What email SaaS/Newsletter service do you use in 2023?

I was looking into this also for socialbuddy and decided to go with Brevo, I think it's perfect for early stages cause you get up to 300 emails per day for free. This is more than enough for me 🙌

Hey, have been using Beehiiv for our newsletter covering the startup ecosystem in the Middle East. The free plan is pretty good given our extremely small audience and we plan on upgrading to the paid plan once we cross 1,000 subs.

For my regular Micro SaaS Ideas newsletter, I am simply using Substack. But if you are talking more around 'sending newsletter for your SaaS customers/users', then you should look solutions like ConvertKit, Mailerlite etc.

I like Convertkit.
Really good tool for non-technical people and very good functionality in its base package

I’ve gone down a rabbit hole on this for fun

It really depends on what plan you need. Free? Basic? Pro?

I’ve tried beehiiv, Substack, MailerLite, Mailchimp and loops.

In my opinion, loops is the platform everyone should use for their SaaS and it’s not even close (just my opinion!) it’s what I use now and i intend on staying there.

I love beehiiv but im not a huge fan of their free plan and what it offers when you compare it to competitors.

Beehiiv has been incredible for me! Their feature set is solid, their built-in tools for customer acquisition are great, and their team is always shipping, with new features almost weekly.

I just discovered Loops .so, It look very nice

I'm using Mailchimp and it's my first software I've used. I find it difficult and not very intuitive but it's probably due to my ignorance. It seems like it doesn't have as many sends/ contacts at others for the price.

On the flip side though, it looks like it has lots of good features and when I pay a marketer for help, the finished product is really good.

I’ve always used two separate services for newsletters and transactional emails (verify account, reset password, someone followed you, etc) up until recently. It’s worked, but it hasn’t been great having emails managed in multiple places.

Up until recently I used Sendy for newsletters and SendGrid for transactional emails. Sendgrid started going to spam for some of our users, so we decided to move away.

We recently joined Loops ( https://loops.so ), and are currently moving over all emails to it. It’s nice having everything in one place with clear documentation on what the inputs are for each email. If an input is missing the email doesn’t send and we get a BugSnag error.

They use Amazon SES to send, which at least we know works because Sendy uses it too.

I have liked using EmailOctopus to design and send out my daily newsletter https://quickbyte.tech. It felt more modern than MailChimp and was a lot easier to use.

I’ve tried a few across previous projects.

The stack I’ve decided to stick with and use for findcool.tools is:

• Brevo for emails and automations
• BeeHiiv for newsletters

Brevo has its quirks, but has a decent free tier and I’ve come to like using the platform. Works well for email drips too.

BeeHiiv is newer, but the platform UX is nice and they’re always releasing new features.

Here's an article I did recently with a quick review of NL platforms - https://www.shno.co/blog/paid-newsletter-platforms

Hope it helps. Cheers!

Hey there, fellow Indie Hacker!

Choosing the right email newsletter service is a pivotal decision, and it's great to see you putting thought into it. 📧

In my experience, I've used a few different services depending on the project's needs, and here's what's worked for me:

1. Mailchimp: It's like the gateway drug into the world of email marketing, super easy to get started with, and they offer a free plan, which is awesome for startups on a tight budget. I love their automation features and the fact that you don't need to be a tech wizard to use it.

2. ConvertKit: If you're all about building a strong relationship with your audience and want to get into the nitty-gritty of segmentation, ConvertKit is fantastic. It's tailored for content creators and bloggers, and the automation and customization options are gold.

3. SendinBlue: For me, SendinBlue's standout feature is deliverability. If your emails don't land in the inbox, it's all for naught, right? Plus, they've got pricing flexibility, which is a winner for startups watching their pennies.

4. Drip: If your SaaS has an e-commerce angle or relies on user behavior for targeting, Drip is a champ at that. Their segmentation game is strong, and personalization is key.

5. Campaign Monitor: If aesthetics and beautiful, responsive templates matter to your SaaS, this is your pick. The customization options are awesome, and you'll make some seriously good-looking newsletters.

6. SendGrid: For transactional emails and marketing emails, SendGrid is a trustworthy choice. They've been in the game for a while and offer rock-solid reliability.

7. AWeber: If you like things straightforward and need a reliable solution, AWeber's got your back. It's simple, effective, and perfect for startups who want to keep it no-frills.

Remember to take advantage of free trials or limited-feature plans to see which one aligns best with your specific needs. Also, don't forget to keep an eye on email marketing regulations and privacy rules; building trust with your subscribers is essential.

Wishing you all the best with your email newsletter adventure! 🚀 Feel free to ask if you have more questions.

Depends a little what you mean by "automate." If you what you mean is get signups and do the actual sending without doing anything (after you set it up), then there are lots of options. I've used Mailerlite with success and they have a fairly good free tier, if I remember correctly. If you mean something more like bundling up blog posts into a newsletter automatically, that's the sort of thing I've set up on WordPress. There's a service, Newsletter Glue, that does this for you, but it's a little spendy at $120/month. Within WordPress, MailPoet is a great plugin/tool with a decent (up to 500, maybe?) free tier.

Hey!
So I used Mailchimp for a while, which is fine, but if you're looking to automate it more,
it's not the best option. I recently switched to SendGrid, which means you can send up to 50k emails per month (for 19$/ month). Super happy with it.

I use Beehiiv too, but for a standalone newsletter, I don't think I would use it for a SaaS newsletter.

Other tools that are used a lot but haven't tried:

• Resend
• Active Campaigns
• Convertkit

Got a lot of good recommendations here (and they explain why a little): https://www.indiehackers.com/post/as-a-solo-indie-maker-what-are-your-go-to-tools-for-building-and-growing-your-product-380ee3dffb?commentId=-NemxSS6dyTsr8gSITqM

I personally use Mailchip.