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Two and a half years in the past, I stop my tech job in San Francisco to start out a media firm. One of many core merchandise of that media firm was beginning a e-newsletter.
I had a imaginative and prescient for what I wished my e-newsletter to be — a digital journal.
From textual content, photographs, hyperlinks, interactive polls, GIFs, and extra — I wished to have a novel e-newsletter that folks had been excited to open and browse.
Impressed by another e-newsletter corporations, like The Hustle (that offered to HubSpot for $27 Million), I drained to seek out the very best e-newsletter platforms that might allow me to do every little thing I wished (from a function perspective).
I rapidly got here to appreciate that understanding what e-newsletter platform to make use of will be difficult. And most newsletters with tens of millions of subscribers truly use a customized tech stack that they create in-house.
These customized options permit them to scale and monitor all of their e-newsletter metrics.
However you don’t want a elaborate tech stack to get began. In reality, a number of the greatest e-newsletter platforms I listed beneath are utilized by newsletters with lots of of hundreds of subscribers.
On this article, I plan on supplying you with an inventory of the very best electronic mail e-newsletter software program presently in the marketplace. I am writing this text from the angle of how I might give a suggestion to my greatest good friend. In order for you the TL;DR of my prime picks, right here they’re:
Scroll beneath to see my private opinion on each (and the platform I selected for my very own e-newsletter).
What’s e-newsletter service?
A e-newsletter service is a SaaS (software program as a service) resolution that permits you to begin and develop an electronic mail e-newsletter.
They are saying one of the best ways to make your self algorithm proof is to start a newsletter. It’s essential to personal your individual listing that you could faucet into at any second.
For instance, it’s rather more invaluable to have an electronic mail listing of 10,000 subscribers than it’s to have 10,000 Twitter followers or YouTube subscribers.
The purpose of a e-newsletter service is to permit creators to seize emails, whether or not it’s from social media or from their web site, and allow them to talk instantly with their viewers by means of the medium of electronic mail.
Nonetheless, not each e-newsletter service is created equal.
How to decide on the very best e-newsletter platform
Discovering the precise electronic mail e-newsletter platform is essential. And I wrote this text in a manner that may actually enable you uncover the platform that’s best for you.
Most weblog posts on this matter are both created by the corporate that created the e-newsletter platform, or by media web sites making an attempt to maximise their affiliate income.
On the time of penning this, there are not any affiliate hyperlinks wherever on this article.
It’s a pure and trustworthy overview of what I consider to be the very best platforms for launching a e-newsletter.
Right here’s are some questions you must ask when in search of in a e-newsletter platform:
- What number of subscribers can you’ve gotten on a free plan?
- How simple is it to write down and design a e-newsletter?
- How a lot room is there for development?
- How a lot does it value as your e-newsletter grows?
- Does it have all of the options you need to your e-newsletter expertise?
- Is there an intuitive dashboard for monitoring your analytics?
- How onerous or simple is it emigrate off of?
- Are there correct spam filters in place to ensure there’s profitable electronic mail deliverability?
It’s plenty of inquiries to ask. However I attempted to be sure that the platforms chosen on this listing (so as) serve the precise responses to those questions.
Okay, sufficient of me rambling, let’s get into the listing.
10 greatest e-newsletter platforms and software program in 2024
Listed below are my prime picks for the very best e-newsletter platforms:
Let’s see which one is best for you.
1. beehiiv
beehiiv is an all-in-one e-newsletter platform designed for creators who’re critical about development. The cool factor about beehiiv is that the founders of the software had been on the expansion staff on the Morning Brew — a preferred enterprise e-newsletter with tens of millions of subscribers.
beehiiv is free (as much as 2,500 subscribers) and makes it simple to design, ship, and scale your e-newsletter. They’ve a clear and minimal editor that makes it simple to craft emails, together with instruments that will help you monitor efficiency and subscriber development.
On their greater tier plans, you may get entry to a referral program (that permits you to incentivize your readers to ask their buddies) and paid subscriptions. These are nice options that you simply don’t actually see in plenty of different e-newsletter platforms.
In reality, we love beehiiv a lot that we use it for my own newsletter!
In addition they have a beautiful SaaS website not like most software program corporations on the market.
beehiv pricing
Let’s discuss worth.
beehiiv has a beneficiant free plan that offers you as much as 2,500 subscribers and limitless electronic mail sends. In addition they have three premium plans. Here’s what beehiiv’s pricing appears to be like like:
- Launch: $0/month, as much as 2,500 subscribers, and consists of most options
- Scale: $39/month, begins at 1,000 subscribers, consists of advert community, polls, customized area, and premium subscriptions
- Max: $99/month, begins at 1,000 subscribers, consists of all Scale plan options, removes branding watermark, features a course, and precedence help
- Enterprise: $?/month, limitless subscribers, customized onboarding, devoted IP deal with, and devoted account supervisor
beehiiv’s pricing is sort of beneficiant for what it’s. You received’t discover plenty of e-newsletter platforms that offer you 2,500 subscribers totally free and 100,000 subscribers for simply $299/month!
beehiiv opinions
- G2: 4.8/5 star score (from +6 user reviews)
If you wish to study extra about what beehiiv has to supply, try my in-depth beehiiv review.
2. MailerLite
MailerLite is an electronic mail advertising software program and e-newsletter platform with over 1.4M customers. At its core, MailerLite is a digital advertising and electronic mail software. Nonetheless, it does have a devoted e-newsletter builder.
There’s a gorgeous drag-and-drop editor, together with all kinds of e-newsletter templates that will help you craft a clear and unique e-newsletter design.
MailerLite is a superb software to start out your e-newsletter as a result of it presents a beneficiant free plan and offers you extra than simply e-newsletter performance. You may as well create a web site, add join kinds to present web sites, create a weblog, and set up automations to new and present electronic mail subscribers.
In the event you’re a bit extra technical savvy, you may even use MailerLite’s customized HTML electronic mail editor to construct a totally customized e-newsletter design.
MailerLite additionally has nice analytics capabilities. You may view every little thing from the variety of subscribers you’ve gotten, open charges, CTR (click on by means of charges), who unsubscribed, and who marked your emails as spam.
“The pre-built electronic mail blocks are nice and really simple to make use of so I can create stunning visuals for newsletters to present and future dad and mom of scholars of our college.” — Myriam Pagé
MailerLite additionally boasts a 24/7 help service, ensuring that any and your entire questions will be answered at any time of the day.
MailerLite pricing
MailerLite’s pricing varies on the variety of electronic mail subscribers you’ve gotten. Here’s what it appears to be like like for 1,000 subscribers:
You’ll have to regulate the slider on the subscriber rely to get extra correct outcomes. However here’s what the pricing would come out to if we modeled the identical variety of subscribers listed in beehiiv’s pricing:
- Free: $0/month, as much as 1,000 subscribers, and consists of drag-and-drop editor
- Rising Enterprise: $9/month (billed yearly), begins at 1,000 subscribers, and promote digital merchandise
- Advance: $19/month (billed yearly), begins at 1,000 subscribers, HTML editor, and automation options
As you may see, the worth is barely higher than beehiiv. Nonetheless, primarily based on the options and the help that comes with MailerLite, it’s listed because the second greatest e-newsletter platform on our listing. It’s nonetheless rather a lot cheaper than a number of the different e-newsletter software program on the market.
MailerLite opinions
- G2: 4.7/5 star score (+915 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.8/5 star score (+1,992 reviews)
3. Kit
Package, previously often called ConvertKit, is a well-liked electronic mail and e-newsletter platform for creators. Package is utilized by a variety of individuals, together with unbiased writers, musicians, podcasters, on-line artists, coaches, and bloggers.
They, like Substack, present a paid e-newsletter perform that permits you to cost customers for a premium e-newsletter. Package additionally presents quite a lot of electronic mail designs and enterprise options, together with automation instruments, gross sales funnels, pop-ups, and landing pages to say a couple of.
Similar to beehiiv, Package additionally has a referral program — making it simple to incentivize your subscribers that will help you develop.
Package pricing
In comparison with the opposite e-newsletter platforms on our listing, Package is a bit on the pricier aspect. Listed below are their pricing plans:
Much like MailerLite, Package pricing varies on the variety of subscribers you need on every plan. They’ve a slider you should utilize to match plans for particular person subscriber counts. Evaluating pricing to beehiiv (first on our listing), that is what it could appear to be:
- E-newsletter: $0/month, as much as 10,000 subscribers, limitless e-newsletter sending and kinds
- Creator: $9/month, begins at 300 subscribers, take away branding and embrace polls
- Creator Professional: $50/month, begins at 1,000 subscribers, consists of referral program
When you have beneath 100,000 subscribers, Package recommends that you simply use their Creator plan. In the event you like what Package has to supply, however you are not fully offered but, you may try another Kit alternatives.
4. Flodesk
Flodesk is a contemporary e-newsletter platform designed for manufacturers which can be targeted on promoting. What makes Flodesk a bit totally different from different electronic mail companies is that it targeted on stunning design. Their motto is “Today’s prime manufacturers have the very best design. Now, so do you,” so it goes to point out what their platform stands for.
Flodesk may also seamlessly combine with platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce, making lead era and buyer engagement extra streamlined. Past its eye-pleasing electronic mail templates, it is famend for its ease of use and highly effective instruments corresponding to viewers segmentation and anayltics. Whether or not you are an ecommerce veteran or a beginner, its user-friendly interface makes it simple to rapidly create and ship out efficient campaigns.
Utilizing Zapier, you may as well make Flodesk appropriate with various plugins to reinforce its performance — making it a complete software for manufacturers trying to ship clear and trendy electronic mail advertising campaigns.
Flodesk pricing
Flodesk has an attention-grabbing worth plan that’s not frequent amongst plenty of different email marketing tools, and I imply that in a great way.
Right here’s what the pricing appears to be like like when you join a month-to-month plan:
Flodesk’s pricing fashions work primarily based on what electronic mail advertising options you want. For instance, when you simply need electronic mail advertising options, plans begin at $38/month. However if you wish to create gross sales pages and promote merchandise, you’ll must improve. Try Flodesk’s pricing plans:
- Free: $0/month for limitless subscribers (restricted electronic mail sends)
- Electronic mail: $38/month for limitless electronic mail advertising options
- Electronic mail + Checkout: $64/month for limitless gross sales pages and ecommerce options
For what you get, these costs are unmatched. And when you resolve to pay yearly upfront, you may count on 1 month of free service.
5. Ghost
Initially created as a WordPress CMS (content management system) various for blogs, Ghost has developed into a whole content material and e-newsletter platform for creators.
With the discharge of Ghost 5.0, Ghost is now a platform for unbiased content material creators. Moreover beehiiv, that is most likely probably the most promising e-newsletter platforms on my listing.
Ghost is a strong app for media creators, permitting them to publish, share, and develop their content material enterprise. The platform is extraordinarily trendy, provides you a full web site, CMS, e-newsletter platform, and the flexibility to launch paid subscriptions.
Ghost has been round since 2013, however their new refresh that’s devoted to e-newsletter development is sort of intriguing (in a great way).
In the event you don’t have already got a web site, and you intend on making a weblog, Ghost is a platform you severely need to look into. Their CMS is extraordinarily light-weight and quick, and their e-newsletter platform appears to be like promising.
In addition they have a minimal and clean design like beehiiv and make it simple to trace your entire content material metrics and analytics. You may as well leverage paid subscriptions as an choice to monetize your e-newsletter content material.
Ghost pricing
Ghost has a free trial, however you’re going to must pay to make use of it for the long-term. Their pricing relies on two variables: variety of subscribers and desired function set.
Here’s what their basic pricing appears to be like like:
Pricing for Ghost is barely costlier than beehiiv or MailerLite, but it surely’s since you’re additionally getting a full CMS that can be utilized to publish weblog posts in your web site.
When you have over 1,000 subscribers you’ll have to make use of both the Creator, Staff, or Marketing strategy — the Starter plan is restricted to simply 1,000 subscribers.
For many creator’s making a e-newsletter, you’ll most likely need to use the “Creator” plan. Right here’s what the Creator plan will appear to be for various subscriber counts:
- Starter: $11/month for as much as 5,000 subscribers
- Creator: $31/month beginning at 1,000 subscribers
- Staff: $63/month beginning at 1,000 subscribers
- Enterprise: $249/month beginning at 10,000 subscribers
For what you get, this pricing could be very affordable. And it scales primarily based on the variety of subscribers you want. Consider every plan as a the function set you get (however the worth goes up with the variety of members/subscribers you’ve gotten.
Ghost is nice, particularly as a CMS (one in every of my shopper’s use them). However when you simply want e-newsletter performance, you’ll most likely need to go along with one of many e-newsletter platforms talked about earlier.
6. Substack
If something about journalism and paid newsletters, you’ve most likely heard of Substack. Substack has grown in recognition previously few years. It’s a platform that makes it tremendous simple to start out a e-newsletter and begin getting paid (when you resolve to supply a premium subscription).
Each beehiiv and MailerLite additionally supply paid subscription choices, nevertheless what makes Substack totally different is that it’s fully free to make use of.
The one catch is that when you do have a paid subscription choice, Substack will take a 10% income reduce from what you make. When you have plenty of subscribers, this may occasionally truly find yourself costing you extra in comparison with another Substack alternatives like beehiiv.
Regardless, Substack is a superb e-newsletter platform when you simply need to get began and get within the behavior of writing to an viewers. It’s very easy to seek for different Substack publications, so there’s an opportunity that folks might be able to uncover your e-newsletter straight by means of Substack’s platform.
Nonetheless, if you wish to have your individual devoted web site with a subscribe kind, newsletter branding, and need to leverage options like a referral program, you must most likely look into different e-newsletter platforms.
There’s a trend in profitable Substack newsletters migrating off the platform to instruments like beehiiv and MailerLite to avoid income charges and extra management over their subscriber listing.
7. Mailmodo
Mailmodo is a reasonably new electronic mail advertising platform that permits you to create interactive emails that may make you severely stand out from different newsletters.
This software is a little more technical than those we’ve beforehand talked about, nevertheless it’s a useful gizmo if you wish to create completely customized electronic mail experiences to your subscribers.
Backed by Y Combinator, the celebrated Silicon Valley enterprise agency, Mailmodo provides you a full WYSIWYG fashion editor that allows you to construct AMP and HTML electronic mail templates.
There are additionally tons of different electronic mail advertising marketing campaign options like automations, conversion monitoring, surveys and quizzes you should utilize your emails, and different options that assist gamify your e-newsletter.
This actually is a superb software when you’re aware of no-code platforms and need to create a very customized consumer expertise to your e-newsletter.
Simply observe that there could also be a slight studying curve as a result of it’s a pretty highly effective software. Organising your e-newsletter is probably not as intuitive as the opposite electronic mail e-newsletter instruments talked about on this listing. However, Mailmodo is extraordinarily feature-rich and there’s no different e-newsletter platform prefer it on this listing.
Mailmodo pricing
Mailmodo’s pricing is sort of beneficiant for all of the options it consists of. Listed below are their pricing plans:
Mailmodo follows the same SaaS pricing models as beehiiv, MailerLite, and Package. Their pricing will increase with the variety of subscribers you’ve gotten. Listed below are their plans:
- Lite: $39/month (billed yearly), as much as 2,500 subscribers with commonplace electronic mail sending options
- Professional: $79/month (billed yearly), begins at 2,500 subscribers with as much as three staff members
- Max: $159/month (billed yearly), begins at 2,500 subscribers with as much as 5 staff members
In addition they have an enterprise choice when you want a customized plan.
8. AWeber
AWeber is an electronic mail advertising software that has been round for a while now. It has established itself as a dependable platform to create and ship emails.
AWeber provides you the performance of a e-newsletter platform, together with options like a landing page builder and electronic mail automation.
You may create workflows for brand spanking new subscribers and ship them several types of newsletters to get them aware of a few of your greatest work. AWeber additionally has subscriber kinds. So if you have already got a web site, you may simply ship subscribers out of your web site straight to your AWeber listing.
There’s additionally an ecommerce performance, so you may promote digital services and products by means of transactional emails. AWeber additionally has a terrific email marketing blog when you’re concerned with studying extra about electronic mail advertising.
AWeber pricing
AWeber’s pricing construction is easy like different platforms on this listing. You may get began with AWeber totally free, and solely pay while you exceed 500 subscribers in your listing.
Right here is how AWeber’s pricing works:
Much like MailerLite and Package, AWeber’s pricing will increase as you add on extra subscribers to your electronic mail listing.
Here’s what the pricing appears to be like like for various subscriber tiers:
- Free: $0/month, as much as 500 subscribers, and consists of most options
- Lite: $15/month, begins at 500 subscribers, removes AWeber branding, and consists of automations
- Plus: $30/month, begins at 500 subscribers and better sending quantity
- Limitless: $899/month, as much as 150,000 subscribers
As you may see, a Plus plan can vary from $30-$1,050 a month relying on what number of subscribers you’ve gotten.
9. Campaign Monitor
Much like AWeber, Marketing campaign Monitor is an email marketing service that permits you to gather electronic mail addresses and ship newsletters.
This software is nice for small companies that already promote services and products, however want to create content material by way of a e-newsletter.
Marketing campaign Monitor has a simple to make use of drag-and-drop electronic mail builder, together with totally different electronic mail templates to customise your e-newsletter. You may as well use automation workflows to ship totally different newsletters to totally different units of subscribers.
Marketing campaign Monitor additionally has instruments like SMS advertising and ecommerce, which is why it’s most likely greatest to make use of this software as your e-newsletter platform provided that you have already got an present enterprise.
In the event you simply plan on making a e-newsletter enterprise, you’re higher off utilizing beehiiv, MailerLite, Substack, or Revue.
Marketing campaign Monitor pricing
Much like many of the electronic mail marketing-first platforms we’ve gone over, Marketing campaign Monitor’s pricing varies primarily based on the variety of electronic mail subscribers you’ve gotten.
There’s a free trial, however you’re going to must pay no matter what plan you select. Listed below are Marketing campaign Monitor’s pricing tiers:
Every plan proven solely provides you as much as 500 subscribers. The plan tiers are primarily based on the varieties of options you need. To be trustworthy, their Primary plan will provide you with every little thing that you must begin a e-newsletter.
In the event you resolve to simply use the Primary plan, here’s what the pricing would appear to be for various subscriber tiers:
- Lite: $12/month at 500 subscribers
- Necessities: $29/month begins at 500 subscribers with limitless electronic mail sends
- Premier: $159/month begins at 500 subscribers with superior hyperlink monitoring options
As you may see, pricing can get hefty. However it is because there are plenty of options included within the platform. When you have a rising small enterprise, this function set will make sense. Nonetheless, when you’re a newbie simply beginning a e-newsletter from zero subscribers, chances are you’ll need to think about a number of the different e-newsletter platforms talked about earlier.
10. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is arguably the most well-liked electronic mail advertising and e-newsletter platform. At its core, Mailchimp is a advertising CRM that’s targeted on electronic mail. It may be used for all sorts of electronic mail campaigns, e-newsletter’s included.
Mailchimp is sort of overkill when you simply need to launch a e-newsletter. However, due to its recognition, there are many sources and integrations obtainable to make it a simple platform to make use of if you have already got a web site.
Much like Marketing campaign Monitor, Mailchimp is an efficient e-newsletter platform if what you are promoting is greater than only a e-newsletter. In the event you already promote totally different services or products, Mailchimp generally is a good choice to make use of as your electronic mail advertising platform.
It’s because you’ll be capable of automate totally different elements of your electronic mail advertising technique outdoors of only a e-newsletter. However you’ll additionally be capable of create a e-newsletter on prime of all the opposite electronic mail advertising automation stuff — hope that is smart.
It kills two birds with one stone when you plan on using electronic mail advertising for greater than only a content-driven e-newsletter.
Mailchimp’s pricing
Mailchimp has modified their pricing plenty of the years. On the time of penning this, you can begin utilizing the platform totally free (as much as 500 subscribers). And their Customary plan, no matter what number of subscribers you’ve gotten, is free for the primary month.
Here’s what Mailchimp’s pricing appears to be like like for every plan:
For some cause, Mailchimp’s pricing web page reads from proper to left — not frequent in different e-newsletter platform pricing fashions.
Regardless, their free plan provides you many of the options that you must launch a e-newsletter. Paying additional will enable you take away Mailchimp branding and get entry to different options like A/B testing topic traces, behavioral focusing on, customized templates, and superior listing segmentation.
Assuming you go along with their hottest “Customary” plan, here’s what the pricing would appear to be for various subscriber counts:
- Free: $0/month as much as 500 subscribers (restricted electronic mail advertising options)
- Necessities: $13/month beginning at 500 subscribers
- Customary: $20/month beginning at 500 subscribers
- Premium: $350/month beginning at 10,000 subscribers
Mailchimp’s pricing is a typical amongst most electronic mail advertising platforms. Much like a number of the different platforms on this listing, I solely advocate Mailchimp if you’re both simply beginning a e-newsletter as a take a look at or if you wish to leverage electronic mail advertising for different elements of what you are promoting.
For instance, our major product providing is our e-newsletter. We initially began our e-newsletter with Mailchimp to validate it. As soon as our e-newsletter began rising, we determined to change to a extra newsletter-first platform like beehiiv.
In the event you do need to use Mailchimp due to its options, however the pricing is a bit an excessive amount of, you also needs to try GetResponse or Constant Contact — they’re nice Mailchimp options.
Don’t get me flawed, Mailchimp is an incredible platform for electronic mail advertising (probably the greatest). Nevertheless it does embrace plenty of options that you could be not want when you simply need to launch a e-newsletter.
What’s the greatest electronic mail e-newsletter platform proper now?
Out of all of the platforms in the marketplace right this moment, the very best electronic mail e-newsletter platforms proper now (for my part) must be beehiiv, Ghost, or MailerLite.
beehiiv is the platform I take advantage of for my newsletter and I completely adore it. And no, they didn’t pay me to say that. I truly found them earlier this 12 months after I realized that my favourite finance e-newsletter was utilizing them.
beehiiv is such a user-friendly and intuitive platform — it blew me away after I began utilizing it. However the principle factor that offered me was its consideration to development. The founders actually grew one of many largest enterprise newsletters on the earth, and noticed how tough and costly it was to function a e-newsletter that was constructed by way of customized options.
Most giant newsletters value hundreds of {dollars} a month simply to maintain up and operating. And the truth that beehiiv lets you’ve gotten 100,000 subscribers for simply $100 a month is extraordinary amongst another e-newsletter platform.
A really shut second to beehiiv must be Ghost. This platform has developed so nicely through the years, and to now see the staff constructing it with a deal with newsletters is sort of refreshing.
Ghost is an incredible platform for newsletters and for web sites which have a weblog. To be trustworthy, I most likely would use Ghost if I didn’t construct my web site with Webflow. Webflow already has an unimaginable CMS and it’s what I take advantage of for my weblog posts (together with this one). But when I needed to begin throughout, and construct a media web site from scratch, there’s a great likelihood I might choose Ghost to deal with all of my content material.
Lastly, I might advocate MailerLite. In the event you don’t want the CMS and weblog performance that Ghost has, MailerLite might be the very best various to beehiiv for the time being. Their free plan is beneficiant and so they supply plenty of options that beehiiv presently doesn’t have. MailerLite can also be a viable various to Ghost as a result of it truly has a free plan.
I truly found MailerLite after I already began rising on beehiiv, however there might have been an opportunity that I might have gone with MailerLite if I had uncover it first.
I truly use MailerLite for a unique web site that I run and I adore it. It’s very onerous to choose between beehiiv and MailerLite as a newsletter-only platform. However due to my expertise with beehiiv, and the route it’s headed, I can’t advocate it sufficient as the principle e-newsletter platform of alternative.
