Email Newsletter Provider Comparison
Last week, we mentioned some factors to look at when comparing email newsletter providers. So which email providers should you look at, and how do they compare?
Here are just a few of the more popular, reputable email newsletter platforms. Obviously, you’ll still need to take a look and see how well they fit with you and your organization.
(Just looking for a price comparison? Scroll down past all the write-ups below.)
MailChimp
MailChimp has a reputation for being one of the simpler to use services out there. They also have one of the better free accounts. If you have less than 2,000 subscribers, you can send up to 12,000 emails a month for free. Many of our clients here at T&S never pay for MailChimp, and just continue to use their free account.
The company has a light-hearted approach toward business. Their mascot, Freddie, can be seen throughout the backend cracking jokes. While that is a feature you can disable, it shows you their business philosophy, which we can relate to here at T&S.
Constant Contact
Constant Contactis one of the more popular email marketing companies. This is due in no small part to the fact that by default, their logo is displayed in the footer of every email their users send out.
They’ve begun purchasing other companies and offering more than just email marketing services. While some feel this dilutes their primary service, others appreciate the one-stop shop.
They let you try their plan free for 60 days with up to 100 contacts.
AWeber
AWeber is the provider we used before switching over to MailChimp. They always had fantastic customer service, and their capabilities were good as well.
Ultimately, we switched because MailChimp’s had a cleaner, simpler interface. Many of our clients choose to manage their email newsletters themselves, so that was important.
They don’t seem to have a free trial, but do offer up to 500 subscribers and unlimited emails for just $1 for the first month, with a 30-day money back guarantee.
iContact
iContact provides both email marketing and social media marketing. Just like Constant Contact, this can be either an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on your point of view.
iContact does have a 30 day free trial. They claim it has no strings attached. I’m not sure if that means no limitations for that 30 days or not.
Emma
Emma is one of the smaller companies that made our list. They place an emphasis on clean, simple, and stylish email marketing. Both the front end and the back end of their website reflect that. They offer a free 30 day trial account.
Mad Mimi
Mad Mimi is another smaller provider. One of our clients speaks very highly of the company, and has had great experiences with their customer service.
Their free plan includes up to 2,500 contacts and you can send 2,500 emails. Since that’s slightly more than MailChimp allows, they’ve likely attracted some of the attention simply through the free plan.
Price Comparison
Here’s a break-down of some popular email services. I’ve simplified it a bit so you can actually compare apples to apples.
| Subscribers | MailChimp | Constant Contact | AWeber | iContact | Emma | Mad Mimi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $10.00 | $15.00 | $19.00 | $14.00 | na | $10.00 |
| 1000 | $15.00 | $30.00 | $29.00 | $19.00 | $30.00 | $12.00 |
| 2500 | $30.00 | $30.00 | $29.00 | $29.00 | $45.00 | $16.00 |
| 5000 | $50.00 | $50.00 | $49.00 | $47.00 | $70.00 | $27.00 |
| 10000 | $75.00 | $75.00 | $69.00 | $74.00 | $85.00 | $42.00 |
One provider above, iContact, actually offers a plan for just 250 subscribers. All providers also offer plans over 10,000, but most have you contact them for a quote.
Most of these charge monthly subscriptions I prefer to use dangerousmailer.com/success where I only pay for what I actually send.
That’s definitely another option. Personally, I’ve found the interfaces those companies provide to not be as easy to use as some of these options, but that’s definitely a matter of opinion.
Thank you Tim for sharing this helpful email newsletter provider comparison. It helped me boil down the options and understand what is the best option for me.
Happy to help, Joe!
Thanks for the list Tim, another service getting a lot of attention is sendinblue.com for its prices based on number of emails sent per month
Interesting list Tim. Some providers are definitely new to me. I currently use mailchimp but can never get my newsletters to arrive in the google primary tab, whereas I notice aweber more frequently lands there.
Got any ideas about this. It would definitely be interested to hear them!
Thanks, Elle! Glad you found the list useful. As I understand it, the more subscribers that drag your emails manually into the Primary tab in Gmail, the more often it will show up there for others. If you have a team of VIP subscribers set up in MailChimp, you might see if they’re willing to help you with this. You can share MailChimp’s official instructions with them:
I am using free Mailerlite version. It has easy and simple interface + good features such as landing pages, autoresend function and so on. I miss these features in some packages of other newsletter providers. Do you have an opinion about this provider in comparison with the ones listed in the article?
Hi Rikke! I don’t have any experience with MailerLite. Looks like as far as pricing goes, they’re pretty comparable (and even a bit cheaper) than the other ones listed in the article. Naturally, features will vary a bit from provider to provider, so if you like the features MailerLite has, I say stay with them! It’s hard to argue with a free plan that fits your needs. 🙂