Best Email Marketing Services Compared

While there are a countless number of email marketing software providers coming onto the market. That's why we have focused this comparison on some of the best email marketing services with email marketing automation features; ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Convertkit, Drip, GetResponse and Aweber . The email marketing software that is best suited for your business will largely come down to your budget and feature requirements. Below we’ve included some side-by-side comparison tables to help you find the right email service for you. First of all, we have a very basic summary of the top email marketing services, followed by an in-depth comparison of the best email marketing automation features per tool.

Find the best email marketing services quickly?

Below are the rankings for the best email marketing services with automation features. If you're interested, feel free to try out a free trial for one of these tools. You can try them out at your own speed and you can be confident no-one will contact you to sell you something. Or read our in-depth reviews for each tool. 

Best email marketing services:
Marketing & Sales features compared

We've compiled some of the most important marketing and sales features from all the best email marketing services in the feature comparison table below. This is especially handy if you are a B2B organisation or an organisation with a salesteam, because you might need features like a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system included in your platform. Check it out:

Best Email Marketing Software In depth

Are you serious about selecting the best email marketing services? We've compiled some more in-depth information per tool below. 

Best Email Marketing Service #1 - ActiveCampaign

(4.3/5)  - - Read full review -- Try for free -- Visit website

Activecampaign in a nutshell

Based on our review, ActiveCampaign is definitely the best email marketing service tool out there. It has the most powerful automations features while keeping it simple enough to master relatevily quickly. Also, ActiveCampaign has the best A/B-testing out there. You split-test everything you want inside of your campaigns and automations. They also have great support and good value for money considering all features you get. All in all, if you're serious about email marketing & automation, ActiveCampaign is our tool of choice for you.

 

Who is Activecampaign the best for?

ActiveCampaign is suited for everyone from small business to enterprise.

 

We especially recommend ActiveCampaign if:

  • - You are serious about email automation and don't want to run into limitations any time soon (because learning a tool takes time)
  • - You are a small & medium size B2B company (because of their native CRM system & sales automation features)
  • - You are looking for an "all-in-one" automation platform and not "just another email tool". With AC you get SMS marketing, FB custom audience uploads, site messages, and much more!
  • - You are looking for good price / quality ratio. ActiveCampaign has got everything you need for a good price.

 

Main Pros and cons

Below we've listed some of the main pro's and con's of ActiveCampaign. Feel free to read the complete review for more info on this. Or Visit ActiveCampaign's website to explore the possibilities yourself!

Main pros

  • Best automation features
  • Good value for money
  • Best A/B testing
  • Great drag-and-drop builders for automations, forms and emails

Main cons

  • Slight learning curve for beginners
  • The interface can be a bit slow to navigate (but they have improved)
  • Some more pre-designed email templates would be nice

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Try for free
Read full review
Visit ActiveCampaign website

Best Email Marketing Service #2 - GetResponse

(3.6/5)  - - Read full review -- Try for free -- Visit website

GetResponse in a nutshell

GetReponse positions itself as an "all-in-one online marketing platform to grow your business". It also claims to be really easy to use. And after reviewing them, we must say they do offer really good value for money and useful features for everyone. Not only do you get email automation, you also get a landing page builder, native CRM system ánd great webinar options. 

 

Who is GetResponse the best for?

Because of their highly competitive prices in the email automation area, they are suitable for everyone, from startups to big business (clients feature Hilton hotels, Ikea and Unesco). 

 

We especially recommend Getresponse if:

  • - You are in E-commerce and sell physical products (like Ikea). They've got great reporting ánd integrate well with platforms like Shopify and Magento.
  • - You don't want to pay extra for a landingpage builder. The've got an native pagebuilder right inside their platform!
  • - You have a salesteam and need a CRM and sales automation. (We still believe ActiveCampaign out-performs them in this area though)

 

Main Pros and cons

Below we've listed some of the main pro's and con's of GetResponse. Check out our complete review for more info on getResponse or Visit the GetResponse's website to explore the possibilities yourself!

Main pros

  • Really good value for money
  • Solid email & form builder
  • Great tracking and reporting (especially for ecommerce)

Main cons

  • Email templates look outdated
  • UX of the Automation builder
  • Custom form design options are a bit limited

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Try for free
Read full review
Visit GetResponse

See also: Sales funnels | Book funnels | Challenge funnels | Ecommerce funnels | High ticket sales funnels | Lead funnels

Best Email Marketing Service #3 - Convertkit

(3.4/5)  - - Read full review -- Try for free -- Visit website

Convertkit in a nutshell

Convertkit was founded by Nathan Barry, a well-known blogger / entrepreneur in the info-product space. Nathan created Convertkit for the blogger/creator/small buisiness audience. And because he's been there before, it's quite a compelling proposition. The company is relatively new on the scene but is making some big waves in the email automation space. 

 

Who is Convertkit the best for?

Convertkit is aimed at small businesses who are looking for an easy tool to get into email marketing automation.

 

We especially recommend Convertkit if:

  • - You are a blogger, looking for a "bloggers" tool. It's easy to use and to the point.
  • - You want to send targeted campaigns. They've got great segmentation features so you can reach the right people at the right time (and not spam anybody 🙂

 

Main Pros and cons

Below we've listed some of the main pro's and con's of Convertkit. Pleae view our complete review for more information on Convertkit or Visit the Convertkit website to see the works!

Main pros

  • Very easy to use
  • Great segmentation and targeting features
  • Native landingpage builder
  • Awesome support

Main cons

  • Reporting is a bit limited
  • Lack of email templates
  • It has basic A/B-testing
  • Expensive if you have a large list

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Try for free
Read full review
Visit Convertkit website

Best Email Marketing Service #4 - Drip

(3.3/5)  - - Read full review -- Try for free -- Visit website

Drip in a nutshell

Drip is a relatively new player in the email marketing automation space. It has recently been aquired by the team behing Leadpages (a popular landingpage software) and is making some waves in the market. They have also recently started focusing their efforts on the Ecommerce niche (physical products), but are still being used by a lot of popular info product marketers as well (like Brennan Dunn and Andre Chaperon). 

 

Who is Drip the best for?

Drip is focused on Ecommerce companies, so we would especially advise Drip if:

 

We especially recommend Drip if:

  • - You sell physical products ánd want to automate a big part of your email marketing
  • - You want the best targeting in the email automation space (check out their "events" targeting feature in our reviw). 
  • - You believe in the Leadpages team and the possibilties their aquisition of Drip brings (deep integrations, etc)

 

Main Pros and cons

We've listed some of the main pros and cons of Drip below. Check out our detailed Drip Rreview ór visit their website for more info.

Main pros

  • Awesome segmentation options (best in the business)
  • Visual automation & email builder
  • Pre-built automation workflow templates for ecommerce

Main cons

  • Relatively high prices
  • No email templates library
  • Basic A/B testing functionality

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Try for free
Read full review
Visit Drip website

Best Email Marketing Service #5 - Mailchimp

(3.2/5)  - - Read full review -- Try for free -- Visit website

Mailchimp in a nutshell

Mailchimp is a very well known and often used marketing automation tool. Some swear it is the best out there, while some say it is falling behind in modern times. Based on our review, we believe it's great for beginners. They've got awesome email templates and are really user friendly. However, they are falling behind in the automation department (which is what we really care about). 

 

Who is Mailchimp the best for?

Mailchimp is aimed at small & medium sized businesses. 

 

We especially recommend mailchimp if:

  • - You care a lot about visually stunning email designs. They have a huge library of email templates to choose from.
  • - You are on a budget and are looking for a "free forever plan" to get you started (and you don't care about automation too much and just want to send beatiful newsletters)

 

Main Pros and cons

Check out some of the main pros and cons of Mailchimp below. 

Main pros

  • Lots of beautiful email templates
  • Good reporting & integrations
  • User friendly (except for the automation part)

Main cons

  • Lacks automation capabilities
  • Can not split-test automations
  • Subscribers in multiple lists count multiple times for your monthly price.
  • Not for affiliate marketing (not a con perse, but important to mention)

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Try for free
Read full review
Visit Mailchimp website

Best Email Marketing Service #6 - AWeber

(3.0/5)  - - Read full review -- Try for free -- Visit website

Aweber in a nutshell

Aweber was once regarded as the best marketing automation solution of the market, especially because they were the first email service provider who focused on autoresponders (waaaay back ;). Since time has passed, new features have been developed, and new competitors have entered the market. How does Aweber stack up in this new era? Although we feel that it wasn't able to keep up with the competition, we still regard as a good tool if you are a beginner or don't have advanced needs. It contains most of the basic features you'd want to use with a marketing automation tool. 

 

Who is Aweber the best for?

Because it's been around, Aweber is still being used by some of the most popular companies and marketers in the world. They are heavily invested in the tool and switching is kind of hard. We believe that's one of the reasons you still see a lot of people recommending Aweber. In our humble opinion, honestly, there is not many instances where we would recommend Aweber ourselves. They do offer phone support (as one of the very few), so if that's important to you as a beginner, you might want to consider Aweber.  

 

Main Pros and cons

We've listed the main pros and cons of Aweber below. Feel free to check out our complete review of Aweber or visit their website for more info.

Main pros

  • Good support & large community
  • Detailed broadcast reporting

Main cons

  • You pay for unsubscribed contacts
  • Outdated email templates
  • Lacks automation testing & reports
  • Better value for money elsewhere

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Try for free
Read full review
Visit Aweber website

Best Email Marketing Service #7 - Constant Contact

(2.5/5)  - - Read full review -- Try for free -- Visit website

Constant Contact in a nutshell

"All the tools and support you need to succeed." This is how Constant Contact promote itselve. Is this really the case? We believe Constant Contact is a fairly decent tool. It is easy to use and serves the basic marketing automation needs. You can set up nice emails, it is great for setting up events, and it contains some cool other features. In terms of automation, form building, and A/B-testing, Constant Contact falls behind other tools.

 

Who is Constant Contact the best for?

When it comes to situations where we would recommend Constant Contact, we believe that there are sóme instances:

 

We especially recommend Constant Contact if:

  • - You organize events. Constant Contact allows you to manage invitations, registrations, and also tickets.

 

There are not many other instances where we would recommend Constant Contact. 

 

Main Pros and cons

We've listed some of the best and worst features of Constant Contact below:

Main pros

  • Good for event marketing
  • Good support & community

Main cons

  • Overpriced considering capabilties
  • Very limited segmentation options
  • Very basic autoresponders
  • Subject line A/B test only
  • Email templates look outdated

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Try for free
Read full review
Visit Constant Contact

Your comments and questions

Feel free to drop us a line if you need any help with selecting the best email marketing services.

We are also very curious what you think about the contents of this page, so all your feedback is welcome!

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