EmailOctopus pricing and alternatives
EmailOctopus is one of the cheapest hosted newsletter tools. It is free up to 2,500 subscribers and costs $44.50 a month at 10,000. Most people looking for an EmailOctopus alternative have hit the same wall: the bill climbs with every subscriber, even the ones who never open. This page lays out what EmailOctopus costs at each list size, then five alternatives and when each one is the better deal.
Quick answer
Stay on EmailOctopus if your list is under 10,000 and you want no server. Move to EmailOctopus Connect first if you only want it cheaper: same tool, sent through your own Amazon SES. Pick MailerLite for a larger hosted product, or Brevo if you have a big list and email it rarely. Pick Listmonk (free), Sendy ($69 once) or Broadcast ($250 once) if you want to stop paying per subscriber and will run a server.
Conflict of interest
We make Broadcast, one of the alternatives. EmailOctopus prices were checked on emailoctopus.com/pricing and emailoctopus.com/pricing-connect on 25 October 2026, in US dollars. Other vendors were checked on their own sites the same day.
EmailOctopus pricing in 2026
EmailOctopus has two plans. Starter is free for up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month. It puts EmailOctopus branding on your emails, keeps reports for 30 days, and allows one landing page, one form and one user. Pro is priced by subscriber count. It keeps reports forever and allows unlimited landing pages, forms and users. Paying yearly saves 10%.
| Subscribers | Emails a month | Pro, monthly | Pro, billed yearly | Connect Pro, monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | 10,000 | $10 | $108 a year ($9 a month) | $9 |
| 1,000 | 10,000 | $13.50 | $144 a year | $11.50 |
| 2,500 | 25,000 | $20 | $216 a year | $17 |
| 5,000 | 50,000 | $31.50 | $336 a year | $26 |
| 10,000 | 100,000 | $44.50 | $480 a year | $33.50 |
| 25,000 | 250,000 | $94.50 | $1,020 a year | $56 |
| 50,000 | 500,000 | $178 | $1,920 a year | $100 |
| 100,000 | 1,000,000 | $345 | $3,720 a year | $178 |
| 500,000 | 5,000,000 | $1,478 | $15,960 a year | $645 |
The prices come from the tier data behind the subscriber slider on EmailOctopus’s pricing page. Pro allows ten emails per subscriber each month, counted at the top of your tier. Above 500,000 subscribers EmailOctopus quotes a custom price. Nonprofits get a 20% lifetime discount.
Two details are worth knowing before you budget. EmailOctopus moves you to the next tier automatically when your list grows past your plan, and emails you when it does. There is no free trial of Pro, but Starter has no time limit and needs no card.
EmailOctopus Connect: the cheaper plan on your own SES
Connect is the same product, sending through your own Amazon SES account instead of EmailOctopus’s infrastructure. The free Connect Starter plan covers 2,500 subscribers with no monthly email limit. Connect Pro is the right-hand column above: $33.50 a month at 10,000 subscribers against $44.50 on standard Pro, and $178 against $345 at 100,000.
You also pay AWS for the sending. SES lists $0.10 per 1,000 emails at its à la carte rate on aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing, so a weekly email to 10,000 subscribers adds about $4 a month. In exchange you set up SES yourself, including production access. If you are cost-sensitive and already on AWS, try Connect before you switch tools.
Why people look for an EmailOctopus alternative
The bill grows with the list. At 100,000 subscribers, Pro is $345 a month, or $4,140 a year, and it keeps going as long as you send. A subscriber who never opens costs the same as your best reader.
You want to own the list and the server. Some teams want their subscriber data on their own infrastructure, for compliance or for control.
You want a different product. EmailOctopus is deliberately simple. If you want a bigger hosted platform, or a free open-source tool, or software you pay for once, the options below are better fits.
The five EmailOctopus alternatives
| Alternative | Type | Price at 10,000 subscribers | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | Hosted | $89 a month, Comfort | A larger hosted product |
| Brevo | Hosted, priced by emails sent | Depends on emails, not contacts | Big lists emailed rarely |
| Listmonk | Self-hosted, open source | Free, plus server and sending | Developers who want free |
| Sendy | Self-hosted, paid | $69 once, plus server and sending | The cheapest paid tool on SES |
| Broadcast | Self-hosted, paid | $250 once, plus server and sending | A supported product with sequences |
For the self-hosted rows, “server and sending” is about $12 a month for a 2 GB DigitalOcean Droplet plus $4 of Amazon SES for a weekly email to 10,000 people.
MailerLite
MailerLite is the closest hosted alternative and costs more. Its free plan is smaller than EmailOctopus’s: 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Comfort is $89 a month at 10,000 subscribers and $439 at 100,000, on mailerlite.com/pricing, with ten emails per subscriber at the top of each tier. Power costs more, and lists above 200,000 go to Enterprise. Move to MailerLite if you want its larger feature set and accept a higher bill. Full tiers on MailerLite pricing.
Brevo
Brevo prices by emails sent, not by contacts. Starter begins at $9 a month for 5,000 emails, on brevo.com/pricing, and Standard adds multi-step automation and A/B testing. That model favours a big list you email once a month. A weekly sender with a large list may pay more than on EmailOctopus. Check your own volume on our Brevo pricing page.
Listmonk
Listmonk is free and open source under the AGPL. It is a single Go binary with a Postgres database, and it sends through Amazon SES or any SMTP server. It processes bounces from SES, SendGrid and Postmark webhooks. It has no drip sequences, and you run it yourself. The latest stable release is v6.2.0, from 26 June 2026. See Listmonk alternatives for how it compares with the other self-hosted tools.
Sendy
Sendy is $69 once, licensed per domain, and runs on your own PHP server. It was built for Amazon SES and its site says it also works natively with SendGrid, Mailjet and Elastic Email. It handles bounces, complaints and unsubscribes and has autoresponders. If you liked EmailOctopus Connect for its SES pricing, Sendy is the same idea without the monthly fee. See Sendy alternatives.
Broadcast
Broadcast is our product: self-hosted email marketing software for $250 once per server, with no subscriber limit. It sends through Amazon SES, Postmark, Mailgun, SendGrid, Resend or any SMTP server. It processes bounces and complaints by webhook and adds sequences with branching. You import your EmailOctopus export as CSV, and tags and custom fields come with it. It is not open source, and you run the server.
At 100,000 subscribers emailed weekly, Broadcast on SES is about $40 a month for SES plus $24 for a 4 GB server, against $345 on EmailOctopus Pro and $178 plus SES on Connect. The current license price is on the pricing page.
How to choose
If your list is under 2,500, stay on EmailOctopus Starter. Nothing else on this page is cheaper than free.
If your list is between 2,500 and about 10,000 and you want no server, stay on EmailOctopus or try Connect. The savings from self-hosting at this size are real but small.
If your list is above 10,000 and growing, per-subscriber pricing is the cost to cut. Connect cuts it by a quarter to a half. Self-hosted software on SES removes it. Pick Listmonk if you want free and can run it, Sendy if you want the cheapest paid tool, and Broadcast if you want sequences and someone to email when something breaks.
For the wider picture, see the cheapest email marketing platforms and bulk email software priced at 50k and 500k emails.
Frequently asked questions
How much does EmailOctopus cost?
EmailOctopus is free for up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month. Pro costs $10 a month at 500 subscribers, $44.50 at 10,000 and $345 at 100,000 on monthly billing, as of October 2026. Yearly billing saves 10%.
Is EmailOctopus free?
Yes, up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month on the Starter plan, with no time limit and no card. Free emails carry EmailOctopus branding, and reports are kept for 30 days.
What is EmailOctopus Connect?
Connect is EmailOctopus’s plan for Amazon SES users. It sends through your own SES account and costs less: $33.50 a month at 10,000 subscribers instead of $44.50. You pay AWS for the sending on top, about $0.10 per 1,000 emails.
What is the cheapest EmailOctopus alternative?
Listmonk, which is free and open source. You pay only for a server and the sending, about $16 a month for a weekly email to 10,000 subscribers on Amazon SES. Sendy is the cheapest paid option at $69 once.
Can I move my list from EmailOctopus?
Yes. Export your subscribers as CSV and import them into the new tool. Broadcast keeps tags and custom fields on import. Before you switch, set up authentication on your sending domain and warm it up, because a new sending setup starts with no reputation.
Related
- Bulk email software: costs at 50k and 500k emails
- Email marketing on Amazon SES
- MailerLite alternatives
- Brevo alternatives
- Substack alternatives
- The cheapest email marketing platforms
Pay once, not per subscriber
Broadcast runs on your server and sends through Amazon SES or the provider you choose. No subscriber limits, sequences with branching, a $250 one-time license, and email support.
