32 Best email list building tools (2024)
Email marketing is incredibly effective. But if you aren’t actively building your email list, you’re missing out on the most powerful way to drive repeat visitors and customers to your website or blog.
Email list building tools help you to create lead capture forms, quizzes, and popups to grow your mailing list quickly.
So you might be thinking: Yes, I want to grow my email list, but what is the best email list building software for me then? Let’s have a look at the best email capture tools available, and the pros and cons of each.
How to effectively collect email addresses
Three criteria should be met to make sure your email list building efforts yield fruit:
- You use the right email capture tools
- You give something of value to your new subscribers
- It should be very easy (frictionless) to sign up.
The most used list building tactics to build your list and email newsletter file online:
- Pop-ups
- Landing-pages and whitepaper downloads
- Inline opt-in forms
- Sticky bars
- Interactive quizzes
- Surveys
So when we compare the best email list building software, those are the things to look at.
The Best Email List Building Tools to Capture and Collect Email Addresses
On to the best email list building software. We divided into categories to make it easier to find software that fits your needs.
Versatile email list building services
List building software in this category goes above and beyond basic list building features. They combine multiple tools into one so you can grow your list in many ways. These are the ones you’ll get the most out of.
Outgrow
Outgrow focuses on interactive content for lead generation. You can create calculators for estimates, calulating ROI, saving or getting price quotes. And interactive polls and surveys to understand your audience.
The calculators, giveaways and assesments are a way to add value while generating leads. And with pre-made templates, it is simple to quickly get started. No coding involved.
Outgrow directly integrates with all major email marketing services and can be embedded on every website. The one thing that outgrow doesn’t have is popups, which is too bad.
KyLeads
KyLeads is an email list building tool that does much more than give you the ability to create popups. It comes with the standard popup features you’d expect such as full-screen takeovers, slide-ins, standard popups, floating bars, and more.
The popups and inline forms can also be used as CTAs to promote specific pages, events, deals, etc. It also adds quizzes and popups surveys which allow you to segment your new subscribers and send better follow up messages. The quizzes give you the ability to create multiple outcomes and, depending on how people answer questions, add new subscribers to relevant lists or tags.
Both the quizzes and popups are fully customizable to match your brand, allow you to set up and measure A/B tests, and have direct integrations with multiple email marketing services. It also has multiple display targeting options. It’s a great choice for large and small publishers that care about segmentation and engagement.
Kyleads has a free trial after which you can get a custom price.
Get Site Control
Get Site Control is one of the hidden gems of list building tools in this collection. Doubling your website conversion rates may be a bold claim, but of course you can. With Getsitecontrol you create different types of popups and simple surveys.
It has multiple targeting options, mobile-optimized forms, and connects with the major email marketing services. You can also implement popups that double as contact forms and collect additional information to qualify leads.
Pricing starts at $9/m then grows based on the number of sites you use it on.
Pricing starts at $14/m. Sign up here for a free trial.
Wishpond
Wishpond has been very successful in the lead capture space. They have multiple features to help you grow your mailing list. You can create landing pages, pop ups, contests, and add marketing automation campaigns.
Wishpond landing pages have over a hundred templates. You can make everything from lead capture pages to sales pages. A business can choose from standard lightbox popups, slide-ins, floating bars, and full-screen takeovers.
An interface with drag and drop editor makes it easy to build great looking popups, which you can then test to find the best variation.
Wishpond offers flexible pricing options. Get a free trial here.
Pointer Pro
Pointer Pro is among the most versatile list building tools. You can create many types of forms to capture contact information. It doesn’t have a popup feature but it does have quizzes and multiple question types.
Pointer Pro integrates with the majority of email marketing services and also has logic branching to create a personalized experience. It’s a good choice if you don’t want popups but still need a way to engage and convert website visitors.
Prices start at $39/m (larger plans available upon request).
Beefree & Beefree SDK Landing Page and Popup Builder
You may know Beefree from their html email editor or landing page builder. Beefree SDK is an email, page, and popup builder available as an embeddable plugin that software companies can include in their SaaS products to enrich applications and design and embed popups into their website.
A unique feature of this popup builder is that you can load your page as a background while building, so you’ll see exactly how your popups will look live.
With the Beefree SDK builder, you can personalize your popups with Merge tags and Display conditions.
The Beefree SDK has the same user experience as the Beefree email builder and all-in-one pricing. So if you’re a software company looking for a popup, landing page and email builder that you can plug into your platform, then Beefree SDK is certainly one to check out.
If you are looking for pop-ups just on your own site, you’ll have to be a bit patient until the Beefree popup builder becomes available for end users.
8 free list building tools
Everyone loves a free email list building tool. Most of the software in this section starts as free list building software, and has a paid plan as well.
Privy
Privy is focussed on eCommerce email marketing and conversion. They heavily go for Shopify customers. You’re able to create many different types of popups such as lightboxes, slide-ins, floating bars, and spin to win displays.
Privy also has basic email marketing features. When someone signs up for your mailing list, you’re able to send out specific email sequences for things like cart abandonment, order follow-ups, etc. It’s a great solution for eCommerce brands looking to grow their subscriber base. Find out where we ranked Privy in our review of the best email marketing tools for Shopify.
FREE email list building for 100 contacts. The $75/m plan covers up to 5.000 contacts.
Interact
Interact is an online quiz maker that’s laser-focused on its core competency. You can make multiple types of quizzes such as scored, personality, and assessment. It has native integrations for popular email marketing services and even allows you to implement popup quizzes.
Interact is a solid choice for creating quizzes and has a large library of templates to choose from. It’s ideal if you want an engaging way to generate more email subscribers.
Interact has a Free forever version, the paid version starts at $17 /m.
MailMunch
Mailmunch is a list building tool that focuses on popups to grow your mailing list. It comes with standard lightbox popups, floating bars, and slide-ins. There are tons of templates that make it easy to make a beautiful popup in minutes.
Mailmunch also supports A/B testing, has useful reports, and integrates with multiple email marketing services. It’s a limited tool but it has mastered the few features it offers. It works well for smaller sites that don’t have too many demands.
Just make a free account, the paid version starts at $13.99/m.
Popup Ally – popup plugin for wordpress
Popup Ally is a WordPress plugin that allows you to create many different types of popups. It includes floating bars, lightbox popups, inline forms, sidebar embeds, and a few others. The software also has many targeting options such as exit trigger, click trigger, time delay, page-level targeting, and more.
Of course, it integrates with multiple email marketing services and has basic reports to help you understand what’s working and what isn’t
Popup Ally pricing
Popup Ally is Free, the pro version is $99/year.
AddThis
AddThis does many things like social sharing, tip jars, follow buttons, and more. For list building, you can create popups, floating bars, and slide-ins. It also has strong customization options, multiple templates, and clear analytics.
There’s a caveat when using AddThis. It’s owned by Oracle and when you use it, Oracle has access to information about your visitors and uses it to build user profiles. You can get more information from the AddThis privacy policy on Oracle’s website. It’s free forever.
Optimonk
Optimonk is a cool and free email list bvuilding tool. You can encourage social sharing, promote specific products, recommend products in a gallery view, and more. The list building features include lightbox popups, spin to win, and slide-ins.
It has a strong onsite targeting engine that lets you get granular in your segmentation. You can also A/B test your forms, view detailed analytics, and actively reduce cart abandonment with exit triggered popup messages. Of course, it integrates with the major email marketing services.
Optimonk is forever free up to 3000 pageviews. The paid version starts at $29/m
Hello Bar
Hello Bar hasn’t changed much over the years. It allows users to create popups, floating bars, full-screen takeovers, sliders, and a few others. In addition to the list building features, you can promote your social media accounts, direct users to specific pages, and make announcements with a CTA button.
It has templates, integrates with the major email marketing services, and a simple A/B testing engine to improve your email popups. It’s a decent solution if you need something to get up and running quickly.
Prices range from free – to $99/m.
Listagram
Listagram is a tool that provides gamified list growth options like spin to win pop-ups. This is an interesting choice to focus on these spin to win popups. The good news is, Listagram claims to have average conversion rates of 11% across its entire customer base.
The list building software integrates with the major email marketing services and has a simple interface that you can learn in a few minutes. It’s ideal if you already have a list building solution but want to try something new.
Listagram is free, paid version starts at $29/m.
8 Best WordPress Email list building tools
WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world. Some estimates say it powers 30% of the internet so it’s no surprise that there is a huge ecosystem of Worpress services and plugins. There are many email list building tools that are exclusive WordPress plugins as well
Ninja Popups
Ninja Popups looks a bit dated, but it’s still a powerful WordPress email list building software. You may want to disregard many of the templates, but a few are nice. It has a drag and drop editor which makes it simple to create your own designs. Ninja Popups comes with features like lightbox popup, scroll triggers, page-level targeting, and more.
You can also use a content locker that requires an email address or social share. The Google analytics event tracking integration can prove useful for accurate reporting. It’s limited because it doesn’t have that many display types but does well with the ones available. This wordpress list building plugin software will suit you if you know popups work well and are looking for a one-off payment.
Prices range from $24 – $155.
ConvertPro
Always take it with a grain of salt when a business calls itself #1. While I won’t call Convert Pro the best in the business, they do a good job and help you create beautiful popups that convert. It has a drag and drop editor so you can match branding. You can edit mobile popups separately.
Choose multi-step popups, exit-intent forms, page-level targeting. It also integrates directly with most email marketing services so you can start nurturing your new subscribers immediately. Finally, the tool has A/B testing, referrer detection, and real-time analytics.
Price ranges from $89 – $249/year.
Bloom
Bloom is a powerful email capture tool. It has the standard lightbox popups, slide ins, inline email capture forms, and WordPress widget area compatibility. Normal display options such as page-level targeting are available, but you can also show an opt-in form to people who just commented or those who just purchased.
It has over a hundred templates, supports most email marketing services, and has many customization options. A solid choice for WordPress websites that want more control over the appearance of their email list building popups.
Prices range from $89/y or $249 lifetime.
WP Subscribe
WP Subscribe is a simple email list building service to grow your mailing list quickly. It comes with an easy to use interface and many of the features you’d expect such as lightbox popups, inline forms, and exit intent triggers. You can customize the pop-ups to match your brand and gives you control over who sees it and when.
It’s not as actively developed as some of the other solutions on this list so if you need something cutting edge then this may not be it. Still a solid tool that has mastered the few features it offers.
Prices range from free to $39.
Hustle
Hustle is a freemium email collector app from WPMU Dev. It focuses on the most common tools for list building such as slide-ins, pop ups, embedded forms, and a few others. In addition to building your list, it comes with the ability to add customizable social sharing buttons to any page of your website.
The list building tools are complemented by clear reporting, detailed targeting options, and the ability to create everything from within WordPress. Though the features are limited, they do work well which makes this a great solution for smaller publishers.
Prices range from $6 – $19.
MailOptin
MailOptin is a list building tool with an emphasis on creating popups. It allowing you to send emails to your subscribers directly from WordPress. The app has standard popups, floating bars, slide-ins, and inline forms and A/B testing functionality. MailOptin comes with clear reporting so you can figure out what’s working and what’s not.
With the email marketing features you can send automated notifications of new posts, a digest of all your posts, or individual newsletters to your subscribers from within WordPress. Unfortunately, you can’t do advanced email marketing automation with the software.
It ranges from $79 – $299/year.
Gravity Forms
Gravity Forms is a WordPress focused form builder but it makes it into this collection of list building software because you can extend its functionality with multiple add-ons.
It has over 30 form fields, integrates with popular email marketing services, and is easy to customize right from the WordPress dashboard. Gravity Forms can be embedded on any page to capture contact details and qualify leads before they join your contact list.
Prices range from $59 – $159/year + multiple add-ons.
12 of the best email capture tools
Sleeknote
Sleeknote is an email capture app but also does a lot more. It has features that enable you to guide visitors to purchase, talk to them with a chatbot, and increase sales using timely product recommendations.
It has a limited number of popup types but you’re able to fully customize them to suit your needs. Powerful targeting options like new vs returning visitors, referral source detection, funnel paths, and more make this a robust tool. If you’re only looking for a list building tool then Sleeknote is overkill because of all the added features. It’s ideal for eCommerce or service businesses.
Prices range from $69 – $470/m.
Sumo
Sumo started life as a WordPress plugin and has since gone through many iterations. Currently, it has a focus on serving the needs of eCommerce stores and removed a lot of the features it once had. Now, you’re able to create different popups such as floating bar, lightbox popups, and full-screen takeovers.
Sumo also has basic email autoresponder features that let you send welcome messages and simple newsletters to your audience. It’s not a feature rich tool but it can help you grow your email list. It’s ideal for eCommerce stores or websites that don’t need a variety of tools to grow their email list.
Prices range from free to $49/m.
OptinMonster
OptinMonster is an older lead capture tool but it’s been able to keep up with the times unlike many of its competitors. It only focuses on newsletter popups but does them well. You can create slide ins, lightboxes, full-screen takeovers, inline forms, and even spin to win popups.
The software has a large collection of templates, A/B testing, a content locker feature, and countdown timers. It also has a wide range of targeting options such as geo location, referrals, cookies, click triggers, and more. It’s ideal for smaller publishers and eCommerce stores.
Prices range from $9 – $49/m but it doesn’t have a free trial to test out the service.
Lead Quizzes
LeadQuizzes, uses quizzes for email capturing. Originally, that was all it did but in the latest versions, it added surveys. You can choose from many pre-made templates, build surveys, implement quiz popups, and segment people based on how they answer questions or what options they choose.
It’s fully customizable to match your brand and has integrations with the majority of email marketing services on the market. A few other notable features include URL redirect on completion, image answers, and logic branching.
Prices range from $49 – $249/m
Poptin
Poptin is one of the newer list building services. You’re able to create contact and opt-in forms that can capture extra data through checkboxes, sliders, and additional fields. Poptin also has a basic email autoresponder to send messages to new contacts.
For the popup sign up forms, you can choose from lightboxes, floating bars, full-screen takeovers, slide-ins, and mobile only. It has A/B testing and clear reporting to help you understand how your conversions are doing. In addition to normal targeting options, it has a feature that will auto optimize the popups display triggers. Poptin is ideal for smaller publishers and bloggers.
Prices range from Free to $119/m.
Wisepops
Wisepops focuses exclusively on only popups for list building. It has the standard lightbox popup, floating bars, slide ins, full-screen takeovers, and more. What sets it apart is the robust targeting and segmentation options available. Target visitors based on things like the segment they belong to, the number of pages they browsed, referral source, and much more.
Finally, Wisepops’ reporting features and a simple A/B testing interface make it simple to find the highest converting variations.
Prices range from $49 – $249.
Gleam
Gleam is an email capture tool that does many things. You can create image galleries, contests, and rewards but none of those are truly focused on list building. With the popup tool for email capture, you have multiple templates, multiple targeting options, and built in A/B testing.
Gleam comes with the types of popups you’d expect such as floating bars, standard popups, countdown timer, inline forms, and full screen. You can also A/B test popups to find the most effective variation. All the apps associated with gleam start at $97/m but just the list building features range from $39 – $399/m.
Vyper.io
Vyper is a giveaway and referral marketing platform with an emphasis on growing your email list and social channels. It has the standard “refer a friend” feature to increase contest participants. Vyper also gives you the ability to encourage people to follow your key social accounts, share on multiple platforms, and take special actions like commenting on blog posts.
The conversion optimized giveaway landing pages encourage people to submit their email addresses but a major drawback of this platform is that most brands aren’t running giveaways every week. It can be a temporary solution to give you a quick boost but not a permanent list building strategy.
The paid plans range from $149 – $299/m.
Leadformly
Leadformly focuses on creating forms optimized for lead generation. It lacks many features of a standard popup builder such as floating bars, slide ins, popups, etc. Instead, the forms can be embedded on different pages of your website to segment prospects and turn them into leads.
You get access to strong reporting features, a drag and drop builder, multiple templates, lead validation, and dozens of native integrations. It also has built-in A/B testing which makes it easy to test aspects of your form until you find a winner. It’s ideal if you serve distinct buyer personas and need to segment them before you can send out relevant marketing messages.
Prices range from $37 – $749/m (billed yearly).
Exit Monitor
Exit Monitor positions itself as a solution to recover abandoning visitors and focuses on people leaving your website. It tracks visitor behavior and when they’re about to exit the page, it’ll display a popup that can collect contact information, show an offer, or redirect traffic to a specific page.
It has a Zapier integration that extends its functionality but limited native email marketing integrations. It also has a small number of templates to choose from when creating your exit popup. The reason it made this list is that it does a great job of detecting abandoning visitors. It can be a good choice if the main tool you’re using to grow your mailing list doesn’t have exit intent functionality.
Prices range from $39 – $499/m.
Popup domination
Popup domination is one of the oldest lead capture tools on this list. That’s for good reason. It has a lightbox, notification slide-ins, CTA popups, and exit-intent triggers. For such a mature tool, it’s surprising that many features such as inline forms and floating bars are missing.
It makes up for it by providing many targeting options such as geotrigger, referral source detection, A/B testing, and customization options. Though it has a decent sized template library, a few of them appear outdated. It’s a good solution if you have a smaller website and don’t need too many options growing your mailing list.
Plans start at $9/m – $29/m.
Why is email marketing so effective?
Email marketing is a digital channel that consistently outperforms almost every other one. You can expect to see an ROI as high as 40:1. The most successful businesses incorporate email marketing as a central pillar of their marketing plan.
Part of the reason the ROI is so high is due to email marketing’s versatility. You can test offers with specific segments of your list, onboard new users, launch brand new products, and much more.
With SEO, social platforms, and native ad placements, you’re limited in many areas. You’ll be lucky to see a 3:1 return on investment. The direct ROI from email marketing is just one reason you should be collecting email addresses. There are many others.
A regular newsletter where you promote blog content, company updates, and interesting industry news extends your reach. If the content you’re promoting is good, your subscribers will share, link to it, and forward it to their friends.
You’re also able to build a deeper connection with subscribers. As long as you keep an eye on deliverability, scrub your list regularly, and segment based on behavior or psychographics, you’ll be able to turn casual visitors into your biggest advocates.
None of this is possible if you don’t collect email addresses.
How to collect email addresses (and what you need)
There are countless ways to collect contact details. The methods you choose will depend on your business and goals.
For example, if a business has multiple brick and mortar retail locations but doesn’t sell online, they’d focus on collecting email addresses in-store. That could even mean old fashioned pen and paper or typing in at Point of Sale when a customer checks out.
Though it can be effective, it’s not the most scalable method. Instead, we’re focusing on collecting emails digitally and online. There are multiple ways such as:
1. Popups
The simple truth is that popups work, that’s why they’re so popular with results based marketers. The key is to use them at the right time with the right message. Content upgrades are a great way to reduce the perceived annoyance and boost your conversion rate.
Here is an example pop-up for list building that goes perfectly with the content. The content makes people want more and they get more (not even a direct value, but getting on the waiting list for a training).
2. Landing pages
A landing page is any page a visitor lands on. In our specific use, a landing page is a page a visitor lands on that is designed to get them to take your desired action (capture the email address). So the distraction should be minimal. Minimal navigation options, focused design elements, and a clear call to action (CTA).
Landing pages can be used to sell digital products, collect email addresses, promote app installs, promote your podcast episodes, and everything in between. This article we focus on list building software, not per se landing pages – but if you are running ads, promoting a download or using paid media. Keep in mind that the landing page is where the “magic” happens.
3. Inline opt-in forms
Inline opt-in forms are a great compromise between disrupting visitors with your popups and achieving your list building goals. Instead of appearing instantly or after a set timeframe and obscuring the page content, they’re embedded within the page content. So when you scroll down, this list building tool appears naturally in-content.
Here is a list building example with a twist. A variation of the inline opt-in form is the content locker. A content locker hides media and text on a page until the visitor performs your desired action. This could be anything from sharing the post to subscribing to yoru newsletter.
4. Sticky bars
Sticky bars, also known as floating bars, take up a small portion of the bottom or the top of the screen. It doesn’t obstruct the content and has just one line of space to deliver your message. They’re ideal because users can leave them on the screen and still interact with the content they came for. Typically they have bright color, to set them apart from your page header.
5. Interactive quizzes
Interactive quizzes are the new kid on the block when it comes to email list building. Instead of simply asking people to sign up for your newsletter, a quiz gives you the ability to engage with and segment subscribers first.
After they’ve gone through your quiz and had a few micro-commitments, they’re more likely to sign up for your mailing list. This also plays into the sunk cost fallacy which is part of the reason why people spend more money or time on projects that aren’t yielding fruits.
6. List building Surveys
A survey is an indirect method for capturing email addresses. Whether you can use them as an email capture tool depends on the type of survey it is and the reasons behind it. For example, if a business sends out a market research survey, it may offer an incentive that can only be redeemed when someone leaves contact information.
What is the best list-building software?
There are many email list-building tools on the market, but not all will meet your needs. Some are focused on WordPress, some are ideal for eCommerce, and others are an all-in-one list-building platform.
This article has broken down 33 of the best email list-building software solutions on the market. Take a look at each and shortlist the tools that catch your eye. Growing your list makes little sense without sending quality emails. Check out the best free email templates here.
Email marketing is essential, but you can only make it work if you’re actively growing an engaged email list. This collection of tools should help you do that. Let me know what you think of the email list-building software mentioned here or the one you’re using.
