Pros & Cons of Top Email Marketing Software

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Top 3 reviews with pros & cons for each of these 6 leading email marketing software products.

Table of Contents

ConvertKit

ConvertKit helps you find your audience, turn them into true fans, and earn a living as a creator with their audience building and email marketing software.

Top 3 ConvertKit Reviews
* Pros & Cons

$ 0
00
Free (0 - 1000 Subscribers)
  • Pros: ConverKit is a tag-based subscriber system; Can create dynamic emails with merge tags; Has a simple but effective visual automations builder; Alternative “rules” builder for basic automations; Ability to create various form types; [ConvertKit] Offers a landing page builder (albeit a very rudimentary one); Digestible reporting for subscriber acquisition; Great support channels available.

    Cons: Very limited A/B testing functionality; Few customization options for forms and email templates; Reporting data is limited.

    Reviewer: https://www.authorityhacker.com/convertkit-review/
  • Pros: Ease of use; Easy WordPress integration; Tag-based subscriber system; Dynamic emails (merge tags); Autoresending; Visual automation builder; ConvertKit has no charge for duplicate subscribers (unlike MailChimp & Aweber); Live chat and email support; Integrations; Updated constantly.

    Cons: Limited A/B testing; Lack of cold subscribers customization; Lack of test emails for autoresponders; I think more customization options can be added for templates. For making some changes you need to dig in the HTML and create new templates.

    Reviewer: https://bloggingx.com/convertkit-review/
  • Pros: Great automations; Tagging; Resend to unopens; Easy to use; Very nice user interface; Makes adding content upgrades easy; Unlimited sequences; Not charged for duplicate subscribers; No manual deletion of unsubscribes required; Many integrations (including Zapier); Great training, transparency, and blogs; The ConvertKit owner is an awesome entrepreneur to watch; Free email list migration for lists of 1000+.

    Cons: No lead scoring; No A/B Split Testing

    Reviewer: https://howtoentrepreneur.com/what-is-convertkit
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MailChimp

Mailchimp helps small businesses do big things, with the right tools and guidance every step of the way.

Top 3 MailChimp Reviews
* Pros & Cons

$ 0
00
Free for Beginners, $299/mo for Premium (advanced)
  • Pros: With MailChimp you can import your own email templates; You have multiple integration options with your current online presence; You have access to complete comparative metrics; You can remove the MailChimp logo if you prefer.

    Cons: Having a membership-based site can be difficult; MailChimp reserves the right to suspend or cancel your account; You pretty much have to create your own templates; The interface can feel a bit awkward and clunky to some users; For many, the fact that MailChimp restricts users to sending out emails to only one list at a time is a deal breaker. You can customize that list, but you can’t send to multiple subscriber lists at once.

    Reviewer: https://brandongaille.com/8-pros-and-cons-of-mailchimp/
  • Pros: Thorough reporting; Generous freemium plan; Great template editor.

    Cons: High-cost subscription plans: Although MailChimp offers a generous freemium plan, the prices get steep pretty quickly once you start needing to increase your email, or subscriber, numbers; Limited email automation: Even though their autoresponders are solid, MailChimp disappoints when it comes to more advanced automation.

    Reviewer: https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/reviews/mailchimp/
  • Pros: Mailchimp is totally free for beginners, and includes almost all of their features like automations and landing pages; Mailchimp is easy to use, seriously easy; They get your emails delivered, because they care about sender reputation and spam laws; Mailchimp connects to ecommerce, without requiring Zapier or other third-party connection services; Mailchimp is great for drip sequences, despite what ConvertKit and other ESPs say.

    Cons: Mailchimp has its own language [to learn]; Mailchimp hides its advanced features, and groups together too many features at once, like campaigns being grouped with automations and landing pages; Their defaults are ugly, using far too much cold greys and boring fonts; Mailchimp isn’t super-straightforward, and can easily be setup incorrectly for things like paying double or more for the same subscriber on multiple lists.

    Reviewer: https://chimpessentials.com/mailchimp-review/
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MailerLite

MailerLite makes advanced email marketing tools designed with simplicity in mind (hence the “Lite” in their name). It includes live 24/7 support and the latest features like landing pages and automation.

Top 3 MailerLite Reviews
* Pros & Cons

$ 0
00
Free (0 - 1000 Subscribers)
  • Pros: MailerLite's email builder is fantastic – the new builder, specifically. I’d recommend staying away from the classic builder. It’ll take longer to make emails, and they definitely won’t look as good; Overall, this platform is great for users and businesses who want to send visually appealing newsletters that don’t take forever to put together; And it’s also great for those who want automation without the enterprise cost. If you’ve got basic or mid-level automation needs, MailerLite is definitely the cheapest (while still quality) option available; The pricing of the platform is also a huge pro. This software has a lot to offer and is much cheaper than similar options.

    Cons: MailerLite’s reporting is basic at best. If your company needs extensive reporting, this isn’t the platform for you. You’re not going to get much more than who clicked on what.

    Reviewer: https://www.authorityhacker.com/mailerlite-review/
  • Pros: Easy to use: Thanks to its simple interface, beginners and advanced users can easily navigate this software; Beautiful designs: MailerLite has beautiful templates for newsletters, forms, and landing pages, so you can create great, professional designs that match your site’s branding; Mobile-friendly: All the landing pages, newsletters, and emails designed on MailerLite are optimized to look just as good on smartphones and iPads as they do on desktop. You don’t have to worry about any device compatibility issues; Drag-and-drop builder: You don’t need any coding or design experience to create forms and emails thanks to MailerLite’s drag-and-drop functionality; Detailed videos and webinars: MailerLite frequently uploads free videos and webinars to educate its users on maximizing the available features.

    Cons: Rigorous approval process: For your MailerLite account to be activated, you will need to undergo a relatively lengthy approval process. You’ll need to enter your site URL, as well as an email domain that goes with your website. The approval process can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a day; Missing some pro features: MailerLite does not come with some pro features such as spam testing, advanced automation, and detailed statistics reports.

    Reviewer: https://remotebliss.com/mailerlite-review/
  • Pros: MailerLite has a clean and comprehensive interface where you can easily understand its services and features; The learning curve is not steep at all; You can create excellent landing pages using the landing page editor; You can choose to host your landing pages on your own domain or let MailerLite host it; MailerLite is an affordable and beginner-friendly email marketing MailerLite is excellent when it comes to customer support; There are extensive customer support options available, including knowledge base, how-to guides, tutorial videos, live chat, and email support system; Moreover, the customer support panel is equipped with trained and skilled professionals.

    Cons: MailerLite can improve itself in some departments like reporting & analytics and automation; More automation features can improve the quality of user experience; The account approval system is rigorous, and you need to have a custom email, which uses your domain.

    Reviewer: https://startupfax.com/mailerlite-review-features-pros-cons-pricing-policy/
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ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign gives you the email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM tools you need to create incredible customer experiences.

Top 3 ActiveCampaign
Reviews * Pros & Cons

$ 9 USD Per Month (Lite)
  • Pros: ActiveCampaign has great email deliverability right out the gate; Wide range of features for advanced users; Machine learning to improve your marketing results over time; The email builder, though not the slickest, is powerful and gives you a lot of versatility; The CRM is seamlessly integrated with the automations to improve efficiencies in your organization.

    Cons: The conversations (on-site chat) feature is an add-on and not included in the standard plan; It takes some time to wrap your head around ActiveCampaign's advanced features if you’re new to email marketing automation; The app has been slow at times (at least that is what we see everyone say, not our own experience lately).

    Reviewer: https://www.emailvendorselection.com/activecampaign-review/
  • Pros: Ease of use – ActiveCampaign were the first platform to pioneer the visual marketing automation builder. The first thing that you notice when you start using ActiveCampaign is how well-designed and intuitive the user interface is. It’s one of the only marketing automation tools we’ve used that requires no training to understand; Automation split testing – This feature enables you to A/B test entire sequences against each other, rather than just test individual emails (which is offered by most marketing automation tools); Machine learning – In recent years, ActiveCampaign has built a number of innovative ML-based features, including predictive sending, predictive content, and predictive win-probability scoring of leads to help you automate even more of your marketing & sales process.

    Cons: CRM – ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation is particularly powerful because ActiveCampaign has an in-built CRM system. This CRM, however, is not as good as standalone platforms like PipeDrive or Salesforce – though we feel this is a reasonable trade-off for ActiveCampaign’s automation features; Reporting – Despite being fairly comprehensive and providing insights on sales/goal conversions, ActiveCampaign’s reporting is quite crowded and can be difficult to navigate at times.

    Reviewer: https://www.marketingautomationinsider.com/active-campaign/
  • Pros: You can do just about anything with ActiveCampaign. My personality is such that I want to dream up the right way to do my email marketing, and then I want to build exactly that. I can always do that with ActiveCampaign; ActiveCampaign’s automations are easy to understand and visualize. This is because they have a visual, drag-and-drop editor; ActiveCampaign has versatile goal tracking; ActiveCampaign has tons of integrations; ActiveCampaign has Message Variables; ActiveCampaign has the best deliverability in the business; ActiveCampaign has advanced tiers of service. Switching email marketing platforms is a pain, so you hate to have to switch simply because your business grows.

    Cons: Clunky email editing experience. ActiveCampaign’s email editor has some strange quirks that slow me down; Cumbersome to edit multiple emails in an automation; Occasional slow performance; The features can be overwhelming.

    Reviewer: https://kadavy.net/blog/posts/activecampaign-review/
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Aweber

Aweber helps you build a stronger connection with your audience. One of the original brands in the email marketing software space, they now also offer landing pages, web push notifications and more.

Top 3 Aweber Reviews
* Pros & Cons

$ 0
00
Free (0 - 500 Subscribers)
  • Pros: There are many AWeber features which I really liked, starting with its intuitive design and easy-to-use interface; AWeber also offers more email templates than most of the competing email marketing solutions; Additionally, the software integrates easily with third-party apps and tools; The easy drag-and-drop features plus the automation features make AWeber among the best email marketing software in the market today.

    Cons: Although there are hundreds of templates to choose from, some could do with a design update; Also, I discovered that you could not include or exclude a number of segments all at once when you are sending a newsletter.

    Reviewer: https://bestemailmarketingsoftware.com/review/aweber.html
  • Pros: An entirely free plan is available; It’s really easy to use; It comes with a very large range of templates — considerably more than its key competitors; Support options are more extensive than is the case with some key competing products and based on Aweber’s Stevie awards for customer service, should be high; It’s reasonably priced — whilst not the absolute cheapest product of its kind out there, it is more competitively priced than several similar solutions; It has a built-in landing page builder; It facilitates AMP for email — something of a first for email marketing tools; It lets you choose whether to let people subscribe to your list on a single or double opt-in basis; It makes setting up up simple time-based autoresponders very easy to do; All email templates are responsive; You can use web fonts in e-newsletters sent with Aweber.

    Cons: You are charged to host unsubscribed contacts on your account; You can’t include or exclude multiple segments at once when sending an e-newsletter; There are cheaper options out there which offer considerably more features in the marketing automation department; While the landing page builder is useful, it doesn’t provide A/B testing or a way to use Facebook pixels / Google Analytics cookies in a GDPR compliant way; Some of the templates look a bit dated; The RSS to email templates are poor and they can’t be edited using Aweber’s standard drag-and-drop email builder.

    Reviewer: https://www.stylefactoryproductions.com/blog/aweber-review
  • Pros: AWeber is a powerful yet easy to use email marketing platform; With AWeber, you can set up forms and landing pages that will help you grow your list fast; It’s easy to design newsletters and set up automations, so your email marketing efforts run on autopilot; Plus, AWeber’s segmentation and tagging functions help you send more targeted email campaigns; AWeber is also competitively priced, especially compared to some other email marketing platforms; Since they charge based on subscribers, not features, you can feel confident that you’re getting all the features available, even on the most basic plan (with the exception of some limitations on the free plan); The free plan, by the way, is also a great way for new bloggers to try out this email marketing platform and start growing their list; AWeber has friendly and reliable customer service providers who offer email, phone, and live chat support to all subscribers regardless of their plan; Finally, they have a bunch of free webinars, articles, videos, and podcasts tackling common problems that you might encounter when getting started with this tool.

    Cons: No email marketing software is perfect; here are a few potential downsides of AWeber; Although it comes with over 700 templates, some of them appear outdated; Plus, all those options can get overwhelming; you might prefer fewer template options, as opposed to hundreds; As mentioned, AWeber’s analytics don’t seem to dive as deeply as some other email platforms do; And its form builder is a bit clunky compared to some other email marketing platforms, such as ConvertKit; What’s more, AWeber includes unsubscribed subscribers in your total subscriber count, meaning you might be paying for people who opted out of your email list; You’ll need to manually remove unsubscribers every once in a while to make sure you’re not over-paying.

    Reviewer: https://remotebliss.com/aweber-review/
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GetResponse

GetResponse is a powerful, simplified tool to send emails, create pages, and automate your marketing. GetResponse includes built-in webinar functionality.

Top 3 GetResponse
Reviews * Pros & Cons

$ 15 Per Month (Basic)
  • Pros: GetResponse has lots of templates to choose from, making building almost anything on the platform possible; Nothing is left to the imagination – you can view your marketing automation workflows and funnels in a visual manner; Conversion funnel feature makes building high-converting funnels incredibly easy; The GetResponse webinar feature stands on its own and renders the need for a third-party webinar tool unnecessary.

    Cons: Building forms is limiting and not as intuitive compared to building emails and landing pages; Dedicated customer support is only available to Max plan subscribers.

    Reviewer: https://startupbonsai.com/getresponse-review/
  • Pros: 1 month free trial (no credit card required) for a list of up to 250 subscribers; Import contacts from third-party address books such as Zendesk, Salesforce, and Magento; Unlike Campaigner, GetResponse does not impose email sending limits; Easy-to-use tracking tool with Google Analytics integration; Comprehensive help library with plenty of resources; Top notch, award-winning customer support service.

    Cons: No refunds on annual plans upon cancellation; Landing pages are not free. However, this isn’t a requirement to sign up for the autoresponder packages.

    Reviewer: https://digital.com/email-marketing-software/getresponse/
  • Pros: It’s pretty user friendly; So long as you are happy to use a ‘Basic’ plan, Getresponse is cheaper than many of its key competitors (in certain cases, significantly so) whilst offering just as much, if not more functionality as them; The discounts you receive when paying upfront for one or two years of service are extremely generous — you’ll be hard pressed to find similar discounts from key competitors; You get really advanced features when it comes to marketing automation; Its flexible approach to data segmentation makes list management really straightforward — it outshines many competing products on this front; Getresponse’s webinar functionality is great, and a genuine USP — I haven’t come across this functionality on similar products; Its ‘Conversion Funnel’ feature is potentially useful for small businesses who want to manage all aspects of their social media ads, sales funnels and e-commerce activity under one roof; Its reporting features are comprehensive.

    Cons: The GetResponse drag and drop interfaces for creating landing pages and forms are a bit fiddly and need improvement; Although you can use the Facebook pixel with Getresponse’s landing page feature, you can’t do so in a GDPR compliant way; Improvements could be made to how data capture forms work, so that users have the option to switch them on or off on mobile devices; There’s a hard limit of 500 webinar attendees; No phone support is provided (unless you’re on a “Max” plan); Quite a lot of the integrations for Getresponse involve a third-party syncing tool like Zapier.

    Reviewer: https://www.stylefactoryproductions.com/blog/getresponse-review
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