10 high-end email design tools with API integration: Capabilities, prices, and ratings

Stripo

Even beyond its email API integration, Stripo is an excellent email design platform. It allows for fast, collaborative email creation with reusable content modules and interactive components, while a built-in testing tool enables marketers to validate message rendering across multiple clients and platforms. You can also enjoy some advanced features, namely desktop/mobile email notification setup, calendar link and email signature generators, an AI Assistant, and more.

API integration is one of the tool’s unquestionable fortes. You can push email messages to over 90 ESPs (including such popular ones as Mailchimp, Google Cloud, Klaviyo, Campaign Monitor, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Amazon SES, Zoho Mail, Reteno, Mailtrap, and more) and export emails seamlessly to Gmail and Outlook. Plus, you can download emails in different formats (PDF, HTML, or images) and deliver them to any CRM via Webhook or Zapier.

Stripo exports clean HTML without editor-specific markup, making templates compatible with different ESPs. 

Pricing and rating

Stripo has a free plan with essential functions. If those fall short of your needs, you can subscribe to one of the paid plans: Basic ($20 per month), Medium ($45 per month), or Pro ($125 per month).

The tool has high ratings on Capterra and G2 (4.8 and 4.9 out of 5), and a somewhat lower grade of 4.6 on Trustpilot. What users like most of all is Stripo’s ease of use, AI-powered capabilities, and mobile-friendliness.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• intuitive interface;
• high customization;
• mobile responsiveness;
• wide integration options;
• reusable modules;
• AI assistance for generating preheaders and subject line ideas and outlining entire email sequences;
• adjustable access levels. 

Cons:

• limited capabilities of the Free plan.

EDMdesigner

This email marketing API integration tool enables users to avoid developing and maintaining an email editor of their own, and provides white-label integration into various software types (ESPs, CRMs, and CMS platforms) instead. In fact, it is a no-code, API-focused service developed on Amazon’s cloud infrastructure with a drag-n-drop interface that excels at creating responsive HTML emails. These are compatible with most email clients (including web, mobile, and desktop) and can be produced from scratch or from pre-built templates housed in the platform’s huge library. Plus, you can add custom strings and unsubscribe links and can preview emails on any device.

Your existing external functions (for instance, gallery module, popup dialogs, etc.) can be integrated via EDMdesigner’s client-side (postMessage) API. Users of the advanced package can take on different roles (content editors, designers, managers, etc.) conditioned by their responsibilities and rights in the organization.

Now, you can choose among several interface languages (English, German, Italian, Dutch, Hungarian, and more), and the platform has announced plans to launch its Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Chinese versions soon.

Pricing and rating

The vendor doesn’t disclose its pricing policy, insisting on individual quoting and requirement-based cost calculation. The only reviewer on G2 gives the platform the top grade, while AccurateReviews assesses the tool's different aspects on a 0-to-10 scale, with an average mark of 7. Among the most highly praised characteristics are advanced styling options, flexibility in customization, and compatibility with desktop/web/mobile.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• deep API integration;
• granular role control;
• reusable layout elements;
• pixel-perfect adjustments.

Cons:

• steep learning curve.

Unlayer

Unlayer is a versatile, no-coding tool that can be used to build not only emails but also documents, web pages, popups, and images. It is most effective when embedded into an enterprise’s software infrastructure, including SaaS platforms and CRMs, to allow marketers to create and design content within their existing solutions.

Unlayer’s drag-n-drop builders can be integrated into a company's ecosystem in two ways. Frontend SDK integration embeds the editor UI directly into the solution. The backend cloud API integration relies on developer-first REST and cloud APIs. You can also use Unlayer as a standalone tool that will direct email templates to the CRM (such as HubSpot or ActiveCampaign) or email marketing platform (Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and more).

The designs you create with Unlayer can be exported in various formats (HTML, JSON, or PDF) and are compatible with many popular ESPs. Built-in AI-fueled capabilities help marketers come up with brand-specific texts, images, and subject lines. 

Pricing and rating

The starting Unlayer plan is free. The paid tiers are the following: Launch is $250 a month, Scale is $750 a month, and Optimize is $2,000 a month, each with a two-week free trial.

Unlayer has a good rating on G2 (4.4 out of 5). Users commend the platform’s ease of use, seamless CRM integration, and AI-assisted content generation.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• SaaS integration;
• versatile builders;
• reliable HTML rendering.

Cons:

• lack of native analytics;
• high pricing.

Chamaileon

The vendor’s suite contains three products.

The core offer is Chamaileon APP, a no-code, drag-n-drop email builder with modular templates and direct integrations into popular ESPs and CRMs (Mailchimp, Klaviyo, HubSpot, Salesforce Pardot, Braze, ActiveCampaign, and more). Moreover, Chamaileon can be linked to multiple apps supporting Zapier. Plus, with the help of the platform’s Custom Integration API, you can synchronize, upload, and update email templates right into the enterprise’s applications. 

The second solution is Chamaileon SDK, a white-label plugin designed for direct integration into companies’ software via UI or running headless via API. In this way, you can design emails without leaving your regular software environment.  

The third element is a dedicated newsletter creation and management tool called Email Hero. Its target audience is large-scale digital publishers and content creators.

One of Chamaileon's biggest strengths is its real-time collaboration capability. It allows personnel to work together on email design, with built-in review features, a shared asset library, and role-based access.

Pricing and rating

The Startup level is $320 a month, and the Premium is $400 a month. The most advanced Enterprise tier is custom-priced.

Reviewers on G2 give it 4.3 out of 5, and on Capterra, 4.5. The most valued characteristics of the platform are its user-friendliness, excellent collaboration capabilities, and great customer service.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• intuitive drag-n-drop email editor;
• real-time collaboration;
• workflow controls.

Cons:

• high price.

Topol.io

The platform offers two distinct solutions under this brand name. 

Topol PRO is a dedicated cloud-based web app that provides standard drag-n-drop email building capabilities with reusable custom blocks, over 400 pre-built templates, and a collaborative suite. It doesn’t require developer intervention or API implementation, which makes it perfect for marketing teams and individual designers who can export templates directly from the app’s UI.

Topol Plugin is an embeddable JavaScript editor that is honed to integrate into external SaaS solutions, delegating data storage and long-term asset management to their backend infrastructure. The plugin is controlled via API keys and JSON options, which explains why its primary user audience consists of developers who can add an email design capability to their own software product.

Each solution offers a different roster of APIs. Topol PRO goes for marketing and ESP integrations that ensure one-click email export to numerous third-party platforms (Brevo, Mailchimp, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Mailjet, etc.) and connect workflows via external automation tools. Topol Plugin extends developer SDK and framework support. The first has official packages for TypeScript, Vue, Angular, and React; the second provides custom endpoints for folders, feeds, image file managers, and autosaves. 

Pricing and rating

The basic Topol version is free. Plus, there are two very affordable paid plans: PRO ($10 a month) and Team ($15 a month). The Plugin is more pricey: the Startup plan comes at $70 a month, the Plugin Expansion at $140 a month, and the Plugin for Business at $300 a month.

On G2 and Capterra, Topol is rated at 4.5 and 4.7. The only review on Trustpilot gives Topol 3.7 out of 5. What users like about Topol.io is its easy-to-use interface, extensive collection of templates, and simplicity in customization.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• no-code;
• modest pricing;
• AI features.

Cons:

• restricted capabilities of the free plan;
• smaller number of pre-built templates in comparison to other tools.

BeeFree

With Beefree, you receive not only an email builder, but also a robust product for creating one-page websites and landing pages. Since the platform doesn't require proficiency in HTML or CSS, it is a natural choice for non-tech employees (primarily designers and marketers) whose task is to create promotional emails quickly and efficiently. The two greatest strengths of Beefree are its huge library of 1,700+ ready-made templates and its role-based collaborative workspace.

The solution provides three varieties of APIs: Content Services, Template Catalog, and HTML Importer. The first is used to manage and convert content from designs to text, PDF, images, or HTML. The second enables access to the template collection. The third relies on a REST endpoint to convert legacy HTML files into editable JSON.

Besides, the platform has multiple ESP/CRM connectors enabling export to Brevo, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Salesforce Pardot and Marketing Cloud, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, and other systems. Plus, Beefree’s custom connectors help export setups to any third-party tool. 

Pricing and rating

Beefree’s Starter plan is free. The Professional tier is quite cost-effective ($25/month), whereas other options are more costly: Business comes at $134/month, and Enterprise is custom-priced. The Professional and Business suites have a 15-day free trial.

The solution has earned quite different assessments on various rating platforms. G2’s and Capterra’s users give it 4.7 and 4.8. Traditionally more critical Trustpilot’s reviewers rate Beefree a bit lower (3.4). Users praise a convenient multi-column layout, the wealth of pre-built templates, and obliging customer service.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• voluminous template library;
• mobile controls;
• collaboration opportunities.

Cons:

• limited free plan capabilities;
• limited support for fully custom HTML workflows.

Mailjet

This cloud-based platform is perfect for building, managing, and sending both standalone transactional emails and entire campaigns. With Mailjet, you don’t need any code expertise to design professional emails as its intuitive drag-n-drop builder is honed for non-tech professionals. The built-in collaboration capabilities allow them to work together on email design and text editing. The platform also enables campaign automation by setting up welcome sequences and targeted behavioral triggers and performing audience segmentation within lists.

Mailjet’s integration system is based on a flexible SMTP and RESTful Email API relay. Within it, the Send API triggers and manages a slew of transactional and marketing messages; the Event API deals with real-time notifications for tracking opens, bounces, clicks, and complaints; the Parse API handles incoming emails and sends data to the server; and SDK libraries contain ready-made wrappers for Java, Python, Ruby, PHP, etc.

Mailjet both acts as an ESP and connects with 80 other providers seamlessly. What sets the platform apart is the extensive list of CRM integrations it covers, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Zoho CRM, SugarCRM, and more. Besides, the platform can connect with numerous external apps via Pipedream and Zapier.

Pricing and rating

If your organization sends under 6,000 emails a month and 200 emails per day, Mailjet’s free plan will suffice. If you have larger numbers to handle, you can choose among the Starter ($9 a month), the Essential ($17 a month), and the Premium ($27 a month) tiers.

The platform’s grades hover around 4 out of 5 (G2 3.9, Trustpilot 4.0, Capterra 4.2). The features that attract users most are human assistance in handling issues, a flexible pricing system, and a clear UI.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• affordable pricing;
• unified setup;
• team collaboration.

Cons:

• free plan limitations;
• advanced automation features require higher-tier plans.

Mailgun

This developer-focused platform is designed to receive, send, track, and validate transactional emails and entire marketing blasts via websites or apps. By using standard SMTP servers or RESTful API tools, the solution enables fast message sending that can be designed with customizable HTML templates and automatically processes and parses incoming emails. Email hygiene is implemented through list verification, risk detection, and deep checks without dispatching test messages. The system also includes robust deliverability and performance tracking tools and provides email preview capabilities.

Mailgun integrates with numerous third-party systems (for instance, Lovable, Workato, Datadog, Google Analytics, Zapier, GitHub, Webhooks, Shopify, and more) and CRMs/CMSs (such as HubSpot, Salesforce, WordPress, and Microsoft Dynamics, to name a few).

The platform acts as an ESP, so it prefers to operate as an underlying sender instead of turning to other providers. Rather, it is the other way around: several marketing solutions (namely, Ongage, ActiveCampaign, EngageBay, and others) leverage Mailgun as a backend delivery engine. However, if needed, Mailgun integrates with popular ESPs (Klaviyo, Mailchimp, MailerLite, etc.).

Pricing and rating

Mailgun pursues a democratic pricing policy that makes it affordable for wide user audiences. There is a free tier for companies sending under 100 emails per day and three moderately-priced paid levels: Basic ($15/month), Foundation ($35/month), and Scale ($90/month).

The tool’s ratings are pretty much uniform: 4.1 on Trustpilot, 4.2 on G2, and 4.3 on Capterra. Marketers enjoy Mailgun’s user-friendly onboarding, superb customer support, and the wealth of features on cost-effective tiers.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• developer tools;
• inbound routing;
• detailed logs.

Cons:

• technical focus;
• accounts may be temporarily restricted if anti-abuse policies are violated.

Iterable

Iterable is not a specialized email design solution but an entire cross-channel marketing platform aimed at enterprise-level businesses. One of the platform’s components is a no-code template builder and email editor that supports dynamic, data-driven content housed in reusable modules, custom HTML, A/B testing of layouts, subject lines, and CTAs, as well as third-party integrations. The latter are based on REST API, Export API, data feeds, and webhooks that enable connection with analytics tools (for instance Amplitude, Segment, and Heap), attribution software (Branch, Adjust, AppsFlyer, and more), and data warehouses (such as Hightouch, Census, and Fivetran).

To send emails in high volumes, Iterable partners with delivery service providers, namely Amazon SES, Mailgun, SendGrid, and SparkPost. For email testing and template building, Iterable integrates with email design tools such as Stripo, Dyspatch, Litmus, Adjust, and other vendors.

In addition, Iterable implements CRM connections (with Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and HubSpot) to synchronize plan updates, user profiles, and lifecycle stages.

Pricing and rating

The company doesn’t disclose its pricing policy, determining subscription costs based on data usage, contact volume, and add-ons you need.

Users on G2 and Capterra give Iterable 4.4 and 4.3, respectively, while Zoftware features a higher rating (4.8). Companies that employ Iterable note its scalability, easy-to-grasp layout, and helpful tech support as the tool's fortes.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• visual workflows;
• AI tools;
• deep personalization.

Cons:

• possible high cost.

Mailchimp

There are two email design tools offered by this juggernaut in the domain. Legacy (or Classic) Builder will suit marketers who are used to working with structured layouts and 600px templates. New Builder is better suited to marketers looking for a more modern editing experience with AI-assisted design. No matter the differences, both systems are based on drag-n-drop email creation, reusable modules, and a collaborative approach to email design. When choosing between the two, you should realize that Mailchimp is slowly phasing out its Legacy version (Mailchimp is gradually phasing out the Legacy Builder).

Being essentially an ESP, Mailchimp isn’t about integrating with other providers but rather about synchronizing contacts, leads, and engagement data with external platforms via middleware apps like Outfunnel or Zapier. What Mailchimp is good at is ensuring native and third-party integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and other CRM platforms. Mailchimp’s API suite includes its RESTful Marketing API, Transactional API (formerly Mandrill), and Mailchimp Open Commerce (ex-Reaction Commerce).

Pricing and rating

Both versions have a basic free tier, and more advanced plans are remarkably affordable: $6.5 a month for Essentials and $10 a month for Standard. Only Premium’s price tag is considerable ($175 a month).

Mailchimp’s rating on Capterra is 4.5 out of 5. What do users like most? The tool’s user-friendliness, multitude of integrations, and a wide range of pre-built templates. 

Pros and cons

Pros:

• mobile-responsive layouts;
• built-in AI tools;
• user-friendly interface.

Cons:

• design rigidity;
• paywalled features.