution for the price you pay, as long as you don’t want to be the next Picasso of email marketing.
- Easy-to-use editor
- Vast choice of templates
- Excellent for beginners
- 30-day free trial
Free version
Nope, but you do get a free 30-day trial.
Price
A $19/month plan will get you going with AWeber, as long as you have less than 500 subscribers. The $29/month solution can handle up to 2,500 subscribers, the $49/month plan is perfect for up to 5,000 subscribers, the $69/month offer is a good fit for up to 10,000 contacts. FInally, there’s a $149/month plan to manage a list of up to 25,000 contacts. Anything above that and you’ll need to contact the provider to get a custom quote.
Ease of use
It took some time to get used to the user interface. Creating a campaign is not as straightforward as other email marketing services.
Features
With AWeber, you can create full-feature email campaigns. There is a tagging system allowing you to segment subscribers according to the campaign’s needs.
You get detailed reports on campaigns, subscriber growth, demographics, follow-ups, etc.
Support
You get email, chat, and phone support. I tested live chat, and the agent was polite. He was quick to send me some educational articles and videos.
Verdict
AWeber is a solid email marketing instrument, but it lags behind the competition in terms of automation features.
Conclusion
Email marketing is here to stay, and you better be ready with some good picks.
You may find it hard to believe, but more experts (59%) prefer email marketing to any other digital channel for communication. It beats display ads (15%) and even the mighty social media (21%). Around a quarter of marketers surveyed by Campaign Monitor planned to increase spending on email marketing in 2018.
There isn’t a consensus as to what the best email marketing services are. What we have here is a list of some excellent suggestions. If you consider moving to the email marketing realm, you should have them in mind.