EmailOctopus Review 2026: Pricing, Pros, Cons and Alternatives

EmailOctopus sells simple newsletter and campaign email at a low price, and its pricing page is built around one variable: how many subscribers you have. There are only two self-serve plans, a free Starter and a paid Pro that scales with your list, plus custom quotes above 500,000 subscribers.

Marketers who send a weekly newsletter or regular promos, and do not need a full marketing automation suite, are the buyers it targets.

This review tests one claim: that EmailOctopus is the cheapest tool worth using.

It sets out the full Pro price ladder on monthly and yearly billing, compares it subscriber for subscriber with MailerLite, checks the free plans of Mailchimp, MailerLite and Brevo against EmailOctopus Starter, and names the cases where paying more elsewhere buys something you need. We read vendor pages only and did not send campaigns ourselves.

EmailOctopus is an email marketing platform for newsletters, campaigns, sign-up forms, landing pages and automations. It offers a drag-and-drop editor, more than 100 mobile-friendly templates, custom HTML, merge-tag personalisation and reports.

A separate product, EmailOctopus Connect, sends through your own Amazon SES account with its own pricing.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracks 110 email marketing tools as of November 4, 2026, and the median cheapest paid plan across the 47 that publish a price is $19 a month. EmailOctopus Pro's entry price is about half that median on yearly billing.

Dupple data: MarketingShot, the newsletter behind this site, reaches 36,000+ subscribers as of November 8, 2026, with a 32% average open rate. Our newsletters are sent on beehiiv, not on EmailOctopus or any rival reviewed here, so we have no account-level stake in this comparison.

You import or collect subscribers through forms and landing pages, build a campaign in the drag-and-drop editor or in your own HTML, and send it to a list or segment. Automations send triggered emails without a manual campaign each time.

The interface is deliberately narrow, which is the point: a newsletter sender gets from signup to first campaign quickly, without wading through CRM or ecommerce screens.

Billing follows the list. Pro is priced in bands by subscriber count, and when your list grows past your band, EmailOctopus moves you up to the next one automatically and emails you when it happens. That avoids a paused account mid-campaign, but it also means your bill can rise without you choosing it. Clean your list before a big import, since the band follows your subscriber count.

Sending limits are tied to the same bands. On Pro, the monthly email allowance is 10 times your subscriber band from 2,500 subscribers up, so 10,000 subscribers get 100,000 emails a month. The two smallest bands, up to 500 and up to 1,000 subscribers, both get 10,000 emails. A weekly newsletter fits comfortably; a daily send to the full list does not.

The free Starter plan keeps EmailOctopus branding on emails, holds reports for 30 days, allows one landing page and one form, and gives one user. Live chat and email support are included for the first 30 days, then email support continues.

EmailOctopus's pricing page, read on November 4, 2026, lists Starter free for 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month. Pro is priced by subscriber band, with yearly billing saving about 10%.

Up to 500 subscribers, Pro is $10 a month billed monthly or $108 a year billed yearly. At 1,000 subscribers it is $13.50 monthly or $144 a year, at 2,500 it is $20 or $216, at 5,000 it is $31.50 or $336, at 10,000 it is $44.50 or $480, and at 25,000 it is $94.50 or $1,020. Lists above 500,000 get a custom quote.

Against MailerLite, EmailOctopus is consistently cheaper. MailerLite's pricing page prices its Comfort plan at $29.70 a month billed yearly for 2,500 subscribers, $44.10 for 5,000, $80.10 for 10,000 and $161.10 for 25,000.

On our arithmetic over 12 months of yearly billing, that is $356.40, $529.20, $961.20 and $1,933.20. At 10,000 subscribers EmailOctopus saves $481.20 a year, and at 25,000 it saves $913.20. Both tools allow roughly 10 emails per subscriber a month at these sizes, so the comparison is like for like.

At the small end, Mailchimp lists Essentials from $13 a month and Standard from $20 a month for 500 contacts, against $10 for EmailOctopus Pro on monthly billing.

Brevo prices by email volume rather than contacts, with Starter at $9 a month for 5,000 emails, so it suits large lists that send rarely.

The free plans differ most. EmailOctopus Starter covers 2,500 subscribers. MailerLite Free covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, Mailchimp Free covers 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, and Brevo Free allows 300 emails a day.

Our email marketing pricing comparison covers more tools on the same basis.

EmailOctopus fits newsletter writers, creators, small businesses and nonprofits that send regular campaigns to a list of up to tens of thousands and care more about cost than about advanced automation. It is especially strong for lists between 250 and 2,500 subscribers, which stay free here while rivals already charge. Teams benefit too, since every Pro band includes unlimited users at no extra cost.

It is a weaker fit in three cases. Ecommerce brands that live on product recommendations and revenue-based flows will get more from Klaviyo or the tools in our ecommerce email marketing ranking.

Marketers who need complex multi-branch automation and CRM features should compare our Mailchimp review and the marketing automation software list.

Publishers who want built-in monetization, referral programs and a hosted newsletter website should look at the newsletter platforms ranking.

If you are choosing between the budget tools, our MailerLite review and Brevo review cover the two closest rivals, and the free email marketing software roundup ranks free plans.

Toolradar keeps tool pages for EmailOctopus and MailerLite, plus an EmailOctopus vs Moosend comparison.