Founded way back in 1998 by Tom Kulzer, AWeber is the preferred email marketing service used by over 120,000+ small businesses, bloggers, and entrepreneurs from all around the world. But is it still the best option for your business, considering now that we have so many alternatives on the market?

In this review, we will evaluate AWeber on these factors – pricing, ease of use, features, customer support, and overall sentiment around the product.

For many small business owners and bloggers alike, AWeber still remains the best email marketing service provider (ESP), far more proficient than any other email marketing service on the market. Read the full review to see if this is the right assessment.

AWeber Review

Pricing

AWeber’s pricing is list-based. It offers a free 30-day trial for lists of up to 500 subscribers. Once the trial is over, you can opt for any of the following list-based pricing options:

• Up to 500 subscribers – $19/month
• Up to 2,500 subscribers – $29/month
• Up to 5,000 subscribers – $49/month
• Up to 10,000 subscribers – $69/month
• Up to 25,000 subscribers – $149/month
• Over 25,000 subscribers – Contact AWeber for pricing

If you exceed your plan’s monthly limit, you will be billed for the next plan up. This is a common practice among majority of email service providers.

The best part about AWeber’s 30-day trial is that they unlock all the essential features of their product. This means you can start using features such as autoresponders, A/B split testing, blog broadcasts, etc. right away.

Ease of Use

AWeber is easy to use and if this is the first time you are using an email marketing service provider, you can find a wealth of information at your disposal in AWeber’s Knowledge Base. They also provide email marketing tips on their YouTube channel and frequently hold webinars. Honestly, you can probably spend a couple of days going through AWeber’s resources (Ebooks, webinars, videos, etc.) and learn A-Z of email marketing.

If this is the first time you’re using an ESP, I highly recommend AWeber’s FREE 7-day “What to Write In Your Emails” course. You can sign up for the free course here.

Once you sign up and login to your AWeber account, the user control panel will autoplay a video which you can watch to learn how to quickly set up and use your account. From here on, you are free to explore the tool and setup your first email marketing campaign.

Features

AWeber has tons of useful features, but some of its popular features such as autoresponders (automated emails), blog broadcasts, and A/B Split Testing deserve special mention. Below is a brief summary of the features that I personally love about AWeber:

• Autoresponders – AWeber allows you to create a set of autoresponders (automated email campaigns). This can be particularly useful while sending a welcome message to new subscribers. You could also use this feature to provide “special email courses” on your blog or “how to” emails explaining the various features about your product.
• Signup Forms – AWeber allows you to create sign up forms using any of their customizable templates. You can then integrate these sign up forms to your website to grow your email list. AWeber also allows you to integrate them to your Facebook business page.
• List Segmentation – You can segment your list based on pretty much any criteria of your liking: DOB, location, specific interest, active users, passive users, etc. List segmentation feature on AWeber is easy to understand and use.
• Blog Broadcasts – AWeber blog broadcasts are extremely useful for bloggers. This tool allows you to send automatic emails every time you update your blog. Learn more about AWeber blog broadcasts here.
• Integrations – AWeber is integrated with popular tools and services such as Google Analytics, LeadPages, WordPress, OptinMonster, WooCommerce, etc.

Customer Support

“Customer support that’ll knock your socks off.” – This is the claim AWeber makes on its pricing page. Similar claims are made by most if not all service providers. But with respect to AWeber’s claim, it’s spot on! It’s one of the few tools which I use which has stellar customer support.

The customer support team is friendly, prompt, and helpful in resolving the issues. The support services include email, phone, and live chat support. They are also active on social media (especially Facebook and Twitter) and usually respond to all questions within a few hours.

User Feedback and Reviews

Overall, the user feedback on AWeber is overwhelmingly positive. Most of the complaints on sites such as BBB.org and TrustRadius are price-related. There are several genuine testimonials on AWeber website itself. Most users applaud the following features and qualities of AWeber:

• Easy to use
• Email automation
• Wide variety of email templates
• Excellent customer support
• Other features such as list segmentation, analytics and reporting, integrations, etc. are frequently mentioned and praised

Final Verdict

There may be several options available for bloggers and business owners for ESPs on the market, but AWeber still manages to be the best email marketing service provider. It is competitively priced and packed with features which are extremely practical for new and seasoned marketers alike.

Even if you’re using some other email marketing service, it’s worth giving their 30-day free trial a go. AWeber provides you access to all its essential features such as autoresponders, sign up forms, A/B split testing, etc. and you can truly assess the tool with the email service you are currently using.

Sign up for AWeber’s 30-day FREE Trial

This article was originally published on my marketing blog, 99signals.