Best Email Marketing Services and Software Reviews of 2025

When choosing email marketing software, there are some key factors to keep in mind, regardless of the type of business you run. We spoke with email marketing experts and business owners who’ve been through the process to learn more about the most important criteria to look at before making a purchase.

Determine your needs

Before you start investigating the email marketing solutions available on the market, take some time to think about your business’s platform needs. Sit down and make a list of the things that are most important to your goals. This might include the ability to import an existing email contact list from a spreadsheet, audience segmentation tools to organize contacts into categories such as “leads” or “repeat customers”, and a low-code drag-and-drop content creation tool.

“Our research was driven by identifying our unique email marketing needs early in the journey,” said Jake Munday, co-founder and CEO of Custom Neon. “We were able to determine real-world application and satisfaction levels by reading numerous customer reviews and case studies. »

Many business owners we spoke with considered aspects such as available features and ease of use, balance between advanced features and complexity, customization and scalability; ensuring the platforms were flexible enough to adapt to their needs and grow with their business over time; responsiveness and quality of customer support; and prices.

Start creating a list of email marketing platforms to explore

Take the time to research the major vendors in the market and determine which ones might offer the best deals for your business. Start making a shortlist based on this research – you’ll dig deeper into many of these vendors later.

For now, consider your most important criteria and add names to the list based on them. For example, if you’re primarily concerned with your budget, add only those options that have all the most important features you need at a cost-effective price.

“We initially conducted an exercise to look at as many different options as possible, compare costs for different numbers of subscribers, and check if the specific automation functionality we needed was available,” said Laura Grant, marketing manager at Bluesky Solutions. “This then gave us a small list of potential software that we looked at in more detail. »

Review features to determine which platforms meet your needs

To narrow down your list, check out the available features offered by each email marketing software. The absence of certain tools or features can be a hindrance, helping you cross certain names off your list.

“To support targeted campaigns, we looked for robust analytics, extensive segmentation tools and personalization choices,” Munday said. “The ease of integration with our existing CRM and e-commerce platforms was crucial to streamlining our workflows. »

These tools were common requirements among the entrepreneurs and professionals we spoke with. However, it is equally important to balance the range of features with overall usability. If advanced features come at the expense of user experience, you might find a platform more disruptive than useful.

“I needed robust automation, list segmentation capabilities, and integration with other tools such as my CRM and analytics platform,” said Bassem Mostafa, market analyst and owner of market research agency GlobeMonitor. “Some tools were feature-rich but too complex, so finding the right balance was essential. »

In the same way as considering the balance between functionality and usability, one must consider the overall value, not just the total price. The cheapest platform may not provide value if it doesn’t have all the tools you need, for example. Finding a solution that combines cost-effective pricing with a solid feature set is essential.

“I personally recommend when considering tools to think about long-term value, not just the upfront price,” said Tom Jauncey, CEO of Nautilus Marketing. “A more expensive option can save you time and improve your long-term results.”

Schedule product demos and conduct free trials

Once you’ve established a list and refined it with feedback from other professionals and entrepreneurs, start scheduling live demos and signing up for free trials. We recommend doing both whenever possible; Live demos allow you to ask salespeople questions and see how they use the software, while free trials give you the freedom to test the software in real-world situations.

“There’s no substitute for a good free trial,” said Brandon Rollins, founder and CEO of Pangea Marketing Agency. “Blog posts, reviews, and even videos are all helpful, but there’s no substitute for using the tool directly and seeing if it does exactly what you need.”

Consider integration and implementation assistance

Email marketing software is often quite easy to set up, but it always helps to have integration assistance. Dedicated account managers and integration specialists are especially helpful if this is your first time setting up email marketing software or if you’re importing an email contact list from a spreadsheet. And if something goes wrong, a good integration team can help you troubleshoot and resolve your issues quickly.

“For some platforms, the onboarding process was included in the demo, which gave me a good idea of ​​the support and training available,” Mostafa said.

Some platforms may not offer an onboarding team, but have a library of self-guided resources and how-to video tutorials. Many of these libraries are comprehensive, so if you are confident that they are sufficient to get you started on the right foot, you may choose to forgo working with integration specialists.

Review metrics after configuration and implementation

Treat the first month (or however long your contractual obligation is) as an extended trial. After launching your email marketing program with your new tool, look at key metrics to determine if it’s working. You should see improvement in most of them, especially if you’re moving away from a manual spreadsheet approach or are just starting email marketing for the first time.

“When it comes to user engagement, conversion rates and deliverability, the platform (we chose) not only met our expectations, but exceeded them,” Munday said. “Customer satisfaction and retention have improved significantly with the ability to produce personalized content based on user behavior and preferences. »

If you see stable or negative trends in your metrics, take a look at how you’re using the tool. Have you segmented your audience correctly? Are you using attractive email subject lines? Is your content actually delivered to users’ inboxes? If you’re confident you’re following all best practices and your metrics are still declining, it might be time to go back to the drawing board.