TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Customer.io

    Score9.1 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    Customer.io is a customer engagement platform that enables marketers to build sophisticated automated messaging campaigns. With access to real-time behavioral data, users can create personalized and relevant messages to engage and retain customers. This includes sending emails, push notifications, SMS, in-app messages, and more through a visual building experience. Built for scale, Customer.io boasts users among over 5,300 companies, sending over 17 billion messages per year.

    $100

    per month

    MailerLite

    Score9 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    MailerLite is an email marketing platform for small businesses, creators, and ecommerce brands, used to automate the customer journey and grow a customer list. Pricing starts at $12/month. MailerLite enables users to: Grow and engage their audience - Build newsletters, forms, pop-ups, landing pages, and even full websites with a Drag and drop builder that offers total creative control over designs. 150 customizable templates are available to get…

    $12

    per month

    Pricing
    Customer.ioMailerLite
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Free
    $0
    per month 2 users
    Comfort
    $12
    per month 3 users
    Power
    $25
    per month Unlimited users
    Enterprise
    Custom pricing
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Customer.ioMailerLite
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
    Additional DetailsEssentials: For startups and small teams engaging customers on their mobile and web apps. - Up to 5,000 profiles*, Send Emails, Push, In-App, and SMS, Visual Workflow Builder, Segmentation, Two Workspaces, Email Support, Customer Community Premium: For high-growth companies looking for greater control over their messaging outcomes. - Everything in Essentials, Custom Data + Message Volume, Premium Product Features, Additional Workspaces, 90-day Onboarding Program, Premium Email & Chat Support, Managed Deliverability, Dedicated IPs, Parcel Pro Licenses, HIPAA Compliance Enterprise: For at-scale companies looking to create world-class customer experiences. - Everything in Premium, Managed Infrastructure*, Customer Success Manager, Quarterly Success Reviews, Technical Account Manager*, Audit Logging & Data Governance*, Parcel Business Licenses, Migration Support*, *Available by consultation.Additional 30% discount available to Non-profit organizations. Up to a 10% for paying yearly.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Customer.ioMailerLite
    Considered Both Products
    Customer.io
    Chose Customer.io
    Customer.io had the best suite of features and - most importantly for us - was willing to sign a BAA with us so we could maintain HIPAA compliance. Mailchimp was fine but we felt Customer.io had a cleaner interface and was easier for general marketers who aren't dedicated email …
    Incentivized
    Mailerlite
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    95%
    Would buy again
    82 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    80 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    14 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    82 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    9 Answers
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    72 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    10 Answers
    90%
    Implementation went as expected
    74 Answers
    Features
    Customer.ioMailerLite
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Customer.io and MailerLite
    Feature
    Customer.io
    -
    Ratings
    MailerLite
    8.9
    92 Ratings
    10% above category average
    WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings9.581 Ratings
    Dynamic content00 Ratings9.172 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings7.966 Ratings
    Landing pages00 Ratings8.770 Ratings
    A/B testing00 Ratings8.957 Ratings
    Mobile optimization00 Ratings8.572 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings9.381 Ratings
    List management00 Ratings9.380 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings9.154 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Customer.io and MailerLite
    Feature
    Customer.io
    -
    Ratings
    MailerLite
    7.5
    80 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings7.35 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings8.980 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings6.42 Ratings
    Pre-Send Testing
    Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Customer.io and MailerLite
    Feature
    Customer.io
    -
    Ratings
    MailerLite
    8.2
    73 Ratings
    1% above category average
    URL Validation00 Ratings8.53 Ratings
    Link Tracking00 Ratings8.64 Ratings
    Image Validation00 Ratings7.63 Ratings
    Inbox Display00 Ratings8.23 Ratings
    Email Accessibility Tools00 Ratings7.63 Ratings
    Spelling and Grammar Check00 Ratings9.12 Ratings
    Spam Testing00 Ratings6.82 Ratings
    Email Previews00 Ratings9.572 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Customer.ioMailerLite
    Small Businesses
    Simplify360
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Mad Mimi
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Braze
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Campaign Monitor by Marigold
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SAP Service Cloud
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Emma by Marigold
    Score8.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Customer.ioMailerLite
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (20 ratings)
    9.4
    (97 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    9.2
    (12 ratings)
    9.4
    (34 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Customer.ioMailerLite
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Customer.io
    Talking from the perspective of a marketer at a SaaS with average. 50K email subscribers, Customer IO has been an excellent tool for us. Our requirements include sending users newsletters, marketing emails, and transactional emails, running lead-nurturing campaigns, and more. For a comprehensive use case like ours, CustomerIO is great. While it also has a learning curve, when you have such requirements, it’s worth it. I don’t think CustomerIO is the best fit if you have basic requirements like only weekly newsletter emails.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Mailerlite
    I didn't have much luck when testing other similar tools and since we tested with free plan, we couldn't commit to something else if we couldn't get basic stuff fixed. That's when we switched to MailerLite, and their support was great and super helpful all the way (during our free plan, especially). Plus, they're super budget-friendly for startups, so I highly recommend.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Customer.io
    • Managing users, attributes and events. You are easily able to modify any user, based on their ID, and add or remove attributes, assign events to them. That makes it very easy to segment later and to assign them to several campaigns based on behavior. Just a warning: this integration isn't so easy (at least it wasn't for us).
    • Creating workflows of campaigns is very easy. You can quickly create behavioral campaigns based on attributes, segments and add elements to the workflow. You can send an email, then wait, then send another, then exit the campaign if they converted, etc. The workflow is easy to configure and very powerful for automation.
    • We don't use many email templates (we make them in MJML) but it's very easy to add senders, to change templates and in general to test designs.
    • Deliverability works very well, at least for us. It sends emails pretty fast and without issues.
    • Exporting is very quick and easy. Importing wasn't a feature until recently, but it works well too.
    • Seeing activity it's also useful. In general, logs are awesome (be it of a customer, of activity on the site, email sends, etc.).
    • We don't use environments, but it might be very useful for a bigger company.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Mailerlite
    • Offers a user-friendly interface, making it simple to create beautiful forms, group subscribers, and automate emails.
    • Includes email automation workflows in their free plan - the only provider I know of that doesn't charge you after one month or hit you with "transaction fees".
    • Excellent video tutorial library so you can learn email marketing as a beginner without feeling overwhelmed.
    Read full review
    Cons
    Customer.io
    • Price is quite expensive for Premium or once you get into high volumes of contacts.
    • Depending on how you'll use it, it may require some help from developers to set up.
    • Despite the support being great, you have to email them, there's not chat feature.
    Read full review
    Mailerlite
    • EVERYONE should be allowed to at least use the AI bot chat feature. This doesn't take a person and is such basic customer service that it should be offered at all levels.
    • It would be nice if MailerLite worked better with AddEvent icons
    • When emailing support it took days to get a response (after an agent escalated the issue). Some concerns are more urgent and email support shouldn't mean bad support.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Customer.io
    No answers on this topic
    Mailerlite
    Mailerlite is awesome and it does everything I need and then some. They're always innovating and adding new features, and their team is flippin' amazing. Can't see myself ever switching. They may not have everything, but looking at how well their team works, they'll get there for sure and I'm willing to wait.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Customer.io
    Super intuitive and easy interface to start off with. There are not a lot of guides and the documentation is helpful but not super extensive, but even if you're a little technical, you can easily figure most of the things out by yourself. Everything is super easy to start with and the platform does not overwhelm you with a lot of options, or data.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Mailerlite
    I find it very easy to use, intuitive with a clean interface and drag and drop functionality where that adds value. It's quite configurable for our brand and the template and duplication options are very useful as we reuse a lot of content.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Customer.io
    My experience with their support team has always been great. Very quick to respond, have an online chat, and are very helpful. They helped me resolve any issues I've had every time in a professional and knowledgeable manner. We've now switched to another tool, and I can't even compare the service level we get there to customer.io
    Incentivized
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    Mailerlite
    Whenever I contact Support, either via email or through online chat, I always get a speedy response that gives me the answer I need. The AI Agent on the online chat is excellent and has helped me so much on numerous occasions.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Customer.io
    Customer.io was really the first pure, full-featured drip email program on the market and as far as I know, it's still the simplest and best overall for that specific function. SendGrid has also added drip campaign features, but I would seriously evaluate Customer.io against any other drip email provider because they really have all the key elements you need to make it work.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Mailerlite
    MailerLite has similar features to the tools mentioned above. The main advantage is that it is very complete in its free version. This is ideal for those who are starting out and want to try a complete email marketing platform.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Customer.io
    • Positive impact on the sales side. I'm not sure about the specific ROI (you have to include the designer and the time it takes to set up) but you certainly get back the investment in a few months, once you are able to scale your email marketing.
    • Customer experience is way better by having more segmented, contextual and accurate messages sent to them.
    • Integration is costly and it will take several days or weeks to be fully achieved. Expect to invest some money on this.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Mailerlite
    • Gives us the ability to track the popularity of content in our email as well as who has read the content.
    • The customizable layout gives us the opportunity to be creative and have our culture shine through our company communication.
    • The ability to see who has un-subscribed helps our HR department to see who isn't receiving important company information so we can ask them to re-subscribe.
    • Helps our company to be more transparent and communicate more effectively.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Customer.io Screenshots

    Screenshot of data-driven or manual segments that can be created in the no-code builder for recipient lists, campaign triggers, filters, and conversion goals.Screenshot of the code editor for email, that helps navigate code and iterate.Screenshot of account performance, visible at a glance from the Dashboard view.Screenshot of drag and drop messages, time delays, and branches where desired, to build cross-channel campaigns.Screenshot of triggered campaigns based on forms submissions, customer attributes, customer actions, and dates.Screenshot of localization for global audiences. One message can be delivered in multiple languages.

    MailerLite Screenshots

    Screenshot of reports, that can include unsubscribe count, spam complaints, bounces, link activity and other metrics that are critical to measuring success.Screenshot of automations for every subscriber journeyScreenshot of the MailerLite landing page builderScreenshot of an example newsletterScreenshot of some of the over 150 templates availableScreenshot of where to find MailerLite's integrations