Most businesses choose a newsletter tool once and then live with it for years – along with the contact database, templates and automations. Switching to another one means moving contacts along with their consents and rebuilding automated emails from scratch. In this article, you’ll find the criteria for choosing a tool and a way to test it before you pay.
Full disclosure: we’re an Ecomail partner
Tronos is a partner of Ecomail, a Czech email marketing tool. Keep that in mind as you read. That’s why you won’t find a ranking with a winner here, but questions that apply to any tool. There are many on the market, including SmartEmailing, Mailchimp, MailerLite, Brevo and Klaviyo, and each one can be a good choice for a different business.
First, get clear on what you expect from email
A café that sends an event invitation once a month needs a different tool than an online store with a wide product range that wants to send emails based on what customers browsed and bought. Before you start comparing, write down what you want to send:
- a regular newsletter with news and promotions,
- automated emails: a welcome for new subscribers, abandoned cart, a post-purchase email, a reminder after some time,
- product recommendations based on previous purchases,
- messages for business customers, who are fewer in number but take longer to decide.
If you don’t know yet which automated emails you need, you’ll find inspiration in our article on automation scenarios for online stores.
Criteria for comparing tools
Your language in emails and in the interface
It’s not just about convenience. Make sure the tool correctly displays accented and special characters in the subject line, the preview text and the footer, and that you can translate the system texts subscribers see – such as the subscription confirmation, the unsubscribe message and the page after unsubscribing – into your language. An interface in your language will matter most to whoever prepares the emails themselves.
Support that actually answers
As long as everything works, you don’t need support. When a contact import gets stuck or emails start landing in spam, what matters is whether you can write to or call someone in a language you speak and how quickly you get an answer. During the trial, send support one specific question and see how they respond.
Automation and segmentation
Look at the triggers the tool offers – signup, purchase, abandoned cart, date, link click – and whether you can split contacts by behavior and purchases. Segmentation means sending different messages to different groups of people, for example one message to loyal customers and another to people who haven’t bought anything yet. Learn more in our article Segmenting your email list.
Online store integration
For an online store, this is often the most important criterion. Check whether the tool has a ready-made integration with your platform, such as Shoptet or WooCommerce, and what exactly it transfers: contacts with consents, orders, products, abandoned carts. Abandoned cart emails only work if the tool knows what the customer had in their cart. That usually requires a tracking code on your website, which also depends on the visitor’s cookie consent.
If you’re still choosing a platform for your store, see our comparison Shoptet or WooCommerce.
Deliverability
Deliverability means whether an email ends up in the inbox and not in spam. A lot depends on you – the quality of your list, your content and how often you send. But the tool must let you authenticate your sending domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. These are technical records in your domain settings that confirm to recipients’ mailboxes that the email really comes from you. Major mailbox providers such as Gmail require bulk senders to authenticate their domain and offer easy unsubscribing. You’ll find the details in Google’s guidelines for email senders.
GDPR and consent
For you, the tool is a data processor, so you need a data processing agreement with it. With many tools, it’s part of the terms of service. Also check:
- where the data is stored and how transfers outside the EU are handled, if there are any,
- whether the tool records when and through which form a contact gave consent,
- whether it supports double opt-in, meaning a confirmation email after signup,
- whether unsubscribing is easy and unsubscribed contacts automatically stop receiving emails.
This isn’t legal advice. If you have questions about who you may send marketing emails to and under what conditions, consult a data protection expert.
Pricing model
Tools charge in different ways: by the number of contacts in your database, by the number of emails sent or a combination of both. Free plans usually have limited features and often the tool’s logo in the footer. Calculate what you’ll pay when your list grows, and keep in mind that it pays to clean out inactive contacts regularly.
Reporting and sales tracking
Opens and clicks are useful, but for an online store, what matters is how many orders and how much revenue your emails brought in. Check whether the tool can automatically add UTM parameters – tags in a link that let Google Analytics recognize where a visitor came from – and whether it shows revenue from campaigns. As for opens, keep in mind that privacy protection in some email apps distorts them.
Data export
Someday you may want to leave. Make sure you can export all contacts, including consent status, unsubscribes and tags. Without that, switching is much harder.
The most common mistakes when choosing
- Choosing by the first month’s price. What matters is the price at the list size you’ll have in a few years and the time the tool saves or costs you.
- Choosing by the number of features. A long list looks good, but you also pay for things you’ll never use. What matters is that the things you need work well.
- An account in someone else’s name. The account should be set up under your company. An agency or freelancer gets access, not ownership of the database.
- Sending from a free email address. Many tools won’t let you send from a Gmail address or another free mailbox. And even if they do, these emails won’t pass domain authentication and can easily end up in spam.
- Importing contacts without consent. Old customer lists or addresses from business cards don’t belong in a newsletter. It’s a legal risk, and these addresses hurt deliverability for the rest of your list too.
- Testing only on a computer. Lots of people read email on their phones, so that’s exactly where your email has to look good.
How to test a tool before you pay
- Pick two or three tools that meet the criteria above and sign up for their trial or free plan.
- Add a few test contacts, such as yourself and your colleagues, and try the signup form and the subscription confirmation.
- Build one email in the editor and check it on both mobile and desktop.
- Send a test email to Gmail, Outlook and the local email providers your customers use, and check where it landed.
- Set up one simple automation, such as a welcome email after signup.
- Connect the tool to your store and use a test order to check whether the data comes through.
- Send support one specific question.
- Try exporting your contacts.
After a week of testing, you’ll know more than from any comparison online – including this one.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the best newsletter tool for an online store?
There’s no universal best. For an online store, the key things are a reliable integration with your platform, purchase-based automations and revenue tracking. Pick two or three tools that meet these needs and test them.
Can I send a newsletter from Gmail or Outlook?
A few emails to colleagues, yes. A bulk newsletter, no. Regular mailboxes aren’t built for bulk sending, they don’t manage unsubscribes or provide reporting, and with a larger number of recipients, your provider may limit your sending.
Is Mailchimp a good fit for a Slovak business?
It can be. It’s widely used and mature in terms of features, but its interface and support aren’t in Slovak. For a Slovak online store, check mainly the integration with your platform, the translation of system texts for subscribers and the total price as your list grows.
How do I switch to another tool without losing contacts?
Export all contacts, including consent status and the list of unsubscribes, import them into the new tool and mark the unsubscribed contacts right away so nothing gets sent to them. Then authenticate your sending domain, replace the forms on your website and rebuild your automations. Cancel the old tool only once the new automations work reliably.
If you want to set up email marketing without trial and error, see how we work in email marketing. We’ll help you choose a tool, set up automations and launch your first campaigns.
