GetResponse's email marketing service combines swift building and automation tools with high-quality support via email and live chat. Its extensive template library means that marketers of all experience levels can create emails quickly and easily, too. That said, some expert users are likely to run into limitations with the service's basic reporting and segmentation features. The very flexible Campaigner, all-in-one HubSpot Marketing Hub, and highly intuitive Mailchimp remain our Editors' Choice winners thanks to their more comprehensive feature sets.
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How Much Does GetResponse Cost?
GetResponse offers a free plan, but you need a paid subscription to get the most out of it. How much you pay depends on the features you require and the size of your contact list. I find this refreshing since other email marketing services also often factor in email send volume. You get unlimited email sends with all of GetResponse's paid plans, and even its free tier gives you an impressive send volume of 2,500 emails per month. For comparison, Mailchimp's and Omnisend's free plans limit monthly send volume to 1,000 and 500 emails, respectively.
GetResponse's most affordable tier, Email Marketing, includes one user account. It starts at $19 per month for 1,000 contacts. The next tier up, Marketing Automation, starts at $59 per month for 1,000 contacts. It allows for three users and introduces features such as build-from-scratch emails, drip campaigns, and scoring- and events-based segmentation. You need to upgrade to the Ecommerce Marketing plan if you want abandoned cart triggers, commerce-based segmentation, and purchase automation. This level includes five user accounts and costs $119 per month for 1,000 contacts. All of these plans scale in price with the size of your contact list, as mentioned. For comparison, HubSpot Marketing Hub starts at $20 per month per user for 1,000 contacts, while Campaigner costs $59 per month for 5,000 contacts.
Finally, there's the GetResponse MAX plan for enterprise users. It starts at $1,099 per month. The fine print on GetResponse's website says these plans come with "bespoke terms," so you need to contact a sales rep for details. This is the only plan that supports over 100,000 contacts. As I discuss later, I'm slightly disappointed that GetResponse restricts many of its most valuable features to this plan, including phone support and some SMS tools. However, GetResponse MAX is still worth it at this level. You get unlimited users, a dedicated customer experience manager, transactional emails, and SMS marketing. Klaviyo gives you SMS features for plans with as few as 251 contacts, though it charges an exorbitant $1,455 per month for its email and SMS plan that covers 100,000 contacts.
As with most business services, GetResponse offers both monthly and annual payment plans. I appreciate that it has a 24-month plan, too; at the time of testing, this subscription length saves you 30% per month (versus 18% with an annual plan). A free 30-day trial gets you access to all its premium features.
Getting Started With GetResponse
I found it a breeze to create and start using my account. I didn't encounter any atypical steps and completed the setup process without help from GetResponse's support team.
The software is very easy to navigate from the first time you log in. However, the interface looks a bit basic and out-of-date, especially compared with Mailchimp's fresh, modern aesthetic. But form isn't function, and GetResponse mostly excels in the latter.
Capable Email Creation
The core of an email marketing service's experience is its email builder. It's how you assemble and send effective marketing communications. I like GetResponse's email builder overall, though I have some minor complaints. It offers two email-building options: the classic experience and one with generative AI features.
I tested the classic experience first. Setting a subject line and choosing recipients was intuitive, though the Design and Content section is where GetResponse makes its mark. This section contains a wealth of well-designed email templates. Some are basic and geared toward audience engagement (Monthly Newsletter - News), while others are more sales-oriented (Cyber Monday Last Chance). Either way, they all suit businesses that lack in-house email design capacity. You can also create custom templates, paste in HTML code, or upload HTML code from a ZIP file.
GetResponse's drag-and-drop editor isn't as intuitive as others I've used. It took me a few tries to get the hang of it. For example, when I wanted to move a block within a section, the software sometimes thought I wanted to move the entire section. That said, I appreciate how easy it is to drag and drop entirely new sections with different numbers of columns, alongside videos and product boxes, into my email. GetResponse allows for more design modifications than even competitors such as Mailchimp.
In testing, I enjoyed GetResponse's saved blocks the most. You can load such blocks and drop them into any section of an email. This feature tremendously benefits any business that seeks to eliminate inconsistencies and streamline its branding across emails.
I also tested the AI email builder, which asked me for a short summary of my email's subject matter and my type of business. I chose an "informative" tone, and the tool walked me through basic design settings such as layout, color, and logo. From there, GetResponse took about 30 seconds to generate my email.
I found the generated copy from my test completely off base and woefully drab, as is common with AI-generated copy. I also didn't like the stock photo that GetResponse chose, but changing it took just seconds. The simple layout, low word count, and clear call-to-action at the end at least fit my needs.
Decent Campaign Management
For more targeted marketing campaigns, you can use GetResponse to create email lists and subgroups within them, called segments. Segmentation is the core of any successful email marketing strategy: Typically, the more narrowly you define the niches you target, the higher your conversion rates. Some common segmenting criteria include contact details, geolocation, and actions a contact takes.
Before you can start sending emails, you first need a list of recipients. It was easy to upload email lists from CSV files in testing. Creating a segment in GetResponse is also simple, although I have some gripes. For instance, I wish the segmentation functions were easier to locate. Unlike some other email marketing platforms, I couldn't manually create a segment from within the Segments tool. I also would like for the advanced search function to be more prominent.
GetResponse doesn't set a cap on how many segments you can create, though I wish it included prebuilt segments like Omnisend. Available tools depend on your pricing tier. Dynamic segmentation and segmentation based on events and lead scoring are available only from the Marketing Automation plan upward. Ecommerce Marketing and GetResponse MAX users can further segment based on e-commerce, while only GetResponse MAX users can segment based on SMS actions and external segments.
All GetResponse plans include the platform's spam check tool. However, in all my GetResponse testing, the spam check tool only told me, "You're good to go," so it's not clear what spam-related issues it might flag and what fixes it would suggest.
Understandable Reports, But Custom Ones Go Deeper
GetResponse's reporting tools are user-friendly, well-organized, and visually appealing. When you click on the Reports tool, open, click, bounce, spam complaint, and unsubscribe rates are immediately available with at least one additional metric. For example, the quantity of emails delivered and sent appears below the delivery rate.
Additional graphs on the page show more report data. Moving the cursor across them shows daily breakdowns for the corresponding data. This information could be useful for teams that like to send certain types of marketing emails on particular days. The visuals help explain which days yield which outcomes.
GetResponse's Contacts report is more visual-heavy. Concrete numbers of new and deleted subscribers appear above a bar graph displaying contact trends over time. Below those are tables that detail list trends and the methods used to obtain new contacts. I found all the information within the Contacts report easy to understand.
I also like GetResponse's additional reporting features for autoresponders and automation messages. These reporting suites allowed me to see open, click, unsubscribe, and bounce rates alongside click maps. The platform also includes e-commerce and product recommendation reports that cover sales-based key performance indicators (KPIs).
GetResponse's custom reports include data points that are not available in its standard ones. The latter suffices for basic needs but not for users who need to dig deep into their data. These custom reports are available only starting with the Marketing Automation plans.
Scalable Marketing Automation
You might think GetResponse's Email Marketing lacks automation features, given that the next tier up is called Marketing Automation, but that's not the case. Even Email Marketing users can automate emails for standard occasions such as birthdays, thank-yous, and new subscribers. This slate of automations is limited but better than nothing.
With the Marketing Automation plan, automation features shift into overdrive. Drip campaigns, event-based automation, split automation, and visited URL automation all become available. These features take the manual work out of keeping your customers engaged with your brand. Whenever your customers take an action you've designated in your workflows, they get an email with no extra work on your end.
However, it restricts some valuable automation features, such as purchase automation and abandoned cart triggers, to Ecommerce Marketing and GetResponse MAX users. Additionally, only GetResponse MAX users can access SMS marketing automation.
I like that GetResponse's automated workflow creation tool allows me to either work from prebuilt templates or create new flows from scratch. Prebuilt templates include lead qualifying, post-purchase, sales promotions, and welcome workflows, and they're as intuitive as the email templates. There's even an interactive tutorial accessible straight from the build-from-scratch automation tool.
The tool allowed me to choose which of my subscriber lists and subscription methods my condition applied to, and I had the option of adding a pre-drafted email or writing a new one. To test this feature, I applied the email I created earlier via the builder to the action. I then clicked Publish and added a new email address to my list. From there, GetResponse sent the email without any further action on my end.
Accessible Support Options
All paying GetResponse users get 24/7 text chat and email support. Free plan subscribers get limited chat support, but that's still better than nothing. It's disappointing that only GetResponse MAX users get phone support. Those users can also opt for Slack support (something I haven't previously encountered), as well as dedicated onboarding services and development strategy support.
Accessing help via AI-powered and human-powered chat and email was simple. I was especially impressed that, upon filing an email help request, I got a response within minutes. I expect a quick response time for a live chat, but the same is rare for email.
Verdict: A Fine Choice for Intermediate Needs
GetResponse succeeds in offering high-quality email and automation building, as well as responsive customer support. Its starting price is reasonable, and we especially like its saved blocks feature that helps marketers keep branding consistent across sends. We just wish the segmentation and default reporting suites went further and that so many features didn't require higher-end plans. You are likely to pay more for them, but we still recommend Campaigner, HubSpot Marketing Hub, and Mailchimp as our Editors' Choice winners for email marketing since they provide advanced marketers with even more capable tools.
