eMailChef Review

by Delivery Tech (CA, USA)

eMailChef drag and drop editor

Email marketing is a pretty crowded industry, dominated by a few incumbents who for years have set a high level of expectations about the features that we should expect from such services. Any new business entering the market has two options: they can either build the typical MVP (minimum viable product) and add features over time, aiming for a core that will attract users for different reasons than those services that already exist; or they can try to match immediately the functionality of the incumbents.

eMailChef aims for the middle ground, making its debut with all the features you can expect from a professional email marketing service and putting aside some hard-core features for the future. We think it’s a smart move that will pay well in the short term.

Usability

eMailChef’s ease of use and design choices are details that greatly impressed us from the start.  User can set up an account with just a few simple and clear steps. The software’s designers borrowed heavily from Google’s Material design, and that’s a good choice: eMailChef appearance feels unique among other email marketing services, with vivid colors and a simple, squared interface in which you can’t get lost during the set-up process.

From the Dashboard you can access everything you need, from lists to campaigns to reports to account management. Every box in your dashboard can be reordered or deleted as you wish: there’s no fixed visualization. eMailChef guides you through every procedure with an intelligent and prompt copy, even those parts of your campaign you haven’t yet used.

Autoresponders with eMailChef

Features

eMailChef looks like a typical email marketing service of choice: it offers you the ability to manage mailing lists, send email campaigns and analyze their performance over time, create templates for campaigns, build registration forms and set automatic emails that are triggered only by specific actions or conditions. Pro users can prove themselves with autoresponders and automate communications in few steps. You can target autoresponders to segments, instead of lists only.

The lists segmentation feature stands out for ease of use. We appreciated all the steps eMailChef took to make sure every user complies with the CAN-SPAM Act. They’re just complying with US and EU regulations, but they’re doing it proactively and timely, and we like it very much.

eMailChef newsletter text editor

Support

eMailChef’s support comes in the form of multi-lingual knowledge-base and FAQs and it’s very thorough. Like its competitors, eMailChef fills the site with how-to guides and tips for a better email creation. Support tickets are also in place. A “News & Updates” is available on the Dashboard and provides updates on the service performances.

Ready to send your campaign?

Ready to send your campaign?

Pricing

eMailChef has a remarkable entry-level price that’s much lower than other services. You can sign up for free for a fully functional demo account. Every monthly plan has a food-related name: for example the $10/month option is “breakfast” and the priciest option ($440) is a “gala dinner”. If you sign up for yearly plan, you can receive a discount on your subscription charge.

A “pay as you go” option is also available.  If you don’t need instant delivery, then the brand new “All you can eat” plan is the right solution. Choosing this plan you will be able to manage unlimited contacts and send all the emails you want, at the standard rate of 1,000 relays per hour.

Deliverability results

96.2%
Delivered

To test eMailChef deliverability we created a 500-contacts custom list, bringing together some of the most common free email providers such as Yahoo and Gmail. We then sent a made-up campaign to simulate proper email marketing communications. eMailChef surprised us with a dazzling 96.2% delivery rate, beating competitors. Segmenting is another feature that eMailChef gets right; users can create a segment with just a few clicks.

Conclusion

If we stress eMailChef’s shortcomings, it’s just because we are confident that it will grow steadily and thoroughly, and because it’s debuting with a product with no comprehensive automation system, a way to share a campaign on social networks, or a preview of a campaign as seen by your recipients. Those accustomed to stronger competitors may find those shortcomings prohibitive. We wait for the next update, but we’re already fans.

ACCU-RATE:
Usability: 9 /10 Speed: 9 /10 Features: 8.5 /10 Support: 9 /10 Pricing: 9 /10

Users Reviews

4 Comments

  1. Usability

    8

    Speed

    8

    Features

    7

    Support

    9

    Pricing

    7

    I use it since this last summer. It’s quick, reliable, and inexpensive. There have been a couple of times where I got some issues, but the support was responsive and kind. I’m waiting for it to grow, it’s gonna be good.

    Usability
    Speed
    Features
    Support
    Pricing
  2. Excellent!

    Usability

    10

    Speed

    8.5

    Features

    8.5

    Support

    10

    Pricing

    10

    I’m using it since its beginning and today it’s still my first choiche when i need a reliable email marketing delivery solution. Also the new Magento plugin for email marketing made my work a lot more faster (with automatic import and filtering).

    Usability
    Speed
    Features
    Support
    Pricing
  3. Good email marketing solution, excellent customer service

    Usability

    9

    Speed

    8

    Features

    7

    Support

    10

    Pricing

    9

    I’m using emailchef for my e-commerce and I love it.
    It is easy to use and very quick in delivery.
    The support is a class apart. I had a question about segments and their customer service was very helpful.
    Well done!

    Usability
    Speed
    Features
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    Pricing
  4. young but ready

    Usability

    8

    Speed

    6.5

    Features

    6

    Support

    0

    Pricing

    0

    Been using it for the last couple of weeks (free plan): it’s neat and it works pretty well. Waiting that they develop some more features, btu it’s already worth its cost.

    Usability
    Speed
    Features
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    Pricing

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