6 Best Email Marketing Platforms for Bloggers

Published on November 19th, 2024

There are a ton of email marketing platforms out there, each with various features targeting a niche of customers on a different budget.

After spending hours signing up for trials and reading through customer reviews for the top email platforms on the market, I’ve selected 6 that are the best for bloggers.

To help you make a faster decision, I’ve labeled each email platform for its best use case, along with pros, cons, features, and pricing, and reviews. At the end of this article, there’s a FAQ section that includes the steps for migrating to a new email platform. Feel free to skip to the section you’re most interested in. 

Here are our top picks for email platforms for bloggers:

• Best for Large Email Lists: BigMailer
• Best for Publishing: Substack
• Best Free Plan: Kit
• Best For Growth: beehiiv
• Best All-In-One Marketing: Mailchimp
• Best for Bloggers: Ghost
• FAQ About Newsletter Platforms

Check out this feature comparison chart for a quick reference:

Here’s how their monthly costs compare (excluding Substack which doesn’t have monthly fees):

Best for Large Email Lists: BigMailer

BigMailer is ideal for media companies, marketing agencies, email consultants, and large teams. This platform provides the most features for the money out of all the options on this list.

Here are the main reasons why:

BigMailer’s built-in brand and user-access management allows you to easily manage multiple brands and team members (up to 100) from a single account. This allows you to keep all your projects, clients, team members, and email campaigns (marketing, automations, and transactional) in ONE platform.

Its built-in email validation tool helps you weed out invalid emails and typo spam traps to protect your sender reputation and improve your deliverability.

You can also use email throttling, which helps control the number of emails you send in time intervals to improve deliverability for very large lists (over 100k).

I find BigMailer’s drag-and-drop email template builder quicker and more intuitive than most newsletter platforms on this list.

Templates can be saved to your library and shared easily with other brands/projects, which is very useful if you operate several brands with newsletters. 

BigMailer customers rave about the responsive customer service (available 7 days/week), which connects you with BigMailer’s support team that’s based in the USA.

Pros

• Affordable pricing based on list size, especially for lists over 50k+
• Great for media companies that own and manage multiple blogs
• White-label option for agencies
• The support is highly rated by customers
• Supports RSS-to-email automation
• Average of 99.7% delivery rate, thanks to built-in email validation
• Free plan available for up to 1,000 contacts

Cons

• Doesn’t offer an ad network 
• Isn’t for publishing blog posts
• Not ideal for DTC or e-commerce companies due to lack of direct integrations
• Requires to verify sender domains with DNS records (like most providers), while some platforms like beehiiv allow you to send from their domain. 

Features

• Supports all email types – Newsletters, transactional, RSS-to-email, automations, and sequences.
• A/B testing – Test up to 3 subject lines to compare engagement rate.
• Live chat and email support (7 days/week from 8 am-8 pm EST)
• Drag-and-drop and HTML template builders – Bring your own HTML email templates, choose from a library of customizable pre-made templates, or design your own templates with a drag-and-drop builder.
  
• Multi-brand management – Manage multiple brands and projects from a single platform.
• User roles and access control – Control who has access and permissions to your valuable email lists.
• Landing pages – Create landing pages to capture emails for your newsletter.
• Built-in email validation – Remove all invalid emails from your list during the import to improve your deliverability.
• Email throttling – Control the number of emails sent at a time to improve your deliverability for large lists, especially after changing providers or IP addresses.
• Integrations – Sync your customer records with hundreds of apps by using integrations with Zapier, Make, Pabbly, or Zoho (or webhooks to push data into your app).
• Referral programs – Grow and monetize your newsletter through referrals by integrating with Sparkloop.

Pricing

BigMailer offers flexible and affordable pricing based on the number of contacts in your email list. These are the 4 main pricing plans:

• Startup – Up to 1,000 contacts and 5 users (Amazon SES connection required)
• Business Basic – $5/month per 5,000 contacts (starts at $20/month) with up to 20 users (Amazon SES required)
• Business Pro – $12.5/month per 5,000 contacts (starts at $25/month) with up to 20 users 
• Agency – $12.5/month per 5,000 contacts plus white label option, starts at $725/mo

Note: Using Amazon SES comes with an added cost of $0.1 per 1,000 emails sent, paid to Amazon SES directly. This is one way in which BigMailer helps keep your bill more affordable if you have an infrequent sending schedule.

Here’s how much you’ll pay for the Basic and Pro plans based on the size of your email list:

Check out BigMailer’s pricing page for more details. 

Customer reviews

BigMailer has a 5/5 star rating on G2. Customers love BigMailer’s ease of use, competitive pricing, range of features, and attentive customer support. There are very few criticisms from customers, but a few wished the template library was larger.

Best for Bloggers: Substack

Substack was founded in 2017 as a digital space for authors and creatives who want to simply publish content and make money from paid subscriptions. 

The interface is simple to use, even if you aren’t tech-savvy.

Its network of over 35 million active subscriptions helps you grow your subscriber base organically via referrals and recommendations. 

It’s strictly meant for publishing content, so you won’t be able to run your other typical email marketing campaigns, like sequences. 

Substack’s paid subscriptions feature helps you monetize your newsletter without ads or sponsorships (the downside is a 10% fee). This enables you to provide a better reader experience by not interrupting readers with ads.

Creating newsletters in Substack is as easy as editing a Google Doc, which is a bonus if you’re looking for a positive writing experience.

Pros

• Substack’s network helps drive subscriptions, and some writers have found it to be a great source of income.
• Free to use (until you monetize). 
• Fees only apply when (or if) you get paying subscribers
• No website is required to join
• Easy to use and post content to

Cons

• Limited design customization (it’s hard to stand out when almost every Substack newsletter looks the same)
• Standard fee = 10% of gross subscriber revenue
• Some users complain that customer support is slow and over-reliant on AI
• Lack of API 
• Very limited email automation capabilities (no sequences or drip campaigns) 

Features

• Create and personalize a profile with a name that reflects what your channel is about.
• Users can have as many newsletters as they want, including free and paid versions.
• Blogging, emailing, and podcasting features are free to use.
• Get a custom domain to host your newsletter.
• Access growth features like mentions, cross-posts, referrals, and recommendations.
• Schedule newsletters and set a preview before sharing. 
• Monetize your newsletter by offering monthly, annual, group, or gift subscriptions.
• Substack uses Stripe to process payments.
• Analytics dashboard for tracking subscriber growth and engagement rates.

Pricing

It’s free to set up an account and get started on Substack. If you decide to turn on paid subscriptions, Substack keeps 10% of your revenue. There’s also an additional 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee.

To learn more about Substack’s transaction fees, check out this page.

Customer reviews

Substack receives a 6.8-star rating out of 10 on TrustRadius. Many users praise its easy-to-use interface and easy-to-navigate content search. But I also found many customer reviews that say the Substack customer service is “not present” and “they won’t respond.”

Best for Growth and Monetization: beehiiv

beehiiv was founded in 2021 by early employees of the Morning Brew and has since become one of the most popular newsletter platforms on the market. They offer the most features for growing your newsletter out of all platforms on this list at a competitive price.

beehiiv is ideal for those who are just starting out and want to grow their newsletter and aren’t focused on other email types (since beehiiv is positioned as a newsletter platform). Plus, they offer a generous free plan that goes up to 2,500 subscribers.

Although beehiiv doesn’t have a drag-and-drop email builder (which limits your ability to create custom designs), they do have an intuitive inline text editor.

beehiiv has recently become less ideal for newsletters with large email lists after they raised their prices back in April 2024 (which is now 2-3x more expensive for email lists with 25,000+ subscribers). 

Customer support is also known to be slow, which could become a major problem if your business is reliant on your timely newsletter. When I submitted a support ticket to ask about their email validation system, it took 2 days and 7 hours to get a response.

Pros

• It comes with unique features for growing your newsletter, like its ad network, referral program, and partner network
• Offers unlimited sending, which can benefit high-frequency senders (say daily or am/pm alerts)
• More affordable than most newsletter platforms on this list (except BigMailer and Sendy)
• Generous free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers

Cons

• The pricing increased in April 2024, and now grandfathered customers are facing the same increase (2-3X if you have 25,000+ subscribers)
• The free plan has numerous limitations, and there’s a large leap in price for the more advanced features
• Doesn’t support transactional emails or RSS-to-email type campaigns
• Some customers complain about the customer support not being attentive enough
• No support offered to customers on a free plan, as of November 2024

Features

• Newsletter – Design templates without code using a text editor.
• Website – Create a website on a custom domain that you can cross-publish newsletters to.
• Text editor – Visually design your emails with a simple inline styling.
• Automations – Create automated email journeys based on triggers.
• Artificial Intelligence – Use AI for writing, spell checking, editing, changing your tone, translation, and generating images.
• Referral program – Create a referral program for your subscribers to share your newsletter with rewards set for reaching milestones.
• Boosts – Pay for other newsletters to promote your own, or get paid to promote other newsletters.
• Recommendations – Find recommended newsletters to cross-promote your newsletter with.
• Popups / Gating – Add popups to your website to capture subscribers.
• Subscribe Forms – Customize and embed signup forms on your website to capture subscribers.
• Magic Links – Enable people to subscribe with just a click without a signup form.
• Ad Network – Get set up with sponsors and have full control over your ad placements.
• Premium subscriptions – Offer monthly or annual paid subscriptions without paying a cut of your revenue.
• 3D Analytics – Track your newsletter’s engagement, performance, and acquisition channels.
• Segmentations – Create segments of your email list to enter an automated sequence.
• Polls & Survey Forms – Collect data from your subscribers without them having to leave your newsletter.
• A/B Testing – For subject lines.
• Integrations – Connect beehiiv directly to 12+ direct integrations like Webflow or connect your own software using their API.

Pricing

Beehiiv has 4 main plans that increase based on your subscribers. The free plan is limited to 2,500 subscribers. Paid plans start at $31.20/month for 1,000 susbcribers and go up to $319.20/month for 100,000 subscribers.

Here’s how much you’ll pay for the Scale and Max plan based on the size of your email list:

They offer about a 12% discount on annual pricing.

Check out beehiiv’s pricing page for more details.

Customer reviews

beehiiv receives mixed reviews, with a 3.1-star rating out of 5 on TrustPilot. Users like the easy-to-use interface and ad placements for monetization. Some negative reviews complain that the support is over-reliant on AI and human support is slow to respond.

No support offered to customers on a free plan, as of November 2024.

Best All-In-One: Mailchimp

Mailchimp is known for its 500-subscriber free plan that offers a variety of features, such as marketing automation and website building. 

However, Mailchimp is also noted for frequent updates that continue to take away features from the free plan. Customer support responsiveness varies, mostly because the type of support you receive is based on what plan you’re paying for.  

This is the 2nd most expensive newsletter platform on this list for its monthly plans. But they do offer a pay-as-you-go option that’s helpful for small businesses that only send the occasional newsletter.

Mailchimp is a good option for small businesses looking to send newsletters to a small list and need a website.

Mailchimp has one of the more intuitive email template builders on this list. Plus, they have 100+ customizable templates to start with.

They have plenty of integrations for ecommerce companies like Shopify and WooCommerce.

Pros

• Acts as an all-in-one mini marketing platform
• Clean interface with a simple but powerful editor
• Many integration options
• New features are continuously added
• Good for small businesses with small customer lists
• Free for up to 500 subscribers
• There’s a pay-as-you-go plan, which might be helpful for occasional newsletters

Cons

• High-cost subscription plans
• Some users mention being charged for unsubscribed or inactive contacts
• Free plan no longer includes email scheduling and only offers support for the first 30 days

Features

• Reporting & Analytics – Create custom reports and get email & audience dashboards.
• Automated Customer Journeys– Create your own automated sequences or use Mailchimp’s pre-built journey.
• Generative AI – Generate email content and optimize campaigns with AI.
• Custom-coded and pre-designed templates – Code your own HTML email templates or get started from a template library.
• Forms & Landing Pages – Create forms and landing pages to capture email subscribers.
• A/B Testing – Test different variations of your emails like subject lines, design, and send times.
• Dynamic Content – Create one design template and customize it for different list segments.
• Advanced Segmentation – Segment your email list based on unlimited conditions.
• Behavioral Targeting – Use behavioral data to create list segments.

Pricing

Mailchimp has 4 main email marketing plans that increase in price based on the number of contacts you have. The free plan is limited to 500 contacts. Paid plans start at $13/month for 500 contacts and go up to $1,600/month for 200,000 contacts.

Here’s how much you’ll pay for Mailchimp’s Standard and Premium plans based on your email list size:

Check out Mailchimp’s pricing page for more details.

Customer reviews

Mailchimp has a 4.3-star rating out of 5 on G2. Users like having one centralized platform to build, launch, and analyze their marketing campaigns. More critical reviews mention that customer support is slow.

Best Free Plan: Kit

Kit is a great choice for digital content creators just starting out, and who plan to sell digital products. It offers the most generous free plan of 10,000 subscribes, x4 the next closest tier of 2500 from beehiiv.

Kit gives you the tools you need to design and send emails, grow your audience with its Creator Network, and sell digital products (powered by Stripe).

This is especially useful for businesses that sell courses or paid subscriptions for their newsletter.

I found the email builder’s UI very intuitive and to have plenty of element options, including polls.

Kit might not meet the needs of large companies that need more sophisticated marketing automation and detailed analytics.

Pros

• The customer support gets compliments in reviews
• Clean, organized UI
• Pre-built email automation templates (which is unique)
• Perfect for selling digital products directly to your audience
• Built-in editor is fast and easy to use
• The Creator Network gives you another option to grow your subscribers
• Offers a free newsletter plan for up to 10,000 subscribers

Cons

• Pricing becomes drastically more expensive 
• Email designer can be frustrating to learn (no drag and drop feature)
• Advanced email personalization requires basic coding knowledge
• Landing page builder lacks functionality
• No spam testing
• Doesn’t offer transactional email
• Subscriber referrals are only available on Kit’s more expensive Pro plan.

Features

• Email designer – Visually design email templates or start from customizable pre-built templates.
• Deliverability – Kit boasts an average 99.73% deliverability rate.
• Visual automations – Use a visual building tool to create automated sequences.
• Recommendations – Use the Creator Network to have your newsletter recommended by other popular newsletters with similar audiences.
• Landing pages – Build hosted landing pages with templates and without code.
• Forms – Create signup forms for lead magnets, use pop-up forms, and create categorized signup forms.
• Commerce – Sell digital products and paid subscriptions with Stripe.
• Sponsor Network – Find advertisers through their Sponsor Network for your newsletter.
• Integrations – Integrate with e-commerce tools to make digital sales easy.
• RSS-to-email – Automatically send emails from curated RSS feeds.

Pricing

Kit offers 3 main plans. The free newsletter plan goes up to 10,000 subscribers. The paid plans start at $15/month for 300 subscribers and go up to $2,599/month for 400,000 subscribers.  

Here’s how much you’ll pay for the Creator and Pro plans based on your email list size:

They offer 2 months off when you pay annually.

For more accurate information, check out ConverKit’s pricing page.

Customer reviews

Kit has a 4.4-star rating out of 5 on G2. Users love the easy writing experience and advanced automation features. They also like how the Creator Network program has helped build their email list with highly relevant leads by teaming up with other creators with the same audience. Many users complain about how expensive it can be, and some mentioned that they migrated to other tools with more in-depth tracking and analytics. 

Best for Publishing: Ghost

The Ghost platform is known for its ability to customize themes, which gives you complete control over the design of your site and newsletter. 

Ghost is basically a WordPress alternative that’s easier to set up and has built-in features for SEO, subscriptions, and newsletters. 

Ghost could be a good option for your newsletter if you plan on starting a blog and newsletter publication.

I wouldn’t recommend Ghost if you already have a website because of its more expensive pricing plans.

However, if you’re looking to start a paid subscription newsletter, this could be a good option because they don’t charge fees for that.

Pros

• No transaction fees
• Helpful if you also want to start a blog
• Extensive publishing and content tools
• UI is clean and uncluttered, which allows for easy setup for beginners
• No fees for paid subscribers

Cons

• Ghost’s pricing increases significantly as you scale past 25,000 subscribers 
• There’s only a credit-card-required 14-day free trial, not a free plan
• Some customers complain that the admin API is limiting and difficult to use

Features

• Site design – Create a custom website for your blog with the help of templates.
• Advanced creator tools – Publish to your website or newsletter and create content using Markdown and rich media.
• Grow your audience – Get subscribers to sign up for free or offer paid subscriptions.
• Membership management – Get insights into your subscribers and what content they’re engaging with.
• Offers & promotions – Run special promotions and discounts to encourage paid subscribers.
• Integrations – Connect your tech stack with over 50 integrations, including Google Analytics and Zapier.

Pricing

After your 14-day free trial, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid pricing plan. Pricing plans start at $11/month for 500 members and go up to $3,019 for 385,000 members.

Here’s how much you’ll pay for the Creator, Team, and Business plans based on your email list size:

They offer about a 20% discount on annual pricing.

For more accurate details, check out Ghost’s pricing page.

Customer reviews

Ghost receives a 4.1-star rating out of 5 on G2. People love how simple the platform is, but others complain that it might not be the best tool if you’re after more advanced and intricate features (especially for big blogging sites).

Frequently Asked Questions about Email Platforms

How much does it cost to operate a newsletter?

Most newsletter platforms will cost more the larger your email list is. Depending on your platform, this could range anywhere from $10-$50/month for 1,000 subscribers and up to $200-$1,000/month for 100,000 subscribers.

Another factor to consider is if you hire a team to help you run your newsletter. You’ll likely need to hire writers, designers, and an email marketing expert. Depending on whether you hire freelancers or in-house employees, this cost will vary widely.

What is the best free email newsletter platform?

If you want a newsletter platform that’s 100% free regardless of your subscriber count, Substack is going to be your best bet. However, if you want more features, Kit has one of the most competitive free newsletter plans that goes up to 10,000 subscribers.

How do I switch email newsletter platforms?

1. Back up your email templates, campaign history, and any other essential data from your current platform.
2. Make sure to only export subscribers that didn’t hard bounce, complained, or unsubscribed. You may want to download complainers separately if you want to use them for a suppression on a new platform (if it support suppression list feature).
3. Export and save final reports or data that you might need in the future from your old platform.
4. Import your subscriber list, email templates, and other data into the new platform.
5. Recreate any automated workflows (like welcome sequences or drip campaigns) on the new platform.
6. Verify your sender on the new platform.
7. Send test emails to ensure everything is working as expected, including links, images, and formatting.
8. Ensure that subscribers’ preferences and consent settings are preserved during the migration.
9. Closely monitor deliverability rates, open rates, click rates, and other KPIs after the switch to identify any issues.

Ready to Choose Your Newsletter Platform?

If you’re a marketing agency, email consultant, or have a large team, BigMailer has all of the features you need to create, distribute, and grow your newsletter — at a much lower cost than any platform on this list.

Have questions about BigMailer’s features or pricing? Reach out to us via chat or schedule a demo. 

Or, if you’re ready to give BigMailer a try, get started with a free account.