Email subscribers have always been the biggest assets for every business that has a website. They are your audience whereby you can send your emails to. From promotional emails, update notifications, to newsletters. Speaking of newsletter, it is one of the best content distribution channels. The chances of your content getting delivered is way bigger than social media as there is no algorithm like on social media. MailerLite and Mailchimp are two examples of tools that you can use to manage email subscribers and send newsletters. In WordPress itself, there are also plugins that do the same job as these two tools. We have curated the best WordPress newsletter plugins so that you don’t need to conduct the research from the ground.
All plugins below allow you to send newsletter right from your WordPress dashboard so that you don’t need to login to a third-party website. Before picking one, here is a brief guide to choosing a newsletter plugin for your WordPress site.
Main Features to Consider when Choosing a Newsletter Plugin
First thing first. You need to understand that not all newsletter plugins come with a built-in email delivery service. Instead, some plugins rely on third-party email delivery services such as Mailgun, SendGrid, Mailjet, to Amazon SES. If the newsletter plugin you want to choose doesn’t offer a built-in email delivery service, you need to configure the email delivery service yourself. Without an email delivery service, a newsletter plugin won’t be able to send your emails. Services like MailerLite and Mailchimp have their own email delivery service. That’s why you are not asked to configure email delivery service when you use them.
Most newsletter plugins charge you based on the number of emails you send each month. Or, if they have no built-in email delivery service, they will charge you based on the number of subscribers you have.
Another important aspect to consider when choosing a newsletter plugin is the editor. Most newsletter plugins come with their own email editor so will need to familiarize yourself with a new editor. If you enjoy using Gutenberg, there are also some newsletter plugins that allow you to compose your emails via the default WordPress editor.
Best WordPress Newsletter Plugins
1. MailPoet
MailPoet is one of the most comprehensive newsletter plugins for WordPress. It allows you to do everything related to email marketing from your website. From collecting email subscribers and manage them to send the newsletters. MailPoet comes with a drag and drop email builder which you can use to create a professional-looking email. You can add such elements as text, image, button, to posts. There are tens of newsletter templates you can choose from to streamline your workflow.
To collect email subscribers, MailPoet offers a built-in form builder which you can use to create an email opt-in form. Or, you can also create the email opt-in form using your favorite page builder or form builder. Page builder plugins such as Elementor and Divi Builder have an integration support with MailPoet, which is easier to setup as you don’t need to provide API key. When managing subscribers, you can group them into lists so that you can send more targeted newsletters. One of the advantages of using MailPoet is that you can create custom pages (welcome page, unsubscribe page, and so on) using a page builder of choice.
Here are the key features offered by MailPoet when it comes to newsletter:
The built-in email delivery service offered by MailPoet allows you to send your first email more effortlessly as you don’t need to configure a third-party email delivery service. However, MailPoet gives you a freedom to use an email delivery service of your choice if you want to. The email delivery services supported by MailPoet are: MailGun, Amazon SES, SMTP server.
MailPoet is a freemium plugin so that you can try the experience of using it from the free version before upgrading the pro version to unlock its advanced features. MailPoet is now owned by WooCommerce. The acquisition is done in 2020.
2. Mailster
If you are looking for a premium newsletter plugin you can get with a one-time purchase option, Mailster is one of the best options you can opt to. The plugin is marketed via CodeCanyon so that you don’t need to pay monthly or yearly subscription to use it. The plugins you buy via CodeCanyon offer lifetime updates. Meaning that you can access new versions when available.
However, Mailster offers no built-in email delivery service. In other words, you need to use and setup a third-party email delivery service before you can send a newsletter. The email delivery services supported by Mailster are:
Mailerster also comes with a built-in email composer that offers a drag and drop interface just like MailPoet (pre-made templates are also available). You can also create an email opt-in form using its built-in form builder. If you use form builders like Gravity Forms and Arforms, you can create an email opt-in form for Mailster using an add-on.
Mailster doesn’t offer a free version, but you can try it first before making a purchase. Visit this page to try the demo of Mailster.
Here are the key features offered by Mailster:
3. Newsletter Glue
Do you enjoy writing blog post using Gutenberg? If yes, then Newsletter Glue is a nice plugin to try.
The idea of Newsletter Glue is pretty simple: to allow you to publish a blog post and newsletter with a single click. Pretty similar to Ghost CMS. After installing and activating Newsletter Glue, you will have an option within the Gutenberg editor whether you send your content as a newsletter — other than blog post. Newsletter Glue offers several templates you can choose from. The plugin also offers the following blocks on Gutenberg:
Before being able to send a newsletter using Newsletter Glue, you need to connect it with a third-party email marketing service. The services supported by Newsletter Glue are:
Please note that Newsletter Glue doesn’t offer a subscriber management feature. To manage your subscribers, you still need to login to the email marketing service you use. Also, Newsletter Glue doesn’t offer analytics feature like the first two plugins above.
4. weMail
weMail is a cloud-based newsletter plugin that comes with a modern, clean email composer whereby you can elements like button, image, text, animated GIF (integrated with Giphy). Before sending the email, you can also preview your email on desktop, tablet, and smartphone devices. To streamline your workflow, weMail offers pre-made email templates you can choose from.
weMail offers comprehensive features like MailPoet and Mailster. In addition to a built-in email composer as we have just mentioned above, the plugin also comes with subscriber manager, analytics, and form builder. You can also integrate weMail with form builder plugins like WPForms, Ninja Forms, Fluent Forms, etc. if you use them. weMail is great if you run a membership or editorial website (e.g., blog). The plugin has the ability to collect subscribers from user registration form and comment form.
To start sending an email, you need to connect weMail with a third-party email delivery service as it has no built-in email delivery feature. You can connect weMail with services like Amazon SES, SparkPost, SendGrid and Mailgun.
Key features of weMail include:
weMail is one of the products from weDevs — the developer of Dokan, Happy Addons, and WP ERP
5. Newsletter
Referring to the stats on WordPress.org, Newsletter is a newsletter plugin the most users. It has over 400,000 users. Since it is available on WordPress.org, this means that Newsletter is available as a freemium plugin. So, you can try the experience of sending newsletters using it before you upgrade to the premium versions. Newsletter comes with a built-in email composer and has extensive integration supports with plugins like Elementor, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, and Ninja Forms. Newsletter has not built-in email delivery service so that you need to connect it with a third-party email delivery service to be able to send newsletters. The mail delivery services you can connect with the Newsletter are:
The Bottom Line
Email is one of the content distribution channels you can make use of to generate more traffic to your website. Investing on email marketing is better than social media for a long term as email has a peer-to-peer distribution method. Contrary to social media which has algorithm-based distribution method. In WordPress, you have a lot of options to send newsletters and other type email marketing campaigns. The plugins above are great if you want to send newsletters from your WordPress dashboard.
Email delivery service is the most crucial aspect to notice before choosing a newsletter plugin. Without it, you will never be able to send a newsletter to your subscribers. So, make sure that the plugin you want to choose already has a built-in email delivery service. Or, if you want to use a third-party email delivery service of your choice, make sure that it is supported by the newsletter plugin you want to use. Other crucial features to consider include email composer, form builder, double opt-in, analytics, and subscriber manager.
