Email countdown timers add an element of urgency to seasonal marketing emails, product launches, and in-store events. The idea is that the presence of a timer triggers FOMO – the fear of missing out on a great deal (or event).
Because the countdown timer is hosted dynamically, you can control what recipients see both before and after emails are actually sent – for example, by updating the deadline, or changing what appears after it expires.
Some email service providers (like Moosend, Kit, and MailerLite) include a countdown timer widget as part of their package. But if your ESP doesn’t have one, or if you want more advanced functionality, you can sign up to an email countdown timer service.
In this post, I’ve compared some of the top email countdown providers at the time of writing.
Sendtric
Of all the email countdown timers I looked at, Sendtric is the one I’m most familiar with. I have used this in my own work, and I wanted to recommend it because I know it’s reliable.
Sendtric countdown timers are simple to set up, too, so this is a tool I would recommend to marketing teams and agencies without hesitation.
What’s more, Sendtric offers a free plan with no branding, making it ideal for small businesses and anyone who wants to test countdown timers to see the ROI before they commit.
My main criticism is that the pre-made timers don’t have a slick appearance and are quite basic in their default state. You won’t get nice rounded timers or fancy effects from Sendtric.
However, it’s easy to use, easy to customize, and you can save your own templates. So if all you want is a functional countdown timer widget, Sendric will deliver that. (Sometimes you won’t want your timer to steal the show anyway!)
You can also create timers that adapt to the user’s timezone. Sendtric is the only service I tested that warns you about Gmail’s proxies, which can mess up the times users see. I wasn’t aware of this, and it’s definitely good to know before pinning a campaign on it.
When you’re setting up complicated seasonal sales, you often just want to solve a problem quickly, and Sendtric does. If you’re happy with your email service provider but just want a timer on top, I think it’s a good choice.
Pros
- Free plan with no watermark
- Proven to be solid and reliable, in my experience
Cons
- Timers have a fairly basic appearance
Pricing
Sendtric is free for 10,000 monthly views with no watermark or branding. If you exceed this limit, a watermark will be added until you upgrade. Paid plans start from $9/mo if you don’t need analytics. The $39/mo plan allows you to use a placeholder image when the timer runs out, and for $69/mo, you can have your timers start when the email is sent.
NiftyImages
NiftyImages was the most popular provider of dynamic email widgets at the time I researched this post, according to statistics gathered by our Email Detective tool:
Live and dynamic content tools
Countdown timers, live polls and content that changes when the email is opened rather than when it was sent.
63brands using one of these
| Tool | Brands | |
|---|---|---|
| Sendtric | 20 | |
| NiftyImages | 19 | |
| MailTimers | 9 | |
| CountdownMail | 6 | |
| Motion Mail App | 6 | |
| Tickvio | 2 | |
| Powerinbox | 2 |
Source: Email Detective — email technologies, measured from real inboxes and updated daily.
It offers email countdown timers, live weather widgets, polls, and even interactive scratch panels, and it claims that users see a 20-35% increase in revenue and engagement after using it. (The actual claim here is a little unclear, since an increase in engagement can be measured in different ways, and there are multiple widgets on offer.)
I tested timer creation and found it to be simple. The countdown timer widget designs are OK for general usage, although some have a stock photo style appearance that is a little dated.
But configuration is easy; NiftyImages uses layers, much like any graphic design program. There’s really no learning curve and it’s very easy to move things around to make more complex timer designs.
There are also tons of customization features, although I feel that some (like the constant blinking digits) would likely distract from the main call to action in a marketing email. I wouldn’t advise using them for marketing campaigns, but you may want to draw the eye to the timer in some cases.
I like the feature that allows you to set the timer to count up instead of down. You can also display a static image when the timer expires. I would prefer it if the menus all appeared in the sidebar, but it’s still very usable as it is, and it has the cleanest layout of all the timer creation tools I’ve tested.
Embedding the image in an email is easy with a simple img link, and you can view basic statistics for opens and clicks.
Pros
- Clear layout
- Good breadth of features
Cons
- Free plan limitations aren’t clearly stated
- Some timers appear dated
- Adds features that many businesses will likely never use
Pricing
NiftyImages pricing starts at $20/mo for up to 600,000 email opens per year. Keep in mind that one subscription gives you access to all the tools it offers, not just the email countdown timers. There’s a free trial, although NiftyImages is not clear on the limitations of the trial.
MailTimers
MailTimers is dedicated to email countdown timers and has a free plan, so it ticks two important boxes right out of the gate.
It allows you to create three timer types: countdown, evergreen (meaning the countdown starts when the email is opened), and cyclic (counts down repeatedly after reaching the end).
However, the free and more affordable options don’t include timezone detection.
For a general sale with a fixed end time, this doesn’t matter. Most companies will run sales in their own company time zone, so the sale will have a fixed end time.
If you want to count down to a specific calendar time (for example, you want all recipients to see a countdown to midnight on New Year’s Eve in their timezone), you’ll need at least the Corporate plan. That’s a significant uplift in cost.
There are 4 free countdown timer templates, with customization available on paid plans. Analytics include impressions, which may be misleading: an impression would be counted each time the email is opened. However, open and click statistics can be affected by automated email spam detection, so your numbers won’t be exact however you count them.
As for the layout when making a timer, there is definitely room for improvement. The sidebar is collapsible, but it doesn’t even need to be there, and there are icons on buttons that make them feel overwhelming. In my view, it would be better just to remove all icons and padding within the interface to reduce scrolling.
For marketing teams who are willing to spend money on a professional email countdown timer service, MailTimers is worth looking at. I feel the interface feels a little over-engineered, though.
Pros
- Comprehensive platform
- Lots of customization options
- Unlimited views on the free plan
Cons
- Interface not the easiest to use on a small screen
- Branding on the free plan
Pricing
The free plan includes unlimited timers, but they carry MailTimers branding. Paid plans start at $9.95/mo and include more customization options. If you need to use timezones, a plan with timezone detection costs $80 / month.
CleverTimer
For a free email countdown timer in a hurry, CleverTimer has an online countdown timer generator. You can create a timer on the website, enter your email, and immediately grab the embed code to use it.
Even better, the timers have no branding on them, despite being free to use.
There are three timer styles with some basic customization, including the option to display a static image if your timer fails to load. You can also choose the timezone for your timer when you create it.
The downside is that you don’t get the convenience of saving your timers, or creating templates, so this might not be the best pick for marketing teams who may want to re-run a winning campaign.
And since you don’t have a login, you can’t store analytics for your timers to measure performance. This isn’t the best timer if you want to measure engagement over the longer term.
But for simple use cases like newsletters or non-profit campaigns, this is a good option that allows you to create a timer without the hassle of signing up for extra features you don’t need.
Pros
- Fastest way to create an email countdown timer
- Entirely browser based
- Fallback option for Apple Mail users
- No branding
Cons
- No usage statistics
- No saved templates or timers
Pricing
CleverTimer is free. If you like it, you can donate.
CountdownMail
CountdownMail is a versatile email timer service with a free plan that offers unlimited views. If you’re OK with having their branding on your timers, this is the perfect solution, and the actual tool offers more options than I expected.
I like the customizer for this email countdown timer. All the options are available right away, so although it has a more cluttered appearance, you don’t have to expand dropdowns and lists to get to the feature you want.
This also meant I got a better sense of what I could do with it because all the options were laid out for me. And I didn’t feel much space was wasted.
I especially like the dropdown that allows you to select your email service provider. This changes the embed code slightly so that it works within that provider’s email template.
This is the kind of feature that can save you from embarrassing mistakes. There’s nothing worse than kicking off a big campaign with a marketing email that doesn’t display properly, so that will appeal to marketing teams.
There’s also a feature that allows you to hide the timer in Apple Mail, since often timers don’t work well with image caching. Even better, you can remove the branding on your timer for just $7/ mo, making it a very accessible tool for small-scale creators and teams.
Pros
- Comprehensive customization option
- Static image fallback
- Embed code tailored to your email provider
- Remove branding for a relatively low price
Cons
- Overkill for a simple timer
- Free timers have branding
Pricing
CountdownMail is free with unlimited views for basic features. It has more pricing tiers than other tools I tested, making it a good option if you want to add features without scaling up to a high-level plan right away. You can remove branding for $7/mo, although that plan is capped at 100,000 views per month.
Best Practices for Email Countdown Timers
FOMO is a powerful marketing tactic that really does work, but it’s important not to overdo it. Once you see an email countdown timer driving sales, you may be tempted to add them to more of your marketing emails to try to repeat the results.
But while FOMO is effective, over-using it will almost always lead to diminishing returns. If everything becomes urgent, your potential customers or clients will become skeptical.
When we’re advising email marketing or e-commerce users, we recommend saving timers for important product launches or your biggest and deepest discounts.
On a practical note, using timers sparingly can keep costs down. An annual subscription may not make sense if you only use the timers once every few months. It’s sometimes better to pay monthly and deactivate your account until you need it again.
My Pick for the Best Email Countdown Timer
I used Sendtric for years in time-sensitive campaigns. It may not be the fanciest tool in this list. Other tools might have more functionality, or may provide extra widgets for things like weather.
But I know from experience that it’s solid and does the job well, and it has done for several years. For e-commerce businesses and small marketing teams, I would happily recommend it.
On a super low budget, CleverTimer is hard to beat, assuming you’re willing to trade an online account for the speed of creating a timer in your browser. A free timer with no branding is a no-brainer for anyone who just wants to inject some FOMO without investing in a full-blown email timer tool.