Employee newsletter software: what to look for and how to choose

Employee newsletter software is a tool that lets you build, send, and track branded email newsletters for your employees. 

If you’re an HR or internal communications professional reading this and have a place where company news lives and a separate, disconnected tool you use for emailing staff, you might already be feeling some frustration.

When a company’s intranet is bustling with news and updates but a large portion of staff aren’t even logging in to read it, it might seem like the only solution is to start copying content into a generic email provider and making news blasts. 

However, this can get complicated fast, creating duplicate work, confusing subscriber lists, and wasted time circling back on content that has to be updated multiple times.

What to look for in employee newsletter software

The right employee newsletter software makes it easy to build, target, schedule, and measure a newsletter without extra tools or manual copy-paste. Here’s what to check for before you commit to one.

What to look for	Why it matters
Templates	A good starting template means your team isn’t designing a newsletter from scratch every time, or waiting on a designer to build one. You can build templates for your most common email types, helping you send communications efficiently
Content reuse and repurposing	The best tools pull in source material, like internal pages, posts, or events that already exist, rather than making you rewrite or re-upload information that’s already published elsewhere
Group targeting	Not every newsletter is applicable to everyone across your organization. Being able to send targeted newsletter to a specific department, location, or role ensures information is relevant
Scheduling	Building a newsletter in advance and scheduling it to send at a specific time helps you create and send newsletters when it’s most convenient
Draft, duplicate, and save as template	Newsletters tend to follow a rhythm. A tool that lets you reuse a structure you built saves real time over the course of a year
Per-item analytics	Knowing your newsletter got opened is the bare minimum. Knowing which specific link or story people actually clicked helps you know where to improve

Is employee newsletter software the same as intranet email software?

“Intranet email software” tends to describe more basic tools for sending alerts or broadcasts, often just an image and a headline. Employee newsletter software (sometimes called internal newsletter software, intranet newsletter software, or company newsletter software) implies a more comprehensive platform with multiple content blocks, templates, and the ability to pull together several stories into one well-packaged email. 

4 types of newsletter platforms

There are four main ways organizations handle employee newsletters today: dedicated newsletter tools, intranet software with newsletter included, intranet software with newsletter as a paid add-on, and general email marketing tools repurposed for internal use. Each comes with its own tradeoffs.

Type	Examples	Pros	Cons
Dedicated newsletter and email tools	ContactMonkey, PoliteMail, Cerkl, Poppulo, Workshop	Purpose-built for newsletters, Outlook or Gmail-native, strong per-send analytics	A separate platform and subscriber list from your intranet, with no automatic link back to your existing content, plus the added cost of paying for two platforms instead of one
General email marketing tools, repurposed	Mailchimp, Constant Contact	Flexible, familiar, and low cost to start	No employee directory sync or security-group targeting, manual copying from the intranet, and a second subscriber list to maintain
Intranet software with newsletter as a paid add-on	Simpplr, Staffbase	Because it’s a paid, standalone product, it may come with more advanced features, like AI-assisted content creation or granular audience targeting	An extra cost on top of the intranet platform subscription. In some cases a genuinely separate product with its own setup and complexities
Intranet software with newsletter included	Interact, LumApps, ThoughtFarmer, Unily, Workvivo	Newsletter is part of the base platform, with no separate charge to unlock it	Newsletter is one feature within a broader platform, and choosing one means evaluating the whole platform, not just this feature

Intranets with a built-in employee newsletter feature

Interact, LumApps, SharePoint, Simpplr, Staffbase, ThoughtFarmer, Unily, and Workvivo all offer some form of built-in newsletter creation, but they differ in pricing, setup, and who they’re built for.

Newsletter software platform	Included or add on	IT setup required	Best for
Interact	Included	Marketed as no-IT-required	Enterprise teams that want newsletter as one module inside a broader intranet platform
LumApps	Included	Not published	Enterprise and frontline-heavy organizations already on a per-user pricing model
SharePoint	Included, but sends are static snapshots that don’t update after publishing	Included with Microsoft 365; cross-channel distribution requires a separate Viva Amplify license	Teams already on Microsoft 365 who want news distribution bundled in
Simpplr	Paid add-on, requires an extra license	IT whitelists two dedicated sending IPs	Enterprise teams wanting AI-powered content generation as part of the newsletter builder and are willing to involve IT
Staffbase	Separate product tier (Employee Email)	IT verifies and authorizes the sending domain, plus SSO setup on Enterprise plans	Enterprise organizations that can support Employee Email as a standalone product and have strong budget/team support
ThoughtFarmer	Included	No IT support required	Lean, mid-market teams that want a built-in newsletter they can easily set up and run themselves
Unily	Included, part of Broadcast Centre	Not published	Enterprise teams already invested in Unily’s Broadcast Centre willing to take on a complex rollout
Workvivo	Included	IT adds Workvivo’s sending domains to the mail server allow list	Enterprise teams that want newsletter bundled into a full employee experience social platform

Ideas for how to use employee newsletter software

The best use cases pull from content that already exists on your intranet and route it to the right audience to pull employees back to the intranet as a source of truth. A few common examples:

• Weekly company updates. Pull in a leadership post, a couple of upcoming events, and a team spotlight, then schedule it for Monday morning
• Multi-brand or multi-department sends. Larger organizations with several brands or departments often send separate newsletters to each group, with its own branding and content, rather than one generic company-wide email
• Targeted policy reminders. A department-specific newsletter linking back to the relevant policy pages, instead of an all-staff email that mostly doesn’t apply
• New-hire onboarding. A first-week digest with links to the handbook, benefits, and team pages new hires actually need
• All-hands announcements. A single, well-designed send for a town hall or company-wide event, with a link straight to the agenda

Do you need separate newsletter software if you already have an intranet? 

Not if your intranet already includes a real newsletter builder. Many intranets only offer an automated digest, built from popular content rather than what you’d actually choose to send. That gap is exactly why so many teams end up paying for and running Mailchimp or Constant Contact on top of an intranet they’re already paying for. The fix usually isn’t a separate tool, though. It’s an intranet with real newsletter capability already built in.

Some stick with the workaround even after realizing a better-equipped intranet exists, simply because migrating years of content to a new platform feels like too much to take on. But that fear usually costs more than it saves. You keep paying for a second tool, on top of the intranet you already have, to patch a gap that shouldn’t exist in the first place.

Benefits of newsletter capability built into your intranet software

• One subscriber list instead of two, since your intranet’s employee directory already knows who needs what
• Content only has to be built once, not copied into a separate tool and kept in sync
• Links in the newsletter drive people straight back to the intranet to help drive adoption and improve ROI
• Email engagement, like opens and clicks, ties directly back to intranet activity, so you get a clearer picture of what’s actually landing

That’s worth factoring in before you add a separate tool to the stack.

Frequently asked questions

What is an employee newsletter? 

A regular email sent to staff that pulls together company news, updates, or announcements, usually built from content that already exists somewhere else, like an intranet or news feed.

What’s the difference between employee newsletter software and a tool like Mailchimp?

Mailchimp and similar tools are built for external audiences. Employee newsletter software is built around your employee directory, so it can target specific groups, sync with who’s actually on staff, and often link back to internal content Mailchimp has no access to.

Is there free employee newsletter software? 

Some tools offer limited free tiers, but most genuine employee newsletter software is priced as part of a broader platform. If you already have an intranet, check whether newsletter creation is included before paying for a separate tool.

Does employee newsletter software work with Outlook or Gmail? 

Some tools, like ContactMonkey and PoliteMail, are built specifically around Outlook and Gmail. Others, including most intranet-based newsletter tools, send independently of your email client, which matters less for the sender and more for whether your team already lives in Outlook day to day.

How is this different from PoliteMail or ContactMonkey? 

Both are dedicated email tools built for Outlook and Gmail users, with strong per-send analytics. The tradeoff is that they’re separate from your intranet, so content still has to be copied over rather than pulled in directly.

Is internal email software the same as employee newsletter software? 

Not always. “Internal email software” is a broader category that can include mass alerts, single-image broadcasts, or general company-wide sends. Employee newsletter software is more specific: it’s built for multi-content, templated sends that pull together several stories at once, rather than a single announcement.

What should you avoid when choosing employee newsletter software? 

Tools without group-level permissioning or access control are a common regret, especially for larger or security-conscious organizations that need to restrict certain content to specific teams. It’s worth asking directly how a tool handles employee-only access before you commit.

If your intranet content and your newsletter tool live in the same place, your team spends less time copying and pasting, and every send has somewhere real to link back to.

Book a demo to see how ThoughtFarmer’s built-in employee newsletter and intranet platform works, or download the G2 Employee Intranet Software Comparison Guide if you’re still early in comparing options.