Explore Winning SaaS Emails

Slack’s emails focus primarily on education, engagement, and product expansion following a welcoming onboarding experience. Users are nurtured through a premium trial, with emails promoting webinars, AI features, special offers, and usage tips to deepen engagement. Occasional feedback requests and activity summaries add a personal and informative touch to the overall journey. P.S. Recurring weekly activity summary emails were removed to reduce redundancy, so the average time delay between emails may appear slightly longer than it actually is.

Lovable’s small onboarding flow and plain-text emails reflect a young, fast-growing brand still finding its visual identity. The tone is personal and community-driven, inviting users to join, learn, and celebrate milestones alongside the team. Emails focus on education, monetization tips, and product expansion, with an approachable but unpolished charm that fits their startup audience.

Typeform’s emails are highly polished and design-forward, showcasing the brand’s maturity and attention to detail. The journey centers on a long onboarding flow filled with social proof, integrations, and feature highlights to boost engagement and conversion. While visually impressive, the onboarding emails can feel dense, offering multiple calls to action instead of a single, focused next step.

Stripe’s email journey combines a polished, enterprise-grade design with a strong focus on education and product adoption. The onboarding flow highlights key features and value propositions, encouraging users to get started quickly and explore different ways to use Stripe. Beyond onboarding, emails promote webinars, reports, and studies, positioning Stripe as both a product and an industry thought leader. P.S. Some personal and account-specific emails were removed to protect sensitive information, so the average time delay between messages may be slightly longer than in reality.

PayPal’s email strategy centers on feature promotion and product usage, with sleek, professionally designed emails that reflect the brand’s scale and maturity. Most communications focus on upselling, cross-selling, and driving users back to the app, rather than education. Occasional activity recaps add relevance, but the overall emphasis is on showcasing PayPal’s capabilities and encouraging active engagement. P.S. Several sensitive or repetitive transactional emails were removed to maintain relevance and privacy, meaning the average time delay between emails may appear slightly longer than it is in practice.

Make’s emails blend onboarding guidance with activity-based communication, effectively leveraging user behavior to trigger personalized and timely messages. The onboarding sequence is well structured, featuring a clear five-step “getting started” flow, but overall email design feels text-heavy and visually unrefined for a brand of this scale. Despite the lack of polish, Make excels at using automation-driven emails to promote upgrades, encourage engagement, and support growth. P.S. Numerous activity-triggered system emails were removed to avoid redundancy, so the average time delay between emails may appear slightly longer than it is in reality.

HubSpot’s email journey consists of a clean and structured onboarding sequence, delivered through a series of multi-step messages guiding users through setup with clear CTAs. As the flow progresses, HubSpot introduces additional resources and product education, followed by a personalized 30-day report designed to pull users back into the platform. An upgrade-oriented email appears in the sequence as well—though in this case it was mis-targeted, highlighting an opportunity for improved segmentation.

Freepik’s email journey is highly expansion-driven, with frequent, polished messages promoting upgrades, annual plans, and the platform’s wide range of creative features. Educational content is minimal; instead, Freepik focuses on sales-oriented prompts and feature promotion, along with a strong win-back sequence to re-engage churned users. The overall strategy is visually strong and commercially assertive, fitting for a design-centric brand. P.S. Many repetitive promotional emails were removed due to redundancy, so the average time delay between emails appears longer than in reality.

Fiverr’s emails blend activity-based triggers with strong expansion messaging, encouraging users to continue hiring freelancers while offering relevant suggestions and resources. The brand places clear emphasis on engagement and feedback, supported by polished communications, special offers, referrals, and app-download prompts. Overall, Fiverr’s strategy is highly dynamic and conversion-oriented, continually guiding users back into the platform’s marketplace. P.S. Numerous activity-driven emails were removed to protect privacy and reduce repetition, so the average time delay between emails appears longer than it is in reality.

Customer.io delivers clean, well-designed onboarding emails that are clear, digestible, and reflective of a company that deeply understands email marketing. Their journey combines action-based triggers—such as reminders to verify a domain—with a strong emphasis on education through guides, reports, and webinars. Overall, Customer.io prioritizes empowering users with knowledge while keeping communication relevant and behavior-driven.

Canva’s email journey focuses on education and feature adoption, with polished messages promoting webinars, new capabilities, and ways to get more value from the platform. They also include expansion nudges—such as inviting teammates—and occasional win-back or activity-based emails, though some triggers show room for improved personalization. As expected from a design-centric brand, the emails are visually strong and consistently well executed.

Beehiiv’s journey is built around a very long, daily onboarding sequence, with text-heavy emails that can feel overwhelming despite their strong educational intent. The brand frequently shares creator spotlights, webinars, and affiliate-program prompts, aiming to inspire users and keep the community highly engaged. While content is valuable, the high email volume can dilute the impact of key upgrade messages and would benefit from shorter, more focused communication. P.S. Several repetitive spotlight and webinar emails were removed due to their similarity, so the average time delay between emails may appear longer than it is in reality.

Aircall’s email journey is built around a clean and straightforward onboarding flow, with concise messages that highlight key features and consistently guide users back to the dashboard. As the trial progresses, Aircall introduces customer success stories, upgrade nudges, and feature prompts to maintain engagement and drive conversion. Beyond onboarding, they mix in educational resources and demo invitations, balancing product usage with opportunities for deeper support.

Mailchimp delivers highly polished, visually rich emails throughout its onboarding and ongoing communication, reflecting its expertise as an email-first company. The journey blends educational content, events, and product updates with occasional upgrade or integration nudges, all presented in a clean, engaging layout—though one unusually long plain-text upgrade email feels out of place among the otherwise refined messages. Overall, Mailchimp maintains a diverse and well-designed email strategy that supports both learning and expansion.

monday.com delivers highly polished, visually strong emails across a structured onboarding flow that highlights key features, integrations, and social proof through case studies. Their journey includes trial-ending reminders, extension offers, and repeated prompts to restart or complete a free trial, followed by ongoing newsletters and nurturing content aimed at driving conversion. While the email strategy is robust, some newsletters are exceptionally long, and a smoother, more concise approach could improve engagement. P.S. Many of monday.com’s long, repetitive newsletter emails were removed to reduce redundancy, so the average time delay between emails appears longer than it is in reality.

ClickUp provides a clean and effective onboarding flow, with visually appealing emails (though their unusually wide layout doesn’t render perfectly within our platform). Their journey combines feature nudges and frequent activity-based notifications, helping users stay aware of progress and encouraging deeper engagement. They also include win-back messages and occasional offers—such as 20% off—to re-activate or upgrade users and keep adoption high. P.S. Numerous repetitive activity-update emails were removed for clarity, so the average time delay between emails appears longer than it is in reality.

Asana’s email journey centers on activity-based updates, with frequent notifications that celebrate progress and keep users aware of assigned or completed tasks. Their onboarding flow is reinforced by feature nudges and invitations to contact the team directly, especially when user engagement appears low. After the trial ends without an upgrade, Asana continues nurturing users through upgrade prompts and educational webinars focused on learning the product.

SurveyMonkey’s email journey features clean, polished onboarding emails that guide users toward key features and prompt them to take meaningful actions within the product. They complement this with a monthly content-driven newsletter that shares articles, research, and upcoming webinars to keep users engaged. A few activity-based nudges—like reminders to finish an unfinished survey—help maintain momentum and encourage continued usage.

Jira’s email journey is minimalistic and text-forward, relying on straightforward plain-text messages rather than the visual layouts common in other tools. Their communication consists of a small, simple onboarding sequence, followed by a few targeted prompts aimed at winning back users who haven’t upgraded. While effective in its directness, the overall approach feels notably sparse compared to other brands.

Adobe’s email journey features visually striking, well-designed messages that reflect the brand’s creative identity, beginning with a concise onboarding flow that helps new paid users discover key features and get started quickly. Most emails act as feature nudges, encouraging deeper product adoption and highlighting new capabilities across the Adobe ecosystem. They also include win-back messages, mobile-app prompts, and feedback requests, supported by solid activity-based triggers that keep users engaged throughout their lifecycle.

Grammarly’s emails are clean, visually polished, and thoughtfully laid out, reflecting the maturity of the brand and creating an easy, uncluttered onboarding experience. Their communication focuses heavily on feature education and early upgrade prompts, consistently highlighting the benefits of Grammarly Premium and even offering a recurring 40% discount to encourage conversion. Beyond onboarding, users receive weekly activity recaps, adding a personalized touch that reinforces ongoing value and engagement.

Dropbox’s email journey features minimalistic yet polished messages, reflecting the brand’s maturity but lacking strong visual consistency due to varied color usage and a diluted sense of identity. Their communication focuses on nudging users back into the product, encouraging engagement with key features and reminding inactive users to return to their files. Alongside this, Dropbox includes expansion prompts such as inviting teammates or upgrading to a business plan, though the overall design could benefit from a modern refresh. P.S. Many redundant or repetitive emails were removed, so the average time delay between emails appears longer than it is in reality.

DocuSign’s email journey revolves around practical, education-focused communication, delivered mostly through plain-text messages that match the brand’s formal, legal-tech identity—though the experience could benefit from more visual elements to improve readability. Their flow includes webinars, video resources, and feature guidance to help paid users get the most out of the platform, alongside strong upgrade and win-back prompts. Notably, DocuSign even uses an abandoned-cart email, a tactic uncommon in SaaS, showing how closely they track purchasing intent.

Apollo’s journey stands out for its gamified onboarding, where users progress through a seven-step checklist and earn credits as they complete each action—an approach that powerfully motivates engagement and accelerates adoption. Most onboarding messages are plain-text emails, mirroring the style of real outreach and smartly reinforcing Apollo’s identity as a cold-email platform. Beyond onboarding, Apollo sends activity-based alerts, educational content on successful outreach, feedback prompts, and feature nudges (like installing their Chrome extension), creating a well-rounded and strategically aligned email experience.

Lucid’s email journey combines distinctive, visually strong templates with a feature-focused onboarding flow that encourages users to explore different use cases and invite their team. After onboarding, the communication becomes heavily centered on content, with frequent newsletters and webinars designed to educate and keep users engaged. They also incorporate win-back prompts, expansion nudges, and feature announcements, maintaining ongoing touchpoints throughout the user lifecycle.

Figma’s email journey features beautifully designed, visually rich onboarding messages, each built around a consistent template that highlights product features, educational resources, and templates through clear, multi-section layouts. Beyond onboarding, Figma keeps users engaged with frequent webinars, newsletters, and event promotions (including their flagship Config conference), alongside occasional product announcements. Interestingly, some emails arrived in French despite English settings, suggesting room for improvement in language personalization.

Ahrefs delivers a highly educational onboarding experience, using long, detailed emails packed with guides, product screenshots, YouTube videos, and even a “Getting Started” webinar to help new paid users navigate a complex SEO platform. Their ongoing communication continues this educational focus, combining site-activity updates, feature announcements, and invitations to events like their Evolve conference. This approach fits the depth of the product and ensures users can grow their skills directly from their inbox. P.S. Many repetitive site-update emails were removed for relevance, so the average time delay between emails appears longer than it is in reality.

SEMrush delivers clean, structured onboarding emails that are highly visual without being image-heavy, using well-designed sections to guide users toward key features and educational value. Their journey blends site-based alerts, feature highlights, webinars, conferences, guides, and frequent product updates, all designed to keep users learning and returning to the platform. SEMrush also stands out for its “SEMrushversary” anniversary email and for being one of the brands that requests user feedback the most, adding a unique and engaging layer to the experience.

Webflow’s email journey is simple and consistent, built around a recurring template with a banner image followed by mostly plain-text content. Their onboarding flow leans heavily on education, offering numerous articles and resources to help users understand a complex product, while ongoing communication includes reports and activity-based notices tied to site behavior. Webflow has also invested significantly in **upselling—especially around their localization feature—with a high volume of prompts that may feel a bit excessive at times.

Buffer’s emails rely heavily on plain-text onboarding messages, made more personable through friendly sender signatures that include small profile photos, giving the communication a human touch. Their lifecycle messaging is strongly activity-driven, triggering notifications whenever posts are scheduled, published, or missing—an approach that keeps engagement high but results in a large overall email volume. Notably, Buffer has undergone a significant email marketing rebrand, with improvements in both design and lifecycle strategy, resulting in clearer, more intentional communication.

PhantomBuster’s email journey is simple and mostly plain-text, offering straightforward nudges that encourage users to try specific features and return to the platform. While effective in intent, the emails could benefit from more engaging layouts or visual elements to better reflect the value of the product and create a smoother reading experience. Overall, the strategy leans on feature prompts and light education, but there is room to strengthen the communication with richer design and more varied content.

Hunter.io’s emails are simple and mostly plain-text, supported by a distinctive header design with an orangish-pink background and light visual accents, though overall the communication could benefit from richer layouts. Their messaging leans on feature nudges, usage-based triggers, and upgrade prompts, especially when users approach their quota, alongside educational content around cold outreach best practices. A standout element is their interactive voting game, a rare and engaging tactic that adds personality to their email strategy.

Zapier’s emails stand out visually thanks to their vibrant color palette and clean design, creating a distinctive look across their communication. Their onboarding flow is rich in educational content and personalized guidance, offering tailored recommendations based on the automations a user is building, alongside webinars and helpful resources; the sequence ends with a simple plain-text upgrade nudge. Beyond onboarding, Zapier continues to deliver feature prompts, product news, integration announcements, webinars, and team-invite nudges, while also celebrating key milestones—like creating a user’s first Zap—and supporting re-engagement with special win-back offers.

Miro delivers exceptionally polished, visually rich emails that stand out for their thoughtful design, human touch, and highly digestible content. Their communication focuses on education and inspiration, offering templates, examples, videos, webinars, and community events that make it easy for users to reach value quickly and creatively. Although they don’t send many emails, the ones they do include feature announcements, referral invites, and an excellent annual recap, resulting in a consistently delightful email experience.

Loom’s email journey is simple, human, and highly product-centric, beginning with a plain-text welcome message that includes a personal Loom video and continues with onboarding emails that use Loom recordings directly inside the messages. Their communication blends feature nudges, webinar invitations, and new-feature announcements with strong milestone moments—such as celebrating a user’s first recording or sending monthly activity recaps that highlight time saved and real product value. Loom also regularly requests feedback, keeping the conversation open and reinforcing a supportive, user-focused experience.

Notion’s email journey mirrors its product: minimalistic, structured, and clean, with simple layouts, short text blocks, and product screenshots that feel instantly recognizable. Their onboarding flow follows a clear seven-day, step-by-step structure, starting with feature education and transitioning into expansion prompts such as inviting teammates, connecting tools, or downloading the apps. Beyond onboarding, Notion enriches the experience with Founder Spotlight content (First Block), cross-selling for major new products, highly consistent product-update emails, and upgrade nudges triggered by usage limits, all reinforcing strong engagement and ongoing adoption.

Calendly delivers highly polished, visually distinctive emails, especially throughout a long and engaging onboarding flow filled with videos, feature nudges, and personalized prompts based on user activity. Their lifecycle messaging blends upgrade reminders, team-invite nudges, product-adoption prompts, and a rich cadence of educational webinars, including an on-demand onboarding session for new paid users. They also maintain strong ongoing engagement through regular product-update emails from their Head of Product Marketing, win-back messages for churned users, and occasional expansion offers such as annual-plan discounts.

Pipedrive’s email journey features clean, simple, and well-designed messages that guide users through a straightforward onboarding flow focused on discovering key features through videos, sample files, and webinars. Once a user becomes paid, Pipedrive adds a strong human touch, with the customer success team personally inviting new customers to book a 45-minute onboarding call—an excellent way to accelerate adoption. Their broader lifecycle communication is rich in educational content, newsletters, blog articles, courses, guides, and reports, complemented by smart win-back tactics, social-proof-driven messages, and occasional expansion offers tied to timely events. P.S. Several repetitive newsletters were removed to reduce redundancy, so the average time delay between emails appears longer than in reality.