Sub-accounts are used to give departments of organizations - not just agencies and franchises - their own separate accounts without having to open completely stand-alone accounts.
Sub-accounts are available with the Multi-account and Pay As You Go billing plans.
Benefits of using sub-accounts
Subscriptions and relationship with contacts
Lists are completely separated
Each subaccount has their own set of subscription options that are shown on the subscription preferences page (the "unsubscribe" page)
A contact unsubscribing from one account doesn't affect subscription of the same contact in other accounts.
This way subaccounts can maintain their own, separate relationships with contacts
Account structure and data sharing
Sub-accounts are operated independently without data sharing. The only exception with sharing is templates that can optionally be shared across sub-accounts to help with branding
Administration
Individual user logins can be assigned to access only a single sub-account
Admin users can access all sub-accounts
Cost
Cheaper than opening multiple stand-alone accounts
Data sharing
With the exception of template sharing, which is optional, there is no data sharing of any kind between sub-accounts: messages, reports, contact lists, subscriptions, account settings, etc. in every sub-accounts are independent of other sub-accounts.
Unsubscribes
If the same contact exists in more than one sub-account and they unsubscribe in one of the accounts they will remain subscribed in all other accounts.
User logins
Each sub-account can have their own users who can only access their designated sub-account. Administrators can access all sub-accounts.
Read more about user roles and permissions.
Billing
For the Monthly Subscription Plan the total number of active contacts across all sub-accounts is used to determine the number of active contacts for billing.
For the Pay As You Go Plan sub-accounts share a common pool of email credits that the primary account purchases. Each sub-account draws from this pool of credits as they send emails.
For both payment plans the primary account is billed and cost allocation between sub-accounts is done internally. Subaccounts aren't billed directly.
Number of sub-accounts under one main account
You can maintain unlimited sub-accounts.
Creating a new subaccount
You can manage subaccounts under the Accounts navigation item.
Only administrators have access to create new sub-accounts.
If you aren't an administrator, the users list page will show you the name and contact details of your administrator(s). Contact them to have them grant you additional permissions.