Curated vs EmailOctopus Comparison 2026
Both cover newsletter & email and email marketing & automation. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
A link newsletter that stays free to 1,500 readers
Email for lists that outgrew a free plan
At a glance
- EmailOctopus starts cheaper, at $9.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Curated | EmailOctopus | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $39 | From $9 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Curated
A link newsletter that stays free to 1,500 readers
Curated is built for the link-roundup newsletter specifically, so collecting items through the week, writing a line under each and having the issue assemble itself is the main path rather than a workaround. Every feature including sending is on the free tier, which runs to 1,500 subscribers. Pricing then moves in published subscriber bands rather than on a quote. Anybody writing long-form essays rather than curating links will find the whole editor shaped around a job they are not doing.
Our note
Take this over a general newsletter tool only if your format really is curation, because the collection workflow is the product and everything else here is ordinary. The band table is worth reading before you grow: the jump from free to $39 arrives at 1,501 subscribers, which is sooner than most people plan for.
EmailOctopus
Email for lists that outgrew a free plan
EmailOctopus is deliberately plain: lists, campaigns, a drag-and-drop editor and simple automations, at a price that undercuts the platforms with more features than a newsletter needs. The free tier goes to 2,500 subscribers with the company's branding on every send. Reports only go back 30 days until you pay, which is the free plan's real limit rather than the subscriber count.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.