How do you usually choose a new tool? Intuition? Friend’s recommendation? We prefer to make decisions based on data. That’s why we’ve prepared this research for you.
Email HTML builders can help you create effective emails to increase your return on investment (ROI) — which currently stands at $38 for every $1 spent — and convert your leads to loyal customers.
Whether you’re a developer or a marketer, this guide will help you know how to choose a tool that fits your needs from hundreds of options.
We’ll look at eight of the best responsive HTML email builders and how you can choose the correct tool for your email marketing needs.
How to Choose the Correct HTML Email Builder
When you start building HTML emails, you should first understand what your business and customer needs. And the first goal an HTML email builder should help you achieve is creating responsive emails that give customers great experiences.
So, when choosing an email builder, look for one with a user-friendly interface that offers reasonable pricing and extra features like an illustrations library.
With that in mind, here are some questions to ask yourself before selecting an HTML email builder:
- Do you need to edit the email code?
- Do you use an email marketing platform? If yes, starting with its built-in email editor can be a good start.
- How often do you create new email templates? Daily, weekly, monthly, or a couple of times per year?
When searching for an HTML email builder, you will find four main types of options.
HTML email generators. This type of tool is designed mostly for developers who are building the email functionality and need to create simple solutions without too much effort. They help to convert your input to the correct HTML (or sometimes another) format and compile it for further usage as a template. The result then can be imported to the email sending system or pasted to your app source code. HTML email generators are similar to the template engines.
Responsive email frameworks. Email framework is the best option for developers. Usually, it is a markup-based language where your code is later converted to a responsive HTML. Email frameworks offer pre-built options and various components to streamline email coding.
Built-in email templates. The vast majority of the email sending systems have their built-in email template builders. In most cases, they provide decent functionality for designing tailored templates. Also, they can support the import of custom templates or writing your HTML from scratch. If you need advanced features, you can use a third-party email building tool, and then import the result to your email sending system. However, it would be pretty weird to create a template in one ESP (email sending provider) and send it with another.
Independent HTML email builders. This category of tools offers wide functionality for creating custom and pre-defined templates for both developers and marketers. They provide drag and drop email builders, HTML email editors, image libraries, and usually can be integrated with the most popular ESPs and CRM systems.
Drag and drop editor doesn’t require any additional skills: you work with pre-designed blocks to add images and edit texts like in a usual document. In most cases, you can switch to a source HTML code to edit it if you need to customize the design.
Let’s now look at the eight best responsive HTML email builders you can use for your next email marketing campaign.
Best HTML Email Builders: Price Comparison Table
Here’s a quick price comparison of the best HTML email builders before we dive into the details of each:
| HTML Email Builder | Free plan/trial | Pricing |
| Sender | Yes | Free plan for up to 2500 subscribers; Paid plans start at $8 |
| SendX | Yes | $9.99 per month for up to 1000 subscribers |
| Stripo | Yes | $15 per month for up to one user and 50 test emails a day |
| Unlayer | Yes | $20 per month with various services |
| Beefree | Yes | $30 per month for unlimited emails |
| Postcards by Designmodo | Yes | $24 per month for up to 20 exports |
| Mailstyler | Yes | $99 per year for one installation |
| Mailmodo | Free 21 days trial available | $99 per month for up to 40,000 contacts |
8 Best Responsive HTML Email Builders
It can take time to choose an email builder that suits your needs from the hundreds of tools available on the market. That’s why we researched and compared seven responsive email builders to make your work easier.
Here’s what we considered:
- Suitability to both developers’ and marketers’ needs;
- Friendly user interface;
- Availability of free options or trials and pricing/features ratio;
- Additional options like photo editor and libraries;
- Compatibility and integrations.
Let’s go through the list of tools one by one.
Sender — Best HTML Email Builder
Sender is one of the best responsive HTML email builders to create, send, and automate your marketing emails. The software offers a drag-and-drop editor that helps you build responsive emails, popups, and forms effortlessly.
Image source: Sender
The platform also has a library of premade free templates, such as cart abandonment and welcome email templates, with all the elements you need to create stunning email campaigns that convert.
If you have coding skills, Sender allows you to design responsive HTML email templates to offer unique experiences to your subscribers.
The software also offers automation, reporting & analytics, and smart segmentation to help you target your audience with automated sequences to increase engagement.
Sender Key Features
Here are some of the key features that Sender offers:
- Drag-and-drop email editor that helps you build responsive emails to increase engagement and sales;
- Popups and signup forms to help you capture hot leads;
- Marketing automation to enable you to reach your audience via email and SMS channels automatically;
- Reporting & analytics to help you monitor crucial email and SMS marketing metrics.
Sender Pricing
- Starts from $8 per month for up to 2500 subscribers and 30,000 emails;
- Free Forever plan is also available for up to 2500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month.
SendX — Online Creation HTML Email Editor
SendX is an email marketing software known for its high email deliverability. It allows you to create beautiful newsletters using your own email HTML code, the drag-and-drop email builder, or pre-made, fully customizable templates.
The best part is that you can use SendX with any industry (gaming, crypto, or casinos) as long as you send HTML emails to an engaged subscriber base. When you sign up, they’ll migrate you from your old platform for free within a few days.
SendX Key Features
Here are some of the key features that SendX offers:
- Easy drag-and-drop email builder to create visually appealing emails without knowing how to code;
- A/B testing, tagging, segmentation, personalization, and many such features in SendX to help you run email marketing campaigns;
- Offers integration with 5000 apps on Zapier, so you can automate your workflow and save time for strategy;
- There are 50+ proven-to-convert templates for landing pages and signup forms to grow your audience;
- High email deliverability, even for bulk promotional emails, making email marketing profitable for your business.
SendX Pricing
- Starts at $9.99 per month for up to 1000 subscribers;
- Free trial plan available with limited features.
Stripo — Email Design Platform
Stripo is a drag-and-drop email template builder that offers a wide range of features to help you design your emails and send them through an email service provider (ESP).
Stripo offers the most extensive list of customizable elements compared to other template-building tools — not only templates and blocks but also modules and structures. You can also switch to a CSS/HTML editor and copy and paste your code anytime.
In addition to the cloud version, Stripo offers a JavaScript plugin, which you can embed in your application as a component.
Stripo Key Features
Here are some of the key features that Stripo offers:
- Responsive HTML editor with merge tags, emoji, and custom paddings;
- Image editor, where you can upload your own images or choose from the built-in stock images library;
- Embed video from YouTube or Vimeo;
- Options to display or hide elements on a desktop or mobile client and the ability to choose if to include it in both MIMe versions of the email (classic HTML and AMP HTML).
Stripo Pricing
- Starts at $15 per month for up to one user and 50 test emails a day;
- Free plan available with limited features.
Unlayer — HTML Email Template Builder for Outlook
Unlayer is an email and page designer for creating HTML emails in Outlook. It’s a JavaScript plugin you embed into your web application. So, you won’t need any PHP, CSS, or HTML coding experience to create responsive email templates, as you can use the editor like a typical email designer.
Unlayer doesn’t offer pre-designed email templates, so you should create your own. You can build your template using the standard blocks (like images, dividers, or text) or add a custom one.
Among Unlayer’s exciting features are merge tag support and the ability to save templates as a JSON file.
Unlayer Key Features
Here are some of the key features that Unlayer offers:
- WYSIWYG editor that helps you create engaging, professional emails and pages;
- Ready-to-go email templates to kickstart your design process;
- Manage and share templates with team members to collaborate and craft the perfect message.
Unlayer Pricing
- Starts from $20 per month with services such as mobile-ready campaigns, drag & drop builder, and free stock photos;
- Free plan with limited features.
Beefree — Free HTML Mailer Template
BEE stands for Best Email Editor. Behind this ambitious name, you’ll find a simple but powerful drag-and-drop editor for creating HTML email newsletter templates on the go. You can also write your own HTML code and download the source code of the template you create with BEE tools.
You can create your emails from scratch or choose from the platform’s massive library of free templates sorted by categories and industries. You’ll have many options for customizing templates, such as:
- Experimenting with text and setting custom paddings;
- Uploading your own image, editing it in the app, or choosing from the stock library;
- Embedding a YouTube or Vimeo video.
Beefree Key Features
Here are some of the key features that Beefree offers:
- Free email template builder for creating emails that get high open and click rates;
- Insert merge tags or special links for Mailchimp, Sendgrid, MailUp, Autopilot, and Campaign Monitor;
- Write your own HTML5 email code and download the source code of the template you create with the BEE tools.
Beefree Pricing
- Starts from $30 per month for unlimited emails, pages, folders and reusable blocks;
- Free plan is also available with limited features.
Postcards by Desingmodo — Responsive Newsletter HTML Editor
Postcards is an intuitive drag-and-drop newsletter HTML template builder that offers pre-designed blocks you can combine and customize to create your ideal template.
The blocks are designed like mini-templates and categorized by purpose: e-commerce, transactional, call to action, etc. As a result, you can easily:
- Format your text and tables;
- Upload images from your computer;
- Organize your templates into projects.
The platform also has an email tester feature to help you preview emails from the desktop and mobile view to ensure they’re responsive.
Postcard Key Features
Here are some of the key features that Postcard offers:
- Drag & drop template builder;
- Add images, links, and texts using intuitive Postcards HTML email editor;
- One-click export to HubSpot, Mailchimp or as plain HTML;
- 900+ Google Fonts to complement your email designs perfectly.
Postcard Pricing
- Starts from $24 per month for up to 20 exports per month;
- Free plan is also available with limited features.
Mailstyler — HTML Mail Designer Tool
Mailstyler is a desktop application for building email marketing templates for Windows. The Mailstyler HTML editor helps you:
- Edit and format email, texts and styles;
- Experiment with blocks;
- Upload your own image, edit, and resize it in the app, or choose from the MailStyler library.
In general, MailStyler offers a comprehensive list of template options to create HTML emails you can export in Outlook or Thunderbird or even convert to PDF.
Mailstyler Key Features
Here are some of the key features that Mailstyler offers:
- Email editor that allows for HTML email styling to create stunning emails;
- Fully-customizable dynamic blocks with elements such as mail to button, email footer, and email signature to ensure newsletters are branded well;
- Export your email templates directly to Outlook, Gmail, and Thunderbird.
Mailstyler Pricing
- Starts at $99 per year for one installation;
- Free demo with limited features.
8. Mailmodo – Great HTML Email Builder
Mailmodo is a complete email marketing solution that lets you create and send interactive emails within minutes with its no-code editor.
You can create campaigns, manage email lists, personalize content, explore ready-to-use templates, save and reuse blocks, and track performance with smart reports – all at the same place. Mailmodo can also integrate with multiple CRMs to manage your workflow.
Mailmodo Key Features
- Create and send interactive AMP and HTML emails with our no-code email builder.
- Offers 20+ interactive AMO widgets such as carousels, polls, quiz, spin the wheel, shopping carts, and so on.
- Customize 200+ pre-made email templates.
- 100+ Pre-made blocks – headers, footers, layouts, and CTA buttons.
- A fallback version is automatically added if the email client doesn’t support AMP emails.
Mailmodo Pricing
- Plans start at $99 per month for up to 40,000 contacts.
- Free 21 days trial available.
Key Takeaways on the Best Responsive HTML Email Builders
There you have it. Eight different email template builders with HTML code and drag-and-drop interface options.
The most common feature the tools have is each one allows you to build stunning email templates you can send to subscribers and boost engagement.