EmailOctopus vs Resend 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 for developers, with broadcasts attached
At a glance
- EmailOctopus starts cheaper, at $9.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
EmailOctopus | Resend | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $9 | From $20 |
| 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 | Yes |
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.
Resend
Email for developers, with broadcasts attached
Resend sends transactional email through an API that a developer can wire up in an afternoon, and it has grown a broadcast side so a product's receipts and its newsletter come from the same domain and the same reputation. The free tier covers 3,000 emails a month, which is enough for a small product's transactional traffic. Automation runs are metered separately with their own free allowance. Anybody wanting a drag-and-drop campaign builder and a marketer's dashboard is in the wrong place.
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.