Need a new email marketing service? No matter what type of business you run, the number of subscribers you have, or what marketing automation features you’re looking for, we’ll help you find the right one for your needs! Discover the top ten email marketing services for small- and medium-sized businesses. Here is the Best Email Marketing Services/ Software 2022 (My TOP Recommendation)
Personally, I look for an email service that is affiliate link friendly and has good automation set up. I don’t care much about templates, forms, and segmentation.
In this post, let’s examine and see the most popular email providers and see what is good, bad, and a-ok.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is the process of sending automated messages to a list of addresses, usually using email lists created by businesses or organizations. Emails can be sent to individuals, businesses, or even agencies. The purpose of email marketing is to promote a product or service through the distribution of automated messages.
If you are a business owner, an online marketer, or a network marketer, do you use email marketing?
The answer of most people who don’t use email marketing is, I don’t have time, it is hard to do, or it doesn’t work. Whatever your answer is, if you don’t do email marketing, you are leaving money on the table.
Does it work? – If it doesn’t, big firms won’t waste their time on it. Let me ask you, how many times you got an email from Amazon? I am sure it is a lot, why, because email marketing is a money-making machine.
Is it hard? – It is not hard because that is the role of email providers to make it easy for you even if you are not a techy person. They can set it up for you, they provide you with drag and drop templates and they do everything possible to make it easy for you because that is how they make money.
Don’t you have the time for it? – That means you don’t have the time to make money and that is fine, no argument here.
Benefits of email marketing: Email marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on the distribution of messages through electronic media like email, SMS, and social media. Email marketing can be used to reach a large audience by delivering content that is engaging and relevant to their interests. It can also be used to increase awareness for your brand or product among potential customers.
Let’s see a comprehensive review of the 10 most popular email services in the market.
10 Best Email Marketing Services Price & Comparison
| SUBSCRIBERS | 100 | 500 | 1,000 | 2,500 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 15,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aweber | $19 | $19 | $29 | $29 | $49 | $69 | $149 |
| Active Campaign Lite | $15 | $15 | $29 | $49 | $89 | $139 | $225 |
| Active Campaign Plus | $75 | $75 | $75 | $135 | $180 | $269 | $430 |
| GetResponse (Basic) | $15 | $15 | $15 | $25 | $45 | $65 | $65 |
| GetResponse (Plus) | $15 | $15 | $49 | $59 | $79 | $95 | $95 |
| Mailchimp | Free | Free | Free | $9.99 | $9.99 | $9.99 | $9.99 |
| Drip | $49 | $49 | $49 | $122 | $122 | $184 | $246 |
| MailerLite | Free | Free | $10 | $20 | $35 | $50 | $75 |
| Benchmark | $11.89 | $11.89 | $18.69 | $27.19 | Contact | Contact | Contact |
| Ontraport | $79 | $79 | $79 | $147 | $297 | $297 | $497 |
| Automizy | $9 | $18 | $29 | $49 | $69 | $119 | $119 |
| ConvertKit | Free | $29 | $29 | $49 | $79 | $119 | $149 |
1. ACTIVECAMPAIGN EMAIL SERVICE
PRICE – Start at $15
AC is one of the widely used email services. It has a high deliverability rate, practical functionality, and very good automation.
Price starts at $15/month for 500 subscribers and goes up which is really reasonable.
ActiveCampaign has unique features like:
- Ability to share automation sequences
- Has an affiliate program that starts at 30%
The thing that I didn’t like about AC is, that they don’t allow affiliate links or wording like “make money” “affiliate income”,…..etc. and things similar to these, to solve that problem, you have to be careful about the wordings you use, and you have to have a bridge page if you are doing affiliate marketing which is very easy to do.
AC is a very popular autoresponder and it is very powerful. A combination of amazing features and reasonable prices made it be used by a lot of business owners including myself.
It is a very easy platform since it uses a drag-and-drop process. The price is reasonable and they offer 14 days free trial.
AC acts as an all-in-one platform and you find everything you need in one place. Email service, forms, landing pages. This can be a little high learning curve and you will find a guide on the site to show you around.
PROS AND CONS OF ACTIVECAMPAIGN
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Easy to use and powerful automation platform | Learning curve can be long because it contains a lot of features |
| Detailed reporting that I never saw with any other automation platform | |
| Highest number of delivery comparing to other platforms | |
| They offer free migration if you want to move from other providers |
2. DRIP EMAIL SERVICE
PRICE – Start at $49
This is one of my favorite email services. I use it on this site I also use ActiveCampaign.
Drip has many features that are not actually used by marketers and used by eCommerce owners.
There are many things I like about Drip like Sharing workflows, Segmentation and the power of bulk change, resending a broadcast to subscribers who didn’t open the email, ease of use, detailed reporting, and many more.
With those features comes the price. The price of Drip starts at $49/month which is not cheap compared to those other services. The only time I suggest going with drip is if you are heavily invested in affiliate marketing or you have a large eCommerce store.
The only two things I don’t like about Drip is, they don’t offer an affiliate program, and customer service is not that awesome.
PROS AND CONS OF DRIP
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Automation is well done and the best you can get in the market | Price is too high specially for small businesses |
| Easy to learn and use | Stats can takes some time to generate in workflows |
| Tags, Segments, and triggers are top notch | |
| Great reporting system |
3. CONVERTKIT EMAIL SERVICE
PRICE – Start at $29 after the free plan
In a way, ConverKit can be compared to ActiveCampaign except they don’t provide the following:
- There is no A/B testing
- No visually appealing emails
- Tagging inactive subscribers as “Cold”
Other than that, It is a sold email service fairly new to the industry but became one of the most popular in a few short years.
I like a few things about CK like:
- Automatic resend unopened emails
- Editing automation emails without losing the view and the focus
Recently, ConverKit added a free plan of up to 100 subscribers. It is not for a limited time, it is forever but up to 100 subscribers only, if you want to have more subscribers, then you have to pay for it.
You have full access to everything in this plan and it is a very good way to start. See the plan here
I don’t like the reporting details and outdated templates and forms.
PROS AND CONS OF CONVERTKIT
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Lets you make simple landing paged without requiring a website | Reports are not in depth |
| Powerful segmentation and tagging system | Form design is limited |
| Broadcast Auto resend option | |
| Regularly updated and improved | |
| Helpful and solid support |
4. MAILCHIMP EMAIL SERVICE
PRICE – Start at $9.99 after the free plan
Mailchimp is one of the biggest providers of emails. I think that is because they give you a free plan up to 2000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month.
There are a good side and a bad side with Mailchimp, my biggest concern with it is, charging for duplicate subscribers, and their automation that is not powerful.
I tried it some time ago and found out that it doesn’t work for my business especially, that it is not so friendly to affiliate links, so, I decided to move on.
Mailchimp also has some good features like nice looking email templates and forms and certainly the free plan.
If I compare it with another mailing service, it would be very similar to Aweber and to be honest, they are not the best marketing emails in the market.
When it comes to integration to 3rd party platforms, Mailchimp integrates with most.
Another thing I don’t like about Mailchimp is, they reserve the right to suspend your account for any reason and without any prior notice. For example, if your emails receive a lot of complaints, they can terminate your account.
It is not also allowed to have more than one form for a list, so, if you want another form, you should create another list a feature that is not practical.
PROS AND CONS OF MAILCHIMP
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Free plan with 2000 subscribers and 12K emails a month | Not affiliate link friendly |
| Good looking templates, forms, and emails | Automation is not that powerful and limited |
| Good reporting and analytics | Can’t create more than one form for each list |
| Good eCommerce intergaration |
5. GETRESPONSE EMAIL SERVICE
PRICE – Start at $15
GetResponse is one of the old services in the market. A lot of people like it and like the visuality while performing tasks.
The service can have an argument for having the best open rate of emails because of a feature that it delivers emails at the best time to your subscribers based on previous actions of those subscribers.
Another feature that is nice is, if you set an email to be sent at 11 am, GetResponse sends it at 11 AM at the local time of your subscribers.
Besides the two features above, everything else is standard and almost can be found with any provider in the market.
When it comes to affiliate links, it is allowed except Amazon affiliate links, so, if you are an Amazon affiliate, you may want to think again about GetResponse.
Another thing that I don’t like with GetResponse is, it is a list based platform, if you have more than one list, then you have to pay for duplicate subscribers.
PROS AND CONS OF GETRESPONSE
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Powerful and intelligent list automation | If you have more than one list, you have to pay for duplicate subscribers |
| Salesfunnels can be designed for lead generation | Forms and email templates are outdated |
| Several forms and designs can be designed and tested | |
| Time travel and perfect timing can increase your open rate |
6. AWEBER EMAIL SERVICE
PRICE – Starts at $19
To be honest, I don’t understand why people go with Aweber while they have other services in the market that cost almost the same and have better features.
When first came out, it used to be one of the best and the leading email service in the market. But, I have no idea what happened lately, there were no meaningful updates for things that need to be updated.
Aweber fell behind and is not the best provider anymore.
It is a list based service, which means you are charged for duplicate and unsubscribed subscribers. That is not fair especially when you have many providers in the market.
Affiliate links are ok with Aweber,
Finally, Aweber is a good service provider when you look at it in isolation, but, when you compare it to the competition in the market, it has no chance at all.
PROS AND CONS OF AWEBER
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Support and customer service is one of the best in the industry | Outdated templates and some automation limitations |
| Reporting features are one of the best compared to other providers | Unfair count of subscribers |
| List management is super easy since it can be done through automation and actions taken by subscribers | |
7. MAILERLITE EMAIL SERVICE
PRICE – Starts at $10 after the free plan
When t comes to price and plan, this is very similar to Mailchimp. It has a free plan of up to 1000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month.
In my opinion, MailerLite is an underrated service. It has much more than Mailchimp has to offer, powerful automation, segment, and group to manage subscribers, landing pages builder, nice forms, pop-ups, and many more.
It puzzles me why it is not known as Mailchimp!
While automation is not as powerful as ActiveCampaign, but still one of the best in the market especially when you compare prices.
When it comes to usage, it is so friendly and easy to use.
PROS AND CONS OF MAILERLITE
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Free plan up to 1000 subscribers | Missing some features in reporting and automation |
| Easy to use with clean and simple platform | Limited integration with 3rd party |
| Landing page editor that is hosted on MailerLite | |
| Price for paid plan is very affordable |
8. BENCHMARK EMAIL SERVICE
PRICE – $11.89 after the free plan
The pricing of this email service is unique, you can choose to pay according to the number of subscribers or according to the number of emails They also have a free plan with unlimited subscribers and a max of emails a month
The platform has a good or standard service. Automation is standard with limited power. It has good email and form templates, but, I don’t think many people care about that.
Benchmark also has A/B testing which is a cool feature.
The service falls short in areas like deliverability issues and A/B testing being delayed.
PROS AND CONS OF BENCHMARK
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Ease of use- It is one of the easiest email service to use | Deliverability issues since many emails land in the junk folder |
| Wide variety of templates to choose from | A/B testing is delayed sometimes |
| Email automation is easy and it includes behavior based rules | |
9. ONTRAPORT EMAIL SERVICE
I think the reason why Ontraport is not widely used is its price. It is too expensive to start at $79 especially for those small businesses and affiliate marketers.
The landing page, form, and email editor is block-based and visually appealing to work with. Automation is powerful and more suitable for big marketing firms.
I don’t know how many people use this service but, I guess they are not much because of the price.
When I think about it $79 for 1000 subscribers doesn’t work for me. But, if you can afford it, it is a very good service. They also offer a 90-day money-back guarantee.
PROS AND CONS OF AONTRAPORT
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| 90 days money back guarantee | Price is too expensive for small businesses |
| 2 Welcoming calls to help you getting used to the platform | Dashboard is not that appealing |
| Landing pages, forms, and email with editing and customization ability | |
| You can share workflows and forms |
10. AUTOMIZY EMAIL SERVICE
PRICE – Starts at $9
I never understood why this email service is not widely spread! It combines ease, reliability, functionality, and a good price.
See my complete review of Automizy here, it is best known to help businesses get a better open rate and can increase it up to 34%
It also offers 60 days money-back guarantee with no questions asked
MY RECOMMENDATION OF EMAIL SERVICE
This is not one size fits all, rather, it is a case to case ruling. What I mean to say is, it depends on why you want the email service, what are you doing with it, and what is your business,….etc.
So, I am going to break it down into a few categories.
First of all, all mailing services have a free trial period and some have a free plan forever, so, you can actually try it before you stick with it (that’s what I do)
- If you want an email service for e-commerce and a service that would grow with you, I go with ActiveCampaign or Drip. But, if you are concern about the price, I would exclude Drip and go with ActiveCampaign.
- If you are looking for a free account that gets you going until you start making money, then go with one of these three, ConverKit, MailChimp, or MailerLite. I would exclude Mailchimp for its crappy automation and go with ConvertKit or MailerLite
- If you have a sales team and want to track all your sales and communication, then Ontraport is perfect for you if the price of $79 to start won’t be a barrier.
So, you have to decide for yourself the service that is suitable for you or at least you can give it a try. Let me know in the comment below what your choice was.
So, it is not about the best marketing email service, but, it depends on your needs
WHAT EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER DO I USE?
For me personally, I went through several, then I chose two of them.
Currently, I use ActiveCampaign and Drip. I have a list in both and I use them both on a daily basis.
Drip is a bit expensive to start, but ActiveCampaign has a good price and great service. If you are just starting, I recommend ActiveCampaign.
FINAL THOUGHT
At the end of the day, you, as a business owner, what you care about is more return in whatever your goal is and being effective at communication with your subscribers.
For that purpose, you have to choose the marketing email service that meets your requirements.
Good automation, great email deliverability, modern and editable forms, and landing pages, and price should be taken into consideration in judging the email service provider.
The good thing about these providers is, they all have a free trial period that you can use and try the platform and see if it meets your standard then make your choice.
Take some time, try a few providers, and be the judge.
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