Before I dive into the ConvertKit vs GetResponse vs BirdSend comparison, here’s a disclaimer (which you probably already know):
You’re on our site — BirdSend.
While I obviously want you to give us a free try, I’ll try to cover the pros and cons of each tool (including BirdSend’s) so you can make an informed decision based on your needs.
If you’re short on time and want to save 80% in email tool expenses every month, try BirdSend risk-free here.
Table of Contents
Main differences between ConvertKit vs GetResponse vs BirdSend
BirdSend
BirdSend is for content creators who are on a tight budget, but still want to enjoy good email deliverability.
It’s for those who don’t need fancy designed emails — those who understand the true value of email marketing lies in the email content itself and not how ‘good looking’ the email design is.
Folks who use BirdSend don’t need a built-in landing page feature in the email marketing tool because they already have a dedicated tool for that.
In terms of business size, most of our users are solopreneurs or run a small team of less than 10 members.
Core focus: budget-conscious content creators who want high email opens; simplicity.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is for more affluent creators who are willing to pay a hefty price for an email marketing tool.
The premium price tag is partly because ConvertKit outsources its deliverability to 3rd party vendors.
This could be cause for concern because deliverability problems will happen to all email tools at one point or another. It’s a question of when it will happen. When it happens, an in-house team responds faster than an outsourced one.
Core focus: simplicity.
GetResponse
GetResponse is ideal for medium to bigger companies with salespeople who want to do all marketing-related activities under one roof (sales CRM, online store builder, website builder, landing page builder, webinar).
Core focus: advanced automation.
Before we move to the feature comparison of ConvertKit vs GetResponse vs BirdSend, let’s see…
How content creators send 30 million emails/month while saving 80% every month
Content creators here include bloggers, course creators, coaches, consultants, podcasters, YouTubers, etc.
Basically if you share / teach your knowledge to others, you’re a content creator.
They use BirdSend to send 30 million emails/month while saving 80% every month, yet still enjoy high email open rates.
With BirdSend, you’re also able to set up email series / sequences super fast — I dare say faster than anything you’ve tried. If you can find one faster, let me know and I’ll give you a paid account for free.
Features / Functionalities — ConvertKit vs GetResponse vs BirdSend
BirdSend
Does it offer free migration?
Yes. Subscribers, sequences / email series, automation, forms, integrations — we’ll move everything from your current email marketing tool to BirdSend, at no charge.
Can subscribers choose which topics to receive emails about?
Yes. They can select email topics they want to keep receiving emails about while unsubscribing from others.
Does it charge the same contact / subscriber multiple times?
No. We only charge unique contacts. So if someone is on multiple sequences and has multiple tags, we only charge you for 1 contact.
Does it charge unsubscribed and unconfirmed contacts?
No. We only bill you for contacts that you can send emails to.
Is the setup quick and easy?
BirdSend is the anti-technical email service provider (ESP). The app is minimalistic and loads fast. Setting up email drips / sequences is even quicker. I’ve already mentioned this at the top of the article — if you can find one that’s faster, let me know and I’ll give you a paid BirdSend account on the house.
Who is the target audience (and business size)?
Content creators who are solopreneurs or with a tiny team size of less than 10.
Content creators = bloggers, course creators, coaches, consultants, agencies, podcasters, YouTubers, etc.
Not suitable for folks strictly selling physical products (i.e. online store).
Can you resend emails to non-openers quickly and easily?
Setting up resend emails couldn’t be faster in BirdSend. Simply check a box, write your new subject line, done. You can resend emails for both sequence and broadcast emails.
Does it have A/B testing?
You can split test or A/B test your broadcast emails. You’re also able to specify the email ratios for the original email, variation email, and winner email.
Plus, you can also set the winner criteria to not only be based on open rates, but also on higher earnings or higher click rates.
Additionally, you can easily resend the winner email to non-openers, all within a single section.
Can it do email series / sequences / drips?
This is like the price of entry for an ESP. So of course yes. As mentioned above, setting this up in BirdSend is super fast.
Does it support behavior-based automation?
Yes. For example, quickly set up rules like: if subscriber clicks a certain link in a particular email → tag with X or subscribe to sequence X or unsubscribe from sequence Y.
Can it send one-off broadcast emails?
Yes.
Can it create forms and landing pages?
Forms yes. Landing pages no. We focus on our core competency — email marketing and making sure your emails get delivered to the inbox — and let dedicated landing page tools do their best job of creating landing pages. A landing page tool also can’t send emails, right?
Is the email editor quick to crank out emails?
Yes. There are only 3 steps:
1/ Determine the recipients
2/ Write the email content
3/ Send immediately or schedule it to be sent later
We focus on text-based emails (though you can easily insert images, logos, screenshots, etc). No over-the-top designed emails that are ‘heavy’. We focus on simplicity and let the email content itself do the talking instead of ‘wowing’ subscribers with good looking emails. They subscribe and want to hear from you because of your content anyway, not because your email design is pretty.
Does it offer segmentation capability?
Yes. You can easily segment contacts via ‘tags’ and ‘segments’. You can create a tag on the fly. You can also automatically (or manually) attach tags to contacts based on their behavior or which opt-in form they filled.
What kind of stats / reporting does it provide?
Sales revenue, lifetime value (LTV) of your contacts, average lifetime value (ALTV) for your entire account or based on a specific campaign / tag, open rate, click rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate, spam complaint rate, who opened / clicked what and when, etc.
Can you send abandoned cart emails?
Yes. We currently integrate out of the box with these carts to automatically send abandoned cart emails:
- aMember
- MemberPress
- SamCart
- SendOwl
- Shopify
- Teachable
- Thinkific
- ThriveCart
- WooCommerce
We’ll continue to add more as we constantly improve. For now if you’re using other carts, you can use Zapier to connect with BirdSend.
Does it have a built-in email content spam testing tool?
Yes.
How is customer support?
Here are a few reviews about our customer service:
Does it have a free plan?
No, instead BirdSend offers a 7+7 = 14 days free trial. On the registration page, it says 7 days. But when you enter your credit card details, it’ll add another 7 days, making it a 14-day free trial.
Why is a free plan not available?
Because we want to focus on serving paying customers so we can give them the best possible customer service. We’re a small, nimble team and want to serve only serious folks.
Is the value for money good?
When it comes to the core of email marketing — which is to make sure emails get delivered to the inbox and the ability to quickly set up email funnels and broadcasts — the value for money is high. But talk is cheap, why not give us a risk-free try and let the results speak for themselves?
Pro
3 – 5X more affordable than other email marketing tools, yet still able to maintain high email deliverability.
Con
- New player in the email marketing space (since 2018)
- Relatively small team — 7 members only (which is how we’re able to offer personalized and ‘family-like’ customer support
- Simplicity is core in BirdSend. Not suitable for advanced automation.
ConvertKit
Does it offer free migration?
Yes, for paid plans.
Can subscribers choose which topics to receive emails about?
No. They can only unsubscribe completely from you (the sender). There isn’t an option for them to choose which topics whey want to keep subscribed to, and which ones they don’t.
Does it charge the same contact / subscriber multiple times?
No.
Does it charge unsubscribed and unconfirmed contacts?
No.
Is the setup quick and easy?
Yes. ConvertKit is also a tool focused on simplicity, so setting things up is straightforward.
What is the target audience & business size?
ConvertKit targets the more affluent creators who also want to create landing pages (in addition to sending emails) in an email marketing tool. Most of their customers are small businesses.
Can you resend emails to non-openers quickly and easily?
Yes, for broadcast emails. Resending for sequence emails is not possible.
Does it have A/B testing?
Yes, although it’s somewhat limited. You’re not able to:
- customize the email ratios (original email, variation email, winner email)
- customize the duration of the test (they set it at 4 hours)
- customize the winner criteria (only based on open rate)
- resend the winner to non-openers
Can it do email series / sequences / drips?
Yes.
Does it support behavior-based automation?
Yes. You can easily set up automation like this: if contact clicks link X → tag with X and subscribe to sequence X.
Can it send one-off broadcast emails?
Yes.
Can it create forms and landing pages?
Forms yes. You can also create simple lead capture pages.
Is the email editor quick to crank out emails?
Yes. Being a mostly text-based emails like BirdSend, setting up email messages is easy.
Does it offer segmentation capability?
Yes, you can do this easily via their tagging system.
What kind of stats / reporting does it provide?
Although open and click rates are provided, bounce and spam complaint stats aren’t available — which is useful to gauge the healthiness of your list. Stats are also randomly sorted, making it tad harder when reviewing.
How is customer support?
They used to have good support, and recently (based on conversations I had with folks trying to switch to another email tool), some experienced a quality drop in this department. Your mileage may vary and I must add it’s also dependent on who is helping you. Some people are just more helpful than others.
Does it have a free plan?
Yes, with the following caveats:
- their logo on every email
- no sequences and automation
- max 1k contacts
- no migration provided
Is the value for money good?
ConvertKit’s pricing is rather expensive — which is why I say they’re for the more affluent creators. Although they have a free plan, once you’ve outgrown it, the jump to the lowest paid plan is quite big (from zero → jump to $29/month).
Can you send abandoned cart emails?
Yes, but you can only do so via Zapier.
Does it have a built-in email content spam testing tool?
No.
Pro
Easy segmentation via tags.
Con
- Subscribers can’t unsubscribe from certain topics, they can only choose to subscribe to all topics or unsubscribe completely. This means you’ll lose more subscribers than you should.
- Deliverability is outsourced (instead of having an in-house deliverability team). When there’s a deliverability issue, an outsourced team is going to take longer to resolve the problem.
- It’s a bit of a hassle to search for things in ConvertKit because they don’t have filters. You’d have to endlessly scroll and use the browser’s search function (or your eyes) to find what you’re looking for.
GetResponse
Does it offer free migration?
No. Even for the paid plans, you’d have to move everything yourself.
Can subscribers choose which topics to receive emails about?
Yes.
Does it charge the same contact / subscriber multiple times?
Yes, for example if Simon Subscriber is on 5 different lists, you’re charged for 5 contacts. Your bill adds up pretty quickly when you have thousands of subscribers like this. And yes, it’s common for someone to subscribe to multiple lists.
Does it charge unsubscribed and unconfirmed contacts?
No.
Is the setup quick and easy?
Because it’s an all-in-one marketing platform that can do a lot of things under one roof, it’s normal that their UI is somewhat clunky, slow, and not the most intuitive. As with anything new, there’s a learning curve. GetResponse requires the most learning curve compared to BirdSend and ConvertKit.
What is the target audience & business size?
They target every type of business — from online stores, course creators, brick and mortar businesses, agencies… to big companies with many salespeople.
Can you resend emails to non-openers quickly and easily?
No, there isn’t a way to ‘1-click’ this. You’d need to hack around the system. Also, you can’t activate the resend beforehand while you’re setting up the original email. If you’re on vacation trying to resend emails, your family might be upset with you.
Does it have A/B testing?
Yes.
Can it do email series / sequences / drips?
Yes.
Does it support behavior-based automation?
Yes, they provide a robust (although somewhat clunky) visual automation builder to achieve this.
Can it send one-off broadcast emails?
Yes.
Can it create forms and landing pages?
Yes, and the landing page creator is pretty advanced, allowing you to drag and drop elements to your liking.
Is the email editor quick to crank out emails?
Though the email editor has been improved, it’s still buggy and clunky.
Does it offer segmentation capability?
Yes, via lists and tags (although tags can only be added to contacts via automation and can’t be added manually).
What kind of stats / reporting does it provide?
Open, click, bounce, and spam-complaint rates are provided.
How is customer support?
Depends on the customer support agent — sometimes responsive, other times not. It has an extensive knowledge base with text and video tutorials.
Does it have a free plan?
Yes, with the limitations below:
- their logo on your every email
- no sequences and automation
- max 500 contacts
- no customer support
Is the value for money good?
GetResponse provides different plans for the various features they offer. They’re not the cheapest nor the most expensive.
Can you send abandoned cart emails?
Yes.
Does it have a built-in email content spam testing tool?
Yes.
Pro
Advanced automation. Has webinar capability built-in.
Con
Deliverability could be improved.
ConvertKit vs GetResponse vs BirdSend Price Comparison
(price per month)
| Brand | 1k Contacts | 2.5k Contacts | 5k Contacts | 10k Contacts | 25k Contacts | 50k Contacts | 100k Contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ConvertKit (Creator) | $29 | $49 | $79 | $119 | $199 | $379 | $679 |
| GetResponse (Plus) | $49 | $59 | $79 | $95 | $179 | $299 | $499 |
| BirdSend | $9 | $14 | $19 | $29 | $69 | $109 | $209 |
TLDR: Which one is right for your needs?
This would be the part where I give you the most annoying answer: “it depends.”
Basically, it comes down to this:
If you don’t have a huge budget (save 80% every month) but still want high email open rates, go for BirdSend.
If you’re more affluent and want landing page capabilities inside your email marketing tool, go for ConvertKit.
If you have salespeople in your business and need CRM features and advanced automation, go for GetResponse.
