This is a curated list of tools I use or have used on freelance contracts or volunteer opportunities, and updated as I find new ones.
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HTML Editors
Parcel.io is a browser-based code editor built specifically for email developers, with real-time previews, reusable components, and workflow features that make building and iterating on HTML emails faster and less painful.
- Once I started earning as a freelance email developer, Parcel.io became worth the extra cost.
Email Rendering & Testing Tools
Minty Email Tester is a lightweight email testing tool that lets you quickly preview and debug HTML emails across popular clients—ideal for fast checks during development without the overhead of enterprise testing platforms.
- When I doubt what other rendering tools are showing me, this is the one I trust.
Email on Acid is a full-featured email testing platform that is reasonably priced, won’t price gouge, and previews emails across major clients ensuring your emails look great regardless of the email client.
- Worth every penny to ensure my emails work across multiple email clients.
Graphic Editing Tools
Adobe Photoshop remains the industry standard for image editing and visual assets in my opinion. While tools like Figma are popular among designers, my clients still expect Photoshop-ready files.
- Photoshop is my go-to for email design—about 90% of my clients use it.
Email Frameworks
MJML is an open-source framework that lets email developers write simplified markup and compile it into responsive HTML emails, helping speed up builds while handling many of the quirks of email clients automatically.
- MJML is my secret sauce for emails that just work. I use MJML for my freelance clients, NOT at my corporate job.
- In my experience, email frameworks work well for freelancing, but corporate teams still expect hand-coded emails and HTML email development knowledge.