8 Best Newsletter CRM Software Of 2024 (Free & Paid)

Upfront Conclusion

The best newsletter crm oftware right now isActiveCampaign and Mailchimp.

Newsletters have become one of the most profitable marketing tools to date. Professionals are often hired to create them to make businesses stand out. However, what if there was a way you and your team could create professional-looking marketing campaigns and newsletters without hiring any more staff? This article goes over the top 8 best CRMs to help you create aesthetically pleasing newsletters filled with exciting and engaging content. Additionally, they are also packed with features to not only help automate and evaluate your marketing process, but also to give you the freedom to focus on your creative genius and do what you do best.

The Top 8 Best CRM Software for Newsletters

ActiveCampaign – Best for Automation
Mailchimp – Best Classic Offering
Insightly – Best for Building Relationships
Moosend – Best for Branding and Personalization
Drip – Best for Ecommerce
ConvertKit – Best for Creatives
Constant Contact – Best for Simplicity
Agile – Best All-In-One

1. ActiveCampaign – Best for Automation

PRICING: Ranges from $15-$687 per month based on how many contacts you have. There is also custom pricing for enterprises, and if your contacts exceed over 100k in which you must contact the vendor. Extra savings apply when you commit annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Ideal for those working in e-commerce, B2C, and B2B, Active Campaign is hardly lacking. Between the automation marketplace, contact scoring, and tracking, the hard part comes from choosing which features to use. Not to worry though, because ActiveCampaign has you covered in that department as well. Using the split testing and probability features alike, you’ll never find yourself wondering what the right course of action is again.

KEY FEATURES:

Machine learning to help you accomplish what matters most for your business.
Marketplace to find the right tool to automate various tasks.
Email extensions for Chrome and Outlook.

REASONS TO BUY:

By sending targeted, scheduled emails while utilizing email funnels, autoresponders, and more, you could increase your investment in the platform by 2000%.
Integrates seamlessly with WordPress and landing page creators like Unbounce.

REASONS TO AVOID:

Reporting could use more functionality and overall to be presented better.
Email formatting can be tricky for some users.

Try ActiveCampaign

2. Mailchimp – Best Classic Offering

PRICING: Plans vary from a marketing platform, websites and commerce, to transactional email, ranging from $0-$299 per month. Check out their website to see what would work best for your business needs.

Mailchimp is the OG of sending newsletters and marketing emails. From creating a landing page to attracting and building an audience, to eventually creating your first email campaign, the software has your back. Mailchimp then helps you retain subscribers old and new with its in-house Customer Journey Builder. That is where the magic happens, as you’ll get to create the perfect marketing process through automation and custom triggers. All you have to do is sit back and watch the success roll in.

KEY FEATURES:

Automate, target, and segment marketing messages with their behavior-based marketing.
Subject line helper to engage more contacts.
Creative AI assistance to help create beautiful email and advertising templates.

REASONS TO BUY:

Great for a large volume of subscribers.
Option to send multiple test emails to different people to get a feel of what works best.
Intelligent tools like smart recommendations to improve campaign performance.

REASONS TO AVOID:

Not ideal for affiliate marketing.
Customizing templates needs some updating.

3. Insightly – Best for Building Relationships

PRICING: From $29-$99 per user per month for the CRM, billed annually only. $299-$1,299 per user per month for marketing, also billed annually. There is a get started for free option, but for only up to two users.

Insightly prides itself on being relationship-based, not transactional. The team knows each business is unique, and so are their customers. Knowing this, Insightly gives you all the right tools to customize to your liking as many times as you’d like until you have found your secret sauce to success. The best part is that Insightly makes this all too easy to achieve. From a feature-rich free offering to various tools to gain customer feedback, your business potential is endless.

KEY FEATURES:

Customer journey feature to map out and see each interaction and if it is working.
Capture interest and feedback by implementing embedded forms.
Share insights across your departments.

REASONS TO BUY:

Industry-standard authentication protocols and data encryption.
Also has a service and integration hub.
Offers many free features that competitors would typically charge for.

REASONS TO AVOID:

Some users are having issues with the project management feature’s functionality.

4. Moosend – Best for Branding and Personalization

PRICING: $9-$315 per month, depending on how many subscribers you have. There is also a custom enterprise plan in which you must contact the vendor for pricing. A 30-day free trial is available to try all of their features.

Moosend’s specialty is customer behaviors. They have formulated a foolproof way to facilitate conversion by getting your brand’s name in front of customers. This quickly creates a loyal base of subscribers with practically no effort. With the infinite power of automation, Moosend allows you to hyper-personalize your marketing with features such as abandoned cart triggers, customer segmentation, and A/B testing so you can create emails that click.

KEY FEATURES:

Drag and drop feature for newsletters and landing page editor for optimal conversion.
Track and segment customer engagement in one concise dashboard.
Implement product recommendations in your emails to get more personal with your subscribers.

REASONS TO BUY:

First-class, highly praised customer support team that creates Trello boards where you can vote for new features you would like implemented.
Unlimited emails for up to 1000 contacts.
Powerful automation tools.
Competitive pricing to features ratio.

REASONS TO AVOID:

Not mobile-friendly.
Does not have spam filters.

5. Drip – Best for Ecommerce

PRICING: $19-$1,599 per month, depending on how many contacts you have. A 14-day free trial is available.

Drip takes the power of marketing to a much higher level by allowing you to use SMS in your strategy. Who says newsletters have to stay within the confines of email? SMS and email marketing are like partners in conversion, and Drip offers the ability to customize the most effective cross-channel marketing process. Like many other users, you could be well on your way to doubling your conversions within one year or less.

KEY FEATURES:

Set up brand forms and pop-ups in seconds.
Automate product recommendations, abandoned cart reminders, and offer birthday deals.
Actionable insights and guidance.

REASONS TO BUY:

SMS marketing templates and tools to increase engagement by 98%.
Ideal for large businesses with high volumes of subscribers.
Gives you the freedom to create without getting bogged down with technicalities.
Integrates with Shopify.

REASONS TO AVOID:

Some users complain the email creator isn’t as polished as it could be.

6. ConvertKit – Best for Creatives

PRICING: Free for your first 1,000 subscribers, then goes up to $2,299 per month for Creator and $2,599 per month for Creator Pro for up to 400k subscribers. Custom pricing for 500k subscribers and above. Get two months free plus extra savings when you commit annually.

ConvertKit puts the creativity in creating a beautiful newsletter. Using the built-in Creative Pro studio and Email Designer, you get to perfect your brand in a way that makes you shine. The more you shine, the more customers flock to be in your loop. Complete the look by taking advantage of this software’s marketing automation, sign-up forms, landing pages, and more.

KEY FEATURES:

Manage multiple businesses and departments all in one product using the tagging feature.
Customize how customers go through your sales funnel.
Sell digital products and subscriptions.

REASONS TO BUY:

Tutorials and how-to guides make the software approachable for those with not much marketing experience.
Provides a substantial amount of creative freedom to brand your content strategy seamlessly.
People are praising how modern and straightforward the UI and email templates are.

REASONS TO AVOID:

There is a relatively steep learning curve.
There are certain features left to be desired within the free plan.
Some say it is expensive compared to their competitors.

7. Constant Contact – Best for Simplicity

PRICING: From $9.99 per month or $45 per month based on the number of contacts. If you have more than 50k contacts, please contact the vendor for custom pricing. A free trial is available.

Constant Contact is pulling out all the stops to market your business. From text-to-join prompts to social media ads, their industry-leading growth tools help grow your audience. What’s more, create yourself a digital marketing giant by seamlessly integrating third-party applications to get business booming that much sooner. In the end, Constant Contact keeps it simple by helping you capture leads, share insights, and drive traffic.

KEY FEATURES:

Create mobile-friendly templates.
Compare campaign performances using the mobile vs. desktop open rate feature.
Connect your social media to market in as well.

REASONS TO BUY:

Contains a library of graphics in addition to templates to completely personalize your campaign.
Powerful analytics that allows printing of spreadsheets.
Has a retry sending feature to maximize engagement.

REASONS TO AVOID:

Designing can be a bit clunky.
It can be expensive.

8. Agile – Best All-In-One

PRICING: Free for up to 10 users, then it varies from $8.99 to $47.99 per month.

Agile takes it a step further by not just giving you a landing page, but allowing you to create a whole website directly in the app. This one-stop shop is the epitome of convenience, with email and mobile marketing and a full social media hub all in one place. This way, you get the most accurate insights to leverage and automate your entire marketing process.

KEY FEATURES:

A/B testing to see what strategies work best for engagement and conversion.
Performance analytics to see how many click-throughs you receive.
Embed video pop-ups within emails.
Includes a website builder.

REASONS TO BUY:

Like Salesforce, users appreciate how it is an all-in-one product for a fraction of the price.
Integration with multiple native and third-party platforms and tools to help manage notifications and keep an organized agenda.
Beginner friendly.

REASONS TO AVOID:

Some users would like to see the UI be upgraded.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Having a Newsletter Software Important?

Most can agree that marketing is vital for a growing business, and newsletters are an essential part of marketing. Sure, you can DIY the look of your newsletter and campaign emails using platforms such as Microsoft or Canva, but it will likely be very time intensive and could cost you in more ways than one. Adopting and using software that allows you to create and automate various emails to your subscribers can help immensely with time management, customer insights and metrics, and even make the creative process more enjoyable.

What Factors Should I Keep in Mind When Choosing the Right Software for Me?

There are many features to consider when choosing a marketing-based CRM. It depends on your business needs. It’s important to identify key features that would ultimately help take your business to the next level. Modern CRMs are coming in hot with more features, cleaner software, and successfully moving towards creating an all-in-one tech stack. Do your homework and assess whether simplicity works for you or if you need some (or all) of the fancy stuff. Ultimately, a basic functioning CRM should have accurate contact and lead management, a tracking element, and some level of an automation feature.

Why is it a Good Idea to Combine Both CRM and Newsletter Software?

Because both directly involve and impact your customer base. They are a dynamic duo. The major difference, though, is that a CRM’s only function is to keep contacts and their data organized. A newsletter, or marketing integration in general, is what makes an all-encompassing CRM so valuable. When utilized correctly, it’s what takes your business to the next level by impacting, monitoring, and segmenting customer engagement with your brand.