There’s been a big shift in how businesses create digital experiences as more teams are moving towards no-code, drag-and-drop solutions.
And this isn’t just all talk; in 2025, 70% of new applications will be created using low-code/no-code tools.
This is happening because marketers and content teams now expect to work with tools that let them design quickly, launch campaigns faster, and keep everything on-brand, without relying too much on developers for every email or landing page design.
That’s why no-code builders have become so valuable.
For SaaS platforms, CRMs, and marketing tools, embedding an email editor SDK or page builder SDK is far more efficient than building one from scratch.
It saves development time, reduces costs, and gives end-users the modern experience they expect.
And when it comes to embeddable editors, Unlayer is one of the leaders in the space.
With its drag-and-drop interface, responsive design, and extensive template library, Unlayer makes it simple for companies to offer an enterprise-grade email and page builder without reinventing the wheel.
What is Unlayer? Your Go-To Embeddable Email and Page Builder
Think of Unlayer as your one-stop, embeddable content-creation suite. It is a builder SDK that powers emails, landing pages, popups, and even documents, all seamlessly integrated into your host application.
Unlayer overview: What it is and how it works
Unlayer is an API-first, white-label embeddable editor built specifically for SaaS platforms, CRMs, and marketing tools.
In just a few lines of code, you can launch a drag-and-drop editor that lives inside your app, no iframe, no external UI, just your branding and your UX.
Under the hood, Unlayer provides a developer-first JavaScript SDK equipped with all the necessary features, event hooks, export APIs, and full theming capabilities.
The result? A fully customizable, scalable editor that feels native to your app.
Use cases: Where Unlayer shines
SaaS platforms & CRMs: Add embeddable email and page builders without diverting engineering time away from core features.
Marketing automation tools: Empower marketers to design promotional emails, newsletters, and onboarding flows visually.
Customer engagement systems: Leverage embedded popups, document templates, and landing pages, which are highly customizable and responsive.
Internal tools: Enable non-technical teams (HR, operations, support, designers) to create branded emails, onboarding docs, and internal announcements without developer help.
Public-facing platforms: Provide end-users with a fully white-labeled, drag-and-drop editor inside your platform for designing emails, landing pages, or other customer-facing campaigns.
How Unlayer’s Drag-and-Drop Editor Simplifies Content Creation
One of Unlayer’s biggest strengths is how it balances simplicity for end-users with flexibility for developers.
It’s designed so that anyone, from a marketer launching a campaign to a developer embedding the SDK, can work with it effortlessly.
No-code editing: Empowering marketers & non-technical users
With Unlayer’s drag-and-drop interface, end-users don’t need to worry about code or technical know-how.
Marketers, designers, and internal teams can create branded emails and pages by simply dragging elements onto the canvas, adjusting styles, and hitting publish.
This makes campaign creation faster and puts creative control directly into the hands of those who need it most.
Pre-built blocks: Buttons, images, text blocks, and more
Unlayer comes packed with a library of built-in tools and blocks, from text and image placeholders to buttons, dividers, menus, and social media icons.
These ready-to-use components ensure that users can quickly assemble professional-looking designs without starting from scratch.
Each block is fully customizable, so layouts can be tailored to match any brand identity.
Developer flexibility: Embedding, customization, and extending functionality
For teams that need more than the basics, Unlayer offers a developer-first approach. You can:
Embed the SDK into React, Angular, or Vue apps with official plugins.
Customize existing tools by extending functionality or overriding styles.
Build reusable custom blocks for users to drag and drop into their designs, whether it’s an email header, footer, or social media icons, to maintain brand consistency.
This combination of pre-built tools and extensibility means Unlayer can serve as both a ready-to-use editor and a foundation for building something uniquely tailored to your users.
Building for Every Screen: Unlayer’s Responsive Design Capabilities
About 85% of people use smartphones to view their emails.
If a campaign doesn’t render well on smaller screens, 70% of users will likely delete it.
That’s why a mobile-first design approach isn’t optional anymore; it’s a must-have for businesses that want to maximize engagement and ROI.
Adaptive layouts: How Unlayer ensures flawless display across devices
Unlayer automatically adapts content to different screen sizes, ensuring email layouts look clean and functional on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
Its responsive grid system handles spacing, alignment, and scaling so that every design element, from buttons to images, resizes seamlessly.
End-users can even preview designs across devices right inside the editor, giving them confidence before hitting send or publish.
Explore Unlayer’s Template Library: Ready-to-Use Designs for Every Need
One of the fastest ways to launch a polished email marketing campaign is by starting with a template, and Unlayer delivers here with a library of professionally designed email templates.
Whether you’re announcing a product launch, sending a promotional offer, or sharing a newsletter, there’s a ready-made layout to get you moving quickly.
Template categories: Emails for every occasion
Unlayer provides email template bundles across different email categories, including:
Promotional emails for sales, product launches, and seasonal campaigns.
Newsletters for ongoing communication and content updates.
Transactional messages like order confirmations, password resets, and account notifications.
Event-based templates for webinars, sign-ups, or special announcements.
This variety ensures your team doesn’t have to start from a blank canvas every time.
Customization options: Branding, styling, and flexibility
Every template in Unlayer and even the editor itself is fully customizable. So, while you get the speed of a pre-designed layout, you still maintain complete creative control.
Using Unlayer’s appearance settings, editor behavior controls, and content customization options, you can:
Apply your brand’s colors, fonts, and logos to the editor.
Adjust spacing, backgrounds, and alignments.
Control editor behavior, like restricting or enabling certain editing capabilities.
Fine-tune content settings, from text styles to page anchors, ensuring every design stays on-brand
Speed & efficiency: Faster campaign launches and A/B testing
Starting with pre-designed email templates not only saves time but also helps you launch email marketing campaigns faster.
You can adapt an existing design in minutes, run A/B tests with slight variations, and quickly see what resonates best with your audience.
If you are a fast-paced marketing team, this speed translates into higher productivity and better performance across campaigns.
Templates vs. From-scratch design
Aspect | Using Unlayer Templates | Designing From Scratch |
Setup Time | Ready in minutes with pre-built layouts | Hours or days to create layouts manually |
Design Quality | Professionally designed, modern, responsive | Depends on in-house design expertise |
Brand Consistency | Easily customized with colors, fonts, and logos | Requires manual styling and testing |
Efficiency | Faster campaign launches and quick A/B testing | Slower iteration cycles, higher workload |
User Accessibility | Non-technical users can adapt templates | Often requires design or dev support |
Other Standout Features That Make Unlayer Different
Unlayer isn’t just a drag-and-drop editor; it’s a complete content creation engine built for scalability, personalization, and seamless developer control.
Here are some of the most important features that set it apart:
Dynamic content & merge tags: Personalization at scale
Personalization has become a must-have for engagement, and Unlayer makes it simple.
With merge tags, display conditions, and dynamic images, you can serve content tailored to each user, whether it’s their name, purchase history, or location.
Merge Tags let you insert user-specific data directly into emails or landing pages.
Display Conditions ensure certain blocks or sections only appear for relevant segments.
Dynamic Images & Design Tags adapt visuals and layouts automatically, making campaigns feel personalized without manual effort.
This capability allows you to deliver content that resonates with your target audience in real time.
Collaboration tools: Real-time teamwork
Marketing campaigns are rarely a solo effort.
Unlayer includes real-time editing, inline commenting, and approval workflows, so designers, marketers, and stakeholders can collaborate without messy back-and-forth. This entails:
Multiple users can work on the same design simultaneously.
Feedback can be left as comments directly inside the editor.
Approval flows streamline sign-offs, keeping campaigns moving without bottlenecks.
Multiple export options: HTML, JSON, PDF & beyond
Once a design is ready, Unlayer makes exporting effortless. Using the Export API, you can:
Export clean HTML for email campaigns.
Save designs as JSON for reuse, storage, or future editing.
Convert projects into PDFs for documentation, reporting, or offline use.
Unlayer’s file storage and version management features also make it easy to save, restore, or roll back designs, ensuring your teams never lose work.
Extensibility & developer add-ons
What truly makes Unlayer developer-friendly is its extensibility. Using the JavaScript SDK and API, you can:
Build custom blocks (e.g., custom headers, product cards, CTAs).
Integrate with external systems like CRMs, ESPs, or marketing automation platforms.
Trigger actions with event hooks to capture user behavior inside the editor.
Extend functionality with custom tools, so the editor fits seamlessly into your product ecosystem.
Conclusion: Unlayer Explained in a Nutshell
Building your own editor takes months of development and significant engineering resources. With Unlayer, you get a proven, scalable SDK that speeds up go-to-market, reduces costs, and delivers the modern experience your users expect.
If you’re a SaaS platform, CRM, or marketing tool, Unlayer isn’t just an add-on; it’s the smarter choice for powering content creation.
👉 Ready to see it in action?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Unlayer
Q1: Is Unlayer “worth it” compared to hand-coding HTML emails?
Yes, Unlayer cuts through the complexities of email development with its no-code drag-and-drop interface. One developer shared on Reddit:
“I’m a fairly competent full-stack dev… We use Unlayer … it’s a good hybrid between hand holding drag and drop and visual design and custom code.”
This sums up the peace of mind you get: fewer CSS headaches, fewer fallbacks, less time agonizing over Outlook quirks.
Q2: How easy is it to embed Unlayer in my app (e.g., React, Angular, Vue)?
Embedding is straightforward thanks to the official JavaScript SDK and React, Angular, and Vue plugins and their respective guides.
Q3: Can I control which blocks users can edit or restrict certain actions?
Yes, this ties directly into user roles and access control. For example, you may want admins to edit headers and layouts, while end-users can only change text or images.
Q4: Can Unlayer support both internal tools and public-facing platforms?
Absolutely. The SDK is flexible enough to be embedded in SaaS apps, marketing dashboards, internal tools, and customer-facing experiences.
You can centralize templates and apply consistent theming across all environments.
Q5: Why don’t my custom tools appear in the Unlayer editor?
This issue often comes up when embedding Unlayer in React. Everything works fine in development, but tools disappear in production.
Common causes include misconfigured customJS references, hosting issues, or plan limitations (e.g., only one custom tool on the free tier).
For step-by-step fixes, check out Unlayer’s guide to troubleshooting React embedding issues.
Q6: Is Unlayer GDPR compliant, and does it provide enterprise-grade security?
Yes. Unlayer is fully GDPR compliant and built with enterprise-grade security in mind.
The platform offers SOC 2 Type II compliance, data encryption, access controls, SSO support, and optional on-premise deployment for maximum data protection.
