7 Best Newsletter Platforms in 2025

2.4.2025
Read time: 13 min
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7 Best Newsletter Platforms in 2025
Try Publicate For Free Today
2.4.2025
Read time: 13 min

Best practices and user expectations are always shifting. To keep your email marketing effective, you need tools that can keep up in 2025.

We’ve done the hard work for you and collected the best newsletter platforms. This list covers all bases. From newsletter design to list segmentation and sending, these tools make it quick and easy to send professional emails to your subscribers. Best of all, there’s something to suit every budget and business size.

Reading this guide might be the best thing you do for your newsletter this year!

Guide Index
person using smartphone and laptop computer
Picture from Unsplash

What is an Email Newsletter?

Email newsletters are bulk emails sent by businesses to subscribers, customers, or employees.

They usually contain short, digestible sections that are fun to read. The best newsletters don’t go for quick wins and hard sells. Instead, they include valuable and entertaining content to nurture relationships and build trust over time.

Popular content includes company and industry news, tips and insights, customer success stories, and events and product launches.

The difference between an email newsletter and a one-off campaign email is that newsletters are sent frequently. This might be quarterly, monthly, weekly or even daily. It just depends on how much value a business has to offer.

What to Look for in an Email Newsletter Platform?

You don’t have to create a newsletter alone. There are tools and platforms on the market to streamline the process and optimize your newsletter.

But how can you choose the best newsletter platforms to help you stay in touch with hundreds or thousands of subscribers?

Before we dive into some of our favorites, it’s worth covering everything you need to look out for:

  1. It lets you design great-looking newsletters. Above all, your newsletter should look beautiful and engage your audience. Look for platforms that take a design-first approach, to make the process quick and easy. They should contain a vast library of templates, powerful image editing tools, and a drag-and-drop functionality, so you won’t need to hire coders or designers.
  1. It’s affordable. Email is known for delivering a healthy ROI (it generates an average of $42 for every $1 spent). However, you want an affordable platform to start with. Look for tools with tiered pricing options, so there’s something to suit every team. A free trial is also great for letting you get to grips with the tool, without spending a dollar.
  1. It’s user-friendly. Don’t waste time on complex tools. Creating a newsletter should be simple, so choose tools that are user-intuitive, so you can pick them up quickly and make the most of their features.
  1. It offers analytics. Gaining insights into your newsletter's performance is a great way to ensure its worth. Plus, you can use the data to drive your ongoing strategy and continually improve results.

What are the Best Email Newsletter Platforms?

Your email marketing strategy can be simple and streamlined - with a little help.

We’ve rounded up the best newsletter platforms to help you handle every step in the process. From design to audience targeting and sharing your newsletter, here are the tools to level up your marketing.

1. Publicate - Best for Newsletter Design

Publicate is a market-leading email builder that focuses on email design - which means it has a full stack of features to help you design beautiful emails quickly and easily.

It has a drag-and-drop editor that makes the tool easy for anyone to use. You don’t need a design or coding background, and you don’t need to spend money hiring experts.

Here are some of the key features that set Publicate apart:

Templates

Your newsletter will look stunning every time, thanks to hundreds of highly engaging, customizable templates. Whether your newsletter includes blog links, a product launch or anything in between, simply select a newsletter template and customize it with your company branding.

Brand Kit

There is even an in-built Brand Kit that lets you upload your brand’s colors, fonts and logo, to update templates with a single click, so you will always stay on brand.

Powerful Image Editor

Publicate has many other exceptional features that make it the best newsletter platform for design. For example, you can crop and align images directly in the editor. This saves time and effort - you won’t need to use a third-party tool to edit, re-upload, and try to line up images. Instead, you can do it all in the editor and get the alignment right the first time.

Content Library

A powerful content library means you can discover fresh content right inside the Publicate platform. Connect with your favorite sources - like Slack, Feedly and Pocket - to save and organize content in your Publicate library. Plus, access over 2 million royalty-free GIFs, videos and images without leaving the platform!

You can drag and drop polls and surveys directly into your newsletter, and easily share web articles or videos using a dynamic scraping tool. That means you simply paste the URL and the editor automatically populates key information for you!

Approvals & Collaboration

Work with your team, even when they’re remote, to build the most effective newsletter. Publicate offers real-time editing and approvals, for safe, streamlined collaboration.

Analytics

Publicate includes analytics to track engagement across every sending platform, including Outlook and Gmail. This lets you monitor open rates and click rates, with heat maps to show which content gets the most engagement. With this data at your fingertips, you’ll be able to see how to optimize your newsletter, for better results each time.

Downsides:

  • No free plans available

Why it’s great:

  • Design-first tool
  • No coding required
  • 2-week free trial
  • AI assistant tools
  • Easily export designs to up to 60 ESPs including Gmail & Outlook

Try it Free to start creating designs in minutes, from templates like these…

Use This Template

Use This Template

2. beehiiv - Best for Monetizing Your Newsletter

beehiiv lets you create and publish newsletters, but its real strength is in monetization.

An ideal option for businesses that want to grow their subscriber base and make money from their newsletter, beehiiv powers some of the planet’s biggest newsletters.

Users can monetize their newsletter with beehiiv’s help, by featuring in other creators’ newsletters or creating brand-new referral programs.

Why it’s great:

  • 30-day free trial
  • Scalable pricing plans
  • Built-in monetization features

Downsides:

  • No pre-designed templates are available
  • Newsletter design and customization are limited
  • The AI image and text generators are basic
  • No direct integration with other ESPs like Gmail or Outlook

3. Mailchimp - Best for Managing Your Wider Strategy

Mailchimp is an “all-in-one” style platform. It includes an email builder, marketing automation, branded websites, and social media and SMS marketing.

With that in mind, it can be used for omni-channel campaigns, which are generally best for larger businesses. If you just want to focus on doing email marketing well, this might not be the platform for you.

And, because Mailchimp handles so much of the marketing process, its email editor isn’t as user-friendly as some others. For example, the templates are more of a blank canvas than a done-for-you solution. Anyone lacking design skills might find it challenging to create beautiful, professional emails.

Why it’s great:

  • 14-day free trial
  • Supports business growth - just jump to the next pricing tier as you scale
  • Supports a wider marketing strategy
  • Advanced features (like personalization, A/B testing and segmentation) are simple to use

Downsides:

  • Pricing is based on the number of sign-ups, so it can get expensive if subscribers sign up for multiple lead magnets
  • Templates are basic, with less in-platform customization than other newsletter platforms
  • No option to export designs to Gmail, Outlook and other ESPs

4. Omnisend - Best for eCommerce Newsletters

Omnisend is used to send email and SMS campaigns to eCommerce audiences.

It simplifies omnichannel campaigns through features like design, automation and segmentation. Omnisend integrates with eCommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce to collect customer data that can shape campaigns.

Why it’s great:

  • All-in-one functionality for eCommerce brands
  • Streamlined integrations with eComm platforms
  • Pricing tiers to suit different businesses

Downsides:

  • The free plan is limited
  • More suited to promotions than brand awareness
  • Limited templates that don’t suit news or value-based emails
  • Not recommended if you’re not an eCommerce business

4. Substack - Best for Free Publishing

Substack attracts writers and journalists who want to publish content for free, even as their audience grows.

It’s one of the best newsletter platforms for simple, text-based newsletters but it falls short in designing engaging HTML emails. Users only pay for Substack once they turn on paid subscriptions - and then Substack takes 10% of revenues.

Why it’s great:

  • No tech knowledge needed
  • Sign-up is free
  • Can import lists from other platforms, like beehiiv, WordPress and Mailchimp

Downsides:

  • Fees apply when you monetize your newsletter
  • No newsletter templates
  • You don’t own your space - you might lose your content if Substack goes down
  • Webpage and newsletter customization is limited - this could cause frustration and take up more time
  • Analytics are basic and a Google Analytics integration is recommended

5. Campaign Monitor - Best for Agencies

Ideal for agencies that handle multiple client accounts, Campaign Monitor includes a template builder, marketing automation and analytics.

Campaign Monitor lets agencies run their clients’ email marketing from one dashboard, and agencies can scale their accounts as they add more clients.

There’s a drag-and-drop email editor, but the interface is a little clunky. It opens by suggesting a branded template based on your website’s color scheme, which wouldn’t be suitable for every user.

Why it’s great:

  • Multiple pricing tiers
  • Allows effective client management
  • Includes analytics and list segmentation

Downsides:

  • Considerable cost increases to access advanced features
  • Less user-friendly editor
  • Not the best choice for small businesses (also includes SMS marketing and eCommerce tools, and other advanced features best suited to larger organizations)
  • Templates are limited to around 100 or so
  • Free trial doesn’t include all features

6. MailerLite - Best for Simplifying Automations

MailerLite empowers small businesses and content creators to grasp email automations. This helps users with better targeting, to help grow their audience.

It offers features like website and blog builders, as well as newsletter editing and email marketing. Thanks to an intuitive automation builder, even people new to email marketing can create workflows and send targeted campaigns.

However, it doesn’t offer the option to create opt-in-specific forms. Users might need to create separate email sequences to deliver each lead magnet - this can make keeping track of everything more difficult.

Like many of the full-service platforms in this list, it works best with a tool that specializes in email building, like Publicate.

Why it’s great:

  • Offers a free plan, although it doesn’t include templates
  • Includes analytics
  • Simplifies automation and other advanced email marketing processes

Downsides:

  • The email builder isn’t as strong as many others - MailerLite also offers an HTML editor, which is better for people with coding knowledge
  • Lacks design features like brand kits and powerful multi-media libraries
  • Limited customization of templates

How to Choose the Best Email Newsletter Platform?

Choosing the right platform is overwhelming - there are so many out there!

To choose the right one, think about what your business needs:

  • Do you need to segment your audience?
  • Do you need access to the best newsletter templates?
  • Do you need to set up automations?
  • Do you need a platform that can handle big lists?
  • Do you need a beginner-friendly tool?
  • Do you need a powerful editor with time-saving features?

Our advice is to start simple. Use an email builder like Publicate to design beautiful, engaging emails. With hundreds of customizable templates and plenty of features that save time and simplify design, an email builder like Publicate should be in every email marketer’s stack.

You can export your emails to Gmail, Outlook or any other sending platform, including all of the ones in this list. You can then use those platforms to introduce advanced features like segmenting if you feel they’re right for your business.

Finally, look for tools that offer a free trial and excellent customer support. This lets you find your way around the platform and determine if its features are right for you, before making the investment.

Wrap Up

Access to the best newsletter platforms can boost your email marketing, making it more professional and effective, to help grow your newsletter - and your business.

Get the design right with an email builder like Publicate and then choose the right sending platform for your business’ needs. With Publicate, you can even stick to Gmail or Outlook.

With an email builder like Publicate, it’s easy to create engaging, professional emails, and to track their performance - essential for newsletter success.

Start today with a free trial.