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9 Best Mailchimp Alternatives for WordPress

Mailchimp is arguably the most popular email marketing tool, supported by the vast majority of popup builder plugins and form builder plugins. Unfortunately, popular doesn’t mean the best. There are some issues surrounding Mailchimp. One of which is regarding fake email subscribers.

If you also have an issue with Mailchimp and plan to switch to another alternative, we have crafted a list of the best Mailchimp alternatives. More specifically for WordPress.

Some Reasons to Look for a Mailchimp Alternative

Before switching to our current email marketing tool, (we use MailPoet, by the way) we used Mailchimp for about two years. During the period, we managed to collect about 1,000 subscribers. The open rate was very bad every time we sent a newsletter. Turned out, after we figured out the problem, over half of our subscribers were fake. Here is the evidence.

Of course, you can enable double opt-in to stop fake subscribers, but it should not happen on a big service like Mailchimp.

If you are experiencing the same issue with Mailchimp (or whatever the issue that makes you want to switch away), we have curated some better Mailchimp alternatives for WordPress.

In WordPress, there are two types of tools when it comes to email marketing. First, you can use a plugin. An email marketing plugin allows you to do everything from your WordPress dashboard. From managing subscribers to sending newsletters. Second, you can use a third-party service. Mailchimp is one of the examples of third-party email marketing services.

Unlike an email marketing plugin, a third-party email marketing service requires you to login to the dashboard of the associated service to manage subscribers, send newsletters, and other things related to email marketing.

WordPress Plugins Alternatives to Mailchimp

The main advantage of using an email marketing to replace Mailchimp on your WordPress is that you have a full control over your data, email subscribers in particular. Also, an email marketing plugin has a better integration with WordPress.

You can customize some pages belong to the plugin to match your brand. Here are some plugins you use to replace Mailchimp.

1. Mailster

Most email marketing tools and plugins adopt a subscription-based business model for the pro version. If you hate this business model, Mailster is the best option to run email marketing on your WordPress site. It is an email marketing plugin so that you can do everything from your WordPress dashboard.

Mailster is marketed via CodeCanyon and you can get it with a one-time purchase option with a support period of 6 months or 12 months. You will continue to get the plugin updates after the support period ends. The developer offers lifetime updates for the plugin.

Although you don’t need to spend money on a monthly/yearly basis for Mailster, you still need to spend monthly/yearly fee for email delivery service unless you use your own SMTP server. Mailster has no built-in email delivery service, so you have to rely on a third-party email delivery service. Mailster can be integrated with services like Mailgun, SendGrid, SparkPost, and MailJet. You can also use your own SMTP service if you have one.

The key features offered by Mailster include:

  • Drag and drop email editor
  • Premade email templates
  • Subscriber manager
  • Form builder
  • Analytics

2. MailPoet

If you are looking for an all-in-one email marketing plugin, MailPoet is one of our recommendations. As mentioned in the opening section, we currently use this plugin to send email newsletters to our subscribers. MailPoet already has a built-in email delivery service so that you don’t need to subscribe to a third-party service to be able to send emails. MailPoet is a great option if you are just getting started running email marketing as you can use it for free until your subscribers reaches 1,000.

MailPoet also comes with a drag and drop email builder just like Mailster above. One of the advantages of using MailPoet is that you can customize the pages like welcome page, unsubscribe page, and other pages belong to MailPoet. You can create a custom page using your page builder of choice. MailPoet can be integrated with page builders like Elementor and Beaver Bulder.

3. weMail

weMail lets you manage subscribers and send newsletters and other types of email campaigns right from your WordPress dashboard just like MailPoet above. However, you can’t send an email before you set up an integration with an email delivery service as weMail has no built-in email delivery feature. You need to connect weMail with services like Mailgun, SparkPost, and SendGrid. weMail is a cloud-based tool so it won’t consume much of your server’s resources.

4. Newsletter

As the name suggests, Newsletter is a WordPress plugin to create newsletters. Of course, it also lets you manage the subscribers before you send the newsletters. Newsletter comes with a drag and drop email builder to ease your job in creating the email. To track the performance of the emails you sent, Newsletter supports a native integration with Google Analytics. Newsletter has no built-in email delivery service so you need to integrate it with a third-party email delivery service before you can start sending emails.

5. Brevo

Brevo was formerly known as Sendinblue. It is basically an email marketing tool just like Mailchimp. However, it offers a dedicated plugin for WordPress where you can run all the email marketing processes from the WordPress dashboard. From managing subscribers to sending email campaigns. With Brevo, you don’t need to set up an email delivery yourself as it already has a built-in email delivery service. The Brevo plugin allows you to:

  • Manage subscribers
  • Manage forms
  • Send campaigns
  • Track the campaigns

Since Brevo is an online service, you need to connect your account with your WordPress site first before you can use the plugin. You can connect your account via an API key.

Email Marketing Tools Alternatives to Mailchimp

If prefer using a third-party email marketing tool instead of a plugin, here is the list of the best Mailchimp alternatives you can consider.

1. MailerLite

MailerLite is a simple email marketing tool. It is probably the closest alternative to Mailchimp. You can use it for free as long as your subscribers are 1,000 or fewer. With MailerLite, you can send email newsletters and other types of campaigns. MailerLite allows you to filter email subscribers by enabling double opt-in. You can connect MailetLite with your WordPress site in a wide range of ways. If you use Elementor, you can use its form builder to create an email subscription form. Other page builder plugins like Brizy and Divi Builder also support integration with MailerLite.

2. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an all-in-one email marketing tool. It offers features like CRM, marketing automation, and email marketing which you can use to replace Mailchimp. However, ActiveCampaign offers no free version, so it is not the best option if you are just getting started with email marketing (trial version is available). Some features related to email marketing offered by ActiveCampaign are email segmentation, subscription form, subscriber manager, drag and drop email builder, and so on.

3. ConvertKit

Looking for an email marketing tool that offers a free version? ConvertKit is worth trying, then. It is an email marketing tool widely used by digital creators. Some creators use it to create a series of emails for their subscribers. In addition to sending newsletters, you can also use ConvertKit to sell digital products and online courses. Some popular page builder plugins and form builder plugins support integration with ConvertKit.

4. GetResponse

GetResponse is an all-in-one email marketing tool, pretty similar to ActiveCampaign. In addition to email marketing, GetResponse also comes with features like web push notification, landing page builder, and website builder.

GetReponse is also supported by most page builder plugins, including Brizy

With GetResponse, you can send email newsletters, create automated email sequenses, set automated blog digest, and so on. Of course, drag and drop email builder and subscriber manager are also available. One of the interesting features offered by GetReponse is an integration with Shutterstock to allow you to insert images from Shutterstock image library.

5. AWeber

Another email marketing tool you can consider if you want to make a switch from Mailchimp is AWeber. It offers a free version, which is great if you are just getting started to maximize your email marketing to grow your website. AWeber itself is an all-in-one email marketing tool. Email marketing is one of its features. Its email marketing feature allows you to send newsletters and other types of email campaigns. AWeber partners with Canva to allow you to design an email using Canva.

The Bottom Line

Maximizing email marketing is crucial to grow your WordPress site. When it comes to email marketing, the number of email subscribers is the main bargaining value when you want to send someone or a company a proposal to partner with. Thanks to the popularity of Mailchimp, many WordPress developers offer a native integration with it.

Unfortunately, as we said earlier, popular doesn’t mean the best. There are many better alternatives to Mailchimp. In WordPress, you can use plugins like MailPoet and Newsletter to run email marketing. If you would rather be using a third-party email marketing tool instead, MailerLite and ConvertKit are two examples of Mailchimp alternatives you can use, other than tools we mentioned above.

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Aliko Sunawang

Aliko Sunawang

Aliko is a WordPress expert and lead blogger at WPPagebuilders. He has been blogging with WordPress since 2012. He is responsible of all content published on this website.
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2 thoughts on “9 Best Mailchimp Alternatives for WordPress”

  1. I would highly recommend checking Groundhogg too. It’s simply the best CRM, E-Mail-Marketing & Sales-Pipeline-Software for WordPress! I use it on 20 websites of happy clients already 🙂

    Reply

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