Creator Drag-and-drop editor
A drag-and-drop email editor, plus templates generated in your brand colours. Pro adds full control over email design.
The short version
- Our budget pick for simple, low-cost newsletters. As of October 4, 2026, EmailOctopus’s free Starter plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, with no time limit and no credit card needed. That’s ten times the 250 subscribers on MailerLite’s Free plan.
- Paid Pro starts small. Pro is from $9/month billed yearly, or $10/month billed monthly, for up to 500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month. The price rises with your list.
- Good fit if you write a free newsletter, want a drag-and-drop editor, a signup form, a landing page and a welcome sequence, and would rather not pay much while your list grows.
- Consider something else if you want a publication website, an app or a recommendation network (look at Beehiiv or Substack), or if you plan to charge for your newsletter. EmailOctopus’s pricing page doesn’t cover paid subscriptions, so we don’t pitch it for paid newsletters.
- Still our “Best budget email marketing” pick: MailerLite, for its wider toolset (website builder, paid newsletters on Comfort and Power). EmailOctopus is the simpler budget option, especially for a free list bigger than 250 people.
Start on EmailOctopus’s free planReferral link: if you sign up and pay, you get $15 off your first payment and we may earn a $15 account credit.
How we made this guide. We compared vendor pricing pages. Every EmailOctopus price, limit and feature on this page comes from EmailOctopus’s own pricing page (plan cards, list-size slider and FAQ) and features page, both checked October 4, 2026, in USD. We don’t buy or trial the tools ourselves, and we don’t quote EmailOctopus’s testimonials or ratings. Figures for other tools come from our own guides, with their own check dates.
EmailOctopus plans at a glance
There are two plans for creators: the free Starter plan and the paid Pro plan. Pro is priced by list size, so the figure you pay depends on how many subscribers you have and whether you pay monthly or yearly. Use the slider on the pricing page for your exact list size.
| Plan | Subscribers | Price (per EmailOctopus) | Emails per month | Key limits / extras |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter (Free) | Up to 2,500 | $0, no time limit, no credit card | 10,000 | EmailOctopus branding on emails · reports kept 30 days · 1 landing page and 1 form · 1 user |
| Pro | Up to 500 | $10/month billed monthly, or $9/month billed yearly (shown with “Save $12”) | 10,000 | Full control over email design · reports kept forever · unlimited landing pages and forms · unlimited users · no EmailOctopus branding · cancel any time |
| Pro | 501–1,000 | $13.50/month billed monthly | See the pricing slider | Same Pro features |
| Pro | 1,001–2,500 | $20/month billed monthly | 25,000 | Same Pro features |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Source: emailoctopus.com/pricing (plan cards, list-size slider and FAQ), checked October 4, 2026, in USD. The pricing page describes yearly billing as “Save 10%”. Nonprofits get a 20% lifetime discount, and custom quotes are available above 500,000 subscribers.
Billing rules worth knowing
- Monthly or annual. Both are available, and the pricing FAQ says you can cancel auto-renew before the next billing period.
- Growing past your plan. If your list grows beyond your plan, EmailOctopus says it moves you to the plan that fits and emails you when that happens. Price your plan at the list size you expect in a year, not today’s.
- No free trial. The pricing FAQ says there’s no free trial; EmailOctopus suggests starting on the free plan instead.
What the free Starter plan includes, and where it stops
For a solo creator, Starter’s headline is the list size. According to EmailOctopus’s pricing page, you get:
- Up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month.
- No time limit and no credit card, so it isn’t a trial that expires.
- 1 landing page and 1 form, which is enough for a single signup page and one form.
- 1 user, fine if you write alone.
- Support: ongoing email support, plus chat support for your first 30 days (pricing FAQ).
The trade-offs are just as clear:
- EmailOctopus branding appears on your emails until you move to Pro.
- Reports are kept for 30 days. If you want to compare open and click rates across months, export them or plan to upgrade, because Pro keeps reports forever.
- The 10,000-email monthly cap can bind before the subscriber limit for a weekly newsletter. By our arithmetic (not an EmailOctopus figure), roughly four weekly sends to 2,500 subscribers reach the 10,000 monthly cap (4 × 2,500 = 10,000). A month with five weekly sends would need 12,500 at that list size, and a welcome sequence adds more. On the same arithmetic, five sends a month fit within the cap only up to about 2,000 subscribers (10,000 ÷ 5).
How it compares with other free plans. On our best free newsletter platforms page, MailerLite Free covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, and Beehiiv’s Launch plan matches EmailOctopus’s 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends and a website. Kit’s free plan holds the most subscribers, at 10,000. EmailOctopus’s free plan sits in the middle: a large list for a simple email tool, with a monthly send cap.
Features that matter for newsletter creators
EmailOctopus’s features page lists the tools below. The pricing details we checked don’t break every feature down by plan, beyond the Starter and Pro limits in the table above, so check the plan comparison on the pricing page if a feature is essential to you.
Forms and landing pages
Pop-up forms and landing pages to collect signups. Starter includes 1 form and 1 landing page; Pro makes both unlimited.
Automated sequences
Automations let you send a sequence, such as a welcome series for new subscribers, without sending each email by hand.
Fields, tags and segments
Store subscriber details in fields, label readers with tags, and send to a segment rather than your whole list. Campaigns can be scheduled ahead.
Reports
Reports on opens and clicks. Starter keeps them for 30 days; Pro keeps them forever.
Integrations
EmailOctopus says it connects with “over 1,000” integrations, useful if your signups come from another tool.
Honest limitations to weigh
- It’s an email tool, not a publication platform. There’s no hosted publication website, app or recommendation network of the kind Beehiiv and Substack offer. If your newsletter is the product and you want readers to find you inside a network, read our Beehiiv guide or Beehiiv vs Substack.
- Not a pick for paid newsletters. EmailOctopus’s pricing page doesn’t cover paid subscriptions. If you plan to charge readers, compare tools whose own pages describe paid subscriptions, such as MailerLite (Comfort or Power with Stripe), Beehiiv (Scale or Max) or Substack.
- Starter’s 30-day reports and single form make it hard to run more than one signup offer or to track trends over a season.
- Branding stays on Free. If EmailOctopus branding on your emails bothers you, budget for Pro from day one.
- No free trial (pricing FAQ), so the Pro-only features can’t be tried for free before paying; EmailOctopus points you to the free Starter plan instead.
- Pro gets pricier as your list grows. On monthly billing it’s $10/month up to 500 subscribers, $13.50/month at 501–1,000 and $20/month at 1,001–2,500 (pricing slider). Still low, but re-run the slider whenever your list jumps.
EmailOctopus vs the alternatives
- MailerLite: our “Best budget email marketing” pick. A smaller Free plan (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month) but a website builder, and paid newsletters on Comfort or Power. Read our MailerLite guide and Beehiiv vs MailerLite, or see the two side by side in MailerLite vs EmailOctopus.
- Beehiiv: a newsletter publication platform. The free Launch plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, a website and a custom domain; Scale starts at $49/month on monthly billing. See our Beehiiv guide.
- Kit: the biggest free list we’ve listed (up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts), with visual automations and sequences on its paid Creator plan. Compare it in Kit vs Beehiiv.
- Substack: free to publish at any list size, then it keeps 10% of each paid transaction if you charge. See Beehiiv vs Substack.
- Buttondown: minimal and writing-first. Free for your first 100 subscribers, with extras sold as add-ons.
- Best newsletter tools for creators: the full shortlist, where EmailOctopus is our budget pick for low-cost newsletters.
- How to choose a newsletter tool: a decision framework by list size, automation, growth and budget.
FAQ
Is EmailOctopus free?
Yes. The Starter plan is free for up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, with no time limit and no credit card needed (pricing page, checked October 4, 2026). Emails carry EmailOctopus branding, reports are kept for 30 days, and you get 1 landing page, 1 form and 1 user.
Does EmailOctopus have a free trial?
No. EmailOctopus’s pricing FAQ says there’s no free trial, and it suggests starting on the free plan instead.
How much does EmailOctopus cost?
Pro starts at $9/month billed yearly, or $10/month billed monthly, for up to 500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month. The price rises with list size: for example, $13.50/month at 501–1,000 subscribers and $20/month at 1,001–2,500 subscribers (both on monthly billing). Nonprofits get a 20% lifetime discount.
How do I remove EmailOctopus branding from my emails?
Upgrade to Pro. EmailOctopus branding appears on emails sent from the free Starter plan, and Pro removes it.
What happens if my list grows past my plan?
EmailOctopus’s pricing FAQ says it moves you to the plan that fits your list and emails you when that happens. On monthly or annual billing, you can cancel auto-renew before the next billing period.
Is EmailOctopus better than MailerLite for a small newsletter?
It depends on your list and plans. EmailOctopus’s free plan holds 2,500 subscribers, ten times MailerLite Free’s 250, so it goes further if you want to stay free. MailerLite is our “Best budget email marketing” pick for its wider toolset, including a website builder and paid newsletters on Comfort or Power. Our MailerLite guide covers its plans.
See EmailOctopus’s plansReferral link: if you sign up and pay, you get $15 off your first payment and we may earn a $15 account credit.
Sources (checked October 4, 2026)
- https://emailoctopus.com/pricing: Starter and Pro plans, Pro prices by list size (slider), pricing FAQ (free plan terms, no free trial, support, billing, plan changes), nonprofit discount (checked October 4, 2026)
- https://emailoctopus.com/features: editor, templates, automations, forms, landing pages, scheduling, fields, tags, segmentation, reports and integrations (checked October 4, 2026)
- Figures for MailerLite, Beehiiv, Kit, Substack and Buttondown come from our best free newsletter platforms page (checked September 28, 2026) and our Beehiiv and MailerLite guides (checked September 25, 2026), where each vendor source is listed.
EmailOctopus is a trademark of its owner. We run Creator Mail Stack independently, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by EmailOctopus beyond the referral relationship described in the disclosure. Found something out of date? Tell us.