EmailOctopus vs Mailcoach Comparison 2026
EmailOctopus is free to 2,500 subscribers and $9 a month billed yearly once you want the branding gone, priced by how many people are on the list. Mailcoach bills for what you send: $9.99 covers 2,000 emails, then $0.002 each, or half that through your own sending provider. Contacts are uncapped. Your sending pattern decides which is cheaper, not the headline.
Email for lists that outgrew a free plan
Email billed per send, not per contact
At a glance
- EmailOctopus starts cheaper, at $9.
- Only EmailOctopus has a free tier.
Side by side
EmailOctopus | Mailcoach | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $9 | From $9.99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 14 days |
| API |
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 250 there, with fewer features in return. Start here if the list is the thing growing and the automations can wait.
Mailcoach
Email billed per send, not per contact
Mailcoach charges for emails sent rather than contacts stored, which inverts the pricing of most of this category and matters to anybody holding a large list they mail occasionally. Contacts, lists and automations are uncapped at every level. Bringing your own sending provider halves the per-email rate. A self-hosted licence exists for people who would rather run it themselves, and the hosted version is the same software with the operations included.
Why people weigh these two
- Mailcoach instead of EmailOctopus
- Mailcoach bills per email sent rather than per contact on the list, which suits a large list that mails rarely. It runs on a trial, not EmailOctopus' free tier, and starts at $9.99.
- EmailOctopus instead of Mailcoach
- EmailOctopus is built for lists that outgrew a free plan, from $9 with a free tier.
Which one should you pick
A large list you mail rarely is Mailcoach's case, because per-contact pricing charges rent on people who have not been emailed in months. Bringing your own provider halves the marginal cost, which suits anybody already running Amazon SES or Postmark, and a 14-day trial runs without a card. A small daily send is where it loses.
EmailOctopus is the simpler and cheaper start for a list that is growing. The free tier holds 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, with EmailOctopus branding and reports that expire after 30 days. Nonprofits get 20 percent off for life. Where it stops short is branching automation and detailed segmentation, and both listings say so plainly, so pay more elsewhere if that is the requirement.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper for a big list I email occasionally?
- Mailcoach, usually by a wide margin, because it bills per email sent rather than per contact stored. Do the arithmetic on your own send pattern before switching.
- What does EmailOctopus' free plan include?
- Up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, with its branding on your emails, one landing page and reports that expire after 30 days.
- Can I use my own sending provider?
- Mailcoach is built for it, and doing so drops the marginal cost to $0.001 an email. EmailOctopus offers an Amazon SES option as well.
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.