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Best email parser for your team in 2024
• 18 min read
It’s no secret that email is the most widely used channel for business communication today — the average person receives 121 messages in their inbox daily. What might be more surprising is how much valuable customer data is scattered throughout email. Invoices, shipping confirmations, contact information, you name it. This data found in email bodies, subject lines, and attachments is powerful when trying to understand customer behaviors and preferences, improve your product, and, ultimately, drive positive business outcomes.
Extracting usable insights from email inboxes is not easy. Email data comes in various formats, including plain text, HTML, and attachments like PDFs or images. Identifying useful information from each email and manually moving it to a CRM or automation tool is tedious and unrealistic. This is especially true when dealing with large volumes of emails. However, the best email parsers eliminate the challenging, manual labor. They handle the nitty-gritty of data extraction and filtering and organizing it into actionable, first-party data.
With a handful of email parsers on the market, each catering to specific needs, choosing the right one for your business can be overwhelming. Today, we’ll explore some of the best email parsers available to help you and your team find the best fit.
An email parser is AI-powered software that extracts data from emails. Think of it as a digital mail sorter — it sifts through your inbox and can be configured to pull specific data from the subject line, email bodies, or attachments. On top of that, email parsers act as a bridge between your emails and workflow automation tools. APIs power these integrations, enabling the email parser and business applications to communicate instructions, exchange data, and process the information from incoming emails.
Email parsers deal with two primary data types: structured and unstructured. Think of structured data as what you’d find in an Excel file. It’s labeled in columns and rows, and the data is defined. Unstructured data, on the other hand, is what you’d find in a Word document. There is no format or labels. Email parsers can identify and make sense of both types of data.
To learn more about how email parsers work, check out our post, What is email parsing?
An email parser does more than collect data. It combines disparate information so businesses can make informed decisions about their customers, products, and strategies. Let’s take a closer look at the features of the best email parsing tools:
Email parsers read and extract specific data from a user’s inbox. The information a parser collects is determined by its configuration, which varies based on the needs of its user.
Examples of data that email parsers extract:
Now that you’ve extracted the data from email, where does it go? Email parsers can integrate with several applications, such as CRMs, e-commerce platforms, fintech, etc. Here are some examples of workflows you can automate with email parsers:
Every business is unique. Whether developing software, selling homes, or managing customer orders, email parsers can be tailored to meet your needs. Companies can configure the parser with custom rules and requirements, defining the data to extract. This allows them to fit different business processes and handle emails from other sources in varying formats without additional resources.
As a business grows, so does its email volume, complexity, and overall needs. Email parsers are adept at large-volume processing and handling complexity and can seamlessly grow with the business’s evolving needs without the typical tradeoffs of delays or breakdowns.
Email parsing significantly streamlines business processes and provides customer intelligence to drive business outcomes. Let’s examine these benefits in more detail.
Email parsers accelerate business operations by automating data extraction and integration into workflow applications — from capturing data from qualified leads to processing online forms and invoices. They eliminate the need for manual data entry, help ensure data accuracy, and free up time for other tasks.
While web analytics or third-party research can paint a picture of your customer’s behavior, the most accurate, real-time insights lie in first-party data like email. Email parsers extract valuable data from a business’s inbox to provide context-rich insights. They can then be utilized for segmentation, campaign, and adoption strategies. This is essential to creating personalized customer journeys and, as a result, allows businesses to improve their decision-making and customer experience.
Email parsers extract valuable data for businesses to understand their customers’ behavior and intent, which enables them to better engage, sell, and retain users. Actions such as order tracking, real-time shipping updates, offers and promotions, and expense management all affect business outcomes. Parsers streamline this process for both parties — business teams and customers — leading to increased revenue and retention, decreased churn, and a company’s bottom line improvement.
Choosing an email parser for your team requires careful consideration. Effective parsers must provide reliable data extraction, seamless integration, advanced customization, and enterprise-level security. The right email parser will empower your team with actionable insights, boost productivity, and drive business outcomes.
Let’s look at additional factors to consider when choosing an email parser:
Selecting the best email parser for your business requires a clear understanding of your options and how well they align with your needs. There are two main approaches to consider: using a business tool for automating back-office tasks or leveraging an API to integrate email parsing capabilities into your product. Let’s explore both options to help you make an informed decision.
Ready-made email parsers can be quickly implemented without the need for extensive development. These tools often come with user-friendly interfaces and pre-configured workflows to help automate tasks such as data extraction, email categorization, and integration with other business systems. They are ideal for companies looking for out-of-the-box functionality to streamline their operations.
APIs offer a more flexible and customizable approach to email parsing by allowing developers to integrate parsing capabilities directly into their applications. This approach provides greater control over how emails are processed and enables the creation of tailored solutions that fit specific business requirements. APIs are particularly advantageous for businesses anticipating growth and needing scalable solutions, as they can adapt quickly to evolving needs and complex use cases.
Some providers offer ready-made solutions and APIs, allowing businesses to choose the best option. These offerings can cater to immediate implementation needs while providing the tools for more complex, long-term integration projects.
The choice between business tools for automating back-office tasks and leveraging an API for email parsing depends on your requirements, available resources, and the degree of customization you desire. Here’s our list of the best email parsing tools in each category.
How it works: Nylas’ APIs + AI enable businesses and their developers to extract value from email communication to power rich customer experiences, understand customers’ behavior, and drive automation. The Nylas parsing capabilities are built on top of the Nylas platform, which enables developers to extract, filter, and segment data within email, turning it into actionable, first-party data.
Key features:
Pros: Highly adaptable for various business needs, universal ESP integration, and scalable for businesses of all sizes. Nylas offers a comprehensive solution for teams handling high-volume emails, providing advanced tools to unlock customer intelligence.
Con: It may be more costly than an email parser with limited functionality. Evaluate your business to choose the best pricing model that fits your budget.
Pricing: Nylas offers a full-service API platform with an email, calendar, and contacts API. Customers can choose from 3 pricing tiers:
Talk to an expert to choose the best plan for your team.
How it works: AfterShip parser is an AI-powered email parser that offers smart data extraction and integration with other AfterShip products. It can extract order information directly from emails.
Key features:
Pros: Automatically and accurately extracts key data from customers’ order confirmation emails.
Cons: AfterShip’s primary focus is e-commerce, which might limit its applicability to businesses outside this industry.
Pricing: AfterShip offers two plans: Team and Enterprise. The team plan starts at $10 per member per month for growing organizations and offers a free 7-day trial. The enterprise plan provides full customization and management options at a custom price.
How it works: Microblink’s BlinkReceipt captures receipt information through a mobile application. Users can take a picture of a physical receipt, and the BlinkReceipt scanner will convert the image to text and extract details like merchant, date, and price. The app can also be connected to email inboxes or directly access merchant websites to pull data from eReceipts.
Key features:
Pros: Automates receipt data extraction from both paper and digital sources to simplify expense tracking and leverage customer insights.
Cons: Microblink’s focus on receipt management is particularly beneficial for e-commerce businesses but might not be as relevant for companies outside this sector.
Pricing: BlinkReceipt offers a 30-day trial. After the trial period, users are advised to talk to a Microblink expert to extend their membership.
How it works: Zapier is an entry-level email parser that is well-suited for straightforward parsing needs. Its free, template-based software allows users to create unlimited mailboxes.
Key features:
Pros: User-friendly email parser with unlimited mailboxes and thousands of potential workflow integrations, fit for entry-level users.
Cons: While user-friendly and suitable for straightforward parsing needs, Zapier lacks the advanced features required for handling more complex documents with metadata, attachments, and tabular data.
Pricing: Zapier’s email parser is included with any workflow automation plan. Four pricing tiers are available for different business needs: free, professional, team, and enterprise. Plans in the enterprise tier start at $0 per month and go up to $69 per month.
How it works: Parseur is well-suited for advanced users who need extensive email processing capabilities, similar to how Nylas caters to businesses with complex email parsing needs. The parser utilizes templates and AI to extract email data from various attachment file formats (CSV, PDF, HTML, etc.).
Key features:
Pros: Comprehensive, flexible, intuitive email parser for advanced users.
Cons: Parseur’s parsing capabilities come at a higher cost, which might be a consideration for smaller businesses or those relying heavily on templates.
Pricing: The business uses a credit system, which costs one credit to parse one email or page of an attachment. The free plan offers 20 credits per month; however, the following pricing tier is 100 credits a month for $39.
How it works: Email Parser is a rule-based email parsing software that captures text from incoming emails and feeds it to spreadsheets, databases, APIs, or other integration services. It extracts email communication data from line-column text capturing, regular expression, and scripting rules.
Key features:
Pros: Reliable email parser for handling evolving email content. It is a good option for unstructured emails that require adaptability, scalability, and control over the data extraction process.
Cons: The setup for complex email structures can be challenging and unintuitive for first-time users, requiring a steeper learning curve compared to other parsers.
Pricing: Email Parser is available on the Windows App and the Web App. For the Web App, users parse emails on the cloud, which costs $25 per month with a 5000 email limit each month. In the Windows App, users parse emails on their computer for $145 per year, an unlimited plan.
How it works: Mailparser offers rule-based parsing with advanced capabilities. Users can create rules for specific fields and mailboxes for different email layouts, providing customization options for varied parsing needs.
Key features:
Pro: Customizable parsing capabilities and more versatile than its templated counterparts.
Con: While Mailparser is a powerful tool, it doesn’t include automatic layout detection, and there can be a learning curve, especially for those without a technical background.
Pricing: Mailparser offers five pricing plans, with more features unlocked with each tier: free, professional, business, premium, and enterprise. Users can start for free or with the professional plan, which costs $33.95 per month and includes 6,000 emails and 30 inboxes.
How it works: Airparser is an AI-powered email parser built on OpenAI’s GPT. Users can define what data they need (e.g. dates, names, timelines) through an extraction schema, and Airparser’s AI engine will leverage GPT to automatically extract it from the user’s inbox.
Key features:
Pros: Intelligent and adaptable approach to email data extraction that saves time, reduces errors, and allows for a wide range of data processing tasks.
Cons: Expensive if you’re not a high-volume user.
Pricing: The business uses a credit system, which costs credit to perform data extraction. Airparser offers four pricing plans: starter, growth, business, and premium. It offers a free trial with 30 credits and a starter plan with 100 credits per month starting from $29 per month.
How it works: SigParser is designed to extract signatures and contact information from emails to automatically create profiles of companies or individuals interacting with your business.
Key features:
Pro: Specialized email signature and contact information parser that is efficient in updating leads’ contact details in any CRM tool
Con: Not considered a full email parser and does not support attachments.
Pricing: SigParser offers a free trial and four pricing tiers: Individual at $19 per month, Team at $49 per month, Professional at $299 per month, and Enterprise at $499 per month.
Nylas streamlines email parsing to enhance customer experiences, increase revenue, reduce churn, and boost operational efficiency. Utilizing customized AI, it extracts relevant data from users’ inboxes, speeding up AI integration and freeing up engineering resources for faster feature development.
Nylas simplifies the complexities of managing multiple provider integrations, ensuring consistent data and removing the need for separate data connectors. Its AI accurately structures email data to fit pre-defined schemas, making it easy to integrate or analyze within applications.
Nylas’ AI-powered email parsers process large volumes of email data accurately and efficiently, saving the costs and time of building a solution from scratch.
Start building with Nylas today, or chat with a platform specialist to learn more about leveraging Nylas to increase customer experience and engagement on your platform.
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Shauna is a marketing professional at Nylas, where she optimizes webpages to connect people with Nylas solutions. This spring, she will graduate from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Cognitive Science with a Specialization in Design and Interaction. Shauna enjoys crafting stories that spark inspiration and connect with people in our digital world and hopes to continue doing this in the future.