Which is the best email marketing platform? This article seeks to answer this question by providing a list of top 10 email marketing services used by successful bloggers.
Criteria of ranking: Email Marketing Platforms are ranked according to the number of top blogs powered by WordPress CMS that use it.
Blogs that we analyzed are those that are ranked between 1 to 100k by Alexa (as at June 2020). They also run on WordPress CMS. We did not include magazines, eCommerce, and news sites. Most of the blogs are based in United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Australia, India, Netherlands, and German.
1. Convertkit
About Platform: Convertkit is an email marketing platform that targets creators. Converkit’s best marketing features include marketing automation, sign up forms, CCPA compliant forms, email templates, landing pages, WordPress email subscription plugins e.t.c Read more about convertkit.
Free Plan: Forever free for up to 1k subscribers with limited features. Free trial of 14 days has unlimited features. (Signup for forever free plan).
Cheapest Price: $29 for up to 1k subscribers.
Top platform users: neilpatel.com, smartpassiveincome.com, adamenfroy.com, tim.blog, ryrob.com, createandgo.com, shoutmeloud.com, wholesomeyum.com, and bloggingcage.com
Platform website: convertkit.com
2. Mailchimp
About Platform: Mailchimp is one of the top email marketing platforms for small businesses and agencies. It is compatible with a number of web apps, extensions, and softwares. Mailchimp’s best features include Segmentation, CRM, Social Media ads, Signup forms, GDPR compliant forms, WP plugins, Automation, A/B testing, transactional email, drag, and drop email marketing templates e.t.c. Read more about Mailchimp.
Free: Forever Free, can be used for up to 2k contacts with a sending limit of 10,000 emails per month
Cheapest Pricing: $9.9 for 500 contacts
Top Platform users: wpbeginner.com, yoast.com, css-tricks.com, smashingmagazine.com, and hongkiat.com
Platform website: mailchimp.com
3. Drip
About Platform: Drip is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that targets eCommerce businesses. Types of Drip features include site tracking, lead scoring, automation, marketing workflows, autoresponders, free email templates e.t.c. More about Drip.
Free Trial: for 14 days
Cheapest Plan: $19 for 500 people (contacts)
Top Platform users: socialmediaexaminer.com, Problogger.com , and wpshout.com
Platform website: drip.com
4. Infusionsoft by Keap
About Platform: Infusionsoft by Keap is a powerful all-round marketing platform for small businesses. Keap’s best marketing features include CRM, email marketing, SMS marketing, sales pipeline, marketing automation, online payment system, affiliate marketing service e.t.c Read more on Infusionsoft by Keap.
Free Trial: for 14 days
Cheapest Plan: $79 per month for 14 days
Top Platform users: smartblogger.com, jeffbullas.com, eofire.com
Platform website: keap.com
5. Aweber
About Platform: Aweber is one of the oldest email marketing service that is used by small businesses and among the few that allow affiliate marketers. Some of Aweber’s best email marketing features include automation, autoresponders, opt-in forms, readily available wp plugins, audience segmentation, landing pages, drag, and drop email design templates e.t.c More about Aweber.
Free Trial: for one month
Cheapest Plan: $19 per month for 500 contacts
Top Platform users: digital-photography-school.com and backlinko.com
Platform website: Aweber.com
6. SendinBlue
About Platform: Sendinblue is an all in one digital marketing platform which provides services like email marketing, SMS marketing, and CRM. Email marketing solutions that Sendinblue offers include Automation, Transaction Email, Segmentation, Landing Pages, Facebook Ads, Retargeting, Signup forms, A/B testing e.t.c
Free plan: 300 emails per day with unlimited contacts with limited features.
Cheapest Plan: $25 per month for 40,000 emails sent per month.
Top platform users: codeinwp.com and wplift.com
Platform website: sendinblue.com
7. Jetpack Subscription
About Platform: Jetpack subscription is a simple service that makes it easy for users to subscribe to your content and get email alerts when you publish a new post. Its major limitations include no automation, no email template customization, you cannot remove wordpress.com branding in the footer of emails, you cannot import email subscribers e.t.c
Free forever
Top platform users: wptavern.com and shoutmeloud.com
Platform website: jetpack.com/support/subscriptions
NOTE: Shoutmeloud uses Jetpack for published blog updates and Convertkit for bi-weekly newsletter.
8. ActiveCampaign
About platform: ActiveCampaign is an email marketing platform that targets small businesses. ActiveCampaign’s best email marketing features include marketing automation workflows, segmentation, engagement tagging, SMS Marketing, Lead scoring, Geotargeting, HIPAA compliant, HTML, and plain text newsletter templates e.t.c. It also has free email marketing tools like email subject line generator and cart abandonment calculator. More on ActiveCampaign.
Free Trial: 14 days for 100 contacts only.
Cheapest Plan: $15 for 500 contacts
Top Platform users: melyssagriffin.com
Platform website: activecampaign.com
9. MailerLite
About Platform: Mailerlite is a budget-friendly email marketing service for small businesses and mid-size companies. Best features offered by Mailerlite include customizable newsletter templates, eCommerce campaigns, landing pages, form builder, pop-up opt-in forms, email automation, personalization, tagging, RSS campaigns, surveys, geotracking and GDPR compliant.
Free plan: Forever free for up to 1k subscribers with a limit of 12,000 emails sent per month with limited features.
Cheapest Plan: $10 for up to 1k subscribers.
Top platform users: woorkup.com
Platform website: mailerlite.com
10. Google Feedburner
About Platform: Google FeedBurner is a basic RSS email subscription service provider. It is managed by Google which explains why it has high Gmail email deliverability. It is the best alternative of Jetpack subscription. Users can subscribe to your website RSS feeds through FeedBurner and be notified when you post a new article. However, it does not allow custom branding or importing of email lists. It is ideal for beginners who cannot afford to invest in paid email marketing services. it is also suitable for small businesses that are not interested in monetizing their email list.
Free forever
Top platform users: crunchify.com
Platform website: feedburner.google.com
Important: We do not claim that the email marketing platforms we have listed above are flawless. Each one of them has its weakness and strength. However, bloggers using them have been in the blogging business for decades and therefore there is every reason to trust that they have tried different email marketing services over the years before deciding to stick on them as their best choice.
