When you’re just starting out with online marketing, you’re understandably looking to save as much money as possible. With a website, hosting and advertising costs among others, you may be looking at free autoresponders as a way to cut back on costs – at least until your marketing efforts pay off and you start making some money back.
Before you jump in and sign up with the first free autoresponder you find, it’s important to consider what you’re actually getting. There are four key components to look at when you’re deciding between free autoresponders:
How Many Subscribers Can You Have?
You’ll want to look for a free autoresponder which lets you have a decent number of subscribers, otherwise there’s no point in building your mailing list. Among the best free autoresponders (listed below), you can have up to 2,000 subscribers which is a solid number and a good starting pint to consider a paid autoresponder service.
How Many Emails Can You Send?
Free email autoresponder providers don’t want to become a haven for spammers, so many of them limit the number of email messages you can send in a day. If it’s very important to you to send out as many emails as possible at the exact same time, then you’ll want to look for a free autoresponder that allows you a higher number of emails to be sent per day.
Some have no limit, but to prevent them from being abused by spammers, they also limit other features. For example, they may only let you trigger autoresponder emails under certain conditions (such as a welcome email, but no ability to follow-up beyond that), or other restrictions.
What Else is Included with a Free Autoresponder?
Some free autoresponders include additional features, like landing page builders or a certain number of SMS messages. You’ll want to carefully consider what additional features (if any) they’re offering and how these features fit into your overall email marketing plan. More features aren’t necessariliy better if there are other restrictions in place on how you use them!
Can You Upgrade from the Free Autoresponder Plan?
Once you get your feet wet with the free autoresponder, you may be looking to grow your subscriber list, take advantage of mobile responsive email templates and other features that may not be offered with the free plan. If that’s the case, does the free plan make it easy for you to upgrade to a paid version, and, perhaps more importantly:
Does the paid version give you access to the features you need in order to grow your business and email marketing initiatives?
Oftentimes, for the money you’re paying for a slightly upgraded version of the free autoresponder, you could get many more features with other email marketing solutions. Just because you started out with a free autoresponder doesn’t mean you have to stick with them. Get your money’s worth by shopping around!
That being said, you’re here to see the free autoresponders, so here’s our list of the best:
The Best Free Autoresponders
MailerLite
MailerLite is one of the most robust free autoresponders in terms of features that you get. It lets you send welcome emails as well as emails based on a specific date. You can also send emails when a user clicks the link in an email. So if you wanted to send a discount to your email subscribers, but only those who clicked the product page, you can do that with MailerLite.
MailerLite lets you send up to 12,000 emails per month (no restrictions on how many you can send at a time), but you’re limited to 1,000 subscribers.
Benchmark
Benchmark is another great option and lets you send the largest number of emails out in a month on their free plan. It features basic autoresponders including the ability to send welcome emails, date-based reminders and birthday emails. More advanced options are available through their paid plans.
Benchmark lets you send up to 14,000 emails per month (no daily restrictions) for up to 2,000 subscribers. Overall, if you just need a free autoresponder to send out an occasional set of emails every month and you don’t need all the bells and whistles of paid programs, Benchmark is a solid and reliable choice.
MailChimp
As one of the most popular free autoresponders on the market, Mailchimp comes with a host of advanced options. You can send welcome emails, emails based on a specific date, as well as emails that are like a digest of your latest blog posts.
MailChimp lets you send up to 10,000 emails per month with a restriction of 2,000 per day for up to 2,000 subscribers.
SendInBlue
SendInBlue lets you send welcome emails, date-based emails, and emails based on certain actions on your page (such as whether or not a user bought a product or they abandoned their cart. You also have the ability to send some basic transactional emails (like order receipts). SMS is also available for an extra cost.
SendInBlue lets you send up to 9,000 emails per month (with a daily restriction of 300) and you can have an unlimited number of subscribers. However, you’re limited to 2,000 subscribers in automated campaigns at any time (to prevent spam abuse).
