Best Email Autoresponders 2021 [Pros and Cons]

Email autoresponders save marketers time and effort by automating tedious yet vital elements of email marketing. And a good autoresponder will help you fine-tune your campaign to ensure the right message reaches the right prospect at the perfect time. 

But there’s one problem; there are way too many email autoresponders out there. So how are you supposed to identify the best autoresponder service for your business?

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Why Compare Email Automation Services

Email autoresponders come with different features, price points, and degrees of viability.

Some tools offer the bare minimum email automation features at the lowest possible price. However, they often lack the functionality you want.

And others will provide features you didn’t even know you needed–or wanted for that matter–but expect to pay a major premium.

By comparing different autoresponders, you can identify the option that provides you the features you need for the best value. However, you need to identify exactly what it is you want.

If, for instance, your business is still in its early stages, paying for an email autoresponder with too many advanced functions may not be wise. You probably won’t utilize those functions anyway.

Your best bet is a flexible email autoresponder. One that can handle your current limited needs while leaving room for growth with paid plans that are affordable given your needs.

An established business should not cut corners when selecting an autoresponder. Remember, the money is in the list, so you want a tool that can yield maximum results. You need advanced automation features, and these only come with the best autoresponder service.

Video Review of the #1 Email Autoresponder on the Market

Without question, the best email autoresponder you can invest in today is GetResponse. Sure, it may seem a bit biased–after all, it’s our own product–but we can back up the claims with high performance and quality.

And we’re not the only ones who make this claim either.

Check out this video from Phil over at Legit Marketing Reviews!

GetResponse simply is the best email autoresponder software. The email marketing software has powerful features for automating your campaign. Plus, it has additional marketing and automation capabilities like conversion funnels, easy-to-use website builders, live chat capabilities, a webinar platform, and more.

And with our 30-day free trial, you will also get a chance to test most of these features before investing your money in the platform.

But there are some other great options available. Let’s take a look at the rest of the playing field making up the best email autoresponders and get into some individual reviews.

Table Comparison of the Best Autoresponder Platforms

GetResponse

• Pro email templates
• Easy to use design tools
• AI-powered landing pages builder
• Unlimited webinars with up to 1,000 participants
• 30 day free trial

Moosend

• Email automation templates
• Website and user tracking
• Drag & drop landing pages and automation editor
• Advanced personalization features
• Free email autoresponder plan

Sendinblue

• Diverse email template library
• SMS marketing tools
• Custom signup forms builder
• CRM features
• Forever free plan

Constant Contact

• Drag & drop email editor
• Smart eCommerce tools
• Social marketing features
• 1-month free trial

Sendpulse

• Bulk email marketing service
• Bulk SMS marketing service
• Supports web push notification
• Landing page tool
• Chatbot builder

Hubspot

• Advanced marketing and CRM features
• Collaboration tools
• Predictive leads scoring
• Landing pages editor

The email autoresponder you choose will play a big role in the success of your campaigns. As I mentioned earlier, different autoresponders have different features, so investing in an autoresponder (and easy-to-use marketing automation system) that has all the features you need (plus the juicy extras you want) can easily help your marketing and sales teams down the road.

1. GetResponse–Best Overall Autoresponder

Think of any feature you want in your ideal email autoresponder, and GetResponse has it. From list management and lead nurturing templates to email analytics…

And that’s just scratching the surface.

Our marketing automation tool comes with dozens of email templates. That means you don’t need to be a marketing specialist to create the perfect emails. Just pick a template from the options and customize it to your liking.

If you want to build your own templates from scratch, then the process is even easier. The drag-and-drop email creator allows you to stretch your creativity and build an extensive email templates library in just a few clicks.

GetResponse also helps you overcome common issues. For example, the lack of email segmentation and personalization has been linked to poor open and click-through rates. Sending emails at the wrong time is another contributing factor.

The GetResponse email autoresponder software solves these problems through the timing tool and a custom segmentation capability. Moreover, it lets you use different types of content for better personalization.

GetResponse also stands out due to its versatility. The all-in-one platform provides a variety of capabilities to streamline your entire marketing campaign.

You will, for instance, get access to the super intuitive website builder. The AI-powered creator allows you to develop custom web pages that serve your unique business needs.
We also have pre-designed website templates to choose from.

Customizing these templates is super easy, thanks to the drag-and-drop editor. That means you can create the perfect landing pages for your business within minutes. No coding knowledge is necessary.

The GetResponse Features list is impressive when comparing it to some of the other email marketing platforms. Here are some of the other capabilities it has to offer:

• Automated blog digests
• Transactional emails
• Advanced email analytics
• Prebuilt conversion funnels
• Live web chat
• Unlimited landing pages
• Unlimited emails
• Web push notifications
• Paid ads creator

You can access and try most of these features with a 30-day free trial. No credit card details are required for the trial.

As for the paid plans, there are four options to choose from. These start from as low as $15 per month for the basic plan. You can also get custom pricing for your unique needs.

ProsCons30-day free trial with access to tons of premium featuresNo free-forever planIntegration with other platforms like Shopify, Optinmonster, Clickbank, Magento, Facebook Pixel, etc.User-friendly interfaceExcellent customer support via email, live chat, and even phone

2. Moosend

Moosend is another email autoresponder that is popular for its affordable rates. But pricing aside, this tool also performs really well where it matters most – nurturing leads and getting your emails to convert via a wide variety of features.

For instance, it lets you segment your audience based on different data points. In doing so, they help you send relevant emails to every subscriber resulting in better open rates and overall engagements.

Moosend also has a drag-and-drop email editor. So you can create and customize templates without having to write any code.

Moreover, it supports A/B testing, which will help you improve the performance of your emails through testing. You could, for instance, test different subject lines to see which ones have a higher open rate. You can even go as far as testing the content of your email, e.g., videos, images, etc.

Moosend has lots of landing page templates to choose from as well. They are spread across different industries, so it’s fairly easy to find the perfect fit for your business. You can also customize the premade automation templates with the easy-to-use editor.

Below are some of the other features present in Moosend:

• Extensive data analytics
• Website and user tracking
• Advanced reporting
• Unlimited emails for all plans
• Advanced personalization capabilities
• Separate mobile editor
• Lead generation tools

Moosend also has a flexible pricing system. You can adjust the prices based on the number of subscribers you have. That means you don’t have to pay big bucks for services you barely need.

The platform is also a good option for anyone looking for a free email autoresponder. And with their Free Forever plan, you will gain access to some good marketing tools at no cost.

ProsConsFree forever plan with unlimited emailsThe free plan is capped at 1,000 subscribersIntegrates with 100+ tools, including Zappier, Elementor, Woocommerce, ThriveCart, etc.The free plan doesn’t come with priority customer supportFlexible pricing systemLacks some of the best email autoresponder functions available with some of the other platforms.

3. Sendinblue

Sendinblue is a versatile platform that helps you execute and manage various marketing campaigns from one place. It supports email marketing, SMS marketing, and chat. You’ll even get CRM capabilities to help you build stronger relationships with your current and potential customers.

For email marketing, you’ll have dozens of templates to work with. You can customize these templates as much as you want. You’re also free to build your own email templates from scratch with the powerful drag-and-drop editor.

Sendinblue also makes email list segmentation simple. With unlimited contacts and lists, you can place your audience into smaller groups for a more targeted marketing campaign.

As for SMS marketing, Sendiblue will let you personalize and send bulk SMS messages to whichever list you want. Plus, you don’t have to send the messages yourself. You can schedule them and redirect your efforts to other more important and interesting tasks like curating your next SMS message.

Sendinblue offers free marketing automation capabilities to get rid of the boredom synonymous with repetitive marketing tasks. Sadly, the free autoresponder tools are limited to 2,000 contacts or less. So, if you have a bigger contact list, you’ll have to upgrade to the unlimited automation paid plans which start at around $65 per month.

Here are some of the additional features you’ll get from Sendinblue:

• Better transactional emails
• Powerful email sign-up forms
• Easy-to-use landing page builder
• A shared inbox for your marketing team
• Centralized customer conversations
• Centralized contact information
• Facebook ad builder

Sendinblue has a free plan that supports unlimited contacts making it very enticing. However, it is limited to only 300 emails per day. It also lacks some vital features like A/B testing.

ProsConsA decent forever free planYou can’t remove Sendinblue branding on the Lite and Free planThe email marketing platform also supports SMS messagingThe free plan limits you to 300 emails per day24/7 customer supportSetting up and using Sendinblue has a bit of a learning curveLots of templates to choose from

4. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is well known for its automated workflows, advanced reporting, and list management functionality. The tool gives marketers the freedom to customize your automated sequences extensively. While there is the option of choosing a premade template, building your own sequences is the only way to gain more control over the process.

By creating your own automated email sequences, you’ll be able to use segmentation elements like gender, age, and location to ensure your automated emails reach the right audience, with the right messaging, wherever they are. That makes your emails more personalized, and this will increase the engagement rate.

Constant Contact lets you create automated emails based on other triggers besides newsletter sign-ups. You could, for instance, create a separate autoresponder sequence for new subscribers who visit certain pages on your website. You can do the same with clicks and virtually any other relevant activity. Such sequences can result in high conversions, especially for eCommerce businesses.

The form builder is another powerful feature of this email autoresponder software. The builder can be embedded on landing pages where it collects valuable data. It will show you when and where a subscriber joined your mailing list from. That should give you an idea of what the subscriber could be interested in. Therefore, you’ll know the perfect email templates and sequence to use to warm the lead and hopefully convert them into loyal paying customers.

You can also use the custom forms to act as a trigger for a certain automated email sequence. If, for example, the form captures a subscriber from the “men category” of an eCommerce store, it can set off a series of automated emails relevant to this demographic.

Other features present in this email autoresponder are:

• Auto resend emails for non-openers
• Cart abandonment email automation
• A/B testing for email subject line
• Contact list import
• Facebook lead ads builder
• Poll creator

Constant Contact’s paid plans start at $20. But this is the basic Email plan. It lacks key features such as eCommerce segmentation and customizable pop-up forms. For these and other more useful automation features, you’ll have to upgrade to the Email Plus plan, which starts at $45.

ProsConsThe email autoresponder is beginner-friendlyYou must sign-up for the Email Plus plan to access the advanced autoresponder featuresIt integrates with dozens of eCommerce toolsIt’s not very intuitive. Scheduling items and using the social media posting widget can be challenging30-day free trialConstant Contact branding appears at the bottom of every email.

5. Sendpulse

Sendpulse boasts of being the “all-in-one communication platform.” Admittedly, it does bring together a number of communication channels, making it easy for businesses to interact with their customers.

The platform allows you to send emails and SMS messages. You can also create engaging chatbots for social platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and even Telegram.
For email marketing, you’ll have a myriad of tools to work with. First of all, creating emails is done with a drag and drop email builder. You don’t need any HTML knowledge, and neither do you have to blow your already thin budget on a developer.

Marketing automation is also made simple thanks to Automation 360. The function allows you to automate emails, SMS messaging, and push notifications. These are triggered by different events and user’s actions. It can automatically send a registration email, abandoned cart email, confirmation email, purchase email, and confirmation email.
You can also create your own custom events. Not only that, but you can also set the email sequence that should follow such events.

Email automation aside, SendPulse messenger chatbots are also quite impressive. These bots help you stay in touch with your audience round the clock. Ecommerce businesses can also use messenger chatbots to close sales. The bots can ask potential customers several questions before presenting relevant products. You can even set your chatbots to offer personalized discounts.

Here are some of the other SendPulse features:

• Tags for contact list optimization
• Drag-and-drop landing page builder
• Subscription forms creator
• Advanced analytics
• 100+ pre-made templates
• Automatic resend to unopened feature
• A/B testing capabilities
• Visual automation builder
• CRM for your marketing and sales team

SendPulse has a free plan, but it’s limited to 500 subscribers and up to 15,000 emails. The free plan also allows you to create only one landing page. It’s, therefore, a decent option for small businesses that are looking for the best free autoresponder tools.

Meanwhile, the standard paid plan starts at $6.40 for 500 subscribers and $9.60 per month for 1,000 subscribers. The prices go up as the number of subscribers increases. Besides the Standard plan, there is also a Pro and Enterprise subscription. The Enterprise plan provides all features, including unlimited landing pages creator, segmentation, automation flows and events, etc. But it’s pretty expensive.

ProsConsFree forever plan with all the core email marketing featuresThe free plan works with only 500 subscribersSupports email split-testingImage storage is very limited, especially for the free and standard plansEasy integration with third-party software

6. Hubspot

Hubspot is a decent option if you are also on the market looking for a Customer Relationships Management (CRM) system. That’s because you’ll get most of the email autoresponder capabilities as a ‘free’ add-on.

The autoresponder software comes with features like the drag-and-drop editor, which allows you to customize email layout, modify your calls to action (CTA), add images, and so on.

Content personalization using Hubspot CRM is also fairly easy. The email marketing tool lets you use different customer data points to fine-tune every email for a hyper-targeted campaign.

Hubspot also supports email scheduling, and it actually guarantees deliverability. Other features present on the platform are:

• Easy-to-use drag-and-drop landing page builder
• Contact management
• Email tracking notifications
• List segmentation

Hubspot provides most of the basic email marketing tools for free. But, if you want more capabilities, you’ll have to upgrade to the paid plans. A monthly subscription is also necessary if you have a big email list. The basic plan starts at $50 per month, which is a bit pricey considering it’s limited to just 1,000 contacts.

ProsConsA good option if you want a versatile CRM platform with marketing automation capabilitiesIt’s VERY expensiveGood customer supportUsing the platform has a learning curveIt has a free plan with basic marketing toolsIntegration with third-party software could be better.

How to Choose the Best Autoresponder System

Email autoresponders are designed with the same goal in mind, but performance varies from one tool to the next. Even from our list, you can tell that some autoresponder tools are better than others.

GetResponse, for instance, is the best tool overall when you consider all of the additional marketing features you receive and the budget-friendly price. Meanwhile, Constant Contact also shows it’s a worthy consideration when reviewing the various automation tools.

When selecting a solution, you must choose your autoresponder tool wisely. You don’t want to be stuck with a solution that fails to meet your changing needs.

With that being said, let’s dive into some of the criteria and considerations you’ll want to keep in mind when selecting your new autoresponder.

Size of your email list

Email autoresponders are priced based on the number of subscribers on your list and the number of emails sent every month. Don’t ignore these figures when choosing a tool. And keep in mind that some campaigns may require you to send more than one email per subscriber.

Do the calculations, then pick a tool and plan that accommodates your email list and the campaign you want to run.

You should also consider the future needs of your email campaigns. The goal of every business is to grow. If your marketing campaigns are effective, then your email list will eventually grow. So don’t commit to a tool that may not accommodate the changing needs of your growing business.

Automation features

Before you start looking for additional extras in a platform, make sure it is a good email autoresponder first. So many marketers get caught up trying to find everything in a single tool. Then they lose sight of why they are looking for an autoresponder solution in the first place.

So, what automation features should you look for here? Well, make sure it has the basics, i.e., it automates tasks such as customer welcome and onboarding, abandoned cart emails, follow-ups, reminders, etc.

But the automation basics alone do not cut it. You need advanced automation capabilities as well.

Of course, the advanced features should be relevant to your industry and the goals you have for your business. Look for behavioral triggers, A/B testing, advanced automated workflows, signup forms and a visual automation builder.

Segmentation capabilities

One of the building blocks of an effective email marketing strategy is segmentation.

Without it, you’ll never be able to deliver the right message to the right audience. Which means the conversion of your emails will be terrible.

Email segmentation allows you to target leads at a more personal level. It eliminates guesswork and helps you to deliver relevant content to your audience.

Therefore, the marketing automation platform you choose must support your list segmentation strategy.

Visual email editor

The best autoresponder software provides powerful email editor functions. A visual editor gives you the option to choose premade templates or build your own emails from scratch. Moreover, it ensures the process of customizing and building templates is seamless. That’s made possible by drag-and-drop functions.

A visual email editor also goes a long way to smoothen the email building process. The visual elements make it super easy to know how good your templates look. You can quickly review the impact of your images, call to action buttons, etc. The ideal tool will even let you preview the email to see how it would look on desktops and mobile devices.

Email personalization capabilities

Personalized emails convert better than non-personalized emails. It’s a known fact. Sadly, most marketers do not think beyond personalized subject lines and greetings.

These are basic things. And yes, they will boost your open rates and could make more people go through your email. However, if the main content itself is not personalized, then your click-through rate will probably be poor.

That’s important, because clicks are what you want.

Look for a simple autoresponder that helps you go beyond the personalized subject lines and greetings. You need a tool that can personalize the content itself based on your segmentation strategy, behavioral triggers, and other factors.

GetResponse, for example, lets you personalize email content based on the user’s geographic location, interests, language, etc. All this makes hyper-targeting your audience an easy task.

Compatibility with your type of business

The best autoresponder may also vary depending on the industry you operate in.
It’s rather obvious that the email marketing needs of an eCommerce business are different from those in the blogging industry. Case in point, an eCommerce business owner has to worry about abandoned carts, whereas a blogger doesn’t.

Therefore, you should always consider the industry you operate in when choosing an autoresponder software. Like in the example above, the eCommerce business owner will have to pick a tool with automated cart abandonment emails. But that’s not a priority to a blogger.

What’s the right autoresponder for you?

If you’ve been paying attention, you know our answer to that.

GetResponse.

It truly supports marketing automation and does so at scale. With features like conversion funnels, live chat, webinars, and signup forms, you can be sure that it will streamline your entire marketing funnel–and on a budget-friendly price nonetheless!

But…having said that, just understand that an autoresponder can only be good with respect to your needs. So before diving into any of these platforms (yes, even ours), determine exactly what you expect to receive from your autoresponder and arm yourself with standards and expectations to make the best decision possible.