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In the previous two articles, we introduced the EMR-native Ranger integration solution with OpenLDAP and Windows AD. In this article, we will introduce open-source Ranger integration. This article will discuss “OpenLDAP + Open-Source Ranger.”
1. OpenLDAP + Open-Source Ranger Solution Overview
1.1 Solution Architecture
The best CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software solutions help sales teams streamline critical processes to improve productivity, track customer interactions and gain actionable insights to deliver a personalized experience to sell smarter, shorten the sales cycle and drive better retention rates.
This article reviews the 21 best CRM software to help you streamline your searches. We’ll cover the key features, user experience, pricing plans, strengths, and weaknesses. So, let’s get to it.
1. Salesforce Sales Cloud CRM
Salesforce Sales Cloud is a cloud-based customer relationship management solution that supports large sales teams and every customer touchpoint.
Over 150,000 companies, including world-leading brands like IBM, NBCUniversal, and Sonos, use the CRM system to streamline workflow automation.
Key Features
Project Management — The software natively integrates with Slack, allowing you to seamlessly manage your Salesforce tasks in one central location and collaborate remotely with colleagues, customers, and partners in real-time.
Sales Forecasting — Salesforce can estimate your future sales revenue using your current and historical pipeline data. Again, integrating with apps like revVana helps you gain better revenue insights.
Flexible and Scalable — This CRM software helps small businesses and enterprises meet their growing needs without sacrificing performance. Salesforce CRM is entirely cloud-based, supports over 8,700 integrations, and has an open API, making it highly extensible.
User Experience
Setting up an account only takes three steps.
The dashboard is clean and straightforward, making it easy to use. You can click the modules on the navigation menu to use its features. Additionally, the CRM software displays information in graphs, pie charts, and tables in an easy-to-understand way.
Salesforce Sales Cloud has a robust knowledge base to hit the ground running immediately.
Pricing
Salesforce offers four subscription plans, billed annually:
- Essential $25 per user per month
- Professional $75 per user per month
- Enterprise $150 per user per month
- Unlimited $300 per user per month
Strengths
- It’s fully cloud-based (you don’t need to install anything)
- 30-day free trial
- Customer relations management automation
- Supports over 8,000 integrations and apps
- Multilingual and multi-currency support
- Open API
- Leads management and business intelligence tools
- Round-the-clock support
- Multiple appointment scheduling
- Mass emailing capability
Weaknesses
- It doesn’t support live chat
- Not suitable for on-premise deployment
2. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is one of our top options for the best CRM software today. The cloud-based solution helps marketers set up their pipelines, track progress in real-time and automate routine tasks. Over 100,000 companies in 179 countries use the software.
Key Features
Real-Time Alerts — Pipedrive has a built-in reminder that keeps you posted on all your sales activities so you don’t miss a follow-up.
Reporting — The CRM provides detailed reports on pipeline performance. With this insight, you can measure your progress against your business goals.
Revenue Forecasting — The software can forecast your sales volume and revenue using your pipeline data. It automatically updates the estimate when a lead’s status changes.
Leads Capture — Pipedrive has a customizable web form that helps you capture leads for your pipeline. Also, you can segment the leads for personalized communications.
User Experience
Pipedrive is user-friendly. New users will be able to get the hang of it quickly. Also, the CRM software has a robust help center to help users set up and customize their accounts.
It features a visual pipeline that lets you see your sales strategies and process and update a lead status by dragging and dropping it. Additionally, it presents reports in easy-to-understand ways.
The software offers live chat and round-the-clock email support for quick resolutions.
Pricing
Pipedrive offers four plans, billed monthly and annually.
- Essential $11.90 per user per month
- Advanced $24.90 per user per month
- Professional $49.90 per user per month
- Enterprise $74.90 per user per month
Strengths
- Faster deal closing
- Omnichannel lead generation
- Efficient customer relationship management
- Free trial (no credit card required)
- Goal setup and tracking
- Sales forecast
- Over 350 integrations
- 14-days free trial
- API support
- Real-time support
Weaknesses
- No free plan
- The dashboard could feel overwhelming
3. Oracle Netsuite CRM
Oracle NetSuite Customer Relationship Management software promises to deliver the real-time data you need to manage interactions with potential customers, existing customers, and suppliers, deliver exceptional customer experiences and drive sales.
Over 32,000 customers use Oracle NetSuite products.
Key Features
Sales Force Automation — NetSuite CRM SFA unifies your sales processes and provides unprecedented insights into every aspect of your customer relationship to supercharge your sales performance.
Marketing Workflow — You can create and launch targeted marketing campaigns to grow your leads pool. Also, the CRM lets you segment your leads to deliver a personalized experience, shortening the sales cycle.
Customer Service Management — NetSuite automates customer service management, allowing users to focus on other pressing day-to-day activities. For example, it can review the status of submitted tickets and reply with follow-up communications.
Partnership Relationship Management — NetSuite CRM is not just a customer relationship management software. Instead, the platform is a complete business management tool that helps you manage relationships with partners, share real-time information, and maintain control over partner-focused sales processes.
User Experience
This CRM could be more beginner-friendly if not for its many features and advanced functionalities. However, the software offers a search feature to help users find things faster. Another user experience challenge is Netsuite’s time-demanding customization.
Plus, some users have reported crashes and downtime.
Besides these challenges, NetSuite has an excellent user interface that makes it exciting. Also, it offers live chat support, helpful resources, and a comprehensive knowledge base.
Pricing
NetSuite charges an annual license fee but doesn’t provide any pricing plans. You must contact their customer support to learn about the deployment needs of their CRM systems.
Strengths
- A centralized data source that gives users unprecedented visibility into their sales process
- Salesforce, marketing, and customer service automation
- Partner relationship management
- Advanced reporting and analytics
- Great user interface
- Sales forecasting
- Mobile
Weaknesses
- No monthly subscription plans
- Not-too-great user experience
- Expensive compared to other CRM solutions
4. Zoho CRM
Over 250,000 businesses worldwide use Zoho CRM software solutions. It helps management, marketing, support, and sales teams address their customer relationship management and omnichannel engagement needs.
The platform empowers users to deliver personalized experiences and drive sales through multiple channels.
Key Features
Sales Force Automation — You can create workflows to reduce manual data entry, eliminate redundancies and automate repetitive sales, marketing, and customer service functions.
Journey Orchestration — Zoho CRM lets users create personalized customer journeys and track each prospect’s path to identify delays or loopholes and optimize the sales process.
Omnichannel — With the Zoho CRM software, you can engage and track customer interactions across multiple channels, including email, social media, phone, and the self-service channel.
Sales Enablement — Zoho CRM enables frictionless sales processes. You can generate quotes, invoices, and orders within the CRM software. Also, it lets you set up partner portals to grow your business and manage relationships with stakeholders.
User Experience
The Zoho CRM dashboard is clean, straightforward, and user-friendly. So, you can use all of its features as a first-time CRM user.
For example, the software lays the module tabs above the fold at the top bar, making them easily accessible. The reports are also less overwhelming as you can drill into the report you want to see, one at a time.
Zoho CRM offers webinars, tutorials, free eBooks, and documentation for easy setup and customization. No live chat support.
Pricing
Zoho CRM offers four subscription plans billed monthly and annually:
- Standard $18 per user per month
- Professional $30 per user per month
- Enterprise $45 per user per month
- Ultimate $55 per user per month
Strengths
- Mobile
- Marketing and sales automation
- Advanced template and layout customization
- Insightful reporting and analytics
- Team collaboration
- Support customer self-service portal
- Predictive sales and intelligence
- Voice assistant
- Multilingual and multi-currency support
- App marketplace with several third-party developers
- REST API support
- Activity reminders and sticky notes
- 15-days free trial
Weaknesses
- No live chat support
- Limited native marketing automation (needs extensions)
5. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot CRM is a cloud-based customer relationship management solution for salespeople, marketers, customer service agents, operations managers, and business owners. Top global brands like Atlassian, Doordash, and Wistia use the HubSpot CRM software.
Key Features
Multiple Hub — HubSpot CRM offers five hubs—marketing, sales, customer service, CMS, and Operations—that lets you pay for your needs. In addition, you can integrate up to five hubs into a single CRM to streamline your business processes.
Email Marketing — The software has a built-in email marketing capability for targeted campaigns to your audience. In addition, you can create customized emails with the intuitive drag-and-drop editor.
Lead Generation — With the built-in lead-capturing forms, ad management tools, and landing pages, you can generate leads online, feed them directly into the CRM and convert them to customers.
Customer Support Portal — You’ll get a customer support portal to manage customer services and support requests, minimizing the burden on your customer service team. With the portal, you can also set up your knowledge base.
SEO Advisor — The SEO Advisor provides actionable SEO tips which can help you rank essential keywords on Google search results. It comes in handy when creating blog posts or developing landing or website pages.
User Experience
You can set up HubSpot CRM quickly and get it running immediately.
The CRM is easy to use and has an excellent user interface. You can customize your dashboard to quickly view your sales pipeline all in one place to enhance your user experience. Also, HubSpot presents its reports in an easy-to-understand way.
It also integrates seamlessly with other tools. In addition, HubSpot offers onboarding services and multiple support channels—phone, email, live chat, and online community.
Pricing
HubSpot offers a free version but with limited access to its tools. You can extend its functionality based on your needs by subscribing to a plan in the appropriate hub.
Marketing Hub
- Starter $45 per month
- Professional $800 per month
- Enterprise $3,600 per month
Sales Hub
- Starter $45 per month
- Professional $450 per month
- Enterprise $1,200 per month
Customer Service Hub
- Starter $45 per month
- Professional $450 per month
- Enterprise $1,200 per month
CMS Hub
- Starter $23 per month
- Professional $360 per month
- Enterprise $1,200 per month
Operations Hub
- Starter $45 per month
- Professional $720 per month
- Enterprise $32,000 per month
Strengths
- Powerful collaborative tool, Integrating marketing, sales, customer service, CMS, and operations in a single CRM solution.
- A free version
- User-friendly and intuitive
- Large CRM database
- Sales and marketing workflow
- Insightful reporting and analytics
- Lead management
- Seamless third-party integration
- Social posting from the CRM
- Meeting scheduling
- Mobile app
Weaknesses
- Limited features that could push to acquire other HubSpot licenses
- HubSpot licenses are on the high side.
6. Freshworks
Freshsales is a sales CRM software that promises to help you gain a 360-degree view of your customers, deliver personalized engagement, shorten the sales cycle and accelerate revenue with context-driven sales. Brands like Klarna, Blue Nile, and PharmEasy use the CRM system.
Key Features
Lead Generation and Scoring — Freshwok offers CRM tools to help you run personalized campaigns and generate leads from your website visitors. You can also score the leads based on their engagement level.
Deal Management — Freshworks provides a birds-eye view of the deals in your pipeline, making it easy to prioritize and work on them immediately. You can also collaborate with multiple salespersons on the same deal.,
Workflow Automation —The software’s built-in workflow automation lets users automate repetitive tasks to save and boost the sales force’s productivity. You can quickly create automation with the pre-set templates.
AI-Powered Insights —Freshworks’ algorithm, Freddy AI, does the heavy lifting so that you can focus on only deals that convert. Additionally, it delivers AI-powered insights that help you drive faster deal closure.
Omnichannel — The software enables users to reach customers on their preferred channel without exiting the CRM software. For instance, you can connect with your contacts via email, phone, live chat, WhatsApp, SMS, and Zoom.
User Experience
You can set up an account in three simple steps and connect your email account to the CRM software.
The dashboard is clean and less overwhelming. As a result, you are likely to crack the software at first use without facing many challenges. Also, you can import your sales data and start using the CRM tools immediately without starting from scratch.
You can use the FAQ, help center, or live chat for quick resolutions when you run into issues.
Pricing
Freshworks offers the best free CRM software with basic features—ideal for beginner users. In addition, you can subscribe to a paid plan to access more tools.
- Growth $15 per user per month
- Pro $39 per user per month
- Enterprise $69 per user per month
Strengths
- Email marketing within the CRM software
- AI-powered deal insights
- Built-in lead generation capability
- Seamless sales process automation
- Multilingual and multi-currency support
- Territory management
- Omnichannel customer engagement
- Over 30 reports
- A free plan
- Mobile app
- 21 days free trial of the highest tier plan
- Provides a 360-degree view of the business
- AI-based leads scoring
- Pipeline visualization
Weaknesses
- Hard-to-reach support
- Limited third-party integrations
7. Monday
Monday CRM software is one of the best CRM software in the industry. Over 125,000 businesses use it to generate leads from multiple sources, qualify them in a central location, and track and manage all aspects of the sales cycle, from pre-sales to post-sales, all in one place.
Key Features
Email Tracking — With Monday, you can centralize your email communications and track essential email metrics to learn when to reach out, saving you time on cold leads. It also lets you create personalized emails with built-in templates.
Sales Process Automation — You don’t have to waste time on repetitive sales processes. It’s one of the best CRM software for automating your workflows, enabling you to focus on essential things. For instance, it can assign leads to sales reps, notifies you when a prospect opens an email, and more.
Leads Capturing — You can feed your sales pipeline with steady streams of qualified leads collected from multiple sources, qualify them on the CRM, and automatically score them based on pre-set criteria.
Post-Sales Management — Monday’s post-sales management capability lets you continuously manage customer relationships and drive after-sales customer satisfaction to boost customer retention.
User Experience
You can quickly sign up with Gmail and set up your account in a few more steps.
You can sell your sales pipeline and customer journey at a glance. Also, the user interface is excellent, and the software presents information in ways anyone can quickly grasp. In addition, it has a desktop notification feature that keeps you updated on your sales activities in real-time.
Users can customize their dashboards to see only the things they like. Unfortunately, the support doesn’t provide live chat support; however, it tries to compensate for this with a robust help center and round-the-clock email support.
Pricing
Monday offers a free plan for its CRM software and four premium subscription plans.
- Basic $10 per month
- Standard $14 per month
- Pro $24 per month
- Enterprise (custom package)
Strengths
- Free and custom plans
- Workflow automation
- Email tracking and centralized communication
- Pipeline visualization
- Customizable reporting dashboard
- Built-in lead management (capturing and auto-scoring)
- Post-sales customer relationship management
- Third-party integrations
- Mobile app
- Online community and robust help center
Weaknesses
- Limited native marketing automation
- No live chat support
8. Keap
Keap is one of the leading sales CRM solutions that cater to small businesses. The software promises to help them grow their leads, improve revenue and drive customer retention through enhanced customer relationship management and marketing workflows.
Key Features
Email and Text Marketing — It’s the right CRM software for small businesses seeking to bring email and SMS marketing into their marketing mix and manage them in one place. They can quickly create email and SMS campaigns with built-in templates and send them to their segmented lists.
Sales and Marketing Automation — With Keap, small business sales teams can automate critical sales and marketing processes to deliver a personalized experience to customers and drive targeted business growth while saving valuable time and human resources.
Lead Capturing — You can acquire and track leads at every touchpoint. This CRM software comes with CRM tools for capturing leads like landing pages, dedicated sales funnels, forms, and appointment schedulers, which you leverage to generate consistent leads.
eCommerce — Keap supports payment processors like Stripe, PayPal, and Wepay, allowing you to send and receive payments within your CRM software. The platform has facilitated over $2.6 billion in online sales since its launch.
User Experience
Keap promises a 14-day free trial. But I need help accessing the feature after signing up; the offer is only available to randomly selected businesses.
If the software can deliver on its promises, it will be great for the user experience.
Pricing
Keap offers three subscription plans, billed monthly and yearly.
- Pro $129 per month
- Max $199 per month
- Max Classic (custom plan)
Strengths
- A referral program that pays up to 30% commission
- A high-reaching user community
- Knowledge base and help center
- Native payment platform
- Built-in email and SMS marketing
- Advanced automation
- Expert assistance
Weaknesses
- No mobile app
- Limited subscription plan
- Expensive annual packages
- The free trial is often unavailable
- unreliable
9. Sage
Sage integrates sales, marketing, and service modules to deliver world-class customer relationship management software.
It’s one of the best CRM software in the market. With this solution, you can gain valuable insights into where your business stands to make better business decisions.
Key Features
Service Module — This module brings customer service management functionality within the CRM, enabling you to deliver an exceptional experience to prospects and customers, nurture them into long-term relationships and generate repeat businesses.
Sales Modules — With this module, you can automate your sales processes to accelerate sales performance and boost productivity. The company’s customer data shows that sales reps using this feature improved productivity by up to 40%.
Marketing Module — You can plan and run omnichannel, targeted marketing campaigns within the CRM and optimize campaigns to deliver more results with the built-in insightful reports.
User Experience
Sage doesn’t offer its pricing plans upfront. Also, you can’t sign up online. Instead, you’ll need to leave your business information online and wait for their support team to call, which might take time to come.
The user interface is excellent, but the CRM software integrates with only limited applications. In addition, real-time case resolution still needs to be improved. However, the software offers a community forum.
Pricing
Sage doesn’t have public pricing information.
However, the software license could cost approximately $600 annually for each user. In addition, one-time initial implementation and related services could take the total cost to about $8,000.
Strengths
- Single modules to fully Integrated solution
- Powerful real-time insights
- Team collaboration
- Sales and marketing automation
- Customer service management
Weaknesses
- No straightforward signup
- No subscription plan
- Limited integration
10. Insightly CRM
Insightly is a popular CRM tool developed to help businesses streamline their processes, collaborate across teams, and integrate all the applications they need to drive sustainable growth.
Over 25,000 companies, including Bloomberg, Bosch, and Sanofi, use the platform, making it one of the best CRM software platforms today.
Key Features
Relationship Mapping — You can link your customer data to existing contacts to map and understand how your customers relate. This feature helps you get a high-definition picture of your customers.
Marketing — Insightly’s unified marketing platform enables marketing teams to build sales pipelines, attract and engage ideal customers with intelligent and segmented campaigns and automate marketing processes to grow the business faster.
Sales — You can centralize your customer data in one place, managing leads and spotting and prioritizing those most likely to convert. You can also create and send emails within Insightly and automate your workflows.
Service — Insightly empowers customer service teams to solve customer challenges more effortlessly. You can receive customer support tickets in one place, quickly share information across the organization and receive actionable insights to improve customer experience.
Integrations — You can connect all the tools you need to grow your business and manage them under one app. Also, Insightly’s AppConnect supports this CRM’s users in building custom integrations and workflows.
User Experience
Insightly has a clean design with a user-friendly interface.
Some users complained that it could be challenging to grasp all its possibilities fully. However, it features a knowledge base, videos, and tutorials that could bring you up to speed as quickly as possible. The platform also offers live chat support.
The filters and bulk email could be better.
Pricing
Insightly’s CRM systems come in three plans, billed annually:
- Plus, $29 per month
- Professional $49 per month
- Enterprise $99 per month
Strengths
- Custom integration and workflow builder
- Project management and team collaboration
- Sales and marketing automation
- Module for customer service teams
- Scalable CRM
- Live chat support
- Free trial
- Low-entry cost
- Mobile app
- Customer relationship mapping
Weaknesses
- Annual billing
- Learning curve
11. SugarCRM
SugarCRM is one of the best CRM platforms in the market. It delivers CRM solutions that help companies gain a comprehensive high-definition view of their customers in the past, present, and future to enable predictability, boost situational awareness and reach new levels of business performance.
Key Features
Predictive Forecasting — SugarCRM leverages historical and real-time data from multiple points to identify issues, root causes, and opportunities and deliver actionable sales insights. In addition, it offers automatic alerts for fast response.
Sales and Marketing Automation — You can automate anything with SugarCRM, from data collection, leads routing, and quote approval to leads scoring and marketing to deliver meaningful buying experiences, shorten the sales cycle, and drive revenue.
Customer Service Management —SugarCRM native customer service management support enables you to deliver a personalized, positive experience to customers at every touchpoint. In addition, the software automates critical processes to reduce the burden on your customer support team.
User Experience
SugarCRM has a solid user interface.
However, you must pay for at least three users before you sign up for any plan, making the software expensive. Also, the CRM software offers a more complex signup process. You’ll need to fill out an online form to contact support.
SugarCRM has a user community and resource center that can help you quickly set up your account and learn how to make the most of the CRM software. Also, phone support is available in four languages.
Pricing
SugarCRM has four monthly plans, billed annually and requiring a minimum of three users.
- Market $1000 per month/user
- Sell $45 per month/user
- Serve $80 per month/user
- Enterprise $85 per month/user
Strengths
- AI-Powered prediction
- Full situational awareness
- Sentiment assessment
- Powerful automation and workflow
- The built-in customer service solution
- On-premises deployment
- Omnichannel customer engagement
Weaknesses
- No complimentary or trial plan
- Lacks a mobile app
- Expensive plan
12. NetHunt
NetHunt is one of the best CRM platforms built for Gmail and Google Workspace users, designed to help them manage leads, nurture prospects, and stay on top of their sales performances. The solution also plays well with LinkedIn and eight other tools.
Key Features
Data Organization — With NetHunt, you can organize your business data effectively and productively. Also, the solution organizes your deals and sales pipelines in an easy-to-understand manner, providing insights into what works and doesn’t.
Sales Force Automation — Using this sales CRM means your sales team won’t have to waste time on repetitive tasks. Instead, the solution automates key sales processes like leads capturing and nurturing, contact updates, and others so they can focus on other things.
Centralized Communication — You can centralize your business communications, regardless of your customer’s preferred channel, whether social media, email, telephone, messenger, or live chat, and manage everything on the go under one app roof.
User Experience
You can create an account in three clicks. The interface is clean and user-friendly. You can quickly update your deals by dragging and dropping them and visualize your pipeline to see your entire sales process and performance at a glance.
Also, you can set up workflows and integrations in a few minutes. Both processes are intuitive and might not require any learning curve. In addition, NetHunt has a help center and offers live chat support.
Pricing
NetHunt is available via four subscription plans, billed monthly and annually.
- Basic $24 per month
- Business $48 per month
- Advanced $96 per month
- Custom plan
Strengths
- Zapier integration
- Advanced data organization and visualization
- Workflow automation
- Omnichannel communication
- Mobile apple
- Live chat and phone support
- Code-free web form for leads capture
- Low-entry fee
- Free trial and custom plan
- Chrome browser extension
- Open API
- Cancel anytime
Weaknesses
- Available only to Gmail and Google Workplace users
- Limited integration options
- Limited marketing automation
13. FreeAgent
FreeAgent CRM helps teams collaborate more effectively to get things done. The software promises to help users track their progress in real-time and gain actionable insights to optimize their performance. Over 1,000 businesses worldwide use the platform.
Key Features
All-In-One Solution — With FreeAgent CRM, you won’t need to open multiple browser tabs to get your job done. Instead, you get everything done in one place. You can also automate repetitive tasks to get more done in less time.
Workflow Optimization — You can streamline business processes to complete more work efficiently. The CRM tool can help you organize and prioritize deals so you can focus on those most likely to move the needles for your business.
Code-Free Customization — FreeAgent code-free customization enables you to set your account to meet your business’s unique needs. The software also integrates with other apps, making it highly extensible.
User Experience
FreeAgent CRM is easy to use and has a visually appealing user interface. The software enables complete funnel visualization and presents reports in ways anyone can understand.
You can quickly connect with the company’s in-house CRM experts to set up and customize your account to explore its full possibilities. The solution also offers live chat and helpful resources.
Pricing
FreeAgent offers “Unlimited Users” and “Per User” pricing packages with different plans, billed monthly and annually. The Per User package has three plans.
- Starter $45 per month
- Professional $90 per month
- Enterprise $120 per month
Strengths
- Highly extensible
- All-in-one solution
- Fully cloud-based
- Code-free customization
- Workflow automation
- Full funnel visualization
- Customer service management
- Third-party integrations
- Live chat support
- Custom app
- ISO 27001 compliant
Weaknesses
- No mobile app
- Poor search and filter
14. Creatio CRM
Creatio CRM is one of the best CRM software used by small and medium-sized businesses in over 100 countries to automate end-to-end customer journeys with no code. You can purchase separate modules or deploy the software as a unified CRM tool.
Key Features
Marketing Creatio — With this module, you can automate your marketing campaigns, lead management, and deliver personalized omnichannel communication to boost business revenue and drive customer retention.
Sales Creatio — Creatio supports sales teams to collaborate across boards and automate mission-critical sales processes to get more things done. The software also provides a 360-degree view of customer journeys to personalize their experience.
Service Creatio — You can automate and manage customer service workflows on Creatio to save the support team valuable time and deliver an enhanced, personalized experience to customers. The software uses AI to streamline the handling of service cases.
Studio Creatio — Creatio’s no-code UI builder helps non-technical users build business applications and processes with maximum freedom using easy-to-use drag-and-drop visual design tools.
User Experience
The analytics and reporting are insightful, and you can quickly visualize the data in a few clicks.
The software’s no-code capability means you can complete projects that usually take months or even days. In addition, support is multilingual, so you’ll always get assistance whenever the need arises in your preferred language.
Also, the platform has helpful resources for quick self-help.
Pricing
Creatio has different subscription packages for each module (Creatio).
The monthly sales and service modules subscriptions range between $25 and $60, while Marketing Creatio goes for a $1,000 to $100,000 yearly fee. You’ll need to contact support to understand the cost of deploying its unified CRM solutions.
Strengths
- Cost Calculator
- Cloud and on-site deployment
- 360-degree customer view
- Unlimited no-code customization
- End-to-end workflow automation
- Real-time analytics
- Trial plan
- Custom plan
Weaknesses
- Expensive plan
- No mobile app
15. Close
Close is a cloud CRM solution for remote salespeople. As one of the best CRM software in the industry, it makes team onboarding a breeze, automates and analyzes workflows, and helps you grow revenue quickly. It also integrates well with some of your tools, bringing your software stack to one place.
Key Features
Calling — Close has built-in call software to help you reach more people effortlessly and double your call volume and velocity. With the predictive dialer, you can call multiple numbers at once, and the software automatically routes answered calls to available reps.
Video — Close natively support Zoom, enabling remote selling with videos. The software can connect your Zoom account and sync your previous recordings with the CRM software. It also alerts you five minutes before every meeting, and you can add notes during the meeting for context.
Call Coaching — With Close, you can train your sales team, no matter where they are, all within the CRM without needing to invest in expensive online training tools.
Workflow Automation — The CRM solution offers in-app email and calls automation that can simplify your workflow and help you get more work done. Also, you can save and share winning templates with team members to boost the reach rate and close deals faster.
User Experience
Close is an easy-to-use CRM software for busy salespeople with no learning curve.
You can quickly create an account, set up your workflow sequences, and immediately put the CRM to work. The software also has dynamic smart views that let you prioritize your leads and quickly find what you need.
Close offers free migration and support, so you can get assistance whenever needed. However, it might not be real-time since the software doesn’t offer live chat.
Pricing
Close offers four subscription plans billed monthly and annually.
- Starter $25 per month
- Basic $59 per month
- Professional $89 per month
- Business $129
Strengths
- Remote selling
- Power and predictive dialer
- Built-in email and SMS marketing
- Powerful reporting insights
- Free trial, migration, and support
- Sales force automation
- Phone and email support
- Pipeline visualization
Weaknesses
- No mobile app
- No live chat support
16. Nutshell
Nutshell is an all-in-one B2B CRM software designed to help teams manage contacts and leads, sell smarter and gain valuable insights to track performance and optimize the sales process. Over 30,000 sales and marketing professionals use the software to streamline their workflow.
Key Features
Pipeline Management — Like most CRM, you can visualize your customer’s journey at a glance. With this feature, you can view, manage and prioritize leads for a faster closing.
Sales Automation — From lead assignments to scoring, task reminders, and more, Nutshell automates these tasks at the snap of a finger, allowing your team to focus on actual closing.
Email Marketing Campaigns— Nutshell helps you send targeted, beautifully designed marketing emails. You can save time with the built-in template and see who engages with the email in real time.
Leads Capturing — The CRM has a native web form to capture leads and feed them directly to your pipeline. In addition, you can embed the form on your website to generate leads from web visitors.
User Experience
Nutshell reporting is top-notch, with an excellent interface.
However, some users complained the email builder is subpar and could need improvement. Also, it offers limited customization.
Besides these, the software is excellent for quickly connecting all your software tools and accessing them in one place. The company doesn’t charge for customer support, and they can help you migrate your data to hit the ground running immediately.
The CRM offers several helpful resources to help you resolve issues and put the software to full use.
Pricing
Nutshell offers two plans, billed monthly and annually. Here’s the cost per user per month:
- Nutshell $19
- Nutshell PRO $49
- Nutshell Marketing (custom plan)
Strengths
- Open API
- Mobile apps
- Free Migration
- Sales force automation
- Leads generation
- Pipeline visualization
- Email marketing campaigns
- Sales forecasting
- Dependable support
- Custom marketing plan
Weaknesses
- No live chat
17. Nimble
Nimble is one of the best CRM software for small and midsize businesses, used by over 140,000 professionals. Also, world-leading brands like UpWork, GoDaddy, and Flexjobs use the platform.
Key Features
Nimble Prospector — With Nimble, you can efficiently prospect leads on any social site, website, or cloud application and connect with them in less time. The prospector is available as a browser extension, making it readily available.
Relationship Management — The software helps users manage customer contact details, automate key business processes, enable social listening and gain valuable business intelligence to deliver superior customer experience.
Email Marketing — The built-in email campaign management functionality means you won’t need to switch tabs or need third-party services to engage customers via personalized emails and track your progress.
Smarter Actions — Nimble provides actionable business and customer intelligence to take more intelligent actions to gain complete control of your sales process. For example, you can visualize your sales funnel, gain social insights to prepare for meetings, and discover engagement opportunities.
User Experience
You’ll likely start your Nimble experience by importing a CSV file of your existing contact database; thankfully, the software makes this process very straightforward. Also, the CRM makes importing and syncing data with other apps seamless.
Additionally, Nimble’s “Today Page” feature provides an overview of all your upcoming activities, deals, and engagement opportunities from social mentions and essential contacts to reach out to, making prioritizing more effortless.
The software has a support center and a live chat for quick assistance.
Pricing
Nimble offers only one subscription plan—Nimble Business, available for $25 monthly for a user. However, you’ll pay only $19 if you opt for the annual plan.
Strengths
- App Marketplace
- Native leads prospector
- Browser extension
- Activity tracking and team tasks management
- Built-in calendar
- Pipeline management
- 360-degree view of customers and leads
- Marketing automation
- Contact management
- Live chat
- Business and customer intelligence
- Office 365 and Google Workspace integration
- Low entry fee
- Social listening and mentions
Weaknesses
- No mobile app
- Limited subscription plan
18. MailChimp
Mailchimp is not just an email service provider. It’s also one of the best CRM software for small businesses. With this solution, you can build better customer relationships and sell to them more creatively. In addition, the CRM is scalable and can support your business growth and needs.
Key Features
Contact Management — Whether importing an existing contact database or building from scratch, MailChimp helps you manage them all from one location. Also, you can create or use the built-in segments to organize your contacts.
Email Marketing — Email marketing and campaign management are probably MailChimp’s best selling point and are natively supported in the CRM, meaning you can run effective email campaigns. Also, it comes with pre-built email templates, and you can run A/B tests in-app.
Behavioral Targeting and Personalization — MailChimp can predict customers buying behaviors, enabling you to segment your contact effortlessly to launch campaigns that feel like a one-on-one conversation at the right time or deliver personalized product recommendations.
User Experience
You’ll only need to fill out three fields to sign up. However, it would have been better if users could create accounts automatically with their Gmail. It’ll save you the stress of logging into your email to activate the MailChimp account.
Mailchimp’s user interface is excellent, with many white spaces, but I don’t find the yellow background and black font colors easy on the eyes while signing up. Also, the software can integrate neatly with other tools, so you can easily manage your stack in one place.
MailChimp support is excellent, and case resolution is always fast.
Pricing
MailChimp CRM offers free, and three paid plans.
- Premium $350 per month
- Standard $20 per month
- Essentials $13 per month
Strengths
- Highly scalable
- Mobile app
- Predictive segmentation and behavioral targeting
- Holistic audience view
- Live chat support
- Seamless contact management
- Actionable customer insight
- Free plan
- Low-priced starting plan
- Extensive third-party integrations
Weaknesses
- Limited native Salesforce automation
19. Apptivo
Apptivo is a CRM software used by over 200,000 businesses, including Sephora, UNAIDS, Exult, and Los Angeles Times. The solution simplifies customer relationship management so sales and marketing teams can be more efficient and close deals effortlessly.
Key Features
Win and Loss Analysis — You can track the sales opportunities your sales team prospected and analyze the employees that contributed to winning the opportunity. Additionally, the app can help you analyze lost opportunities and the reasons behind them.
Territory management — You can quickly delineate and manage your sales territories to boost team collaboration, improve sales efficiency, and maximize territorial benefits. With the built-in assignment rules, you can automatically segment leads based on territories.
Sales Planning — With Apptivo, you’re sure you won’t be tracking your sales targets with spreadsheets. Instead, the software comes with a sales planning app to measure your team members’ KPIs and implement scalable sales processes to facilitate faster deal closing.
User Experience
Apptivo has an excellent user interface.
But new users might need help navigating the software. Also, the customization and app integrations are not a walk in the park.
However, the CRM system offers an extensive knowledge base for self-help.
Pricing
Apptivo offers three subscription plans.
- Lite $10 per month
- Premium $15 per month
- Ultimate $25 per month
Strengths
- Project management
- Integrated CRM software
- Activity tracking
- Performance analysis
- Pipeline visualization
- Contact Marketing
- Email campaigns
- Leads management
- Salesforce automation
- Sales planning
- Territory management
- 30-day free trial
- Mobile apps
Weaknesses
- Hard customization
- No real-human live chat
20. Act! CRM
Act! is a cloud-based CRM software designed for small and midsize businesses to manage customer relationships and sell better seamlessly. The CRM system has been in play for over 35 years, powering over 800,000 users worldwide.
Key Features
Marketing Automation — Using Act! means you won’t need to spend much hiring and maintaining an in-house marketing team. Instead, this CRM software can handle most of your crucial marketing processes effectively.
Sales Pipeline Management — With Act! built-in sales pipeline management, you can automate your sales tasks and maintain a 360-degree view of your customers and their journey to close deals faster.
Activity Management — Act! helps you stay on top of all the happenings around you, including critical projects, enabling you to prioritize and stay more productive.
User Experience
Act! offers a user-friendly interface and intuitive customization.
However, some users complained that each new update tends to drag the software backward. Additionally, you might need help setting up custom reports and dashboards.
Also, I can’t vouch for their support. You might struggle to reach them whenever the need arises. However, there is an extensive resource you can always fall back on for self-help.
Pricing
Act! offers two plans billed annually.
- Act! Premium Desktop $37.50 per user per month
- Act! Premium Cloud $40 per user per month
Users opting for the Premium Cloud plan pay an additional $10 monthly for desktop sync.
Strengths
- Sales and marketing automation
- Customer management
- Sales pipeline visualization
- Activity tracking
- Advanced reporting capabilities
- 14-day free trial
- Live chat support
- Flexibility and Extensibility
- Cloud and on-premises deployment
Weaknesses
- No mobile app
- Limited pricing plans
- Annual billing
21. Agile CRM
Agile CRM is one of the best CRM services in the market. It promises to help you sell and market like Fortune 500 companies. In addition, the software packs several core CRM features like sales enablement, marketing automation, and customer service.
Key Features
Sales — The CRM system can help your sales teams manage their contacts in one place, track deals to keep the sales process on track, and automate sales calls. The CRM system also lets you manage appointments and gamify sales.
Marketing — Agile CRM has an intuitive drag-and-drop builder to set up a marketing workflow and build landing pages in minutes. It also extends its CRM capabilities with social media, email, and SMS features for multichannel marketing campaigns.
Service — The software streamlines your customer service management so that your support can focus on only tasks that matter. It also allows you to provide pre-formatted replies for faster and more consistent responses.
User Experience
Agile CRM has a clean and intuitive dashboard. Using the features doesn’t require any learning curve. Also, the CRM software displays information in an easy-to-understand way.
The customer relationship management software has a robust knowledge base. Also, you can schedule a chat with any of their specialists within a few minutes.
Pricing
AgileCRM has free CRM software alongside three premium packages, billed monthly, yearly, and bi-annually. If you go for the bi-annual plans, you’ll pay the following:
- Starter $8.99 per user per month
- Regular $29.99 per user per month
- Enterprise $47.99 per user per month
Strengths
- Free plans with ten users
- Yearly and bi-annual subscription plans
- Lead management
- Appointment scheduling
- Two-way telephony
- Contact management
- Email and SMS marketing
- Marketing automation with exit intent.
- Social monitoring
- Project management
- Landing page builders
- Chrome extension
- Post-call automation
- Push notification
Weaknesses
- No mobile app
- No live chat support
Choosing the Best CRM Software
The right CRM software providers for your business would offer you the best customer relationship management and engagement solutions. So, consider only CRM software vendors that offer you business solutions to meet your specific needs within your budget and integrate seamlessly with all your business tools.
Featured image via Unsplash.
The post 21 Best CRM Software first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
Physical device testing has been on the market for a long time. Even today, you can’t deny the importance it holds in the world of testers. In this age of automation testing and real device cloud testing, physical device testing still has the same reverence owing to its unwavering vitality in usability testing and hardware functionality testing, such as camera and GPS. Yet, if you want to reduce your overall project cost, you need to opt for a smarter solution that would enable features such as performing cross-browser testing at scale.
That’s when real device cloud testing comes to your aid. It comes with its own sets of advantages, such as cloud storage, access to communication tool integration, testing with the latest virtual browsers and OS versions, and much more.
Artificial intelligence is the latest buzzword in the tech world. It’s everywhere and has been for a while, but AI-powered writing software is a relatively new concept.
AI Writing Software uses artificial intelligence to write articles, blog posts, and other content in your voice. The goal is to provide a tool that will save you time and energy so you can focus on different aspects of your business or life.
To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of 20 AI writing software you can use to create content for your website, blog, or social media accounts.
1. Copy.ai
Copy.ai uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to produce high-quality content for your business, ebooks, blog posts, articles, product descriptions, social media content, and more. It can also be used to rewrite existing content so that you can use it on your website, blog, or social media pages.
Since it uses artificial intelligence to mimic human writing patterns and styles, the copy will be more natural and easier to read than the typical machine-generated text we’re used to seeing.
Copy.ai differs from traditional content creation tools because it doesn’t just offer suggestions on improving your current content; it generates new text based on what it thinks would be most relevant for the topic or audience.
Key Features:
- Pre-built Templates – Copy.ai has a ton of pre-built templates for different kinds of content. For example, you can see below that it has options for blogs, social media content, video, case studies, and more:
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Different tones and variations – Get access to tones like friendly, persuasive, professional, luxury, witty, bold, and more to align the content with your writing style. It also creates multiple variations based on your input – you can pick the one you like or make more.
To illustrate this, here’s a screenshot of the results we got while trying to write the introduction for this article using Copy AI.
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Writing and Brainstorming tools – You also get tons of writing tools, brainstorming tools, and personal tools. Writing tools include essay intro, cliffhanger generator, adjective accelerator, passive to active voice, verb booster, and the like. Brainstorming tools have a name generator, startup ideas, viral ideas, and more – while Personal tools include birthday cards, clubhouse bios, cover letters, love letters, and shower thoughts.
You can save your content and then return to it later if you wish. Plus, the software’s user interface is easy to navigate, and the program is simple.
Luciano Viterale, Co-founder of Ticker Nerd, also shares his experience with Copy.ai,
“I’ve been experimenting with AI copywriting tools since GPT-3 was released. I have explored many of the popular tools. However, my favorite tool by far is Copy AI. They have an outstanding blogging outline feature; the UX is clean and easy to navigate, and the pricing is reasonable.
Copy AI also generated the name of my startup, “Ticker Nerd,” which is an investing newsletter that was recently acquired.”
That said, Viterale suggests that the blog outlines can be repetitive. He says, “one thing I don’t particularly like is that blog outlines include the same point repeatedly but articulated slightly differently, essentially adding no value.”
Pros:
- Copy.ai produces content at least 80% as good as a human writer (and often better). The system continually learns, which means the more you use it, the better it gets.
- It has an extensive library of templates available for different requirements.
- It supports over 25 languages, including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, and more.
Cons:
- Not suitable for long-form content.
- The content can get a bit repetitive after a while.
- The free plan lets you create only 2000 words per month.
Pricing:
It starts from $39 per month (if you pay yearly) for up to 40k words per month, unlimited copywriting tools, priority email support, Blog Wizard tool, support for 25+ languages, and five user seats.
2. Jasper
Jasper.ai is an AI copywriting tool that uses a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to create content based on user input.
It helps you generate original content for your blogs, social media, websites, and more. Jasper also knows 10% of what’s on the internet and continues to learn more daily.
Just like Copy.ai, Jasper’s user interface is easy to use and navigate around. With its specific template for blog posts, articles, ebooks, and more, it’s also one of the few AI writing software suitable for long-form content.
All you have to do is enter the title, your intended audience, tone of voice, and language options, along with the main point of your copy, and voila – Jasper can churn out a high-quality piece of content for you within seconds.
Key Features:
- 50+ AI templates – Jasper.ai offers a variety of AI templates, including Blog Posts, Summary, Conclusion, Q&A, Ads, Videos, Social Media, Rewriter, Marketing Frameworks, Articles, and more. Each template has several use cases – for example, a blog has Blog Titles, Content Briefs, and Outlines.
- Boss Mode lets you write long-form content such as blog posts, stories, and books. It also allows you to organize your content into projects and find help with priority chat support, Grammarly integration, and plagiarism checks. You can also choose from 25 languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and more.
- SurferSEO Integration – If you have a Boss Mode plan, you can add SurferSEO to your Jasper account. This integration will enable you to find the best keywords, build a content strategy, create blog outlines, and more.
Content production using Surfer SEO Integration
Pros:
- No technical assistance is required.
- Simple, easy-to-use interface.
- Provides plagiarism-free content every time.
- It helps you build a content strategy based on high-ranking topics and keywords.
- Ready-to-use templates cover most of the use cases that a writer or marketer will need.
- Excellent customer support is provided through live training sessions, live Q&A sessions, blogs, Facebook community, help docs, and emails.
Cons:
- Plagiarism-free content doesn’t always mean unique content.
- Customer support options via chat or email are limited.
Pricing:
It starts with $40/mo for 35K words, 50+ AI templates, 20+ languages, up to 5 seats, and chat support.
3. Rytr
Rytr is a content generation tool that uses AI to generate high-quality, human-sounding content for emails, blogs, YouTube videos, and landing pages.
It also supports multiple languages and tones and uses copywriting frameworks, including AIDA & PAS. And to ensure that your content is free of plagiarism, it comes with a built-in plagiarism checker.
Like Copy.ai. Rytr is also more suitable for short-form content and copywriting than long-form content.
Key Features:
- 30+ languages – Rytr supports many languages, including English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Polish. It also uses a proprietary approach to support languages that are not supported by the limitations of GPT3.
- Use Cases: Rytr offers 40+ use cases, including Blog Section Writing, Blog Ideas & Outline, Brand Name, Business Idea Pitches, Call-to-action, Cover letters, Emails, and more. Each use case has a short description of what it’s about below it. Select the use case to write about, give a little context about what you want to write, and then select how many variants you want the AI to write for you (max is 3).
You can also choose a creativity level by selecting one of 6 options, including Default, Non, Low, Medium, High, or Max.
Generating Blog Ideas & Outlines
- Tone – You can add a personal touch to your content by choosing from over 18 tones, including Formal, Convincing, Inspirational, and more.
Pros:
- Simple user interface.
- Fast live chat support.
- Using the magic command, you can produce content for poems, letters, and more.
- Comes with an in-built tool for plagiarism checks.
- Provides multiple resources for guidance.
Cons:
- Tone options are limited.
- You will receive a small number of credits per month.
Pricing:
It starts at $9/month for 100K characters per month. There is also a free plan with a 10K characters limit.
4. Writesonic
Writesonic is a content-creation platform that uses generative artificial intelligence models to write SEO-optimized long-form blogs and articles.
It has 65+ use cases or templates, including Article Writer 3.0, Landing Pages, Tweets, Quora Answers, Facebook Ads, and more.
You can easily create desired content by picking a suitable use case, typing a topic, and adding a paragraph of your own words. You can also set the language and quality level before generating it.
Key Features:
- 24 Languages: You can produce content in 24 languages, including English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Russian, Czech, Danish, Greek, Hungarian, and more. They’re also continually adding more language options.
- Unconventional Use Cases: It’s got a more comprehensive range of templates, including Sentence Expander, Text Summary, Conclusion Writer, YouTube Outlines, LinkedIn Ad Descriptions, Analogy Maker, Question Generator, Song Lyrics, Definition, and more.
- SEMrush and WordPress Integrations: Writesonic integrates with SEMrush, Zapier, and WordPress.org. SEMrush helps you optimize your content for search engines, and WordPress.org lets you publish your blog directly from Writesonic. Zapier integration enables you to automate your content from Writesonic.
Pros:
- Easy to use.
- The User Interface gives you step-by-step instructions and tips for how to use the tool more efficiently.
- There are many unique use cases, including a hook generator, pros and cons generator, and landing page creator.
- Free trial available.
Cons:
- Like other tools on this list, the copy may not always be accurate.
Pricing:
It starts at $10/month for 12K words, 70+ AI templates, a Landing page generator, a browser extension, Zapier integration, and more.
5. Grammarly Business
Like most other tools on this list, Grammarly Business isn’t an AI-based content writer per se—it’s more like an AI-based writing assistant. Specifically, it checks your documents for grammar, spelling, plagiarism, and style mistakes.
Grammarly Business also provides feedback on your writing style so that you can improve as a writer over time.
You can use Grammarly Business to:
- Get suggestions to improve your writing style, including word choice and sentence structure.
- Identify common grammatical mistakes and fix them in one click.
- Improve your email response time by checking emails before they’re sent out.
It’s also ideal for larger teams of writers who need to access the same Grammarly accounts, enabling multiple users to edit documents simultaneously.
One of the best parts about this tool is that it integrates with every online writing space, including Google Docs. This allows you to write and edit simultaneously without waiting for one draft to be finished before making changes to the next.
Key Features:
- Custom Brand Tone: You can create multiple tone profiles to suit your needs and assign them to different Teams. You’ll also get real-time feedback on your tone and can adjust it while writing. Your tone can be anything from Joyful, Excited, Loving, and Surprised to Curious, Formal, and Cautionary.
- Grammar Checker: Grammarly gives you feedback on everything that can be improved in your writing – from typos to sentence structure. It also checks for grammar mistakes, spelling errors, and incorrect punctuation.
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Style Guide: Grammarly Style Guide enables you to establish a uniform tone and style across all your teams. You can set a library of words, terms, and phrases that your teams should adhere to.
You can also prevent them from using complex acronyms or jargon. Lastly, you can get feedback on how the performance has increased with the Style Guide.
Pros:
- Real-time feedback on errors and tone usage.
- Grammarly gives instant, easy-to-understand feedback and lets you fix mistakes with just one click.
- You can always add new words to the dictionary.
Cons:
- It flags passive voice as an error.
- Grammarly is good at catching mistakes, but sometimes it corrects things unnecessarily.
Pricing:
It starts at $15/month for one member, real-time feedback, style guide, snippets, brand tones, admin controls, and more.
6. Peppertype.ai
Peppertype.ai is another AI-based content generation tool that claims to create content ten times faster, boost Google ranking, and optimize conversions.
It’s a simple but valuable tool for writers who need help getting started on their next article, email, or blog post.
Some of its use cases include a product review generator, Amazon product descriptions, personal bio, email subject lines, cold emails, paragraph writing, Google Ad copy, Meta descriptions, blog outlines, blog conclusion, and more.
Key Features:
- Projects: You can organize your content under Projects, which will group similar types of content so that you have an easier time finding and repurposing the content.
- Output personalization: You can like or dislike the output so that the AI behind it can learn your preferences and improve its performance.
Pros:
- If you invite your friends to use Peppertype.ai, join our community, write them a review, and schedule a training call, they’ll reward you with more word credits.
- You can create teams, projects, and workspaces.
- You can filter out unwanted results with annotations.
Cons:
- One seat is expensive, and the price increases with each added seat.
Pricing:
It starts at $35/month for one user, 50K words, 40+ use cases, unlimited projects, customer support, and more.
7. Anyword
Anyword is a copywriting AI that creates content tailored for your customers and target audiences.
It has a unique feature – the predictive performance score to predict how well your copy will perform and engage with your audience. This helps you write optimized texts that boost your conversions.
It has 11 major use cases, including a social post generator, Instagram caption generator, sentence rewriter, AI writer tool, meta description generator, Ad copy, landing page, blog, and more.
Although it can create blog post titles and outlines, it’s better suited for writing short-form content like ad copy, product descriptions, and headlines. When writing a blog post, it can generate the title, outline, and introduction before creating body paragraphs.
Key Features:
- Predictive Performance Score: This score is given to your copy based on its potential to perform well with your target audience. This can help you immediately improve your copy.
- Website Triggered Messages: This feature helps you create and deploy multiple copy variations on your website and apply the best one automatically.
Pros:
- It offers a predictive performance score to optimize your copy beforehand.
- It also offers a free social post generator. No sign-up is required.
- It automatically creates and runs multiple copy variations to determine the best one.
- A Freemium plan is available.
Cons:
- Limited use cases.
- A bit expensive for the credits and the number of use cases it offers.
Pricing:
It costs $24/month for 20K words and one seat.
8. Scalenut
Scalenut uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to produce content that ranks higher on search results. It also gives insights into statistics such as word count, grade level, H tags, readability, and the number of images you should use in your content piece.
Aside from that, it offers a variety of use cases, including SEO Hub, AI Copywriter, Talent Network, Chrome Extension, Cruise Mode, and more. With these features, you can create content for blog ideas, product descriptions, website copies, blog intros, and more.
Key Features:
- Integrations: You can integrate Scalenut with SEMrush for keyword research, cluster boost, and Copyscape to check plagiarism.
- Cruise Mode: Cruise Mode helps you create blog content in 5 minutes. You just need to provide your blog post’s title, outline, and main points to get your intended content. You’ll also get a real-time quality score that helps you improve your search ranking.
Pros:
- It offers a quality score.
- Affordable plans with a 7-day free trial.
- 24*7 chat & email support.
Cons:
- Limited use cases and features.
- Content quality is not consistent for all businesses.
Pricing:
It starts at $12/month for 100K AI words, 5 SEO reports, 24*7 chat and email support, and more.
9. Frase.io
Frase.io is an all-in-one AI writing tool that helps you, research competitors, develop content briefs, and produce and optimize content.
First, you’ll analyze your search competitors using Frase so you can see what your competition is writing about. Next, you can focus on Then, your overall outline or dig deeper by focusing on individual headlines, external links, statistics, etc.
Next, use Frase’s AI writer to finish your draft. You can choose from dozens of use cases to generate content, including product descriptions, blog introductions, and more. You can even automatically expand on what you’re currently writing or rewrite what you’ve already written.
Finally, you can optimize your draft using recommended keywords and readability scores. Again, Frase provides real-time feedback as you fill in the gaps.
Key Features:
- AI Writing Tools: They include an AI content generator, introduction generator, outline generator, paraphrasing tool, paragraph rewriter, blog title generator, meta description generator, product description generator, slogan generator, summary generator, sentence rewriter, and more.
- Content Analytics: It fetches data from Google Search Console to provide insights into organic growth, content decay, and keyword opportunities.
- Integrations: It integrates with Google Docs, Google Search Console, and WordPress. It also offers a Chrome extension.
Pros:
- You can add multiple pages in a single doc.
- It offers content analytics, allowing you to see which articles are getting the most traction and which ones are not.
- It enables you to do competitors’ research.
Cons:
- Limited word credits in each plan.
- Max 3 seats available.
Pricing:
It starts at $14.99/month for one user, 20K AI characters, and four articles (write/optimize) per month. There’s also a 5-day free trial for $1.
10. Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO is an SEO tool and AI writing assistance that uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to help you manage and improve your content strategy.
Rather than creating the body of your copy, it helps you create outlines and optimize the content you write based on that outline.
It helps you to evaluate your content and find places to improve it using its content score metric, competitor research, SERP analyzer, and keyword recommendations. It also offers a content planner that you can share with your team.
Key Features:
- Outline Builder for Content Editor: The tool generates headlines and paragraphs based on your competitors’ postings. You can use that content as is or edit it by copy-pasting it into the editor. Content paragraphs are available in English, German, French, Polish, Swedish, and Dutch.
Outline Builder Content Builder
- SEO Audit Tool: This tool performs step-by-step optimization on your website to improve your Google search results. When you pick an URL to audit, it provides suggestions such as missing backlinks, internal links, word count, and important keywords to use.
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Content Planner: You can start with your content planner by keyword or domain. Based on your keywords, it comes up with clusters that you can use to create your content topics.
However, there is a learning curve involved. You will need to understand topic clusters, search intent, and keyword difficulty, among other metrics.
Pros:
- Easy to use interface.
- They offer a 7-day money-back guarantee – if you don’t find it helpful, you get your money back.
- It identifies keyword stuffing and prevents you from doing so.
Cons:
- Each plan offers a limited number of pages that you can audit.
Pricing:
It starts at $49/month for one website tracking and ten articles/month.
11. Copysmith
Copysmith markets itself as an AI content creation solution for teams.
This AI writer is best suited for bulk and short-form content copy like product descriptions, blog templates, social media content, advertising content, and more.
Key Features:
- Use cases: It includes product descriptions, content enhancement, ads & social media, blog templates, and brainstorming. With Product descriptions, you can generate descriptions for eCommerce Products, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Flipkart. Blog templates include blog titles, blog ideas, outlines, intro, Kickstarter, and more.
- Campaign Builder: It includes several AI templates to help you generate SEO-optimized product descriptions, Facebook posts, and Google ads in just a few seconds.
- Integrations: Copysmith integrates with Frase to use SEO data, Google Ads to publish campaigns, Microsoft Word to produce content, and WooCommerce for products.
Pros:
- It’s easy to use and generates SEO-optimized content.
- It comes with an in-built plagiarism checker.
- Provides good training material for new users.
Cons:
- Not suitable for long-form content.
Pricing:
It starts at $19/month for 75 credits, up to 40K words, and up to 20 plagiarism checks.
12. ClosersCopy
ClosersCopy is an AI writing robot that provides various templates for producing marketing materials, including website content, sales copy, email marketing campaigns, and social media posts. This tool doesn’t require any special skills or training to create engaging text.
Key Features:
- Use cases: It includes Facebook & Google Ads, email subject lines, landing pages, sales copies, social media content, and more.
- LongForm editor: You can create blog posts, articles, sales copies, and email marketing copies.
- Drag-and-drop builders: The drag-and-drop content builder makes your tasks more manageable by allowing you to drag and drop elements on your copy. The only thing you need to do is provide some context at the time of configuring this builder.
Pros:
- Its user interface is easy to use and navigate.
- You can easily create content with their drag-and-drop builder.
- The video tutorials provide in-depth, step-by-step instructions for each process.
- Tone analysis helps you understand the emotions in your writing.
Cons:
- No free plan or trial period is available.
- More expensive than most other AI tools.
Pricing:
It starts at $49.99/month for two seats, 300 AI runs, 50 SEO Audits, an SEO planner, Email support, and more.
13. LongShot AI
LongShot AI is another writing tool that can help you write SEO-friendly content. It comes with over 30 use cases and a plagiarism checker to ensure your content is original.
While most of its use cases are for short-form content, you can use templates like the content expander, write more, or bullets to text generator to assist you with your long-form piece.
Key Features:
- Use Cases: It includes content rephrasing, FAQ generator, headline generator, blog ideas generator, meta description generator, text extender, blog insights creator, headline intro generator, product description generator, FAB copywriting framework generator, content readability improver, sales email generator, video description generator, and more.
- Integrations: It integrates with WordPress to enable you to export AI-generated copies directly to WordPress. Its integration with SEMrush will help you write SEO-friendly content. Apart from these, LongShot AI will also provide integration with Hubspot and Grammarly soon.
- LongShot AI Community: The LongShot AI Community is a group of researchers and developers working on open artificial intelligence problems. Anyone can join and contribute to the research.
Pros:
- The free forever plan offers ten credits daily.
- Community is a big help for new users.
- It gives you multiple ways to know more about the product, including blog posts, help videos, customer support, and announcements.
Cons:
- Aside from the free plan, it’s costly, especially considering the limited number of use cases and credits.
- Doesn’t have use cases for social media content.
- Supports only eight languages.
Pricing:
It starts at $49/month for 1000 monthly credits, one user, basic integrations, and more.
14. INK Editor
Inky is a suite of content marketing tools that include AI-powered tools: AI Writer, SEO Optimizer, Copy Assistant, and Content Planner. These features can be used individually or collectively, and the price will be adjusted accordingly.
The AI Writer offers unlimited credits and helps you write long-form and short-form content. In addition, you can re-edit the generated copy with a single click as often as you want. The tool also offers WordPress plugin integration and open-source export API.
In addition, you get access to use cases like product descriptions, social media copies, sales copies, blogs, essays, emails, microcopies, product ideas, and more.
Key Features:
- SEO Optimizer: INK’s SEO Optimizer is a natural language optimization tool that can improve your SEO score and increase engagement by providing recommendations on keywords, titles, alt text, and the like. Enter a keyword or phrase, and the INK SEO Optimizer will do the rest.
- Content Planner: The INK Content Planner helps you group keywords and analyze search intent. You can also import your keywords and download your clusters for further analysis.
- Copy Assistant: A built-in grammar checker automatically checks your grammar and spelling. It also checks words, tone, and sentence fragments.
Pros:
- Easy to use.
- You can use it as an all-in-one content marketing tool.
- Offers unlimited AI text writing even on a free plan.
- Offers keyword clusters to optimize your SEO strategy.
Cons:
- The paid plan is relatively costly for one seat.
Pricing:
It starts at $50/month for one seat, INK Copy Assistant PRO, INK AI Writer PRO, INK SEO Optimizer PRO, and INK Content Planner PRO with 1,000 Keywords.
15. Articoolo
Articoolo is an AI content generator developed by a group of mathematicians, computer scientists, content writers, and marketing specialists. Thanks to NLP and AI technology, the tool drafts articles in a way that mimics the human brain.
Key Features:
- Use Cases: It includes Text Writer, Article Rewriter, Article Summarizer, and Image Scraper. Based on your keyword, Articoolo will also fetch images from royalty-free websites.
- WordPress Plugin: This will help you export your copies directly to WordPress so you can post faster.
- Plagiarism Checker: All you have to do is enter your text into the program, and it will scan for instances of plagiarism.
Pros:
- It has pay-per-use plans.
Cons:
- There’s no official website.
- Customer support is missing the mark.
- Not much information about the tool online.
Pricing:
It starts at $19/month for a ten-article fixed package.
16. NeuralText
NeuralText is a writing tool that offers users keyword reports and cluster credits. It also has an API for developers looking to integrate its services into other programs.
Some of its most prominent use cases include a paragraph generator, content outline, and product description – making it a short-form content-centric tool.
The best part is that it not only creates content but also creates content briefs and optimizes the content based on keywords and SERP analysis.
Key Features:
- AI Writing Assistant: This tool will help you produce text in any format. It also provides text recommendations while you write.
- Content Optimization: NeuralText can help make your content more search engine-friendly and improve its score in Google’s search results. It analyzes your word choice and sentence structure to ensure your content is easy to scan and relevant to your topic.
- Content research analysis: It makes content research and studies more accessible, allowing you to see real-time data across SERPs. It also has a Google Docs-style editor, making managing your data points and keeping track of your research effortless.
Pros:
- Free plan available.
- Offers keyword clusters.
- You can group content into different projects.
Cons:
- The community is not active.
- A bit on the expensive side.
Pricing:
It starts at $49/month for one user, unlimited AI text generation, 50 content analyses, and 50 keyword reports.
17. AI Writer
AI Writer helps you create unique, SEO-friendly content that you can publish directly to WordPress. In addition, it offers features like research & write, text rewording, verifiable citations, and source summarizer.
Key Features:
- AI-Writer Content Kit: AI Writer uses artificial intelligence to analyze keyword difficulty and ranking opportunities based on the field you enter. It chooses up to 250 keywords and generates one article per keyword, which can be directly published to WordPress.
- (Sub)Topic Discoverer: It checks to see what other writers have written about and then uses that information to create new topics for you.
- Verifiable Citations: When it produces content for you, it also provides a list of citations so that you can check the accuracy of the information.
Pros:
- It offers a free trial for seven days.
- One of the few AI writing tools to offer verifiable citations so you can confirm the accuracy of the content.
Cons:
- Not enough resources in the knowledge base for new users.
- Fewer use cases.
- Does not offer a free version.
Pricing:
It starts at $29/month for one user and up to 40 articles.
18. Wordtune
Wordtune makes your previously written content clearer, more compelling, and more authentic by bringing out the best.
Although this tool doesn’t write content from scratch, it makes your content look more professional. It also integrates with Microsoft Word, so you can edit your work while you write your content.
It provides tools to:
- Rewrite your content
- Make your content casual
- Make your content formal
- Shorten your sentences to make them crisp
- Expand your sentences to give more detail
Key Features:
- Paragraph Rewriter: Wordtune can rewrite your paragraphs entirely at once, one sentence at a time, and one word at a time. See below for an example.
- Tone: You can alter how your content appears by making it more informal or formal. Here’s an example:
Pros:
- You can make the text longer or shorter.
- It offers a casual and formal tone.
- Simple and easy-to-use interface.
Cons:
- It doesn’t offer any other benefits besides rewriting.
Pricing:
It starts at $9.99/month for unlimited rewrites.
19. ProWritingAid
Rather than a full-fledged artificial intelligence writer, ProWritingAid is a grammar checker and style editor that’s available online. It helps prevent spelling errors, suggests impactful words, and corrects grammar and punctuation.
It supports general English, British English, US English, Australian English, and Canadian English.
Key Features:
- Document type: You can choose from 35+ document types for your content. They include general academic abstract, academic essays, admission letters, book reviews, business books, and more.
- Reports: ProWritingAid provides three types of reports: real-time reports, summary reports, and style reports. Real-time reports show errors and corrections as you write. Summary reports provide an overview of all reports. It contains a spelling score, grammar score, and style score. On the other hand, Style reports identify problems in writing style and readability.
Pros:
- It offers 20+ reports to track your progress as you improve your writing.
- There are no limits on the number of words you can use with premium plans.
- Notifies of style changes and suggests corrections if needed.
Cons:
- Only available through the web browser.
Pricing:
It starts at $20 per month or $120 per year (if you pay yearly).
20. Article Forge
Once you provide ArticleForge.com with a keyword, article length, and other custom information, the program creates a 1500+ word article in seconds.
Your content will be checked for plagiarism and uniqueness before being delivered.
Key Features:
- Media-rich content: It can automatically find and insert relevant images, videos, titles, and links in your articles. To make it more relevant, ArticleForge also uses LSI keywords.
- SEO Automation: It integrates with WordPress to automate your scheduling and posting of articles.
- Interlinking: It can automatically turn URLs into links within your article. You can choose how often to do this for every keyword or just the first occurrence.
- Languages: It can generate content in English, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian.
Pros:
- Produces SEO-optimized content.
- Can schedule posts on WordPress automatically.
- Plagiarism-free content.
- Automatic keyword linking.
Cons:
- The content can be repetitive.
- You need to check the accuracy of the content before publishing.
Pricing:
It starts at $13/month for 25K words and the rest of the features.
Frequently asked questions about AI writing software.
1. What is AI Writing Software?
AI writing software is an artificial intelligence program used to write text. It can generate content for websites, blogs, and other fields. The content created by AI writers is often indistinguishable from human-created content. Still, sometimes it has a slightly robotic feel or may include words or phrases that seem out of place in the context of the writing.
2. How does AI Writing Software work?
The software uses an algorithm to mimic the creative process of human writers. It first creates a base text that modifies by adding words and phrases specific to your content. This ensures that you get high-quality original content every time you use it.
3. Who can use AI Writing Software?
Anyone who needs to create texts for their business or website can benefit from using this software. It’s also an excellent option for freelance writers and content marketers facing writer’s block. As it’s easy and fast, even beginners can start using it immediately and see great results within minutes!
4. Can I use AI writers for everything I write?
No — AI writers are best suited for shorter pieces like headlines or product descriptions because they don’t have much time to learn about your company’s brand voice or personality.
While there are tools to churn out long-form content, you still need the human touch for longer and more research-intensive pieces like blog posts or sales copy. AI algorithms still can’t pick up on nuances like a human can.
5. What are some of the benefits of using AI Writing Software?
There are many benefits to using AI writing software. The most obvious benefit is that you no longer need to spend time creating content yourself. The software will do it for you!
Another benefit is that AI writing software allows you to create content in any niche or topic you desire. You can even target multiple niches at once! This makes it possible to scale your business quickly and easily by leveraging the power of automation while still keeping your hands on the work itself.
6. How much does it cost?
The pricing depends on the type of service you want to use. Some companies offer free trials or even freemium versions with limited credits so that you can test their services before making a purchase decision. Some companies offer lifetime discounts for repeat customers, so keep an eye out for those offers when making your choice!
7. What’s the difference between AI-powered and human-written content?
While humans are still required for high-quality content creation, AI makes scaling up your content marketing efforts easier. By automating much of the writing process – from keyword research to formatting – AI can help you create more content at a lower cost per article. In addition, this frees your team members to focus on other tasks that require their expertise (like outreach) or simply spend more time enjoying their lives!
8. What is the best AI Writer?
The best AI writer depends on what you want it to do and how much you want to spend. If you’re going to write books or articles, many different programs can help you with this task. Our top pick for long-form would be Jasper.
On the other hand, if you only need help with short-form content such as blog posts or press releases, there may not be any need for an AI writer because these documents don’t require as much work or effort from the user. In that case, you might want to use tools like Copy.ai, Rytr, and more.
9. Can I use AI Writing Software to replace my human writers?
No, AI writing software isn’t meant to replace human writers. It’s designed to work alongside them, helping them create more engaging and relevant content for their audiences. You’ll still need human writers who can add style and personality to your content.
Over to You!
Do you find writing to be an exhausting activity? If yes, you would want to try one of the AI Writing Software tools we suggested above. These are some of the best AI writing tools specially developed to boost creativity, motivation, and productivity.
There’s room for experimentation with AI-generated content as long as you can recognize where specific tools are lacking and how to incorporate that into your work. Ultimately, the future of AI writing assistant software will mean ever-more versatile tools for writers, so don’t be shy about testing the waters.
Featured image by pch.vector on Freepik.
The post 20 Best AI Writing Apps first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
This article will demonstrate the heterogeneous systems integration and building of the BI system and mainly talk about the DELTA load issues and how to overcome them. How can we compare the source table and target table when we cannot find a proper way to identify the changes in the source table using the SSIS ETL Tool?
Systems Used
- SAP S/4HANA is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software package meant to cover all day-to-day processes of an enterprise, e.g., order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, finance & controlling request-to-service, and core capabilities. SAP HANA is a column-oriented, in-memory relational database that combines OLAP and OLTP operations into a single system.
- SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT) Replication is a trigger-based data replication method in the HANA system. It is a perfect solution for replicating real-time data or schedule-based replication from SAP and non-SAP sources.
- Azure SQL Database is a fully managed platform as a service (PaaS) database engine that handles most of the management functions offered by the database, including backups, patching, upgrading, and monitoring, with minimal user involvement.
- SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a platform for building enterprise-level data integration and transformation solutions. SSIS is used to integrate and establish the pipeline for ETL and solve complex business problems by copying or downloading files, loading data warehouses, cleansing, and mining data.
- Power BI is an interactive data visualization software developed by Microsoft with a primary focus on business intelligence.
Business Requirement
Let us first talk about the business requirements. We have more than 20 different Point-of-Sale (POS) data from other online retailers like Target, Walmart, Amazon, Macy’s, Kohl’s, JC Penney, etc. Apart from this, the primary business transactions will happen in SAP S/4HANA, and business users will require the BI reports for analysis purposes.
In this article, we will continue to explain how different components in Milvus interact with each other to complete real-time data queries.
Some useful resources before getting started are listed below. We recommend reading them first to better understand the topic in this post.
Podcasts are on the rise. In 2020 consumption of podcasts reached 332.2 million internet users, and this number grew to 383.7 in 2021. And it is increasing steadily – with the number of listeners slated to reach about 509.4 in 2024.
Podcasts have moved from a niche market of discussants in their parent’s basements to being spread across the globe into everyone’s earsets.
However, it’s more complex than just creating a decent show and uploading it. First, your website needs to be able to handle the traffic, lest you want your listeners attempting to sign up for your newsletter on a frisbee. But where does one start?
And that’s where podcast hosting sites come into the picture!
You need a podcast hosting service to publish your podcast episodes online and make them available to your audience. Podcasts are called interactive audio content for a reason. Your podcast listeners can get in touch with you through the comments section, emailing you their feedback, sharing your episodes on social media, and more.
It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to become a mega-star or want to solidify your brand; knowing which podcast hosting platform to use is essential to the podcasting process.
In today’s article, we have covered the 15 best podcasting sites. So whether you are looking for free or paid podcast hosting sites, we have covered everything in detail.
1. Podbean
Podbean is a podcast hosting and monetizing platform that lets you publish your podcasts in minutes. Just set up some basic information about your podcast – and you are set to publish your first episode on Podbean. With Podbean’s intuitive user interface, getting started with the service is as easy as pie!
In the above image, you can see how Podbean will ask you to set up your podcast. Podbean makes it easy to create a professional-looking site from title and description to category and podcast logo. Once you upload your episode, you can also pick a theme for your site.
As you see in the below image, you can customize its fonts and colors and test the audio and appearance before it launches.
Podcasts can also be listened to on Apple, Google, Shopify, and other podcast apps. If you want to embed your podcast on your website or blogs, Podbeans Embeddable Players will make that easy for you. The Embeddable player is also customizable and lets you add branded elements, making the design professional.
You can even connect your social media handle with your Podbean account to directly share podcasts on your social pages.
It doesn’t skimp on statistics, either. Podbean statistics will give you all the insights you need to know about your podcast’s audience, including the top 10 episodes, how many downloads there are at a particular time, where your customers come from, and user retention data.
All in all, it’s a great option to get started with your podcasting journey. However, one downside is that the podcast website isn’t as polished as some podcasters might prefer.
Other key features include
- You can host audio and video files without limits on storage and bandwidth.
- You can personalize your podcast with your own domain.
- You can also schedule your podcast episode in advance.
- Once you publish your podcast, users can access it on Alexa devices.
- Its Mailchimp integration will help you collect emails for future distribution.
- You can monetize your podcast using ads.
- Live stream your podcast with a remote co-host or guest.
Pros
- They offer a free plan, which provides iPhone and Android app players with 100GB of monthly bandwidth and their own podcast site.
- Even though the interface is very intuitive, the resources in their knowledge base will be helpful to beginners.
Cons
- You can’t host video podcasts unless you are on their Plus & Business plans.
- The podcasting website should be more professional.
Pricing
It starts at $9/month for unlimited storage space, unmetered bandwidth, distribution on significant podcast apps, customizable themes, and more.
2. Buzzsprout
Buzzsprout is a podcasting platform that provides hosting, promotion, and analytics solutions. You can directly distribute your podcast on Google, Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Alexa, Overcast, and more through Buzzsprout.
You can start with easy and free learning material provided by Buzzsprout, including podcasting guides, courses, video tutorials, industry podcasts, and community.
It’s also worth noting that Professional-sounding podcasts don’t come easy. That’s why Buzzsprout’s MagicMastering tool is available for you to use. It’s an audio filter that sweetens your podcast and optimizes it for the best industry standards.
That said, the Magic Mastering feature is only available with the pricier plans, so you’ll have to shell out more money for it.
You don’t have to worry about optimizing your episodes yourself either because Buzzsprout optimizes all episodes in terms of file type, bitrates, ID3 tags, etc.
The best part is that it has dynamic content flexibility, letting you decide whether audio should go at the beginning or end of an episode. It does everything to make your podcast search engine friendly, including transcribing each episode for people with hearing disabilities.
Buzzsprout’s users also usually have good things to say about the platform.
For example, Neil Thacker, founder of Casual Car Guide, who uses Buzzsprout himself, is a big fan of the platform.
Thacker says,
“I have been lucky enough to host a few different podcasts in various industries. Every time, my hosting platform of choice is Buzzsprout. They just get it. Buzzsprout makes it super easy to publish and syndicate your podcast episodes across various mainstream streaming platforms and directories.
If you need a website for your podcast, Buzzsprout gives you the tools to create one. Simply pick a domain and host your podcast there for the world to see. It’s quick and easy to set up and won’t cost you the earth. Go, Buzzsprout!”
Other key features include
- It offers a customizable podcast player that lets you skip to the next track or move backward. You can also share your episode on social media and make the player match your website’s branding.
- One account can hold multiple podcasts and team members.
- You can find all the necessary help through its YouTube channel and Facebook community.
- It integrates with tools such as Chartable, Podtrac, Hindenburg, and more.
- It also offers Visual Soundbites to match your brand colors.
Pros
- It offers competitive pricing and features.
- Clean & easy-to-use UI.
- Plenty of learning resources.
- Free version for 90 days.
Cons
- Limited upload time, even with paid plans.
- Your episodes will be hosted only for 90 days with the basic plan.
- The basic plan does not include Magic Mastering.
Pricing
Starts at $12/month for 3 hours of upload, advanced statistics, unlimited storage, and more.
3. Simplecast
Simplecast is the all-in-one solution for your podcasting needs – including podcast publishing, distribution, analytics, and sharing. Whether you’re a large or small business, it also has similar tool access for all sizes of companies.
Your podcast can be set up anywhere, including Shopify, Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, and other podcast directories. Simplecast gets your podcast on these directories and apps as soon as you publish any episode and then automatically sends it to your listeners.
Then it will provide you with advanced analytics to show how many listeners you have, how many downloads you get, your listeners’ locations, and more. See below for a visual representation of how this works:
It also has a website. That’s right; you’ll get your own website.
This website automatically updates as you publish new episodes and is customizable, mobile-friendly, search engine optimized, and Google Podcast optimized. You can even use your own domain names.
In addition, it allows the user to manage multiple shows in a single account. The image below will show you what the Podcast Dashboard looks like. It displays the number of episodes for each show and other information, such as role and owner.
Other key features include
- Its audio analytics come in easy-to-understand visuals and show you different trends – for example, which device listeners use to listen to your podcasts.
- Simplecast’s framework is a rock-solid, no-nonsense platform that keeps your stream playing 24/7.
- You can import your existing podcast from any platform with just a few clicks.
- You can use its players to embed your podcasts on your web.
Pros
- All of its plans offer unlimited uploads and storage.
Cons
- It does not offer a free version.
- I see users getting frustrated with the limited customization options for website themes.
Pricing
It starts at $15/month for two seats, unlimited storage and uploads, basic analytics, a custom domain, a customizable website, and more.
4. Anchor.fm
Anchor is one of the – if not the best free podcast hosting services by Spotify that takes care of creation, distribution, monetization, analytics, and more.
Creating Music+talk episodes on Anchor is as easy as pie. Choose any song from Spotify’s library, place it in your episode builder, add an audio file that you wish to go with the music file, and then submit your episode for review.
Some of the best ways to make money from your podcast are by building an audience and monetizing that audience. And with Anchor, you can monetize in various ways, including by adding paid advertisements to your podcast or asking for donations from listeners.
In addition, the IAB 2.0-certified metrics from Spotify let you measure your podcast’s performance in detail. For example, you can see where listeners are abandoning you on the track and adjust accordingly by adding content that really matters to them. You can also see what type of listeners interact with your podcasts – how old they are, what gender they identify with, and more.
Luciano Colos, founder and CEO of PitchGrade, who uses Anchor for his own podcast, talks about his experience with the platform.
He believes that the end-to-end control of the whole process is what makes Anchor.fm unique.
Colos further shares,
“Even if you’re not a technical person, the interface is so simple that you’ll be able to learn it in minutes. I’ve been using it since the day I started my podcast, and I’m so glad I found it. It’s also worth mentioning that the support on the platform is great. If you ever have a question, you can contact the staff on their Discord channel and will get an answer within minutes.”
Other key features include
- All the content rights are yours.
- You can distribute your podcast to Google, Apple, Pocket Casts, Spotify, and more.
- You can directly record from your phone, tablet, or computer and sync them to all devices.
- You can create both audio and video podcasts.
- The episode builder has easy-to-visualize building blocks.
Pros
- Anchor offers free and unlimited hosting in all plans.
- Easy monetization options, that too with ads in your own voice.
- You can distribute your podcast to all major podcasting platforms.
Cons
- You can host only one podcast per account.
- Interview features on phone hosting are limited.
- Customer support is limited to online resources.
Pricing
It’s a free platform.
5. SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a platform for both streaming audio and hosting podcasts. Majorly, it’s a popular music-sharing platform, but it also offers a robust podcast-hosting platform used by over 75 million people worldwide.
Creating a SoundCloud profile is also as simple as pie. You can personalize your profile with your own username, profile URL, custom profile image, and header.
SoundCloud is also one of the few podcast-hosting platforms that allow you to create a community around your podcasts. This is handy if you want to grow awareness about your podcast among other users.
Users can comment on specific moments of the track, and other users can see those comments when they reach that moment on the track.
The podcast hosting platform is available for Android and iOS, and you can sign up for free. Of course, there’s an affordable fee for upgrading your account to a creator account.
In addition, SoundCloud lets you distribute your tracks on various channels, including Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and more.
Then you have the SoundCloud Analytics dashboard that gives you a quick overview of the number of streams, revenue, and top tracks — but it’s not as detailed as you can get with other podcasting sites. After all, it’s a music streaming platform primarily rather than one specifically for podcasts.
There is little to no knowledge on their website for beginners, which is another disadvantage. That said, it’s pretty easy to use, so anyone without experience in podcasting can easily use the platform.
Other key features include
- SoundCloud allows you to share your music on Apple Music, TikTok, Spotify, and more.
- Except for the free version, SoundCloud offers unlimited upload time.
- If you have collaborators in your profile, you can split the payments with them.
- You can also schedule your podcast releases in advance.
Pros
- It offers a free plan with 3 hours of upload time.
- The hosting fee is affordable.
- Listeners can comment on specific moments from your track.
Cons
- Many users report that it takes a long time to load the track.
Pricing
It starts at $2.50/month for monetization, distribution, promotion, and split payment features.
6. Transistor.fm
Transistor’s like other podcasting platforms – you can create a podcast from scratch or import it from another platform. Just follow the instructions, and you’re good to go.
Once your podcast is recorded and ready to go, you can invite multiple members to contribute. Its analytics software provides clean visuals and robust insights into listener trends.
For instance, the below image is an overview of the podcast performance:
Now observe that the amount of data and clear visuals make this less overwhelming. As you can see, it gives you insights into average downloads per episode for the specific period, estimated subscribers, and total downloads (month-wise visual presentation).
In addition to providing one-click submissions to significant podcast platforms such as Spotify, Google, Apple Podcasts, Podcast Addict, and more, Transistor also offers one-click submissions to search engines like Listen Notes and The Podcast Index. Transistor is one of the few podcasting hosting platforms to provide a service like this.
Corey Haines, Founder of SwipeWell, shares his experience with the platform,
“I’ve been super happy with Transistor.fm for hosting all my podcasts. Instead of paying for each one individually, Transistor allows me to host all the podcasts I want for a single price. This made me feel free to experiment and start as many podcasts as I wanted. They also have great integrations, analytics, and sharing capabilities to embed on a website or newsletter.”
Other key features include
- You can create, import, and host multiple podcasts in a single Transistor account.
- You get a unique RSS feed, advanced analytics, a basic webpage, and collaborator invites for each podcast you create.
- The analytics tool gives you insights like the number of plays, total plays per episode, average download, devices, and more.
- It offers a podcast player that you can embed on your website, landing page, or tweet.
Pros
- Multiple podcast hosting options allow you to test different podcast formats for varied groups of listeners.
- You can host unlimited podcasts in one account.
- It offers a free trial.
Cons
- The starter plan, which is a paid one, does not include dynamic ads. It also does not allow you to automate YouTube posting.
- There are plenty of resources in their knowledge base, but finding what you’re looking for is confusing.
- Only the Business plan allows you to remove Transistor branding from the player.
Pricing
It starts at $19/month for unlimited podcasts, private podcasts, live customer support, a built-in podcast website, and more.
7. Libsyn
Libsyn has the tools to help you get started regardless of your level of podcasting expertise. It assists you in recording, publishing, distributing, and monetizing your podcasts.
The best part? You can host both audio and video podcasts on Libsyn.
To get started with Libsyn, you’ll have to provide a few details, including podcast title, subtitle, description, category, owner’s name & email, author, website URL, and more.
The below image shows what the Libsyn podcast settings look like:
You can also add your own artwork to your podcast. Click “Add artwork” or drag and drop the images in the upload area. Suppose you don’t have your artwork ready. In that case, you can design one on Canva – Libsyn’s integration with Canva makes creating a professional-looking podcast cover simple without any graphic design experience.
Once you are ready with everything, publish your podcast and distribute it to the platforms where your listeners could be, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play Music.
Libsyn gives you more ways to make money with your podcast, including advertising and subscriptions. For example, you can pitch to the big advertisers on Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast Marketplace or build a community of members who get exclusive access to your content.
Antreas Koutis, Administrative Manager at Financer, shares his experience with Libsyn,
“When I started podcasting on the side, I wasn’t sure which hosting platform to use. There are a lot of options out there, and it can be overwhelming to try to figure out which one is the best. After trying out a few different platforms, I found that I liked Libsyn the best.
It was easy to use and had all the features that I was looking for. I also liked the fact that they offered unlimited storage and bandwidth, which was important to me since I wanted to be able to grow my podcast without having to worry about running out of space. The only downside is that it can be a bit expensive, but overall I thought it was the best option for me.”
Other key features include
- Its podcast players allow you to drag and drop your uploads, and you can create an episode from any page.
- You can also publish your episodes in batches or pre-schedule them.
- With Snippets, you can create a description for your podcasts just once and reuse it with every post.
- It provides IAB Tech Lab Verified Stats, which means you can trust the accuracy of the data.
- Get access to advanced analytics, including an interactive worldwide map, listener app analytics, demographics, and more.
Pros
- Podcasting can be a cinch for anyone who starts with Libsyn’s in-depth, step-by-step guides and other valuable resources.
- Its integration with Canva helps you design your artwork with ease.
Cons
- The basic plan does not offer unlimited storage or uploading hours.
- For advanced features, the price is quite high.
Pricing
Starts at $5/month for 3 hours of uploading, 162MB storage, stats snapshot, basic social promotion, unlimited bandwidth, ad-free website, and more.
8. Podcastics
Podcastics is a complete suite of tools for hosting, sharing, and monetizing your podcasts. The prime reason to give Podcastics a try is its 1-month free trial – no credit card required! And you don’t even need the training to use this platform. But if you need assistance, there’s plenty of help in the help section.
It takes just a few clicks to get Podcastincs up and running. The editor is clean and self-explanatory, as shown in the image below. Just follow the steps, and your podcast will be ready in minutes.
Moreover, if you already have your podcasts on the Apple Podcasts platform, you can easily import all of them into your Podcastics account in just two clicks. Simply type your podcast name in the search box and select yours from the list that appears. This will collect and save all your data, such as titles, descriptions, episodes, etc.
Podcastics is also one of the few podcast hosting platforms that allow you to host multiple podcasts with unlimited episodes under one roof.
Once your podcast is up and ready to be distributed, you can share it with the world on major listening platforms such as Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and more. Podcastics makes distribution so much easier by automatically creating an RSS feed for you.
Its magic link never misses redirecting your listeners to the correct platform. You can also add QR codes to your magazines or print flyers to get user subscriptions.
Other key features include
- You can host multiple podcasts in one account.
- It also records heat maps for you with the most and least active time during the week.
- The text editor lets you insert links and lists and style your fonts in episode descriptions.
- If you are using a free version, you can use your own server to upload your podcasts. Paid plans offer to host by Amazon Servers.
- You can also monetize your episodes using Patreon and affiliate programs.
- You can segment your podcasts into sessions and assign episode numbers.
- You can schedule your podcasts for specific dates & times.
Pros
- It saves your time with the duplicate episodes feature; then, you can edit a few details and post another episode in minutes.
- Its description snippets eliminate the redundant task of adding a few same elements for each episode.
Cons
- Although it contains so many advanced features, newbies can quickly become confused by the program for the same reason.
- For the free plan, you have to use your own server.
Pricing
Starts at $8/month for worldwide distribution, easy import, unlimited episodes, private/unlisted episodes, and more.
9. Spreaker
Spreaker comes with a bundle of tools for you to create, distribute, monetize, grow an audience, and track the progress of your podcasts. You can host and monetize your podcasts with programmatic ads from big brands, such as Green Chef, Lego, Swag.com, CareerBuilder, and more.
Spreaker’s how-to guide for podcasting will get you started in no time. Once you have your podcast’s name, length, and format ready, Spreaker Studio will help you record it, add sound effects, and crop or trim your audio. Finally, add the cover art, and you are ready to publish your first podcast on Spreaker.
Martyna Inkielman, Community Manager at PhotoAiD, shares her experience with Spreaker,
“I find Spreaker the best and most reliable platform. My favorite thing about it is that it provides most of the essential features in one place – pretty much everything related to your podcast can be done on Spreaker. It’s also very intuitive, so it’s effortless to use, even for beginner podcasters.”
Martyna mostly has good things to say about Spreaker, but one thing that bothers her – it doesn’t support video podcasting, so she can’t post on YouTube with it.
Other key features include
- With Spreaker, you can share your podcasts on Google Podcasts, Amazon, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio.
- For monetizing, Spreaker inserts relevant ads in your podcasts no matter how new your episode is.
- For analytics, you can choose the plan for the level of detail you need about your podcast interactions. From downloads to listeners’ geolocation, Spreaker shows you every statistic vital to you.
- Spreaker Enterprise offers full-stack audio publishing, single-click distribution to various podcast channels, ad campaign manager, and more.
Pros
- You can monetize your podcasts regardless of the size of your audience, the number of downloads, or your account age.
- You can see real-time analytics of your podcasts because of their IAB Tech Lab certification.
Cons
- Users have reported limited options for customer service.
Pricing
It starts at $8/month for 6-months statistics, 100-hours storage, auto-upload to Spotify, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, and more.
10. Podomatic
Podomatic allows you to build your podcasting career in four easy steps: create a free account, record and publish, submit your podcast to big podcast platforms such as Spotify, and keep repeating.
To upload media, you must first add it to Podomatic’s library of supported file formats. It supports file formats including m4a, mp3, mp4, BMP, jpg, png, mp4, m4v, and more.
Podomatic will store your audio and video files in an unpublishable section if they are larger than 350MB, lack an extension, or has an unsupported extension.
To upload a podcast, you only need to determine the title, tagline, cover art, description, category, tags, and language. Then, once published, you can start monetizing it using Patreon, Popcorn, and What For Apparel ads.
You can also get stats on your podcast, including total plays, mobile plays, embeds, downloads, visits, and more. The service goes further into analytics to show your performance over a selected period of time, the performance of individual episodes, and listeners’ graphs.
Other key features include
- You can store up to 6 hours of recording (free) or 500MB of files.
- It gives you 15GB of bandwidth for a month.
- It also offers free tracking of your podcasts daily.
Pros
- You don’t pay for your first 20 episodes.
- Its premium plans are affordable.
- Premium plans offer unlimited bandwidth and storage.
- Be it a computer or mobile – you can record and publish high-quality episodes.
Cons
- It doesn’t allow the scheduling of episodes.
Pricing
Starts at $2.49/month for 100GB bandwidth, 2GB storage, and more.
11. Blubrry
Blubrry is a podcast hosting platform where you find easy podcast migration from other platforms, live customer support, and in-depth statistics. Blurry is also ready to host your single podcast or a whole slew of them.
With Blubrry, you can get more than just a podcast hosting service. You can grow your audience and connect with listeners by using Podcast Audience Surveys. These surveys give you valuable information about your audience, allowing you to develop a more robust publishing strategy.
For instance, you can see who completed your surveys and see their entire profile with information like identification, age, employment, education, demographics, audience’s listening habits, feedback, and more.
Once you’ve got all these metrics in place, you can then use them to compare and contrast with one another to come up with a more robust publishing strategy. This is something that no other podcast hosting platform does.
Blubrry also offers a free and optional managed WordPress website – designed with all the necessary modules a podcast website needs. In addition, this site automates podcast publishing on your website by using PowerPress Plugin.
And if you’re not looking to host an entire website, Blubrry offers a podcast landing page with a quick display of the show and listen and subscription module.
Want to further know where your listeners are coming from and which device they’re using? Blubrry Stats can help you analyze all of that!
However, it’s worth noting that Blubrry’s Standard plan is so basic that you can’t even use your own domain with it. It doesn’t come with advanced statistics or additional themes and plugins either – so be prepared to buy a pricier plan if you want all of those features.
Other key features include
- It allows private podcasting for secured delivery of audio and video to any device.
- It comes with a podcast media kit – which gives you an overview of your podcast performance.
- It also lets you choose your own logo, branding, and theme.
- You can also use your own domain with its advanced plan.
Pros
- Additional storage is available for an extra charge.
- Listeners’ survey helps build a closer connection with the audience.
- Its visual reports are detailed and easy to understand.
Cons
- Both paid plans offer minimal storage. The maximum is as little as 400MB.
Pricing
It starts at $10/month for 125MB storage, standard statistics, monetization, email and phone support, unlimited downloads, a custom embedded player, and more.
12. Captivate.fm
Captivate takes pride in its simple, easy-to-use dashboard that covers all the necessary functions and metrics to create, distribute, monetize, and promote your podcast.
Although it does not come for free, the range of hosting features and storage and upload capacities makes the price worth it. Captivate is designed by podcasters for podcasters, so it knows about their needs.
Creating a podcast in Captivate is a 5-step process. First, you’ll need the podcast name, author name, podcast cover art, description, category, directory setting, and more. Once you have all the necessary details, you can start importing your podcast into the Captivate Dashboard.
Then copy your current RSS feed into the current feed URL box and choose the current host—and voila! You are ready to go.
As soon as you publish your first episode, your podcast can be listed on one of the directories that Captivate integrates with.
With Captivate Analytics, you can see total downloads, total listeners, unique listeners, website traffic, listener demographic, and more.
It also offers responsive podcast websites where you can select from 3 templates, add bios, sign-up forms, lead generation modules, and more.
Nina Paczka, Community Manager at Resume Now, shares her experience with Captivate.fm,
“What I like the most is their dashboard – minimalistic yet providing everything you need. If you’re experiencing some trouble, Captivate’s team is there to support you. Considering the above, there’s nothing to dislike there. The platform offers a seven-day free trial. All paid plans cover unlimited podcasts and team members, with access to analytics and marketing tools.”
Other key features include
- Each plan offers unlimited podcasts and unlimited storage.
- You can import, add, and edit podcast transcriptions within Captivate thanks to its support of podcasting 2.0.
- It offers an international support team of 11 that covers four time zones, which means no matter where you are, their customer support will always be available.
- It offers Advanced IAB Tech Lab-certified podcast analytics to all podcasters.
Pros
- Their blog section is the source for every little question you could have while you are using this platform.
- Analytics goes deeper with each metric giving you a complete picture of your podcast performance.
- It offers a 7-day trial with all the features.
Cons
- It does not offer a free version.
Pricing
Starts at $17/month for 12K downloads, unlimited podcasts, unlimited uploads & storage, podcasting 2.0 support, and more.
13. Sounder
Sounder is another podcast platform on this list that offers tools to monetize, analyze, and promote your podcast across global directories. It follows IAB & GARM industry standards to generate accurate episode ratings, transcripts, keywords, summaries, and more within seconds.
You can create your podcast on Sounder either from scratch or by importing it from an existing platform. Once you sign-up for a free account, you can start with the podcast by entering details such as title, description, category, and artwork.
You can tinker with many more details, including your podcast’s name and description, author name, language, timezone, and more. While setting up these details, you can enable monetization by simply clicking on the relevant option. And that’s it!
Now you can create an episode by uploading an audio file and adding its title and description. Here you can set episode numbers, types, and artwork. You can also pre-schedule them.
If you’ve enabled monetization, you can select whether pre or post-rolls ads should go to your show.
Once you publish your podcast, Sounder will help you distribute it to popular listening apps such as Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, and more.
With Sounder Analytics Dashboard, you can get insights into streams, listeners, revenue, listeners’ demographics, keywords, referrals, and more.
Other key features include
- You can have up to four collaborators on your podcast.
- You can publish your podcasts under custom domains.
- It comes with a podcast player with audio search functionality.
- You can host unlimited podcasts in one account.
- If you have 50K+ streams per month, you can get early access to host-read DAI opportunities.
Pros
- Unlimited podcasts.
- Offers a free version for limited features.
- UI is clean and intuitive.
Cons
- Only offers audio podcasting.
- You cannot create membership programs.
Pricing
Available on request.
14. Fusebox
If you’re looking for an affordable podcast hosting platform, then Fusebox is the tool for you! It’s also pretty easy to use and provides a step-by-step guide through the entire process.
To start a podcast using Fusebox, you need to choose whether you’re starting a new podcast or importing from an existing one. In the below image, you can see that the UI is straightforward and easy to follow, even for newbies to podcasting.
If you’re creating your podcast from scratch, you must be ready with the details, such as the podcast title, description, and cover artwork.
Here’s what the form will look like:
You can also import data from your existing podcast by simply entering your feed RSS URL. It will lead you to the subscription page, where you can select a free or pro plan.
If you’re a new user of Fusebox or creating a podcast for the first time, you should enable Easy Hosting from your dashboard. It comes in every paid subscription.
Here, Fusebox will find your podcast and import all the files and data into your Fusebox account – you can just sit back and relax.
Once you’ve set up podcast information, you can start customizing your podcast player. The Branding page lets you select the brand colors that match your podcast or website branding.
You can also add a call to action – a button that prompts listeners to buy your music or sign up for your mailing list.
You can further:
- Control the speed of the player
- Add a download button and subscribe button
- Include a custom URL that sends listeners directly to your online store when they click on the cover art in their iTunes library.
Other key features include
- Customizable podcast players will help you stay aligned with your branding.
- Fusebox focuses on the metrics that count, such as downloads, referral sources, and top-performing podcasts and episodes.
- The easy hosting feature comes with step-by-step instructions to create podcasts.
- The built-in mobile player allows you to target listeners on the go.
- The podcast player comes with a download, subscribe, and social sharing buttons.
- It offers three types of podcast players – including sticky player, full player, and single player.
Pros
- Its podcast players are customizable.
- Easy, self-guided UI.
Cons
- The free version forces you to use your own host and gives you a single-track player with limited customization features.
- The starter plan includes only single-track players. To offer the rest of the players to your listeners, you’ll have to upgrade to the Pro plan.
Pricing
Starts at $7.50/month for a single track player, essential analysis, easy hosting, and more.
15. RSS.com
Rss.com is a podcasting app for people on the go. It’s like a Swiss army knife for busy podcasters, with features such as cross-platform analytics, automatic podcast distribution, and unlimited audio storage.
You can start by creating your podcast from scratch or importing it from an existing podcast platform. Both are super easy. To create from scratch, you will need to enter its title, description, language, and more.
Check out the image below to see what you will need:
As you can see, the UI is clean, easy to use, and self-explanatory. Every field is explained as you fill it out, and tips appear onscreen if you need more information. Once you create your podcast, you’re ready to upload your first episode.
The good thing about episodes is that they can be assigned season numbers, episode numbers, and types – giving you the flexibility to publish your episodes in the form of different series or trailers.
If you want to monetize your podcast, you’re in luck – RSS has in-built tools for that. The activation process is also easy and just takes one click.
Rss.com offers you three ways to monetize your podcasts: donations, bitcoin payments, and sponsor ads.
You can also distribute your podcast to listening platforms such as Google, Amazon, Spotify, Samsung, Amazon Music, and more.
Other key features include
- Its all-in-one dashboard shows you a complete picture of your podcasts. You can see scheduled episodes and navigate to your podcasts, analytics, distribution, or settings. You can also create a new episode from the dashboard.
- Its cross-platform analytics enables you to compare the metrics from different sources. For example, you can determine which podcast channel gives you more listeners or downloads.
- It uses podcasting 2.0 – which means you can transcribe your audio and use them for SEO purposes.
- From analytics, you can determine the best time to publish your episode and schedule it for the right time.
- With its embedded episode player, you can easily embed your podcast to any third-party website.
- You can get more reach using social share buttons on your podcast players.
Pros
- You can add chapters and soundbites to your episodes.
- You can schedule episodes in advance.
- Your podcasts are automatically distributed to popular podcast platforms.
- It offers a free podcast website.
- Each plan includes a free trial with no credit card.
- Affordable plans.
Cons
- Does not support mobile apps.
- No forever-free plan.
- Does not support any WP plugin.
Pricing
It starts at $4.99/month for unlimited episodes & audio, cross-platform analysis, RSS feed, free website, custom embedded player, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions about Podcast Hosting Platforms
1. What is a podcast hosting platform?
Podcast hosting platforms are the middleman between you and your audience. They’re a necessary part of the podcast ecosystem — they provide the basic infrastructure that makes it possible for you to create and publish your show.
2. How do I choose a podcast hosting platform?
There are many factors to consider when choosing a podcast hosting platform, including:
- Cost – How much does it cost to use the platform? Paid services don’t always offer better features than free ones, but they may come with more support options or other perks.
- Features – What does the platform offer in terms of features? Does it have things like automated episode creation, automatic distribution, social media integration, and more?
- Support – How good is their support team? Can you reach them if you need help?
- Bandwidth – The amount of data that can be transferred from one location to another in a certain amount of time (usually measured in bits per second). The more bandwidth available on your account, the more listeners will be able to download your episodes without having their connection interrupted or experiencing any buffering issues.
- A built-in audio player – This allows listeners to listen to your episodes without having to download an external app or visit another website. You can even add social sharing buttons so people can easily share your episode on Facebook or Twitter.
3. Do I need to use a podcast hosting platform?
If you’re just starting out, then it might be easier for you to use a podcast hosting platform because there are so many options available. However, if you have some experience with WordPress, then you can host your own podcast to avoid paying monthly fees and have more control over your content and website design.
4. How does podcast hosting work?
Podcast hosting services provide a platform to upload your audio files as well as convert them into an MP3 format. After uploading your content, it will be available on their servers so that anyone can access them online.
Most of these services also offer some basic analytics and statistics that help you track how many people have listened to your podcast and where they live.
Some even offer more advanced analytics like ranking charts, number of downloads per episode, etc., which helps you understand what people like about your show and how they listen to it (e.g., through mobile devices).
5. What do you mean by “Hosting?”
Hosting refers to storing your files on the Internet. It’s like storing your files on an external hard drive, except that they’re stored online rather than on a physical device. When you upload an episode to a podcast hosting platform, it will be saved there so that listeners can access it easily.
6. How do I upload my podcast?
You need to sign up for an account with a podcast hosting platform (like Libsyn). Once you have your account set up, there is usually an upload tool that allows you to select the files from your computer and add them to your account.
7. What are the best podcast hosting platforms?
Libsyn, Buzzsprout, Blubrry, and PodBean are all popular options for podcasters. It really comes down to personal preference and what type of features you’re looking for. You can also check out our post on how to choose a podcast host if you need more information on making this decision.
8. Can I use iTunes or Stitcher?
No, those aren’t podcast hosting platforms — they’re directories that people use to find podcasts. You’ll need to host your own MP3 files off-site so that they can be accessed by these directories (and other apps/devices).
9. Do I need a website?
No! Your podcast will be hosted on a website provided by the platform you choose, so you don’t need your own domain name or web hosting account. You may want to create an email address for your show so listeners can contact you directly with questions or feedback, though.
10. What are the different types of podcast hosting?
There are two main types of podcast hosting: free and paid. Free hosts do not give you full control over your episodes, while paid hosts usually offer more features and flexibility.
Ready to start podcasting with a suitable podcast host?
Hopefully, we’ve answered a few of your questions and given you the information you need to help you pick the right podcast host for your needs. Whether you’re looking for the best professional podcast host, the cheapest option for monetizing your podcasts, or something in between, there are podcast hosting sites out there that will help you meet your specific requirements.
We think the best way to choose whichever podcast hosting service is right for you is to check out how they handle certain features and what level of support they offer.
Note that free podcast hosting services are a great way to get your podcast started. The free option is perfect for a hobbyist or someone who is interested in the process of making a podcast. From there, you can upgrade to paid accounts for a more dedicated podcast hosting service with some of these platforms or go with a self-hosted option.
Whichever you choose, make sure you read the fine print, so your podcast isn’t censored for inappropriate content or hurt yourself by not having the proper legal disclaimers in place.
Featured image by Freepik.
The post 15 Best Podcast Hosting Platforms first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
When you need a website, you have two options, you can hire someone who’s an expert in website building to design it for you, or you can make it yourself.
Hiring someone with experience building a website means you’ll get a more professional result, and you should achieve a good return on your investment. However, hiring a freelancer or a design agency has plenty of pitfalls. Budgets can spiral, timescales get stretched, and the end result might not meet your expectations.
The answer might be to build your own website using a website builder. And the best site builders are designed to help you do just that — most don’t require any design or coding knowledge.
Creating a website with a website builder is usually cheaper than outsourcing the job, and the results can be almost as good as a bespoke website. There are even some free website builders out there.
The key is to choose the right website builder that ticks all your boxes and delivers what you want without paying through the nose for bells and whistles you don’t need.
We’ve tested the best website builders on the market. We’ve quizzed professionals and first-time users. We’ve poked around in the dark corners of UIs. All to bring you this guide to the top website builders on the web. This comprehensive guide to the best website builders for 2023 contains everything you need to know when selecting a site builder.
What To Look For in a Website Builder
The most significant obstacle people face when using website builders is you don’t know what you don’t know. There’s so much information online that it’s hard to know where to start.
That’s why we put together this guide to the best website builders, so small businesses everywhere can make an informed decision about website building.
Choose a Site Builder With High-Quality Code
The first thing you need to look for is production-ready code. That means source code that is modern, robust, and hack-free. (All of the website builders on this list meet those criteria.)
Identify What A Successful Website Looks Like To You
Professional designers start by identifying a website’s purpose. Websites perform best when they have a clear purpose.
If you’re a wedding photographer, you will want to showcase your portfolio and generate new leads. You’ll want to sell products online if you own a clothing store. If you’re a community group, you want to raise awareness and encourage public interest.
Whatever your goal, a website builder listed below will help you achieve it. And choosing the best option for you will be a more straightforward process if you’re clear about that goal to start with.
Think About Design Flexibility
One of the defining characteristics of any website builder is how flexible its designs are. Some of the best website builders give you complete control over every detail of your design. Other website builders limit you to choosing from a selection of pre-designed blocks.
If you’re prepared to compromise on your design, you will have more options. On the other hand, if you want to achieve a specific look, you may need to opt for a more flexible website builder.
Be Honest With Yourself
Next, consider your own level of experience and the amount of time you have to invest in learning to use a tool and build a website. Some website builders will get you online fast, but even some of the best website builders take a little time to learn.
Some people can spare 3–4 hours every weeknight to learn how to leverage a complex website builder — that helps a lot when building a complex site like an online store. Other people have family commitments or social engagements and just need to get something done fast.
There’s no right or wrong answer. You don’t need prior experience, and you don’t need to commit to an evening course to get online. If you want to put a website online in 15 minutes and then forget about it, that’s fine. Make sure you choose a website builder that can help you do that.
Check Out the Support Options
Speaking of your experience, we don’t want to put a damper on things, but what will you do if something goes wrong?
Websites experience problems from which website builders are not exempt. Most of the best website builders use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) for web hosting. But CDNs aren’t infallible.
Some site builders offer a free domain, and all of the best website builders allow you to use a custom domain name and free SSL certificate. What happens if there’s a problem with it? Does the site builder’s support extend to domains?
Happily, most website builders offer an excellent level of customer support. So before you start, check what help you’re entitled to and how to get assistance should a problem arise.
Make Full Use of Any Free Trial
Most of the best website builders offer a free trial or even a free-forever package. The free trial is your opportunity to try out the UI (User Interface) and get a feel for the product.
All the website builders we’ve listed below specialize in a particular type of site. Most cater to small business owners. Each has pros and cons and can help you achieve your online goals. However, in the end, the success of your site comes down to you; you can use a free web builder and still succeed if you’re willing to put in the work.
Trust your instincts: if you find a particular site builder intuitive, then the chances are you’ll be able to create a great website with it.
Wix: Best Website Builder for Small Business Owners
Wix is widely considered to be one of the best website builders of 2022, and a quick glance at its extensive list of features will tell you why we expect it to still be the top website builder platform in 2023.
First up is a vast number of templates giving you more selection than almost any rival. There’s so much choice that you’ll probably spend longer choosing your template than actually building your site!
Wix’s editor uses an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that enables anyone to create just about any design. It’s not the most straightforward editor on the market. Still, Wix has extensive documentation, so if you have the time to tackle a modest learning curve, you should quickly get to grips with the UI.
Of course, Wix also includes core features like custom domain names and free SSL certificates.
On top of these features, Wix provides various marketing tools to help your site grow toward profitability.
Finally, for freelancers and web design agencies, Wix provides Editor X, a professional solution for creating multiple websites for clients. Editor X is an excellent addition to Wix’s lineup. However, it’s not the best option for design agencies (keep reading to find out which tool we think tops Editor X).
Wix Features
Wix is the biggest website builder in the world and includes hundreds of features that make building a website simple. Here are just some of the highlights.
Huge Range of Templates
Wix boasts a huge range of 800+ customizable templates for every kind of business, from online stores to simple marketing sites.
Intuitive Drag and Drop Editor
Wix’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes it a simple task to achieve almost any design with little to no design experience.
There are a couple of downsides to this approach. Firstly, many small business owners opt for a website builder because they need a guided design process — unlimited options can actually make things harder. Secondly, the highly flexible design system Wix offers can introduce unexpected bugs at different device sizes.
Editor X
Editor X is Wix’s solution for freelance designers and web design agencies. It allows you to build client sites with dedicated tools for professionals.
App Market
Wix’s AppMarket is a dedicated app store with hundreds of plugins that enable you to expand your website’s capabilities quickly and easily. You’ll find everything from table reservation apps for restaurants to social media integrations.
Velo
Velo is Wix’s open development platform for building web applications. This is an ambitious project that aims to move web builders into areas in which they typically cannot compete: complex web apps.
For most businesses, Velo is far beyond what you need; for most app developers, it isn’t enough yet. But it’s great to know this opportunity is on the horizon.
Ecommerce
Wix has a range of tools to help your ecommerce business grow. There are coupons, discounts, bookings, and shipping tools.
Ascend
Ascend is Wix’s built-in marketing suite. It includes a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) which is excellent for fostering long-term business relationships and eliminates the need for a third-party app.
Email Marketing Tools
Email is still the most effective way of staying in touch with your customers. Wix’s built-in email marketing tools make it easier to manage email campaigns, all from your Wix dashboard.
Free Domain
Wix will even give you a free domain for a year on everything except its basic package.
Pros
- Relatively intuitive design process
- Excellent documentation and quick-start guides
- Reliable and secure system
- Huge range of tools
- Extensive plugin market
Cons
- Sites are less responsive than some rivals
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) options are limited
- Difficult to change templates once you’ve selected one
- Image and video-heavy sites perform poorly on mobile devices
- Design flexibility can introduce unexpected bugs
Pricing
Wix has multiple tiers of pricing depending on the features you require.
Note that the availability of some Wix plans varies depending on your location.
Website Plans
Website Plans are aimed at those users creating an individual site.
Combo: $16 per month — 2 Gb bandwidth and 3 Gb of storage, plus 30 minutes of video streaming.
Unlimited: $22 per month — Unlimited bandwidth, 5Gb storage, 1 hour of video streaming, and access to marketing tools.
Pro: $27 per month — Unlimited bandwidth, 50Gb storage, 2 hours of video, marketing tools, social media tools and priority support,
VIP: $45 per month — Unlimited bandwidth, 100Gb storage, 5 hours of video, marketing tools, social media tools, and priority support.
Business & Ecommerce Plans
If you want to accept payments online with Wix, you’ll need a business plan.
Business Basic: $27 per month — 20Gb storage space, 5 hours of video, online payments
Business Unlimited: $32 per month — 35 Gb of storage, 10 hours of video, multiple currencies, multi-channel selling, dropshipping, product reviews
Business VIP: $59 per month — 50Gb of storage, unlimited video, marketing, and sales tools, dropshipping, product reviews, and a loyalty program
Enterprise Plans
Wix provides custom solutions for enterprise customers. If you have a large site with complex needs, then Wix can design a complete solution for your brand. Contact Wix directly for pricing.
Bottom Line
Wix is one of the best website builders available for creating your own website. Its flexibility, massive range of features, and ability to scale are ideal for many new and established businesses. But, if anything, Wix’s vast range of options can be a hindrance and make its learning curve a little steeper than necessary.
Wix is a great allrounder, but it’s not the easiest, cheapest, or fastest website builder. So keep reading to discover the best alternatives to Wix.
Squarespace: Best Website Builder for Creatives
Squarespace is the ideal website builder for anyone for whom aesthetics are a primary concern; it boasts the most beautiful templates of any website builder.
On its higher tier packages, Squarespace allows ecommerce sites to host their own checkout. This is radically different from some website builders further down this list and ensures a consistent customer experience while maintaining a secure checkout.
For professional designers, Squarespace offers Circle, an invite-only program for professionals creating multiple sites in Squarespace. To qualify, you must build at least three websites on the Squarespace platform.
Squarespace Features
Beautiful Templates
Squarespace has hundreds of templates, widely considered to be amongst the most beautiful designs of any website builder.
Additionally, you can purchase Squarespace templates at a number of different design marketplaces, giving you even more options.
Powerful Ecommerce Features
Squarespace has everything you need to power an online store, from selling an individual item to a huge product range. You can even sell online classes.
Integrated Marketing Tools
Squarespace includes integrated marketing tools like email campaigns that carry your branding from your site to your customers’ inboxes.
Squarespace also includes a very capable blogging app with all the features you need to start publishing content that will engage your users and boost your position on SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Pages).
Circle
Circle is Squarespace’s partner program for professional web designers. You will need to build at least three Squarespace websites to qualify.
Members of Circle get free educational content to keep their skills up to date and access to product betas.
Pros
- Award-winning templates
- Incredible customer support
- Seamless integrations
- Simple but powerful ecommerce features
- Create a stunning site in 15 minutes
Cons
- Steeper learning curve
- Limitations on navigation
- Slower than average page speed
- Premium-priced plugins
- No free domain
- Custom CSS restricted to the business plans
Pricing
Squarespace offers four simple pricing plans. Additionally, you can save up to 30% by opting to pay annually instead of monthly.
Personal: $23 per month — 2 contributors, curated templates, simple analytics, mobile version of sites
Business: $33 per month — unlimited contributors, business tools, advanced analytics, ecommerce with 3% transaction fees
Basic Commerce: $36 per month — unlimited contributors, business tools, ecommerce analytics, merchandising tools, 0% transaction fees.
Advanced Commerce: $65 per month — Everything in the basic commerce package plus abandoned cart recovery, subscriptions, advanced shipping options, and discounts, as well as APIs for third-party integrations.
Bottom Line
Squarespace offers undeniably beautiful sites. Its editing experience takes a little getting used to but is far from complex. Its simple, transparent pricing means your costs are predictable, and there is genuine value in its 30% discount for paying annually.
Due to its shallower navigation, it’s best suited to smaller online stores with dozens rather than hundreds of products. However, artists and craftspeople will love selling their work on Squarespace.
Shopify: Best Website Builder for Online Stores
Shopify is the best-known website builder for creating an online store, and for a good reason. Few website builders manage to handle online sales with the grace of Shopify’s ecommerce features.
That does not mean it’s without its failings. The biggest issue for most Shopify users is the restriction on the number of product variants, which is capped at 100, and always seems to be reached too quickly. Another common gripe is the styling restrictions placed on the cart in the name of security, which prevent anything but basic styling from being applied to your checkout process.
Shopify is one of the best online website builders, but it eschews the usual drag-and-drop interface approach and instead uses templates and editable code.
Templates typically come with styling options, and there is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) style editor for adding content. However, you’ll need to hire a developer or learn basic coding to customize your template significantly.
The upside of this approach is that there’s a vast Shopify ecosystem, with thousands of templates and plugins available in the dedicated store and on third-party marketplaces.
Shopify Features
Vast Number of Templates to Choose From
Shopify has a huge number of templates, there are hundreds of native templates, and there are thousands more available from third-party marketplaces.
Extensive Plugin Store
Shopify has an extensive plugin store with 6500+ add-ons, from apps to improve your UX to helpers to simplify third-party integrations with SaaS (Software as a Service) like Mailchimp and AliExpress.
Social Media Integration
Shopify isn’t just an online store; it makes selling products across multiple channels, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even email, a simple process.
Industry-Leading Education
Shopify has a plethora of resources to help you create an online store and maximize your sales. It provides online courses and community resources and a dedicated and knowledgeable customer support team.
Pros
- Highly optimized checkout
- Recognized and trusted platform
- Sell across multiple channels like Etsy and Facebook
- Huge app store
- Manage large inventories easily
- Fast customer support
Cons
- Checkout has limited styling options
- Coding knowledge is needed to fully extend Shopify
- No simple drag-and-drop editor
- Additional costs if buying a template or plugins
- Steep learning curve compared to other website builders
- Limits on the number of variations per product
Pricing
Shopify offers three website plans. You can save 50% if you pay annually instead of monthly.
Note: in addition to your plan, Shopify charges a per-sale percentage plus $0.30 for online transactions.
Basic: $29 per month — Basic reports, 2 staff accounts, 4 inventory locations, up to 77% shipping discount, 2.9% + $0.30 fee per transaction
Shopify: $79 per month — Professional reports, 5 staff accounts, 5 inventory locations, up to 88% shipping discount, 2.6% + $0.30 fee per transaction
Advanced: $299 per month — Custom reports, 15 staff accounts, 8 inventory locations, up to 88% shipping discount, 2.4% + $0.30 fee per transaction
Shopify is aimed at small businesses but also provides ShopifyPlus, an enterprise-grade solution for high-volume businesses that starts at $2,000 per month.
Bottom Line
Shopify sets the bar for ecommerce solutions. When it comes to selling online, it’s the first choice for many businesses.
Shopify occupies the middle ground between website builders and custom solutions. As such, making changes is difficult. Once you’ve chosen your template and exhausted the built-in features of the template, your only recourse for further changes is to hire a developer (or learn to code).
Shopify is laser-focused on ecommerce, so it’s a poor choice for anything but ecommerce. However, if you’re aiming to quickly establish an online store with scope to grow, Shopify is impossible to beat.
Webflow: Best Website Builder for Design Agencies
Webflow is a website builder geared solidly towards freelancers and design agencies concerned with building a website for their clients.
For professional website designers who possess at least a passing understanding of HTML & CSS, Webflow is an ideal way to create a website.
With its white labeling and a complete CMS (Content Management System), Webflow allows you to serve sites to clients as custom builds. Clients can then edit content in a simplified dashboard called Editor; this lessens the learning curve for clients and avoids the risk of them fiddling with site-breaking settings.
Webflow Features
Full CMS
Webflow employs a full CMS (Content Management System) to separate design and content and allow you to use data to create a website rapidly. In this respect it’s like a the best elements of Wix and WordPress combined.
Powerful Design Process
With Webflow you have the option to fully customize almost every aspect of your design, without code.
Start with a blank canvas, or a template, then use the drag-and-drop editor to add HTML elements onto your page. Create reusable symbols to speed up your site creation.
White Labeling
White labeling means teams can create client sites in Webflow without the client knowing how the site is built — design agencies don’t have to worry about clients cutting out the middleman and going straight to Webflow to save money.
Webflow Enterprise
Most website builders are out of their depth when it comes to enterprise-grade sites with high volumes of traffic. Not so Webflow, which delivers advanced security, traffic scaling, and guaranteed uptime for its enterprise customers.
Pros
- Comprehensive SEO tools
- Extensive customization options
- Industry-leading documentation
- Excellent for client work
- Fast customer support
- Awesome free plan
Cons
- Not beginner-friendly
- No plugin store
- HTML & CSS knowledge advisable
- Membership sites are only in beta
- Complicated pricing
- Eye-wateringly expensive
Pricing
Webflow offers a multitude of pricing options depending on whether you’re an individual, a reseller, or an online store.
If you’re running an individual site you’ll need either a website plan or an ecommerce plan. If you’re an agency planning to resell Webflow to your clients you’ll need a workspace plan for your team in addition to a website or ecommerce plan for every client site you publish.
Website Plans
If you’re an individual, Webflow provides three plans to choose from. You can save up to 22% by opting to pay annually instead of monthly.
Basic: $18 per month — 0 CMS items, 500 form submissions per month, 50Gb bandwidth.
CMS: $29 per month — 2,000 CMS items, 1,000 for submissions per month, 200Gb bandwidth, and up to 3 guest editors
Business: $49 per month — 10,000 CMS items, 2,500 form submissions per month, 400Gb bandwidth, up to 10 guest editors
Ecommerce Plans
To unlock features specifically designed for online selling, you need to opt for one of Webflow’s ecommerce plans. You can save up to 30% by opting to pay annually instead of monthly.
Standard: $42 per month — includes everything in the individual CMS plan, plus 500 products, 2% transaction fee, and a maximum of $50,000 in annual sales
Plus: $84 per month — includes everything in the individual business plan, plus 1,000 products, 0% transaction fee and a maximum of $200,000 in annual sales
Advanced: $235 per month — includes everything in the individual business plan, plus 3,000 products, 0% transaction fee, and unlimited annual sales
Team Plans
For teams, Webflow offers workspace plans in addition to website and ecommerce plans. There is a free plan while you learn Webflow, and you can save up to 33% by paying annually.
Note that team plans are charged per seat, so for example, the cost for four designers of the Growth package is $240 per month (not $60 per month).
Core: $28 / seat per month — for small in-house teams, up to 3 seats, a maximum of 10 unhosted sites, custom code and code export.
Growth: $60 / seat per month — for growing in-house teams, up to 9 seats, unlimited hosted sites, custom code, custom export.
Freelancer: $24 / seat per month — for freelancers or small agencies, up to 3 seats, full CMS access on unhosted sites
Agency: $42 / seat per month — for agencies, up to 9 seats, full CMS access on unhosted sites
Large teams with more than 9 team members will need to contact Webflow for its enterprise plan, which promises unlimited seats.
Bottom Line
Webflow is aimed at design agencies and freelancers who need a web host for client work and is one of the best website builders for managing multiple sites.
Due to its advanced feature set, Webflow is relatively complex to use. However, it is far simpler than a bespoke site, and anyone with a cursory understanding of web technologies should master it in a short space of time. Additionally, its Editor feature simplifies it for clients.
Unfortunately, Webflow’s ecommerce plans are expensive and ecommerce features are limited. Anyone looking to sell online might want to consider other site builders instead.
If you’re a design agency building multiple client sites, Webflow is an excellent platform to adopt…if you can afford the team plans.
Duda: Best Website Builder for SEO
Duda website builder has been outperforming its rivals since 2021, when Google introduced Core Web Vitals and, in the process, made SEO all about speed.
Duda produces blazing-fast, reliable sites and, in doing so, ticks all of Google’s boxes for a quality site that it wants to rank highly.
On top of this, Duda provides a white-label option, allowing design agencies to build sites for clients on the platform. In fact, this is what Duda was initially created for.
Duda offers beautiful design in a simple-to-use package. As such, it produces some of the best no-code websites.
Duda Features
Simple Editor
Duda offers a Simple Editor option that allows you to provide your clients with a simple website builder of their own. Predesign elements that work together, then let your clients combine them in whatever way they please.
Clients will feel empowered, and you get a website project out the door with less work and fewer revisions.
White Labeling
Duda is aimed squarely at freelancers and design agencies that want to foster an ongoing relationship with their clients.
Team Libraries
Build your own library of widgets, templates, and sections. Share across your entire team, so client projects are created with your in-house approach.
Omni-Channel Ecommerce
Duda enables ecommerce sales across the web and social media, with your inventory synced everywhere you sell, from Facebook to eBay and Amazon.
Managing a store is simple with store management apps for iOS and Android.
Pros
- Extremely fast page speed
- Beautiful templates
- Award-winning customer support
- Intuitive drag-n-drop interface
Cons
- Relatively expensive
- Limited plugin store
Pricing
Website Plans
Duda offers three pricing plans for websites, and you can save up to 33% by paying annually instead of monthly.
Basic: $19 per month — 1 website, email customer support only, no team or client collaboration
Team: $29 per month — 1 website, email chat and phone customer support, up to four team members, white label client access
Agency: $59 per month — 4 websites, priority email chat and phone customer support, up to ten team members, white label client access, widget builder, export control
Duda also offers custom plans for clients with enterprise-grade sites; contact them directly for pricing.
Ecommerce Plans
Duda provides ecommerce features as an add-on, which means if you want to use Duda to create an online store, you need to sign up for one of their website plans as well as one of their ecommerce plans.
Note: you can pair any of the ecommerce plans with any of the website plans; they don’t need to scale together.
You can save up to 25% on Duda’s ecommerce plans by paying annually instead of monthly.
Standard: $8 per month — Up to 100 products
Advanced: $22 per month — Up to 2,500 products, sell subscriptions
Unlimited: $49 per month — Unlimited products, sell subscriptions, Square PoS integration
Bottom Line
SEO is a complex subject, and many factors feed your ranking on Google, Bing, and other search engines.
What is universally accepted is that fast pages translate into a better ranking.
If you’re looking for a blazing-fast website builder to help you establish a strong online presence, Duda must be near the top of your shortlist.
WordPress.com: Best WordPress Website Builder
WordPress is a juggernaut of an app; its rise has been unstoppable, and 43% of the web is made up of WordPress sites. Furthermore, WordPress.com — not to be confused with WordPress.org — is a WordPress site builder. That means all you need to do is log in and have all the power and flexibility of WordPress at your fingertips.
The downside to all this power is that WordPress.com is a big step up in complexity from most of the site builders on this list. It’s not as complex as its self-hosted sibling, but you’ll still need to spend some time getting acquainted with the advanced features.
You’ve probably heard that WordPress is insecure. We’re sorry to say that’s true. WordPress’ main vulnerability is its third-party themes and plugins — the commonality of a WordPress site means criminals consider it worth exploiting. WordPress.com web hosting is considerably more secure than self-hosted WordPress.org, but hey, it’s still WordPress.
But if you decide the security risk is acceptable, WordPress.com offers an ecosystem of themes and plugins unparalleled for its range and variety.
WordPress.com Features
Huge Ecosystem
WordPress has a vast ecosystem, perhaps the largest of any design software. There are thousands of professionally designed themes, and over 50,000 plugins, providing enormous scope for customization.
When vulnerabilities are found, more often than not, it’s the result of a flaw in a plugin update. So if you install a lot of plugins, you are exposing yourself to increasing security risks.
Unfortunately, in order to take advantage of the WordPress ecosystem, you need to be on one of WordPress.com’s higher-priced plans.
Secure Web Hosting Service
WordPress sites are notoriously insecure, but WordPress.com solves most of the issues thanks to a dedicated security team.
Drag-and-Drop Editor
The whole WordPress community has been working on evolving the design process from coded templates to a drag-and-drop editor called Gutenberg. Gutenberg started out small, but it gets better all the time and now offers a good level of design control without overwhelming beginners with too many options.
Pros
- Generous free plan
- Intuitive drag-and-drop editor
- No installation required
- Great live chat support
- Ideal for blogging
- 50,000+ plugins
- Vast number of templates
- Secure web hosting service
Cons
- Unintuitive
- Slow page-load times
- Persistent security concerns
- Premium templates and plugins are restricted to more expensive plans.
- SEO locked behind more expensive plans
Pricing
There is a generous free plan that is ideal for getting started. Beyond that WordPress.com offer four price tiers. You can save up to 50% by paying annually instead of monthly.
Note: many of WordPress.com’s best plugins are not free; make sure you budget for the cost of any plugins you intend to use.
Personal: $4 per month — Remove WordPress.com ads, collect payments
Premium: $8 per month — Remove WordPress.com ads, collect payments, earn ad revenue, install premium themes, Google Analytics integration
Business: $25 per month — Remove WordPress.com ads, collect payments, earn ad revenue, Google Analytics integration, install plugins, automated site backups.
eCommerce: $45 per month — Remove WordPress.com ads, collect payments, earn ad revenue, Google Analytics integration, install plugins, automated site backups, accept payments in 60+ countries, top shipping carrier integration, premium design options.
WordPress.com also provides WordPress VIP, an enterprise-grade package that starts at $25,000 per year.
Bottom Line
Opting to use WordPress.com boils down to one thing: building a website with the WordPress ecosystem. That means you must select at least the Premium price tier (to install premium themes) or the Business price tier (to install plugins). As a result, WordPress.com, on the lower packages, has limited appeal.
WordPress.com is one of the better choices on this list for blogging. If you hope to attract a lot of organic traffic from search engines, then WordPress.com’s blogging heritage will serve you well.
GoDaddy: Best Website Builder for Marketing
GoDaddy is best known for website hosting but does not have the best reputation regarding reliable software; however, its web builder dispels that myth by producing good quality code and decent page speed.
Unfortunately, it achieves its performance by limiting your design options. For example, you can’t add individual elements to your site; you must add whole sections and customize them. However, suppose you don’t feel particularly confident with design. In that case, having someone else make those decisions for you can be a real bonus.
A big flaw with GoDaddy’s ecommerce features is that the checkout isn’t hosted under your domain name; it’s hosted on a third-party website. Consumers are increasingly concerned about scams, and the site URL changing this way can feel like a real red flag.
GoDaddy website builder has a version control system built in. This helpful feature allows you to revert back to an older version of your site. So if you make a change, undoing it is just a couple of clicks. That’s great for websites that want to make temporary, seasonal changes to their website and then revert back to the everyday design.
GoDaddy Features
AI-Powered Advice
GoDaddy uses a surprisingly effective AI to offer advice, helping you to establish an online presence and boost your business.
Integrated Marketing Features
GoDaddy has some of the most comprehensive marketing tools of any website builder. SEO, social media, and email marketing can all be employed to connect with and retain customers.
Hundreds of Themes
GoDaddy offers hundreds of customizable themes that you can edit with no technical skill or experience.
Free Image Library
Lots of businesses struggle with images when they first start out. GoDaddy has a built-in library of professional images that you can use until you have your own.
Pros
- Award-winning 24/7 support
- Very simple to use
- Quick build process
- Add-on tools
Cons
- No plugin store
- Limited SEO, especially on lower plans
- Limited styling options
- Ecommerce checkout hosted elsewhere
Pricing
GoDaddy offers four simple pricing tiers. You can save up to 37% by paying annually instead of monthly.
Note: The availability of GoDaddy Plans varies depending on your territory.
Basic: $9.99 per month — 1 social media platform, 5 social posts per month, 100 email marketing sends per month
Premium: $14.99 per month — Unlimited social media, 25,000 email marketing sends per month, SEO tools, group events, paid appointments
Ecommerce: $16.99 per month — Unlimited social media, 25,000 email marketing sends per month, SEO tools, group events, paid appointments, product listings, flexible payments, promotional features
Bottom Line
GoDaddy isn’t the best overall website builder, and neither is it the cheapest website builder. But it is a good, solid, middle-of-the-road choice for small businesses.
Where GoDaddy website builder does excel is in the business tools that come with its site builder platform. Its marketing tools are excellent, and its new AI-powered hints are a great way of guiding you toward a profitable site.
Wrap all of this up at a competitive price, and GoDaddy is worth a look if you want to do all your web design and promotion in one place.
Carrd: Best Website Builder for One-Pagers
Carrd is website builder software for anyone building a one-page site. One-page sites are ideal for product microsites, event sites, small companies, time-limited promotions, contact forms, and many other websites.
One of the most complicated tasks when a software company sets out to create a website builder is navigation. Carrd circumvents that problem by eliminating the need for navigation, which results in a more straightforward UI, compact code, and faster page speeds.
There is a bit of a learning curve with Carrd. For example, it helps if you understand the basic principles of CSS. But if you don’t, the documentation will help. And getting to the nuts and bolts under the hood of your site can give you a real sense of ownership.
Carrd allows you to build and publish three sites for free. But if you want to publish more than three and use pro features like custom domains, it will charge you $19 per year — that’s just $1.58 per month.
Carrd Features
Sensational Value
Carrd is one of the cheapest website builders around. At just $19 for an entire year, you normally struggle to find plain web hosting this cheaply.
The price reflects the limited feature set — Carrd lacks the marketing and SEO tools that the top website builders have — but for many small businesses who just want to establish an online presence quickly, a one-page site is exactly what they need.
Custom Code
Unlike many of the premium website builders on this list, Carrd allows you to use custom code on its sites.
Custom code requires a little more knowledge than the average site builder, and many people prefer a drag-and-drop interface. However, adding custom code to Carrd is far easier than adding it to Shopify, for example.
Widgets
Carrd refers to its plugins as widgets. It doesn’t have a full app market or ecommerce features, but you can add widgets from services like Stripe and PayPal to expand the capabilities of your Carrd site.
Pros
- Very low cost
- Perfect for one-page sites
Cons
- Steeper than expected learning curve
- Limited to one-page sites
- No free domain or free SSL certificate
Pricing
Carrd allows you to publish three branded sites for free. It only has one paid plan, which is billed per year. Carrd also provides a free seven-day trial.
Note: Carrd’s Pro plan allows you to build multiple sites.
Carrd Pro: $1.58 per month (billed annually at $19) — build more than three sites, custom domains, signup forms, payment forms, Google Analytics, widgets, custom code
Bottom Line
Carrd is an excellent website builder that outputs solid production code. If you need to get a one-page site online fast, then Carrd is a perfect choice.
At just $19 for a whole year, Carrd is one of the best-value website builders on this list.
Unfortunately, one-page sites typically have a limited lifespan, and sooner or later, you’ll want to expand. At this point, Carrd will cease to be a viable option and you’ll have to look at other website builders.
But at this price, you could have a one-pager up in the next 15 minutes. That’s hard to knock.
Square Online: Best Website Builder for IRL Businesses
Square Online is part of the Square product range that includes one of the most popular PoS (Point of Sale) solutions. Square Online is an excellent option for brick-and-mortar businesses that exist IRL (In Real Life). It’s also one of the few entries on this list that qualifies as a free website builder.
Square acquired the Weebly website builder in 2018 and redeployed staff to develop Square Online. Although Weebly continues to exist, all development seems channeled into making Square Online’s ecommerce features the best option for building an online store.
Square Online is more straightforward than Shopify for building an online store and offers a range of tools to integrate online and offline business.
Square Online is perfect for businesses that need an online store but feel website building is too technical. Its broader ecosystem of business tools means you can do everything digital in one place, with a consistent set of UIs and workflows, which makes things easier.
Square Online Features
POS Migration
If you’re already a customer of Square’s PoS (Point of Sale) products, then you can export your inventory from your PoS device and import it into your online store, saving yourself hours while ensuring that your products are synced.
Multichannel Sales
Square Online is just part of the Square group of products. Consequently, your sales aren’t limited to your website. As well as the obvious PoS option, Google, Instagram, and Facebook integrations are available.
Restaurant Tools
Square is particularly well-suited to restaurants, bars, and cafes. It provides scheduling software, team management, and loyalty cards, all of which make running a service business online a cinch.
Pros
- Simple e-commerce features
- Intuitive UI
- Integration with the Square ecosystem
- Generous free plan
Cons
- Limited design options
- Lengthy website building process
Pricing
Square Online offers three price plans, all of which are priced monthly but billed annually. Its lowest-priced tier is free, except for card processing fees.
Note: different pricing plans are available in different territories.
Free: $0 per month — Unlimited products, sell on social media, SEO tools
Plus: $?? per month (billed annually) — Free tier features, Advanced item settings, Accept PayPal
Premium: $?? per month (billed annually) — Plus tier features, reduced processing rate, real-time shipping rates
In addition, Square Online offers an enterprise solution for high-volume, multi-location businesses. Contact Square directly for pricing.
Bottom Line
With the financial backing of its parent company Square Online has the resources to evolve into a world-leading website builder; it just hasn’t gotten there yet.
Like a couple of other website builders on this list, Square Online is aimed directly at anyone who wants to build an online store — or, in fact, commerce in general. So you should look elsewhere if selling online isn’t central to your site.
But suppose you’re already invested in the Square ecosystem with PoS devices in physical locations. In that case, using Square Online is a no-brainer.
And if you’re willing to look past some of the design restrictions in favor of good customer service and the potential of a growing platform, then Square Online is a solid choice too.
Zyro: Best Budget Website Builder
Zyro is exceptionally cheap, especially for building an online store. But don’t let that fool you into thinking Zyro website builder is low on quality. On the contrary, hidden behind the low-ball sales pitch is a competent website builder with many features.
Zyro gives you complete control over the placement of your content, something that only Wix can rival.
Zyro offers an outstanding balance of powerful customization but not too many tools, so you won’t be overwhelmed by all the options.
Zyro doesn’t have a built-in app store like some rivals, which means you have limited options to expand the functionality of your site. However, it does offer some third-party integrations to services, so you’re not entirely without options.
Zyro Features
Intuitive Editor
Zyro does a tremendous job of getting new businesses online because you don’t need any experience to use this very simple site builder.
Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth
Many website builders usually scrimp on the extras and claw back a little money by charging extra for hosting. Not so Zyro, which provides unlimited storage and bandwidth.
Branding Tools
Zyro includes a logo maker, so if you’re starting from scratch, you can get give yourself some professional gloss with a shiny new logo.
Pros
- Affordable
- Great value ecommerce
- Responsive templates
- High-level control of design elements
- Live chat support
- Drag-and-drop editor
Cons
- Basic blog options
- Only basic SEO tools
- No built-in app market
Pricing
Zyro offers two price plans, one for simple small business websites and one for ecommerce.
Note: Zyro offers regular discounts of up to 75% off its packages. These discounts are time-limited, but once they expire, they reset. So you won’t miss out if you decide to think it over.
Website: $2.99 / month — free domain, free email for 3 months, marketing integration, logo maker
Business: $3.99 / month — All of the features of the Website tier, plus sell up to 500 products
Bottom Line
With its AI-powered logo maker, fast build times, and simple options, Zyro is committed to getting you online fast.
We really didn’t like the deception of placing a fake countdown on the price discount. And hiding the increased renewal price in small print isn’t a good look for Zyro either. That type of blackhat UX doesn’t have a place on the modern web.
However, the prices beat almost everything except free website builder plans. In addition, Zyro’s ecommerce package is one of the most affordable options on the market, with an equally generous 1% transaction processing fee.
If you want to set up a side business over a weekend or even over your lunch hour, then Zyro is an excellent choice.
Website Builder FAQs
What is a website builder?
A website builder, or site builder, is a service for creating a website without any design or coding skills. The most popular website builders are designed to democratize the web by helping anyone build a website quickly and easily.
It sometimes helps to have some design ideas, and some website builders will allow you to add custom code if you want to, but neither is required.
With a website builder, all you need is the desire to create a website.
Are websites built with website builders as good as professionally built bespoke websites?
Because website builders are created with many potential uses in mind, they use generic source code. Unfortunately, this means that their code is typically less streamlined than a bespoke site.
However, over the past few years, the code quality that website builders generate has improved enormously. Now, many professional design agencies use website builders instead of coding their own websites.
If you have a very specialized site in mind, like a SaaS (Software as a Service, then even the best website builder won’t be able to create it. But for marketing websites and online stores, website builders are an ideal way to build a website.
How much do website builders cost?
The cost of a website builder varies from product to product. There are free website builders available, but many of the top website builders charge a monthly fee.
For one of the best website builders, you can expect to pay a subscription based on the features you require. Expect to pay more for e-commerce features, marketing features, and a flexible drag-and-drop interface.
There are sometimes hidden costs, such as a card processing fee for online sales.
If you opt for a website builder that uses templates or plugins, you may need to pay for those in addition to the subscription.
You don’t need to pay for web hosting services; web hosting should be included.
Most website builders offer a limited free plan or a free trial, so you can test out features before opening your wallet.
Is a website builder suitable for a small business?
It depends on the nature of your business. For example, suppose you’re setting up an online store or a professional service like plumbing or landscaping. In that case, a website builder or perhaps a specialist e-commerce website builder could be ideal for you.
On the other hand, if you’re running a business like a car dealership or a travel agency — where you need lots of individual listings — that is a little beyond what website builders can do. In that case, you’ll probably need a complete CMS (Content Management System).
If you are building a complex app or SaaS, then sorry, but website builders can’t manage that; you’ll need to hire a professional developer or improve your coding knowledge.
How hard is it to use a website builder?
You don’t need web design experience to use a website builder; they are designed to get new businesses online without professional assistance.
Some website builders are more complicated than others. Typically, the more features there are, the more time you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the user interface. A website can be created quickly with a drag-and-drop editor, but you may find you need to put in a little more work if you’re creating an online store.
As a guide, if you can use email, a web browser, or a document processor like Word or Pages, you’ll be able to use a website builder to build a website.
Can you use a custom domain name with a website builder?
Custom domains, like myawesomewebsite.com, can usually be used with website builders.
Be aware that some website builders charge more for this option. But equally, you may be offered free domain name registration, at least for the first year.
Do I need web hosting services to use a website builder?
You don’t need to worry about a web host; that’s part of what you’re paying the website builder to provide.
Many website builders even host your site on CDNs (Content Delivery Networks), making your site faster for a global audience.
Depending on your package, most website builders restrict the storage space you can use (the total size of all of your files combined). Some website builders also limit the bandwidth you can use (the total size of all the files users access on your site combined).
Do website builders perform well on search engines?
Getting your site to page one on Google is the primary aim for most businesses.
Many professional techniques boost your site up search engine rankings, but they all boil down to publishing good content and fast page load times.
You’ll find plenty of blog posts online claiming that website builders output low-quality and slow code. This used to be true, but in recent years the code website builders’ output has improved significantly.
A good website builder (like the ones on this list) won’t guarantee good search engine ranking, but the top website builders include marketing features that will help.
How long does it take to build a website with a website builder?
Some website builders can get you online in under five minutes. Others require hours of build time.
Typically, the more complex a site is, the longer it will take. Ecommerce, for example, will take longer than a simple résumé webpage.
Additionally, websites are not a once-and-done task. You will need to update your site, change information, and add features throughout its life.
But you’ll find that most website builders make this easy by taking away the hard work. As a result, most first-time website builders discover that they enjoy making websites, and some even decide to become professional website designers!
What is a drag-and-drop editor?
A drag-and-drop editor is exactly what it sounds like. You drag an element into position by clicking on it, and you drop it into place by releasing the mouse button when it’s positioned as you want it.
A drag-and-drop editor is considered a premium feature of the best website builders, but some people do prefer to make changes with code or via a simple form interface.
Which is the best website builder?
There isn’t a catch-all approach to building a website. The right website builder for you might not be the right website builder for someone else.
As you can see from the list above, Wix is a solid all-rounder, whereas Shopify is excellent for creating an online store. However, there are many occasions when other website builders would be a better choice.
Sometimes it comes down to something as simple as feeling an affinity with the website builder’s philosophy. If you find a website builder intuitive and it provides all the features you need, it’s the right website builder for you.
Featured image by upklyak on Freepik
The post 10 Best Website Builders for 2023 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
A robust email marketing strategy is a great way to reach your target audience directly.
But your email marketing campaign success rests on whether you used the best email marketing services.
No two email marketing services are equal. So you must choose carefully. We created this guide and ranked the 12 best email marketing services for you.
How to Choose the Best Email Marketing Services
Although we ranked these best email marketing services in this list from number one to eleven, we also understand that everyone’s need is unique. So we identified where each email marketing tool performs best.
Here’s what to keep in mind to find a good email marketing service:
- Your business goals
- Growth stage of the business
- The audience your business targets
Please read on for the best email marketing services in the market today.
1. ActiveCampaign: Best Advanced Email Automation
If your goal is to deliver timely, personalized, and unique email experiences to your customers, try ActiveCampaign. As the best email marketing service for putting your marketing on autopilot, this tool offers a built-in email automation system, a campaign tracker, and a CRM.
- Unique Feature: Customer experience automation (CXA)
- Target Users: eCommerce, B2B, B2C, SMEs, bloggers, and influencers
- Pricing: $29 per month.
Features
ActiveCampaign offers users loads of beginner-friendly advanced automation features. Here are a few:
1. Automated Marketing
You can focus on other important business pursuits and let ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation send welcome emails, track contact tags, monitor sales analytics, and fetch performance reports.
This feature empowers users to launch automatic email marketing campaigns or follow up on customers who abandoned their carts or disengaged from their content.
2. Site and Event Tracking
ActiveCampaign records your site visitors’ consumer behavior and demographic information in real-time. So you can segment your email list better and target your audience with messages that resonate with them.
Gathering visitor data can help you engage with them emotionally or during memorable events like anniversaries, birthdays, and other milestones.
3. Free Migration
ActiveCampaign offers a seamless move from your previous automated marketing service provider.
Best part? Migrating to ActiveCampaign comes at no cost to you.
Simply request for migration by filling out a quick form. And you’re on your way to a better email marketing experience.
4. Segmentation
Image Credit: ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign groups your email contacts into different categories to enable you to make sense of the data.
You can segment a contact list by name, date, location, subscription status, tags, and other metadata.
Segmented data helps you target the most conversion-ready audience for the particular campaign.
5. Third-Party Integrations
You’re free to link your favorite apps with ActiveCampaign if it enhances your business growth.
So you can integrate your account with third-party apps like
- Facebook to pull ad or public user data
- Shopify to pull sales and shop data
- Google Sheets for spreadsheet operations
- WooCommerce for eCommerce performance data
You don’t need to move contacts across email marketing platforms to access or manage your data. ActiveCampaign lets you keep your data on the platform you wish to use and then use integrations to extract the benefits of having those contacts.
6. Performance Reporting
Get real-time reports on your deals and sales activities using ActiveCampaign. The reports feature lets you know your campaign’s performance across these indicators:
- Subscriptions
- Subscriber engagement
- Automation reports
- Sales rep deal pipelines
- Revenue generation
- Customer attribution reports
ActiveCampaign lets you track your competitors by providing reports of users who switched to competitors.
You also get a funnel report to see how well your email marketing effort converts engaged audiences to buyers.
7. One-on-one Messaging
ActiveCampaign lets you start and manage conversations with current and prospective customers across multiple channels.
Send and receive instant direct messages, which you can also automate in full.
Customers will quickly reach you with questions and orders without losing their messages in your email pile.
More Features
- Automation templates
- Email Templates
- Email drag-and-drop builder
- Branded Forms
- Tags
- Split Automations
Pros
ActiveCampaign is feature rich. You can fully integrate other applications on the platform without losing vital leads and data.
This email marketing software positions itself (and rightly so) as a leading email marketing solution that encompasses other parts of marketing and your CRM needs.
You can enjoy its free email marketing service offering for 14 days.
Cons
Although ActiveCampaign promises many features, most of them are exclusive to users who subscribe to paid plans. Sadly, this email marketing tool doesn’t offer a free plan.
Also, the workflows and features are sophisticated. So this email service provider will demand a learning curve.
Pricing
ActiveCampaign offers four paid plans—Lite, Plus, Professional and Enterprise. The enterprise plan is customizable to meet the peculiar needs of big businesses.
Each plan is billed monthly at:
Lite: $29 per month
Plus: $49 per month
Professional: $149 per month
Enterprise: Customized rate
2. Sendinblue: Best Free Plan and Instant Messaging
Sendinblue provides users with instant messaging features, sales enablement software, and email marketing tools to grow their businesses.
If you’re looking to engage users more instantly through SMS and chats along with your email campaigns, then Sendinblue is the solution. As the best email marketing software for instant messaging, Sendinblue has personalization features to help you engage better with your target audience.
- Unique Feature: Email and SMS marketing
- Target Users: Retailers and CPG, SaaS, media, publishing, public sector, NGOs, and hospitality industry
- Pricing: Starts at $25 per month
Features
1. Email Templates
Sendinblue offers over 40 responsive and professional pre-made email templates from which to choose.
If those are not enough, you can create bespoke email templates. Again, you’ll find the platform intuitive. In addition, you can use templates on multiple devices for the best results.
2. Drag and Drop Email Editor
Modify emails to your taste by simply dragging and dropping items on the campaign template.
Sendinblue is one of the most advanced email marketing services today. For example, it takes personalization seriously. So you can craft the content of your emails to appeal to your target audience better.
3. Email Tracking
If you wish to measure campaign performance rate or monitor engagement on certain emails, Sendinblue provides the option of turning on your Google Analytics tracker.
Google Analytics generates insights by drawing your customer information from all over the internet, including their behavior on social media.
4. Live Chat
Sendinblue lets you initiate instant communication with your site visitors through chat. Live chat is a handy email for engaging your leads at critical moments.
You can install this feature in seconds, assign conversations to your team, and customize the chat feature for your brand.
5. Contact Segmentation
Every contact is different and often has unique preferences.
Target the right audience with the most suitable message by exploring Sendinblue’s segmentation; this categorizes contacts and helps you determine, create and push a tailor-made campaign to a ready market.
6. SMS and Whatsapp Marketing
Sendinblue allows you to send your desired SMS volume to any chosen destination for a token.
You can also reach numerous contacts on your Whatsapp with customized messages about your business.
A recent report says that 69% of internet users use Whatsapp. So, you want to get your message to this audience.
7. Shared Inbox
Does managing all your conversations from a single place appeal to you?
With Sendinblue inbox, you can navigate smoothly between chats from your linked Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook accounts.
Keep your team and customers updated simultaneously with a simple inbox setup.
This Shared Inbox feature enhances organization.
More Features
- Schedule send
- CRM automation
- Editable signup form
- Push notifications
Pros
Sendinblue’s free email marketing software offers advanced features for startups and supports unlimited contacts. Except you need to do more, you can function solely on the free plan.
As the best email marketing software for initiating instant communication with leads, this email marketing tool promises a simple user interface and instant account setup.
Also, Sendinblue is relatively cheaper compared to similar email marketing providers.
Cons
You can only send 300 emails daily on the free version of Sendinblue. A paid subscription is required to remove the Sendinblue logo from your emails.
Pricing
Apart from the free plan, Sendinblue offers three other monthly plans—Starter Plan at $25, Business Plan at $65 per month, and Enterprise Plan at $1000 per month.
3. Drip: Best for Pre-Built Email Workflows
Drip is a personalized email, SMS, and automation service provider trusted by thousands of brands globally. It provides a seamless email workflow for businesses of all sizes.
-
- Unique Feature: pre-built email and SMS workflows
- Target Users: eCommerce industry
- Pricing: starts at $39 per month
Features
1. Pre-built Playbooks
Handling every marketing operation by yourself is overwhelming.
Save precious business time by using any pre-designed Drip templates.
The playbooks with heart-melting welcome series and abandoned cart reminders are ideal for growing your revenue.
Choose a suitable visual workflow and automate it fully.
2. Email Builder
If you like your emails deeply personalized and right on target, you’ll find Drip’s HTML builder useful.
Create 100 percent original content from scratch.
Personalized emails prove to your customers that you go the extra length and they’re special to you.
3. Drag and Drop Editor
Customize emails to capture your brand image using its ultra-easy drag-and-drop email editor.
People and businesses exchange over 306 billion email messages daily. Your audience is already getting tons of messages. Stand out with branded emails.
The visual interface is vibrant and can help boost your creativity.
4. Pop-up Notifications
Get access to form templates that your on and off-site visitors can easily fill out on Drip.
You can redirect, engage, sponsor specific actions, offer discounts to customers and grow your audience with targeted pop-up notifications and forms.
Pop-ups and signup forms convert about 3.09% of site visitors.
5. Real-Time Business Insights
Gain insights on your growth, audience, revenue, and overall campaign performance with Drip analytics and benchmark.
That’s not all.
Drip supports users with personalized guides to help them make informed decisions using these data that lead to business growth.
6. Marketing Automation
Your emails and SMS can run on autopilot without taking on the stress of maintaining correspondence with new and existing customers.
Simply set up revenue-targeted workflows and relax.
Since Drip comes with pre-built workflows, you don’t have to start your automation process from scratch.
7. Single Click Integration
Are you a new or an existing business owner? Drip supports your business on multiple channels.
Fully merge or connect your online store like Shopify, Magento, and other eCommerce tools to your Drip account with just one click. Easy breezy.
You can start conversations on your e-store and finish in your inbox.
More Features
- Segmentation
- Email support
- A/B testing
Pros
Apart from unlimited email sends, Drip lets you access its advanced features and all the tools on its platform during your 14 days free trial.
Users get tailored assistance and live support when they need them. In addition, Drip simplifies the scaling process for businesses.
Cons
Although you get unlimited emails, this plan doesn’t support unlimited contacts and doesn’t offer a free plan. However, you have unlimited features access. But Drip limits usage by the number of contacts.
Pricing
More than ten paid plans starting at $39 up to more than $1,899 and billed monthly. Email contacts vary by plan, but you can send unlimited emails and email support for all paid plans.
4. Constant Contact: Best for Educators, Small Businesses, and Event Organizers
Constant Contact simplifies email marketing for event marketers and small businesses as one of the best email marketing providers. This email marketing solution helps users benefit from their email marketing effort without the typical steep learning curve of complicated email marketing software.
- Unique Feature: Event management tools
- Target Users: Small businesses and event organizers
- Pricing: Starts at $9.99 per month
Features
1. Marketing Automation
Constant Contact empowers small businesses to put their email marketing on autopilot. You can segment your lists automatically and initiate campaigns without manual effort. You can also set drip campaigns and automation to trigger based on your audience behavior, data, or events.
You can resend messages under different subject lines to contacts who didn’t open them the first time.
2. List Building and Management tools
You can access a range of list-building tools on Constant Contact to help you attract and keep leads. In addition, you can access a landing page builder, form builder, text message signup FTW, and a contact management system.
3. Event Management
One of this email marketing service’s biggest selling points is its event management tools. Users can create signup forms for their events, build unlimited landing pages, create email follow-ups, and collect payments using tools available on Constant Contact.
4. Email Templates
Users can find more than 100 mobile-friendly, drag-and-drop email templates on Constant Contact that match different business types and brands. So you will find the appropriate template for the occasion regardless of industry, market, design preference, holiday, event, or other needs.
5. Surveys and Feedback Tools
Constant Contact understands that customer feedback and extra data can improve your marketing performance. You can consider Constant Contact the best email marketing service for getting feedback through surveys and polls.
You can customize these surveys with your branding and logo on your Constant Contact dashboard.
6. Responsive Email Editor
Constant Contact makes email editing a breeze for users with smart columns, undo-redo, an image library, color customizations, fonts, backgrounds, and more. In addition, its preview function lets you see what your email would look like across devices, so you can adjust your design or message to your heart’s content before sending it out.
7. Marketing Calendar
Unlike most email service providers, Constant Contact offers marketing calendars. The feature helps plan your marketing. Marketers can create their messages, schedule them, send, and track them with the help of a marketing planner.
More Features
- Error Checker
- A/B testing
- Landing page builder
- Reporting
- Agency tools
- Signup Forms
Pros
Constant Contact’s focus on small businesses means they’ve designed this email marketing platform with simplicity in mind. And they haven’t limited users’ who need more advanced email marketing automation features.
Its error checker is a good feature to catch bad links and fix issues that might lower conversion. Constant Contact is a great email marketing software for educators, event organizers, and small businesses.
Cons
Constant Contact doesn’t offer a free plan. Although it has simple pricing, this email marketing tool overcompensates higher-paying Plus users and leaves its Core plan users with limited functionalities.
Pricing
Constant Contact offers two paid plans to accommodate two audiences:
- Getting started — $9.99 per month
- Advanced features— $45 per month
However, for more advanced automation features, you’ll need the $449 per month marketing automation offer.
These paid plans come with 30-day money-back guarantees so that any small business can test-drive the tool without commitments.
5. MailChimp: Best Email Design and Marketing AI
Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing software available online. It integrates email marketing automation features and creative tools to deliver result-oriented email marketing.
- Unique Feature: Email marketing automation features
- Target Users: Freelancers, agencies, and developers
- Pricing: Starts at $11 per month
Features
1. AI-Powered Design
Mailchimp is an artificial intelligence-enabled creative assistant to automate and personalize your email and newsletter design for your businesses.
The creative assistant uses AI to study your brand and create beautiful, professional designs tailored to your needs.
These AI-powered designs are useful across multiple channels.
2. Subject Line Assistant
Your email subject lines are crucial to your campaign’s success. Barilliance reported that 64% of email recipients open messages based on the subject line.
Thinking and drafting the perfect email subject line to drive customer engagement is often difficult. But not anymore.
Mailchimp’s subject line helper provides real-time feedback and suggestions to guide you.
3. Audience Segmentation
Is your email marketing effort not yielding the desired results? You might be targeting the right audience with the wrong campaign.
Mailchimp helps to categorize your email list according to shared characteristics.
This ensures you send the right message to the right audience for better results.
4. Pre-built Templates
Create professional-looking emails and landing pages in minutes using any of over 100 template designs on Mailchimp.
Campaign templates incorporate content blocks and exciting design elements for your exploration.
5. Smart Predictions
Save yourself the cost of hiring a data analyst using available insight predictions on Mailchimp to analyze data.
Get demographic information about your past, present and prospective customers at your fingertips. These predictions help you make better decisions that affect your brand.
6. Marketing Automation Features
Automate your brand marketing workflows and drip campaigns to get the work done in just a few clicks. Set up the processes new email subscribers will go through before conversion.
Send automated welcome notes, product notifications, abandoned cart reminders, and other vital information about your brand.
7. Image and File Editor
Alter, sync, and save your images or files with Mailchimp’s robust content studio.
8. Website Builder
Create a unique search-engine optimized website with Mailchimp’s free website builder.
No special coding or website design experience is needed. Instead, get right into it with your domain name and a clear idea of what you hope to achieve.
More Features
- Pop-up form
- Marketing CRM
- A/B testing
- Analytics
- Integrations
- Appointment scheduler
Pros
Mailchimp is easy to use, and its creative assistant takes away the mental hassle of creating original content regularly. Apart from its free plan, this email marketing service offers unlimited contacts on its Premium plan.
Cons
The free version only allows 500 contacts, and Mailchimp’s monthly email sends are limited across all paid plans.
Pricing
Apart from MailChimp’s free plan, paid plans start from $11 per month, and the Premium plan starts is $299 per month.
6. Klaviyo: Best eCommerce Marketing Automation
Klaviyo is an eCommerce-centered email marketing platform that pools data to create workflows and enhance business growth.
Klaviyo promises users an experience, a unified database, and a learning platform guaranteed to launch their businesses to new heights.
- Unique Feature: Personalized benchmarks
- Target Users: eCommerce
- Pricing: Starts at $45 per month
Features
1. Email Marketing
Develop, personalize and automate your emails to portray your brand essence with Klaviyo.
This email marketing platform promises to help users maximize revenue, improve repeat sales, and increase customer retention using well-timed personalized email messages.
Klaviyo uses customer behaviors like these to target your messages better:
- Abandoning carts
- Items they ordered
- Recently viewed products
And also incorporates group behaviors like these:
- Bestsellers
- Newest products
- Most viewed products
So, whether customers appreciate group behavior or tend to repeat a behavior, Klaviyo picks up on that signal to improve your sales.
2. Precise Segmentation
Klaviyo automatically syncs customers’ data from their first interaction with your brand. Segmentation is swift, specific, and happens in real-time.
Categorize customers in similar demographics or those with shared traits together. This will ensure they get appropriate email messages guaranteed to trigger recipients.
3. In-built Signup Forms
Get to know your customers better and build your email subscriber list with pre-built forms. Klaviyo forms can be embedded in the content or pop up when visitors land on your page.
4. Professional Templates
Klaviyo provides over 100 SMS marketing and email templates to suit your brand. You don’t have to rack your brain trying to come up with authentic messages all the time. Pick expertly crafted
5. Integrations
Klaviyo lets you move data across apps without a hitch.
This email marketing solution supports over 220 platforms that cater to eCommerce functions like payments and order management.
6. Benchmarks
The eCommerce sector is highly competitive. So stay ahead of your peers. Catch market, industry, and emerging trends on time. And compare your growth with businesses selling similar products.
Benchmark helps you know where you stand in the grand scheme and what others are doing differently to achieve better results in your field.
7. SMS Chats
Scale your business with direct SMS messages to old and prospective customers.
SMS makes communication easier, faster, and less formal. So you can talk to customers around the globe on the go.
8. Broadcast Newsletter
Create the perfect newsletters about your brand and distribute them to your audience through their most preferred channel (email or SMS).
Broadcasts are one-off messages you can easily design without professional help. Klaviyo makes the process faster with send time automation.
More Features
- Drag and drop email editor
- A/B Testing
- Multichannel attribution
- Custom reporting
Pros
Klaviyo targets eCommerce brands squarely. This targeting helps users of this email marketing platform optimize for result-driven marketing automation. Users can get a free plan on this email software.
Klaviyo is feature packed and specializes in increasing revenues for businesses.
Cons
The free version has limitations. And Klaviyo allows only a few integrations compared to other email marketing service providers. So, this email marketing solution is only good if you won’t be heavy on integrations.
Pricing
Klaviyo offers a free plan for starters. After that, the email plan starts at $45 per month, and you pay $60 per month to access all the tools in the email and SMS marketing plans.
7. Campaign Monitor: Best for Transactional Emails and Autoresponders
Campaign Monitor prioritizes ease and efficiency in delivering email marketing services to businesses.
The platform assures users of helping them to create memorable emails that convert and drive engagement.
- Unique Feature: Expert email marketing
- Target Users: Tech brands, media agencies, marketers, and charities
- Pricing: starts at $9 per month
Features
1. Email Templates
As a business owner who is always on the go, creating an email from scratch is time-consuming. This email platform offers free brandable email templates.
Freely choose from the stash of professional templates and save yourself the stress and time it takes to design.
2. Custom Emails
This email platform harnesses customers’ data from your website, apps, and eCommerce tools to enable you to craft and deliver personalized emails to them.
A Campaign Monitor report shows marketers record a 20% sales increase and 26% more open rates when they send personalized campaigns.
As the best email marketing software for transactional messages and autoresponder, this tool lets you deliver personalized experiences to your customers for as low as $9.
3. Transactional Emails
Sending messages that trigger specific actions from recipients has never been easier.
This email software allows you to create, modify and enhance your communication with customers using bespoke transactional emails.
4. Actionable Analytics
As one of the best email marketing platforms, this popular email marketing service offers actionable email analytics you can access in just a few clicks. So you can rest assured of practical insights into your business performance.
Popular email marketing services like this email software gives you access to an interactive dashboard to measure results across metrics like these:
- Email campaigns
- Automated journeys
- Transactional emails
And others.
As one of the best email marketing platforms, this email software provides actionable insights from your top-performing campaigns that you can deploy across other campaigns.
5. Email Experts
Enjoy round-the-clock professional support services from one of the best email service providers.
If you run into technical problems, you can count on Campaign Monitor’s expert team at any time. From funnel to deliverability experts, you can get all the helps you need for your email marketing campaign with this feature.
6. Email broken link review
As one of the best email marketing providers, this tool helps you find and fix broken links that might hurt your campaign efforts. The Link Review tools work in this capacity.
This tool scans your messages, flags any missing or broken links, and validates them.
Image Credit: Campaign Monitor
7. Customizable Signup Forms
A signup form is a helpful tool that persuades customers to take the extra step into your business.
Direct the ideal audience to the right section of your business with editable signup forms.
You can also add a subscribe icon on your website’s landing pages.
More Features
- SMS marketing
- Segmentation tools
- A/B testing
- Image Gallery
- Campaign tags
- Email broken link review
- Integrations
Pros
Campaign Monitor is easy to use and offers affordable feature-loaded paid plans for all business sizes.
Cons
The SMS feature on Campaign Monitor is only available to contracted customers sending texts to the USA, and it doesn’t offer a free plan.
Pricing
Three paid plans are billed monthly with prices starting as follows:
- Basic: $9 per month
- Unlimited: $29 per month
- Premier: $149 per month
This email service provider’s prices changes per plan as your list grows, but you can send unlimited emails on the Unlimited and Premier plans.
8. Moosend: Best Value for Unlimited Emails
If you’re looking for pocket-friendly email marketing services that deliver results, try Moosend.
Moosend is designed for small and big businesses seeking impressive emails that resonate with their audience.
You can send a limitless amount of emails to suit your business needs.
- Unique Feature: Weather-based personalization and evergreen campaigns
- Target Users: Saas, publishers, eCommerce, non-profit, travel, and agencies
- Pricing: Starts at $9 per month
Features
1. Drag and Drop Email Editor
Whatever inspiration you have when recreating an email campaign, simply drag and drop it with Moosend’s powerful email builder.
You can also design your email campaigns with HTLM—you have full control over how MooSend works for you.
2. CRM Automation Features
Build lasting and rewarding relationships with customers by automating basic CRM functions.
Handling every customer’s need is tedious and time-consuming. But you must make each customer feel special to ensure continuous patronage.
Automate basic CRM operations and focus on bigger tasks.
3. Landing Pages
Your website landing pages help you convert visitors better—MooSend lets you create responsive and catchy landing pages to increase your site’s conversions.
4. Ready-to-use Templates
MooSend lets you save time with pre-built subscription forms, landing pages, and newsletter templates.
Simply flip, personalize and use your most preferred template from this email marketing service provider.
5. AI-Powered eCommerce
Moosend provides eCommerce email marketing solutions to users, from abandoned cart reminders to product recommendations.
Like other best email marketing services on this list, MooSend uses artificial intelligence to help your business make more sales with email.
6. Forms
Design lead-generating subscription forms for onsite visitors.
When your landing pages receive visitors, they receive your pop-up or embedded forms immediately. Information from these forms goes to segment, retarget, and drive customer engagements.
7. Integrations
You don’t have to let go of your best CRM, CMS, and eCommerce tools when moving to MooSend.
Bring your marketing tools or apps and integrate them into your MooSend account. This email service provider lets you connect your integrations without a developer’s help.
More Features
- Custom reports
- Site tracking
- Segmentation
- Product recommendation
- Transactional emails
Pros
Moosend affords you access to powerful email marketing tools at a relatively cheaper rate.
Cons
The basic paid plan excludes account managers who provide expert support to users. Moosend also limits the number of email subscribers by payment plan.
Transactional emails are available to pro and enterprise subscribers, and no free plan exists.
Pricing
MooSend offers a 30-day free trial. But its pricing starts from $9 per month.
9. Omnisend: Best Email Marketing Service for Shopify
Omnisend is the best email marketing tool with eCommerce optimizations and pre-designed workflows.
This email marketing service reduces the work involved in running a thriving eCommerce business by relying on automation.
- Unique Feature: eCommerce email and SMS automation
- Target Users: eCommerce, startups, and SMEs
- Pricing: Starts at $16 per month
Features
1. Drag and Drop Editor for Content Creation
Your emails and campaigns must be consistent with your brand identity and message. The drag-and-drop email content editor lets you modify in-built templates to suit you.
2. Automated Push Notifications
Attract, retarget and convert web visitors with personalized push notifications. Set automated reminders for cart or browse abandonment and transactional emails beyond just offering a basic email marketing service.
3. Audience Synchronization
Integrate contacts into your Facebook and Google for better and on-target ads. Omnisend harmonizes your contact every 5-15 minutes, keeping you up-to-date. It also supports cookie-less advertising, which is good for when Google deactivates cookies on Chrome.
4. SMS Marketing
You want to handle all your SMS and emails on a single email marketing service to keep you abreast of customer conversations.
Also, you can automate SMS by including it in your marketing workflow, so customers get timely and thoughtful messages.
Onmisend boasts a 47.7% higher conversion rate in users who combine SMS and email marketing.
5. Migration
Omnisend makes the switch to their email marketing service easy and seamless for users, specifically eCommerce brands.
As a popular email marketing service, Omnisend integrates with eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.
6. Hyper Segmentation
Omnisend’s intuitive segmentation helps you understand your audience better to serve them better.
Increase your sales and campaign by targeting an audience based on purchase behavior and their unique journeys on your website.
Also, monitor customer lifecycle phases to develop and execute a better retention strategy.
7. Multichannel eCommerce Marketing
Omnisend engages your eCommerce customers from different channels in one place. All your marketing activities, email campaigns, ads, and sales happen on the Omnisend platform.
You can finally keep an eye on all your important data and audience.
More Features
- Live support
- Forms
- Campaign builder
- Sales report
- MMS
Pros
Omnisend is purpose-built for eCommerce businesses and integrated with 100+ eCommerce stores like Shopify and wooCommerce. So, you only need one click to start your eCommerce journey.
Plus, you can start exploring this email marketing software on a free plan.
Cons
Omnisend targets eCommerce users and offers limited features for other industries. But you can use the free plan to test drive it.
Pricing
The free plan is available for 250 contacts, but you can upgrade to paid plan starting at $16 per month to enjoy premium offerings.
10. Mailerlite: Best for Email Campaign Tracking
Mailerlite is an affordable email marketing service that offers growth-focused email solutions to customers.
It integrates your e-store with most email marketing tools to increase conversion. Mailerlite also incorporates ultra-tracking technology to deliver the most accurate insights on your marketing campaigns.
- Unique Feature: Auto resend campaign
- Target Users: Marketers, writers, publishers, eCommerce
- Pricing: Starts at $9 per month
Features
1. Newsletter Editor
Newsletters are a great way to keep customers informed and updated about your product and services. Create outstanding newsletters from scratch or touch up existing beautiful designs.
2. Website Designer
Every business needs a responsive and attractive website where prospective customers can interact with their brands—most email signups happen on your website anyway.
Utilize Mailerlite’s drag-and-drop website builder to design your business’s lively and engaging website layout.
3. Email Automation Features
Image Credit: Mailerlite
Monitor email clicks, customer behavior, and response to your emails to enable you to strategize. Automated emails handle follow-ups, email resends, and action prompts based on analyzed data.
4. Email Verifier
Mailerlite performs routine checks and deep cleaning on your email list to weed out inactive subscribers, dormant accounts, and spammy contacts.
Enjoy a fully optimized email list 24/7.
5. Blog Creator
Use its drag-and-drop builder to craft attention-grabbing blog posts to build your audience and share your unique ideas with your community.
Blogs are an important marketing strategy to adopt for your business. According to statistics, 77% of internet users read blogs.
Leverage the power of blogs and increase your site clicks.
6. Landing Page Gallery
Your prospective customers need an online location to interact with your business. This could be a landing page.
Choose from a range of templates for a mobile-friendly landing page. So you have one less thing to worry about in building your email marketing campaign.
7. Digital Products Marketing
Mailerlite offers an avenue for users to sell virtual products like ebooks, online courses, or other digital services.
Set up websites and include a payment gateway for easy patronage.
You can equally promote your digital products on Mailerlite.
More Features
- Signup forms
- Email automation
- Newsletter subscription
- Analytics and tracking
- Facebook integrations
Pros
Mailerlite is simplified for even beginners to understand. Also, the email marketing service integrates with Shopify.
Pricing is fair, and you can enjoy up to 30 days free trial period for all paid plans to decide if you want to continue or not.
Cons
The free version is only open to one user and has limited functions and features.
Pricing
Free for up to 1000 subscribers. Monthly billing based on their annual plan:
- Growing Business: $9 per month
- Advanced: $19 per month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
11. ConvertKit: Best for Creators
ConvertKit targets creators and builds its features around their needs to attract, engage and monetize their audience. As a result, users can build, manage, and earn a living from your audience on a single platform.
- Unique Feature: Creator pro
- Target Users: Creators (authors, musicians, coaches)
- Pricing: Starts at $9 per month
Features
1. Automated Email Marketing
ConvertKit lets you breeze through the email writing process by automating every stage. For example, schedule email sends, deliver welcome messages, and group subscribers automatically.
2. Advanced Creator
ConvertKit’s creator pro takes the creator business a notch higher. This feature allows subscriber scoring, newsletter referrals, timely support, and teamwork and provides deliverability reports.
This is the best email marketing tool for mainstream creators.
3. Email Design
Create, edit, and optimize your emails to convert faster. ConvertKit makes email designing easy and more fun.
You can choose from previous templates and flawlessly modify the font, color, or body of your emails.
4. Email Opt-In Forms
Whether you want to choose from numerous form templates or create a customized form yourself, ConvertKit got you covered.
Access free signup forms to retarget your audience.
5. Commerce
Turn your passion into a source of income with ConvertKit’s eCommerce channel, which enables you to sell or buy digital products easily.
Package and monetize your knowledge as ebooks, online courses, newsletters, music, or presets and sell to a willing audience.
6. Third-party Integrations
Integrate your ConvertKit to your most preferred third-party apps. You can access eCommerce, lead capture, ads, CRM, and many other third-party integrations.
7. Paid Newsletter
If you have rich content and a list of loyal readers who enjoy them, ConvertKit can help you earn from newsletters.
Create customized newsletters targeted at the right audience and put a price on your knowledge.
Mailerlite provides free newsletter templates.
More Features
- Audience tag
- Advanced Reporting
- Community support
- Broadcasts
- Automation builder
Pros
ConvertKit promotes the creator business and is positioned to help creatives sell their products.
The free plan supports 300 subscribers with unlimited emails, forms, landing pages, and other email marketing features.
What’s more?
You get two months of free email marketing services when you opt for annual billing.
Cons
Features on ConvertKit are purpose-built specifically for creatives making the email marketing service a poor choice for other industries.
Migration to ConvertKit from any other email marketing tool is unavailable on the free version. Also, the creator plan only allows for a single team member addition.
Pricing
Free for up to 300 subscribers. Monthly billing begins at $9 per month for Creator and $25 per month for Creator Pro.
12. Sendy: Best Low Budget and Self-Hosted Solution
Sendy uses Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) to deliver the best email marketing software for users who would like a solution that’s 100x cheaper than competitors.
Sendy is one of the most affordable email marketing services in the market.
Users don’t need to pay monthly subscriptions as this self-hosted email marketing service bills only the number of emails sent. However, you’ll need to buy, install, and update the Sendy email marketing software.
- Unique Feature: Low-budget email sends
- Target Users: eCommerce, SMEs
- Pricing: Pay as you use
Features
1. Cheap Email Sends
Sendy offers the lowest low-price email send rate in the market. For example, you pay only $1 for every 10,000 email messages.
The affordability doesn’t affect deliverability and speed as it uses the widely trusted Amazon SES. So, you can achieve your email marketing goals on a low budget.
2. Email Campaign Reports
Get timely reports on your campaign performance and other marketing activities on the platform.
Reports give updated insights on your site activities to help you focus your energy on marketing efforts that produce the most results.
Reports are organized into beautiful visual representations like charts to simplify data.
3. Autoresponders
You can’t determine when customers will visit your site or indicate interest in your product.
But with auto response in place, you can rest assured that you’ll miss nothing.
Follow up on email subscribers without being present around the clock. Set marketing automation to answer inquiries, provide feedback, and engage customers while you’re away.
4. Email Clean Up
Sendy’s Housekeeping ensures your email list stays clean and relevant so you can channel your marketing efforts to the right audience.
Prune out redundant contacts, uninterested subscribers, and wrong email addresses, clogging your sales progress wheel.
5. Integrations and Zapier
Image Credit: Sendy
Explore many third-party apps like WordPress and thousands of marketing tools on Zapier by integrating Sendy with them.
The integration process is easy, but if you need expert support, the Sendy community is there to assist you at no cost. However, Sendy may charge a fee if you need them to help you install their email marketing software on your hosting server
6. Personalized Domains and Brands
Create your branded domain to increase brand awareness and customer trust. Let your URL capture your brand.
7. Personalized Fields
Save information about your subscribers on your created custom field. Stored data ranges from names to emails and demography.
Information from Sendy’s custom fields is useful in segmentation and audience tags when designing newsletters.
More Features
- Subscription forms
- Subscriber segmentation
- Webhooks
- Google Analytics integration
- Personalized tags
Pros
Sendy is feature-rich for a low-budget email marketing platform.
Users only pay for emails sent. And the one-time fee required to use Sendy is refundable if you don’t get desired results—but this is case-by-case.
You can install Sendy on one domain but host emails for multiple domain names.
Cons
Sendy runs on your web server and requires a license to set up. Requires updating to newer versions from time to time. Unfortunately, this tool doesn’t support a free plan.
Pricing
No monthly payment plan.
- One-off $69 is to buy this email marketing software
- Pay $1 for every 10,000 emails sent.
FAQs
What is the best email marketing software to choose?
Choosing an email marketing platform is tough. But you can make it slightly easier with a checklist.
Use this checklist to make your decision easier:
- Understand the nature and purpose of the emails you intend to send.
- Decide on the most important features your ideal email marketing software must possess.
- Prepare your testing team
- Develop a shortlist of productive apps.
- Carefully assess each shortlisted app with your team.
- Start exploring any free email marketing service you can access.
What are the categories of marketing emails?
- Email Newsletters: they’re newsletters that contain vital brand information.
- Transactional Emails: facilitates or updates commercial transactions, e.g., order confirmation email.
- Behavioral Emails: on-target messages based on user behavior to previous messages on your site or third-party tracking sources.
What is B2B email marketing service?
B2B email marketing involves sending messages and email campaigns to businesses rather than individuals.
In a B2B marketing scenario, the communication link is between your business and another business.
Your targeting, product, and marketing activities are channeled toward converting other businesses to loyal customers.
How often should you send out marketing emails?
Frequent emails can turn customers off and make them unsubscribe from your list quickly. Ideally, you should drastically increase emails from twice monthly to once weekly.
Research shows that 33.3% of businesses send out emails weekly.
Whatever you decide, ensure to analyze progress reports and use insight to determine whether to increase or reduce the number of emails sent.
What is the importance of email marketing?
Email marketing helps businesses gather, manage and engage new site visitors. You can also keep existing customers updated on your latest offerings.
It costs 500% more to gain new customers than to retain an existing one. So, use email marketing to keep your loyal customers engaged.
What is the average ROI for email marketing?
Email marketing gives a significantly higher return than other types of marketing, like digital or traditional marketing.
You gain $42 per $1 invested in email marketing campaigns. This makes email marketing the most preferred digital marketing strategy for businesses.
Does email marketing increase sales?
Email marketing is an efficient and cost-effective approach to marketing across different industries.
Consumers who receive email offers are 138% more likely to patronize a business because of email marketing campaigns than those who don’t.
Hence, email marketing increases sales, lead generation, and overall brand engagement.
Summary
The email marketing space is rife with email marketing services built to meet different user needs.
So, choosing the right email marketing service from the pool of options can be tasking.
But we’ve highlighted the top email marketing services and features you should consider when migrating your email service to a different platform. Of course, Active Campaign would be the best email marketing service on this list if we must choose one.
Explore any of the best email marketing software mentioned above, and let us know if you need help.
Featured image by storyset on Freepik
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