In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, your email communication techniques remain a cornerstone of your engagement. Though, the effectiveness of your email campaigns hinges on a critical factor: deliverability. A factor contributing to that is your Email Service Provider (ESP). They ensure that your messages reach their intended recipients.
Below is our comprehensive analysis that delves into the deliverability features offered by leading ESPs, providing marketers and CRM managers such as yourself with the insights needed to make informed decisions about your email infrastructure. We’ll examine how providers like Klaviyo, Omnisend, Sendgrid, Mailchimp, Iterable, Braze, Dotdigital, and Beehiiv stack up against each other in the race to maximize your inbox placement and maintain sender reputation.
Comparison Criteria: The Pillars of Email Deliverability
Before diving into individual ESP analyses, it’s essential to establish the key criteria by which we’ll evaluate these providers. The following factors form the foundation of of your effective email deliverability:
- Authentication Protocols: Implementation and support for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
- List Management Tools: Features for maintaining clean lists, including bounce handling and unsubscribe processes.
- Reputation Monitoring: Tools and dashboards for tracking sender reputation and deliverability metrics.
- IP Warmup Capabilities: Processes and guidance for properly warming up new IP addresses.
- Content Optimization: Features that help craft email content to avoid spam triggers.
- Deliverability Support: Access to expert guidance and resources for troubleshooting deliverability issues.
- Compliance Tools: Features ensuring adherence to regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM.
Individual Email Service Provider Analysis
1. Klaviyo
Klaviyo has carved out a niche in the e-commerce space, offering strong segmentation and personalization alongside its deliverability features. The platform excels in its approach to authentication, providing clear guidance on implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Klaviyo’s reputation monitoring is particularly noteworthy, offering real-time feedback on deliverability issues and actionable insights to improve performance.
One of Klaviyo’s standout features is its proactive approach to list hygiene. The platform automatically suppresses email addresses that have hard bounced or repeatedly soft bounced, helping maintain a clean sender reputation. Additionally, Klaviyo’s flow builder includes built-in best practices for engagement, indirectly contributing to improved deliverability by encouraging relevant, timely communications.
However, Klaviyo’s IP warmup process, while solid, lacks some of the automation features found in enterprise-focused ESPs. This may require more manual oversight from marketers during the critical warmup phase.
2. Omnisend
Omnisend, another e-commerce-centric ESP, offers a comprehensive suite of deliverability features that rival those of larger, more generalist providers. The platform’s strength lies in its intuitive interface for managing authentication protocols, making it easier for less technical users to implement crucial security measures.
Omnisend’s list management tools are particularly powerful, featuring advanced segmentation capabilities that allow for highly targeted campaigns. This precision in targeting contributes significantly to overall deliverability by ensuring messages are relevant to recipients, thereby improving engagement rates and sender reputation.
The platform’s reputation monitoring dashboard provides a clear, at-a-glance view of key deliverability metrics, including open rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints. While comprehensive, some users may find the depth of data less extensive than what’s offered by company-focused solutions.
Omnisend’s content optimization features, including a subject line tester and preview tools, help marketers craft emails that are less likely to trigger spam filters. However, the platform could benefit from more advanced AI-driven content suggestions to further enhance this aspect of deliverability.
3. Sendgrid
As a veteran in the email delivery space, Sendgrid offers one of the most comprehensive sets of deliverability features on the market. The platform’s authentication support is industry-leading, with detailed guides and easy-to-use tools for implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC across multiple domains and subdomains.
Sendgrid’s reputation monitoring capabilities are particularly impressive, offering granular insights into deliverability performance across different ISPs and regions. The platform’s Email Insights feature provides a wealth of data on engagement, including time-based metrics that can help optimize send times for better inbox placement.
Where Sendgrid truly shines is in its IP warmup capabilities. The platform offers automated warmup processes that gradually increase sending volume, taking much of the manual work out of this critical phase. Additionally, Sendgrid’s shared IP pools are meticulously managed, providing a solid option for smaller senders who aren’t ready for dedicated IPs.
While Sendgrid’s feature set is comprehensive, some users may find the interface less intuitive compared to more modern, marketing-focused ESPs. The depth of features can be overwhelming for those new to email marketing, potentially requiring a steeper learning curve.
4. Mailchimp
Mailchimp, one of the most recognizable names in email marketing. They offers a balanced approach to deliverability that caters to both beginner and experienced marketers. The platform’s strength lies in its user-friendly interface and bite-sized educational resources, making it easier for users to implement best practices for deliverability.
Mailchimp’s authentication setup process is straightforward, with clear instructions for implementing SPF and DKIM. However, DMARC support is less prominently featured, potentially leaving some users without this additional layer of protection.
The platform’s list management tools are comprehensive, with automated cleaning processes that remove invalid addresses and unsubscribes. Mailchimp also offers a unique feature called “Email Beamer,” which allows users to create and send campaigns by email, potentially improving engagement for certain types of content.
Mailchimp’s deliverability reporting is solid, offering insights into open rates, click rates, and bounce rates. However, the depth of reputation monitoring falls short of some more specialized ESPs, particularly in terms of inbox placement reporting across different ISPs.
One area where Mailchimp excels is in content optimisation. The platform’s subject line helper and content recommendations leverage machine learning to suggest improvements that can boost engagement and, by extension, deliverability.
5. Iterable
Iterable positions itself as a cross-channel marketing platform, but its email deliverability features are strong enough to compete with email-focused ESPs. The platform’s approach to authentication is comprehensive, offering clear guidance on implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, with the added benefit of supporting multiple sending domains easily.
One of Iterable’s standout features is its advanced segmentation capabilities, which indirectly contribute to deliverability by enabling highly targeted, relevant messaging. The platform’s AI-powered segmentation can help marketers identify and target their most engaged users, potentially improving the overall sender reputation.
Iterable’s reputation monitoring tools are comprehensive, offering real-time alerts for deliverability issues and detailed reporting on engagement metrics. The platform also provides a unique “Deliverability Insights” feature that offers actionable recommendations based on historical performance data.
Where Iterable truly shines is in its approach to IP warmup. The platform offers a guided, step-by-step process for warming up new IPs, complete with automated volume increases and performance monitoring. This level of support can be invaluable for marketers transitioning to dedicated IPs or scaling their email programs.
However, some users may find Iterable’s interface less intuitive compared to more email-focused ESPs, particularly when it comes to quickly accessing deliverability-specific features and reports.
6. Braze
Braze, known for its customer engagement platform, offers email deliverability features that compete with email-centric ESPs. The platform’s strength lies in its data-driven approach to deliverability, leveraging AI and machine learning to optimize sending strategies.
Braze’s authentication support is comprehensive, with clear documentation on implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. The platform also offers a unique feature called “IP Warming Automation,” which uses AI to dynamically adjust sending volumes during the warmup process, potentially accelerating the path to full sending capacity while maintaining strong deliverability.
The platform’s list management tools are particularly advanced, offering real-time suppression lists and automatic handling of bounces and complaints. Braze also provides sophisticated engagement tracking, allowing marketers to create highly targeted segments based on user behaviour across multiple channels, not just email.
Braze’s reputation monitoring capabilities are extensive, offering detailed insights into deliverability performance across different ISPs and regions. The platform’s “Message Engagement Report” provides a comprehensive view of how recipients interact with emails, helping marketers identify and address potential deliverability issues proactively.
One potential drawback is that Braze’s cross-channel focus may be overwhelming for marketers solely focused on email. The platform’s depth of features can require a significant time investment to fully leverage its capabilities for email deliverability.
7. Dotdigital
Dotdigital, while less well-known in the U.S. market, offers a set of deliverability features that cater particularly well to international senders. The platform’s strength lies in its comprehensive approach to global deliverability, with features designed to navigate the complexities of sending to diverse geographic regions.
Authentication setup in Dotdigital is straightforward, with clear guidance on implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. The platform also offers a unique “Sender Domain Certification” process, which adds an extra layer of verification to improve deliverability, particularly for high-volume senders.
Dotdigital’s list management tools are particularly strong, offering advanced segmentation capabilities and automated list-cleaning processes. The platform’s “RFM” (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) segmentation model is a standout feature, allowing marketers to easily target their most valuable and engaged customers, indirectly boosting deliverability through improved relevance.
The platform’s reputation monitoring tools provide comprehensive insights, including a unique “Delivery Rate Index” that benchmarks performance against industry standards. Dotdigital also offers real-time alerting for deliverability issues, allowing marketers to quickly address potential problems.
Where Dotdigital particularly excels is in its approach to compliance, offering tools for managing consent and preferences across different regulatory frameworks (GDPR, CCPA, etc.). This focus on compliance indirectly supports deliverability by ensuring that email programs adhere to best practices and legal requirements.
However, some users may find Dotdigital’s interface less intuitive compared to more modern ESPs, potentially requiring a steeper learning curve to fully leverage its deliverability features.
8. Beehiiv
Beehiiv, a relative newcomer to the ESP scene, has quickly gained traction, particularly among newsletter publishers and content creators. While it may not offer the same depth of features as some enterprise-focused ESPs, Beehiiv’s approach to deliverability is noteworthy for its simplicity and effectiveness.
The platform’s authentication setup is streamlined, with Beehiiv handling much of the technical implementation of SPF and DKIM behind the scenes. This approach significantly lowers the barrier to entry for proper authentication, especially for less technical users. However, advanced users may find the lack of granular control over these settings limiting.
Beehiiv’s list management tools, while not as extensive as some competitors, are well-designed for its target audience. The platform offers automatic list cleaning and easy-to-use suppression lists. A standout feature is Beehiiv’s approach to subscriber engagement, which automatically segments users based on their interaction with previous emails, indirectly supporting deliverability by ensuring content reaches the most engaged readers.
The platform’s reputation monitoring capabilities are basic but effective, offering clear insights into open rates, click rates, and unsubscribes. While it may lack the depth of analysis offered by more established ESPs, the simplicity of Beehiiv’s reporting makes it easy for users to quickly identify and address potential deliverability issues.
One area where Beehiiv particularly shines is in its content optimization features. The platform offers AI-powered subject line suggestions and a content quality score, helping users craft emails that are more likely to engage recipients and avoid spam filters.
However, Beehiiv’s focused approach means it may not be suitable for complex, multi-channel marketing campaigns or enterprises requiring extensive deliverability customisation.
Choose Your ESP Winner!
Hopefully the above helps somewhat towards now making an informed choice about which email service provider works best for your brand’s needs. Within reason there is likely something any of these can offer you and it would be hard to go wrong, but also pay attention to other clients they serve. Are those clients in your industry, niche etc.
Still confused about which to choose? Book a free consultation with our email deliverability experts and learn about which one is the best for you!