The best email newslet­ter plugins for WordPress

Below is an overview of some of the top WordPress newslet­ter plugins. Here, you’ll find stand­alone ex­ten­sions and those that connect to an external newslet­ter service.

Before you can use the WP newslet­ter plugin, you need to link your WordPress using your Mailchimp API key. Once entered, the plugin confirms the in­te­gra­tion. After that, you can create as many reg­is­tra­tion forms as you wish, adjust settings and positions. MC4WP displays the HTML code for these directly in the backend.

The newslet­ter sub­scrip­tion forms are:

• User-friendly
• Optimized for mobile devices
• GDPR-compliant (double opt-in can be (de)activated)
• Suitable for setting up automatic for­ward­ing
• Suitable for embedding in posts or pages via WordPress shortcode

To design your newslet­ter, MailPoet provides a user-friendly editor in the backend and a handful of templates. Drag and drop fields, headers, images, etc. to the desired location. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, you can redesign your newslet­ter reg­is­tra­tion form from scratch.

The forms you can create with the WP newslet­ter plugin have the following features:

• Op­tion­al­ly presented as pop-up, slide-in, fixed bar or box at end/edge of page
• GDPR-compliant (double opt-in can be (de)activated)
• In­di­vid­ual color design of back­ground, font, and frame
• Pro­gram­ming in CSS possible
• In­te­gra­tion in posts or pages via shortcode possible

The Clev­er­Reach WP WordPress newslet­ter plugin connects your WordPress page to the Clev­er­Reach newslet­ter tool developed in Germany. Once you’ve installed the extension, simply log in with your Clev­er­Reach in­for­ma­tion in the backend. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, you can create an account if you have not used the tool before. Af­ter­wards, you can im­me­di­ate­ly use the limited Lite version of the software and send newslet­ters (up to 1,000) to up to 250 re­cip­i­ents with WordPress for free. Paid monthly tariffs are available to send higher volumes.

You create newslet­ters, emails, and recipient lists from the browser using the separate Clev­er­Reach web ap­pli­ca­tion. Use the THEA au­toma­tion tool to plan and automate your newslet­ter dis­tri­b­u­tion.

Other features of Clev­er­Reach WP are:

• Tagging system for re­cip­i­ents
• Multi-level bounce man­age­ment to improve the delivery rate
• Simple data export and import of recipient lists
• GDPR com­pat­i­bil­i­ty
• SSL/TLS en­cryp­tion for all forms

The user-friendly editor of the WP Newslet­ter plugin not only provides various ready-to-use templates (ap­point­ment an­nounce­ments, blog summaries, product pre­sen­ta­tions, etc.), but also offers numerous ready-made modules you can use to freely design your digital newslet­ters. You can easily drag and drop the in­di­vid­ual elements to the desired position.

Other features include:

• GDPR com­pli­ance (double-opt-in including checkbox to confirm data privacy)

• Automatic spam check for all newslet­ter reg­is­tra­tions
• Detailed planning options for sub­scriber groups
• Com­pat­i­ble with all common SMTP plugins
• Sub­scriber import from a file possible

Mailster takes over your existing WordPress user entries; al­ter­na­tive­ly, you can import a CSV list of re­cip­i­ents. Once in­te­grat­ed or created, you can subdivide the sub­scribers into lists and define in­di­vid­ual settings for the newslet­ters to be sent (for example, whether or not check­box­es should be used for a par­tic­u­lar user).

Other high­lights of the WordPress newslet­ter plugin at a glance:

• Au­toma­tion of mailing process
• Real-time analysis of campaigns and sub­scribers
• SMTP support
• Bounce man­age­ment
• For each campaign a web version is au­to­mat­i­cal­ly created

The web is ac­ces­si­ble from anywhere in the world. This means that your sub­scribers and page viewers may be based in the European Union. As of May 2018, the General Data Pro­tec­tion Reg­u­la­tion (GDPR) applies across all EU member states. This means that the following now applies when sending newslet­ters: The recipient has to consent to the pro­cess­ing of their personal data and the pro­cess­ing needs to be legally compliant. In addition, you must be able to provide in­for­ma­tion at any time about how a sub­scriber’s personal data such as an email address is stored and used.

However, the GDPR doesn’t stipulate that consent must take the form of a double opt-in procedure. If you don’t issue a con­fir­ma­tion email to consent to a newslet­ter sub­scrip­tion, you’re tech­ni­cal­ly not in violation of the GDPR. However, since the reg­u­la­tions stipulate that you must be able prove at any time that a user has agreed to receive your newslet­ter, you can use double opt-in as a proof of this re­quire­ment.