Moosend Alternatives: Which Email Platform Should You Move To?

Moosend alternative cover with a cow

Moosend is an email service provider that has been operating for almost 12 years. But the email industry has gotten a lot more competitive compared to 2011 — new features have appeared, ESPs have to stay up to date with the latest email marketing trends, and mailbox providers are fighting spammers with a passion, making it an uphill battle for ESPs to reach the inbox.

And with all these changes, Moosend may have lost a bit of its sheen. Let’s look at what’s going through the minds of Moosend’s customers and what alternatives they should consider.



Why Look for a Moosend Alternative? 

Moosend Pricing
Moosend: Pricing Structure

There’s no doubt Moosend is a popular email platform, and it improved after Sitecore acquired it in 2021. Sitecore has done good things with the email platform on the marketing front — a lot more people talk about Moosend compared to about 5 years ago.

It was once considered a budget-friendly option, but we’re not sure we can say that anymore. While the barrier to entry isn’t high, the costs can quickly rise as you scale operations. As you grow in size, you’ll find you’re paying a lot more to simply add contacts to your list.

Moosend’s offerings are pretty basic — you can run campaigns, there are basic automation tools, personalization options, and template libraries for emails as well as automation. You also get list management tools and testing for your emails, plus a basic drag-and-drop email editor. Moosend even offers new users 30 days to try their services for free.

But it may not be the right choice for everyone. Moosend reviews on the web indicate select customers dislike the pricing tiers for higher email volume, while others are unhappy with the flexibility of the features. Moosend also only supports integration for a few third-party marketing tools.

Now that we know about Moosend’s services and features, we’re going to compare it against other email platforms that may be better suited for your requirements.


Goodbye, Moosend! Moving to a Better Email Platform

As you begin your hunt for a Moosend alternative, it’s critical to confirm that the ESP does not have the same problems that Moosend does, plus it offers you excellent value for your money. But before you get started on your search, we recommend you jot down what you want from your email platform.

We put together a few factors that you should consider. This table should simplify your search as you’re in the best position to decide what’s best for your business and what features you want in the next email platform you partner with. For example, if you already pay for software to run social media campaigns, you may not want to pay an additional fee for it. 

Another example would be cost; you may have a large list of subscribers and low email volume, in which case it doesn’t make sense to pay extra just because you have a large email list.

Here are the top 11 factors to consider:

FactorDescription
CostEvaluate the pricing structure, including any hidden fees, and determine if it fits your budget.
UsabilityHow user-friendly is the interface? Consider the learning curve for both beginners and experienced users.
SecurityEvaluate the platform’s security offerings; this includes encryption, two-factor authentication, and history of past incidents, if any.
Backup/RecoveryConcerned about accidental data loss? Research the platform’s backup rules.
ReliabilityInvestigate the uptime and availability of the platform. Ask existing customers about downtime or outages.
ScalabilityConsider whether the platform can scale with your email list’s growth in terms of users and data.
Third-party toolsDoes the platform integrate well with other tools and services you use (like lead management tools, CRMs, or e-commerce platforms)?
AnalyticsHow good is the quality of the reports you get? Your campaign data shapes your email marketing strategy, and you need a platform that gives you the best performance data and insight.
TemplatesThe last thing you want to deal with is outdated email templates. Check how good the design options are, unless you’re going for external options.
Tech supportEnquire about the quality of customer support. It can make a huge difference when you face a rough day.
ComplianceEnsure the platform complies with relevant industry regulations and standards; it can affect your deliverability as well as your brand reputation.
Factors to consider when picking an email platform

After evaluating the points in this checklist, you can now go through the excellent options we have compiled below.


Moosend Alternatives: Quick Overview

We’ve compiled the best features of Moosend alternatives and included pricing information for each.

Here’s a quick comparison of the alternatives you should consider:

ESPUnlimited ContactsAutomated list cleaningBasic paid plan costCost to email 200k contactsDeliverabilityGamificationValue for money
Moosend$9/mo 500 contacts$1,216/monthGood2/5
Campaign Refinery$99/mo
Unlimited contacts
$299/monthExcellent5/5
Mailchimp$4.60/mo
500 contacts
$504/month
Good4/5
Active Campaign$29/mo
1,000contacts
+$2,000/monthGood1/5
Klaviyo$20/mo
500contacts
$2,070/monthAverage1/5
Keap$199/mo
1,500contacts
$1,199/monthAverage2/5
Campaign Monitor$11/mo
500contacts
~$1,000/monthAverage2/5
Moosend Alternatives: Quick Comparison

Next, let’s learn more about the Moosend alternatives from the table, in detail.


Campaign Refinery: The Best Alternative to Moosend

Campaign Refinery Pricing Chart
Campaign Refinery: Tiers and Pricing

If your goal is to master email marketing, then Campaign Refinery is the solution you need.

With well over 5 years of experience in this space, the goal was to build an email platform that can meet any requirement and has zero bloat. We avoided numerous features that would look great on paper but would lead to poor user experience. But our list of features is constantly growing, fueled by extensive testing and feedback from our current clients.

Our USP is deliverability — the most critical aspect of any email platform. What good is a flashy ESP if your emails aren’t landing in the inbox consistently? We focused on the best practices that would make us a reputable email platform, and we only work with professionals who share our vision: sender reputation comes first.

Here are our top features:

  • Automated list cleaning: Removing invalid email addresses can be a daunting and painful task — so we took care of it.
  • Credits payment system: Pay for what you use. Nothing more, nothing less.
  • Unlimited contacts: We don’t want to charge you just because you have a massive email list. Add as many as you like!
  • Segmentation tools: Our list segmentation tools will leave you delighted. Combine that with our tagging system, and you can build the most specialized lists imaginable.
  • Gamification: We’re ultra-proud of this one — we’ve cracked the code to engagement, and our clients are enjoying the rewards.
  • Template library: Want to set up automation flows for your next campaign? Pick from our rich library. And our email templates are pretty stunning, too!
  • Third-party marketing tools: Why let go of your favorite plugins? We support integration with most of the popular tools in the market.

Let’s now talk about our pros and cons.


Pros

  1. Our focus on deliverability means you will immediately notice your inboxing rates multiply. We’ve spent a lot of time perfecting our methods and as long as you keep sending quality content, we’ll keep delivering them to your subscribers’ inboxes.
  2. Our results have a lot to do with our shortlisting process. We are selective about the clients who use our platform, as poor email practices could do long-term damage. So — if you make the cut, you’re in elite company!
  3. Our automated list cleaning gets rid of spam traps, role-based emails, invalid IDs, burner accounts, complainers, bots, and many more email addresses with accuracy. 
  4. You will love how simple our user interface is. We wanted to satisfy the no-nonsense email experts, so we built a platform with zero clutter. Everything works and works well.
  5. Automation on Campaign Refinery is a breeze. Our Branch & Rule Builder will ensure your emails reach your customers at every step of your marketing funnel.
  6. Our analytics dashboard is impressive. You won’t miss out on any critical data, and we’ve simplified the output so you can see exactly what you want to, with no distractions.

Cons

  1. We don’t do free plans. While this may disappoint potential customers, it’s for good reason. We are extremely focused on being an elite platform, and we’re careful onboarding even the paying clients. We are confident in our offerings and want to work with email senders who are confident in theirs.
  2. We don’t support social media campaigns on Campaign Refinery. However, we do support integration with your social media tools, so you can run your campaigns parallelly.

Campaign Refinery Pricing

We have three payment tiers:

  1. Business Plan: $99/mo.
  2. Growth Plan: $299/mo.
  3. Enterprise Plan: >$1k/mo.

Email costs:

  • 5,000 Contacts on Business Plan: $99/month.
  • 50,000 contacts on Business Plan: $99/month.
  • 200,000 contacts on Growth Plan: $299/month.

We operate a credits-based system, where you get a certain amount of credits you can spend on either email sends or list-cleaning. On the Business Plan, you get 50,000 credits, the Growth Plan gives you 200k credits, and the Enterprise Plan gives you 1 million credits to use as you please. You can also purchase credits in bulk if you’re a high-volume sender.

If joining a boutique email platform sounds awesome, apply NOW to become a Campaign Refinery client!


ActiveCampaign: A Pricier Alternative to Moosend

ActiveCampaign: Plans and Pricing
ActiveCampaign: Plans and Pricing

ActiveCampaign is a marketing platform that aims to be an all-in-one option for your marketing requirements. Their features include store marketing and automation for your e-commerce business,  CRM, sales automation, email services, a landing page builder, and analytics for your website. You can also run SMS and Facebook campaigns through the platform — the SMS campaigns are particularly popular with users, based on ActiveCampaign reviews online.

If that list sounds exhaustive, note that features are unlocked according to the plan you’re on. ActiveCampaign has a basic plan that lets you run email marketing campaigns, but it’s priced steeply. But you can run A/B split tests, use the template library and automation, and manage your lists on this plan.


Pros

  1. If you want a platform that can manage all your marketing activities under a roof, then ActiveCampaign makes sense. For specialized email marketing, however, it may be an overkill.
  2. ActiveCampaign offers AI tools for content creation.
  3. The platform supports integration with multiple third-party tools.

Cons

  1. The biggest red flag here is the cost. For a list of just 1,000 contacts, you will have to pay $39 a month. You can mail them 10x a month though, but we’re not sure if small businesses email a small list all that often.
  2. ActiveCampaign does not allow email testing on the basic plan.
  3. The UI can seem cluttered to novice users — there’s a steep learning curve. 
  4. The free trial is only for 14 days.

ActiveCampaign Pricing

ActiveCampaign’s pricing is pretty confusing, so ensure you study the comparison page carefully before you decide if it’s right for you. 

The platform breaks up its offerings into Marketing, Sales, Bundles, and Transactional Email sections.

We’re only going to look at the Marketing section, to keep things uniform in this comparison.

  1. Lite: $39/mo (1,000 users)
  2. Plus: $70/mo (1,000 users)
  3. Professional: $187/mo (2,500 users)
  4. Enterprise: $323/mo (2,500 users)

Email costs

  • 5,000 contacts on Lite Plan: $99/mo
  • 50,000 contacts on Lite Plan: $486/mo
  • 200,000 contacts on Lite Plan: Custom pricing

Mailchimp: A Popular Moosend Alternative

Mailchimp: Tiers and Pricing
Mailchimp: Tiers and Pricing

Who hasn’t heard of Mailchimp? Thanks to the company’s marketing efforts, there is a Mailchimp review on almost every SaaS blog, which means most email marketers have heard of it. But does popularity necessarily translate over to quality or value for money? 

Mailchimp is primarily focused on email marketing and automation and has recently started dabbling in AI features, too. Various third-party integrations are also available on Mailchimp. Like most other email platforms, it offers segmentation tools, automation controls, and also lets you handle your website analytics and social media marketing under one roof. 

You can also build landing pages, A/B-test your emails, send autoresponders, plus it features a CRM. The analytics reporting is also decent, giving you insight into your campaigns. 


Pros

  1. Supports various third-party marketing plugins.
  2. The CRM can be useful, but if you want to use it on different audiences, you need to the top paid plan.

Cons

  1. It gets costly as the pricing is dependent on the size of your contacts list. Additionally, you can only email them 10x a month.
  2. The free plan only lets you send 1,000 emails each month. That is barely enough to get a clear picture of how well the service works.
  3. Reviews online suggest customers are dissatisfied with the customer service and the ease of use.

Mailchimp Pricing

Mailchimp offers a free plan that is limited to 500 contacts and a total of 1,000 emails a month.

There are three paid plans available: 

  1. Essentials: $4.60/mo (for the first year, 500 contacts)
  2. Standard: $6.87/mo (for the first year, 500 contacts)
  3. Premium: $137.36/mo (for the first year, 500 contacts)

Email costs:

  • 5,000 contacts on Essentials Plan: $23/month
  • 50,000 contacts on Essentials Plan: $119.44/month
  • 200,000 contacts on Premium Plan: $504.65/month

Klaviyo: All of Moosend’s Features Plus SMS Campaigns

Klaviyo: Pricing Structure
Klaviyo: Pricing Structure

Klaviyo reviews indicate it is a great option for email senders seeking advanced segmentation and automation features. Besides this, the platform also dabbles in SMS marketing, app notifications, and web forms.

Klaviyo also supports email testing, offers list segmentation tools, analytics, and has recently introduced AI features on its platform. It also offers a CRM you can link to your website analytics data. 


Pros

  1. Klaviyo supports SMS marketing in sync with email marketing.
  2. It supports integration for many popular marketing plugins.

Cons

  1. Pricing issues are a common complaint with Klaviyo. The platform charges for the number of contacts you’re emailing, which can get pretty expensive. While Klaviyo does let you send a good volume of emails, paying just for a larger list can pinch users.
  2. Klaviyo seems to struggle with deliverability. We saw multiple reviews of users complaining about the problematic IP reputation and poor inboxing rates.
  3. The email editor seems to be another notorious pain point. Struggling to address issues in the drag-and-drop editor can get aggravating over time, pushing customers towards seeking alternatives.
  4. The number of complaints against their customer service department is a bit concerning.

Klaviyo Pricing

Klaviyo offers SMS+email bundles and pure email plans, too. There is also a free plan (for 60 days) that lets you send 500 emails a month to a list with 0-250 contacts.

The paid email plan changes pricing based on the size of your email contacts list:

  1. 501 – 1,000 contacts: $30/month (Limit: 10,000 emails)
  2. 5,001 – 5,500 contacts: $110/month (Limit: 55,000 emails)
  3. 45,001 – 50,000 contacts: $720/month (Limit: 500,000 emails)
  4. 95,001 – 100,000 contacts: $1,380/month (Limit: 1M emails)

Cost to email

  • 5,000 contacts: $100/month
  • 50,000 contacts: $720/month
  • 200,000 contacts: $2,070/month

Keap: A Moosend Replacement with a Built-In CRM

Keap: Tiers and Pricing
Keap: Tiers and Pricing

Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, positions itself as a sales and marketing platform for small businesses. It has a CRM, a lead capture and management system, it sends autoresponders, and also offers an invoicing feature for e-commerce companies.

On the email marketing front, Keap offers the usual — list segmentation tools, template library, email sequencing, and analytics and reporting features. The email platform does not offer any features radically different from its competitors.


Pros

  1. It organizes your marketing and sales operations together.
  2. It supports integration with a wide range of marketing tools.

Cons

  1. Surprisingly high prices. For a list of just 1,500 contacts, you’re looking at paying $199 a month for the most basic plan. We saw various Keap reviews that mentioned this fact.
  2. The UI gets mixed reviews — while a few features are intuitive, other functions are tough to figure out, which leads to a cluttered experience.
  3. It’s extremely tough to move out of Keap because of various policies and payment issues. So you need to be clear about what you want before you sign up with them.
  4. The customer care team seems apathetic to many customer complaints.
  5. The email builder is clunky.

Keap Pricing

For an ESP targeting small businesses, the prices seem steep. Keap offers a 14-day free trial.

Here are the paid plans:

  1. Pro (1,500 contacts): $199/month.
  2. Max (2,500 contacts): $289/month.
  3. Ultimate (2,500 contacts): $289/month.

Email costs:

  • 5,000 contacts on the Pro plan: $324/month.
  • 50,000 contacts on the Pro plan: $599/month.
  • 200,000 contacts on the Pro plan: $1,199/month.

Campaign Monitor: A Moosend Alternative with Pay-As-You-Go Pricing

Campaign Monitor: Tiers and Pricing
Campaign Monitor: Tiers and Pricing

Campaign Monitor is another email platform that offers the same suite of features Moosend does. This company has been around for about a decade and focuses mainly on email marketing, automation, and SMS marketing as well.

On the email side of things, Campaign Monitor has a range of features — automation, segmentation, transactional emails, and a form builder. The platform also features a tool called AI Writer, which helps you draft emails, in case you’re unhappy with the templates available. Campaign Monitor also lets you integrate tools like Salesforce, WordPress, Shopify, Optinmonster, and Zapier, among many others.


Pros

  1. Campaign Monitor lets you pay as you go, for $5 per campaign and 1¢ per recipient.
  2. The UI is visually pleasant and easy to use.
  3. You can run parallel SMS campaigns along with email campaigns.

Cons

  1. The learning curve for Campaign Monitor is steep. 
  2. The email builder is a bit buggy; while there are multiple templates to choose from, putting your email together can be a bit confusing at times. The mobile formatting can also be wonky at times.
  3. The email volume on the paid plans is low and you have to shell out a lot more as you grow your list. We observed more than a few customers mention this fact in Campaign Monitor reviews online.

Campaign Monitor Pricing

Campaign Monitor offers three pricing tiers with different features and the monthly charges change according to your list size. 

Here are the details of the paid plans for a list of 1,000 contacts:

  1. Lite: $39/month.
  2. Essentials: $59/month.
  3. Premier: $149/month.

Email costs:

  • 5,000 contacts on the Lite plan: $68/month.
  • 50,000 contacts on the Lite plan: $349/month.
  • 200,000 contacts on the Lite plan: Custom pricing.

Campaign Refinery is the Moosend Alternative You’re Looking For

If you’re looking for a Moosend alternative, there’s a chance you’re frustrated with poor services, faulty product features, or exorbitant pricing. We know exactly how you and thousands of other email marketers feel — which is why we made sure Campaign Refinery has NONE of those problems. 

Our goal was never to be the flashiest or win popularity contests; we wanted to make email communication an efficient and concise tool, flexible enough to do what our clients wanted them to. 

We set out with ambitious goals, and achieved every single one:

  1. Industry-dominating deliverability rates,
  2. Powerful automation tools,
  3. Excellent segmentation features,
  4. Competitive pricing, 
  5. The best analytics dashboard,
  6. Exceptional customer support.

If you’re a small business or a whale sending millions of emails a month, you will feel right at home with Campaign Refinery. Because we promise you this — no one will give you the kind of deliverability rates we do, at these prices.

If you’re ready to start emailing like the pros, sign up to become a Campaign Refinery client today!

Similar Posts