Benchmark Email Review: Does It Beat the Competition?

I’ve spent a good chunk of time with Benchmark Email’s campaign tools, and they hit a sweet spot between simple and functional. Creating email blasts, RSS campaigns, A/B tests, or targeted campaigns—none of it requires a PhD in email marketing, which I appreciate when I’m juggling multiple projects.

Email Editor

The editor uses this section + block system that just makes sense. I can save blocks I use often, which saves me from rebuilding the same footer fifty times. The “apply to all buttons” feature? Total time-saver when you’re trying to keep everything on-brand.

One thing I learned the hard way — Easy Paste is your friend. It strips out all that nasty formatting from Word that can tank your deliverability. Been there, done that, won’t make that mistake again.

The editor has its quirks though. Autosave is there, but you still need to manually save (trust me on this one). If you’re using personalization tags, they need to be exact — no wiggle room. 

The Inbox Checker costs extra, but I use it religiously for spam testing to make sure my designs don’t break in Outlook (because Outlook loves breaking things). There’s also an HTML editor for those who want more control, plus a plain text editor for simple messages.

Benchmark email offers 400+ flexible templates organized by industry and campaign type. I’ve used their newsletter, promo, and holiday templates more times than I can count. They’re all mobile-responsive out of the box, which means one less thing to worry about when creating a responsive email.

The global styling feature has saved my bacon on rush projects—change your brand colors once, and boom, everything updates. No clicking through every single element like some platforms make you do.

Fair warning: you’re stuck with web-safe fonts (no uploading your brand’s custom font), and if you’re a pixel-perfectionist, some templates might drive you nuts. But for getting campaigns out the door that look professional? They do the job with their smart design approach.

I’ve played with both Automation Lite and Automation Pro versions. Lite covers your basics—welcome emails, birthday messages, simple follow-ups. Pro is where things get interesting with branching logic and behavior triggers, though calling it “Pro” might be generous compared to what’s out there.

Here’s what bugs me: you’re capped at 10 branches in your workflows. For simple drip campaigns, that’s fine. For complex customer journeys? Not so much. No multivariate testing either, and Standard plans only run 20 automations at once. I’ve hit that ceiling, and it’s frustrating when you’re managing multiple client campaigns.

That said, everything plays nicely together—customer data, personalization, ecommerce blocks all work smoothly. If you’re not trying to build some crazy sophisticated funnel, the automation tools handle basic trigger-based emails and email automation needs without drama.

Same drag-and-drop system as the email editor, which is nice—no learning curve if you already know one. The landing pages get Google Fonts though (finally!), and everything’s mobile responsive without you doing anything.

Forms connect straight to your lists, so no messing around with third-party tools or complicated integrations. You can set up SEO basics and use custom domains, which is table stakes these days but still worth mentioning.

What drives me crazy? No A/B testing for landing pages. None. You want to test? You’re adding Google Analytics and doing it yourself. The templates are… functional. They work, they convert okay, but nobody’s winning design awards here. At least the email previews work well so you can see what you’re building.

You’ve got your standard options—embedded forms, pop-up, in-email forms—all drag-and-drop customizable. I usually set up the basics: name, email, maybe birthday for those birthday campaigns. GDPR checkboxes are built in, which saved me some headaches with European clients.

You can embed these anywhere with HTML or use their hosted URLs. Nothing groundbreaking, but it works without drama, and sometimes that’s all you need. The user interface for building forms is straightforward—even non-technical folks can handle it.

This is where Benchmark Email shows its age a bit. Everything’s list-based, not tag-based like modern platforms. Want to segment across different criteria? You’re creating multiple lists and probably duplicating contacts. Coming from Sender, this felt like stepping backward.

You can merge lists, clean them, suppress certain contacts—basic housekeeping stuff. The list verification feature helps keep your lists clean, and you can import contacts from CSV or TXT files easily.

But if you’re used to sophisticated tagging and segmentation with all your contacts? You’ll be doing workarounds constantly. For simple newsletters to one main list? Totally fine. For complex segmentation? Prepare for frustration.

They’ve got the technical basics covered—SPF, DKIM, DMARC support, the works. Shared IPs on lower plans, dedicated if you pay up. That Easy Paste feature I mentioned? It helps avoid spam triggers from wonky HTML.

Campaigns usually land around 66-75% deliverability from what I’ve seen reported elsewhere. Not amazing, not terrible—solidly middle of the pack. If deliverability is your top priority, Sender consistently hits 95%+ rates and might be worth checking out. If you’re on shared IPs and someone else on your server is being spammy? Your deliverability takes a hit.

For small lists and normal sending patterns, you’re fine. If you’re sending massive volumes or need pristine deliverability? You’ll want that dedicated IP and maybe look at more specialized platforms. The hourly performance graph helps you track when your emails perform best.

This is a mixed bag for me. They connect with about 300 services—Shopify, Zapier, Salesforce, WordPress, the usual suspects. For basic setups, that’s enough. But compared to the thousands of integrations other platforms offer? It feels limited.

The integrations that exist work well. Purchase data, website visits, that kind of behavioral stuff flows in nicely for personalization. But if your client uses some industry-specific business software or that one weird tool their team loves? Good luck.

The API is… functional. RESTful, handles the basics like creating campaigns and managing subscribers. I’ve built some simple automations with it, but it’s not winning any awards for comprehensiveness. If you’re a developer expecting robust documentation and endless endpoints, lower your expectations.

Real-time reporting on the standard metrics—opens, clicks, bounces, the usual. The heatmaps are genuinely useful for seeing where people click, and I’ve redesigned plenty of emails based on that data.

Google Analytics integration works smoothly with automatic UTM tagging, which is nice for tracking conversions on your site. But if you want cohort analysis, revenue attribution, or anything fancy? Not happening. The reports tell you what happened, not really why or what to do about it.

For small businesses who just need to know if people are opening their emails? Perfect. For data nerds who want to slice and dice everything? You’ll be exporting to Excel a lot. The automation features in reporting could use more depth too.

I’ve had mostly good experiences with support. Live chat support usually connects you with someone who knows what they’re talking about, not just someone reading from a script. Email support gets back to you within a day, sometimes faster. Phone support is available but only on higher-tier plans.

They’ve helped me troubleshoot deliverability issues, suggested subject line improvements that worked, and walked me through segmentation strategies. The knowledge base is solid too—clear explanations, good examples, covers most of what you’d need. Overall, it’s good service for the price point.

But here’s the thing—if you’re not on an Enterprise plan, you’re not getting priority support. Had a campaign that needed to go out NOW and hit a snag? Hope you’re not on the Pro plan, because you’re waiting in line like everyone else.

Benchmark Email reviews on G2 highlight ease of use and time-saving features as standout strengths. Many appreciate the automation tools for simplifying triggered campaigns and contact management, while others praise the intuitive editor and list handling, which make creating newsletters and forms straightforward even for non-technical users.

However, not all feedback is glowing—some note the limitations of the free plan and feel that customer support can be lacking compared to larger competitors.

Overall, Benchmark is viewed positively for SMB-friendly usability but with some caveats in scalability and support.

Benchmark email reviews on Capterra give a mixed feedback. Positive experiences focus on the template library, which users praise for being attractive and mobile-optimized, making campaigns easier to design. Another reviewer highlights its ability to send high-volume outbound emails, noting it helps reach a broad audience effectively.

On the negative side, one Benchmark email review reported frustration with reporting accuracy, claiming email open rates didn’t reflect reality.

Overall, Benchmark earns praise for usability and scalability but faces criticism over analytics reliability, showing it works well for design and outreach but may fall short for data-driven marketers.

Reddit users share a mixed but insightful perspective on Benchmark Email. Some praise its clean interface and suitability for simple campaigns, noting the free plan’s allowance of 500 contacts and 3,500 emails/month. Others highlight responsive customer support, citing quick six-hour turnaround times and effective solutions.

On the downside, one user criticized the Smart Sending feature, arguing it removes control from marketers and lacks transparency about skipped recipients. Overall, Reddit feedback suggests Benchmark works well for small, straightforward campaigns, but advanced users may find certain features restrictive.

From my testing and what I’ve seen reported, Benchmark email hits average deliverability. That’s decent but not great.

For small lists sending regular campaigns, you probably won’t notice the difference. But if you’re sending high volumes or your business depends on every email landing? You might want to look elsewhere or at least spring for a dedicated IP.

They’ve got the basics covered—GDPR and CCPA compliant, data processing agreements, SSL encryption, all that jazz. Double opt-in is available, unsubscribe management works properly, and they support the authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) that keep your emails from looking like spam.

What they don’t have: fancy enterprise security features. No SSO, basic user roles, definitely no HIPAA compliance. For most small businesses, that’s fine. For healthcare, finance, or anyone with strict security requirements? You’ll need something else.