Litmus
Pre-send email QA: previews across 100+ email clients, spam filter testing, accessibility checks, and engagement analytics.
About
Litmus is the standard tool email teams use to check campaigns before they send. You build in its Builder (a code editor with real-time previews across mobile and desktop), then run one-click tests: previews across 100+ email clients and devices, spam testing against 25+ filters with authentication and IP reputation checks, link validation, accessibility checks, dark mode previews, and personalization rendering checks. After sending, its analytics report not just open rates but whether emails were deleted, glanced at, skimmed, or properly read, plus geolocation of opens.
Pricing starts at $500/month for the Core plan (billed annually, up to 5 users) with a 14-day free trial; Enterprise starts around $1,000/month with unlimited users and deliverability tools. Add-ons like the Deliverability Suite, Inbox Insights, and Sender Certification cost extra, and in February 2026 Litmus introduced provider-level inbox placement alongside an unlimited-testing announcement. Founded in 2005, it is the category incumbent, which is why its price floor keeps it firmly in team territory rather than freelancer territory.
What it can do
- 100+ email client previews
- Spam filter testing (25+ filters)
- Pre-send checklist
- Builder with real-time previews
- Accessibility checks
- Dark mode previews
- Link validation
- Proofing and approval workflows
- Version control timeline
- Engagement analytics (read/glance/skim)
- ESP integrations
Setup
Sign up at litmus.com, connect your ESP (Salesforce, Mailchimp, HubSpot), and run tests from the Builder or via checklist.
Prerequisites
Paid plan from $500/month; an ESP or email source to test against.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 7/10
Scored 7/10 (TIER metrics, metrics-v1). Evidence: pricing ($500/month Core, ~$1,000 Enterprise) and feature set corroborated across three independent 2026 reviews; founded 2005, category incumbent status documented. Strengths: de facto standard for email QA, broad client coverage, proofing workflows teams rely on. Docked for: (1) $500/month entry price with no plan below it excludes freelancers and small teams; (2) inbox placement insights and deliverability tools are paid add-ons; (3) seed-list placement reports are a smoke test, not a guarantee of real inbox placement, per independent comparisons. License: proprietary SaaS; from $500/month, 14-day free trial.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 7.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 7.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 4.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · Founded 2005; category incumbent for pre-send email QA
- · 100+ email client previews, 25+ spam filter checks
- · No plan below $500/month — excludes freelancers and small teams
- · Inbox placement insights are a paid add-on
- · Provider-level inbox placement and unlimited testing announced Feb 2026
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.