Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. For more information, read our full affiliate disclosure statement here.

Email marketing is a crucial component of your marketing strategy. Because of its high ROI, email stands out among the rest of the marketing channels.

The only problem? How do you choose an email marketing service? Choosing the right tool for the job depends entirely on your requirements.

In this post, I’ll compare and share some recommendations for the best email services.

Let’s get straight to the point:

1. Active Campaign

ActivCampaign is the provider of the most affordable and highly functional email marketing service.

In addition to email marketing, this tool has a wide range of features. There are powerful visual tools for automating tasks – it’s one of the best automation builders I’ve found.

With regard to the core functionality of email, you have all the options you need. A drag & drop editor lets you design your own email templates from a choice of templates.

If you would like to send one-time campaign emails, timed campaign emails, automated campaign emails, RSS-based emails, A / B testing, or auto-responders, you have several options available.

Contact management is a strong suit of Active Campaign. Filtration options are plentiful, as is a detailed history of the interactions you’ve had with your contacts – this is integrated with the site and event tracking functions. The feature includes the ability to clean lists via automated sequences as well.

A/B testing and dynamic content can also be used to segment your email list. Only these two features can increase your opens, clicks, and conversions.

ActiveCampaign’s all-around email marketing service balances great functionality, price, and performance.

ActiveCampaign’s technology allows small businesses and content creators to take advantage of industry-leading marketing automation while providing enterprise-level capabilities for larger businesses.

There are also features like a team account, live chat, on-site messaging, custom domains, CRM and sales automation, and more.

Feature highlights:

• A powerful marketing automation tool – ActiveCampaign’s visual automation builder is among the most robust in the industry.

• You will save time & effort by using the large library of automation sequences instead of creating them from scratch. You can edit pre-prepared sequences instantly once you import them.

• Automate your email marketing by tracking where your visitor’s click and the events they trigger from your website.

• A live chat feature that integrates easily with your automation sequences – Add live chat to your website in minutes. Live chat messages can be replied to using mobile apps.

Pricing:

They offer a lite plan that costs $9/month (paid yearly) until the end of the year, which includes all the most important automation features. Get SMS marketing, Site Messaging, custom domains, CRM, and more with an upgraded plan.

2. ConvertKit

With a strong focus on content creators and bloggers, ConvertKit is an email marketing service.

The vast majority of services focus on pleasing everyone. This is not the case with ConvertKit. Rather than targeting a general audience, they target bloggers and content developers.

As a result, an incredibly simple tool is produced. With the addition of opt-in forms and landing pages, you’ll get the all-important features of visual automation. While it’s not the best choice to integrate with your email marketing, it can be a nice option to have.

Easily view your form performance and your email list growth through simple reporting, and tag and segment your list with ease.

The visual automation builder allows you to pull in email sequences. As well as forms, you can use them. Typically, you’d need to switch between these options in an email marketing service, but you can edit your automation directly from both options.

ConvertKit has some limitations because of its simplicity. A visual email builder is not available, and filtering your subscribers is not as easy as with other services.

ConvertKit is a powerful email automation tool if you’re new to email marketing and want simplicity without sacrificing the power of automation.

Feature highlights:

• It is extremely easy to start an email list using its simple user interface without having to learn anything new.

• It’s easy-to-use and provides powerful visual automation. As you can see, the email automation builder offers quite a bit of functionality.

• You can create different lead magnets for different forms or landing pages, making it ideal for those who have multiple lead magnets.

• Create opt-in forms and landing pages without using any additional tools – Create opt-in forms and landing pages without having to install any additional software.

Pricing:

Regardless of the number of subscribers, there is a free plan. Visual automation and email sequences are unavailable. Paying customers can send unlimited emails and have up to 1,000 subscribers for just $29 per month.

3. Drip

Although Drop primarily positions itself as an e-commerce CRM, it is probably one of my favourite email marketing services all around.

Their visual automation builder allows you to create drip email campaigns, individual broadcasts, and more. Within automation, it is particularly valuable to be able to split tests.

Use their visual email builder for email campaigns that are branded to get out of the promotions tab.

Reports are available in plenty. There are even e-commerce-specific reports for those of you who have online stores.

The Drip service is worth a try even if your site isn’t e-commerce. Email marketing with this platform is one of my favourites.

Feature highlights:

• With Drip’s visual automation builder, you can build strong email automation that includes split testing.

• More sites for less – If you have more than one site, Drip becomes more affordable. To use your main account on multiple sites, you simply need to add a second user account.

• Features specifically tailored to ecommerce sites – Drip’s feature set is unique and offers e-commerce-specific reports.

• A full history of your subscribers’ visits to your website – Like some other services on this list, you can use this information to automate your email campaigns.

Pricing:

$19 per month gets you 500 subscribers and unlimited email sending.

4. GetResponse

One of the oldest email marketing software platforms is GetResponse.

The service has stepped up its game by adding a slew of new features since they lost ground to other email marketing services.

Despite their strong email marketing product, integrated CRM, webinars, landing pages, visual marketing automation, and other new features have helped GetResponse become almost an all-in-one platform.

There are many email templates available, categorized by industry. Newsletters can also be split tested. Drag-and-drop functionality is built into the visual email builder, and spam scoring is integrated.

Using contact management, you can filter, keep lists hygienic, and generate reports easily. Like ActiveCampaign, it comes with automation templates, allowing it to work the same way as ActiveCampaign’s visual automation builder.

Conversion funnels were the feature that most impressed me out of all GetResponse offers. The platform offers all the tools you need to create a complete sales funnel, along with its other features.

Analyses & reporting are incredibly convenient with this tool, as you can do them within one application.

Feature highlights:

• Automation of email marketing that’s easy to use – The visual automation comes with templates that you can use to start.

• You can create complete sales funnels in minutes with Autofunnel.

• Create landing pages and forms easily – A lot of email marketing tools offer landing page builders, but they are usually rather limited. GetResponse doesn’t do this.

• Integrated store building tools – GetResponse allows you to create an e-commerce store for digital products. Alternatively, e-commerce platforms and payment gateways can be integrated.

Pricing:

Access to basic features starts at $15/month. More features are available with higher plans. Some automation features are not available until the higher plans. A major complaint about the service is its confusing pricing structure. There is a sense of confusion in this message. You have to upgrade to a higher plan to get a few basic automation features like segmentation, and on-site tracking.

5. Sendinblue

In addition to delivering incredible value, Sendinblue provides unparalleled functionality without sacrificing performance.

The platform offers core features like drag & drop email production, feature-rich marketing automation, and specialised features including spam testing & A/B split testing.

Furthermore, SendinBlue’s services are priced according to the number of emails you send, not your subscriber count. SendinBlue can save you a lot of money if you find yourself sending emails periodically.

Unless you’re subscribed to either the Premium or Enterprise plans, automation is capped at 2,000 contacts.

Considering Sendinblue’s low price point, their feature set is extremely impressive. Moreover, the service has an excellent user interface that makes using it enjoyable.

Feature highlights:

• I am amazed at how powerful automation can be at such an affordable price point.

• Using Sendinblue, you can run all of your transactional emails on your website. Plans with higher prices support transactional SMS messages as well.

• You can build landing pages and run Facebook ads with higher plans.

• Live chat is integrated into higher plans. With this integration, you don’t have to add another tool to your marketing stack, and it can be integrated with your email automation.

Pricing:

Free emails with limited features for up to 300 per day. To unlock more features, choose the Lite plan. With it, you can send 100,000 emails each month. Plans with higher features are available, as well as “Pay as you go” pricing.