Moosend Review (2020) – Is it the best free alternative to MailChimp?

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Email marketing.

The one aspect you cannot ignore in your marketing stack irrespective of any form of online business you want to build.

Be it affiliate marketing, e-commerce, a SaaS startup, digital marketing agency, email marketing simply cannot be ignored.

That’s why it's incredibly important to select the best email marketing software for your business.

There are a million email marketing solutions in the market. However, due to so many options, it's difficult to figure out the best for you based on your use case, price, features, and value for money.  

There is the market leader in Mailchimp with a huge customer base, then an array of others like Aweber, Constant Contact, Getresponse, Active Campaign, Infusionsoft, Convertkit et al serving different business types and demands.

I have used MailChimp, but have found the features to be quite limiting in marketing automation, but they have an excellent free plan.

Active Campaign on the other extreme has some fantastic tagging and automation features. However, there is no free plan and the price can go very high for advanced features once your list grows.

I have been researching quite a lot for a perfect mix of the two and after a lot of time, I found out the right tool.

Enter Moosend.

It initially caught my attention for the multiple 5-star reviews on Capterra and on their Product Hunt page.

When I signed up and used it for a while, I was really blown away by the features for such a low price. I was like "This thing should get more exposure and known to many more looking for a good and free email marketing tool"

The interface is intuitive, the delivery rates are excellent, the tagging and automation features are fantastic.

User Interface

Moosend's UI is simple, easy to use and navigate which many of the email marketing software struggles to achieve and end up with a cluttered mess.

The main dashboard shows an overview of all the lists and the current campaigns running.

There are separate tabs to manage campaigns, lists, automation, and reports which helps to keep everything organized.

There are 4 types of campaigns that can be initiated, a regular broadcast email campaign, an A/B split test campaign and the remaining two for RSS and updated feeds from a URL.

The mailing lists are laid out clearly with options to duplicate, delete or to import subscribers from a CSV.

It also shows a clear color-coded Active subscribers/Unsubscribed number which could be a real handful to get an overview of each list.

Under automation is where the email sequences and tags are set up for each list. A lot of different types of sequences and triggers can be set up based on the actions of the subscribers.

Looking at the templates, it's clear they have a slight preference for the e-commerce market. 

A/B testing set up is also easy and it is even possible to check with a test email after drafting if it reaches the inbox or spam.

Overall, the user experience is simple to use with a clear uncluttered navigation path.

Campaigns & Automation

Setting up automation workflows is so powerful and easy in Moosend.

Once the email campaign is set-up, select an automation campaign and any number of triggers and sequences can be built visually. 

When you select new automation, there are many fantastic templates to choose from based on what you want to achieve with your campaign.

For example, when you select the abandoned cart template, there are steps and automation predefined which can be easily integrated with your campaign.

It is super useful to get your campaign set up quickly even for someone without much experience in email marketing.

You can set up your own abandoned cart email template choosing exactly the number of products to be displayed in the email. It is also possible to set up a maximum cap of number of emails per day pertaining to a particular sequence.

Each step will let you have additional controls with the triggers by setting up exactly when to fire up the automation.

It is also possible to set up these triggers and automation for multiple websites all connected to one Moosend account.

Once the triggers are set up, there are many filtering options based on the specific contacts in a list and what action they have taken in a specific time interval. 

Integrations

One of the most important aspects of any email marketing software.

Moosend has all the important and necessary integrations out of the box. If you need anything more, there is always native Zapier integration to connect with your favorite apps.

It is surprising not to see Shopify in the list of native integration, but Zapier should help until it comes out.

Additional to Zapier, Moosend also integrates with PieSync that enables two-way sync with hundreds of other business applications. 

One more cool integration named Mailchimp synchronizer really caught the eye. You can connect your existing MailChimp lists and it automatically syncs with the list you build with Moosend.

Extremely useful if you have a large list and sign up forms in Mailchimp as it will avoid the entire cumbersome process of moving the whole list and setting up the forms again.

There is also an official Moosend WordPress plugin that can be found in WordPress' plugin repository. It's really useful to have pop-ups forms, exit intent pop-ups and sync the signs ups with an existing list.

The plugin is constantly updated and the forms have a good level of customization features.

Moosend also has native integration with Salesforce through a plugin, Bigmarker, Bouncer, Clearout, Continually, Convertbox, Convertful, Elementor pro-forms, Hyperise, LeadsBridge, MailOptin, Maitre, NeverBounce, Optimonk, Pabbly subscriptions, Report Garden, Socital, Segment, and Thrivecart. 

Moosend can also be used as an SMTP to integrate with a website or application for transactional emails.

If you need deeper levels of customization and new possibilities in integrations with various third-party apps, there is a public API with excellent documentation.

Landing Page Builder

Moosend has a built-in landing page editor, that makes it stand out from many other email marketing tools.

There is a wide range of templates for business types. All the templates are completely mobile responsive and also comes with SSL enabled.

It can be accessed from an option named "Landing Pages" in the dashboard.

SEO settings like page title and meta description can be added to the landing pages along with unique favicon for each page.

Many custom fields can be added to the forms on the landing page. Also, there is a wide range of elements to get the landing page designed as per your need and style.

Various tracking elements like Google analytics and Facebook pixel be activated easily to track the conversion of the landing pages.

Another cool feature in built-in antibot protection to protect the landing pages from malicious bot traffic.

Subscription forms

Another great tool that's included with Moosend so that you need not worry about one more software in your marketing stack. Subscription forms are really vital in building your email list.

Both pop-up forms like exit-intent and floating bar subscription forms can be built and can be easily integrated with any website by simply pasting the code or by using the available plugins.

White labeling & Agency

One of another very unique features of Moosend. If you have an agency of any sort, you can white label the login page and the dashboard with your own logo. 

To sweeten it even further, it is possible to even set up a CNAME record to your DNS and access the account through your own domain name with no reference to Moosend.

That's a great feature when you do email marketing services for your clients.

You can also make sub-accounts for your clients and they can log in and view all the reports & statistics of the email marketing campaigns you run for them.

Set up the username and password for the account and hide the billing information and disable Moosend support chat if you do not wish your client to know of it, and that's about it. They can access the account instantly. 

None of the sub-accounts opened by you will receive any sort of email communication from Moosend directly, which is perfect for agencies. 

Pricing

This is where it really gets interesting.

For all the advanced marketing automation features Moosend offers, the price is irresistible. Below is a short comparison table of how Moosend's pricing fares against the well-known competition.

As can be seen, none of the competition offers a free plan as generous as Moosend.

Considering most of the email lists of small & medium business owners are in the range of 500 to 5000 subscribers, the savings are substantial with even better features and support.

Support

A great software product is worthless without proper support and assistance to its customers, particularly for something as critical as email marketing.

Moosend definitely shines here. There is live chat support even for the users of the free plan and you get an account manager when you upgrade to any paid plan. That's sublime.

No wonder they have top-notch reviews across the web.

G2 Crowd rating:

Capterra rating:

Any negatives?

No software can be 100% perfect in every scenario. Although there are no glaring cons, the landing page builder is available only in the paid plans.

Conclusion

Not very often I come across a marketing tool and go "Wow" looking at the features and pricing after using it for a while.

Moosend certainly is one such awesome software.

Email marketing is a tough space with lots of established brands. However, this is definitely worth a try and there is no other tool with a better free plan. 

Highly recommended.

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Moosend FAQ

Is Moosend free?

Moosend has an excellent free plan that can be used for upto 1,000 subscribers with all the features included.

Which industry Moosend specializes in?

You can use Moosend for affiliate marketing, e-commerce, SaaS and many other industry verticals.

Is there a limit on the number of emails sent?

No, all plans including the free tier come with unlimited emails.

What is the cost of paid plan?

It costs only $10 a month for 1,000 to 2,000 subscribers and $20 a month for 2,000 to 3,000 subscribers. There is a 15% discount when paid for 6 months and 20% discount when paid for 12 months.