Email design tools: a grounded overview of twelve products and how to pilot them

What to take away

Email design tools split into three jobs: authoring the message, proving it renders, and moving approved content into a sending platform. Most teams need one tool per job, not one tool for all three. This guide names twelve products, groups them by job, and lists what to check before buying.

Authoring tools

MJML is an open-source markup language that compiles to responsive HTML. Its documentation describes the goal as reducing the difficulty of responsive email coding. It is free and self-hosted. It suits teams with developers who want version control. Treat compiled output as a starting artifact, not proof of client compatibility.

Stripo is a drag-and-drop editor that exports HTML you can host yourself. It suits marketers who want a visual builder without locking templates into a sending platform. Public plans include a free plan and paid plans; the listed price depends on the plan you choose, including whether you need white-label export.

BEE Pro is a visual editor with team collaboration and saved modules, from the company behind the BEE plugin. It suits agencies producing many client templates. Public plans include a free tier and paid tiers; collaboration and saved modules sit on the paid ladder, so check the current plan limits on the vendor's pricing page.

Parcel is a code-first editor with a built-in preview and asset pipeline. It suits teams that write HTML by hand. Parcel has a free Community plan. Paid plans are subscriptions, and the quote depends on seats, send volume and support terms.

Taxi for Email is a modular authoring system where developers build locked templates and marketers fill them in. It suits large senders who need brand control across many senders. Pricing is quote-based and depends on sender count, template modules and support terms.

Knak is an enterprise email and landing page builder with approval workflows and brand locking. It suits regulated industries that need audit trails on every change. Pricing is quote-based and depends on seat count, workflow scope and contract length.

Figma is a general design tool, not an email tool, but many design teams draft layouts in it before building email HTML. It has a free tier and paid per-editor plans. Keep the handoff to HTML explicit, because Figma does not produce email-safe markup on its own.

Preview and testing tools

Litmus provides client previews and QA checks, per its Previews and QA documentation. These checks cover:

It suits teams shipping frequently who need repeatable checks. Plans are paid subscriptions; the price depends on the plan, preview volume and support level.

Email on Acid offers similar preview and spam testing, with a campaign precheck workflow. It suits smaller teams that want one testing subscription. Plans are paid subscriptions; the price depends on the plan and how many previews you run each month.

Parcel, covered under authoring, also runs previews, so a code-first team can keep authoring and preview in one subscription.

Adjacent tools: content and localization

Storyblok, Smartling and Phrase are not email design tools. They sit next to the design work, so list them only if your content or translation process needs them.

Storyblok is a headless CMS that can serve email content blocks alongside web pages. It suits teams that want one content source for web and email. A free developer tier and paid tiers are published.

Smartling and Phrase are translation management platforms that handle locale expansion, right-to-left scripts and terminology glossaries. Smartling is quote-based with no free plan. Phrase offers a 14-day trial and a paid Freelancer plan, with Business and Enterprise plans quoted. Both suit senders localizing into more than three markets.

Which tool for which team

Use this shortlist to match the job to the team before you price the shortlisted tools.

What to test before you buy

Run one real campaign through the tool. Block images, strip styles, shrink to a narrow screen, and switch to dark mode. Zoom to 200%, run a screen reader, and paste a long translation. Check the output against the WCAG 2.2 AA criteria for text alternatives and contrast. Inject a missing personalization field, and break a link. Then roll the template back.

Score the pilot on these areas:

No builder or checker replaces source review and a test on real devices with real subscriber data. Preview tools check rendering, not whether an offer is still live.

Choosing on evidence, not features

Ask each vendor three questions before signing: can you export the templates as plain HTML, can you export content as structured data, and what happens to my data when I cancel? Vendors that cannot answer in writing are a risk to the render path.

Test whether your templates and content definitions can move between tools before you sign. A tool that keeps the source in its own format makes a later switch expensive, however good its previews are.

Read email design for the design principles these tools should support, and the common email design questions for the decisions to settle before choosing a tool.

Common questions

Is one email design tool enough?

Usually not. Authoring, preview and content management are separate jobs with separate vendors. Map which job you are buying for before you compare prices.

Should the tool with the most previews win?

No. Prefer current, relevant client coverage with reproducible evidence and secure data handling. A long client list you never check is not coverage. Confirm that Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail are in the list, since those are the clients most readers use.

What should a pilot prove?

It should prove one real task from brief to final render, including a variation, a failure, an approval, a release and a rollback. If the tool cannot show you the rollback, that is your answer.