Top 12 Email Newsletter Services and Software You Should Know About

The capabilities of email newsletter services offered today go beyond those of traditional email service providers, allowing you to do everything from curating your newsletter to formatting and sending it all in one platform. These services are especially useful for making the newsletter process intuitive, affordable, and not too technical for beginners or independent writers.

We've rounded up the best email newsletter services you should know about, highlighting the pros, cons, and best use cases for each.

12 Top Email Newsletter Services and Platforms

1. Mailchimp

Mailchimp debuted in 2001 and is the longest-standing tool on this list. It is primarily used by large businesses and small businesses alike, and has a wide range of uses. With Mailchimp, you can create and send email newsletters using pre-made, customizable templates. Depending on how much you pay, you also get access to advanced marketing CRM tools and can set up pre-made automations.

Best for: Businesses of all sizes.

Benefits of Mailchimp

• It's free to get started.
• Provides advanced analytics.
• It features marketing automation tools and subscriber segmentation.
• Allows third-party integrations.

Cons of Mailchimp

• The free trial ends after one month, and plans start at $20 per month.
• For independent writers, you may not need many tools.
• There is no direct integration with any payment processing system.

2. Mailer Lite

MailerLite is an email marketing service that you can use to create and publish newsletters that you can charge a subscription fee for. MailerLite is designed primarily for email marketers, and as such, it comes with automation features. You can tag subscribers and assign them to segments based on their interests and behavior, as well as set up email sequences and A/B test your newsletters. In terms of the email creation interface, it offers a rich text editor with drag-and-drop functionality.

Best for: Businesses of all sizes.

Benefits of MailerLite

• It's free to get started.
• Provides advanced analytics.
• Allows custom domains.
• Integrate with Stripe for monetization.

Cons of MailerLite

• Sliding scale pricing applies once you exceed 1,000 subscribers or 12,000 monthly emails.
• If you're just getting started with your first newsletter, many of the tools and features may seem redundant.

3. HubSpot

HubSpot's newsletter builder is designed to make it easy for professionals with various levels of technical expertise to create newsletters. By combining the company's CRM data, drag-and-drop editor tools, and pre-made templates, users can quickly create newsletters targeted to specific audiences. Additionally, HubSpot's email newsletter software comes with “personalization tokens,” allowing creators to churn out customized emails by adjusting details like customer names and buying habits.

Best for: Businesses of all sizes.

Benefits of HubSpot

• It's free to get started.
• Personalization tokens make it easy to customize emails for individuals at scale.
• Access to CRM data gives you insight into your customers’ habits and preferences.

Cons of HubSpot

• To access other HubSpot tools and features, you'll need a paid plan, with the Marketing plan starting at $800 per month.

4. Constant Contact

Constant Contact combines intuitive features with artificial intelligence to reduce the time it takes to create and launch email marketing campaigns. Users can get started with email templates and a drag-and-drop editor, monitor email metrics in the mobile app, and stay on top of their email campaigns. To speed up workflow, Constant Contact's AI tools automatically generate brand assets and written content for emails and other formats.

Best for: Businesses of all sizes.

Benefits of Constant Contact

• AI features speed up email design.
• Provides fundamental analysis.
• Integrate with Stripe for monetization.

Disadvantages of constant contact

• They only offer paid plans starting at $12 per month.
• All features are only available with the premium plan, which costs $80 per month.

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5. Brevo

Brevo offers newsletter software that supports authors with 40+ templates, a drag-and-drop editor tool, an AI assistant to help craft subject lines, responsive emails that adapt to mobile formats, etc. The platform also caters to those who prefer a hands-on approach, allowing users to create emails from scratch in HTML and make necessary adjustments to their newsletter depending on real-time data.

Best for: Businesses of all sizes.

The benefits of Brevo

• Your emails will automatically adapt to a mobile format, improving your reader's experience.
• AI assistants speed up email creation.
• Users can send up to 300 emails per day for free.

Disadvantages of Brevo

• Users must opt ​​for a paid plan that starts at $9 per month to send 5,000 emails per month.

6. Conversion Kit

ConvertKit is primarily for individual creators who want to go beyond creating and sending newsletters and build targeted email campaigns. The service also offers the ability to set up automated email funnels, create customizable segments, and even run A/B tests with different subject lines. The editor favors basic, clean formatting for simple text emails, which can also be formatted and saved into templates for future use. You can also create customizable landing pages for email capture.

Best for: Businesses of all sizes.

Advantages of ConvertKit

• It's free to get started.
• Provides fundamental analysis.
• Integrate with Stripe for monetization.
• You can segment your subscribers, automate emails, and run A/B tests.

Cons of ConvertKit

• A sliding price scale applies (starting at $9/month) once you hit 1,000 subscribers or immediately to unlock additional features.

7. Aweber

AWeber aims to make email marketing accessible and scalable for everyone, even those who have never created a newsletter before. The platform offers plenty of email design and customization options, allowing users to build templates from their own pre-made website or Facebook page, or get creative with thousands of free stock images, drag-and-drop, and built-in Canva features. For technical needs, A/B testing, message automation, and open rate tracking are also readily available.

Best for: Individuals or small businesses.

Benefits of AWeber

• Free access to email templates, builder tools, and account migration.
• The full-access AWeber Plus plan costs $20 per month.
• You can connect over 750 apps within the platform (Facebook, PayPal, WordPress, etc.).

Cons of AWeber

• Continuous email automation and split testing are only available on paid plans.
• They charge a transaction fee of 0.6-1 percent for all e-commerce products/services.

8. MailOctopus

EmailOctopus is a quick and simple solution for anyone looking to start a newsletter for personal use or customer acquisition for their small business. It lets you efficiently design and send basic emails, as well as create automated email sequences to acquire new subscribers. This email newsletter service has a reputation for being an easy-to-use, affordable, and GDPR-compliant email marketing solution.

Best for: Businesses of all sizes.

Benefits of EmailOctopus

• It's free to get started.
• Provides fundamental analysis.
• You can use a custom domain.
• Integrates with third-party apps, including Stripe.

Cons of EmailOctopus

• Once you exceed 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month, sliding scale pricing applies (starting at $9 per month).

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9. Beheve

Beehiiv offers a suite of newsletter tools to help creators publish, customize and scale their written content and grow their readership. In its launch version, which is free for up to 2,500 subscribers, the platform offers a proprietary CMS, analytics, audience segmentation, and ad network options, and curates optimized content for emails and websites. The company also offers resources for creators and the community, including a best practices blog, API documentation, and a designated partner program.

Best for: Businesses of all sizes.

Advantages of Beehiiv

• You will receive 0 percent of subscription revenue.
• No rate plan contract is required.

Disadvantages of Beehiiv

• The tools are not sold separately and must be purchased in a bundle plan.
• Publications with more than 100,000 subscribers must purchase an enterprise plan.

10. Ghost

Ghost's all-in-one, open-source platform allows solopreneurs to create customizable publications and set up free or paid newsletters for their subscribers. This email newsletter service also allows you to restrict certain members-only content and send newsletters to different segments of your readers based on whether they pay. You can also control the pricing model, deciding how much and how often subscribers pay for your content. Ghost uses a markdown text editor and integrates with third-party apps like Zapier.

Best for: Businesses of all sizes.

Ghost Benefits

• There are 0% transaction fees.
• Integrates directly with Stripe for payment processing.
• It offers advanced member management and content gating.
• Open source makes it easier to switch services.

Disadvantages of Ghost

• Pricing for the starter version starts at $9 per month.

11. Substack

Substack is intuitively designed and integrates with payment processing service Stripe, making it easy for new users to publish and monetize their newsletters quickly. Although the service is free (no matter how large your email list gets), Substack takes a 10 percent cut from every paid subscriber. The company regularly adds new product features, allows users to comment on posts in the web version of each newsletter, offers support for podcasts, and even offers the ability to add a custom domain for a one-time $50 fee.

Best for: Individuals or small businesses.

Benefits of Substack

• It is available for free.
• Integrates directly with Stripe for payment processing.
• It offers basic analytics, segmentation, sorting capabilities, and post comments.
• You can use a custom domain (one-time fee of $50).
• It has an RSS reader for organization and discovery.

Disadvantages of Substack

• Substack takes a 10 percent commission on each paid subscription.
• Design customization is limited.

12. Button-down

Buttondown is built for people who want an easy-to-use newsletter editor that prioritizes reader and data privacy. It doesn't collect unnecessary data and allows users to opt out of tracking. The tool itself allows for third-party integrations and a markdown editor for writers. And if you want to publish multiple newsletters from one account, Buttondown makes that possible too.

Best for: Individuals or small businesses.

The benefits of button-downs

• It's free to get started.
• Provides fundamental analysis.
• Allows for third-party integrations.
• Users can run multiple newsletters from one account.

Disadvantages of button-downs

• Once you reach 1,000 subscribers, you'll need to purchase a paid plan for $29 per month.
• To unlock access to all features, it will cost you $79 per month.