Email Auto-Responder Service Providers Compared

If you have an online business or blog, you need an email list. And for that you need an autoresponder service. This is a company that stores your readers email address and other pertinent information and allows you to send emails to your list. These can be weekly newsletter, frequent update emails, solo offers, or a series of autoresponder messages.

Let’s look at a couple of different autoresponder providers and compare them. I hope this information will help you make an educated decision when it comes time to sign up. All option we’re discussing here are subscription services – meaning you’ll pay them a monthly fee for their service, similar to your hosting fees. There is a second option – a self-hosted autoresponder, which I do not recommend you, try There are all sorts of technical and legal hot waters you can get yourself into by hosting your own autoresponder service. Leave that to the guys that know what they are doing and sign up for a reputable Autoresponder provider. Here’s a short list and comparison of a few of my favorites.

Aweber

Aweber has been in the business of list building and providing autoresponder services for ages. They have a great reputation and work hard to ensure their emails are delivered to your reader’s inboxes.

Over the years they’ve expanded and added a lot of features for list segmentation, testing and tracking, and list building templates. They offer a free trial if you want to check them out.

One of the big disadvantages of Aweber is that they charge you for duplicates (same people subscribed to multiple lists of yours) and unsubscribes unless you go in and manually delete them. Since pricing depends on your list size, this can quickly add up.

Mail Chimp

Mail chimp has long been the autoresponder darling of bloggers. It’s easy to use, has a lot of functionality and some beautiful templates to make your newsletters and emails look just as pretty as your blog.

Like Aweber, you are charged for duplicate entries and unlike Aweber it is hard to segment your list and track to see what’s working. If all you’re worried about is one main list for your blog, Mail chimp is a great option for you.

If you want a little more functionality and data, and you want to be able to set up multiple opt-in forms then this may not be the right choice for you.

Convert Kit

Convert Kit is the new kid on the block that seems to give us the best of both worlds. It’s easy to use and has very pretty options like mail chimp, but with all the bells and whistles of Aweber. And since it was developed by a professional blogger who was sure to include everything he’d want in an autoresponder service, this might work even better for you.

The only downside here is that the company is fairly new and still small. Let’s hope they make it and stick around for decades to come.