7 Best Email Marketing Services Of 2021 – A Detailed Comparison
Plan on selling products on your blog? Promote affiliate products to your readers? Or create an extra stream of website traffic? If you answered yes to any of those questions then you must start building an email list right away. Why? Because promoting products through an email list is the most effective online marketing strategy there is. Contrary to popular belief, email is still one of the main communication methods people use to reach out to other people and stay informed of their favorite blogs and websites. In fact, Gmail alone currently has over 1 Billion users with over 90 million active users per month. So, how do you take advantage of emails to promote your products and blog posts? It’s simple, really. You use email marketing software! In this article, we’ll introduce you to some of the best email marketing software you can use to build an email list and also point out the best options for beginners and advanced users. Let’s get started, shall we?What Is An Email Marketing Service?
An email marketing service is a platform that allows you to gather emails of your website visitors (also known as subscribers) and create lists of subscribers to send email campaigns for promotions and updates. These services come with a price. But, in return, you will be able to easily integrate email opt-in forms into your website, collect and manage subscribers, send email campaigns, create automated emails, track email open rates and clicks, and so much more. The best part is you can do all these tasks and more all by yourself, without the help of an expert or an experienced marketer. The services we’re about to show you are that easy to use.Who Uses Them?
Today, everyone from bloggers to small businesses, online stores, startups, and many other types of websites use email marketing services to build email lists and create promotional campaigns. It doesn’t matter if you’re starting a niche blog or running a business blog for a company, having an email list will definitely come in handy no matter what type of website you have.What Can You Do With An Email Marketing Service?
You can use an email marketing service to do a lot of things like launching products, selling affiliate products, connect with your audience, run polls, surveys, and even experiment with your subscribers. Here are some of the most important things you can do with an email marketing service:- Build An Email List
- Collect Emails Of Your Website Visitors
- Design Beautiful Emails
- Start A Newsletter
- Create Autoresponders And Email Courses
- A/B Test Emails For Creating Better Email Campaigns
7 Most Popular Email Marketing Services
There are dozens of email marketing services available today with different features. But, only a few of them managed to build a reputation to be known as the best. We narrowed it down to these 7 great services: Each service in this list comes with unique features that make them stand out from the crowd. Obviously, this will make it quite difficult for you to pick one for your own project. Which is why you should be very careful when choosing an email marketing service because once you start using an email marketing service, it will be difficult for you to switch to a different service.Going Hands-On
To help you make the right decision, we signed up with each email marketing service in the list and tested the features to see if they work as smoothly as they claim to be. Let’s have a look.#1 Constant Contact

- Starting Price: $20 per month
- Free Templates: Included
- Money Back Guarantee: Not Available
- Best For: Business and Advanced users
Main Features
Constant Contact is one of the more expensive options on our list. However, it also offers some advanced features that make the tool worth the price.- Powerful email editor
- Marketing calendar
- 1GB of file storage
- Image library
- List segmentation
- Email scheduling
Other Special Features
One of the best features of Constant Contact is the ability to store images and documents on its own cloud storage. This allows you to easily embed images and files in your emails. With Constant Contact, you’ll also be able to send an unlimited number of emails every month no matter how big of an email list you have.Getting Started
Once you signup with the service, you’ll be presented with a few basic survey questions about your business and email marketing process. After answering these questions, Constant Contact will direct you to its main dashboard. From here, you can start importing your email contacts list and create new email campaigns.

Creating Automation
You can start creating your automation sequences and email campaigns using the Campaigns tab. From here, you can choose between several options to create different types of campaigns to drive leads to events, product launches, create surveys, email courses, welcome emails, and more.

Analytics and A/B Testing

App Integrations
Since Constant Contact is targeted towards business users it comes with many useful third-party app integrations for business and eCommerce users, including Shopify and Facebook Lead Ads integrations.Pricing
Constant Contact lets you test drive the service for free for a full month. After the first month, you can decide whether to keep using the service or cancel. While the platform offers two simple pricing plans for getting started, the actual price you have to pay will depend on the number of subscribers you have.- $20 Per Month: Up to 500 subscribers, send unlimited emails, 1GB of file storage, and image library.
- $45 Per Month: Up to 2500 subscribers, send unlimited emails, 1GB of file storage, and image library.
- $65 Per Month: Up to 5000 subscribers, send unlimited emails, 1GB of file storage, and image library.
- $95 Per Month: Up to 10,000 subscribers, send unlimited emails, 1GB of file storage, and image library.
#2 GetResponse

- Starting Price: $15 per month
- Free Templates: Included
- Money Back Guarantee: Not Available
- Best For: Beginners to Advanced users
Main Features
Like any other email marketing service, GetResponse comes with all the basic features like:- Automation
- A drag-and-drop email designer
- Analytics
- A/B testing
- and so much more.
Other Special Features
GetResponse has some cool features that set the platform truly apart from the rest. It comes with Landing pages. That’s right! GetResponse allows you to create and publish landing pages from the same platform to generate leads. No need to waste money on third-party landing page plugins. The platform also offers complete solutions for launching webinar campaigns. Like sending invites, sending reminders to participants, track conversions, collect leads, and much more. In a way, GetResponse is the complete marketing package any email marketer than dream of.Getting Started
GetResponse’s getting started process is a simple 3-step process. Add contacts (if you already have a list of emails), create a form to embed on your website, and create a newsletter or an email campaign. It’s as easy as that.

Creating Automation
The workflow-based automation creator of GetResponse is the most advanced automation builder we’ve seen on an email marketing service. The best part is it’s also quite easy to use for creating incredibly versatile automation with conditions, actions, and filters.
Analytics and A/B Testing
GetResponse also provides you with advanced analytics tools with real-time activity tracking and comparisons for better understanding your subscriber’s behavior. The A/B testing features of GetResponse will also let you test everything in your emails from subject lines to from fields, time of day, day of week, and much more.App Integrations
Similar to other platforms, GetResponse supports plenty of third-party app integrations, including CRMs, CMS, and eCommerce services. It also lets you connect Textiful, which allows users to subscribe to your email lists via text messages.Pricing
GetResponse offers pricing plans for everyone from small bloggers to enterprises.- $15 Per Month: Up to 1000 subscribers, unlimited emails, automation, and landing pages (basic).
- $25 Per Month: Up to 2500 subscribers, unlimited emails, automation, and landing pages (basic).
- $49 Per Month: Up to 5000 subscribers, unlimited emails, automation, landing pages (advanced), and webinars.
#3 ConvertKit

- Starting Price: $29 per month
- Free Templates: Not Available
- Money Back Guarantee: 30-Days
- Best For: Beginners and bloggers
Main Features
ConvertKit is completely beginner-friendly. Its user interface is designed to offer a smooth and a simple journey to even the non-tech savvy people. ConvertKit also uses a few different names for some of its features, which might confuse some people who are familiar with email marketing. For example, one-time email campaigns are called Broadcasts on ConvertKit. And email courses are called Sequences. In addition, you can use it to create:- Email lists
- Automation
- Landing pages
- And much more
Other Special Features
ConvertKit is an email marketing service specially designed for bloggers. It comes with several great features for growing your blog’s email list. Including the ability to create unlimited email lists. On other email marketing platforms, the number of emails in your email lists counts toward the total subscriber limit of your plan. For example, when the same subscriber joins multiple email lists (eg: newsletter and email course) it counts as two subscribers instead of one. This is called duplicate subscribers. But, ConvertKit counts those emails as a single subscriber. Allowing you to create multiple email lists without having to worry about the subscriber caps of your pricing plan. You can even create email lists for each and every blog post you publish to offer content upgrades like PDFs and free downloads to your readers while collecting their emails. ConvertKit also features landing pages for capturing leads.Getting Started
ConvertKit has a more streamlined getting started process than any other platform. It will take you step-by-step through the creation of your first email list to email campaign in a beginner-friendly onboarding process.

Creating Automation
You can create email courses using ConvertKit’s Sequences, where you can easily create and edit all the emails of your campaign in one place and choose when each email is sent out to your subscribers.
Analytics and A/B Testing
ConvertKit offers very basic reporting and only offers simple analytics like email open rates and click-through rates. And the reports are not as detailed as MailChimp or GetResponse either. A/B testing is almost non-existent on ConvertKit. It only allows you to test the basic elements of your emails like subject lines. Hopefully, the platform will pick up a few new tricks along the way.App Integrations
ConvertKit is still a fresh platform. So, it only offers around 35 third-party app integrations, including apps like Gumroad for selling eBooks, Shopify for selling products, OptinMonster, LeadPages, and a few more.Pricing
ConvertKit’s pricing plans are not as customizable as other platforms. It only offers 3 plans.- $29 Per Month: Up to 1000 subscribers, unlimited emails, unlimited lists, unlimited forms, and automation.
- $49 Per Month: 1000 to 3000 subscribers, unlimited emails, unlimited lists, unlimited forms, and automation.
- $79 Per Month: 3000 to 5000 subscribers, unlimited emails, unlimited lists, unlimited forms, and automation.
#4 Drip

- Starting Price: Free / $49 per month
- Free Templates: Not Available
- Money Back Guarantee: 30-Days
- Best For: Advanced users
Main Features
Even though its main selling point is the workflows, Drip can be used to create everything from small email courses to newsletters and even one-off email campaigns. You can also use Drip to create:- Multiple email lists
- Automation
- Email broadcasts
- Workflow emails
- And much more
Other Special Features
Drip is an email marketing service aimed at the experts and experienced marketers. It comes with extensive features for creating advanced email campaigns for more effective buyer’s journeys and marketing funnels. Drip has a special tagging function, which automatically adds tags to emails based on user actions. For example, if a user signup for a webinar using your link, that user can be tagged for easier management. So that in the future you can easily reach those people. The platform also offers a concierge service to its users where you can hire writers from the Drip team to write content for your emails.Getting Started
Drip has an intelligent getting started process. Instead of dropping you directly onto its dashboard. Drip first asks a few questions from you to understand your goals of using an email list. Whether you’re completely new to email marketing, plan on selling products, etc. So that Drip can be personalized to better fit your needs.


Creating Automation
Drip also features a visual workflow builder for creating advanced automation, similar to the one in GetResponse. Using this builder, you can create automation with conditions, triggers, and filters.
Analytics and A/B Testing
The split testing features of Drip aren’t as sophisticated as GetResponse, but they allow you to test the most important elements of your email campaigns such as subject lines and send times. The Drip email reports will help you keep track of your subscriber growth, email engagement rates, bounces, clicks, and tags. Ideal for marketers who rely on the metrics.App Integrations
Drip can be integrated with plenty of popular third-party services for supercharging your email campaigns. Including PayPal, ClickBank, MemberPress, Gravity Forms, WooCommerce, and much more.Pricing
Drip pricing plans are pretty expensive. Which is why we recommend it only for serious marketers.- Free: Up to 100 subscribers, unlimited emails, automation, app integrations, opt-in widgets.
- $49 Per Month: Up to 2500 subscribers, unlimited emails, automation, app integrations, opt-in widgets, remove Drip branding.
- $99 Per Month: Up to 5000 subscribers, unlimited emails, automation, app integrations, opt-in widgets, remove Drip branding.
#5 MailChimp

- Starting Price: Free / $10 per month
- Free Templates: Included
- Money Back Guarantee: Not Available
- Best For: Beginners to Advanced users
Main Features
MailChimp features a ton of great features, including:- An easy-to-use email designer
- Lots of free templates for designing beautiful emails
- A/B testing options
- Easy automation templates
- RSS feed email campaigns
- And much more.
Other Special Features
One of the unique features of MailChimp is its advanced scheduling system, which lets you send emails based on the subscriber’s time zone or you can even let MailChimp decide what time your subscribers are most active to send emails at the perfect time. This will let you send emails to people around the world at the exact time of the day you want them to read it, no matter what their time zone is.Getting Started
The registration process of MailChimp is pretty straightforward. But, it doesn’t offer a streamlined Getting Started process for beginners like pointing out what each section on the platform does. MailChimp doesn’t even offer a link to a YouTube video to help users understand the dashboard of the platform.
Creating Automation
Automation is the most important part of any email marketing service. This is where you create emails that send automatically to your subscribers when they opt-in to your email list. You can also use automation to create a series of emails, like an email course, that delivers to recipients periodically.
Analytics and A/B Testing
When creating email campaigns, you can choose whether to do an A/B testing campaign or a regular campaign. Those campaigns will allow you to understand how to deliver more effective email campaigns.
App Integrations
MailChimp also supports integrations with third-party apps, such as Facebook, Twitter, and eCommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce to let you embed and sell your products directly from your email campaigns.Pricing
MailChimp offers highly flexible pricing plans starting at just $10 per month. You can then gradually switch to different plans as your email list grows.- Free Forever: Up to 2000 subscribers, 12,000 emails per month, automation.
- $10 Per Month: 0-500 subscribers, automation, tracking, A/B testing, unlimited emails.
- $15 Per Month: 500-1000 subscribers, automation, tracking, A/B testing, unlimited emails.
- $20 Per Month: 1000-1500 subscribers, automation, tracking, A/B testing, unlimited emails.
- $25 Per Month: 1500-2000 subscribers, automation, tracking, A/B testing, unlimited emails.
#6 AWeber

- Starting Price: $19 per month
- Free Templates: Included
- Money Back Guarantee: 30-Days
- Best For: Beginners
Main Features
The main reason why many bloggers and marketers choose AWeber, despite their expensive prices, is that the platform offers a beginner-friendly user interface that makes things extremely easy for learning how things work with the platform. In addition, it also includes:- Email automation
- Over 700 email templates
- Easier integration with WordPress
- RSS feed newsletters
- And more.
Other Special Features
AWeber also offers customer support via phone, which can be a time-saving feature for people who lack technical knowledge. In addition, it offers plenty of video tutorials and free live webinars for learning how to use the platform. AWeber guarantees a better email deliverability rate as well, promising that your email campaigns get delivered to each subscriber on your list without them being blocked by spam filters or getting lost.Getting Started
The first thing you’ll see when you signup with AWeber is a video message welcoming you to the platform and explaining a few things about how to get started. Just what a beginner would need to help feel welcomed.


Creating Automation
Automation in AWeber can be created via the Legacy Follow Up Series tab, where you can create either a single automated email or a series of follow up emails.
Analytics and A/B Testing
AWeber will also let you read and track reports for each automation and email campaign separately. Although, the analytics aren’t as advanced as other platforms. Split-testing functions are also limited to the basics, like email subjects lines and simple text formats.App Integrations
AWeber can be easily integrated with dozens of other apps, like PayPal for selling products, LeadPages for setting up landing pages, WooCommerce, Etsy, and much more.Pricing
AWeber pricing is a little bit expensive. Probably because they offer highly responsive customer support for their users who need more help with their first time setting up email marketing services.- $19 Per Month: Up to 500 subscribers, unlimited emails, automation, analytics, 6,000+ free stock photos.
- $29 Per Month: 500-2500 subscribers, unlimited emails, automation, analytics, 6,000+ free stock photos.
- $49 Per Month: 2500-5000 subscribers, unlimited emails, automation, analytics, 6,000+ free stock photos.
#7 Sendinblue

- Starting Price: Free / $32 a month
- Free Templates: Included
- Money Back Guarantee: Not Available
- Best For: Beginners to Advanced Users
Main Features
Sendinblue has everything you need from an email marketing service, and it’s simple and easy to use even if you’re new to the world of email marketing.- Drag and drop email editor with professionally-designed templates
- Dynamic text and advanced personalization options
- Unlimited lists and contacts
- A/B testing
- Intelligent send time optimization
- Marketing automation
- Transactional emails
- Custom signup forms
Other Special Features
Sendinblue’s special features take it beyond a simple email service, transforming it into an integrated sales and marketing solution. These additional features include:- Create dedicated landing pages for each of your campaigns
- Facebook ads
- Retargeting
- SMS marketing
- Real-time chat with your website visitors
Getting Started
When you log into Sendinblue, you’ll be taken to your dashboard, which gives you easy access to all the different tools included with the software.




Creating Automation
Sendinblue’s automation features range from simple triggers such as sending a welcome email when a user signs up to your list to advanced automation workflow with lead scoring to personalize each user experience. You’ll need to install the “Automation” app from your dashboard before you can set up automation workflow. Sendinblue provides a helpful video and user guide to get you started. You can then choose from ready-to-use workflows or set up your own custom workflows. The workflow builder itself is fairly intuitive to use, and the preset templates make it easy to get started.
Analytics and A/B Testing
You can see the statistics for each of your campaigns at a glance from your dashboard including total emails sent, open rate, click-through rate, and unsubscription rate. You can filter these stats by date and track conversions to measure revenue generated from each campaign.

App Integrations
Sendinblue offers additional functionality with the option of adding its own apps for SMS, transactional emails, automation, Facebook ads, retargeting ads, landing pages, chat, and CRM. Sendinblue also integrates with several other platforms for synchronizing contact and lead data including:- ActiveCampaign
- Campaign Monitor
- Constant Contact
- Drip
- Hubspot
- Intercom
- Mailchimp
- Mailjet
- Pipedrive
- SurveyMonkey
- Typeform
Pricing
Sendinblue offers a free plan so you can try it out before you commit to one of the paid plans. After the free tier, Sendinblue is priced in the mid-range, with the more expensive packages suitable for those who need to send a large number of emails or need more advanced features. What’s nice about Sendinblue is that every package offers unlimited contacts, so you can opt for the cheapest package even if you have a large mailing list. This might make it a more affordable option for you if you don’t send emails to your list frequently. Free: Up to 300 emails a day, unlimited contacts, automation workflow up to 2,000 contacts. $25 per month: Up to 40,000 emails a month, unlimited contacts, no daily sending limit, automation workflow up to 2,000 contacts. $39 per month: Up to 60,000 emails a month, unlimited contacts, remove Sendinblue logo from emails, A/B testing, advanced statistics, automation workflow up to 2,000 contacts. $66 per month: Up to 120,000 emails a month, Facebook ads, landing pages, unlimited marketing automation workflows, and multi-user access. If you need more than what the premium package provides, you can get in touch for a custom enterprise quote. Visit SendinblueSo, Which One Is The Best?
Picking a single “best” service is tough since each platform targets different types of audiences. However, if you’re a complete beginner who would prefer an easy-to-understand user interface, easy automation, and something that is easy to scale, go for Constant Contact. For A/B testing, landing pages, ConvertKit and Drip provides great features for advanced users and online marketers. MailChimp’s free plan is also great if you’re starting a small blog on a small budget. Each platform comes with a free trial (except ConvertKit) so feel free to test them yourself before making a decision.ConstantContact | GetResponse | Convertkit | Drip | MailChimp | AWeber | Sendinblue | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Starting Price | $20 | $15 | $29 | $49 | $10 | $19 | $32 |
Free Trial | 30 Days | 30 Days | Not available | Free Forever Plan | Free Forever Plan | 30 Days | Free Forever Plan |
Free Templates | Available | Available | Not available | Not available | Available | Available | Available |
WordPress Plugin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Money Back Guarantee | 30 day | No | 30 day | 30 day | No | 30 day | No |
Special Features | Advanced eCommmerce Features | Landing Pages & Webinar | No duplicate emails | Advanced workflows & webinars | Time zone scheduling | Easier Automations | Supports transactional emails, SMS marketing, and chat in one package. |
Best For | Beginners to Advanced users | Beginners to Advanced users | Beginners | Advanced users | Beginners to Advanced users | Beginners | Beginners to Advanced users |
Thanks for the comparison. I’m probably going to test GetResponse. I like the look of their marketing automation.