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Email Marketing · head to head

AWeber vs Sailthru

AWeber logo

AWeber

Email Marketing

Email marketing and automation for small business

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sailthru logo

Sailthru

Email Marketing

Retail and publisher email personalisation, now one product inside the Marigold portfolio

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only AWeber has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: AWeber pricing varies based on subscriber count; must contact for exact rates; Sailthru the product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which AWeber and Sailthru actually diverge.

Attributes where AWeber and Sailthru differ
AttributeAWeberSailthru
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreemiumquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebWeb, REST API

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Email Marketing).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in AWeber

Nothing recorded that Sailthru does not also cover.

Only in Sailthru

  • Interest profiles
  • Personalisation engine
  • Prediction Manager
  • Site personalisation
  • Zephyr templating
  • Lifecycle optimiser

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

AWeber

  • Growing subscriber lists through landing pagesnot Sailthru
  • Automating follow-up sequences from behavior triggersnot Sailthru
  • Selling digital products through integrated storefrontsnot Sailthru
  • Processing payments in 100+ currenciesnot Sailthru

Sailthru

  • A publisher sending a personalised daily newsletter assembled per reader from a content cataloguenot AWeber
  • A retailer that wants email and on-site recommendations driven by the same affinity modelnot AWeber
  • High-cadence sending where per-recipient content assembly matters more than journey branchingnot AWeber
  • Teams that want churn and lifetime value scores available as native campaign conditions rather than imported fieldsnot AWeber

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

AWeber

  • Pricing varies based on subscriber count; must contact for exact rates
  • Late payment charge of $25 plus 1.5% monthly interest on outstanding balances
  • Data deleted 20 days after payment due date if unpaid

Sailthru

  • The product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.
  • Pricing counts stored profiles, so retained inactive readers keep costing money long after they stopped opening anything.
  • On-site personalisation requires a developer to implement the JavaScript and maintain the content feed, which puts the highest-value feature behind engineering time.
  • Zephyr is a proprietary templating language, so template maintenance skills are scarce compared with the Liquid syntax used by most competitors.
  • It is built for high-cadence content and retail sending, and B2B lifecycle programmes with long sales cycles sit poorly on the model.

Pricing, plan by plan

AWeber

Free
  • Lite$15/month
    • Pricing varies by subscriber count
    • 14-day free trial
    • Email sending limit: 10x subscriber count per month
  • Plus$30/month
    • Pricing varies by subscriber count
    • 14-day free trial
    • Email sending limit: 12x subscriber count per month
  • Done For You Service$30/month
    • One-time setup fee: $79
    • 14-day free trial

Sailthru

On request
  • Sailthru$undefined/year
    • Priced on stored profiles and send volume
    • Site personalisation and prediction features licensed by module
    • Annual contract through Marigold

Which should you pick?

Choose AWeber if

  • You want to start without paying.
AWeber review

Choose Sailthru if

  • You need interest profiles.
  • You work on Web, REST API.
  • You also want personalisation engine.
Sailthru review

Questions people ask

Is AWeber or Sailthru better?
Neither clearly leads. AWeber starts at Free and Sailthru at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, AWeber or Sailthru?
AWeber has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for AWeber and On request for Sailthru.
Does AWeber or Sailthru run on more platforms?
AWeber runs on Web. Sailthru runs on Web, REST API.
Can I use AWeber for free?
Yes. AWeber has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Sailthru starts at On request.
What is AWeber best used for?
AWeber is most often used for growing subscriber lists through landing pages, automating follow-up sequences from behavior triggers, selling digital products through integrated storefronts, processing payments in 100+ currencies. Of those, growing subscriber lists through landing pages and automating follow-up sequences from behavior triggers are not what Sailthru is typically brought in for.
What can AWeber do that Sailthru cannot?
Sailthru covers Interest profiles, Personalisation engine, Prediction Manager, Site personalisation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

AWeber: How much does AWeber cost?

AWeber offers a free tier with unlimited basic access. Paid plans start at $15 per month for Lite and $30 per month for Plus, with pricing varying based on subscriber count. All plans include a 14-day free trial.

Source
Sailthru: Who owns Sailthru now?

Marigold, formerly CM Group, which also owns Campaign Monitor, Emma, Selligent, Liveclicker and Cheetah Digital.

AWeber: What are the current promotions for AWeber?

AWeber is offering promotional pricing: $79 for email marketing launch (87% off regular $599 price) or $1 for setup (marked down from $599) for a limited time.

Source
Sailthru: Does that affect the roadmap?

It can. Overlapping products in one portfolio compete for investment, so ask which platform is the strategic one for your segment before signing multi-year.

AWeber: What fees and charges does AWeber assess for payment issues?

Returned check fee is $25. Late payment charge is $25 plus 1.5% per month interest on outstanding balances. Service interruption billing for spam violations is $50.00 per hour. Payment default occurs if unpaid within 20 days after invoice date.

Source
Sailthru: Is it worth it just for newsletters?

For personalised daily newsletters at publisher scale it remains one of the strongest options. For simple broadcast sending it is heavily over-specified.

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