Functionality: The control panel is impeccable, and even though I am not very experienced in this kind of things, I believe there is everything such a tool should have, and the dashboard is a pleasure to look at.

Email editor: There exists a newer email editor that is much more convenient than the present one, but it is still in beta and needs to be enabled by support for each account. If one decides to use this service, I believe it makes sense to switch to the new editor from the get go; no need to adapt to the old one and then switch over in a year or less.

Deliverability: after proper domain configuration (SPF, DKIM) mail-tester.com gives a high score, in the 8.5-9 out of 10 points area. Only issue with email itself (0.5 points) is that the 1x1 pixel they use to track email openings does not have an alt attribute (as it should, if one needs to be 100% compliant with accessibility). Another point is taken off by some spam list complaints.

ProtonMail marks my test campaigns as spam every time so far. Gmail (both a @gmail.com account and another account with a standalone domain that uses Google Workplace) used to mark them as spam initially, now they come through. I suspect this has a lot to do with the fact I am using one of the templates without modifications, and without actual meaningful content.

Support: I tested them by playing a bit silly concern trolling and asking if/how I can add an empty alt tag to improve my deliverability. They responded quickly, friendly and professionally (and shrugged me off, claiming rightfully that the content of my emails has much greater impact on deliverability than a tracking pixel without an alt tag).

The response was fast and it definitely felt like the person at the other end knew their stuff and knew what they were telling me. No canned replies or AI bots here; a person read my question, understood it and responded. This is a big positive, as it is getting very difficult to get support from real thinking humans nowadays. Also, they offer phone support in five languages for those who need this. This alone is amazing and worth the cost of the deal.

Training: They have a Sendinblue Academy (located at academy.sendinblue.com, requires separate user registration), which is a ~2 hours video training course + PDF textbook in email campaign preparation, sending, mail list building and maintenance, and how the components of their own service works. At the successful completion of the course (with a quiz; I will do that tonight, keep your fingers crossed for me!) one gets a certificate they can upload to their LinkedIn profile.

Extras: they have additional tools that can be enabled like CRM, web chat application and a couple others. So for those who need it, a little extra value coming from the service.

I am very happy with the service and intend to use it. The way I see things, this deal is a very well-priced entry into email campaigning for somebody who hasn't done it before but wants to learn by doing.