10 best email autoresponders for 2023 [free and paid]
By: Edvardas Mikalauskas — Jan 16, 2023
Reading Time: 10minutes
Many marketers believe that email marketing is dead. But not only is it alive and well, you can supercharge results by using an autoresponder. Automated emails let you generate, on average, 29.1% of all your email marketing orders from just 1.75% of email sends.
Using an email autoresponder is the modern-day equivalent of having a virtual salesperson working for you around the clock.
From automatically welcoming new customers with a special offer to sending personalized emails to your customers and prospects at just the right time, the best email autoresponder tools will help you increase your sales while freeing up your time to focus on other important tasks.
But with so many options out there, how do you choose the right one? We tested the 10 most popular email autoresponders to help you make an informed decision.
Best email autoresponders: Overview
Before we dive deeper, let’s look at what email autoresponders are and how to choose the best tool for your business.
What is an email autoresponder?
An email autoresponder is a software tool that automates the sending of email messages and is typically used for marketing or customer engagement. It allows you to pre-build a series of messages and schedule them to be sent to your subscribers at specified intervals, such as immediately after signing up or on a recurring schedule.
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With so many options available, choosing the right email service provider (ESP) for your business can be a bit overwhelming.
To help you decide, we looked at the following factors to analyze the email autoresponders:
G2 user ratings. These can give you a good idea of how other businesses have found a particular autoresponder to be useful. After all, what works for one business may not work for another, so it's helpful to see how it has been received by others in your industry.
Ease of use. It's essential to have a tool that's user-friendly and easy to navigate. If it's a pain to set up and use, it will be difficult to make the most of its features.
Email marketing features. These are the bread and butter of an email autoresponder. Consider the types of automations you'll want to run and ensure the tool you choose has these capabilities.
Tracking & analytics features. Knowing how your automations are performing is crucial. The best email autoresponders will offer robust analytics so you can see which campaigns are working and which need improvement.
Deliverability. No matter how great your automatic messages are, they won't be effective if they don't reach your subscribers' inboxes. Your tool should have a good reputation for deliverability.
Omnichannel marketing features. People use multiple channels to interact with businesses. So, it's important to have a tool that allows you to run campaigns across different channels.
Customer support. No matter how user-friendly your autoresponder is, you're bound to have questions. It must have good customer support to help you when you need it.
Omnisend proves that email autoresponders don't have to be expensive or difficult to use. It's an excellent, easy-to-use autoresponder tool that lets you do much more than just set up automated messages.
On top of everything you need to build effective automated workflows, you also get all the tools to get the most out of those workflows for boosting your sales, including powerful analytics, high deliverability, award-winning 24/7 customer support, and a massive library of pre-made email templates.
But what really makes Omnisend shine is its focus on ecommerce. With its welcome series, cart abandonment workflows, and special offer emails, Omnisend makes setting up and sending ecommerce automations a breeze.
As the most popular email marketing software on the market, Mailchimp is a great option for small businesses and solopreneurs who are just starting out. It's very user-friendly and offers all the basics you need to automate your marketing.
As your business grows, however, you may want to consider other options because Mailchimp doesn't have as many advanced features as other tools on this list. But if you're just getting started, Mailchimp is a great place to begin. It's easy to use, and it'll help you get a handle on email marketing automation.
Key autoresponder features:
Content Optimizer with helpful suggestions for more engaging emails
Good reporting features to help you easily track performance
Pre-built automations to send triggered emails
Intuitive segmentation features for better targeting
Pricing: Free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $11 per month.
HubSpot is regarded as the ultimate one-stop-shop SaaS solution.
Not only does it offer a boatload of email marketing features, but it can also help your business with sales, customer relationship management, and more. That’s why HubSpot is a great fit for larger companies that might need to pair their marketing automation with a robust CRM.
Plus, it plays well with other popular marketing and sales tools, making it even more powerful. With HubSpot, you can launch and customize automation workflows, A/B test your content, segment & personalize your campaigns, and do much more besides.
With that said, HubSpot’s massive feature set may be somewhat overwhelming for small to medium businesses. So, if you still have plenty of room to grow, you might want to consider another provider.
Key autoresponder features:
Integrates seamlessly with HubSpot's free CRM, helping you reach more sales and provide better customer support
A/B testing options to find the winning formula for your campaigns
Advanced segmentation that'll help you personalize your campaigns and extend customer lifetime value
Pricing: Free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $45 per month.
When it comes to email autoresponders for bloggers and online content creators, ConvertKit is hard to beat. It's built specifically for YouTubers, podcasters, and live streamers who want to turn their online presence into a business.
ConvertKit makes it easy to automate your email marketing, so you can focus on creating content and leave the rest to the software. Plus, the automations editor is so simple, even a blogger can figure it out. And if you need to make changes on the fly, ConvertKit's got you covered.
One thing to note about ConvertKit is that it uses a tag-based list management system. This means that instead of creating lists, you add tags to your contacts, making it easy to add them to sequences, forms, and broadcasts later on. This can be a pro or con depending on your preference, but it's great for those who want to keep things simple.
ConvertKit is an excellent email marketing tool for bloggers and content creators looking to monetize their online presence. Its simplicity and focus on fundamental features also make it a great option for novice marketers.
Key autoresponder features:
Easy-to-use automation builder with on-the-spot adjustment capabilities
Simple list management features for easy subscriber segmentation
Basic tracking for quick performance insights
Pricing: Free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $9 per month.
If you're looking for an email autoresponder that offers a wealth of automation options at an affordable price, Moosend is definitely worth checking out.
It might be the new kid on the block in the email marketing software world, but don't let that fool you. Moosend is not only packed with easy-to-use features that'll help you automate your marketing–it's also budget-friendly, which is perfect for new businesses just getting started with email marketing.
One of Moosend’s standout features is its Ecommerce AI tool that, similar to Mailchimp’s Content Optimizer, suggests ways to improve your email marketing campaigns.
On top of that, you get forms and popups to help you build your email list, real-time reporting, and analytics to gain customer insights, as well as email personalization features to target your customers better.
Key autoresponder features:
Ecommerce AI tool that provides suggestions to improve your email marketing
Real-time reporting and analytics to gain customer insights
Email personalization features to target customers better
Pricing: No free plan available, paid plans start at $9.
6. ActiveCampaign – best for both B2B & B2C marketers
Similar to Hubspot, ActiveCampaign offers a built-in CRM, which includes email & sales automation. The Sales Suite also has SMS prospect nurturing and contact lead scoring, which is particularly great if you’re trying to engage both consumers and other businesses.
These features make ActiveCampaign a powerful all-in-one solution for people that don’t want the hassle of paying for multiple marketing and sales tools at the same time. With that said, it also means that this tool is better suited for enterprise-level businesses that boast bigger budgets and need advanced automation features.
Key autoresponder features:
Easily customizable automation workflows with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface
Use workflows that will automatically nurture potential customers or set triggers that will notify your sales managers and create new tasks.
Lead scoring shows how your contacts have interacted with your business and their likelihood to make a purchase.
Many segmentation options that let you personalize your messages better
Pricing: No free plan available. Premium plans start at $9 per month.
7. AWeber – best for a wide variety of email templates
Email marketers know that having on-brand, professional-looking emails is key. And AWeber makes creating beautiful emails easy as pie–all thanks to the fact that its email editor lets you natively use the popular graphic design platform Canva to do just that.
If manual email design proves too time-consuming for you, the platform also offers a massive library of email templates to help you get started quickly. But AWeber isn't just about good looks. It also has some decent options to help you perform basic automation tasks like automatically tagging the contacts in your lists for better targeting and assigning triggers & flows to your emails.
MailerLite may not have all the bells and whistles of some of the big players, but it more than makes up for it with its simplicity and an exceptionally generous free plan. Without paying a cent, you can use MailetLite to send up to 12,000 emails to 1000 subscribers. This is especially handy for one-man shows that don’t have the budget for expensive autoresponder software.
But don't let MailerLite’s simplicity fool you. The platform covers all the essential autoresponder features that even established brands will find useful. Plus, it has a few extra goodies like a website builder and surveys that'll help you innovate and stand out from the competition.
MailerLite is a great option for small businesses that want a free easy-to-use autoresponder with all the essential features covered.
Key autoresponder features:
Pre-built automated workflows to automate your marketing campaigns
Drag-and-drop interface for easy automation building
Website builder to create landing pages without needing separate apps
Email verifier to clean and optimize your subscriber list for better deliverability
Pricing: Free plan with limited features, paid plans start at $9 per month.
Sendinblue is a versatile email autoresponder that offers both email & SMS marketing channels. But its most impressive feature is segmentation, allowing you to target your audience based on various criteria. These include past purchases, email engagement, website behavior, and much more.
Plus, Sendinblue’s granular reporting and analytics features help you track the performance of your campaigns in real time and gain valuable insights into your audience's behavior.
Finally, Sendinblue also has powerful automation capabilities. You can set up automated campaigns to re-engage inactive subscribers, follow up with leads, or send abandoned cart emails.
Key autoresponder features:
Extensive segmentation features to help you target your customers better
Email + SMS marketing channels to reach more customers
Advanced reporting & analytics capabilities
Pricing: Free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $19 per month.
GetResponse has a lot going on under its hood, but what makes it really stand out is automation and deliverability.
For starters, GetReasponse has an impressive drag-and-drop automation builder that helps you create custom automated workflows with ease. Beyond that, its pre-made email templates and product recommendations make it a great all-in-one email autoresponder.
And when it comes to email deliverability, GetResponse really delivers. You can trust that your automated emails will land in your customer's inboxes.
Key autoresponder features:
Visual automation builder makes it easy to create automated responses
Email + SMS marketing helps you reach customers in more ways
Smart product recommendations that can lead to better upsells and cross-sells
High email deliverability rates
Best email autoresponders: Summary
Once again, here’s our list of the best autoresponder tools based on our criteria and ratings from actual users:
Omnisend: best for ecommerce businesses focused on boosting sales
Mailchimp: great for email marketing beginners
HubSpot: best for businesses that already use CRM software
ConvertKit: best for bloggers and other content creators
Moosend: an excellent choice for a wide variety of automation options
ActiveCampaign: best for both B2B and BC2 marketers
AWeber: great for many pre-made email templates
MailerLite: email marketing with the most generous free plan
Sendinblue: best for extensive segmentation options
GetResponse: exceptionally high deliverability ratings
All of the autoresponders we listed above have very strong email marketing automation capabilities.
But because every online business has unique needs and goals, choosing the best fit for you should be based on various factors, such as price, ease of use, and additional features.
In the end, you can’t go wrong with any of these options.
Get started with Omnisend today & drive sales on autopilot with pre-built automation workflows
Edvardas is a Content Marketing Manager at Omnisend. Besides writing and editing all things marketing by day, Edvardas is also an avid tech geek and history buff by night.
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