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Email marketing software can get quite expensive. And most of us can’t afford to spend money on monthly – or worse, annual – subscriptions, only to realize that we’ve made a mistake.
But how can you know whether you’re getting a good deal or not without trying out the service? And do you really need all the advanced features that come with the more expensive plans?
Luckily, most top email marketing services (EMS) offer free trials and/or plans that you can use to properly test their software before you reach for your credit card. I spent the last few weeks trying out the best email marketing services with free trials so you don’t have to.
Despite its somewhat short free trial period, I found ActiveCampaign is the best EMS to test out. Its simple drag-and-drop editor and advanced automations make are tough to beat. That said, this list is designed to help you find the best EMS based on your unique needs. All listed platforms offer free access in some shape or form, so you can test their features before upgrading to a paid plan.
What We Look For in the Best Email Marketing Services
I spent the past few months testing the top email marketing services with free trials and/or free plans. Some platforms struggled, others did okay, and some stood out for all the right reasons. The final ranking was shaped based on the following criteria:
Free trial/plan. It’s really important that you can properly test a service before you commit to a long-term subscription – email marketing services don’t come cheap. I’ve only included platforms that offer some form of free testing for new users.
Templates and email editor. Marketers often create multiple campaigns a week, so you need a platform that offers a good variety of customizable email templates. Email editors that offer plenty of features and are easy to use earned extra points.
Deliverability. Creating interesting email campaigns is one thing; making sure they end up in your subscribers’ inboxes is a whole different story. All listed options have displayed high deliverability rates.
Segmentation and automation. Advanced email segmentation and automation help personalize your messages and deliver them at the right moment. My top picks excel at both.
Reporting and analytics. There’s no email marketing without stats – you need to know how your campaigns are doing in real time so you can swiftly adjust your strategies when needed. I’ve only included email marketing services that provide useful stats and insights.
ActiveCampaign’s drag-and-drop editor could not be easier to use and you can customize every single element.ActiveCampaign is, hands down, the most feature-packed EMS on the market. It’s also the best choice if you want to set up advanced automations quickly and efficiently.
ActiveCampaign’s free trial1 is relatively short (14 days), but it comes with all of the platform’s main features unlocked. While you might not have the time to test everything thoroughly, you can get a pretty good idea of how everything comes together on a paid plan. The paid plans are reasonably priced, too, so you can comfortably upgrade once the testing period is over.
I recommend upgrading to ActiveCampaign’s Lite plan once your trial’s over, as this plan will allow you to continue utilizing most of the platform’s core email features. If you’ve also created landing pages during the testing period, you might want to look into the Plus plan.
ActiveCampaign’s numerous features mean this platform comes with a bit of a learning curve. But this is definitely worth your time, and should you ever get stuck, there’s a huge knowledge base (and a great support team) at your disposal.
Features
Simple drag-and-drop editor. Just pick one of the 250+ email templates and customize it to fit your brand and message. The predefined blocks can contain text, images, buttons, videos, social links, and even HTML code for those who want to take customization to the next level.
Industry-leading automation. ActiveCampaign offers over 750 automation templates in multiple languages, allowing you to set up all kinds of tasks – welcome emails, reminders, abandoned cart email notifications, follow-up emails, surveys, feedback emails… You name it, ActiveCampaign can automate it.
CRM and social media marketing. ActiveCampaign does email marketing exceptionally well, but it also offers a CRM (customer relationship management) tool, social media marketing tools, and machine learning.
Hundreds of integrations. In just a few clicks, you can quickly integrate with 900+ apps and services.
Brevo’s easy-to-use email editor is available on the free plan
Brevo might not be as feature-packed as ActiveCampaign, but its simple interface and easy-to-use tools make it a perfect choice for new marketers. It helps you craft unique messages, personalize them, and deliver them to your subscribers.
Brevo doesn’t offer a free trial, meaning that quite a few of the platform’s features (such as A/B testing, advanced automation, and landing pages) are locked behind paid plans.
However, Brevo’s free plan is pretty generous1 compared to the relatively limited free options of other top competitors. You can have an unlimited number of subscribers and can send up to 300 emails a day. That translates to 9,000 sends/month, which is much more than the competition offers.
If your list is small, you only want to send a few hundred emails per day, and you won’t miss the advanced features, Brevo’s free option might be the one for you.
Easy to use. With an intuitive interface, plenty of templates, and a simple drag-and-drop editor, anyone can create impactful emails.
Advanced personalization. Aside from the usual personalization tags (like name and location), Brevo also offers conditional content. This allows you to deliver different versions of your email to contacts based on the information you’ve already gathered about them.
Easy reports. Brevo’s reports are very easy to read, offering a clear picture of your emails’ performance at a glance. Users on the Premium plan gain access to more detailed analyses.
SMS marketing. SMS marketing might not be the future, but it’s still used by many marketers. Best of all, it’s actually available on Brevo’s free plan.
AWeber’s email editor includes some 700 email templates
AWeber’s one of the oldest players in the email marketing game, and it continues to deliver top-notch email marketing services. It features hundreds of templates, an easy-to-use email editor, excellent deliverability, and advanced reporting capabilities. AWeber offers a free plan1, but some advanced features (like A/B testing, behavioral automation, and advanced analytics) are only available to paying users.
The free trial option for the paid plan was removed a while back, but you might still be able to test out some of the premium features for free by contacting the helpful support team after signing up.
With AWeber’s free plan,you can have a maximum of 500 subscribers, with the monthly email send limit set at 3,000. You’ll also be able to create an unlimited number of landing pages, video landing pages, and e-commerce pages.
AWeber has a slightly steeper learning curve than other top EMS, so it’s a better choice for marketers with some email marketing experience.
600+ email templates. You can easily customize templates with AWeber’s simple drag-and-drop editor. You can even enter your website’s URL, and AWeber’s AI-powered “Smart Designer” will create a layout close to your brand’s themes.
Near-perfect deliverability rate. AWeber is one of the few platforms that doesn’t outsource the delivery of your emails. If you play by the rules and avoid spammy practices, there’s a high chance your emails will find their way.
Free migration. If you’re already using a different EMS and are managing huge lists, the AWeber team will help you migrate everything free of charge.
Advanced reports. AWeber’s reporting capabilities are excellent on all plans. There are reports based on opens, clicks, and contact locations. You’ll also find detailed graphs that show daily, weekly, and monthly subscriber growth.
Omnisend has thought about it all when it comes to e-commerce. The product picker tools makes adding products to your emails so easy.Omnisend will only work if you already own an e-commerce store and are looking for a way to sell and promote your products via email. Although its core email marketing features get the job done, Omnisend shines the brightest when it’s purposefully used as a revenue-driving tool.
There’s a generous free plan you can use to test the service before upgrading to a paid plan. Although the free plan is limited to 250 contacts and 500 monthly sends, it comes with most of the features available on the Standard plan.
Omnisend is very user-friendly, especially if you’re using it primarily as an advertising tool. That said, it doesn’t offer too much variety in terms of email design options and failed to pass our spam test. Find out how we measure deliverability here.
Features
“Product Picker” tool. Omnisend allows you to pick a product from your web store and automatically insert it into your email design – no need to manually search for the product’s image and description.
Sales-focused metrics. As an e-commerce-focused EMS, Omnisend easily generates reports on your total sales, product analytics, retention analytics, customer life-cycle stages, and more.
Advanced automation. Omnisend offers some 20+ easy-to-use workflow templates that you can customize as you please. It’s worth mentioning that all of the platform’s automation functionality is available on the free plan.
Excellent support. I have a soft spot for services that offer great live chat support. Omnisend’s representatives are friendly, attentive, and always quick to reply.
Mailchimp’s editor – and interface as a whole – looks good and feels intuitiveMailchimp is one of the biggest names in the industry, featuring one of the most accessible and user-friendly email marketing platforms. Although primarily designed for email, it also offers other online services, such as scheduling software, domains, and website building tools.
As a popular EMS, Mailchimp integrates with hundreds of applications, and it shines when you need an easy-to-use, intuitive tool to help you quickly send out a couple of newsletters. The free plan is quite limited but offers enough to give you a little taste of what Mailchimp can do.
Unfortunately, Mailchimp’s core email marketing features – like segmentation, automation, and A/B testing – aren’t as powerful as those of other top competitors.
Features
Clean interface. Mailchimp looks great and is easy to use, which is one of the main reasons why it’s still popular with so many users to this day.
Hundreds of integrations. If you’re looking to connect with all of your apps and software as quickly and painlessly as possible, Mailchimp might be the one for you.
Advanced reporting. Mailchimp’s segmentation and automation capabilities might be limited, but its analytics tool is quite robust. You can generate detailed reports on pretty much anything.
Mobile app. This deserves a special mention as it isn’t something many competitors offer. You can use the app to quickly track existing campaigns and create new ones on the go.
GetResponse’s advanced features include visual automation workflows
GetResponse is a popular name in the email marketing industry – and for good reason. If you own a small business and are looking for ways to grow by combining ads, sales, and email, GetResponse might be the EMS for you.
It integrates with popular e-commerce platforms (such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento) and even comes with automated conversion funnels that guide you through the online sales process.
Aside from that, GetResponse is a solid option as a standalone email marketing tool. It offers both a “free-forever” (but limited) plan and a 30-day trial that unlocks access to most premium features.
You can create a free account today and get a feel for the platform, then begin your free 30-day premium trial shortly afterwards, and upgrade to a paid plan once you feel ready.
The trial allows you to test many advanced features, including marketing automation, advanced segmentation, webinars, contact scoring, and the sales funnel feature mentioned above.
Features
200+ templates. You can easily create personalized messages with GetResponse’s advanced email editor, which supports many languages (including RTL languages such as Hebrew and Arabic).
Easy segmentation and automation. Setting up segments and autoresponders is easy with GetResponse. More complicated automation sequences are also easy to set up, with pre-made automation templates available.
Webinar builder. Aside from websites, GetResponse can help you quickly build webinars to connect with your audience, increasing conversions and engagement.
Responsive live chat. GetResponse only offers phone support with its most expensive plans, but that’s okay because its live chat and email support are excellent.
Constant Contact offers plenty of high-quality email templates to help you get started
If you’re new to email marketing and looking for an easy-to-use platform, you need to take a look at Constant Contact. The intuitive drag-and-drop editor helps you craft personalized emails with ease, while the platform’s dashboard keeps tabs on your campaigns’ performance without overwhelming you with data.
For US customers, Constant Contact offers a 60-day trial, one of the longest on the market. If you’re located elsewhere, it’s 14 days.
You can test all of the features available on the Lite plan for the duration of the trial, including most of Constant Contact’s email marketing tools, customer list growth tools, analytics, and excellent customer support. All paid plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
That said, one drawback of Constant Contact is that it doesn’t offer enough landing page templates, which is a shame. There are only a handful of templates to choose from, while other top competitors (such as ActiveCampaign) offer plenty more.
Features
300+ email templates. Combine Constant Contact’s high-quality templates with its easy-to-use email editor, and you have the recipe for success. When I was testing the platform, I managed to create beautiful newsletters in just a few minutes.
Website builder. Constant Contact offers its own website builder for small business owners with little-to-no experience in web design. It gets the job done, even if it doesn’t offer as much customization as other popular website builders.
Social posting platform. Constant Contact comes with its own social post tool, allowing you to design, edit, and schedule the publication of your social media posts in just a few clicks.
Real-time tracking. Not only does Constant Contact offer detailed reports, but it also makes it possible to keep your finger on the pulse of your campaigns with real-time tracking.
Benchmark has hundreds of email templates, or you can create one from scratch. The choice is yours!
Benchmark is a powerful platform that gets email marketing right. Unlike other top competitors, Benchmark focuses primarily on email – and that’s good. The interface is as intuitive as it gets – I was able to customize my templates, create my segments, and automate my campaigns in less than an hour!
Benchmark offers a robust free plan that rivals even the likes of Brevo. You can send up to 3,500 emails/month to 500 contacts. Basic email marketing, simple automation, and basic reporting are also available for free.
Once you spend enough time with the free plan and want to unlock more advanced email marketing features, you can easily upgrade to Pro.
Features
Advanced A/B testing. Aside from subject lines, Benchmark allows users to test slight variations of the same email copy.
Easy contact clean-up tool. You can save money by excluding contacts that keep bouncing or haven’t engaged with your content in a while.
Thousands of integrations. Benchmark integrates with most major web services through Zapier, including e-commerce stores like Shopify, CRM tools like Zoho, and online payment services like PayPal.
Excellent live chat feature. Benchmark’s representatives reply within seconds if you reach out via the website’s live chat.
Drip integrates natively with more than 150 apps and services
Drip is another EMS that primarily targets online sellers. Unlike Omnisend, however, you can find ways to make Drip work for you even if you’re not selling products on the web.
Although relatively short, Drip’s two-week trial gives access to all premium features, except SMS publishing. You don’t even need a credit card to sign up, so there’s really no reason not to give it a shot!
Drip’s email editor is one of the best we’ve tried, allowing you to customize everything from font styles and sizes to colors, button styles, and layout width. Its segmentation options, analytics suite, and automation workflows are pretty good as well.
The platform’s held back mainly by its limited selection of email templates and missing landing page creator. A handful of templates will never be enough, no matter how fancy they look.
Still, it’s worth trying out if you’re looking for a sales-focused EMS and don’t mind spending a bit more time in the email editor.
Features
Advanced e-commerce features. Drip enables you to effortlessly link data points from various sources through its outstanding customer-tracking tools. The feature of “Automatic Revenue Attribution” establishes a connection between Drip and your e-commerce store, revealing the marketing strategies that enhance your bottom line.
Powerful A/B testing capabilities. You can split test everything from subject lines to email layout, copy variations, and color changes.
Hundreds of integrations available. Drip integrates natively with more than a hundred platforms and software including Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce. Zapier adds a few thousand more to that list.
Numerous performance reports. Drip generates the usual opens and clicks reports, but it also provides information based on your sales performance, such as conversion tracking, customer journeys, and lead ratings.
Native Giphy and Unsplash integrations allow you to add GIFs and images to your content with a few clicks
Like Benchmark, Moosend only does email, keeping things nice and simple for the average marketer. Moosend’s selection of templates is pretty good, the email editor is easy to use, and the landing page creator gets the job done.
Moosend used to offer a free plan but has since switched to a free trial model. You can test most of the platform’s premium features by signing up for a 30-day trial. That gives you enough time to properly test the platform without limitations and figure out if it’s the right choice for you.
Moosend’s impressive capabilities for segmentation and automation enable you to establish intricate email campaigns effortlessly with just a few clicks.
If it weren’t for its lackluster support, Moosend could’ve made it into the top 5!
Features
Native support of Unsplash and Giphy. This is a nice little touch, complementing the platform’s already great email editor. Bring your emails to life by choosing from thousands of GIFs and images with the click of a button.
Advanced A/B testing. You can split test almost anything, including your subject lines, content, and even the name your subscribers see when they receive your emails.
Easy-to-read reports and analytics. Moosend can generate detailed reports based on hourly, daily, and weekly trends. All the information you need to evaluate your campaigns and plan your next move (such as opens, clicks, location, and browser used) is there.
Many integrations. Moosend integrates natively with about 40 popular apps and services, including WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento. Users can unlock plenty more by integrating with Zapier.
Here Are the Best Email Marketing Services With Free Trials
While I’m not against “free-forever” plans (and I’ve included some of these alternatives here), I prefer it when email marketing services offer unrestricted trials that allow me to test most of the platform’s features – exactly as I would if I were paying.
This allows you to form a viewpoint and decide if a platform adequately fulfills your requirements, or if it doesn’t live up to your expectations.
If you’re looking for the most powerful, feature-packed email marketing platform on the market, you should check out ActiveCampaign1. The 14-day trial is a bit short, but there are no restrictions on what you can do, and you don’t even need a credit card to get started!
If you’re new to email marketing and would rather take it slow, I recommend Brevo.Its free plan is one of the best1, and the missing paid features won’t affect you too much if you’re just starting out.
If your goal is to craft unique emails while also accessing advanced subscriber data, AWeber’s 600+ templates and excellent analytics1 are for you. The free plan doesn’t include all the tools, but the support team will likely let you try out certain premium features for free – if you ask!
Check out how all listed platforms compare against each other below:
Free Trial
Free plan
Best Feature
Best For
ActiveCampaign
✔
✘
Industry-leading automation
Marketers looking for a powerful, feature-packed EMS
Trials are meant to give you a taste of the actual service. Our top EMS, ActiveCampaign, offers a 14-day trial, which is more than enough for most people to get a good feel for the platform. If we’re talking about the longest testing period, Constant Contact wins with its impressive 60-day trial.
What is the best email marketing service with a free plan?
That would have to be Brevo, as it offers 300 sends a day/9,000 a month for free.Brevo’s excellent free plan is a beginner-friendly platform that does everything well. When you’re ready to access more advanced features (like A/B testing, advanced automation, and landing pages), you can easily upgrade with the click of a button.
Is Mailchimp free to use?
Yes, Mailchimp does have a free plan, but it’s honestly not the best. It’s missing important email marketing features, such as email templates, automation, and A/B testing. If you’re looking for robust free plans that allow you to do more without paying, excellent alternative options include Brevo, AWeber, and GetResponse.
Which email service is best for email marketing?
It all depends on your specific needs. If we’re talking about the most powerful, capable, and feature-packed EMS, ActiveCampaign would definitely be my top choice. If you’re new to email marketing and prefer something that’s easier to use, I recommend Brevo. For experienced marketers working with complex, ever-changing strategies, the value that AWeber’s analytics suite offers cannot be overstated. Make sure to check out our list of the best email marketing services for more options.
A freelance writer and editor with experience in digital marketing, Alex has published over 40 product reviews and comparisons on Website Planet. He has tested email marketing services, freelance websites, social media management tools, and more. Before joining our team, he worked at an Australian agency where he experimented with all things digital marketing. In addition to his work, Alex enjoys cooking and writing about games.
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