The Best Newsletter Software for Your Needs
Now that you have a clear overview of the top 5 newsletter service providers and their competitors, let’s take a look at some of the more common scenarios to work out which is the best newsletter software for your business.
Best newsletter software for creating drag and drop newsletters
When it comes to creating newsletters, a few key features are important. You want this process to be as simple as possible, so finding a newsletter software with a drag and drop email builder should be top priority.
Whether it provides well-designed newsletter templates is another thing to keep in mind, as this will save you tons of time.
Our top choice when it comes to newsletter design is MailerLite, since it allows you to produce beautiful email campaigns in no time at all.
Aside from the usual content blocks, such as headers, images and video, you can add interactive elements such as carousels, countdown timers and surveys. What’s more, you also have the ability to add ‘dynamic content’ blocks, which will display only to selected groups/segments.
The only downside is that you’ll need to be on the Advanced plan to use the HTML editor. However, with its large selection of modern-looking templates, you should find the drag and drop editor suffices.
Though the other newsletter services also use drag and drop technology and offer a good range of templates, MailerLite does it for a slightly better price. For $15 you’ll get unlimited emails to up to 1,000 subscribers, 63 HTML email templates, marketing automation and no MailerLite branding on your emails.
Best newsletter software for email marketing automation
Having a clear marketing automation strategy is key for any serious marketers, and though most newsletter software tools offer automation as part of their product, some do it better than others.
If you’re a small business looking to send some simple automated campaigns on a budget, then MailerLite and Brevo are good options. However, if you’re a larger business looking for something more sophisticated, ActiveCampaign is our top choice.
ActiveCampaign offers everything you need to streamline your sales and marketing processes and keep users engaged without having to put in the extra hours.
A few of the key automation features on offer include: advanced segmentation, lead scoring, dynamic content, site tracking, sales automation, omnichannel marketing automation.
Best newsletter service for deliverability
Our bi-annual email deliverability tests show that not all newsletter service providers are made equal.
In fact, there are only a few email service providers that consistently show very good results, and those are MailerLite and ActiveCampaign.
| ACTIVECAMPAIGN | MAILERLITE | |
|---|---|---|
| Average deliverability rates (last 3 rounds) | 93.4% | 92.7% |
Best email marketing service for small businesses
If you’re a small business doing email marketing, you’ll no doubt want to keep costs down without sacrificing quality. The two most affordable email marketing software are Brevo and MailerLite. Both of which offer a free plan. You can do a lot with these newsletter services, including set up automation workflows and access an intuitive drag and drop email editor and landing page builder.
However, there are a few disadvantages to using these particular services:
- Brevo has not performed well in our deliverability tests, and the reporting features are slightly limited.
- In comparison, MailerLite performs very well in our tests, though it doesn’t offer the most complete feature set when it comes to email marketing automation.
For this reason, we recommend ActiveCampaign to businesses who are looking for more advanced options to take their email marketing to the next level.
Starting at $39/month, it’s a little steeper than the aforementioned email marketing software, however, if you make the most of its advanced segmentation and automation features, we believe the investment is worth it. It also has excellent deliverability and reporting capabilities.
Best email marketing service for larger businesses and enterprises
For larger businesses and enterprises with extensive contact lists and varied marketing needs, choosing the best email marketing platform is of paramount importance. This service must offer scalable solutions, robust automation, advanced segmentation, and insightful analytics.
After years of testing, we think ActiveCampaign makes a great email marketing service for larger businesses and enterprises. Its bundled plan, which includes a mix of pro marketing automation and sales customer relationship management (CRM) features, is definitely worth checking out if you fall into this category.
One of the key strengths of ActiveCampaign is its CRM integration (read more about this in our ActiveCampaign CRM review). This allows for more personalized marketing, and can potentially lead to higher engagement rates. It also provides comprehensive reporting capabilities, which can be invaluable for larger enterprises needing to analyze and refine their marketing strategies.
Another good option for mid-to-larger-sized companies is GetResponse. This advanced newsletter software is known for its robust suite of marketing tools which includes email marketing, a website builder, landing pages, webinars, conversion funnels, and an ecommerce store builder.
With GetResponse’s email marketing features, you can send professional-looking, personalized emails, set up email and SMS automations, and segment your audience for more effective targeting. Plus, the GetResponse MAX plan allows you to purchase a dedicated IP address and is capable of sending 2,000,000 emails per hour (note that we haven’t tested this feature ourselves).
For larger enterprises, though, there may be some limitations. While GetResponse offers a lot of features, larger organizations might need more complex contact management features and integration capabilities or higher-level security features.
Our ActiveCampaign alternatives guide offers more recommendations for larger businesses looking for an advanced newsletter service provider.
Hopefully, you are a little clearer on which is the best newsletter software for your business. For further information, check out our complete analysis of the top email marketing platforms listed above and compare them based on their pricing plans with our newsletter cost calculator.
