The fact that email marketing helps grow your business and improve interactions with customers is no surprise. Sending only plain text emails is a surefire way to miss the recipient’s eye and leave your email to rust unnoticed in their inboxes. With a powerful drag-and-drop email builder, however, you will be able to create professional and responsive templates in a user-friendly way.
The question is: how do you pick up the right email template builder? Join us below to discover the list of powerful paid and free email builders for you to choose from.
Content:
- What is a drag-and-drop email builder?
- Benefits of using email template builders
- Criteria for choosing the best email template builder
- Best email template software
- SendPulse
- Stripo
- Chamaileon
- Beefree
- Postcards
- Topol.io
- Unlayer
- MailerSend
- Tabular
- Moosend
- Blocks
- Quick functionality overview of the best email template builders
What is a drag-and-drop email builder?
A drag-and-drop email builder is a tool that allows you to create and edit email templates and designs by simply dragging and dropping elements like text boxes, images, buttons, and other content blocks into a layout.
Drag-and-drop email builders are user-friendly and don’t require coding skills so that both no-coders and non-designers can make visually appealing and responsive emails. Moreover, these builders often offer pre-designed templates and pre-made blocks, allowing for advanced template customization and streamlined email building.
Benefits of using email template builders
If you are a confident HTML coder, you can build up an email template from scratch. Alternatively, you can rely on a drag-and-drop email builder to create an email template using the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) functionality.
Email template builders provide the following benefits:
- Ease of use. You have a set of pre-made templates and designs that you can customize to your needs by adding or removing buttons, blocks with images and text, and using colors that represent your brand.
- Online availability. You don’t need to install any software because the builder autosaves your sessions, allows you to come back to your templates, and reuse or edit them at any time.
- Time efficiency. Drag-and-drop email builders often provide pre-made templates that can be customized quickly, saving time compared to designing emails from scratch.
- Style consistency. If you send emails on a regular basis, an email template builder ensures visual consistency across your campaigns. This helps maintain your visual brand identity thanks to consistent colors, fonts, and styles.
- Device responsiveness. Templates in email builders are usually optimized for various devices, ensuring that emails look good on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Often, you can preview them on different devices or even create several email versions for each gadget type.
- Reduced cost and better efficiency. With a drag-and-drop email builder, you don’t need to hire a designer to create pixel-perfect templates. Additionally, you can reuse your templates and tailor them for different business goals and audience behavior.
Before we proceed to our list of the best email template software, let’s explore a few factors you should consider to choose the right tool on the first try.
Criteria for choosing the best email template builder
At first sight, all drag-and-drop email builders feel very similar. However, certain features and specs can make a big difference — so we want you to know what to look for.
Double-check whether the email template software of your choice offers the following:
- Clear onboarding. The more intuitive it is, the faster you can jump to building your email campaign, especially in cases when you need it done yesterday.
- A rich choice of templates. The quantity matters, but it’s even more important to have diverse collections of templates for any occasion.
- HTML email builder. Sooner or later, you may need to import your own HTML elements or be able to build email templates from scratch.
- Various supported file formats. Text and images aren’t always enough — engaging content, such as GIFs and videos, has a greater chance to capture recipients’ attention.
- Additional content libraries. This is an optional but highly beneficial feature. If the chosen email template builder gives you access to a stock library, it’ll allow you to design templates even faster.
- Compatibility and seamless exports. A great email template builder is never a stand-alone solution — it should seamlessly become an integral part of your existing marketing toolkit or CRM system.
- Reachable support. An avoidable mistake or some unexpected system downtime may cost you dozens of customers. Make sure the support team is always within your reach and ready to act quickly.
- Flexible pricing plans. You want to be sure you’re only paying for the features you really need.
Understanding these primary criteria will help you make an informed decision.
Best email template software
Here’s our detailed breakdown of the best email template software – we’ve listed their notable features and pricing options and shown their interfaces.
SendPulse
SendPulse is an all-in-one marketing solution that offers robust email marketing capabilities. It provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop email builder that allows you to create and customize email templates easily. Thanks to the HTML email builder, you can also design custom templates from scratch or import your own code without any hassle.
With over 80 pre-made templates covering topics like business, education, holidays, tourism, and more, designing adaptive emails is quick and easy. Thanks to OpenAI integration, you can also generate, improve, or translate your email copy effortlessly.
This drag-and-drop email builder lets you edit images, for example, resize and crop, flip and rotate, add contour or filled shapes and stickers, apply a layer mask and different filters, and even create animated GIFs.
You can add payment buttons directly to your emails and automatically transfer data to the built-in CRM system. So, the CRM system ensures all your tools and customer data are stored in one convenient place, simplifying your workflow in general.
Some noteworthy features include:
- drag-and-drop email builder;
- HTML email builder;
- template import;
- library of responsive email templates and email components;
- email image editor tools;
- dark mode for emails;
- checkout element to accept payments;
- Google Calendar links;
- AI email assistant.
Here is an example of a template created with this email builder.
Pricing. SendPulse offers a free plan that grants access to essential email marketing features, allowing you to send up to 15,000 emails to 500 subscribers. The most affordable paid plan starts at $8/month and includes unlimited emails for the same 500 subscribers. If you need more flexibility, you also have the option to purchase a pay-as-you-go plan.
Stripo
Stripo is a dedicated email template design platform that allows users to create and customize responsive templates for various email marketing campaigns. It features a drag-and-drop email builder so that it is comfortable to design templates without extensive coding knowledge. Apart from that, you also have an opportunity to code your email in HTML and CSS code editor or use all of them simultaneously without switching.
This email template software offers an open library with over 1,500 free HTML email templates for various purposes and AMP-powered emails that support dynamic content and real-time updates directly within the email itself. These AMP emails allow recipients to interact in ways similar to a landing page, allowing them to book tickets, browse products and catalogs, or fill out forms in the email.
Some key features include:
- drag-and-drop email builder;
- HTML and CSS code editor;
- 1,500+ free HTML email templates;
- branded email template generator based on website URL;
- pre-built modules;
- AMP-powered emails;
- bulk editing and export;
- AI writing assistant and translation with Google;
- preview mode for over 90 devices;
- email gamification, such as mini-games and quizzes;
- real-time co-editing for teams;
- export to various email marketing platforms.
Check out an example of an email built with Stripo.
Pricing. Stripo offers a free plan for 1 user, 4 exports, and 5 test emails per day. The most affordable paid plan starts at $20/month and includes 2 users, 50 exports, 50 test emails daily, and access to premium templates.
Chamaileon
Chamaileon is an email design and collaboration platform that enables users to create professional email templates without any coding skills. It’s ideal for businesses that send large volumes of marketing emails, as it supports seamless export to various CRM systems, marketing, and automation platforms.
With Chamaileon, you can build responsive emails using a visual editor, whether by dragging and dropping pre-coded content or creating dynamic elements with templating logic. It also allows you to save and reuse email blocks from different campaigns.
A standout feature is the real-time editor that allows you to see changes to text and formatting as they happen to avoid miscommunications and stay on the same page with your team. Also, you can convert designs into code and import existing HTML to generate templates.
Some notable features include:
- drag-and-drop email editor;
- HTML email builder;
- gallery with 150+ email templates;
- reusable master blocks;
- lock-down email design or content blocks;
- email structure inspector;
- templating language logic;
- embedded image editor;
- personalized and dynamic email content;
- live editing and design collaboration.
Here’s an example of an email designed with Chamaileon.
Pricing. Chamaileon doesn’t offer a free plan, but it does provide a tier priced at $400/month or $4,000/year with no limitations. You can also reach out to their team for a customized rate.
Beefree
Beefree is an easy-to-use, web-based email and landing page design tool. It allows users to create professional, responsive templates using a drag-and-drop HTML editor. The platform offers over 1,300 free pre-made templates suitable for different seasons, occasions, industries, etc. Additionally, Beefree features AI functionality to assist users in generating email copies.
Apart from that, you can reuse content blocks and transform emails into landing pages in minutes. Moreover, the platform allows you to enhance emails with videos, images, icons, stickers, and GIFs. Beefree is an optimum choice for teams, as this email template software supports real-time commenting and editing across departments.
Some key features include:
- drag-and-drop email builder;
- 1,300+ pre-made email templates;
- basic content blocks;
- mobile-view design tools;
- video embedding from YouTube and Vimeo;
- gallery of icons, stickers, and GIFs;
- save and reuse feature;
- AI copy assistant;
- version history;
- zip file and HTML export options;
- co-editing and commenting.
Take a look at this email designed using a Beefree template.
Pricing. Beefree offers a free plan that provides access to a template library and allows you to create up to 10 emails. The cheapest paid plan starts at $25/month when billed annually and includes unlimited designs, exports, and some collaboration features. You can also start a 15-day free trial.
Postcards
Postcards by Designmodo is an online tool designed to help users create responsive, mobile-ready email templates. It offers a drag-and-drop interface where users can assemble customizable pre-designed blocks to build professional-looking newsletters. This email template software provides a library of HTML email templates for different industries, events, purposes, etc. The templates also support dark mode.
In addition to drag-and-drop functionality, Postcards allows users to design emails in Figma without needing to write any code. It also supports brand presets and custom fonts and includes an AI assistant powered by ChatGPT to help create email content more efficiently. Furthermore, the platform enables team collaboration by allowing multiple users to simultaneously work on the same project.
Some standout features include:
- drag-and-drop email builder;
- brand presents for fonts, buttons, colors, links, text, etc.;
- pre-made module library;
- pre-designed email templates, including dark mode;
- multi-select editing;
- AI assistant for email copies;
- external image support;
- 1,600+ Google Fonts;
- clean code export;
- Figma plugin;
- preview link sharing;
- integration with SendPulse and other marketing platforms;
- real-time collaboration.
Here’s an email designed based on a Postcards template.
Pricing. Postcards offers a free plan that allows you to create up to 10 template projects and export 5 templates per month. The most affordable paid plan starts at $16/month when billed annually and includes unlimited template projects along with 20 monthly exports.
Topol.io
Topol.io is an online email template builder designed to help users create responsive and visually appealing emails. You have two ways to utilize its functionality: either embed the Topol plugin into your platform or choose Topol Pro to use the platform independently with your team.
Both Topol versions represent a no-code email template editor that features reusable custom blocks, merge tags, product blocks, etc. The platform offers more than 150 email templates and integrates with Pexels, which gives you access to royalty-free images for your emails. When your email is ready, you can easily export it to your preferred email marketing platform or download it in HTML or JSON format.
Notably, Topol supports real-time team collaboration, enabling you to comment on your template drafts, tag your teammates, display older template versions and changes made, etc.
Some top features include:
- drag-and-drop email builder;
- 150+ email templates;
- predefined color styles;
- cloud storage;
- merge tags and special links for personalization;
- custom fonts;
- raw HTML support;
- AI writing assistant;
- multi-language support;
- collaboration tools.
Take a look at the email below that was made using a Topol.io template.
Pricing. Topol Pro offers a free plan for personal use, allowing you to create unlimited templates. The most affordable paid plan starts at $10/month, billed annually, and gives 1 user access to premium templates, stock images, HTML blocks, and more. For teams, there’s a plan that includes 3 user seats, starting at $15/month annually, with the option to purchase additional seats as needed.
Unlayer
Unlayer is a drag-and-drop email builder designed to create responsive email templates, web pages, pop-ups, and documents without requiring coding skills. It features AI-powered image and text generators that allow you to boost your workflow. Furthermore, Unlayer provides SEO-friendly templates for welcome flows, newsletters, and transactional emails, all customizable to suit your needs. If you need more control, there’s also an option to use the HTML editor and embed custom CSS.
The platform lets you personalize emails by merging tags and easily drag-and-drop your online store products into your campaigns. You can also invite clients to review drafts, assign roles, and control access or actions to ensure smooth and secure collaboration. Unlayer supports direct email exports to various ESPs, and you can download emails in ZIP, HTML, or PDF formats.
Some notable features include:
- drag-and-drop email editor;
- HTML email editor;
- 1,000+ ready-to-use templates;
- custom font management;
- custom languages;
- access to stock images;
- mobile design mode;
- image editor;
- AI tools for text and image generation;
- dark mode emails;
- collaboration tools.
This email design was made using an Unlayer template.
Pricing. Unlayer offers a free plan. However, advanced features are available only on paid plans. The most affordable plan starts at $225/month, billed annually, and includes customization options, localization, mobile design, and more.
MailerSend
MailerSend is an email delivery platform that stands out thanks to its intuitive, free drag-and-drop email template builder. Built with eCommerce and SaaS businesses in mind, it’s ideal for creating and sending professional transactional emails. With over 90 pre-built drag-and-drop blocks for eCommerce, blogs, and social media, designing emails is quick and clear. You can also use special blocks for surveys, accordions, signatures, feature highlights, countdown timers, etc.
In addition to the drag-and-drop functionality, MailerSend offers an HTML email builder and a rich-text editor for more formatting control. You can easily change text, adjust colors and sizes, and insert links. Plus, MailerSend supports dynamic email templates, enabling automatic personalization for each recipient.
Some key features include:
- drag-and-drop email builder;
- HTML email builder;
- rich-text editor;
- email template library;
- ready-to-use content blocks;
- dynamic content and conditions;
- auto-generation of plain text emails;
- split testing.
Here’s an email put together using a MailerSend template.
Pricing. MailerSend offers a free plan that provides access to its drag-and-drop email builder and allows you to send up to 3,000 emails. The most affordable paid plan starts at $28/month, billed annually, and includes advanced features like split testing. With this plan, you can send up to 50,000 emails per month.
Tabular
Tabular is a user-friendly email template software that enables you to create compelling emails from scratch or choose from various pre-designed templates organized in categories by use cases. For example, you can find suitable options for B2C and B2B companies, abandoned carts and discount offers, welcome and confirmation messages, password resets, and more.
Additionally, Tabular offers a bank of pre-made email modules and allows you to reuse building blocks. To add personalization, you can incorporate dynamic content based on various variables. Once your email template is ready, you can upload it directly to your sending platform through multiple integrations or export it as HTML.
Some key features include:
- drag-and-drop email editor;
- HTML email template collection;
- 200+ pre-made email modules;
- flexibility in mobile email design;
- personalization with dynamic content;
- reusable email blocks;
- direct upload to a sending platform;
- conversion to HTML code;
- unlimited teamspaces with different roles.
Take a look at the email built using a Tabular template.
Pricing. Tabular offers a free plan that includes 3 stored emails and 3 exports per month. It also allows you to create unlimited team spaces and invite unlimited guests or members. The most affordable paid plan starts at $24/month, billed annually, providing unlimited stored emails and 100 monthly exports.
Moosend
Moosend is an email marketing platform known for its user-friendly drag-and-drop email builder. The editor allows you to seamlessly add images, videos, and interactive elements. Thanks to integrations with platforms like Stock Photos and Giphy, finding and inserting the perfect image or GIF won’t take much time.
Various pre-made email templates are available for those who prefer not to start from scratch. Additionally, you can save custom templates for future use and incorporate fonts to reinforce your brand identity. With conditional blocks, it’s possible to personalize content for different recipients.
Some standout features include:
- email newsletter builder;
- 90+ basic templates;
- custom-coded templates;
- built-in image editor;
- countdown timers;
- conditional content blocks;
- AI-engine product recommendations;
- image picker;
- custom fonts;
- video embedding;
- personal template library with self-made templates.
Check out the email created with a Moosend template.
Pricing. Moosend doesn’t offer a free plan, but you can test it during a 30-day trial period. The paid plan starts at $7/month for up to 500 subscribers and includes all the essential features needed to create emails.
Blocks
Blocks is a platform that provides a no-code and embeddable email builder that businesses can integrate into their websites or applications. Users can build, style, and discuss a blank, ready-made, or imported email template. This email template software also features an AI assistant you can use to create email copy, generate images, or arrange your email layout based on the specified parameters. It also can suggest improvements to readability, visual comprehensibility, or context-specific element design.
Blocks lets you import HTML email code, edit images, and export finished emails to any email service provider that supports HTML. It also provides features like countdown timers and personalized merge tags. Moreover, it offers complete flexibility when it comes to customizing UI styles, fonts, and other template parameters.
Some noteworthy features include:
- drag-and-drop email builder;
- code mode;
- 150+ customizable templates;
- ready-made reusable email blocks;
- stock for images and GIFs;
- video embedding;
- global styles;
- mobile element editor;
- AI text and image assistant;
- email import for code;
- email export to other platforms;
- team collaboration mode.
Take a look at the email created with the Blocks template editor.
Pricing. Blocks offers a free plan that includes 1 user, 1 project, and the ability to create up to 10 emails and templates. The paid plan that starts at $16/month lets you create 30 emails and templates and includes the same limits on users and projects.
Quick functionality overview of the best email template builders
Having reviewed 11 paid and free email template software, let’s now compare them in this quick functionality overview.
Email builder | Free plan | Starting price | Template library | AI tools | Useful feature |
SendPulse | Yes | $8/month | 80+ | Yes | Reusable content blocks |
Stripo | Yes | $20/month | 1,550 | Yes | 80+ ESP integrations |
Chamaileon | No | Custom | 150+ | No | Email size checker |
Beefree | Yes | $25/month | 1,300+ | Yes | Stock images, GIFs, and stickers |
Postcards | Yes | $16/month | 90+ | Yes | Google fonts |
Topol.io | Yes | $10/month | 150+ | Yes | Template change tracking |
Unlayer | Yes | $225/month | 1,000+ | Yes | Accessibility checks |
MailerSend | Yes | $28/month | 70+ | No | Dynamic content blocks |
Tabular | Yes | $24/month | 35+ | No | Mobile design mode |
Moosend | No | $7/month | 90+ | Yes | Comment mode |
Blocks | Yes | $16/month | 150+ | Yes | Version history |
There are many drag-and-drop email builders available, each offering unique features, so it’s essential to clarify your priorities and determine your specific needs to choose the right one.
If you’re looking for a solution that helps you design templates and manage email campaigns in one place, SendPulse could be your best bet. It has over 10 marketing and sales automation tools, letting you also build landing pages, pop-ups, SMS campaigns, automated flows, chatbots, and online courses with the help of a single platform.