SendX Review 2024 – It’s Cheap, but Is It Any Good?

SendX Sure Is Cheap, but Is That Enough?

SendX.io offers some of the most competitively priced plans on the market. It’s also fairly easy to learn how to use it, making it a great email marketing service for beginners.

To check out SendX’s features, I signed up for a paid Business plan. There are autoresponders and automation workflows, a landing page builder, time zone delivery, and a smart send feature that uses historical data to send your emails at the optimum time.

Affordable and easy to use, a good range of features – at first glance it looks like SendX.io offers everything you could want from an email marketing service. But a closer look revealed some significant flaws.

The template selection is small, the reporting tools are basic at best, and automation isn’t that intuitive. Compared to top competitors, such as GetResponse and ActiveCampaign, SendX fails to deliver an exceptional email marketing experience.

So, do low prices justify mediocrity? I’ll leave that one up to you.

SendX Does a Lot, but It Doesn’t Do Enough to Stand Out

When I first signed up to SendX, I thought I was getting a pretty good deal. And, mostly, SendX delivers on its promises. It’s an affordable email marketing platform with an intuitive interface designed to make email marketing easy.

Unfortunately, many features felt incomplete, and some useful tools offered by other platforms were missing altogether. The problem is that SendX doesn’t do enough to stand out from the competition.

Most of the must-haves were there, but that was it. No outstanding features, no major innovations, no wow factor. In all honesty, I wasn’t very impressed – and that’s coming from a nerd who’s generally easy to please.

Email Campaigns, Templates, and Personalization

Emails are sent through SendX’s Campaigns tab. You can choose between sending a newsletter, starting an A/B test, initiating a drip campaign, or setting up autoresponders.

The interface is simple and clean, which meant I could set up my first campaign in less than thirty minutes.

On the down side, I wasn’t given an option to automatically share the content on other platforms. If I wanted to do that, I’d have to integrate SendX with another app. Other providers, such as AWeber, make it very easy for you to share your emails via Facebook and other social media platforms.

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There are only 64 templates to choose from, which isn’t great when most platforms offer at least a few hundred options. That said, most of these templates look fresh and modern without overloading emails with graphics and flashy animations.

They’re also all responsive and mobile-friendly. And, if you’re really serious about branding, you can use SendX to create your own custom HTML templates. Or you can just stick to plain old text – that can work wonders too!

SendX features a simple drag-and-drop editor with predefined blocks and tons of customization options. There are plenty of fonts to choose from, and you can easily change color schemes with the press of a button.

You can switch up images and add buttons, countdown timers, videos, social links, HTML code, gifs, and pretty much anything else you could think of. SendX also allows you to preview your email at any time, making it easy to see how everything comes together on different devices.

Although fairly intuitive, SendX’s editor has a major flaw: The editing toolbar only shows as a pop-up when you click on a word or text element, much like how doc editing works on mobile.

This took a bit of time to get used to, mainly because I had trouble making out the small boxes with my terrible eyesight. This could be an issue for some, especially if you’re using the editor with a smaller screen.

SendX doesn’t have its own stock image library, but it offers an impressive 500,000+ royalty-free images through integrating with popular free stock image websites such as Pixabay, Unsplash, and PEXELS. This is a neat little feature that’s quite handy.

There’s some support for right-to-left (RTL) languages, provided you have the right keyboard. And if you want to create emails in Hebrew or Arabic and don’t know any code, SendX can help.

Still, for best results, you’ll have to modify certain templates by manually moving boxes around. It’s worth noting that other platforms, such as GetResponse, offer full support for RTL languages1, automatically aligning and structuring templates.

Personalization is how emails come to life. Addressing your subscribers with their first name and including relevant information about them in the email can add a more human element to your campaigns.

SendX includes basic personalization options, including first and last name, company, and birthday. Adding custom tags allows you to display other variables such as age, gender, location, address – and the list goes on.

While that’s enough in most cases, SendX lacks advanced personalization features. For example, with ActiveCampaign, you can take advantage of conditional display tags to show different content depending on who’s viewing the email.

Likewise, while SendX does offer an A/B testing tool, it’s as basic as A/B tools can get. You can split test your subject lines – and that’s pretty much it. There are no advanced body text or image variables, which is quite disappointing.

Mailing Lists and Segmentation

Importing contacts and filling in information about your subscribers should be easy. You can populate your lists either by manually typing in details (not recommended), copying and pasting these details from a file, or importing a file ready with all your contact information.

Unfortunately, SendX only supports CSV files. Basically, if you save your contacts in XLSX format, you’ll have to either convert the file to CSV or copy and paste the information directly to SendX. That doesn’t sound too bad, right?

Now, imagine having thousands of contacts scattered across different lists in various formats – which is usually the case with bigger businesses. Converting files or copying and pasting text could take hours.

There’s no option to import contacts from third-party services, either. Say you have 250 contacts you want to add from a different platform. You’ll have to export your list, make sure it’s in CSV format (and convert it to CSV if it’s not), and then transfer everything over to SendX – yeah, that doesn’t exactly scream fun, does it?

SendX won’t ask whether you have permission to add contacts to your lists. However, an import disclaimer will remind you that you should only add people who have signed up for it and granted their permission for you to contact them.

Once you have your contacts on the right lists, you can easily customize them by filling in additional metadata or adding extra tags. When adding custom metadata, you can choose an attribute type, such as text, number, date, or boolean.

Creating segments is also fairly straightforward.

Think of segments as lists that automatically update themselves when conditions change. For example, I created a segment that includes all female European subscribers who opened my last newsletter. Every time someone meets the required conditions, they are automatically added to the appropriately named “Active Female Europeans” segment.

You can easily view your contacts by name, email, or one of the custom fields set by you, but I wish SendX had a better search function. You can only search by name and tag. There are no advanced search parameters – such as opens or clicks – making contact tracking difficult and labor-intensive.

As far as list hygiene is concerned, SendX does the bare minimum. It will automatically get rid of duplicate and invalid emails. And you can, of course, run bulk actions or set up automations that will remove contacts from your lists if they stop engaging with your content.

But there’s no cleanup feature, and you certainly don’t want to tidy your lists manually. It would be nice to have a fast, one-button solution.

I also looked at suppression lists. These are necessary as they prevent you from accidentally sending emails to people who don’t want to receive them. The last thing you want is trouble with the law.

SendX’s support team told me that people who have unsubscribed or marked your email as spam won’t be sent any further emails. But I couldn’t find an automatic suppression list that included those contacts. Essentially, that means you’ll have to create and update your suppression list manually.

That might not seem like much of a problem, but if you switch platforms and need to take these contacts with you, that will involve a lot of work.

Landing Pages

I was disappointed to find there were only 6 landing page templates to choose from – ActiveCampaign offers more than 40 landing page templates1. The few available templates look rather bland, although you can add extra elements to make them pop. If you’re got the technical know-how, you can even throw some CSS and JS code into the mix to give your page that extra oomph.

All templates are mobile-responsive and, just like with the email editor, SendX will let you preview the page every step of the way.

In short, many of the complaints I had about the SendX email editor carry over to its landing page builder. Even though adding blocks and elements is easy, the tiny text edit menu is still an issue.

While setting up a test page, I misclicked often, underlining text when I meant to italicize it, accidentally changing font size, and generally messing up more than once – a myopic’s nightmare!

Like the email editor, there’s support for RTL languages, but templates won’t align automatically. This isn’t a deal-breaker, but it can slow you down when creating emails in RTL languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.

The good news is that you can create as many landing pages as you like. With a bit of setting up, you can also connect your own custom subdomain so that your landing pages closely resemble your domain’s URL. There are several guides up on the website that can help you with this.

Having your own domain is important. It makes sure your URLs look clean and professional, increasing sign-up and conversion rates as a result.

Automation

Let’s say you’ve set up your lists, segments, campaigns, and autoresponders. Now, you’re looking for a way to automate processes even further.

What if I wanted to send an email with special deals to every new contact three days after they’re added to my segment? Tracking subscribers and manually sending out an email with deals every time would be more than exhausting. With advanced behavioral automation, this is much easier.

Setting up simple automations like the one mentioned above isn’t too hard with SendX. All you have to do is pick a trigger from the dropdown menu and decide what exactly happens once specified conditions are met.

You can use SendX to initiate drip campaigns a set amount of time after someone joins a list. You can also send reminder emails to users who abandon their shopping cart before making a purchase.

That said, things can get a bit confusing once you add complex conditions into the equation. I created an automation that applied a “highly engaged” tag every time a contact either opened an email, clicked a link, or signed up through one of my forms.

However, I couldn’t find a convenient way to measure engagement with scaling attributes. If I wanted to do that, I’d have to create multiple segments and workflows with different conditions – so I’ll pass, thanks!

Setting up these relatively simple automation workflows on SendX took quite a bit of time. SendX doesn’t offer ready-made templates you can use to quickly set up automations. When you consider that ActiveCampaign offers over 400 automation templates1, this seems like a real let down.

The interface is simple, but without visual branching pathways, it’s just a big “if x then y” list with no apparent order or hierarchy. It soon gets confusing – especially if you’re setting up complicated automation workflows with several steps and conditions.

I should also mention that SendX’s automation interface looks nothing like what’s currently advertised on their website. The images on the website clearly show visual branching pathways, but that’s just not what I got when I fired up the web application. This new interface could still be under development, but as it stands, I’d say it’s rather misleading.

The good news is that all automation tools are available with the cheapest plan, and you can set up as many workflows as you like.

Additional Features

SendX is an email marketing platform designed with the beginner marketer in mind. It comes with some interesting features that can make your life much easier.

First, we have timezone delivery. You can enable this when setting up your campaign, and SendX will deliver your email according to each contact’s timezone. Needless to say, you need to have obtained information about your contacts’ locations for this to work.

Then we have smart send. When enabled, SendX will use historical data (such as opens and link clicks) to determine the best time to deliver your campaign to each contact. This makes a lot of sense. Even though most of us check our emails first thing in the morning, some people may not have enough time to do so until lunchtime. Others might wait until they get home before checking their inbox.

According to SendX, smart send uses advanced technology to learn more about your contacts’ behavior, increasing your open rate as a result. I didn’t test this feature myself, but it’s definitely worth a shot if you have the data.

You’ll often see people trying to come up with precise deliverability rates. Other SendX reviews may tell you they sent 10,000 emails, and 8,400 of those emails reached their subscribers’ inboxes – an 84% deliverability rate.

That looks great on paper, but what exactly does that number tell you about SendX as a platform? Not much. That’s because there are way too many variables to know whether 84% of anyone else’s emails would reach their subscribers’ inboxes. Unless I have access to all of SendX’s data, any percentage I come up with will be arbitrary.

Remember that all email marketing platforms want to deliver your emails, so most of the load falls on the marketer. The best approach to deliverability is to concentrate on what you can do to boost your deliverability rate.

What I can do as a reviewer, however, is look at features that can improve the odds of my emails being delivered. The deliverability score you see here reflects SendX’s features compared to those offered by other platforms.

The first feature worth taking a look at is DKIM authentication. Long story short, this tells email service providers that you really are who you claim to be – that you’re reputable, and your emails can land safely in your subscribers’ inboxes. DKIM isn’t foolproof, but it can boost your deliverability rate considerably.

Like most EMS, SendX has DKIM authentication. By default, it uses its own reputable encryption, but if you have your own domain name, you can add DNS records to your domain and have SendX “sign” and send emails on your behalf.

Does that sound confusing? Easy guides on the website’s knowledge database explain how this works in more detail, taking you step-by-step through the authentication process.

Next up, we need to consider the platform’s anti-spam policy. Now, I’m sure you’re only ever sending emails to those who’ve signed up for them. But platforms that are lenient with other users’ spam pose a threat to you, too. If spam is allowed, then chances are that your perfectly legitimate emails will end up in your contacts’ junk folders as well.

SendX will instantly terminate your account if they receive abuse complaints or find out you’ve violated their Terms of Use. When using SendX for your email marketing campaigns, you may not:

• Send emails to users without their permission. All contacts must be opt-in.
• Send spam in any shape or form.

This, of course, comes as no surprise. No EMS wants to be associated with spam. That said, some take unsolicited emails more seriously than others, adding safeguards to prevent spam from escaping the platform in the first place.

To test whether that was the case with SendX, I made a new list and uploaded a bunch of emails belonging to known spammers. I sat back, grabbed some popcorn, and waited to see how SendX would react.

Unfortunately, SendX didn’t pass the test. All my spam contacts made it into my aptly named “Spam Test” list without issues or warnings. This is definitely not good news, as it probably indicates that SendX doesn’t really check emails before they’re uploaded to a list. GetResponse passed the same test.

Affiliate marketing is another hot topic we need to discuss. While crucial to the internet economy, affiliate marketing isn’t always welcome. If you send emails containing external links, some platforms will give you a warning. Others might put your account under review or straight up ban you.

SendX promises to never ban you for being an affiliate marketer – as long as you play by the rules, that is. Not only that, but it also prides itself as one of the best email marketing services for affiliate marketers.

Their affiliate marketing policy was a bit vague, so I contacted support to learn more. It turns out there are only two requirements:

• Only send emails to opt-in lists
• Keep your bounce rate in check

It sounds like SendX is lenient toward affiliate marketers – perhaps a bit too lenient. Does this leave room for more aggressive marketing? Could I, for example, send emails only to promote products and services that have little to do with my line of business? What about get-rich-quick and make-money-from-home schemes?

Where does SendX draw the line? I’m not sure, and that’s a problem. Too much leniency could negatively affect the platform’s reputation.

The best way to ensure your emails reach their destination is to get yourself a dedicated (or private) IP address and send your emails from there. SendX (and other email marketing platforms) may claim that their servers are safe and reputable, but being grouped with thousands of users is never great for deliverability. It only takes a few spammers to tarnish your shared IP’s reputation.

Most platforms are quick to address issues, but a single major spam incident might be enough to ruin your active campaigns. A private IP adds an extra safety layer, something that’s especially useful to have if you often run big, multiple-step campaigns. Dedicated IP addresses don’t come cheap, though, and not all EMS can provide you with one.

Dedicated IPs are available for purchase from SendX, but only if you sign up for the Enterprise plan. This is a custom-made plan for lists with more than 200,000 contacts. Yeah, that’s a lot of contacts, but the option is there.

Not Enough Data to Take Action

Good marketers know the power of statistics. Numbers can help you understand exactly what’s going with your campaigns – and that’s how experts make decisions.

Which emails led to high open rates? Which ones didn’t do so well? What kind of subscribers regularly engage with your content, and why is that? These are all great questions that a thorough statistical analysis may be able to answer.

Imagine I sent a newsletter featuring special summer deals but didn’t get the engagement I’d hoped for. If these are usually highly engaged subscribers, I might struggle to understand what exactly went wrong.

If my links weren’t as appealing as I originally thought, most reports would point out my low click rate. But what if it was because I sent my emails a bit too late in the afternoon? Or my graphics didn’t display properly on mobile?

With decent analytics tools, I’d have a pretty good idea of why things didn’t go as planned. Unfortunately, with SendX, I could only guess. There’s no way to learn more about soft and hard bounces, open times, spam reports, the operating system used, or subscribers’ screen sizes.

SendX only showed me how many emails were opened and how many contacts clicked on my links, plus a map that showed where these contacts were from.

SendX also doesn’t tell you how many contacts unsubscribed, and the device metric doesn’t seem to work properly. Not to mention, there’s no way to take immediate action based on reported data.

So, is SendX’s super-limited reports tool a deal-breaker? If you’re not a beginner and are looking to make the most of your campaigns, SendX just won’t provide you with the data you need.

For me, AWeber offers a far superior analytics suite1, producing advanced reports that will help you develop effective strategies.

Helpful but Not Always There

No email platform is complete without a helpful support team that can help you get answers when you need them. SendX offers support through email, live chat, and phone. There’s also an extensive knowledge base with plenty of helpful guides and articles.

That said, I had to redirect most of my questions to the support team, as I just couldn’t find the information I needed on the website. Live chat is available 24/7, but phone support was temporarily unavailable at the time of this review. I also found that email support was quite slow (more on that below).

On the plus side, SendX’s support team made everything easy for me. From the moment I joined the platform, I felt like I’d become part of an online community that wanted me to succeed. A welcome email informed me about a free demo offered with my subscription: a one-on-one session with one of the experts.

SendX would also check in on me every now and then:

SendX sends educational emails every day for two weeks after joining the platform. These are pretty basic, but they do a great job at introducing beginners to crucial email marketing concepts, such as drip campaigns, segments, automation workflows, and the like.

Live Chat

SendX’s knowledge base is a bit difficult to navigate, which is why I spent quite a bit of time asking questions through live chat.

In this specific interaction, I asked about SendX’s affiliate marketing policy and suppression list. Their representative replied in less than two minutes, and I had my answers in less than five.

I used the live chat feature quite a bit during my time with SendX, and I received prompt answers every time. Live chat is SendX support’s strong point – no complaints here!

Email

I was aware that SendX provides users with private IPs on the Enterprise plan, but the official website didn’t have sufficient information. Therefore, I reached out to the support team to inquire about the minimum number of contacts needed to activate this feature.

It took about 20 hours for them to get back to me. I sent the email at around 13:00 GMT+3 (05:00 CDT) and didn’t receive a reply until 09:00 (01:00 CDT) the next day.

The answer I received was short and to the point, but it’d be great if SendX replied a bit faster to emails.

Phone

Phone support isn’t a deal-breaker for most, but it’s always good to have. Although listed as an option on SendX’s website, a representative informed me that phone support was temporarily unavailable. They didn’t say when or whether the service would return.

I’ll update SendX’s support score if phone support returns in the future…

Some of the Most Competitive Prices on the Market

Sendx’s prices are very competitive. The cheapest plan starts at $9.99/month ($7.49 with an annual plan) and includes 1,000 contacts. For a list of 10,000 contacts, you’d be set back only $59.99. All plans offer unlimited email sends to your contacts.

To our surprise, SendX allows you to calculate prices for up to 2 million contacts ($4,999) before the “Contact Us” button appears. Other platforms typically display prices only for the first few thousand contacts. This is a significant advantage for businesses with large contact lists, as they can effortlessly determine costs without having to spend valuable time requesting quotes.

Aside from the Business plan, SendX also offers an advanced Enterprise plan for plans that exceed 200,000 contacts. It’s custom-made, and prices are not listed on the website.

The Enterprise plan comes with some extra features, including unlimited teams, dedicated IP support, executive ROI reviews, and advanced training. I’d say 200,000 contacts is more than most of us need, and, frankly, the Business plan comes with all of the tools a marketer needs. The private IP would be nice, but you can definitely do without these other extras.

SendX also offers a 25% discount for annual plans across the board.

If you want to give SendX a try but aren’t ready to commit, there’s a 14-day free trial you can take advantage of. It doesn’t require a credit card, and it includes all of the features available with the Business plan. Sure, two weeks probably isn’t enough time to draw definite conclusions about SendX, but it’s enough time to give you a good feel for the platform.

SendX also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all its plans, and it may even refund annual plans on a case-by-case basis. It accepts payments via MasterCard, Visa, or American Express.