Best Email Marketing Software 2021
Does email marketing still work? You might be surprised to learn how effective it is! According to McKinsey & Company it’s a significantly better way to acquire and engage customers than social media.
Many platforms offer easy to use templates, subject line A/B testing and transactional emails to help you actively engage your audience right from their inbox. You don’t need to be a coder to get started, we’ve found the best email marketing software for you whether you’re a blogger, small business or enterprise.
What’s on This Page
Top Email Marketing Software Products
MailChimp
Pricing:
- $0 – Up to 2000 contacts, 1 audience
- $9.99 USD/month – Up to 50,000 contacts, 3 audiences
- $14.99 USD/month – Up to 100,000 contacts, 5 audiences, behavioural targeting
- $299 USD/ month – 200,000+ contacts, unlimited audiences, advanced reporting
This is a great tool for beginners! MailChimp claims to send more than 10,000 emails every second, and they’ve been around since 2001. They’ve established themselves as a tried and trusted platform for email marketing. Just like a website builder, MailChimp offers a built-in designer that has multiple templates to choose from to suit your business needs.
Drag and drop, or use code
You can drag and drop the elements of your email into your design like photos, media and text. If you’re more advanced and can code, you can also build your email from the ground up.
Store and manage files in the content studio
Once you bring your files into the platform’s content studio, you can store and manage them from within the software, making them readily available whenever you need them.
eCommerce integration and real-time analytics
If you’re an online retailer, you can connect into ecommerce sites like Shopify to send targeted product campaigns. To add another layer to that, you can keep tabs on your campaigns through real-time analytics which will help you identify what’s working so that you can make informed decisions about future campaigns.
Not ideal for automation
If automation is important to you, this might not be the best platform for your needs. Although MailChimp says they are a marketing automation platform, the steps can be difficult to manage.
Not for affiliate marketers
If you’re an affiliate marketer, steer clear. MailChimp has a policy prohibiting affiliate marketing and your account could be cancelled if you use it for this purpose.
MailChimp’s free plan works perfectly for personal brands or small businesses, allowing you to send up to 10,000 emails each month to 2000 subscribers. If you find your brand begins to grow, the email marketing software offers paid plans from $9 – $299.
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
4.45 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
4.5 (10000 user reviews)
G2.com
4.3 (11191 user reviews)
Constant Contact
Pricing:
- $26 CAD/month – Email – Customizable templated, contact upload, intuitive UI
- $57 CAD/month – Email Plus – A/B testing, responsive coupons, automation
Built for small businesses
Constant Contact was built for small businesses. The user interface is elegant and intuitive, making it easy to get started. The platform offers unlimited emails, but there is a limit of 500 contacts on the “email plan,” so if your business has more contacts, you might want to try another platform.
Easy to import contact lists
Contact lists can be imported from Outlook, Salesforce or via an uploaded spreadsheet, making it really simple to integrate.
Great set of features
Constant Contact has customizable templates, a drag-and-drop builder for your newsletter, A/B subject line testing and unlimited monthly sends. Upgrading to the “email plus” plan will get you email automation, dynamic content, responsive coupons and personalized email content.
The best part about this platform is that they offer a 60-day free trial, which gives you enough time to test the waters and figure out if this email marketing software is for you.
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
4.2 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
4.3 (1828 user reviews)
G2.com
3.9 (4528 user reviews)
AWeber
Pricing:
- Free – 500 subscribers, 3,000 email sends/month, 1 list profile
- $19 USD/month – 0-500 subscribers
- $29 USD/month – 501 – 2,500 subscribers
- $49 USD/month – 2,501 – 5,000 subscribers
- $69 USD/month – 5,001 – 10,000 subscribers
- $149 USD/month – 10,001 – 25,000 subscribers
Best platform for a marketing manager with several clients
AWeber lets you manage an unlimited number of lists across an unlimited number of businesses from the same account, making this the perfect platform for a marketing manager with several clients. It also lets you set up an unlimited number of user accounts, so if you’re working with a team, they’ll have access to everything they need. The plans all come with unlimited monthly emails, autoresponder and sign-up forms, making monthly limits a thing of the past! Although, if you opt for the free plan, you will be limited to 500 subscribers, 3000 email sends monthly and one list profile.
Each list can be as similar or different as you want, and can have their own automations, schedules and campaigns. This is different than a lot of the other email marketing software providers that usually only allow you to connect one website per account and don’t allow multiple sent from email addresses.
Full access to features – pricing is based on number of subscribers
Pricing for this platform is based on the number of subscribers you have, not features, so regardless of the plan you’re on, you’ll have access to all of the bells and whistles. Be careful though, pricing includes both subscribed and unsubscribed contacts, so if someone unsubscribes from your list, you will continue to be charged for that contact as long as their details remain in your account. To avoid this, remember to delete unsubscribed accounts!
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
4.8 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
4.3 (161 user reviews)
G2.com
4.2 (565 user reviews)
iPost
Pricing:
- Contact iPost for pricing.
iPost’s claim to fame is that they are a platform for marketers, built by marketers! It’s the perfect platform for agencies or franchises who have teams working on large campaigns.
Intuitive tools and scales with your business
The platform is intuitive and relatively easy to use – and allows you to scale as your business grows. The design tool requires no coding knowledge, and the software makes it easy to discover new audiences. On the analytics side, the platform offers campaign reporting, trends and conversion tracking in easy to pull reports for campaign reviews.
Granular conversion tracking
Customers get immediate visibility into campaign performance that go beyond opens and clicks and offers granular conversion tracking.
Data visualization can be slow
When it comes to data visualization, the system can be slow to load and hard to use. Pulling data can take a long time, especially if there are multiple brands set up separately on the platform.
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
4.6 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
4.5 (22 user reviews)
G2.com
4.4 (20 user reviews)
Product Features
MailChimp
Free – $99
/ month
- Free plan available
- Great for beginners
- Drag and drop design
Constant Contact
$26 – $57
/ month
- 60-day free trial
- Import contacts
- Intuitive templates
AWeber
$19 – $149
/ month
- Unlimited listings
- Flexibile pricing
- Access to all features
iPost
Contact Vendor
- Enterprise solutions
- Multi team members
- Performance analytics
Alternative Options
Other Services
Frequently Asked Questions
What is email marketing software?
Email marketing software allows you to manage your email contacts and send optimized messages to targeted customers. Using email marketing software, you can design promos, do subject line A/B testing and make ecommerce offers.
What does email marketing software do?
Email marketing software makes it easy for you to design and automate commercial e-mail offers and content for your customers.
What email marketing software doesn’t get trapped in spam?
Whether or not your email goes to spam depends on your content. There are multiple online tools like GlockApps that will help you check the spam score of your email.