Email Marketing Tools

Best WordPress Email Plugins: Our Top 10 For Your Small Business

Roberta PhillipsInka Wibowo

By Roberta & Inka

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Wordpress email plugin

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WordPress is one of the most popular CMSs. In fact, almost 43% of all websites on the Internet use WordPress!

It’s the go-to website builder for ecommerce brands, review sites, and all kinds of online businesses—and for good reason. Its wealth of handy plugins means you can customize your site depending on your unique needs.

It should come as no surprise that you can manage part of your email marketing strategy right from your WordPress dashboard. Just connect up your chosen plugin and go.

In this post, I’m going to highlight some of the best WordPress email plugins, their pros and cons, and their powerful features so you can make the right choice for you and your business.

But first:

WordPress Newsletter Marketing: Things to be Aware of

When it comes to selecting the right WordPress plugins, there are a couple of essential things to bear in mind.

Security: WordPress sites are vulnerable to hacking attempts. This is especially relevant if you are planning to store sensitive user data directly in your WordPress database. So aside from using strong passwords and protecting access to your WordPress admin area (using two-factor-authentication, for example), it’s important to make sure you’re using secure plugins that are up-to-date.

Using an outdated plugin or theme can make your site vulnerable. You’ll want to pick a plugin whose author will be quick to detect and fix any security flaws and bugs. You can see when each plugin was last updated in the preview window (see screenshot below).

You, as the user, will need to make sure your email plugin is regularly updated, as you wouldn’t want to be at risk of losing your email list to some hacker.

A safer alternative can be to use a service that doesn’t actually store your contact list in WordPress but in a separate database belonging to the newsletter service (e.g. HubSpot, Brevo or Mailerlite). While you have to give away your data to a third party, it’s usually a much safer affair as these newsletter services have full control over the security of your list.

wordpress email plugin

Ease-of-use: Designing and sending out your email newsletters should be a quick and pain-free task. You don’t want to find yourself with a clunky or buggy email newsletter plugin.

Designs: Like with any email service provider, you want to make sure that it comes with attractive and responsive email templates that you can easily edit to fit your needs.

Deliverability: What’s the point of sending out an email newsletter if it doesn’t reach the recipients? As you can see in our deliverability tests, not all email tools get the same results. You’ll want to choose a newsletter plugin that has deliverability as its main priority (along with security, of course). It might be that the plugin uses SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) or integrates with a third-party service such as Mailgun, Brevo, Mailjet or SendGrid.

When you search for newsletter plugins within your WordPress website, you’ll see that plenty come up. You’ll also see how many people have rated it and how many active installations it has currently. This article looks at some of the most popular email and optin form plugins.

So, now that we know what we’re looking for, let’s dive in and check out the best WordPress email plugins!

Best WordPress Email Marketing Plugins (Top 10)

1. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) – Advanced form, automation, and newsletter options

2. MailPoet – Modern design templates

3. HubSpot – Generous free plan with CRM

4. The Newsletter Plugin – Free plan

5. MailerLite – Complete email software offering paid newsletter subscriptions

6. Icegram Express – No third-party subscriptions required

7. Mailster – Target your audience with custom conditions

8. WP Mail SMTP – For better deliverability

9. Thrive – Suite of features

10. OptinMonster – Targeted popups

Brevo (Formerly Sendinblue)

Rating on WordPress:

Active installations: 100,000+

brevo wordpress plugin

You’ll need to create an account with Brevo’s email marketing service to use Brevo’s WordPress email marketing plugin. There is even a different plugin for WooCommerce users – however, we will be focussing on the classic Brevo plugin in this article.

Brevo was designed specifically with ecommerce and product-based brands in mind, so there are a ton of features like transactional email capabilities, automated behavior-based workflows, and the ability to sell directly through emails.

brevo automation workflow Automation workflow

The plugin works via an API so the interface looks the same inside WordPress as it does on the Brevo platform. This continuity is helpful if you’re going between the two.

brevo dashboard

The automation options available are pretty advanced. You can trigger campaign actions using your visitor’s email and website engagement behavior, assign lead scores, plus loads more.

Your contacts are stored in Brevo’s built-in CRM on its email marketing platform, making it much more secure than native WordPress plugins.

The pros of Brevo

  • The automation options are advanced
  • Contacts are stored outside of WordPress
  • Access a real-time report dashboard
  • Easy template designer

The cons of Brevo

  • Can only send 300 emails/day on the free plan
  • Not as many pre-made templates as other options
  • The user interface can be a little clunky as it just loads the web interface into WordPress

Brevo Pricing

  • Free plugin (unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day)
  • Paid plans start from $25 for 20,000 emails/month
  • Learn more about Brevo's prices.

Try the Brevo WordPress plugin

MailPoet

Rating on WordPress:

Active installations: 600,000+

mailpoet newsletter plugin

MailPoet’s latest WordPress email marketing software offers a very user-friendly plugin that has been specifically built for WordPress.

The built-in MailPoet Sending Service means you don’t need to use a third-party SMTP service. There's one important thing you need to keep in mind, though: since your subscribers will be stored in WordPress, it’s down to you to keep their data safe. That means regular updates of all your plugins, choosing a secure web host and adding additional security plugins (e.g. 2-factor authentication, malware scanner etc.).

It’s a great option if you’re looking for a really simple newsletter builder or are a bit wary of the bigger, more complex options available. Despite its simplicity, there are over 50 beautiful templates to choose from, plus the ability to create behavior-based campaigns (like abandoned cart campaigns or personalized product recommendation campaigns), and, of course, higher delivery rates.

mailpoet templates

MailPoet’s biggest selling point is its seamless integration with WooCommerce. Through hyper-relevant campaigns and the ability to track revenue per email, you can engage subscribers at every stage of the customer journey. (Learn more about why MailPoet is one of the best email marketing services for WooCommerce.)

mailpoet wordpress backend

Everything happens within your WordPress backend, too. Instead of flitting between two browser tabs, you can set up and send emails directly from your dashboard.

The pros of MailPoet

  • Over 50 modern email template designs to choose from
  • Integrates directly with WooCommerce
  • Visual automations builder with pre-made journeys
  • Powerful segmentation capabilities based on subscriber behavior
  • Everything happens inside WordPress
  • Positive ratings in the WP Plugin Directory and 600k+ active installations

The cons of MailPoet

  • You need to be extra careful keeping your data secure
  • Detailed email analytics aren’t available on the free plan
  • There’s no option to create landing pages
  • In our tests, deliverability via the MailPoet SMTP server wasn't exactly outstanding – we had some issues with AOL and Yahoo.

MailPoet Pricing

  • The free plan comes with 5,000 emails per month (using Mailpoet's own SMTP server), which you can send to up to 1,000 subscribers
  • Premium plans are available from $10/mo.

Try MailPoet for free or go Premium and get 30% off with this link

HubSpot

Rating on WordPress:

Active installations: 300,000+

HubSpot - The CRM powerhouse

HubSpot’s WordPress plugin lets you set up forms, create pop-ups, and run marketing campaigns from your existing HubSpot account. The drag-and-drop builder comes with hundreds of pre-made templates—but perhaps the biggest bonus is you can choose a template based on your goals.

hubspot email editor

The data collected goes straight into your HubSpot CRM to paint a more comprehensive picture of each subscriber. You can then tailor your emails based on someone’s lifecycle stage, their membership level, or information that’s already stored in their contact record.

It’s probably no real surprise that the analytics are pretty robust. You can run A/B tests, see who’s engaging with each email, and identify your most popular newsletters.

hubspot email analytics

The pros of HubSpot

  • Easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder
  • Transfers subscriber data securely straight to your CRM
  • Powerful segmentation capabilities
  • In-depth analytics and A/B testing

The cons of HubSpot

  • The free plan doesn’t come with any email templates
  • Paid plans are pricey
  • You can’t properly authenticate a sending domain through SPF and DKIM on the free plan

HubSpot Pricing

Try the HubSpot WordPress plugin for free

The Newsletter Plugin

Rating on WordPress:

Active installations: 300,000+

newsletter wordpress plugin

The WordPress email marketing plugin by Newsletter is free and easy to set up, as you do not need any other tools or services to use this plugin. That said, it does give you the option of connecting to other SMTP plugins to help deliver your emails. We’d recommend you do so to get maximum results.

newsletter wordpress backend

The plugin works through WordPress natively, so you’ll set up your newsletters and track analytics inside your dashboard. It’s a little bit limited in features compared to other options here, but the interface is intuitive and you can quickly set up newsletters, signup forms, and track subscribers—perfect if you’re looking for a really simple, affordable solution.

Perhaps the most useful feature is the ability to choose a newsletter template based on the purpose of your email, whether it’s an invitation, an announcement, or a link to your latest blog post.

The pros of Newsletter

  • You get to send unlimited emails to unlimited subscribers—even on the free plan
  • Filter newsletter templates by goal or purpose
  • An easy-to-use interface that works directly through WordPress

The cons of Newsletter

  • Limited building blocks in the newsletter editor
  • Very basic features compared to other options
  • Automations, integrations, and advanced reporting aren’t available on the free plan

Newsletter Pricing

  • Free plan with unlimited emails and subscribers
  • It has premium plans for bloggers, which will cost you $69 (install it on up to 3 different websites and get a year of updates)
  • Or an agency plan which costs $249 (unlimited sites and a year of updates)
  • Additionally, you'll have to pay for an email sending service.

Try Newsletter

MailerLite

Rating on WordPress:

Active installations: 70,000+

mailerlite homepage

MailerLite is one of the top-rated email marketing tools on our website, and its WordPress plugin has all the usual features, including automation capabilities, the ability to send newsletters, and powerful analytics. You can also run paid newsletter subscriptions through the tool, which is great if you’re running a membership program or hoping to monetize your email list.

It’s easy to collect subscriber details with highly-customizable popup forms and lead gen forms that you can integrate on your WordPress site through the plugin, and there are hundreds of email templates to choose from to get started quickly (these are only available in their paid plans, though). The automations feature has a library of pre-made visual templates you can edit to suit your customer’s journeys.

mailerlite workflows

The interface of the tool itself is really modern and user-friendly, which translates to the WordPress plugin. Even better, your subscriber’s details will be saved in your external MailerLite account so you don’t have to worry about securing it yourself.

mailerlite analytics

The pros of MailerLite

  • Modern, easy-to-use interface
  • Library of pre-made and customizable automation templates
  • Create paid newsletter campaigns
  • Manage the entire workflow, from popup form to analytics
  • Excellent free plan

The cons of MailerLite

  • Negative ratings in the WordPress Plugin Directory
  • Reports are pretty basic
  • Subscriber preferences are limited, which can make segmentation trickier than other options
  • Groups and segments feature can take some getting used to

MailerLite Pricing

  • Free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails
  • From $15 a month for 1,000 subscribers and unlimited monthly emails
  • More MailerLite pricing details.

Try MailerLite for free for up to 1,000 subscribers

Icegram Express

Rating on WordPress:

Active installations: 100,000+

icegram wordpress plugin homepage

Icegram is a simple WordPress email marketing plugin that doesn’t require any third-party subscriptions or additional tools to send your newsletters. The interface is intuitive and the basic features should be enough to get started with, though this only comes with basic security, so I’d recommend paying a little extra to know your contact list will be safe.

icegram workflows

The software is made up of three core products—Icegram Engage, which lets you create popups and landing pages; Icegram Express, where you can create and send email newsletters; and Icegram Collect, which focuses on forms and collecting leads.

The pros of Icegram

  • Easy to set up autoresponders for new posts and products
  • Users can choose which lists they subscribe to when they sign up
  • Rule-based list segmentation
  • Ready-made templates

The cons of Icegram

  • Most features are reserved for paid plan users
  • The interface is clunky and outdated compared to other options
  • Even on the paid plan, features are limited
  • Separate products for newsletters, forms, and landing pages means that accessing all features can get quite pricey

Icegram Pricing

  • Icegram Express is free for basic features (unlimited contacts and emails included)
  • The Pro plan includes some advanced features and premium templates for $129/year
  • The Max plan includes automations and other advanced features for $229/year.

Try the Icegram plugin for WordPress

Mailster

Rating on WordPress:

Active installations: 27,000+

mailster

Mailster offers a premium, paid WordPress email marketing plugin for your site.

The drag-and-drop editor makes setting up your email newsletters a simple affair. Its segmentation options allow you to better target your audience through the use of custom conditions and there are plenty of simple, well-made templates to help you get started quickly.

mailster editor

It doesn’t include SMTP, but it’s compatible with many popular email-sending services, such as SendGrid, Amazon SES, and Mailgun.

The pros of Mailster

  • Easily add forms to blog posts and WP pages using a shortcode
  • Advanced reporting
  • No limit to the number of forms, lists, or subscribers you have

The cons of Mailster

  • There are hundreds of templates, but many are premium and must be paid for
  • Not a lot of customization options available
  • Automation capabilities are limited and basic

Mailster Pricing

  • $89 for a one-site license and 6 months of support
  • Of course, you also have to factor in the price for an email-sending service, as SMTP is not included.

Get Mailster

WP Mail SMTP

Rating on WordPress:

Active installations: 3M+

wp mail smtp
WP Mail SMTP is brought to you by the same team that's behind WPForms and OptinMonster. They developed WP Mail SMTP to help WordPress users improve their email deliverability. It’s a simple solution, which is used in conjunction with a dedicated mailer service, such as Brevo or SMTP.

WP Mail SMTP mailers

Using WP Mail SMTP allows you to bypass the default wp_mail() function and forces your site to use SMTP settings instead. Because WP Mail adds authentication to the emails, the deliverability of the emails being sent from your site is greatly improved, meaning far fewer emails end up in the spam folder.

The pros of WP Mail

  • The email log section lets you see the deliverability of emails
  • Detailed email reports
  • Get email failure alerts
  • Weekly email summaries

The cons of WP Mail

  • The free version is quite limited (it's only a sending engine and doesn't have a newsletter editor)
  • Paid plans require you to pay for WP Mail and your existing email marketing software
  • Needing to connect your email software adds an extra step to the setup process

WP Mail Pricing

  • Free
  • Pro: Introductory price is $49/year then $99/year
  • Elite: Introductory price is $99/year then $149/year

Try WP Mail SMPT for free

Thrive

thrive homepage

Thrive offers a comprehensive package. Features include opt-in forms, landing pages, conversion-focused WordPress themes, a visual drag-and-drop website builder, widgets, a headline optimizer, a scarcity campaign builder, a testimonials plugin, a quiz builder, and even an online course builder.

The Thrive Suite (which includes the tool’s email marketing product, Thrive Leads) helps users do everything from building a website to growing an email list. Considering everything it does it’s a very affordable option, particularly if you have big plans for your business. Keep in mind that, to send out newsletters, you'll need to connect Thrive to an external email marketing service – it integrates with all the major ones (GetResponse, Mailchimp, Mailerlite etc.).

You can do a whole range of things with Thrive, ranging from creating branded popups and lead generation forms to sending automated campaigns and one-off newsletters.

thrive forms

The pros of Thrive

  • Fully comprehensive lead generation features
  • Easy-to-use interface with drag-and-drop builder
  • Connect multiple WP plugins together to create a seamless customer journey
  • Good value for money given everything on offer

The cons of Thrive

  • The setup process is slightly more complicated than other options
  • The plugins can be bulky and slow down page load time
  • Can be overwhelming trying to get up to speed on all the features
  • Not the most affordable option if you don’t need all the features
  • In order to send newsletters, you need an external service

Thrive Pricing

  • Membership costs $149 per quarter or $299 per year

Try Thrive

OptinMonster (For Optin Forms and Popups)

Rating on WordPress:

Active installations: 900,000

optinmonster wordpress plugin

OptinMonster has the highest number of active installations of the plugins on this list. That’s a very good indicator of the quality of the plugin, as users are clearly very satisfied with the software.

OptinMonster specializes in optin forms and popups, so you can use it to get more interested people on your mailing list. Bear in mind that OptinMonster is used to generate leads but you’ll need to connect it to an ESP in order to send those leads your newsletters.

optinmonster forms

The range of popups is vast: exit popup campaigns, floating header or footer popup bars, slide-in popup boxes (also known as scroll-triggered boxes), sidebar popup forms, inline popup forms, mobile popup campaigns, fullscreen welcome gate popups, and more. These are simple to set up with helpful templates, and, of course, are all mobile responsive.

optinmonster dashboard

The advanced targeting and segmentation options make it easy to reach the right people at the right moment. For example, you can show a coupon code popup to only new visitors on your site. Or perhaps you only want to show a popup about an event to people based in a certain city.

The pros of OptinMonster

  • Advanced targeting and segmentation capabilities
  • Multiple different form types to collect more leads
  • Easy to customize with a drag-and-drop builder
  • Detailed analytics reports

The cons of OptinMonster

  • All plans are billed annually by default
  • Extra costs due to the need for a third-party service to send the emails
  • Limited form fields

OptinMonster Pricing

  • Prices start at $9/month (billed annually) for unlimited campaigns, page-level targeting and 1 site
  • For $29/month the Pro plan will allow you to employ advanced targeting, countdown timers, you’ll be able to remove branding and use it on 3 sites.

Try OptinMonster with a 14-day money-back guarantee

Best WordPress Email Plugins: The Verdict

As you’ve seen, there are plenty of great WordPress email plugins available. All of them are pretty affordable and some are even free for limited features.

Best Free WordPress Email Subscription Plugin

MailPoet has an excellent free plan, which includes unlimited emails, SMTP and attractive design templates. HubSpot, with its live chat, landing pages and CRM, offers a very good free plan as well. Check out this post for other free email marketing services.

Most Complete WordPress Newsletters Plugin

Brevo is the most comprehensive newsletter plugin for WordPress. The paid plan ($25/month) will allow you to set up advanced automations and send up to 20,000 emails to unlimited contacts. And because your contacts are stored in Brevo’s built-in CRM on its email marketing platform, you can rest assured that no hacker will be able to access your contact list via your WordPress site.

Best WordPress Newsletters Plugin For Optin Forms And Popups

OptinMonster has a ton of excellent form and popup options. The fact that you can use smart targeting based on your visitors’ location and interaction on your website means that you'll be able to grow your email list rapidly and set up relevant automations for new leads.

Note: We recommend you follow these email deliverability best practices and check out our guide to email authentication before you start sending.

Let me know how you get on! Are you using a WordPress email plugin that isn’t on this list? Let me know in the comments below.

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The authors

Learn more about us

Roberta Phillips

Marketing Manager

Hey, I'm Roberta! Having worked as a digital marketer for a host of online businesses, I've tried, tested, fallen in love with and despaired with so many marketing tools. I'm excited to help you find the email marketing and CRM tools you need to thrive.

Inka Wibowo

Senior Content Manager

Hi, I'm Inka! I spent the earlier part of my career in agency land, helping businesses of all sizes get their email marketing campaigns up and running. Now, at EmailTooltester, I'm using my experience to help businesses like yours find the best email marketing services for your needs.

Learn more about us

We keep our content up to date

12 Apr 2023 - Additional updates, ranking changes
03 Apr 2023 - Added MailerLite, general updates
11 Jan 2022 – Added WP Mail SMTP
15 Dec 2021 – Smaller updates
8 Feb 2020 – Added HubSpot and Thrive

Our Methodology

This article has been written and researched following our EmailTooltester methodology.

Our Methodology