Is it sensible to send HTML-only email these days?

Question

I want my web app to send certain mails as HTML in order to include product images.

I could of course provide a text/plain alternative as well, but is it worth the effort in this day and age? Are there common mail clients that don't support text/html, do many people turn it off for some good reason (I suppose spam, bandwidth), are there other reasons such as decreasing the risk of being classified as spam?

I can theorize, but would be interested to hear if someone has statistics, experience or other insight to support or speak against going text/html only.

I found [this article over at MailChimp](http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/why-bother-with-plain-text-emails) that argues for using text as well. Mainly due to spam filters. — Henrik N, Jun 26 '12 at 07:38
As an aside: it seems MailChimp is no longer mentioning that. — Arjan, Feb 09 '15 at 20:07

score 18 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 26 '11 at 09:30

You are best to send both because:

It helps reduce your spam score, even more so if your text version has the same text and links as your HTML version. This is especially true on Outlook, where no text version almost guarantees it will go the Junk folder.
A lot of people do request a text version on the client-side. Some old Blackberries default to this setting, and Windows Mobile <= v5.

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 26 '11 at 21:48

Provide both. HTML in email has a slew of security problems, so those that are security-minded tend to disable HTML email in favor of plain text. Also, reply quoting conventions are fairly well-establised for text/plain data and not for HTML, making meaningful discussions in pure-HTML mail threads ugly.

Since you do have control over the content of the message, please make the plain text version readable. Some MUAs tend to auto-create the text/plain part, and do a horrible job in doing so. So if your messages are intended for customers, make sure the text/plain part is formatted nicely so you do not alienate them.

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 26 '11 at 07:27

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I believe clients such as iOS mail use the text/plain version to preview the first couple of lines before the user opens the mail.

answered Apr 26 '11 at 07:27

Twelve47

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I've tested, and in February 2015 OS X Mail.app, the Gmail website, Google's Gmail and Inbox Android apps, and Dropbox's Mailbox Android app all use the HTML version (ignoring the text version) to show the first lines in the email lists. – Arjan Feb 14 '15 at 13:31
For a moment I thought I was wrong in my earlier tests, suddenly seeing a preview text that was not shown in the actual message. But SurveyMonkey [is being smart with white text on a white background](http://i.stack.imgur.com/kjc6M.png), only visible when peeking into the message source, or when selecting the text in the message... (And though in this case the plain text "preview" and HTML "preview" are the same text, *"Use this area to offer a short teaser of your email's content. Text here will show in the preview area of some email clients."*, such was not the case in my tests 2 weeks ago.) – Arjan Feb 26 '15 at 23:41

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 26 '11 at 08:35

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I think HTML only is OK, but it should be legible without images downloaded. Outlook and Gmail both block images by default to stop tracking and viruses.

answered Apr 26 '11 at 08:35

Iain

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Randy Greencorn · Answer 5 · 2014-08-01T18:39:54.320

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Stats I found were that 90% of emails were viewed in html-capable email viewers. If you choose not to include an option for plain text, you could be losing out on 10% of your audience. On the other hand, a well designed html email could more than outperform the 10% loss, so it might be worth the trade off.

I am struggling to get both working on PHP with Hostgator, so I think I'm going to focus on the low hanging fruit (the 90% who view html emails) and not worry about the 10%. Like IE 7, there comes a point where you can no longer support all platforms.

edited Aug 01 '14 at 18:39

answered Jul 24 '14 at 21:04

Randy Greencorn

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I'm looking for such stats - do you remember where you found that ? – commonpike Jul 17 '15 at 19:53

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 26 '11 at 07:35

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You should always have a text/plain alternative. I don't have statistics, but I'm sure that a lot of people disable HTML emails. Including me, because I'm annoyed by all those product images and meaningless fancy newsletters.

answered Apr 26 '11 at 07:35

kapa

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In this case, it's a "saved search" email where the customer very likely wants images. But if they've already turned HTML email off, that matters less, of course. – Henrik N Apr 26 '11 at 07:55
@Henrik Yes. They (we) don't turn it off because of you, but at the end it is turned off :). – kapa Apr 26 '11 at 09:05

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 26 '11 at 07:22

Google does HTML email by default, this includes Google Apps for Business and Google Apps for Educations. Thus millions of Gmail users send and receive HTML email rather than plain text email. Not sure whether there are any better stats than that out there.

Is it sensible to send HTML-only email these days?

7 Answers7