Email marketing services reviews: Make your newsletters amazing (2020)

What kind of imagery comes to mind when you think of email marketing? Maybe you’re picturing confusing templates or tons of HTML coding. Maybe you think it’s easy-breezy and your favorite way to connect with followers. Or maybe you have no idea where to begin at all.

There are tons of email marketing services out there, but how do you know which one is best for your needs? With over a decade of combined email experience on our team, I’ve learned a thing or two about all the services out there. Let me show you the pros and cons of the most popular email marketing services for your next newsletter.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign has been a player in the email marketing world since 2003. They have a lot of experience with the changing digital landscape, and they have actual customer support representatives available to help you with your account.

Pros: ActiveCampaign really shines in the analytics department. They have useful metrics that don’t get bogged down with big campaigns. Additionally, the customer support team is highly-lauded among ActiveCampaign customers.

Cons: The design of the actual interface could use some freshening up. Some elements are clunky or outdated, and that can make email designs a challenge. Also, sometimes there are too many cooks in the kitchen when it comes to customer support so you’ll want to be sure you speak to the same person every time.

ConvertKit

Simple and clean, ConvertKit is all about getting you the data you need to build your email list.

Pros: Visual analytics are striking, and they really highlight where your emails are shining and falling short. It’s also relatively easy to set up landing pages and email signup forms with ConvertKit to increase your subscribers.

Cons: The design elements can be bare-bones with ConvertKit. Tagging and list management is confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s simple to repeat.  

MailChimp

As a top-to-bottom email marketing service, MailChimp is focused on getting the right message, to the right people, at the right time. They do their best to keep subscribers coming back with tons of useful features. MailChimp also offers free accounts for people with smaller email lists.

Pros: Simple template builders make it easy to get started. Free account is robust with features. Landing pages, forms, automatic emails, and all kinds of other options make MailChimp a one-stop-shop.

Cons: Sometimes the design can be rigid. HTML design is only an option for a higher-tier paid account, which means you don’t have the flexibility to jump into the code and make it your own. Features can also be located in odd places, so there is a definite learning curve to getting started with MailChimp.

SendInBlue

Relatively new on the email marketing scene, SendInBlue focuses on making clean, lean lists.  

Pros: Generally there is a high open rate for newsletters sent with SendInBlue. They regularly comb through lists and try to help users target their best audience. The sleek design of the SendInBlue interface is also a plus.

Cons: Some people have reported having their accounts being frozen when they didn’t get a certain percentage of email opens--this appears to be an attempt at keeping spammers out, but they can be overzealous. The paid tiers of SendInBlue can be pricey for what they offer.

GetResponse

Originally focused on the European market, GetResponse has shifted its interest to American businesses as of late. GetResponse is widely used-- according to their data, they send over 1 billion emails per month.

Pros: Tons of features and templates to help you get exactly what you need into your newsletter or email marketing. Flexibility in coding and design to allow for real creativity. List management is relatively easy with GetResponse’s built-in filters.

Cons: There can be too much flexibility in design with GetResponse. I’ve struggled to get a cohesive look for my newsletters because there were too many shifting options within their template designer. Sometimes they aren’t the best at getting the emails delivered to inboxes rather than spam folders. Lastly, the analytics on GetResponse are not necessarily the most intuitive or useful.

And the winner is…

MailChimp! Overall I found MailChimp to be the easiest, most helpful email software. With tons of analytics and integrations there has yet to be one task I couldn’t accomplish with MailChimp.

What do you think of our scores? Which email software do you use? Let me know if we missed any in the comments!