Practical test: email editors and newsletter builders

Stripo in practice

Usability

The editor Stripo offers over 300 templates, which can be used as a basis for designing your own responsive email newsletters. Users can use it to create templates that are then adapted to their own corporate identity. Stripo also stands out positively visually and in terms of usability. However, no separate templates can be uploaded for the mobile display of the templates; images are scaled or rearranged on a mobile basis depending on the section.

With Stripo's drag & drop editor, the higher-level layout is first adjusted. Fonts, colors and sizes must then be specified in each individual section. Adjustments must therefore be made at many individual points. Depending on the length and complexity of the template, the effort here increases.

Once this work is done, all future email newsletters can be created based on the customized template and its individual elements. The drag and drop editor is easy to use without HTML knowledge. It is very practical that the version history allows users to restore the last saved status of an email.

However, if elements from another template are to be used in the next newsletter, it may happen that they no longer match your own design. In this case, the adjustment work starts again.

Quality of results

When testing with Stripo templates, we noticed a few display issues. Outlook is known to have a hard time displaying background images. However, there is a way to avoid these display problems. For our customers, we would include them in the email code. Stripo does not support its users here. The display of buttons and distances is also different in different email clients. Stripo therefore does not fully meet our requirements for a uniform presentation of emails. However, there may be marketing managers who are not bothered by such details. For them, making work easier in production can be more important than presentation problems.

Export and connection to shipping tools

The HTML code of the created newsletters can be exported and downloaded from Stripo. The business package includes exports to various email delivery solutions, including MailChimp, GetResponse, Campaign Monitor, UniSender, eSputnik and Gmail.

With the export function, the HTML framework can be transferred to the user's own shipping tool. However, Stripo requires permission to access the account with the email service provider (ESP). However, the images and graphics in the newsletter remain on Stripo's image server. In practice, this will not be a problem for many users. However, we prefer to load the images into the image databases of the respective email delivery solution, which experience has shown that they can handle the peak loads of image retrievals well after they have been sent.

It is therefore the better way for us to directly download the complete HTML code and use the content import functions of the email marketing software. Then you don't have to grant Stripo access to your own account with potentially sensitive data.

In their own email platform, the user must then make settings for link tracking, click profiles, personalizations, individualization and version testing, among other things. If problems are still visible when testing the email in the sending tool, the effort increases many times over. The same applies if content needs to be exchanged at the last minute — and who doesn't know that? The employee must then either make the changes directly in the email source code or switch back to Stripo, make the adjustments there and export and optimize them again.

expenses

Stripo is very easy to test with a free “Free” subscription with 2 templates per project. For professional users, the business package starts at just under 8.50 euros a month and includes 15 templates per project, 50 test emails a month and 100,000 calls to animated countdown timers.

Taxi for Email in the test

Usability

The newsletter builder Taxi for Email is less convenient than Stripo in terms of ease of use and functionality. Like all drag and drop programs, it requires quite a few clicks to create an email.

We don't think the editor is very ergonomic. During email production, each individual section must be clicked on in a drop-down menu on the right and added to the initially empty email. As soon as the email is filled in this way, content can be added in the live preview or via the menu. An email with several sections appears to us to be very confusing in the drop-down menu.

There are 18 different sections available for the actual content, which can be arranged and repeated flexibly in their order. Some of these sections are not fully editable. In many sections, for example, the font and size cannot be adjusted. You cannot set a link in the preheader unless you edit the HTML code. Separate images can be uploaded for the mobile version in some sections. In addition, it is not possible to copy an already styled or filled section. Only blank sections can be added and customized individually. For more design flexibility, HTML commands can also be entered in some fields. However, this once again requires appropriate knowledge about the special use of HTML in emails.

We tested Taxi for Email in a free account. We are therefore unable to make any detailed statements about the plus features. However, the advanced features sound like they could definitely make the work of marketing teams easier. In particular, it should be mentioned that a closer connection to the shipping tool is possible in large parcels. Taxi for Email presents itself there as an all-inclusive tool for work related to email creation. It should also master testing, individualization, versioning and approval management. Integrations of personalization and segmentation logic as well as email delivery tool tracking syntax are also promised.

Quality of results

The results of the display test were not completely convincing to us. However, the same applies here: For some users, a reduction in the workload when creating emails may outweigh the inconsistencies in the presentation. For example, call-to-action buttons are not displayed consistently. It is particularly unpleasant that Outlook 365 displays the “http://” in all call-to-actions. The distances between the mobile elements are also inconsistent and in some cases very small. After all, the template code has been optimized so that background images are displayed in Outlook and more complex email designs can be displayed.

Export and connection to shipping tools

The HTML code of the created emails can be transferred to the sending platform or downloaded. Screenshots and web addresses that remain valid for 24 hours can also be generated to approve emails or documentation. Taxi for Email provides its own content network for hosting images. This suggests that peak traffic should not be a problem shortly after the emails have been sent. 3,750,000 downloads per month are included in the Pro Plan. Taxi for Email offers the option to integrate your own sending tool for a one-time fee, so that emails can also be transferred via 1-click export.

expenses

Taxi for Email does not publish prices on its website. As far as we know, the cheapest “Pro Plan” costs just under 7,000 euros per year (equivalent to around 580 euros/month). It is possible that this price is still negotiable. However, the really attractive features of Taxi for Email, which in our opinion would really make work easier, are only available as a “Scale Plus Plan”. This costs 3.5 times the “Pro Plan”. Only he would make users completely independent of their email service provider. It makes personalization variables available in the syntax of ESPs, link tracking, content segmentation, versioning, integration of dynamic content and approval management.

Test report: BEE

BEE offers with BEE Free a completely free editor for emails. Emails can be built directly on the website based on ready-made templates or via drag & drop. This is even possible without an account for initial tests. The HTML code can then be downloaded and imported into the email marketing application. For continuous work with BEE, the BEE Pro or BEE plugin versions are recommended, where you can also save, copy and organize the templates.

Usability

There are over 200 templates to choose from for creating emails. The search is simplified by three filter criteria: By frequency of use, by industry or by keyword. A classic keyword search is also available. In addition to classic layouts, there are also three templates that offer elements with dynamic countdowns, and 20 templates with animated graphics.

BEE is a clear and intuitive editor. Email creation starts based on the selected template. In addition, ready-made elements can be dragged and dropped as rows with one to four columns to the desired location. Individual content elements can then be inserted into this framework. Both the lines and the individual elements can be flexibly arranged, deleted and duplicated.

The individual elements can be extensively edited, hidden from mobile view and blocked from editing by other users. The “Special Links” function adds links from MailChimp, MailUp, Autopilot, HubSpot and SendGrid for the unsubscription and online version. BEE free also allows you to integrate various templates for MailChimp, HubSpot or SendGrid with existing personalization variables for footers.

The email width can be flexibly selected in BEE. Unfortunately, it is not clear in the editor itself what size the images should be included. The image size can only be changed as a percentage. As soon as you check the automatic width check box, you no longer have the option to display the image across the entire width only in the mobile version.

Quality of results

Unfortunately, our tests show that the created emails are barely legible in Lotus Notes 8 and Outlook 2013. In the newer Outlook versions, background images are not displayed, although there are already options for this with Freestyle emails. The distances are not displayed consistently on mobile devices.

Export and connection to shipping tools

The HTML code can be downloaded with or without images or sent directly to another application. It is also possible to export the email as a PDF.

Background images were not automatically downloaded during our tests. We had to manually extract them and swap the URL in the source code. In paid BEE accounts, it is possible to host images. The cost of data transfer via Cloud Front's CDN is 0.1 US dollars per GB. The first 10 GB per month is free of charge.

expenses

The smallest paid account (BEE Pro Freelancer) costs around 13 euros per month and allows you to manage 3 projects per month, larger teams (BEE Pro Team) pay around 21 euros. Unlimited projects as well as additional features for workflow and approvals (“approvals”) are then available to you, as well as the option to store personalizations, merge tags and links centrally.

Review: Chamaileon

Chamaileon is the successor editor of emDesigner. When signing up for the free test account with emDesigners, you will be redirected to the Chamaileon website. At present, however, both modular newsletter systems still appear to be operated in parallel. We tested Chamaileon free.

Usability

The editor offers various approaches for producing emails. The mailings can be built from an empty template. However, it is also possible to import existing HTML templates or use templates from the provider.

The designer is used as usual via drag & drop. However, it seems very confusing to us. In view of the wide range of settings, it takes a lot of clicks to get a result at all. Font type, size, and colors cannot be set across the board. They must always be adjusted individually in each section. The individual blocks and sections can then be duplicated, deleted and moved quite easily. New elements can be added via drag and drop. The possible placement is well presented. Individual blocks can also be saved for use in other emails. It can be decided individually for each block whether it should be displayed on the go. It should also be possible to change the order of the elements for mobile display. In practice, however, we had problems activating the corresponding check mark. Unfortunately, Chamaileon does not offer an option to upload images optimized for the mobile version. It is also not possible to add an empty block as a structure for new sections.

Created emails can be saved as new templates in Chamaileon so that they can be used as a template for further mailings. The editor provides a preview function for desktop and mobile clients. It is also possible to send test emails within the editor.

Chamaileon distinguishes between different project types. Independent templates and campaigns can be created as a standard project. Master templates and individual mailings can be linked together in the automations. The changes to the master template are then transferred to all subordinate mailings.

In our tests, the editor proved to be quite unstable, produced errors and hung up several times.

Quality of results

Compared to the other tools we tested, the result of our display test is okay. Only the images of the three-column appeared unsightly pixelated in mobile clients, as they were scaled to full width.

Export and connection to shipping tools

The HTML code can be downloaded with or without images or sent directly to another application such as Emarsys, Mailchimp, SendGrid, Hubspot, and more.

expenses

Chamaileon offers three products: Free, Premium and Teams 4+. The free Chamaileon Free Account gives you a good initial experience with the editor. Here, however, the user is limited in the monthly number of test emails, exports and storage space. The Chamaileon Premium account offers unlimited test emails, exports and storage space for around 17 euros a month.

Conclusion: Which email kits are worthwhile for whom?

For marketers who don't have the skills or time in their team to write responsive email HTML themselves, and who don't want to use the email CMS of their sending tool, it can be useful to use a web-based email builder with a drag and drop interface. In particular, we noticed BEE and Stripo positively because of their good and clear usability; the monthly costs are low and a test can definitely be worthwhile.

With almost all tools, however, you have to make compromises when displaying emails in different clients. And: On the other hand, you lose the time you save when creating emails when importing them into your own delivery tool, where you may have to re-create the settings for tracking and personalization several times before the final sending. With Taxi for Email, this effort should be minimized when used thanks to seamless integration with your own sending tool — but then you pay just as much per month for the large email builder as for the email delivery tool itself. This is most likely to be worthwhile for marketing teams that send their emails using marketing solutions or sending services that do not offer an email template system.

Templates for your email delivery tool

We develop attractive responsive templates for the integrated email CMS editors from Emarsys, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, CleverReach, MailChimp, Sendinblue, HubSpot, Pardot Adobe Campaign and more.