Moosend Review

Running any kind of online business, be it a blog, eCommerce store or a YouTube channel, being able to capture leads, send newsletters and automate parts of your email promotions becomes essential. 

Of course, there are a number of email platforms that exist already, and at times are the 'go-to' for certain niches, for example MailChimp for eCommerce or GetResponse for affiliate blogs, but there is a new contender, one that potentially threatens the balance and offers tools and opportunities to everyone. 

MooSend is a platform that honestly, I had not heard of until a growing number of people started to talk about them, and they finally reached out asking if I would take a look at their platform. So, I said yes. I would do a breakdown as I have with GetResponse and Aweber in the past, and provide my own Moosend review to see if they compare to the established big guns. 

What Is An Email Marketing Platform

Before we get started with this Moosend review, it's worth touching on a point that a few people ask when it comes to email marketing platforms.

The age of email providers or simple autoresponders is pretty much over, with many companies offering a full email platform, with a variety of features and tools at your disposal, Moosend is now different. 

These email marketing platforms come with auto-responder sequences, landing page or email capture page builders, in-depth reports, A/B testing tools and a growing number now offer AI or decision based 'flow' tools to help push new leads and potential customers down difference paths. 

For many, especially affiliates, they would need to have separate bits of kit to help with bridges pages, or capture pages, such as Thrive, ClickFunnels or newer market platforms such as DropFunnels, that is no longer the case. 

This Moosend review will look at the email platform as a whole, including the additional tools that they have to offer. 

moosend Platform Features

As I mentioned, Moosend is more than just an auto-responder, it has a number of different features, including 

• Email & Newsletter Designers
• Landing & Capture Page Designer Tools
• Automation Flows & Sequence Tools
• Reporting & Integration

Thankfully, Moosend actually put their tools into fairly similar areas, which makes this Moosend review easier. The overall Moosend dashboard and overview are large, colourful and easy to understand what each area is going to be dealing with. 

With a full step by step sign-off sheet for those who have just started, Moosend looks to have been designed to ensure that complete beginners have got a guide to get going, but those with knowledge and experience can get started pretty much straight away as well. 

Email / Newsletter Creation (Campaign)

The campaigns tab is the first tab that you will come too when you login, after the Dashboard (if you haven't done the steps). With a number of different campaigns types available to choose from. 

Moosend also provide tips, with small boxes appearing above different areas (I have them turned on for the duration of this review to provide an idea on what type of advice they provide). 

The campaign designer, or the campaign overview as some people may see it is clear, and well laid out, though I would say the subtle grey on a slightly different shade of grey does make it difficult to make out some of the letters or words. 

For example, the 'sender' above is difficult to really make out, it doesn't stand out as well as the green on white that is used in send confirmation tabs. 

After you have filled in the campaign settings, the other tabs become freely available, and can be easily swapped between. Something I find annoying when it comes to platforms such as GetResponse or ActiveCampaign. 

As part of the email creation, you are given a choice of using campaign templates, or simple emails (I rarely go for templates, but they are great for eCommerce or newsletters) 

Selecting the 'Take me to the Editor' button does take you off to a different screen, and removes you from the flow of this, which I find distracting. Offering you 1 or 2 templates, or even a plain template within this flow would have made it cleaner, though I assume much like other platforms it has to open a tool in it's own area. 

The editor you see here is the same as you will find for the lead generation areas, so it's obviously using a similar builder for each. 

The campaign builder itself is a drag and drop style tool, whereby you build upon each element, starting with the structure, and then adding in elements. Though if you select a structure such as full width, it stays on that tab, it would be nice if it took you to the element. 

Adding elements, text and playing around with the design is fairly easy. Though it suffers from the same problem that other email editors have, you can't break up an element. 

For example if you wanted to add an image between the lines;

"Most people freak out..." 

&

"If you don't do any work.."

You would have to actually cut your text up, it has no way of slotting your image in between those 2 lines, this really annoys me. As you will see in the image below, it will try and add it above the text and below the social shares. 

If you don't fancy building one yourself, there is also an entire library of templates to use, with a template for any occasion, including;

• Articles
• Baptism
• Black Fridays
• Blog Posts
• Cart Abandonments
• ecommerce
• Launches
• Lead Generation

And a whole host of others, depending on your situation or email desire. 

The templates themselves look pretty decent, with a wide variety and a load of different styles within the areas that they have. With variations on colours, look and feel. 

Someone has obviously spent a ton of time going through these and making some pretty templates, though for me, I like to keep them simple. 

One thing that the templates don't seem to add for you, or at least not the from scratch one, is a unsubscribe link. Every email that gets sent should have one, and most email providers add it in a footer for you. Moosend doesn't, at least not until you are happy with your template/content and want to continue. Seems bizare that they have a huge popup telling you they have to auto add one. 

After you have created your email, you can do a spam and delivery test, which is quite decent. Most platforms will do a quick SpamAssasin or something similar, whereby they may flag certain websites or URLS. 

Moosend offer a full inbox delivery test for you, showing you each provider and how likely it will be to get through. Though it seems a little hit and miss on the answers they give.

With the same email getting widely different scores on the doors. Partly down to the fact this account doesn't have a full domain access set up, but the big difference between 100% Gmail compliant to 0% Gmail compliant, with no changes makes it seem a little hit and miss. And may put some people off. It may be down to what emails you add in the 'design and delivery test' section, though I am not sure. 

Lastly, you can do your delivery ,either schedule for later, or send it straight away, depending on your objective. Pretty standard stuff, but you can also tell it to do a re-send, for those who don't open it. Something I wish you could do with normal campaigns, rather than having to do automation or flows to try and do it, so well done Moosend once again.

With a number of different options, including giving it a different subject line, campaign sender email and at what point you want to send the email, you really can increase your chances of someone seeing your email this way. 

Lastly, you get your snapshot, design as a final checklist to ensure you are happy with everything, once that has been checked, you can send. 

Landing Page & Capture Page Designer (Lead Generation)

Next up, an area that more email platforms are starting to offer, a lead generation section, or essentially an email capture designer. I do think it's a great idea for email marketing platforms, as it allows their users to have everything under one roof. 

As you may have guessed, the editor looks and feels the same as the email editor, with 2 separate options, a landing page and a subscription form. 

Landing Page

The same wizard style builder that you see in the campaigns section is provided here. Giving you a nice step by step tab wizard to get you setup and running. 

As before, you are given a designer to either create a brand new page from scratch, or to take one of their pre-made templates. They have a variety of designs to choose from, offering different outcomes, such as eBooks, Webinars or general lead generation.

Selecting a template, will once again open the Moosend Designer. Providing you with a number of elements and even changes to structure if you so wish. 

The drag and drop designer, quickly lets you change different elements, such as swapping around where the timer is. You can also select fields or elements and change their settings.

It's pretty easy to do, with nothing causing much of a drama. If you want quick and easy capture pages, with no fancy bells or whistles, this will do you fine. 

As designers and landing page creation tools go, this one works well, and I enjoyed using it as much as GetResponses own version. 

You can also choose where you want the landing page to live, for example if you want Moosend to host a version for you, and you simply send your potential leads to that URL, or you can embed it into WordPress, which is great for bloggers.

You will need to get the plugin setup to be able to use Moosend on your blog though, so keep that in mind. 

Subscription Form

The subscription forms can be either connected to your website, or embedded onto other sites with HTML or via a URL link hosted by Moosend. 

Moosend provide you with a number of different form types, such a standard popups, full page forms or floating boxes. Giving you the ability to have a number of options and styles, especially if you want to play around with different styles and tactics on a website, blog or store. 

Depending on the one you choose, you are then shown a number of different templates, from having a look, there are 11 different styles, for each of the subscription forms. 

No surprise, the editor is the same as other areas, though if you select a template, you can't change the layout, only the colours and fonts. Which is fine if you only want to take what is given, but if you want to build upon the template, more than just font changes, then you are a bit stuffed. 

One oddity that did happen to me when testing this out, I had no way of getting back to subscription forms, for example if I cancelled what I was doing, and wanted to come back too it, I could see the form, but couldn't get back into it. It just sat, idle. It was annoying. 

Automation & Flow Creation (Automations)

An area of email platforms that I actually enjoy looking into, especially as more platforms start to use them, though sadly they do get locked behind paywalls (GetResponse as an example). 

Automation flows are designed to pass leads through a series of decisions, emails and nodes to provide a variety of different outcomes (passing onto other flows, removing from lists or adding to other lists). 

Flows can be a much better way of providing emails sequences than the standard 'follow up sequences or autoresponders' that you see on other platforms. 

Moosend have a large number of automation templates that can be chose, from sending happy birthday emails, following up on abandoned carts, sending special offer reminders, loyalty sequences and a whole bunch more.

Selecting any of these will open the automation flow builder, I have selected an onboarding email flow up to see what is possible.

Depending on the flow you picked, they will each have a different trigger to start them. These can be deleted, updated or added too if you so want.

Flows can be kicked off from any number of triggers, including; 

• Opens certain emails
• Clicks on email links
• Subscribe to lists
• Have certain values or even tags assigned
• If a product is purchased, or simply added to a cart (but not purchased)

You get a few to choose from, which shows that they really are thinking about more than just simple blogs or newsletters, and cater for large stores and shops.

As you can see with the images above, the flows provide you with a number of steps, with a decision or filter splitting it at the end. The filter can of course be updated to look at a number of different conditions. 

The filtering is pretty easy, and the overall UI is in my opinion better than the ActiveCampaign counterpart. 

After each section, you have the ability to add a condition, or another action. Including some pretty odd ones such as weather conditions! Perhaps if it's a sunny day people don't look at their emails, so it's best to send when it's rainy. 

You are given 11 different actions that can be executed, including;

• Send an email
• Send a slack message
• Send you a message/ping
• Subscribe/Unsubscribe to a list
• Set custom field values (including increase/decrease values)
• Add/Remove Tags
• Trigger other automations
• Post a web hook

Each action is easy enough to edit, simply clicking on the action of your choice, for example the 'Send email campaign' will open up a new popup to choose an email (or create a new one). 

The email preview and overall UI again is nicer, and cleaner than that of something like ActiveCampaign, and even GetResponse. 

Once you are happy, and you have gone through every pending task (Yes, Moosend actually tell you what you have left to do, which is great for big flows), you can publish and activate your new flow.

I really like the automations, having looked at a number of different templates while writing this Moosend review, it feels like you have a ton of different scenarios thought about. To top it off, you can also export/import other peoples flows from other Moosend accounts. Much like ActiveCampaign, something I may utilise. 

Reporting (reports)

Reporting is pretty standard, with a ton of different graphs and reports that are run per campaign. You can look at; 

• Total subscribers
• Unique Opens
• Top Link Clicks
• Top Recipients
• Locations
• Desktop vs Mobile
• Click Maps 
• Locations & Countries

You can also dive into the activities of different subscribers and seeing what they are doing and when as part of that campaign. 

The campaign reporting offers you a ton of information, and for those running large eCommerce sites and even standard newsletter campaigns, you can get a lot of useful information from these reports.

Integrations (Integrations)

The final part, or at least on the tools and features part of this Moosend Review, is the Integrations section. Integrations are a crucial part of any email platform, because without the ability to plug into other sites, such as WordPress, Shopify or even ClickFunnels, you are kind of dead in the water. Or at least, not moving forward as fast as you should be.

Moosend is no different, they have a whole section of integrations, but sadly, it's a little lacking. Which may be down to the fact they are new, or they want to integrate via bridge software such as Zapier, but whatever the case, it is missing some key integrations, in my eyes. 

Looking through the list, they do have some good sites and platforms that they can talk too, for example

• WordPress
• Salesforce
• Drupal
• Zapier (more on that later)

And aside from a few inbox delivery tools and a few more intermediate or bridge tools, that is your lot. 

The only way to integrate with popular platforms such as ClickFunnels, Shopify, BigCommerce or Leadpages etc, you have to use Zapier. Which is an added cost, and added faff. 

For me to fully move over to Moosend, I would want to be able to directly link to ClickFunnels, or to integrate with Thrive Leads for my WordPress sites (though for WordPress I would probably swap out Thrive Leads for Moosends own lead gen tools). 

I could get it all set up via Zapier, but from experience, you introduce more places to have errors or broken integrations and I would prefer having a straight 1-1 set up. 

Deliverability & API 

To improve deliverability and increase the chance for your email to actually reach inboxes, you always want to add DKIMs ID and get your SMTP set up. 

Moosend have made it fairly easy to set it all up, including all the information you need found under 2 key areas. 

• SMTP 
• Senders

SMTP is pretty straight forward, Moosend give you the details that you need to add to your domain or registrar owner. 

The same can be said for the Senders area, which provides a clear overview for each email address being used to say if it has had a DKIM or SMTP set up for it. 

You can click on each area and it will take you to the corresponding settings or details. Having all of this information in one place, is brilliant, especially when  have 3 or 4 different email addresses being used. 

Moosend Pricing How Much Does Moosend Cost?

Pricing for Moosend is fairly straight forward, in the fact they have 3 tiers, but of course pricing does change depending on the number of subscribers (which is quite common for email platforms). 

The following table should provide a good idea on pricing, for 1,000 subscribers. If you want to play around with 1,001+ subscribers, check this page out and check the pricing. 

For the majority of users, the PRO plan would be enough, and if you are completely new to marketing, or eCommerce then you can use the FREE account until you are past the 1,000 subscribers, and then still only pay a small amount per month as you grow. 

Pricing is on par, if not better than something like GetResponse or ActiveCampaign.

What I Liked About Moosend?

To put it bluntly, a lot. The platform is clear, user friendly and packed full of features that on other email marketing platforms are locked behind ever increasing paywalls and add-ons. 

The templates that are on offer are decent, well laid out and offer a variety of different styles, from eCommerce newsletters to eBook sign up offers. The actual template editor is decent, with a drag and drop builder, that works really well. 

I really like Moosends designer and builder, the actual platform itself is easier to navigate than ActiveCampaign, and the landing page builder is better than GetResponse. 

If you are some one who is in need of an autoresponder with more than just an email sequence, or some boring looking emails, then Moosend is probably for you, especially as it's only $8 per month to get access to the majority of the features you would need. 

Issues I Had With Moosend

It wouldn't be an honest review if I didn't cover the areas that I didn't like or had problems with. 

I did find a few bugs, or issues, including my landing pages and automation flows seemingly just not letting me edit them. If I stopped building them and just cancelled, I would be taken back to the overview, I would click on their names, which should take me back to the editor, it didn't. At least not every single time. It would lock up, or simply do nothing until I had deleted or cloned a few and then boom, it would be back again. 

Another big, glaring issue for me at least, is the integrations. Or lack of. Having no direction integration with the most popular lead capture platform, or the biggest eCommerce platform really baffles me. 

I get that Zapier can be used, but it's just another platform and another cost that has to be thought about and built/plugged in, which is an annoying oversight. 

Moosend Alternatives?

It's no secret that there are a lot of email platforms out there, some catering for certain niches or customers, other just offering their email services to whoever needs to use them. 

Below are a few alternatives to Moosend, and how they stack up. 

Moosend vs Aweber

A popular email provider, Aweber is one of the big 4 that are usually spoken about, especially within marketing or blogging circles. They offer a free, account that does offer most of their features, though only for 500 subscribers. 

The huge difference is their automations, Aweber really only offers sequences, which can be kick started with different triggers, but each sequence is independent. There are no flows, and the standard step by step sequences are pretty rudimentary.

Aweber has one of the simplest pricing structures, free, or pro and that's it. The free account does come with branding, and you lose some of the additional tracking, but it is pretty similar to their pro account. This is great for getting started. 

But, there is of course a difference in pricing when it comes to Aweber vs Moosend.

Aweber starts charging after 501 subscribers. The first tier will will cost you $26.15 per month (but you will need to pay that annually). 

In contrast, Moosend will offer you a free account up to 1,000 subscribers. If you decide to go over 1,000 subscribers or you want more features with their Pro account, then it will cost you  $8 per month (paid annually) for up to 2,000 subscribers.

That is a huge difference in price, this definitely makes me want to do a full review or break down of Moosend vs Aweber to compare all of their features and pricing, though from looking at the pricing above, I feel Moosend will win quite easily. 

Moosend vs GetResponse

Another very popular email marketing platform, is of course GetResponse, a company I use myself, especially on more 'make money' or affiliate niche focused email lists. They are known as being affiliate friendly, good for eCommerce and of course have automation and flows. 

A lot of the features are comparable to Moosend, with automation, landing pages, lead funnels (kind of like an email sequence) and autoresponders. They also provide access to webinars, which is something Moosend doesn't seem to offer. 

GetResponse don't offer free accounts, and instead offer what they call a 'Basic' account, which as the name suggests, offers access to some of the basic features. Starting at $10 per month (if paid annually) for 1,000 subscribers, you essentially get access to autoresponders, landing page builders, a sales funnel and a lead generation funnel (again, a kind of version of automation, but also a slightly fancier email sequence). 

To get access to their email automation and flows, you will have to stump up $34.50 per month, which also provide access to tagging and scoring.

Again, a huge difference in price, and what you get for your money. Though if you want to run webinars with your email platform integrated, then GetResponse is good for that. But if you want automation and the ability to have a decent sized list without breaking the bank, GetResponse sadly doesn't cut it. 

I would love to do a full GetResponse vs Moosend breakdown, as they do have similar features and tooling, with GetResponse offering more in certain areas, so that will definitely get sorted.  

Moosend vs ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign, a company and platform that I would say is the closest in terms of features with Moosend. Offering very similar email automation, landing page designer and email templates and a lot more. 

Once again, they don't offer a free plan, with accounts starting at $9 per month for up to 500 subscribers to use their 'Lite' program. As with GetResponse, there isn't an easy like for like comparison, with a lot of the features being locked behind multiple different payment tiers. 

To try and get close, you will need to use ActiveCampaigns 'PLUS' account, which opens up access to Landing Pages, Custom Forms and Landing Pages, the ability to API integrated or Integrated with a larger range of platforms. This would set you back $49 per month up to 1,000 contacts, or $99 per month for 2,000+. 

The fact that landing pages are only provided at the PLUS level, and other features such as contact scoring and advanced reporting are also unlocked later on, there is once again a clear winner (at least at the ground level). 

I would also add, both Moosed and ActiveCampaign are platforms that require 'warming up', though Moosend seems more friendly towards affiliates, I would take the time to send high quality emails and use bridge pages to offer rather than straight up affiliate links in everything. 

A more in-depth Active Campaign vs Moosend article is required, though from the looks of it, Moosend is currently winning. 

Moosend vs MailChimp

The final platform to pit against Moosend, and one that they have actually compared in the past. MailChimp was one of the popular eCommerce mail providers, offering a really good integration with Shopify and WordPress and giving you the ability to send out receipts and newsletters with ease to your customers. 

Mailchimp have done a number of changes to their pricing, features and how they split their platform up. Seemingly offering marketing, eCommerce or transaction emails, each with different features, pricing and rules. Confusing as hell. 

Trying to do a true like for like or MailChimp vs Moosend offering is difficult, so I have chosen to go with their 'Marketing' to compare.

They do offer a free account, up to 2,000 contacts, that offers their customers access to an email builder, a marketing CRM, a forms and landing pager builder, and also a website builder? Because MailChimp now see themselves a Wix or Shopify? Who knows. 

To open up more features, I would say someone would need to jump to the 'Standard' pricing, which opens up behaviour targeting, custom content and customer journey builders (automation). For 500 subscribers, this would cost you around $14.99 per month, and there doesn't seem to be an option to pay in advance for a discount. 

That will keep you going up to 2,499 subscribers. Once you hit that limit, your next billing cycle will move to $51.99 per month for 2,500 - 4,999.

I would say the Standard option from MailChimp is comparable to the Pro account from Moosend, in terms of features. 

Once again, a sizeable difference in both pricing and features on offer. With Moosend giving you up to 5,000 subscribers, with basically all of their features (minus a few mentioned above) for $24 per month on an annual plan, or $30 if you don't like being locked in. 

Mailchimp has become a confusing mess, and I honestly don't believe they know what they are trying to be anymore. A full review is needed I think and a full comparison across these two platforms. 

Is Moosend Right For You?

If you are someone who is after a reliable, easy to use email marketing platform, then Moosend is a great place to start. With a free 1,000 subscriber account that provides a decent amount of content, tools and features, then it is worth grabbing a free account and testing out the different features.

Of course, I would always test and run this alongside your current provider, be it ActiveCampagin or GetResponse and see how it compares. As always, import a small number of emails, and send the same emails alongside your normal campaigns, then start to review and understand the reports to see the differences. 

Affiliate marketers may want to warm up the list or the account first, sending out 'normal' emails, or emails without affiliate links, and increasing the trust and open rates (while reducing possible spam rates).

Moosend Review Conclusion

A surprisingly good email tool, with a ton of different features, that are not locked behind an ever increasing array of payment tiers and confusing options.

With around 90% of content provided in the free 1,000 subscriber account, and then 95% offered under the pro account, it's a really easy start using their tools, without having to fork out $000s to understand them. 

The whole experience was pleasant to navigate, aside from one or two issues with forms or pages locking and not being able to edit, but I doesn't seem to be a consistent bug and I wouldn't say it removes anything or puts me off. 

Have you tried Moosend in the past, if so how did you get on with it and which parts did you enjoy/not enjoy, let me know below.