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Describing themselves as ‘the leading application in Europe’ for email marketing, Mailify’s desktop-based software has traditionally been a popular solution with companies wanting to manage data in-house. This French provider, also known as Sarbacane, has over 180,000 users, and this number is steadily rising (as you can see in real time on their website).
Their latest version of the tool, Mailify Sunrise, is a strong attempt to expand their reach. Packing in new features such as marketing automation, SMS, a modernized interface, and - perhaps most significantly - a web version of the application, it’s definitely worthy of its new label of ‘all-in-one marketing platform’. (If you prefer, though, you can still manage all data locally and switch off data upload to the cloud.)
But how well does it deliver in these new features - and how does it compete against other more established tools in this space? We take a look in our review below.
Mailify screenshots
Mailify Pricing
Mailify price their service differently to other providers, which can be both a good and bad thing, depending on your requirements. Rather than charging based on number of subscribers (they have no limit on this), they instead charge a minimum fee based on numbers of email sent per month. So, you select a plan according to how many emails you’re likely to send in a month. If you go over that limit, you can purchase additional credits, or upgrade to a higher plan.
That makes it a little hard for us to compare it to the pricing of other tools. However, if we work off the assumption that you’ll only be sending one email a month to a relatively small list, that puts Mailify somewhere towards the higher end of the pricing scale. It gets more cost-effective when you’re sending larger volumes of emails (25,000+ per month), although in this case its prices still sit in the mid-range.
The lowest plan, Essential, starts at $69/month for up to 5,000 emails. A yearly discount is also available for all plans.
Pros and Cons
Unlimited contacts:
Mailify is one of the few newsletter tools that allow you to upload an unlimited number of recipients. On the flip side, pricing is charged based on number of emails sent per month.
Templates:
Mailify have clearly invested a lot into the design of their templates, with over 70 modern, mobile-responsive templates to choose from.
Editor:
It’s fast, and gives you more flexibility to edit elements than other tools do.
Keep data in-house:
If you’d prefer to keep your data saved locally, Mailify’s desktop version lets you do this.
Form/contact fields:
Only a few basic fields come as standard. If you want to add a country field you have to add the field and all the values manually.
Landing pages:
While they’re flexible in design, they’re lacking one crucial feature – the ability to add forms.
Segmentation:
There’s no tagging, and viewing/accessing these segments is not very intuitive.
Pricing:
Our general impression is that you pay quite a lot for using Mailify, and don’t really get much in return – especially if you’re sending relatively small volumes of emails per month. Tools like GetResponse and MailerLite have similar pricing but offer way more in terms of features and performance.
Is Mailify the right newsletter service for you?
Recommended if:
You’d prefer to keep your data offline:
If data hosting is a concern for you, Mailify’s desktop version allows you to switch off data synchronization to the cloud and keep all your data on your computer.
You don’t have your own templates:
Mailify has some of the best-looking (and mobile-responsive) email templates we’ve ever seen, and a wide selection to choose from. Having a flexible and easy-to-use editor is a big plus, too.
Not recommended if:
Your email volumes change from month to month:
With Mailify, you pay a monthly plan that allows you to send a certain number of emails a month (and pay extra if you go over). It’s different to most other providers, who charge based on how many contacts you have. If your email volumes fluctuate, it’s better to go for a tool that offers more predictable, subscriber-based pricing.
You need advanced list management and automations:
Mailify offers these features, but only at a basic level. If you need advanced options like tags, automated segments, and flexible email workflows, check out ActiveCampaign or GetResponse.
Rating details
| criterion | rating | comments |
|---|---|---|
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Ease of Use |
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The web and desktop versions are identical, and both are fast and easy to navigate through. We like the dynamic transitions between screens, and the big, bold pop-ups that prompt you to confirm before making any major changes – very handy indeed! |
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Newsletter Creation |
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Editor |
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The modern-looking editor is smooth. You can drag and drop elements, and there’s a lot of flexibility. For example, it lets you position text and buttons on images, and add different content elements you like to columns. Text is edited within the email, so no glancing back and forth between different sections to make sure it’s all displaying correctly. And navigating back and forth while creating a campaign (e.g. from contacts to editor) is easier than in a lot of other tools. |
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Personalization |
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Standard personalization (e.g. inserting first name) is available. There is a very simple ‘Generate title’ function where you can insert titles according to the assumed gender of contact (based on first name), but it’s not very accurate. |
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Email types |
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Newsletters, plain text, A/B testing, automatic/triggered (birthdays, registrations etc), SMS |
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Choice and Flexibility of Template Designs |
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Mailify’s template range is impressive. There are around 70 eye-catching templates to choose from, all of which are mobile-responsive. Apart from being able to change elements, they can also be edited for different layouts and colour schemes. |
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Email Automation |
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The automation options are limited – they’re really just autoresponders that you can send based on registrations, dates and contact field updates. They’ve recently included multi-path workflows that allows you to send emails based on triggers like email clicks and bounces. However it’s still not possible to build more complex workflows involving tags and segments. |
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List Management |
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While it does have a useful feature of auto-correcting email addresses upon upload, the list management options are quite basic. There’s no tagging system available. And while you can create ‘targeting’ groups within lists based on contact fields (equivalent to segments), it’s way too complicated to access them. |
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Registration Forms/ Opt-in & Opt-out- Process |
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There are options to create subscription forms (where you can enable double opt-in), invitation/event registration forms, and surveys, which are all customized in the visual editor. You can also have forms displayed as a standalone page, embed them on your site, or have them appear as a pop-up. While fields can be added and customized, only a handful come as standard. |
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Deliverability |
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Unfortunately Mailify didn’t do so great in our deliverability tests. With an average deliverability of 71%, they seem to have issues getting through to Outlook mailboxes. |
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Reports and Analysis |
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You have your standard reporting available, plus more advanced reports like geotracking, heatmaps, reading time, devices used and email clients. However we found there was a bit of a lag with opens and clicks data getting updated. While integration with Google Analytics is available, there’s no social media, conversion or ecommerce tracking. |
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Languages |
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Mailify is available in 5 languages, although confusingly, the French version is only available as a separate tool (Sarbacane). |
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Further Features |
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Spam- and Design-Testing |
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Spam testing is available (using Spam Assassin), however design testing isn’t. |
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Bounce Management |
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Bounced email addresses can be manually added to the bounce list, and hard bounces are also automatically added by Mailify upon each campaign send. |
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Blacklist |
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Import and export both available. You can create multiple blacklists to exclude from campaigns |
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Storage available for data and images |
Unlimited |
There doesn’t seem to be an overall limit for storage, but per campaign, a 5mb limit for images applies. |
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Pro Features |
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Authentication |
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SPF and DKIM are supported. |
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Own Domain |
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This is possible. You can also order a domain name through Mailify directly. |
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Different levels of account access |
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This is available, but you need to use ‘user credits’. You can set different levels of access, enable/disable campaign sending, and also set maximum credits for email/SMS. |
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Integrations |
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To Google Analytics, Magento, WordPress and PrestaShop. There are also APIs and webhooks enabling you to connect to your own systems. |
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Landing Page Editor |
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You can create ‘landing pages’, with options for responsive or mobile-only pages. Something slightly confusing – you can’t add forms to these. Instead, you’d need to create a form and select the ‘dedicated page’ option, which isn’t as flexible in layout. |
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Support |
3/5 |
Their knowledge base is adequate, but it’s missing a lot of internal links. Much of the content and videos also seem to relate to the older version of the tool, so it’s in need of an update. Email support is available, and responses usually come back within a few hours. Phone support is available but live chat isn’t. |
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Overall rating |
3.4/5 |
Mailify offers a lot of features to delight marketers, including some slick templates, an easy-to-use editor, and useful analytics. However, list management and marketing automation options are still a little basic. |
Conclusion
On paper, Mailify looks like a complete email marketing solution, with features that cater to many digital marketing needs – marketing automation, landing pages, forms, reporting, and even SMS. Packaged in a brand-new, modern interface, it’s easy to be dazzled at first sight.
And we do have to say – in some areas, it really does impress. Their stunning template range alone is enough to wow most users, as is their super flexible and easy-to-use editor. They also offer some quite advanced reporting, such as data on devices and reading times, which can provide marketers with some really useful insights.
However, it’s important to be aware that other features lack the sophistication of other more well-known tools. Their automation, for example, comprises just a handful of autoresponders. And they should really simplify the process of setting up segments (‘targeted groups’) to make them easier to use. In fact, most of our other reviewed tools do a much better job here.
Their method of pricing is also a little different to other newsletter providers, making it hard for us to draw a direct comparison. However if you’re sending fewer than 10,000 emails per month, Mailify is quite pricey in relation to other providers. We’re not really sure how they can justify this, especially when more powerful tools like GetResponse and MailerLite are similarly priced.
As it is, we see it as more of tool for running nicely-designed email campaigns and promotions, rather than a true marketing automation platform. It currently lacks the smarts for enabling deeply personalized, one-on-one communications – but with its recent updates, it’s definitely taking a step in the right direction.
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About Inka Wibowo
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11 Mar 2019 - Updates for new features
