The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Best Autoresponder for 2018 and Beyond

Welcome to The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Best Autoresponder for 2017 and Beyond.

Here’s the problem…

You do a google search for best autoresponder and the results that are returned are just lists of autoresponders that affiliates are trying to promote.

Everyone is looking for the best autoresponder, but best for what?

Some of you are looking for the

best free autoresponder

, some are looking for the

best cheap autoresponder

​, some of you are looking for the

best autoresponder for affiliate marketing

and some of you are looking for the

best autoresponder regardless of cost

.

So I’ve decided to publish this guide so that you can find the answers to all of your questions about autoresponders for your email marketing campaigns.​

You can use the table of contents below to jump to a particular section that interests you.​ Just click on the link for that section

Best Autoresponder Comparison Chart

GetResponse

MailChimp

Aweber

MailerLite

IContact

ConstantContact

InfusionSoft

Pricing

Options​

FREE Option?

30 Day Free Trial

Free up to 2500 subscribers, but many features are not included.

30 Day Free Trial

Forever Free up to 1000 subscribers, all premium features included.

30 Day Free Trial

60 Day Free Trial

No Free Option

Monthly Pricing for Full Features

$15/month     up to 1000 subscribers. $49/month     up to 5000.     $165/month   up to 10000.

​

$15/month up to 1000 subscribers $50/month up to 5000. $75/month up to 10000.

$19/month up to 500 subscribers $49/month up to 5000. $69/month up to 10000.

FREE up to 1000 subscribers.  $20/month up to 5000.   $35/month up to 10000.

$99/month up to 500 subscribers.  $129/month up to 5000. $189/month up to 10000.

$45/month        up to 500 subscribers. $95/month             up to 5000.           $125/month          up to 10000

$199/month up to 2500 subscribers. $299/month up to 5000. $379/month up to 10000.

Features

GetResponse

MailChimp

AWeber

MailerLite

IContact

ConstantContact

InfusionSoft

Drag and Drop Editor

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

Email Templates

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

Add Video to Email

❌

✅

❌

✅

❌

❌

✅

Mobile Preview

✅

✅

❌

✅

❌

❌

✅

Autoresponder

✅

Only with Paid Plans

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

Auto Resend

❌

❌

❌

✅

❌

✅

✅

RSS Campaigns

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

❌

❌

Landing Pages

✅

❌

❌

✅

✅

✅

✅

Unsubscribe Page Builder

❌

❌

✅

✅

❌

❌

❌

Automated Split Testing

✅

Limited with Paid plans

✅

✅

Premier Accounts Only

❌

❌

Click Map

❌

✅

❌

✅

❌

❌

❌

List Segmentation

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

Import Mail List

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

✅

Required Opt-In

Single/Double

Single/Double

Single/Double

Single/Double

Single/Double

Single/Double

Double

Customer Support

Phone, email, community support

No support for free plan.  Email, chat 8am-6pm ET for paid plans

Phone, email, chat support

24/7 Email and Chat Support

Phone, email, chat Monday – Friday 6am-10pm EST

Phone, email, chat support

Cell content

What is an Autoresponder?

An autoresponder is the common terminology for a company offering email marketing services. The autoresponder company offers to collect and store your email addresses while allowing you to create and send emails to your subscribers.

This is a very brief synopsis of the commonly held definition of an autoresponder​. Many autoresponder companies offer a whole host of services related to email marketing.

Tips for Choosing the Best Autoresponder

1.

Evaluate your needs

– There is no sense in signing up for a very expensive autoresponder company that offers everything under the sun if you don’t need many of the services they offer. A good example would be Infusionsoft. They are an awesome company that provides a huge range of high quality services, but you will end up paying hundreds of dollars per month for services you don’t need. If you are a beginner or fairly new to email marketing, consider using the best free autoresponder.

2.

Consider your budget

– Once you understand your autoresponder needs, you can then cross reference those needs with your budget and find the best autoresponder for your situation.

3. Take a Test Drive

– Find the best autoresponders for your needs and sign up for a free trial with as many as you like. Try each one of them before deciding on which company gets your business. This is a big decision for your business and it should be made by gathering as much information as possible.​

I have been successfully involved with email marketing since 2007 and in that time I have tried my share of the best autoresponders. Below I will share my findings​ to help you navigate the wide array of email marketing companies and find the

best autoresponder

for you.

Best Free Autoresponder

Our pick for the best

free autoresponde

r

was really quite simple as there is only one autoresponder above that offers a forever free account with complete access to all of the premium features.​

MailerLite

​

is the only autoresponder company in the list of best autoresponders that offers a forever free plan for up to 1000 subscriber with full access to all of the features. This makes it the best email marketing software for beginners.

Not only does it offer all of the premium features in the free account, it also is the only email marketing company in our autoresponder comparison table above to check off every feature on the list.

Here are some of the top features that make MailerLite our choice for the

Best Free Autoresponder

.

• Drag and Drop Editor
• Email Templates
• Mobile Friendly Emails​
• Video Embeds
• Subscriber Management
• Subscriber Notifications
• Click Map
• List Segmentation
• Built in Photo Editor
• RSS Campaigns
• Tracking and Campaign Reports
• Automated A/B Split Testing
• Web Forms
• Workflow Automations
• Auto Resend
• Popups
• Unsubscribe Page Builder
• Landing Pages
• File Manager
• Iphone App
• Ipad App
• API
• And much more!

No other Autoresponder offers its customers this much value for free!

Go here to see our full

MailerLite review

of the best free autoresponder!​

The only other email marketing company that we could consider for the

best free autoresponder

would be MailChimp.​

MailChimp does have a free option for up to 2500 subscribers, but the problem is that MailChimp does not include access to all of its features in the free option.

One

of the features that MailChimp does not include with its free option is

Autoresponders

!​

So, yes you can have a free account with MailChimp, but you cannot set up an autoresponder to automatically send emails to your subscribers. You can send them emails, but it all has to be done manually.

Therefore, we cannot recommend MailChimp as the

best free autoresponder

.

Go here for a detailed comparison of

MailerLite vs MailChimp

.

Best Cheap Autoresponder

Once again as we look at the best autoresponder comparison table, there is only one email marketing company that stands out when we are looking for the

best cheap autoresponder

.​

Once we get past the free options, we can look at the monthly cost and the features included. At this point, the

best cheap autoresponder

becomes apparent.​

The one thing that you want to be careful of when choosing the best cheap autoresponder is you want to make sure that you are getting the features that you need.​

Clearly this is not an issue with MailerLite, as it is the most feature rich autoresponder on our list.​

With MailerLite, setting up your autoresponder is as simple as dragging and dropping blocks that state what they do into a workflow, as you can see in the image.​

I can tell you that

I saved $40 per month by switching from MailChimp to MailerLite

. I also found MailerLite to be very user friendly, with easy integrations and awesome deliverability.​

MailerLite is a no-brainer in our choice for

best cheap autoresponder

.​

Best Autoresponder for Affiliate Marketing

Choosing the

best autoresponder for affiliate marketing

can be tricky.

Here’s why…

Many autoresponders state in their terms of use that they do not allow affiliate marketing.

The big question is…

How is that interpreted?

I have used a number of autoresponders for my affiliate marketing business that state they do not allow affiliate marketing and ​have never had a problem.

I think that these companies are concerned about spammy, thin affiliate sites that do not offer any value.

Which, let’s face it, nobody likes!​

They are also concerned with the fact that your emails are used simply to send affiliate links in order to make sales. The emails should provide value first and if an affiliate link would add to that value, then it is allowed.

MailChimp clearly states that affiliate marketing is not allowed. Couple that with the fact that I personally know marketers that have had their accounts banned by MailChimp for the practice and MailChimp will have to be removed from the

Best Autoresponder for Affiliate Marketing

list.​

Our top pick for

best autoresponder​ for affiliate marketing

is going to

GetResponse

.

I used GetResponse for years and I was very happy with their service. I started with the

Free 30 day Trial​

and during that time I went through their free course entitled

10,000 Subscribers in 90 Days!

Go Here to Sign up for the course free of charge!

​

The course is fantastic for learning everything about email marketing and the GetResponse interface was easy to use after a little bit of a learning curve.

The good part is they have lots of videos that show you how do do things so that you can always find help with tasks quickly.

A close runner up for

best autoresponder for affiliate marketing

would have to be

Aweber.

While I have never personally used Aweber, I have many friends in the affiliate marketing business that swear by them.​

Let me tell you a story about why I have never used Aweber.

Years ago, when I was first looking for an autoresponder for my business, I did a vast amount of research and had narrowed my choice down to Aweber and GetResponse.

So, I signed up for a 30 day free trial with both companies to take a test drive and see which one was going to work best for me.

I immediately received a welcome email from GetResponse, but I received nothing from Aweber!

It took three days and a couple of calls to support before I ever received a welcome email from Aweber!

How could I depend on them to send a welcome email to my subscribers when they couldn’t even get it right for their subscribers!

Anyway, end of rant…

I stayed with GetResponse and was happy for years.

Best Autoresponder 2017

Choosing the

best autoresponder

for 2017 was one of the tougher jobs for this article. All of the email marketing companies above are high quality autoresponders and should be considered.

Perhaps the easiest way to determine the

best autoresponder for 2017

is to start eliminating​ companies because of glaring issues.

For instance, we can eliminate

InfusionSoft

right off the bat. Not because it isn’t one of the

best autoresponders

, but simply because the cost puts it out of reach for most of your average marketers.

Don’t get me wrong,

InfusionSoft

is awesome, but when we are choosing the

best Autoresponder for 2017

, we have to evaluate cost as one of the criteria.

The next one that we can rule out is MailChimp.

I know… I Know….

MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing companies out there, but is not because they are the

best autoresponder

. It is because they are the

best marketers

.

If you look at the

Best Autoresponder​ Comparison Table

above, you will see that MailChimp does not stack up.

Once we really look closely at the autoresponder comparison table, it becomes very clear that there is only one email marketing company that can be the best autoresponder for 2017.

MailerLite!​

I’m not going to go through all the reasons again, but I believe that if you try MailerLite, you are going to be very impressed with what they have to offer.

Best Autoresponder Regardless of Cost

I’ll be the first to admit that I have always wanted to use the

best autoresponder

regardless of cost. Unfortunately that is only reserved for the big guys that don’t mind spending upwards of $500 per month for an autoresponder.​

That’s a car payment for gods sake!

And a nice car at that!

Anyway, our pick for the

best autoresponder

regardless of cost has to be

infusionSoft

.​

I’ve always been a little jealous of my friends that use Infusionsoft, because it looks like a pretty cool solution to a lot of needs for the internet marketer.

Yes, Infusionsoft is the

best

autoresponder

regardless of cost, but it is also much more than an autoresponder.​

Infusionsoft is a complete customer relationship management (CRM) solution that does everything from sales management to customer management, ecommerce solutions, affiliate management and more.​

By the way, I am not an affiliate of Infusionsoft, just a big, honest fan that prides himself on providing the best content for his readers.​

Summary

Well we have covered a lot of ground in our quest for the

best autoresponde

r

. We have looked at some of the old stand byes as well as​ a relative newcomer on the scene.

We spent a great deal of time researching and creating the

Best Autoresponder Comparison Table

above and once all of the data was plugged in, it became visually evident which companies were the superior autoresponders.​

Let’s recap…

1. st Free Autoresponder

   – ​
   MailerLite
   

2. Best Cheap AutoResponder –
   
   MailerLite
   
3. Best Autoresponder for Affiliate Marketing –
   
   GetResponse
   
4. Best Autoresponder 2017 –
   
   MailerLite
   
5. Best Autoresponder Regardless of Cost –
   
   InfusionSoft
   

We hope that you have found the Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Best Autoresponder useful and valuable.

We would love to hear your thoughts and comments. Please share your autoresponder experiences, good and bad in the comments below.

​

This is is a syndicated post. Read the original at www.jvanderlaan.com

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