Comments on: Find the Best Email Design Testing Tool for You

By: Memo

Memo — Sun, 02 May 2010 23:39:03 +0000

Thanks for great review.

For the fastest test results check-out previewmyemail.com.

They provide 22 web&email apps including iphone. Tests are completing just in minutes. I hope they will also provide ipad screen shots by near future.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:00:32 +0000

This is a great review. I have one question though. We were leaning toward integrating Litmus into our process, but were dismayed by how long it took to return results (as much as 20 minutes). Is there a faster or lighter test at there that can return results in, say, 30 seconds?

By: Paul Farnell

Paul Farnell — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:49:03 +0000

Great write up, Amy. I’m delighted you’ve found Litmus is a good fit for you.

Deirdre is correct regarding Email on Acid. The code analysis is a great feature, but the simulations don’t compare to screenshots in actual email clients.

We’re working on some code analysis features at Litmus. I think you’ll be very pleased with what we’re building, but it’s likely to be a month or so before we’re ready to release.

By: Deirdre Baird

Deirdre Baird — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:13:10 +0000

Sorry and one more note – those w/ no budgets should look at emailonacid. even though its only a simulation (we do both but simulation is definitely never as accurate as a real screenshot), its better than qa’ing on nothing at all.

By: Deirdre Baird

Deirdre Baird — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:08:05 +0000

Email On Acid is a SIMULATION only — its not real screenshots and so it does not compare at all to the companies taking real screenshots.

Only 3 companies take real screenshots:
1. Pivotal Veracity.
2. Litmus App
3. Return Path

The other 2 companies you mentioned (Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp) don’t have their own technology – they are only reselling integrated versions of the above. Specifically:
- Campaign Monitor: is an integrated reseller of LitmusApp & Return Path
- MailChimp: is an integrated reseller of ReturnPath

You didn’t mention Pivotal Veracity in your review but our solution is primarily for large enterprises such as Apple, Amex, and Oracle and is probably not suitable directly for small businesses. However, our solution is exclusively sold and integrated and available at a lower price from all leading ESPs including: Acxiom Digital, Responsys, Bronto, BlueSky, Yesmail, Responsys, Silverpop, Exact Target, Clickmail, Click Squared and over 40 others as well as top agencies such as Ogilvy, Avenue A Razorfish, Digitas, MRM, etc.

Generally small businesses are best served by going to a reseller ESP. Medium and large enterprises should examine the options available directly from the 3 providers as they may have access to more features and/or other services when going direct.

By: Margaret Lawlor

Margaret Lawlor — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:20:11 +0000

Insanely great post, Amy. Always love objective reviews based on real-world experience.

Like you, I use several of these tools often and in tandem, and am with you on virtually all your pros and cons. Looking forward to when Email on Acid works and plays well with Exploder, too.

Well done!

By: Michelle Klann

Michelle Klann — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:26:02 +0000

Amy,

Thanks so much for including us in your review of email testing tools! We are thrilled to hear that our code analysis feature is useful to you. We’ve also made some recent improvements to our Outlook07 analysis – instead of just highlighting unsupported HTML/CSS, we will display Outlook07’s translation of your original code. We hope to complete our testing phase and go live with that new feature this week.

If you do see a discrepancy between the Litmus test and our simulation, please don’t hesitate to report it to us. In our results interface, there is a button for each email client that reads “Report a Discrepancy.” We store your original HTML and the name of the email client in question making it really easy for users to help us improve our system.

We are hoping to come out of beta next month and when we do, you will be the first to hear about it!

Thanks again and happy testing.
Michelle Klann
Email on Acid