The Finest Email Publication Software

Do you know which is the best email newsletter software for your company?

Choosing the right email platform can be tough, as once you commit and start sending email campaigns, it’s hard to pause activity and start from scratch.

You might miss a weekly newsletter or two. And then there’s the hassle of migrating your email list from one platform to another.

There’s no single email newsletter software that’s “the best of them all.” There’s only the software that’s best for you… And we’re here to help you find which one is best aligned with your specific marketing needs.

So, let’s dig into 10 of the best email newsletter apps on the market and make your job a little easier.

Table Of Contents

First, what’s email newsletter software?

If you’re new to email marketing, the idea of email newsletter software might be alien to you.

Instead of sending individual emails from your normal email program (Outlook, Gmail, etc), with a newsletter software product, you can build a list of contacts who receive your newsletter(s) on a regular basis.

Inside your email marketing software, you can expect to see these key sections:

1. Audiences: different segments of your contacts who will receive content personalized to their marketing persona.

2. Campaigns: you can set up personalized campaigns for each audience.  For example, if you have contacts on your list who sign up to receive your newsletters on event planning, you know they’re interested in the topic. So you can set up a campaign to sell them a course on the topic. Typically, you’d be sending them a series of emails focused on persuading them to buy the course. 

3. Automations: instead of sending manual emails each week, you can build custom automations based on certain triggers, like “sign-up” or “did not open”.

Now that we know what email newsletter software is, let’s get into 10 of the best to see if they will meet your business needs.

Here are ten of the best email newsletter tools to consider

1. GetResponse (yep, that’s us)

Key features

Alongside a slick UI (user interface) to make creating and sending your first email newsletter as easy as possible, GetResponse includes eight core features to help you craft the right type of email:

• Email creator that lets you design beautiful emails with stunning ready-made templates and an intuitive drag and drop editor.
• Newsletters for one-off announcements, sales promos, or weekly/monthly updates.
• Autoresponders to kickstart email sequences when a subscriber enters your funnel.
• Marketing automation workflows that send your emails automatically based on recipients’ behavior.
• Automated blog digests to send your latest published post via email and social media.
• “Perfect timing” and “time travel” so that you can send your emails at the most-optimal time, automatically.
• Segmentation and tagging that lets you target your audience with laser-precision.
• Transactional emails that are triggered by events in your ecommerce store or platform (either via API or our super-easy plugin integration).

Here’s a quick video overview that shows you what the GetResponse Email Creator is capable of:

Keep in mind GetResponse isn’t just about email. It’s truly an all-in-one marketing platform that also offers a website builder, signup forms, webinars, Facebook ads, and much more.

Free account?

Yes – GetResponse offers a free forever account with access to its essential email marketing features and storage for up to 500 contacts. It also includes the website builder, landing page creator, and signup forms

No credit card needed.

On top of its forever free account, GetResponse has four pricing options available:

• Basic: starts at $15 per month for an email list up to 1,000 subscribers.
• Plus: starts at $49 per month for an email list up to 1,000 subscribers.
• Professional: starts at $99 per month for an email list up to 1,000 subscribers.
• Max: custom pricing available for transactional emails, migrations, dedicated support, and more.

If you opt for a 12-month billing period, GetResponse applies an automatic 18% discount. If you opt for a 24-month billing period, GetResponse applies an automatic 30% discount. You can also get a 30-50% discount if you’re a non-profit organization.

Summary

GetResponse is perfect for businesses looking to send their first email newsletter and for experienced marketing teams looking for a more modern approach to email marketing.

With GetResponse, you get access to free customizable templates, set up your first newsletter campaign, and start monitoring your contacts’ user behavior — so you can make data-backed decisions for your campaigns.

On top of that, you also get access to all the other marketing tools you’ll need to build a strong online presence, like the website builder, live chat, Facebook ads, and more.

2. Mailchimp

Key features

• Standard email newsletter functionalities 
• Easily automate scheduled email campaigns
• Resend emails to non-openers using different subject lines to encourage more opens

There’s also integration with Facebook and Instagram ads, landing pages, and postcards for large teams running campaigns cross-platform.

Free account?

Yes—Mailchimp offers a free account that supports up to 2,000 contacts.

It also includes other features, such as their landing page builder, social posting, postcards, or paid ads.

Pricing

Mailchimp offers three paid packages:

• Essentials: $9.99 per month for up to 500 contacts
• Standard: $14.99 per month for up to 500 contacts
• Premium: $299 per month for up to 10,000 contacts

You can also pay-as-you-go using an email credits plan.

Summary

At first, you may find it hard to get up to speed quickly with Mailchimp — especially if you’re new to email marketing. But after some time of practice, you’d realize it’s a great tool.

Once you’ve created your first email campaign, replicating an existing email is easy so you can tweak from there. And whenever you need help with something you’re doing for the first time, Mailchimp has an extensive support library and is always responsive on Twitter.

Related: Mailchimp alternatives and competitors review

3. Campaign Monitor

Key features

• Easy walk-through prompts on your first campaign
• Data-based personalizations for your various audiences
• The Link Review tool points out any broken links without you having to lift a finger

Free account?

Yes—you can get an indefinite free account for audiences of five or less subscribers.

Pricing

You can sign up to Campaign Monitor via three different packages:

• Basic: access core features and send up to 2,500 emails for $9 per month.
• Unlimited: uncap your email limit and get priority support for $29 per month.
• Premier: unlock advanced segmentation features and get premier support for $149 per month.

You can also choose to pay per campaign if you are an infrequent newsletter sender.

Summary

If you’re ready to start doing lots of smart marketing from your email database, Campaign Monitor gives you an aggregated view. So you have a high-level snapshot of your segments and audiences.

For advanced teams, there are integrations with Salesforce, WordPress, and Shopify. This is ideal for those with great experience but can be daunting if you’re new to email marketing.

In-depth comparison: GetResponse vs. Campaign Monitor

4. ConvertKit

Key features

• ConvertKit’s email newsletter software focuses a lot on design
• Plenty of branded and easily customizable templates to choose from 
• Easy to use, no coding knowledge required

Free account?

Yes—you can get a free trial of the Creator or Creator Pro package.

There is also a free package for up to 1,000 subscribers. But it doesn’t support the migration of contacts from another tool and you can’t automate sequences or funnels.

Pricing

You can opt for one of two paid tiers with ConvertKit:

• Creator: manage up to 1,000 subscribers for $29 per month.
• Creator Pro: manage up to 1,000 subscribers for $59 per month and get access to Facebook custom audiences, a newsletter referral system, subscriber scoring, and advanced reporting.

Summary

If you are the creative type, Convert Kit is a great tool for going the extra mile in terms of design and imagery. Convert Kit reports 98% deliverability of its emails. While this sounds a high number, as your audience grows, more gaps may appear. 

In-depth comparison: GetResponse vs. ConvertKit

5. Constant Contact

Key features

• An intuitive drag and drop experience
• Resend emails to non-openers to improve engagement
• Email marketing automation features to send automated messages based on specific triggers
• Contact segmentation capabilities

Free account?

Yes – you can get a one-month free trial of the Email plan.

Pricing

Constant Contact operates two pricing tiers for its email newsletter software and like other tools, its pricing is based mostly on the size of your email list.

• Email: 0-500 contacts for $20 per month with unlimited sends
• Email Plus: 0-500 contacts for $45 per month with unlimited sends

If you prepay for six months, you can get a 10% discount and your first month free.

If you prepay for 12 months, you can get a 15% discount and your first month free.

Summary

The simplicity of the email editor is a real standout for Constant Contact. User reviews suggest this is the best part about this particular email newsletter software. But on the flip side, the most impressive features like polls, coupons, and RSVPs are only available at the more expensive pricing tier.

In-depth comparison: GetResponse vs. Constant Contact

6. MailerLite

Key features

• Email optimization and results tracking features
• Click maps and “opens by location” reports
• Each recipient of an email can rate your product or service and Mailerlite tracks all responses for you to work on continuous improvement of your email campaigns.

Free account?

Yes—the free plan offers many features for businesses with under 1,000 subscribers. 

You can also get a 14-day free trial of the premium license.

Pricing

There is only one premium tier so you can select your package by your number of subscribers:

• Up to 1000: $10 per month.
• Up to 2,500: $15 per month.
• Up to 5,000: $30 per month.
• Up to 10,000: $50 per month.

Premium gives you access to 24/7 live support, white-labeling, custom HTML editor, templates, custom domains, and pop-ups.

You can also save time by scheduling auto-resends and time-zone-based delivery.

Summary

Jennifer Jin, Digital Marketing Manager at Rainforest Partnership highlights feedback surveys as her favorite feature.

“One of the coolest elements is the ability to send feedback surveys that are built into each email, so you don’t need to sign up for a third-party feedback service.”

Jennifer also points out that she loves the look and feel of the templates. 

“They are more modern than other email newsletter software and don’t feel like a traditional email editor template.”

In-depth comparison: GetResponse vs. MailerLite

7. Sendinblue

Key features

• Deliver by each subscriber’s time zone
• Easily customizable email newsletter templates
• Marketing automation features available in higher pricing tiers

Free account?

Yes—you can send up to 300 emails a day without handing over your credit card information.

Pricing

You can subscribe to one of three pricing tiers with Sendinblue:

• Lite: send up to 10,000 emails for $25 per month.
• Premium: send up to 20,000 emails for $65 per month.
• Enterprise: available via custom quotes if you don’t find what you need in the lower tiers.

Summary

If you’re trailing email newsletters and have little experience, Sendinblue is a great option at a good price. But like most other tools featured in this guide, when you need to take your campaigns to the next level, you might be raising a business case for extra budget.

In-depth comparison: GetResponse vs. Sendinblue

8. AWeber

Key features

• Use Aweber’s “Smart Designer” to create well-designed emails
• Drag & drop email creation; no coding knowledge required
• Pre-built email newsletter templates

All you need to do is enter your website address and several suggestions appear after a few seconds of analysis.

Free account?

Yes—you can opt for the free account if you have 500 subscribers or less. You get a good chunk of AWeber features but miss out on testing, automation, and removal of its branding.

Pricing

AWeber only has one paid tier:

• Pro: starting at $16.15 per month, you get access to every feature in the AWeber suite for up to 25,000 subscribers. Pricing increases as you add more subscribers (up to $149 per month for 25,000 subscribers).

If you have over 25,000 subscribers, you’ll need to get in touch with AWeber to discuss.

Summary

The smart designer is a major draw to AWeber for small businesses that don’t have a dedicated graphic designer or time to allocate to playing around with templates.

The sliding scale subscriber model can get fiddly when growing an email audience and constantly changing payment models, though.

In-depth comparison: AWeber alternatives and competitors

9. Mailjet

Key features

• Advanced Email Editor: edit and send emails to your contacts
• Segmentation: send emails based on characteristics your subscribers have in common
• Role management: If you’re working as part of a large marketing team, you can define what your colleagues can and can’t access. 

Free account?

Yes—there’s no expiry date on Mailjet trials and you don’t need to provide credit card information.

There’s also a free tier if you plan on sending less than 200 emails per day and/or 6,000 per month.

Pricing

Once you’ve chosen how many emails you want to send per month (30,000 to 900,000), you can choose from the following licenses:

• Basic: you get support and removal of Mailjet’s branding from $9.65 per month for 30,000 emails.
• Premium: testing and automation features get added when for $20.95 per month for 30,000 emails.
• Enterprise: Mailject will custom quote when you exceed 900,000 emails or need custom delivery and integration.

Summary

If you’re an enterprise with hundreds of marketing team members working on several campaigns at any one time, the role management feature stands out.

The free tier is appealing but limited by the small number of emails you can send per day.

10. Benchmark

Key features

• Photo editing features: adjust color, add effects, stickers, & texts on images
• Build landing pages to grow your email list
• Drag & drop email builder
• Marketing automation triggers

Free account?

Yes—you can send up to 250 emails per month on the free plan.

Pricing

There are two paid options for Benchmark:

• Pro: adds marketing automation starting from $13 per month if you have 500 contacts.
• Enterprise: adds email white-labeling, priority support, and a dedicated IP but you must check with the sales team for a custom quote.

There is a discount applied if you pay annually. 

Summary

There are lots of automation and testing features available in the Pro plan that will help your long-term marketing goals.

First-time and trial users may not see the benefits of this email newsletter software until they pay for the next tier up.

Conclusion

The raft of options for email newsletter software ranges outside of this top 10. This can make finding the best email newsletter software a daunting task.

Rather than starting a trial and setting up accounts with these 10 (and any other email platform), we’re confident you’ll love GetResponse.

For example: Since starting out with GetResponse, Submission Technology, a lead generation agency, reports it has increased engagement to the tune of a 31% open rate. It also boasts a 7.31% unique click-through rate and 99.2% email deliverability rate.

Gemma Seager, Team Leader of Email & Push Notifications at Submission Technology, particularly loves the Contact list segmentation & A/B testing in GetResponse:

“Contact list segmentation and regular A/B testing allow us to check what really resonates with specific groups of contacts. We collect and analyze data and act on it during next campaigns.”