Drip

Drip is an email and SMS marketing platform for online stores, built around automated flows triggered by what shoppers do and around tying revenue back to the emails that earned it. This entry draws on independent reviews and competitor comparison pages rather than Drip's own site, and each fact is credited to the page that states it. A review on userlist.com describes Drip as "a popular email marketing & SMS tool that focuses exclusively in ecommerce", and hackceleration.com says it "is tightly focused on Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce stores". Several of these sources are written by competitors selling a switch away from Drip, which is worth keeping in mind when reading their criticism.

What a sender gets

Automation. Automation is what every source credits Drip with. Hackceleration.com says Drip "gives ecommerce brands deep, revenue-attributed automation with a slick visual builder" and calls the visual automation builder excellent. GetResponse's comparison page says Drip "comes with pre-built automation workflows, so sending out abandoned carts or Black Friday emails is a simple task", and that its drag-and-drop builder lets you customize workflows. Moosend's blog describes Drip as "a powerful email marketing platform geared toward eCommerce businesses and advanced users due to its marketing automation capabilities", and says it is "best known for its powerful ecommerce automation features and customer journey tools". Alpacarelay.com credits Drip with "sophisticated behavior-based workflows that can track customer journeys from first visit to repeat purchase".

Revenue attribution. Hackceleration.com says "revenue attribution ties emails to dollars", and alpacarelay.com says Drip's revenue attribution features give store owners "clear visibility into which emails drive actual sales". For a shop, this is the main argument for Drip: reports show which flows and campaigns produced orders. Alpacarelay.com also says Drip's "integration with major ecommerce platforms makes setup relatively straightforward for online retailers", and across its head-to-head verdicts hackceleration.com keeps concluding that Drip still wins for a large store that needs its deepest ecommerce automation and revenue attribution.

Autoresponders. According to GetResponse, Drip's autoresponder tool "comes with pre-packaged autoresponder campaigns", for example to sell a course or follow up on a subscription trial, and each email in the sequence can be customized. The same page notes Drip has no calendar view for autoresponder emails.

Templates and editor. GetResponse's page says Drip "has recently added a drag-and-drop builder to its template tools", with library templates such as holiday emails and monthly newsletters, but describes the builder as limited, allowing only one box for editable content. That is a competitor's assessment of an older version and may not match the current editor.

Split testing. GetResponse writes that Drip calls its A/B testing feature split testing and that, in its reading, Drip lets you test subject lines but not the content inside an email.

Segmentation. GetResponse says Drip's segmentation lets you target people "based on how they subscribed and when they were last active". Userlist.com says Drip "gives you numerous ways to segment your audience and build complex automations at an affordable price".

SMS. Userlist.com and hackceleration.com both describe SMS as part of Drip. Hackceleration.com adds that Drip "layers SMS and richer automation on top, but the costs and contact tiers stack as you turn features on".

Ads. GetResponse's page says Drip cannot design or launch Facebook or Google ads itself, but "has a Facebook Ads integration": when a subscriber takes a certain action, you can add or remove them from a custom audience on Facebook.

What the sources say Drip does not include

GetResponse's comparison states that "Drip doesn't have any landing page building tools", that it has no conversion funnel tools, and that "Drip doesn't offer any specific webinar tools". Alpacarelay.com says Drip has no pre-send email quality scoring, a feature that site sells itself.

Pricing, trial and plans

Every source that gives a price describes contact-based billing. GetResponse says Drip's pricing is "based purely on your list size" and that "If you have 2,500 contacts, you'll get access to the platform for $39/month." Hackceleration.com gives the same starting point, "39 dollars a month for up to 2,500 contacts", and says the bill climbs as the list grows: "roughly 89 dollars at 5,000 contacts, around 154 at 10,000, and far more beyond 100,000". Alpacarelay.com gives $39/month for up to 2,500 contacts and $154/month for 10,000 contacts, and dupple.com lists "From $39/mo (2,500 contacts), scales with list size". One line on alpacarelay.com mentions a "$99+ starting price for Shopify stores", which conflicts with the other figures, so check the current price list with Drip.

There is no free plan. Hackceleration.com says "There is no free plan" and that "Drip offers only a 14-day trial". Moosend's blog says Drip "has a 14-day free trial that lets you test the platform without providing your credit card details", with access to all features but without unlimited sending during the trial. GetResponse adds that Drip does not discount annual contracts.

Support and scores

GetResponse says Drip runs an online support center where customers can self-diagnose problems through webinars, blog posts and online courses, and that it "offers email and live chat support from 9 am to 5 pm CT, Monday through Friday." Moosend's blog lists "The steeper learning curve, complexity, higher cost, limited support options, and lack of additional features" as the reasons users look elsewhere, while hackceleration.com puts it the other way round: "People do not leave because Drip is bad." In hackceleration.com's hands-on test, Drip scores 3.8 out of 5 overall, 4.3 on features, 4.2 on support, 3.8 on integrations and 2.8 on value; the site says its integration catalog is narrower than some rivals', although it "integrates well with the major store platforms".

Who it suits

The sources agree on the fit. Drip suits Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce stores that want behavior-based flows, SMS and revenue attribution in one tool and are willing to pay by contact for it. Dupple.com's summary of the downside is short: "E-commerce only: not designed for service businesses or B2B." Hackceleration.com says creators, publishers, SaaS and service businesses will find much of the store-centric tooling wasted, and that a sender who mostly sends broadcasts and a couple of welcome flows is paying for depth it does not use. Alpacarelay.com warns that for businesses with seasonal list swings, contact-based pricing "can become prohibitively expensive during peak seasons". Moosend's blog adds that smaller businesses with simpler needs may find Drip "too much to handle". For anyone weighing lock-in, alpacarelay.com's FAQ notes that contacts and custom fields can be exported from Drip as a CSV file, while automation sequences and email designs do not carry over to another platform and have to be rebuilt.