Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover email marketing & automation and newsletter & email. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| EmailOctopus | Sendy | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $9 | From $69 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | One-time purchase |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | One-time purchase |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | Email Marketing & Automation, Newsletter & Email | Newsletter & Email, Email Marketing & Automation |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
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.
Self hosted sending on top of Amazon SES
Sendy is a PHP application you install on your own server, which then sends through Amazon SES at Amazon's rates rather than at a newsletter platform's. You buy the software once. At a list size where a hosted platform starts charging hundreds a month, the arithmetic is what people come for, and the cost is that hosting, deliverability and upgrades are now yours.
Our note
The arithmetic only works above roughly ten thousand subscribers, and below that a hosted platform is cheaper once your time is counted. Check the Amazon SES sending limits before buying, because a new SES account starts in a sandbox that will not send to the public.
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.