Email Marketing Tools: Alternatives to Litmus and Validity After the Acquisition

As industry consolidation continues, what options do email marketers have in the wake of the Litmus acquisition?

What Happened?

Validity, Inc. announced yesterday, April the 10th, that it had acquired Litmus, a leading email optimisation and testing platform and a community that was beloved by many email marketers worldwide. The official announcement came to my attention after seeing numerous LinkedIn posts from Litmus employees revealed they had been made redundant.

According to Validity’s press release, this acquisition aligns with their strategy to build a “comprehensive marketing success platform” offering “a seamless, end-to-end experience” for email marketers. However, the substantial workforce reductions that preceded the announcement have sparked widespread concern throughout the emailgeeks and email marketing community, contrasting sharply with Validity’s positive framing of the acquisition.

Many in the industry have expressed their dismay at the news, noting Litmus’s passionate community and the deep affection marketers held for both the platform and the team behind it. The platform has been a trusted companion to email professionals for years, with many citing its intuitive interface and innovative features as instrumental to their success.

We’ve contacted Validity with specific questions about the acquisition, staff reductions, and plans for Litmus customers. So far, we’ve received only their initial press release. Given the announcement came after business hours yesterday and Boston offices are just opening this morning, we anticipate a delayed response.

We’ll update this story as we learn more.

Industry Reaction

The announcement has been met with mixed reactions. Many former Litmus employees have shared emotional goodbyes on LinkedIn, indicating substantial workforce reductions. Jaina Mistry, a long established leader in the email community and after nearly 9 years with the company, wrote about the “end of an era,” while AJ Ferril confirmed his “position was eliminated” following the acquisition.

Sara Kappler, a Litmus customer, expressed concerns about the timing and implications on Linkedin: “As a customer of Litmus, I know I am not alone in wanting to know what this means and what lies ahead. We all have options and to me at least it matters to choose to do business with companies that have shared values.”

Some Client Concerns

For current Litmus customers, several questions remain unanswered:

1. Will Litmus continue to be available as a standalone product or only as part of an integrated offering with Validity’s Everest platform?
2. How will pricing, contract terms, and service offerings change?
3. Will customers need to purchase additional Validity products to maintain access to Litmus services?
4. What happens to the community-focused approach that many valued about Litmus?
5. Why did the acquisition result in such significant staff redundancies?

Our enquiries to Validity included these questions and others regarding the workforce reductions and acquisition details. At this time Validity has not responded beyond their initial press release, which stated only that “No other financial terms of the agreement were disclosed.”

Alternative Email Marketing Solutions

For those considering alternatives due to the uncertainty, here’s an overview of email marketing tools that offer similar functionality to Litmus and Validity.

Its a long list but what are the chances you only use about 30% – 40% of the features you pay for in a bundled suite from a package like Everest?

Certification Tools

Certified Senders Alliance
The Certified Senders Alliance (CSA) is a service from eco – Association of the Internet Industry in cooperation with the German Dialogmarketing Association (Deutscher Dialogmarketing Verband – DDV) and their solutions include email certification.

ISIPP SuretyMail
Founded by Anne P. Mitchell, widely and highly respected across the industry.

Email Testing & Rendering Solutions

Email on Acid
A comprehensive platform providing previews across over 90 email clients and devices. Their Campaign Precheck feature offers QA, accessibility checks, spam testing, and analytics. Recently acquired by Sinch, Email on Acid continues to operate as a reliable email testing solution.

Mailosaur
Designed with developers in mind, Mailosaur enables testing of email rendering, content, and deliverability. It supports API integration for automated testing workflows .

Parcel
This email development platform offers real-time previews, a collaborative code editor, dark mode previews, and advanced components for dynamic content. It’s particularly well-suited for developers focused on code quality and has gained popularity for its modern approach to email development.

SendForensics
Focuses primarily on deliverability analysis, including domain and IP reputation, content scoring, and inbox placement testing. They offer unlimited email preview testing.

Testi@
A budget-friendly option providing email previews for various clients, with features including HTML editing and test email sending.

Email Hygiene Tools

AlfredKnows
A powerful email validation and database hygiene service with real-time verification capabilities.

AtData
Offers email hygiene, identity verification, and fraud prevention solutions with comprehensive data validation capabilities.

Bouncer
Email verification service that helps maintain clean email lists with simple API integration and pay-as-you-go options.

Kickbox
A robust email list verification and database hygiene solution

ZeroBounce
Email validation and verification system to reduce bounce rates, featuring scoring and abuse detection.

Consultancy Services

BandSender
French email marketing consultancy with focus on deliverability and compliance with EU regulations.

Email Industries
American consultancy that offers email marketing strategy and implementation services with comprehensive audit capabilities.

MailSoar
European Agency, focused on improving deliverability and sender reputation with personalised approach to email strategy.

Postmastery
Specialises in email deliverability consulting and technical solutions with a focus on enterprise-level support. An extremely popular choice amongst email service providers and other SaaS companies. Extremely highly regarded technical service team.

Word to the Wise
Highly respected deliverability consultancy offering expert guidance on email policy, deliverability, and sender reputation management. Founded by industry veterans with deep expertise in ISP relations and email authentication.

DMARC Tools

DMARC Advisor
Provides DMARC reporting and analysis for email authentication with comprehensive security features.

EasyDMARC
Simplifies DMARC implementation and monitoring with user-friendly dashboards and reporting.

Spamhaus
While primarily known for their blocklists, Spamhaus offers monitoring tools and services to help senders maintain a clean reputation and avoid deliverability issues. Their reporting can be invaluable for identifying and resolving potential email blocking issues.

Inbox & Deliverability Testing

Console by Postmastery
Comprehensive delivery monitoring and analysis with detailed reporting on email performance, extremely advanced system that provides actionable insights and data popular with enterprise senders and especially those operating multi-tenant environments.

EmailConsul
Deliverability and reputation monitoring platform with fairly comprehensive features.

GlockApps
Tests email deliverability across multiple providers and spam filters with detailed spam test reports.

Inbox Monster
Comprehensive email deliverability platform offering inbox placement testing, DMARC monitoring, and engagement analytics. Their real-time deliverability insights and proactive alerts help identify and resolve issues before they impact campaign performance.

MailMonitor
Tracks email deliverability and provides alerts for delivery issues with intuitive dashboards.

SocketLabs Spotlight
Email analytics and deliverability monitoring with integrations for major ESPs.

Additional Email Rendering Options

BeeFree
An email template builder and preview tool.

Stripo
Email template builder with preview functionality and extensive template library.

Special Mentions

SEINō Email Analytics
Advanced email analytics for serious email marketers. Integrate SEINō with your email marketing platform and Google Analytics.
Visualize sales performance and conversions.

Looking Ahead

While Validity has stated that the acquisition will provide “a seamless, end-to-end experience” and create a “unified platform that ensures emails are visually compelling, appropriately optimised, and positioned for next-generation personalisation,” many in the industry are taking a cautious wait-and-see approach.

Jeannette Castañeda captured the sentiment of many when she wrote on LinkedIn: “The email marketing world felt a ripple today. With Validity’s acquisition of Litmus, many incredibly talented email pros are now unexpectedly job searching. These are folks who’ve helped shape our industry: smart, skilled, and carrying the weight of sudden uncertainty.”

For those evaluating alternatives, it’s advisable to consider:

1. Integration capabilities with your existing tech stack
2. Pricing structure and how it aligns with your budget and usage patterns
3. Feature completeness compared to what you currently use in Litmus
4. Support and community resources available
5. Company stability and history of acquisitions or service changes
6. Data privacy practices and compliance with regulations like GDPR
7. Contractual flexibility and ability to scale services as needed

Community Impact

Beyond the business implications, this acquisition has highlighted the strong sense of community within the email marketing industry. The outpouring of support for displaced Litmus employees demonstrates the collaborative spirit that has long been a hallmark of the #EmailGeeks community.

As Jaina Mistry, noted in her farewell post: “It was more than just an email marketing platform. We built a community of email loving marketers. We got nerdy about Dark Mode, rose to the challenge of tackling email accessibility, and collectively grouched at white lines in Outlook.” Her words reflect the love and dedication the Litmus team poured into not just their product, but fostering a vibrant community united with their passion for email excellence.

This community aspect and shared belief and mindset is something many Litmus customers valued highly, and may be a consideration when evaluating alternative tools and platforms.

For those in a position to hire, many talented Litmus alumni are currently seeking new opportunities. A dedicated Litmus Alumni Center has been created where you can connect with these experienced email professionals. The site showcases their extensive industry experience and provides contact information for potential employers.

As the situation develops, we’ll continue to monitor responses from Validity and provide updates on what current Litmus customers can expect moving forward.

This article will be updated if and when Validity responds to our enquiries. Follow us on Twitter/X or LinkedIn for notifications of future updates, or subscribe to our newsletter for comprehensive coverage of this developing situation and other email industry news.