I tried every top email marketing tool

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Scope and Audience of the Review

  • Several commenters say the article’s criteria (especially aggressive price filters and “solo-style” needs) fit freelancers/small businesses more than funded or later-stage startups.
  • Others note that many widely used “enterprise” tools (Customer.io, Iterable, Braze, Marketo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe solutions) weren’t evaluated, so “every top tool” feels overstated.

Deliverability as a Core Concern

  • Strong disagreement over how central deliverability should be: some see it as just one factor; others argue it is the primary job of an email platform.
  • Multiple examples of deliverability failures (especially to Microsoft 365 and occasionally Gmail) are cited as business-critical issues.
  • Practical deliverability tips are shared: proper SPF/DKIM/DMARC, domain and IP warm-up, double opt-in, avoiding “dead” unengaged contacts, and suspicion of cheap platforms with poor shared IP reputation.

Pricing Models, Dark Patterns, and Subscriber Counting

  • Many complaints about tools charging for unsubscribed contacts, overage fees, and upsell-oriented UX.
  • Some providers allow archiving unsubscribes to avoid billing; sometimes only via API or manual steps.
  • Klaviyo + Shopify integration is criticized for importing and billing on marketing-opting-out customers, and for resistance to GDPR-related data removal.
  • Several users find pricing unreasonable when they send infrequent campaigns to large lists or have B2C free tiers with low engagement.

Experiences with Specific Tools

  • Mixed experiences with Mailchimp (once liked, now seen as overpriced and “shenanigan”-prone).
  • Some strong positive feedback for MailerLite and EmailOctopus (especially with AWS SES “Connect” plans).
  • Criticism of Brevo’s reliability and UX by some; others found it acceptable for simple campaigns.
  • HighLevel praised as a cheaper “HubSpot-lite,” but also called a jack-of-all-trades with middling quality per feature.
  • Postmark is appreciated for transactional and broadcast email; concern expressed about acquisition by a larger marketing platform vendor.

Affiliate Incentives and Trustworthiness

  • Major thread debating affiliate-driven reviews: concern that payout levels silently bias rankings.
  • The article discloses affiliate links, but several commenters still feel the incentives shape tool selection and framing.
  • Broader frustration that SaaS comparison content across the web has become “affiliate listicles,” blurring ads and objective reviews.

Alternatives: Open Source, Self-Hosted, and SES

  • Multiple commenters advocate using AWS SES directly plus:
    • Open source tools like Mautic or Keila.
    • Self-hosted or licensed products (Mailcoach, Mailster, etc.).
  • These are seen as far cheaper for technical teams, especially when send volume is low relative to list size.

Ethics, Tracking, and “Spam”

  • Some insist most “email marketing” is effectively spam and resent its normalization.
  • Others defend email marketing when it’s opt-in, educational, and focused on engagement rather than volume.
  • Privacy-conscious users care about disabling open/click tracking and mention tools that support this, but note the article ignored this dimension.