EmailOctopus vs Flodesk Comparison 2026
Both cover email marketing & automation and newsletter & email. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Email for lists that outgrew a free plan
Email that looks designed without a designer
At a glance
- EmailOctopus starts cheaper, at $9.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
EmailOctopus | Flodesk | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $9 | From $25 |
| 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 | Yes | Not stated |
| 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.
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.
Our note
Against MailerLite this comes down to the free tier: 2,500 subscribers here against 1,000 there, with fewer features in return. Start here if the list is the thing growing and the automations can wait.
Flodesk
Email that looks designed without a designer
Flodesk is built around templates that come out looking considered rather than like a form, which is why it keeps turning up in the hands of people selling something visual. Every paid plan sends unlimited email regardless of how often. Pricing moves with the size of the list instead, starting from a thousand subscribers. A free plan exists for building a list before there is anything to send to it, and anybody wanting deep automation branching will find this deliberately simpler than its competitors.
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.