Benchmark Email vs. Twilio SendGrid

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Benchmark Email
Score 6.4 out of 10
N/A
Benchmark is an email marketing platform on a global mission to help businesses everywhere ignite relationships with their customers, from the company of the same name in St.Louis, Missouri.
$0
per month
Twilio SendGrid
Score 7.4 out of 10
N/A
Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns provides users with segmentation, campaign editing, and deliverability. According to the vendor, Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns is trusted by over 80,000 customers globally, including Airbnb, Spotify and Uber. Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns aims to help users by providing: MORE EFFICIENT EMAIL BUILDING The campaign building process is free from frustrating, rigid step-by-step wizards that slow users down. The vendor says…
$15
per month
Pricing
Benchmark EmailTwilio SendGrid
Editions & Modules
Pro
Starting at $13
per month
Enterprise
Custom
Basic
$15
per month
Advanced
$60
per month
Free
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Benchmark EmailTwilio SendGrid
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
Benchmark EmailTwilio SendGrid
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Benchmark Email
9.5
7 Ratings
15% above category average
Twilio SendGrid
7.8
46 Ratings
4% below category average
WYSIWYG email editor7.86 Ratings7.733 Ratings
Dynamic content10.06 Ratings7.936 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content9.34 Ratings8.134 Ratings
Landing pages10.04 Ratings7.622 Ratings
A/B testing10.06 Ratings8.526 Ratings
Mobile optimization10.07 Ratings9.034 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting10.06 Ratings7.646 Ratings
List management10.07 Ratings5.940 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences8.24 Ratings7.520 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Benchmark Email
8.3
7 Ratings
6% above category average
Twilio SendGrid
7.9
46 Ratings
1% above category average
Dashboards7.66 Ratings8.444 Ratings
Standard reports10.07 Ratings8.544 Ratings
Custom reports7.23 Ratings6.928 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
Benchmark Email
10.0
1 Ratings
16% above category average
Twilio SendGrid
9.1
8 Ratings
7% above category average
Inbox Display10.01 Ratings9.38 Ratings
Email Previews10.01 Ratings9.08 Ratings
URL Validation00 Ratings9.38 Ratings
Link Tracking00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Image Validation00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Email Accessibility Tools00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Spelling and Grammar Check00 Ratings8.66 Ratings
Spam Testing00 Ratings9.38 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Benchmark EmailTwilio SendGrid
Small Businesses
ReachMail
ReachMail
Score 10.0 out of 10
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Emma by Marigold
Emma by Marigold
Score 8.6 out of 10
Emma by Marigold
Emma by Marigold
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Benchmark EmailTwilio SendGrid
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(7 ratings)
5.7
(57 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
3.0
(9 ratings)
User Testimonials
Benchmark EmailTwilio SendGrid
Likelihood to Recommend
BenchmarkONE
For low volume non-profits, Benchmark Email provides a respectable free service. Ease of use is high and customization of the email is good. The discount for 501(c)(3) organizations and fully free use for non-profits that help children is commendable. Although the GUI editor is flexible and easy to learn, it does have some issues with certain detailed formatting concerns, like properly showing the newlines between paragraphs. Image/photo processing and presentation is similarly both easy to use, but frustrating due to some capability gaps and quirks, like specifying image sizes and display on hi-resolution devices.

Overall, Benchmark Email provides a good service that is easy to learn to expand your communication reach; however, the ROI and satisfaction may not be as high if paying fees comparable to other offerings.
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Twilio
I think Sendgrid is a great tool for sending out emails of all types. I've primarily used it for transactional emails as we've had other solutions for marketing emails, but I'm sure it would do just a good job - there is a "Marketing" section within the app you can use. Sendgrid integrates really easily with the development frameworks I've used, such as Laravel and Lumen; I've also integrated it with Moodle with ease.
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Pros
BenchmarkONE
  • 2,000 contact list space available with no time limit to those who can't upgrade.
  • The AB Testing feature helps to improve the performance of your emails by experimenting with different content and send times to determine what works best. Thus great emailing objectives are easier to achieve.
  • There is a feature where website and email engagement trigger an automatic email series. For example, the automatic flow of a subscriber from a leads list to a customer list upon making a purchase is awesome.
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Twilio
  • Managing email lists / audiences is easy with features like groups and segments.
  • They provide pre-built email templates that are very easy to modify. It is also super easy to create new email templates with their drag-and-drop email builder.
  • Provides clear / easy-to-read analytics of email campaigns.
  • I can easily import large email contact lists all at once or add a user manually one-at-a-time, when needed.
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Cons
BenchmarkONE
  • List maintenance -- navigating multiple lists is a cumbersome activity.
  • Analytics about user engagement could be better. It's not super robust, especially if you're used to Google Analytics.
  • Customer support is kind of slow to get back to us.
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Twilio
  • Not necessarily their Email API but their email in general - they are currently in beta for automated email sequences but are still bare bones. Much more work is needed before it can be used mainstream and be able to convert everything to SendGrid.
  • Helping with warming up our dedicated IP for the best-sending score.
  • We seem to hit the promotions folder a decent amount (maybe the IP problem above) and even a lot of their emails hit my spam or promotions folder (whether they be transactional or marketing) which isn't a great sign when trusting an ESP.
  • Transactional email sequences would be a huge plus.
  • Now that Twilio owns SenGrid, having an integrated platform where you could see all our transactional emails together.
  • Better reporting and split reporting between transactional and marketing emails.
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Usability
BenchmarkONE
No answers on this topic
Twilio
It has the potential to be really cool. However, it feels as if it was created by developers for developers (and I work with developers, yet even for me the instrument was somewhat not easy to use - just read SendGrid's help manuals...) However, if you are into data and your way of thinking is more mathematical rather than lyrical, you'll enjoy this instrument
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Support Rating
BenchmarkONE
No answers on this topic
Twilio
Twilio SendGrid Email API is everything we want it to be, and we have no reason to look for any other solution. Features and pricing match exactly what we need. As developers for SaaS products, Twilio SendGrid Email API provides a great service. I hope that they stay this way and don't inflate the service with too many marketing oriented features, because there are other tools for that and Twilio SendGrid Email API is a API for sending email first and foremost.
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Alternatives Considered
BenchmarkONE
I stated this plenty of times in my previous responses but we moved to Benchmark from Mad Mimi. Mad Mimi's feature set is extremely basic and only suited for start-ups or very small businesses. Benchmark provides enough customization to take the next step in your email marketing program. It's also fairly affordable
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Twilio
If given a choice between the two, I would pick Mandrill over SendGrid. Mandrill is slightly more expensive but the data & reports that you receive from it make the service worth it. Mandrill lets you export reports over a period of time, view the actual content of emails that you've dispatched and the customer support is way better. If you can bear the slightly higher cost, Mandrill would be a better choice.
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Return on Investment
BenchmarkONE
  • If we think particularly on the ROI then benchmark email gives you a definite amount of ROI. But it takes time, you will see the results after a six month span of time. Because sending an email itself is a slow and steady process to follow.
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Twilio
  • Our clients experience significant ROI from their web forms - without receipt of forms, many of them would not still be in business.
  • As a solution for clients' sites, we find SendGrid is a fast installation and a 1 stop problem solver, saving us man-hours.
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ScreenShots

Benchmark Email Screenshots

Screenshot of