Best Email Service Providers for New Online Businesses (Comparison Guide)
I’ve used a lot of email service providers throughout my career as an online business owner and digital entrepreneur, and as a result I’ve developed some strong opinions about some of the most popular options. In this article, I’ll share what I consider to be the best email software for new online businesses, including what I like about them and why they may or may not be a good choice for a solopreneur.\
Email Software I Recommend
Kit (Formerly Called ConvertKit)
I have been a ConvertKit (now called Kit) user since 2017, and it’s hands-down my favorite from a user experience perspective. I’ve tried multiple times to switch away from it to a cheaper option, but again and again I keep coming back to it.
What I Like About It
- It’s ready to start using “out of the box”. You don’t have to design email templates (though you can). You don’t have to set up custom unsubscribe links (though you can).
- There are no lists; instead the subscribers are organized with tags, or you can group them into segments according to characteristics they share in common, such as the tags they have or the forms they signed up through.
- It’s extremely easy to create a nice looking form and drop it into your website or share a direct link to it.
- The free WordPress plugin makes it easy to add a form to a blog post or elsewhere on your website without having to copy and paste code, like this:
Drawbacks
- As soon as you need to start sending a series of automated emails, you’ll have to upgrade to one of their paid plans.
- It’s one of the pricier options on this list, costing $41/month if you have more than 1,000 subscribers and $66/month if you have more than 3,000 subscribers, and going up from there at 5k, 8k, 10k, etc. If you start getting rapid list growth, you’ll want to make sure you have a solid system in place for converting subscribers to paying customers.
- Even though I personally like how the subscribers are organized, it can be confusing for new users to have all their subscribers on a single list. You do have to be organized with your tagging to keep track of everyone, and it can be especially tricky if you operate more than one business from the same account.
What Makes it A good choice for new Online businesses
The free plan includes unlimited forms (which include an automated email response to deliver a freebie or welcome email), making it ideal for building your email list if you’re not ready to pay for email software, even if you end up switching to a cheaper email software later.
Flodesk
One of my clients started using Flodesk last year (at my recommendation) and we’ve both been really happy with it.
What I Like About It
- The fixed pricing: It’s just $38/month, no matter how many subscribers you have (or $64/month if you want to use it to build sales pages and sell digital products). This alone makes it an extremely attractive alternative to any other option on this list.
- It can do everything Kit / ConvertKit can.
- It has a feminine aesthetic which I find appealing.
- The email templates, forms, and landing pages are easy to build and look really nice.
- The features for selling digital products are robust, with things like order bumps / upsells, expiring coupon codes, and countdown timers.
Drawbacks
- On their free plan it’s not possible to send an automated response to a form entry, making it useless for list building (because you wouldn’t be able to automatically deliver a lead magnet). So you pretty much have to start paying as soon as you start using it, even if you don’t yet have any subscribers.
- Subscribers can ONLY be organized by putting them on separate lists. There is no subscriber tagging. I find it cumbersome to have so many lists, but it works.
What Makes it A good choice for new Digital Entrepreneurs
Flodesk is very user-friendly and easy to learn, even if you’re not very tech savvy. It’s also freeing to know you can grow your list to any size without having to worry about the price increasing.
AWeber
I used AWeber many years ago (in 2016 I think). It was a good experience and even though I am not a current user I still think of it as one of the best choices for email software.
What I Like About It
- Affordable pricing. $15/month plan that allows unlimited subscribers, though you’re limited to just 3 automated email sequences at that price.
- The pricing is somewhat confusing to me, but from what I can tell, you can have unlimited subscribers for $30/month (cheaper than Flodesk) but would be limited to 12 emails per subscriber per month, including automated emails.
- They do have a free plan that gives you an automated response to a form submission. However, you’re only allowed one landing page on the free plan.
- Even though it’s been several years since I used AWeber, I always remember them as having really good customer service (live chat and email support).
- Their free plan allows you to sell digital products through the platform with only a 1% transaction fee
Drawbacks
- Confusing pricing structure – it’s easier for me to calculate how much I’m going to pay based on the number of subscribers I have for the features I have access to than to keep track of the number of monthly email sends (especially taking automated emails into account).
- The automations are organized as a list of emails instead of a flowchart of actions. This is a matter of preference, but I prefer the flowchart model for visualizing automations.
What Makes it A good choice for an Online Business
AWeber is a well-established company that has been around for a long time and has all the email marketing features most online businesses will ever need. The customer service is good if you need technical help. The free plan will allow you to start building your list with a single lead magnet, and the paid plans are very affordable when you need to upgrade.
Mailerlite
Mailerlite is the only email service provider on this list that I’ve not personally used, but I’ve heard great things about it and I’m very impressed with the features they offer for the price.
What I Like About It
- Very generous free plan that includes forms, email automations for up to 1,000 subscribers
- Includes a website builder, possibly eliminating the need to pay for a website, at least while you’re getting started
- The lowest priced paid plan includes the ability to sell digital products through the platform, which would be convenient for automating emails to customers
- Has a lot of other “nice to have” features like custom unsubscribe pages, dynamic emails, and A/B testing
- It remains affordable as your list grows. With 10,000 subscribers you can still pay just $65/mo compared to well over $100/mo for AWeber and Kit.
Drawbacks
I can’t personally comment on what drawbacks Mailerlite might have since I haven’t used it, but ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai both say Mailerlite is a bit more complex to set up and start using. For that reason someone less tech-savvy might want to choose a different option.
What Makes it A good choice for a Digital Business
Mailerlite seems to be a website, email marketing software, and digital product sales platform all in one, at a very affordable price, making it an attractive pick for online business owners planning to monetize through digital product sales.
Recommendations for Tech Savvy Users Only
SendFox
I personally started using SendFox this year to consolidate my email marketing for all my various businesses and save money. It is the cheapest email software option I’m aware of. I paid a one-time price of $49 (for up to 5,000 subscribers) and am now paying just $10/month to remove SendFox branding and enforced double opt-in.
What I Like About It
- The price.
- It works for my businesses and projects where I’m not doing much with email automation other than gathering subscribers, even though the features are very bare-bones.
Drawbacks
- Extremely limited automation features. No conditional logic, no way to trigger an automation with more than one action, and every automation must include an email.
- Like Flodesk, subscribers can only be organized by putting them on an infinite number of lists. No subscriber tagging.
- No nice looking pre-built forms. You must use CSS to style your forms to look nice on your website. Fortnuately I can use Claude.ai to do this instead of having to write code myself, but you still need to know where to put the code in your theme.
High Level
If you haven’t heard of it, High Level (sometimes called Go High Level due to its URL, gohighlevel.com) is a truly all-in-one marketing software that has every feature you could possibly need as a digital marketer for just $99/month, including email marketing, AI responders, online courses and memberships, websites, sales funnels, sales pipelines, and SMS automation.
It’s an excellent choice for serious marketers who are already familiar with the tools of the trade and need extreme customization options.
What I Like About It
- The only all-in-one software I’ve ever used that actually has every feature I need
- Extremely customizable email & SMS automations
- Can integrate with anything using webhooks and Zapier.
- Easily replaces ClickFunnels
- No limit on the number of subscribers you can have at the $99/month price
Drawbacks
- Clunky user interface, slow page loading
- Default templates are ugly.
- Website builder is decent but has a steep learning curve.
- CSS required for making forms look nice.
- Nothing works “out of the box” – even email unsubscribe workflows must be built from scratch.
2 Email Service Providers I DON’T Recommend
MailChimp
Even people who aren’t familiar with online business have heard of MailChimp. It was one of the first email marketing software options, and for that reason has been the go-to choice for many small businesses. But just because it’s the oldest doesn’t mean it’s the best; in fact, being the oldest means lots of room for improvement.
Why I Don’t Recommend It for Online Businesses
- Very confusing subscriber organization. It’s easy to have multiple subscriber lists, but impossible to send an email to more than one list at the same time.
- Extremely limited form building capabilities. You can basically have just one signup form per list, making it difficult to have more than one lead magnet.
- Steep learning curve. MailChimp has added lots of features over the years, making it very complex and overwhelming, even for me.
Who it’s Good For
MailChimp tempts new businesses with a generous free plan allowing up to 3,000 subscribers, but it’s really not built for email marketing. The only type of business I would recommend it for is a small business or eCommerce business who will only ever have one email signup form and a single list of subscribers and don’t need multiple lead magnets or complex email automations.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign offers the most customization capability of any email software I’ve tried, and it is often used by marketing teams at larger companies.
Why I Don’t Recommend It for Online Businesses
- Like HighLevel, everything must be built from scratch – even the automation that causes someone to be removed from your list if they unsubscribe.
- It’s very complex with steep learning curve.
- It’s one of the most expensive email service providers.
- It’s actually very similar to HighLevel, and the main reason I don’t recommend it is that HighLevel does everything ActiveCampaign does only at cheaper price.
Quick Takeaways
If you’re feeling information overload right now, here’s a takeaway for each software on the list:
- Kit: Best free option for quickly setting up a lead magnet form
- Aweber: Great customer service and a generous free plan
- Mailerlite: Most cost-effective option if you need a lot of features
- Flodesk: Best all-around option and my top pick for new online businesses
- SendFox: Cheapest option but limited on automation features; have to use code to build nice looking forms and landing pages
- High Level: Best option for advanced marketers who need all the features
