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- Email has been around since the advent of the internet, but newsletters are enjoying renewed popularity in recent years.
- Users check their email more than a dozen times a day, and the service offers a direct line of communication between sender and recipient, cutting out unpredictable algorithms.
- Not all newsletters are the same. Business Insider split the platforms into five categories – marketing, sales, retail, editorial, and creative – and chose the best product in each section.
- Read on for a break down of SendinBlue, GetResponse, Drip, Substack, and ConvertKit.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Since its inception more than two decades ago, email has remained a fixture of the online landscape.
Rather than decline into slow obsolescence over time, email has enjoyed a banner year in 2020. As companies and individuals grow increasingly wary of social media algorithms, the original electronic communication has come into a new vogue.
In recent years, technology has created entirely new email capabilities. Advanced automation allows email services to send tailored messaging based on readers’ behaviour. Intuitive design lets non-coders craft gorgeous, responsive missives. Sophisticated analytics help users understand what’s working and what needs adjustment.
Indeed, email is direct, inexpensive, and gets checked more than a dozen times a day. It’s no wonder, then, that its competitive landscape is more crowded than ever.
To help cut through the noise, Business Insider has compiled a list of the best email newsletter platforms based on testing, customer reviews, price, and available features. The results were broken into five categories: marketing, sales, retail, editorial, and creative.
Marketing
SendinBlue
Company: SendinBlue
Launched: 2012
Pricing: Free; Lite, $25/month; Premium, $65/month; Enterprise, custom
Why it’s the best: The email-marketing universe is packed with competition, which makes choosing the best platform into a calculus of compromise: Who offers the best product for the least money in the most accessible format? The answer: SendinBlue.
The Paris-based company provides every feature you’d expect from a marketing newsletter, including personalized design options, templates, customizable calls-to-action, and more. SendinBlue also boasts a robust free plan with automation that growth-oriented teams will love, as well as live customer support and detailed analytics.
Sales
GetResponse
Company: GetResponse
Launched: 1998
Pricing: Basic, $15/month; Plus, $49/month; Professional, $99/month
Why it’s the best: GetResponse was built to get results. The email platform boasts Conversion Funnel Software that is designed to do the heavy lifting of turning curious subscribers into serious customers.
The platform also offers a landing page editor and the ability to create webinars, as well as elegant automation and free access to 1,000 iStock photos. The site’s intuitive design makes it accessible for beginners and professionals, meaning that businesses of all sizes can take advantage of its customer-generation tools.
Retail
Drip
Company: Drip
Launched: 2013
Pricing: Based on number of email recipients; $19/month minimum
Why it’s the best: Drip was designed to offer smart automation for the retail world. In other words, when a Drip user sends out a marketing blast, the newsletter software provides different responses to customers based on their behavior, and these responses are created specifically for retail. Many newsletter services offer customer automation, but no one does it like Drip.
Its niche functionality, combined with its easy-to-use interface and integration with other software, makes it the clear choice for ecommerce enterprises.
Editorial
Substack
Company: Substack
Launched: 2017
Pricing: Free to use; 10% service charge levied on monetized accounts
Why it’s the best: Substack is far from the first editorially aimed newsletter; it follows in the footsteps of TinyLetter and other pioneers. Its genius, though, lies in its business model and simplicity.
Unlike other newsletter services, Substack asks readers to pay, rather than charging the sender, which effectively monetizes the output of individual writers. (Charging your readers is optional.) Combined with the site’s minimalist user interface, Substack’s so-obvious-no-one-else-thought-of-it breakthrough has helped the startup become one of the hottest media companies of the year.
Creative
ConvertKit
Company: ConvertKit
Launched: 2013
Pricing: Free; Complete, $29/month
Why it’s the best: ConvertKit is extremely easy to use, a reality that alone makes it a valuable tool for creators who might lack technical expertise. It also offers landing pages, which means users can direct their audience to a page hosted by ConvertKit rather than having to build a website.
Its features were designed with bloggers, YouTubers, and other creative entrepreneurs in mind, so ConvertKit is the clear choice for passion-economy players looking to boost their reach through email.
