Marka is a solid choice for freelance designers who want beautiful templates. Email Love is built for marketing teams who need shared design systems, deep ESP integrations, and AI features that scale across multiple designers.
Here's an honest breakdown of how they compare.
The Quick Comparison
Email Love | Marka | |
Built For | Marketing teams & agencies | Freelance designers & solo creators |
Starting Price | $19/user/month | $19/user/month |
ESP Integration Depth | Deep (templates, snippets | Basic HTML export |
Design System Storage | ✅ Shared across team, organized by type | ❌ Local per user, can't share |
AI Features | ✅ AI Studio + AI Copilot | ❌ None |
Enterprise Support | ✅ Custom design system + training + Slack/Zoo | ❌ Only basic template services |
Templates/Components | 100+ components & Templates | 100+ templates |
Why Marketing Teams Choose Email Love
Teams Need Shared Design Systems (Not Local Libraries)
Here's where Marka falls apart for marketing teams:
Each designer saves components to their own local library. Designer A creates a button on Monday. Designer B creates a slightly different button on Tuesday. Designer C has no idea which one to use on Wednesday. By the end of the month, you have three versions of "the button" with no way to share or organize them.
Email Love is different. Your design system lives in one place inside the plugin, organized by component type. Every designer sees the same library. Update a button once, everyone gets it automatically.
No more "which file has the latest components?" No version control chaos. No duplicate work.
Marketing Teams Need ESP Integrations (Not Just HTML)
For Iterable users: We export directly to templates and snippets. Not HTML your email ops team rebuilds manually. Actual Iterable templates they deploy immediately.
For Braze users: We auto-generate localization tags with unique IDs. Translating into 20+ languages? This saves 10+ hours per campaign. No more manually wrapping copy in translation tags at 11pm before launch.
Marka exports clean HTML. Great if you're a freelancer handing off to clients. Not enough if you're a team scaling production in Braze or Iterable.
High-Volume Teams Need AI
Shipping 2-3 emails per month? You don't need AI.
Shipping 20-30 emails per month across campaigns, launches, and segments? AI becomes essential.
AI Studio reads campaign briefs from Monday, Asana, or Notion and generates first drafts using your design system. Your designer starts at 70% done. A 3-hour project becomes 45 minutes.
AI Copilot catches rendering errors before they hit 100,000 inboxes. Flags accessibility issues. Identifies broken responsive code.
Marka doesn't have AI features.
Enterprise Teams Need More Than Documentation
Email Love Enterprise includes:
- Custom design system built for your brand (50 components)
- Hands-on training for your entire team
- Ongoing Slack and Zoom support
- 15+ years of email marketing expertise
Marka offers: Custom template services and documentation. No enterprise plan, no team training, no dedicated support.
We've onboarded teams at Hatch, CNN, Eargo, and Bilt. We know what marketing teams need.
The Full Feature Breakdown
Feature Category | Email Love | Marka |
Pricing | Starter: $19/user/mo
Growth: $35/user/mo
Enterprise: Custom | Free (1 email)
Lite: $19/mo (10+ emails)
Advanced: $29/mo (80+ emails) |
Best For | Marketing teams & agencies | Freelance designers |
Export Limits | Starter: 10/mo
Growth: Unlimited | Starter: 10/mo
Pro: Unlimited |
ESP Integrations | HubSpot, Klaviyo, Iterable (templates + snippets), Braze (localization + content blocks), Customer.io, Loops, MoEngage | Mailchimp, Square, HubSpot, Brevo (basic HTML) |
Integration Depth | ✅ Deep integrations with advanced features (templates, snippets, content blocks, localization) | ❌ Basic HTML export to all platforms |
Design System Storage | ✅ Shared across team, organized by type, works in all files | ❌ Local per user, can't share, no organization |
Templates Included | 100+ free templates | 100+ free templates |
AI Features | ✅ AI Studio (brief to email)
✅ AI Copilot (error detection) | ❌ None |
Mobile Optimization | ✅ Responsive overrides | ✅ Responsive overrides |
Dark Mode | ✅ Preview with custom overrides | ✅ Preview with custom overrides |
Custom Code | ✅ Raw code component | ✅ Raw code component |
Localization | ✅ Auto-tags for Braze, Smartling, Lokalise, Crowdin integration | ❌ None |
Image Hosting | ✅ Included | ✅ Included |
Team Collaboration | ✅ Shared design system library | Standard Figma collaboration |
Enterprise Onboarding | ✅ Custom design system
✅ Team training
✅ Slack/Zoom support | Marka does offer some light weight template building services, but no indepth training or support. |
Support Level | Expert support at all tiers | Customer support included |
Custom Design System Service | ✅ Services to help your build a custom email design system. | ❌ Not offered |
When to Choose Each Plugin
Choose Email Love if you're:
✅ A marketing team with multiple designers who need to share components
✅ An agency managing email production for multiple clients
✅ Using Braze or Iterable and need templates, snippets, or localization
✅ Shipping high volume (20+ emails per month) and need AI to speed up production
✅ Managing brand consistency across designers, campaigns, and time zones
✅ An enterprise team that needs training, onboarding, and dedicated support
✅ Scaling email production beyond what one designer can handle
Bottom line: If "team collaboration" or "brand consistency" matters to you, Email Love is built for this. Marka isn't.
Choose Marka if you're:
✅ A freelance designer working solo on client projects
✅ Sending 1-10 emails per month (their free tier or $19/month is hard to beat)
✅ A design purist who loves Auto Layout and wants Responsive + Breakpoints control
✅ Looking for beautiful template inspiration from their custom studio
✅ Focused on Gmail optimization (their minify HTML feature is useful)
✅ Don't need team collaboration or ESP integrations
✅ Comfortable with self-service (documentation vs hands-on support)
Bottom line: If you're a solo freelancer shipping low volume to various clients, Marka's approach and pricing make sense.
Pricing: What Makes Sense for Teams
Solo Designer or Freelancer
Email Love Starter: $19/month (10 exports, team features you won't use)
Marka Lite: $19/month (10+ emails, built for solo work)
Winner: Tie. Pick based on whether you need ESP integrations or AI features.
Marketing Team of 3 Designers
Email Love Growth: $105/month ($35 x 3)
- Unlimited exports for everyone
- One shared design system
- AI features for all
- Deep ESP integrations
Marka Advanced: $87/month ($29 x 3)
- 240 total emails (80 per person)
- Three separate, disconnected libraries
- No AI features
- Basic HTML export
Winner: Email Love. You're paying $18/month more to actually function as a team instead of three solo designers working in silos.
Marketing Team of 8 Designers
Email Love Growth: $280/month ($35 x 8)
Marka Advanced: $232/month ($29 x 8)
You're paying $48/month more for Email Love. But here's what you get:
- One design system vs eight disconnected libraries
- Unlimited exports vs 640 emails (80 per person)
- AI features that save hours per designer per week
- ESP integrations that save your email ops team 10+ hours per campaign
Winner: Email Love. At team scale, the collaboration features aren't nice-to-have. They're essential.
Real Talk: Why Teams Need Different Tools Than Freelancers
I've been in email marketing for 15+ years. I've seen what happens when teams try to scale using tools built for solo designers.
Here's the problem with Marka for teams:
Both Email Love and Marka let you save components inside the plugin. But there's a critical difference:
With Marka: Components are saved locally to each designer's plugin. Designer A saves a button to their plugin on Monday. Designer B can't see it. They save their own slightly different button on Tuesday. Designer C joins on Wednesday and has no idea either version exists. They create a third button.
Plus, there's no way to organize components by type. When you have 50+ components saved, finding the right one becomes a mess.
With Email Love: Components are saved to a shared library inside the plugin. Every team member sees the same components, organized by type (buttons, headers, footers, CTAs). Designer A saves a button on Monday. Designer B and Designer C both see it immediately in their plugin. One button. One source of truth.
The result?
After 3 months with Marka, a 3-person team has:
- 3 separate component libraries nobody else can access
- Multiple versions of the same component floating around
- No way to organize or find components efficiently
- Spent $261 ($29 x 3 people x 3 months) on a tool that doesn't enable collaboration
After 3 months with Email Love, that same team has:
- 1 shared design system everyone accesses
- Components organized by type
- Brand consistency across all designers
- Spent $315 ($35 x 3 people x 3 months) on a tool built for team collaboration
The $54 difference buys you actual team functionality.
This isn't a failure of the team. It's using the wrong tool.
Marka is great at what it does. It's a well-designed plugin for Auto Layout-focused freelancers working solo.
But marketing teams aren't solo designers. They're 3-10 people who need to share components, maintain brand consistency, integrate with ESPs, and ship volume efficiently.
That's why we built Email Love.
What Our Customers Say
Common Questions
Can freelancers use Email Love?
Absolutely. If you need ESP integrations (Iterable templates, Braze localization) or AI features, Email Love makes sense even as a solo designer. But if you're shipping low volume (under 10 emails/month) and just need basic HTML, Marka's free tier or $19/month plan is hard to beat.
Why can't Marka's components be shared across a team?
It's a technical limitation. Each user's component library is local to their Figma account. This works great for freelancers. It breaks down for teams who need one shared source of truth.
What if our team is only 2 people right now?
If you plan to grow (or already struggle with version control between 2 people), start with Email Love. The shared design system works from day one. If you're staying at 2 people forever and don't need ESP integrations, Marka might work.
Does Marka have team features we're missing?
No. We've done thorough research. Their component library can't be shared across users and can't be organized by type. They don't have an enterprise plan. Their HTML import feature doesn't work well. They're built for solo designers, and that's okay.
Can we migrate from Marka to Email Love?
No, layer and frame set up between the two plugins is different. Email Love uses MJML and Marka has its own layer structure. If you want to migrate your Marka templates to Email Love, you will need to re-build your templates.
What if we don't use Braze or Iterable?
We also support HubSpot, Klaviyo, Customer.io, Loops, and MoEngage with deeper integrations. Even if you're just using basic platforms, the shared design system and AI features still make Email Love valuable for teams.
Is Marka a bad plugin?
Not at all. It's a good plugin built for freelance designers. We're just being honest that it's not built for team collaboration. That's not a criticism. It's just a different use case.
Ready to See the Difference?
Built for teams. Scales with growth. Actually works for collaboration.
Join 100+ marketing teams who chose shared design systems over local component libraries.
✓ 10 exports for free
✓ No credit card required
✓ See the shared design system in action
✓ Test AI Studio and Copilot with your team
✓ Export to your actual ESP
Questions about team collaboration features?
Email us at support@emaillove.com or schedule a demo. We'll show you exactly how the shared design system works and why it matters for teams.
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