When it comes to newsletter software providers, Mailjet is certainly up there amongst the most affordable. It’s also one of the most popular- tens of thousands of companies use the service to send out their email campaigns to consumers, as well as their transactional emails.
The company, founded in France back in 2010, recently launched a new, unique feature that allows multiple users to collaborate in real time on the same email. It might come as a surprise to you that such a feature isn’t a common one, especially considering how long the technology has been around, but Mailjet were one of (if not the) first.
Its more traditional features, such as transactional emails, automation settings, SMS, and A/B testing are all easy to use for the most part. There are also a range of supported integrations, and a subscription widget editor that means you can create an opt-in form and embed it on your website.
But few software are perfect, right? How does it compare to other providers on the market? The following is all you need to know about the pros and cons of Mailjet.
Pricing
Mailjet’s pricing tiers are among the cheapest on the market. There’s a little more to it, but the following are the main numbers you should be aware of. If your newsletter has 6,000 or less subscribers, then the service is free. This is obviously ideal for those with smaller businesses.
If you have 15,000 subscribers, you’ll be paying $15 a month. If you have 50,000 subscribers (and lucky you, if you do!), you’ll be paying $35 a month. While that may seem like quite a lot, if you have a company with that many customers interested in your newsletter, $35 a month will most likely be a small percentage of your overall annual costs.
The Pros
Mailjet’s flagship feature is its multi-user collaboration. In much the same way Google Docs and Figma make it remarkably easy to work together on the same project (without having to constantly send different versions back and forth), this feature means users can make comments, set up a template validation process, and lock certain sections with ease. It’s actually somewhat surprising that more providers don’t do this, but we’ll likely see them following suit eventually.
What makes Mailjet’s handy service all the more ideal is its low pricingcompared to that of competing providers. While their unpaid plan is fairly basic, paying to upgrade is well worth it for all the useful features you’ll have access to, including A/B testing, advanced statistics, and automation.
A feature list means very little if the software isn’t easy to use, but Mailjet’s UX (user experience) is almost entirely pain-free. Creating templates and creating contact lists could not be easier to do.
Mailjet is particularly easy to set up compared to most competitors, and can be done
in just a few minutes.
With GDPR and daily data backups, you can be rest assured that your data is secure.
The Cons
At first glance this snafu might go unnoticed, but over time users will be constantly frustrated at the unhelpful list management tools. The most common problem here is that you are unable to unsubscribe customers who have hard bounced (meaning your emails are permanently unable to deliver, which is usually due to domain errors). This means that the only way to remove these users from your contact list is by manually downloading them. Then and only then will a user be able to remove them via the removal interface, under the Exclusion list. It’s far more steps than should be necessary, and hard bounces are quite common, especially for those with larger audiences, meaning this is a problem that gets frustrating fast.
Another problem users are likely to encounter is the limited segmentation conditions.While users can use basic conditions based on the contact field criteria/behavior, you can only choose between opened/clicked, and within a certain time frame. This leads to a number of frustrations, including the fact that you are unable to specify the email that has been opened.
Automated conditions are limited.The only conditional options available are anniversaries, and date staggering. While both of these are handy, software could definitely benefit from the addition of ‘once opened/unopened’ conditions, which would act essentially as autoresponders. Another related issue is that, once a workflow has been activated, you are unable to edit said workflow. You also can’t reactivate a workflow once it has been deactivated.
While the price plans are affordable, some users have complained that even though they are only using as little as a quarter of the features available, they have to pay as if they’re using every feature.
Is Mailjet Right For You?
We’d recommend Mailjet as the newsletter service for you if…
Collaboration is a priority. Unlike with other providers, Mailjet allows you to produce visually appealing, personalized newsletter content without the need for many technical skills. This feature means you can collaborate on emails with other members of your team, like developers.
Affordability is a priority. Mailjet is far more affordable than most other newsletter service providers.
Integration options are important. There are a wide range of integration options available on Mailjet (82 to be exact), including Facebook, WordPress, and CRMs.
We’d recommend going with a different software if…
You’re looking for an all-in-one inbound campaign solution. While you can send a variety of types of emails from Mailjet, the software doesn’t allow you to build a landing page, sales funneling software, or CRM. If you require these features, consider ActiveCampaign (for automations and CRM capabilities), MailerLite (for their landing page builder), or GetResponse (for all of these features).
Specifics
Mailjet couldn’t be much more easy to use.The dashboard is clear and uncluttered, as are the menus and campaign editor features.
In terms of newsletter creation tools, Mailjet’s editor uses a drag and drop system, and it’s very easy to use, and makes for a variety of different email types. The collaboration feature is extremely useful if working in a team, and page design locking means you can change the editing rights of specific users.
There’s also a lot to be said for the personalization features. Personalizing subject lines and email content can be done very easily using contact field data. Another key aspect of Mailjet’s personalization is the ability to display specific content based on the properties of said content (for instance, if you wanted to show different products to those in different age groups).
There are a reasonable amount of email types, including transactional emails and classic newsletters on the Basic plan, and A/B testing and autoresponders on the Premium plan. It should be noted that their automation options are essentially just autoresponders.
When it comes to choice and flexibility of Mailjet’s template designs, the range isn’t really anything special. All of the templates are mobile responsive, but the gallery of designs is fairly limited. You can code your own template, though (if you’re familiar with HTML or MJML). There is no image storage or plain text version.
Email automation optionsare limited. While there is a section for automation workflows (such as welcome emails, to be sent on a specific date, and when a contact property has been changed), these options are limited to date and time. You can’t set conditions based on opened/clicked, or based on whether a user has completed a specific action, like buying a product. All these options may be calledautomation, but they’re basically just autoresponders. There is also no option to edit workflows once they have been activated.
In terms of list management, options are once again quite limited. While you cancreate segments with contact field criteria and behavior, the only information you’ll be seeing is opens and clicks. You will not be privy to what they actually opened or clicked. Also, if you unsubscribe someone from a list, they will be unsubscribed from all of your lists.
Opt-in/Opt-out and registration forms are about as easy to use as they could be. With the service’s Subscription Widget, you can use the editor (in which case you’ll have to go with the default form type), or you can code it yourself in HTML. You can then embed this on your site. The widget can also be linked to a URL, a button, an image link, a timer, or anything capable of triggering a JavaScript function. This is also the feature you’ll use to create both a confirmation page, and a confirmation email.
Deliverability(the service’s ability to reliably send emails to the inboxes of subscribers) is also mostly above average compared to that of competitors.
When it comes to reports and analysis, you’re provided with enough information that you won’t feel left in the dark in terms of how well your campaigns are performing. Details will include bounces, openers, clickers, recent subscribers, recent unsubscribers, and more. You are also able to see the links that users clicked most, and can add UTM tags in order to track your campaign’s effectiveness. A feature called Deliverability Expert (which allows you to ask deliverability questions to experts in the industry) is also available via Mailjet’s Custom plan. Another handy feature is ecommerce integration, which allows you to track the order information for sites like Shopify.
The selection of language optionsis quite wide, with 9 languages on offer in total. The knowledge base is only available in English, Spanish, French, and German.
Other Features
There are a litany of other features worth mentioning. These include spam testing and design testing. While this doesn’t allow you to see a spam score (the percentage of websites with features similar to your site that have been either penalized or banned from Google’s search results), you can send test emails on both mobile and desktop, as well as preview your design.
Bounce managementworks effectively. When an email soft bounces (meaning it hasn’t been delivered), Mailjet will try to send it again automatically. If after 3 days it still hasn’t been delivered, this is considered a hard bounce, and will then be blocked.
The Exclusion listallows you to import, as well as export, contacts.
The storage for images and datais unlimited, but there is currently no media database, so you can’t do much to manage the files already uploaded.
Features Exclusive To Pro Version
If you’ve paid to upgrade, you’ll be able to acquire your own domain name. This can do wonders for your company’s branding. If your outgoing email count exceeds 150,000 a month, Mailjet will allow you to apply for a dedicated IP address via their customer support.
In terms of authentication options, DKIM and SPF are both supported.
In a similar vein to the multi-user collaboration feature, the Pro version allows you to manage which users have whichaccount permissions. For example, you can give some users on your team access to contacts and automation, and other users access to campaigns and transactional emails.
It’s the Pro version that gives you access to the 82 integration optionsavailable, specifically CRM integration, CMS integration, and ecommerce. Some of the most notable integrations include WordPress, Facebook, Salesforce, Prestashop, HubSpot, Shopify, Google Cloud, Zapier, Keap, Clinchpad, and Nutshell.
The only major feature notably lacking from Mailjet is a landing page editor.
Customer Support
The Mailjet customer support team is efficiently… supportive, and their knowledge base tends to be thorough enough. Once you’ve opened a ticket you’ll usually receive a response within a few hours. There’s no live chat, though, and if you want to talk to deliverability experts, you’ll need to upgrade to a Custom plan.
Final Thoughts
Mailjet is for the most part a very easy to use service, and their (thus far) unique multi-user collaboration feature is truly a game changer- once you’ve started getting familiar with it, you’ll probably agree that it’s surprising this is the first time a provider has implemented something like this.
The prices for Pro plans are also very affordable, especially when compared to the prices of competing providers. There are some small problems with the service, and a lack of template selection, automation options, segmentation options, and other more advanced features do let it down somewhat overall, but for the most part, we recommend this service to most companies.
Alternatives To Mailjet
If Mailjet just isn’t for you, there are a wide range of alternatives to consider.
If you’re most dissatisfied with Mailjet’s lack of more advanced features, GetResponse has an assortment. These include sales funneling software, and webinar hosting. Its report and analysis features are very handy, and unlike Mailjet, they also have very helpful list management and automation options.
While quite similar in terms of features, MailerLite is another affordable option that also boasts a fairly substantial free plan.
ActiveCampaignis far more advanced than Mailjet, particularly their automation features. It’s a lot pricier though, and they don’t offer a free plan.
Sendinblue allows you to manage your campaigns, transactional emails, and SMS all on the one platform.
Hi, my name is Mark Matthews, and I help to run several businesses through managing their mailing services.
I have a clear and good understanding of what a company or person should consider when choosing between options. I also have a lot of experience when it comes to managing businesses in general, from the best organizational and scheduling apps to use, to teaching owners how to create engaging emails.
