January 22

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Detailed And Honest Aweber Review-Is there A Free Version?

By Sibusisiwe Musevenzi

January 22, 2022


This article is a detailed and honest AWeber Review-Is There A Free Version?, and I will quickly answer this question that is at the top of many people's minds. The short answer is Yes and more on that further down when we take a look at pricing plans.

Let us first...

Find out in this detailed AWeber Review:

  •  What is Aweber?
  • Who should use Aweber?
  • Aweber Pricing
  • Pros and cons
  • Aweber Features
  • Aweber Alternatives
  • What is Aweber used for?

Below is Aweber's homepage...so what is Aweber?

Detailed And Honest Aweber Review-Is there A Free Version?

Aweber Homepage 2022.

  • AWeber is a marketing and communication tool that offers you the ability to create, send, and track emails.
  • It offers email marketing services to online businesses of all sizes.
  • You can use this email marketing autoresponder to send newsletters, promote your products or services, share blog posts, and announce contests.
  • AWeber was founded in 1998 and they boldly claim to have been the first email marketing autoresponder on the market.

So who should use AWeber?

AWeber can be used by:

  •  Students
  •  Nonprofits
  • Small businesses
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Affiliate Marketers

Now, you want to know if this email marketing tool is even affordable for a beginner?

To answer that, let us look into how it is priced...

AWeber Pricing:

  • AWeber comes in a choice of two plans.
  • Being a Free plan and a Pro which starts at $19.99 per month for up 500 subscribers.
  • From 501-2 500 subscribers the price is $29.99.
  • From 2 501 -5 000 subscribers, you would pay $49.99.
  • At $69.99 you can have between 5 001 -10 000 subscribers.
  •  For 10 001 -25 000 subscribers the price is $149.99.
  • If you have over 25 000 subscribers...you need to call AWeber at 1-877-293-2371 or contact them by chat or email.

What are the things that are going on for AWeber and not...

AWeber Pros and Cons:

Pros
  • Only two plans to choose from either the Free or Pro plan.
  • 24/7 Live Support is available for all plans by email and chat. By phone on 1-877-293-2371, Monday-Friday 8 am-8 pm ET.
  • Access to all features is available for all plans.
  • A 19.2% Discount is available for taking an annual/yearly plan.
  • Offers 3 months Free on the Pro plan followed by a 25% Discount for Nonprofits opening a new account.
Cons
  • Emails and landing pages will carry AWeber Branding while you are on the Free Plan.
  • For an autoresponder that is aged, it should have more features. 
Conclusion
  • AWeber is a powerful email marketing service that helps you to build your list, send emails, and grow your business.
  • They let you get started for free and access pretty much all the features to get you up and running.
  • Their 24/7 customer support by chat, email, and phone makes them really stand out compared to GetResponse.
  • AWeber gives you all the tools and features that you need to create successful email campaigns and to grow your business.

So what features do you find in Aweber... let us get into it now with detailed explanations where possible.

AWeber Features:

1. Email Marketing which the primary function of this autoresponder.

Tools you can use under this feature are:

  • Drag and Drop email builder
  • Predesigned Email Templates
  • Create and Send Newsletters
  • Email Automation
  • HTML emails
  • RSS to email
  • AMP Emails
  • Dynamic Content
  • Hosted Broadcast Archive
  • Images
  • Email Split Testing is commonly known as A/B Testing
  • Behavioural Automation
  • Branded Click Tracking Links
  • Cart abandonment
  • Purchase Tagging
  • You can remove AWeber branding by upgrading.

This is such a mouthful, but this email marketing feature touches on the simple basics and also other business needs for example e-commerce businesses.

2. Landing Pages:

  • So you can create unlimited landing pages using professional images and predesigned or prebuilt landing page templates that suit a variety of your business goals.
  • You can build video landing pages that are great for engagement as part of this feature.
  • AWeber gives you an option to build your own from scratch using the drag and drop editor.
  • As shown in the below image when choosing a template...
Aweber Landing Page Design

Aweber Choose A Template.

  • When done creating your landing page you can set up Google Analytics and Facebook pixel tracking.
  • The ability to buy and connect your own domain. You can use this landing page to sell products and services.
  • If you do not want AWeber branding on your landing pages, just upgrade to the pro plan.

3. AWeber Ecommerce:

  • This tool enables you to collect payments for your services or products directly from e-commerce landing pages.
  • I have below a quick rundown of how to set up this e-commerce element on your landing page.

4. Signup Forms:

This is a fantastic tool to help you grow your email list and you put it on your landing page.

Here is a demo, on how to add a signup form below...

5. Automations:

This feature will make you run your business on autopilot. You just set it and leave so to speak. It helps increase open rates and engagement.

You can send these types of emails:

  • Welcome New Contacts
  • Send lead Magnets
  • Recent blog posts
  • Abandoned cart
  • Upsells
  • Birthday celebration or special occasion.

Jay Moore from AWeber has a quick demo on how to add automation to campaigns in the video below:

6. Web Push Notifications:

  • This tool serves customers by delivering notifications straight to their web browser. Customers have to opt-in first by allowing notifications.
  • These messages can link directly to a website, landing page, signup form, and shopping cart.

For  a brief overview of what web push notifications are. I have this resource in video format to do just that for you

One of the many outstanding features of AWeber is its integration with a popular graphic design tool called Canva.

7. Design With Canva

  • AWeber allows you to use Canva for designing any elements of your newsletters, or email campaigns among other things.
  • Without leaving their platform.
  • This will save you a lot of time.
  • Integrating with a graphic design tool is a positive sign for AWeber.
  • Canva is easy to use for most design needs, you can rely on them and now you can use it within the AWeber platform. 
Canva On Mobile Screen

Canva Logo On Mobile Phone.

8. Integrations:

  • AWeber makes it so easy for beginners to use their email marketing platform by allowing different types of integrations.
  • This makes it accessible to different businesses.
Integration

Integrations are categorised as follows:

  • Content Management
  • CRM
  • eCommerce
  • Landing Page
  • Lead Generation
  • Membership
  • Productivity Tools
  • Social
  • Survey
  • Video
  • Webinar
  • Other, find yours by using the search button if not listed.

24/7 Support

Aweber Support
  • AWeber excels in customer support.
  • They treat all their customers equally whether you are paying for a plan or using a  free plan.
  •  By making you access 24/7 live chat , email, and phone support which is available Mon-Fri 8 am-8 pm ET.

AWeber Pricing Plan Differences:

  • There are minute differences between the two plans.
  • So if you are a beginner you can get used to the platform using all the features available to you.

Now, let us consider the differences...

Although AWeber has made it possible for the Free Plan customers to be able to access pretty much all the features.

But there are some differences that are worth mentioning.

On the Free plan, you are allowed 1 list profile, up to 500 subscribers and 3 000 email sends per month. While the Pro plan has unlimited subscribers, list profiles and email sends.

You can not do the following with a free plan.

When using the email marketing feature:

  • Email Split Testing
  • Behavioural Automation
  • Cart abandonment/ Purchase Tagging
  • Branded click-tracking links
  • Remove AWeber Branding

Pro pricing plan customers have access to all of the above.

Landing pages on the Free plan carry AWeber branding while on the Pro plan it is removed.

Although you can create signup forms you can not split test them. This can only be done when you upgrade to the Pro pricing plan.

As for segmentation you can not save and send to custom segments with a free plan you need to upgrade for this feature to be unlocked.

Aweber Differences In Pricing Plans

AWeber Pricing Plans Differences.

You can not access other reporting features on the free plan and they are:

  • Advanced message analytics
  • Advanced audience/ account analytics
  • Webpage tracking
  • Email Sales Tracking

All these features are available to Pro plan customers.

As for AWeber Ecommerce, the transaction fees are 1.0% for Free plan customers and just 0.6% on the Pro pricing plan.

Finally, The Pro version has unlimited web push notifications while the free plan can:

  • Collect Subscribers up to 50 000 WPN subscribers
  • Send messages to up to 50 000 WPN subscribers.

AWeber Alternatives:

I will touch on 3 major differences in email marketing autoresponders based on:

  1. Pricing
  2. Features such as automation and web push notifications
  3. Ecommerce Transaction fees.

AWeber vs GetResponse:

GetResponse's Free Plan has the same number of contacts compared to AWeber. 

But some features unlock only when you upgrade to the basic plan. 

For example, automation and web push notifications are only available in GetResponse from Plus and Max Custom pricing respectively.

For A Full GetResponse Review Read It Here!

AWeber vs Convertkit: 
Convertkit's Free Plan allows up to 1 000 subscribers compared to AWeber's Free plan which allows up to 500 subscribers. 

Although in AWeber on a free plan you can do limited automation while in Convertkit you need to upgrade to unlock automation.

AWeber vs Constant Contact:
Constant Contact is a bit expensive although their Core plan starts at $9.99 per month and $45 per month for their Plus plan for up to 500 contacts and you can not access full automation compared to AWeber which unlocks at $19.99 per month.

AWeber's Free plan only charges 1% transaction fees and the basic plan 0.5% compared to Constant Contact charging its customers 1.5% on both of their basic plans.

These fees are for processing payments in e-commerce stores.

Aweber's Deliverability Rate:

A quick chat with them about their deliverability rates is shown below...

Aweber Deliverability Rates

AWeber Chat About Deliverability Rates.

So far we have had an all-around look at this detailed AWeber review, about AWeber pricing, is it safe, its features, its pros, and cons, who should use AWeber, its alternatives, and what is AWeber used for?

Let's find out how this email marketing service scores based on my 5 key decision-making factors. That I will mention below...

Stars Rating

AWeber Rating Summary 

96% Overall

When choosing an email marketing autoresponder for your business. You need to ensure that it excels in the following:

  • Pricing
  • Ease of Use
  • Deliverability
  • Marketing Automation
  • Good Trial Period.
94%
Pricing
96%
ease of use
99%
DELIVERABILITY
95%
MARKETING AUTOMATION
97%
GOOD TRIAL PERIOD

Aweber is definitely a contender in the email marketing race. It excels in the core factors department that every autoresponder should have to make life easier for beginners.

It is safe to use.

Now, back to the question at top of everyone's mind...

Is there a free version of AWeber?

The answer again is YES.

By filling in those fields on their homepage as shown below, you can get started for FREE. You will be able to send emails up to 3 000 per month and build an email list of up to 500 subscribers.

Aweber Signup Form

AWeber Free Signup Form

So far, I hope you now have the answers to the following questions:

  • Is AWeber free? 
  • What is AWeber?
  • AWeber Pros and Cons, 
  • Who should use AWeber?
  • What is AWeber used for?
  • AWeber Pricing, Features, and alternatives.

My final thoughts are, in a nutshell, AWeber does what it says on the tin.

It is beginner-friendly and is a well-established email marketing software.

 Its strong point is that it allows access to most features to free plan customers.

And customer support is available to all customers whether you are on a free plan or pro pricing plan.

It has the feel of email service providers like Yahoo. Their layout so far, by having the menu dropping down on the left and using the editor in the middle.

So I hope this AWeber Review will help you decide if it is right for you and your business goals.

Thank you for taking your precious time to read this article.

Before you go, I would love to hear what you think about AWeber, any questions are welcome.

Sibusisiwe Musevenzi

About the author

Sibusisiwe is a full-time mum and blogger. With over 5 years of experience in digital marketing. She spends most of her time writing articles about email marketing autoresponders, hacks, tips, and tricks to grow your online business. Using the power of email marketing.

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