Visual Ideas is a drag-and-drop email builder. You open it, drag blocks onto a canvas, edit them, and export production-ready HTML you can send with any email provider. There is no sign-up, no trial, and no step where the tool asks who you are.
What it actually does
The editor gives you eleven block types — text, rich text, image, button, divider, spacer, social icons, video thumbnail, raw HTML, a footer with a required unsubscribe link, and a signature block. You arrange them in rows of one, two or three columns. A property panel on the right edits whatever block you have selected, and changes appear on the canvas immediately.
When you export, the design is compiled with MJML into table-based HTML with the conditional comments Outlook needs and inline styles throughout. That is the part most people do not want to hand-write, and it is the main reason a tool like this exists.
Why it is free
Because the expensive parts of running a web app are the parts this tool does not do. Your designs are stored in your own browser, not on a server we pay for. There are no accounts to support, no inboxes to host, and no sending infrastructure — you send with a provider you already have. The editor itself is static files on a CDN.
Pro exists for the things that genuinely cost money to run: syncing designs across your devices, hosting the images you upload, and sending straight from the editor through your own SMTP server. It is €7.99 a month. The browser-based editor and HTML export are not going behind that door.
What it does not do
- On Free it does not send email. Export the HTML and send it with your own provider. Pro sends from the editor through your own SMTP server.
- On Free it does not host your images. Image blocks take a URL, and that URL has to be publicly reachable for recipients to see it. Pro uploads and hosts them for you.
- On Free it does not store your designs anywhere but your browser. Cloud sync across devices is part of Pro.
- It cannot turn exported HTML back into editable blocks. Keep the JSON export if you want to edit later.