Constant Contact

Pricing based on: Contacts

Pros

• Contact based pricing with unlimited emails to contacts
• Great customer support and live assistance
• No start up fees
• 60 day free trial
• 300+ email templates
• Amazon and Paypal clickable button links
• 15% annual prepay discount
• Up to 30% discount for prepay available to non-profits

Cons

• Survey templates start at $7.50/month (or 50% of the cost of your current email plan)
• Email Archiving costs $5 per month
• 5 free images is relatively not a lot of storage
• Free trial allows up to only 100 contacts
• Importing contact lists isn't fully compatible with Excel 2007
  
  (only currently works with the CSV file extension)

Conclusion
Constant Contact definitely has the most well-known brand name in the email marketing industry. And at $15 per month, they offer a relatively low-priced email marketing option that will work for most people. You can create emails from a template or HTML but not from plain text. They offer contact based pricing and allow for unlimited emails to the contacts in your plan. You also receive a confirmation message upon the completion of your email releases. Constant Contact's feature set and interface are great. Their plan offers campaign creation - boasting more than 300 templates, easily insertable Amazon and Paypal click-to-buy links, and image hosting upgrades. ConstantContact also offers a high annual prepay discount of 15% and an even higher non-profit discount at 30%.

*We found their customer service to be reliable and helpful.

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iContact

Pricing based on: Contacts

Pros

• Contact based pricing
• Free survey email templates
• Full feature set available with all plans
• Easy to navigate site
• No start up fees
• 300+ email templates
• 10% annual prepay discount.
• 20% non-profit discount

Cons

• 500 kb of hosted images is relatively not a lot of storage
• Importing contact lists isn't fully compatible with Excel 2007
  
  (only currently works with the CSV file extension)

Conclusion
iContact is a great email marketing service for most people. They offer free survey email templates, no start up fees, and a substantial number of general email templates. You can also create emails from HTML or plain text. iContact is one of the few email marketing services that allows its users to create a plain text message, meaning you can create a message just as you regularly would in an email, without having to use a template.

Starting at $9.95/month for 500 contacts, iContact is one of the most competitively priced options in our survey. They also offer outstanding technical support and live assistance. With iContact, you can email your entire contact list up to 6 times per month and receive a confirmation message upon the completion of your email releases. Instead of charging overage fees, they have an automated system in the form of a bar or meter that will alert the user if they are close to going over their subscription limit. You will then be prompted to upgrade your account to the next level.

OnMarketer

Pricing based on: Contacts

Pros

• Contact based pricing with unlimited emails to contacts
• Outlook, Mobile, and Master (Email +Mobile) Versions
• Helpful walk-through tutorial
• Unlimited image hosting
• Extensive template galleries
• 10% annual prepay discount
• 20% non-profit discount
• Custom designs (at extra cost)

Cons

• $20 start up fee
• Live assistance is not available
• Extra fee for opt-in List creator
• Free trial only allows 20 contacts
• Textual ads show up in account

Conclusion
OnMarketer offers contact based pricing with unlimited emails to the contacts in your plan, which is a huge plus. They are definitely more expensive than their competitors, but they have some really cool features that their competitors don't have. If you sign up for the OnLetterhead product in addition to OnMarketerEmail, you get an Outlook plug in that allows you to use the same template you use for sending email marketing campaigns for sending every day emails. This feature could be a great tool for creating brand identity.

Another plus of OnMarketer is that importing contact lists is fully compatible with Excel 2007. In other email marketing services, you must use the CSV file extension. You can create emails from a template, HTML, or plain text, but one downside of their service is that you're not sent a confirmation message upon the completion of your email releases. However, they do offer unlimited emails to your contact list and unlimited image hosting in addition to all the standard features.

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EliteEmail

Pricing based on: Emails

Pros

• Unlimited free image hosting
• No start up fee
• Helpful quick start guide
• 1,000 emails in free trial
• Monthly Unlimited Sending Account available
• Customizable Forwarding Form
• 200+ email templates
• 20% non-profit discount

Cons

• Email based pricing
• Survey emails not available

Conclusion
At $10 for 1,000 emails, Elite Email is a competitively priced email marketing option. Their pricing system is an email based system that saves you more as you buy more emails. You can create emails from a template or HTML but not from plain text. They provide you with free technical support as well as a personal account executive to answer any of your questions. One shortcoming of their service is that you must follow strict header guidelines when importing contact lists, and they must be in the CSV file extension.

Elite Email offers free unlimited image storage for your email campaigns and an online image editor for image tailoring. This feature is extremely valuable for senders of image-heavy emails. Elite Email also offers a "Monthly Unlimited Sending Account" for users who would rather pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to the full feature set than buy in bulk, but you must call for special pricing. Though they do not offer survey email templates, they advertise a Customizable Forwarding Form that asks email recipients to automatically forward the email to friends. This feature aids you in growing your mailing list and generating leads. In general, Elite Email offers unique features among other options in our survey and provides significant value for a fair price.

*When you sign up for an email marketing free trial, you can also try out Elite's site builder, web hosting, employee scheduler, and recruitment manager for free.

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Benchmark Email

Pricing based on: Emails

Pros

• Free survey email templates
• No start up fees
• 30 day free trial
• 10% annual prepay discount and FREE 13th month
• Double opt-in forms

Cons

• Email based pricing
• $5 per month for image hosting
• Importing contact lists isn't fully compatible with Excel 2007
  
  (only currently works with the CSV file extension)

Conclusion
Benchmark is very competitively priced. Unfortunately, their pricing is based on emails per month, not contacts in the data base. If you plan to email the same contact list multiple times per month then you should go with a service that offers pricing based on contacts like iContact, Constant Contact or OnMarketer. If that is not an issue, Benchmark offers a lot of bang for your buck. They provide you with free technical support and live assistance as well as a direct email customer service representative to answer any of your questions. You also receive a confirmation message upon the completion of your email releases. For $9.95 per month you get free survey email templates, no start up fees, 50 pre-made templates and 100 fully customizable templates.

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Vertical Response

Pricing based on: Emails

Pros

• 25 MB of free image hosting
• No start up fees
• Free live assistance
• Save more by buying in bulk
• 20% non-profit discount

Cons

• Email based pricing
• Survey emails not available
• Free trial only allows 25 emails

Conclusion
At $7.50/month for 500 emails, Vertical Response is one of the most competitively priced options in our survey. You can create messages from a template, HTML, or plain text and you also receive a confirmation message upon the completion of your email releases. However, their service does have a few downsides. One is that you're required to send out a test message before you can launch your email campaign. Even if you know the email you're sending out is error free, you are still required to send out a test message. Another downside is that importing contact lists must be in the CSV file extension.

Vertical Response's pricing is based on emails per month, not contacts in the data base. If you plan to email the same contact list multiple times per month than you should go with a service that offers pricing based on contacts like iContact, Constant Contact or OnMarketer. Vertical Response does offer some nice discounts if you buy in bulk. For instance, if you want to email 1,000 contacts 10 times a year, you could buy 1,000 emails 10 times and pay as you go ($15 each time) or buy 10,000 emails in bulk (for $120). Buying in bulk in this example would save you $30. As the number of contacts increases, so does your chance to save more. Email credits expire, however, one year after the purchase date. Vertical Response gives you 25 MB of free image hosting, which allows you to store hundreds of images for your campaigns. Vertical Response also offers Direct Mail (e-postcard mailing), which allows you to send out "postcards" with 75,000 images available for your use. The price ranges from 86 cents to $1.15 per postcard.

*Click Here for more information on their tiered pricing system.

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Bronto

Pricing based on: Annual Volume

Pros

• 10 MB of free image hosting
• No start up fee
• 30 day free trial
• 100+ email templates

Cons

• Email based pricing
• Pay annually only
• Importing contact lists isn't fully compatible with Excel 2007
  
  (only currently works with the CSV file extension)

Conclusion
Bronto starts at $995/year for up to 60,000 emails. You can create emails from a template, HTML, web page, rich text, or plain text. They do not offer pay-as-you-go plans, but they do offer discounts for non-profits. Their Core Edition (lowest priced) is priced with "small business budgets and ease of use in mind." Their other editions, however, are targeted towards large professional organizations, such as "interactive agencies and marketing organizations" and cost more. The Core Edition provides a competitive 10 MB of free image hosting and an extensive, professional template gallery. This option is suggested for senders of a high volume of emails, who are willing to pay significantly more for a more robust service.

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StreamSend

Pricing based on: Emails

Pros

• Private IP address
• 30 day free trial
• Easy to navigate site
• Google Analytics integration
• No branding required

Cons

• Email based pricing
• No survey emails
• 4 template categories
• Importing contact lists isn't fully compatible with Excel 2007
  (only currently works with the CSV file extension)

Conclusion
Starting at $19.90/month for up to 2,000 emails, StreamSend is a competitively priced email marketing option if you plan on sending a number of emails close to that volume. One advantage to their service is the availability of a private IP address for each customer. This means that you are the only person accountable if your IP address gets blacklisted. In other email marketing services, you share an IP address meaning that if one user doesn't follow proper email marketing practices, everyone on the IP address can get their emails blocked.

StreamSend's site is also easy to navigate, and they don't require branding to be placed on your emails. You can create emails from a template, HTML, or plain text. However, you don't receive a confirmation message upon the completion of your email releases. StreamSend has a few other downsides, like their inability to send survey emails, but their pros far outweigh their cons. StreamSend recently setup a free weekly webinar to help their customers improve their delivery rates.

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MailChimp

Pricing based on: Contacts

Pros

• Contact based pricing
• Unlimited image hosting
• No branding required

Cons

• Lacks full reporting features
• Importing contact lists isn't fully compatible with Excel 2007
  (only currently works with the CSV file extension)

Conclusion
At $15/month for 500 contacts, MailChimp offers a relatively low-priced email marketing option that will work for most people. They provide you with live chat and telephone support to answer any of your questions. MailChimp also offers unlimited image hosting for your email campaigns. This feature is extremely valuable for senders of image-heavy emails.

One shortcoming of their service is that you must follow strict header guidelines when importing contact lists, and they must be in the CSV file extension. Another is that their premium features are expensive. MailChimp's Inbox Inspector is extremely valuable but costs $39 for 3 tests. It tests your campaign in all the major email programs, spam filters, and corporate firewalls to improve your delivery rates. Overall, MailChimp's site is easy to use and their email marketing service includes most features you will want. MailChimp now offers a weekly webinar to help you get started.

*You must sign up using your company's domain name to prevent abuse and to keep MailChimp from getting their servers blacklisted.

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MyNewsletterBuilder

Pricing based on: Emails

Pros

• All-in-one interface
• Helpful live customer support
• 99% delivery verified
• Multimedia enabled

Cons

• Email based pricing
• Relatively expensive
• Must use a template
• Branding is required
• Importing contact lists isn't fully compatible with Excel 2007
  (only currently works with the CSV file extension)

Conclusion
At $14/month for up to 600 emails, MyNewsletterBuilder is a relatively expensive email marketing option. However, their service does include surveys, list management, and reporting to go along with email newsletters. MyNewsletterBuilder's live customer support was also extremely helpful in answering any questions we had. With their email marketing service, you can create emails from a template or HTML but not from plain text. You also receive a confirmation message upon the completion of your email releases. Overall, MyNewsletterBuilder has a really sound email marketing service. They're just a more expensive option than their competitors.

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Campaigner

Pricing based on: Emails

Pros

• 25 MB of free image hosting
• Free technical support and live assistance
• No start up fees
• Save more by buying in bulk

Cons

• Email based pricing
• Survey emails not available
• Allows only 12 contacts in free trial
• Importing contact lists isn't fully compatible with Excel 2007
  
  (only currently works with the CSV file extension)

Conclusion
Campaigner features an image library that can hold hundreds of images, which you can insert into any email campaign and which can be accessed at any time without using a third-party website. This is a great option for email campaigners who send image-heavy emails. You can create emails from a template, HTML, or plain text. Campaigner has email based pricing, however, and doesn't offer survey email templates. You're also unable to immediately send email campaigns and don't receive a confirmation message upon the completion of your email releases. If the price seems a bit high at $25/month it's because they don't offer plans less than 2,500 emails per month. They do offer discounts for buying in bulk. At the 25,000 email level and above, Campaigner offers pretty competitive pricing.

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ExactTarget

Pricing based on: Annual Volume

Pros

• Custom to fit needs
• Private IP address
• 24/7 support
• Helpful live assistance

Cons

• Email based pricing
• Pay annually only
• 7 templates

Conclusion
ExactTarget customizes their pricing to fit your email marketing needs. At the high level, the cost for their email marketing service can run from $2,500 up to $700,000 per year. We talked with a business development manager to get an estimated quote for 1,000 emails per month and the annual price came out to $1,800. Although this is on the high end, ExactTarget offers a wide range of features not available in other email marketing services such as a private IP address, 24/7 support, and integration with Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. ExactTarget is suggested for senders of a high volume of emails who don't mind paying significantly more for excellent customer service and an expanded feature set.

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Emma

Pricing based on: Emails

Pros

• Great customer service
• Unlimited image hosting
• No branding required

Cons

• $250 start up fee
• No free trial
• No templates

Conclusion
With a start up fee of $250 and $30/month for up to 1,000 emails, Emma is one of the more expensive email marketing services in our survey. However, their start up fee covers the creation of a custom-design template to match your website, branding and general style. Although Emma doesn't offer a free trial, you can request a tour. Their customer service was also extremely helpful in answering my questions.

Emma is recommended for users who want to have a custom design template for their email marketing solution. If you don't need a custom design template, then you should go with a service that doesn't have a start up fee like iContact or Constant Contact.

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ContactPro

Pricing based on: Contacts

Pros

• Contact based pricing
• 24/7 support
• Useful live assistance
• Helpful online self help

Cons

• No list segmentation
• No early campaign scheduling
• 5 images is a relatively small amount of storage
• Branding on emails you send out
• Importing contact lists isn't fully compatible with Excel 2007
  (only currently works with the CSV file extension)

Conclusion
At $15 per month for 1,000 contacts, ContactPro is a competitively priced email marketing option. They also allow for unlimited emails to the contacts in your plan. However, their email marketing service lacks features that are necessary for someone who's serious about using email marketing. You can create emails from a template or HTML but not from plain text. ContactPro also doesn't allow you to separate your contact lists into different email lists or schedule your campaigns early. Therefore, when you create an email campaign, you have no choice but to send it out immediately. Another downside to ContactPro is that survey emails cost an additional $15 per month. Although their customer support and live assistance are helpful and friendly, ContactPro doesn't have the full feature set that is necessary for most email marketers.

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JangoMail

Pricing based on: Emails

Pros

• Helpful customer service
• No branding required

Cons

• Email based pricing
• $500 start up fee
• Minimum 3 month service agreement
• Difficult to navigate site
• Importing contact lists isn't fully compatible with Excel 2007
  (only currently works with the CSV file extension)

Conclusion
JangoMail has a $500 set up fee, which is about $500 over market and also requires a minimum 3 month service agreement. Their site is also difficult to navigate. However, their service does have its advantages. They have helpful customer service as well as a 911 Emergency Support site for after hour emergencies. Like iContact and Constant Contact, you also receive a confirmation message upon the completion of your email releases. Branding isn't required on your emails, but you can get a 10% discount if you choose to have their logo appear. At $30 per month for 1,000 emails, JangoMail is one of the more expensive email marketing services in our survey.

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