EmailOctopus or MailerLite? Find out which is the best
If you are choosing between EmailOctopus and MailerLite, MailerLite is the better overall choice for most small businesses, creators, and growing email lists. It offers a broader set of marketing tools, stronger automation, landing pages, websites, forms, A/B testing, and monetization features. EmailOctopus is a better fit if you want a simpler email platform with a generous free plan and straightforward campaign management.
The right choice depends on what you expect from your email marketing software. If you mainly want to send newsletters and automated emails without a lot of extra features, EmailOctopus deserves a close look. If you want email marketing to become part of a larger marketing system, MailerLite has more to offer.
EmailOctopus vs MailerLite at a glance
| Feature | EmailOctopus | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Up to 2,500 subscribers | Up to 250 subscribers |
| Free monthly emails | 10,000 | 2,500 |
| Drag-and-drop email editor | Yes | Yes |
| Email automation | Yes | Yes |
| Landing pages | 1 free | 1 free |
| Signup forms | 1 free | 3 free |
| Pop-ups | Yes | Yes |
| Segmentation | Yes | Yes |
| A/B testing | More limited | Yes |
| Website builder | No comparable full website builder | Yes |
| Digital products | No | Yes |
| Paid newsletters | No | Yes |
| Ecommerce-focused automation | More limited | Yes |
| Free plan branding | Yes | Yes |
| Starting paid price | $9/month when billed yearly | $12/month for Comfort |
Pricing and feature limits can change, so check the current plans before purchasing. At the time of research, EmailOctopus offered a free plan with up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 monthly emails, while MailerLite’s free plan supported up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails.
What makes EmailOctopus different?
EmailOctopus focuses on keeping email marketing relatively simple. Its feature set covers the core tasks most newsletter operators need: creating campaigns, managing subscribers, building forms and landing pages, segmenting audiences, creating automated sequences, and checking campaign performance.
Its free plan is particularly attractive for someone starting with a larger list. You can have up to 2,500 subscribers and send up to 10,000 emails per month without paying for the standard EmailOctopus service. The trade-off is that the free plan includes EmailOctopus branding and limits reporting to 30 days.
EmailOctopus also supports tags and subscriber fields, which can help you organize contacts and send more relevant campaigns. Its platform includes a drag-and-drop email builder, templates, forms, landing pages, automation, reporting, and integrations.
That makes EmailOctopus appealing when your main goal is email marketing rather than building an entire marketing platform.
EmailOctopus is a good fit for
EmailOctopus makes sense if you:
- Run a newsletter or content website
- Want a generous free subscriber limit
- Prefer a straightforward email platform
- Don’t need a built-in website builder
- Mainly send newsletters and basic automated sequences
- Want to keep your email stack relatively simple
For example, imagine you run a small blog with 1,500 subscribers and send one weekly newsletter. EmailOctopus’s free plan gives you plenty of room for that type of use.
What makes MailerLite different?
MailerLite takes a broader approach. Email is still at the center, but the platform also includes landing pages, websites, signup forms, pop-ups, automation, digital products, paid newsletters, and ecommerce-related tools.
Its free plan is smaller than EmailOctopus’s, supporting up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails. However, it includes campaigns, three automations, one website, one landing page, three signup forms, and access to multiple email editors.
Once you move to a paid plan, the difference becomes more noticeable. MailerLite’s Comfort plan starts at $12 per month and adds features such as more automations, landing pages, templates, A/B testing, an AI writing assistant, and additional audience tools. Its Power plan starts at $25 per month and expands automation, sending, forms, websites, and monetization capabilities.
MailerLite is a good fit for
MailerLite is especially useful if you:
- Run a small business
- Sell products or digital downloads
- Build landing pages for lead generation
- Need more advanced automation
- Want a website and email tools in one platform
- Run a paid newsletter
- Want to test campaigns and landing pages
- Expect your marketing needs to grow
For example, a creator selling an ebook might use MailerLite to build a landing page, collect subscribers, send a lead magnet, run a welcome sequence, and eventually sell the ebook without assembling several separate marketing tools.
Pricing: which one gives you more?
Price is one of the biggest reasons to compare these two platforms.
EmailOctopus has a strong advantage for people who are just getting started with a larger subscriber list. Its free plan currently allows up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month. The paid Pro plan starts at $9 per month when billed yearly.
MailerLite’s free plan is more restrictive by subscriber count. It currently allows up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails. Its paid Comfort plan starts at $12 per month, while Power starts at $25 per month.
So the cheapest option depends on your situation.
| Your situation | Better value |
|---|---|
| Up to 250 subscribers | MailerLite Free |
| 250–2,500 subscribers and basic email needs | EmailOctopus |
| Need a website and email marketing together | MailerLite |
| Need advanced automation | MailerLite |
| Want a simple newsletter platform | EmailOctopus |
| Want to sell digital products | MailerLite |
| Want paid newsletter subscriptions | MailerLite |
One important detail is that the two companies structure their pricing differently. EmailOctopus emphasizes subscriber and email allowances, while MailerLite’s paid plans also change the amount of automation, website, form, and monetization functionality available.
Email design and campaign creation
Both platforms provide drag-and-drop email editors, so you don’t need to build every newsletter from HTML.
EmailOctopus offers an email builder and more than 100 mobile-friendly templates. It also provides automatically styled templates designed around your brand colors and style.
MailerLite puts more emphasis on visual email creation. Its platform includes a drag-and-drop editor, simple editor, custom HTML editor, templates, content blocks, A/B testing, and other campaign tools depending on the plan.
If you simply want to create attractive newsletters, either platform can do the job.
Winner: MailerLite, especially if you want more control over the broader marketing experience.
Automation
Automation is where MailerLite starts to pull ahead.
EmailOctopus provides automated sequences that can engage subscribers based on subscriber information and behavior. It also supports segmentation, tags, and fields for more targeted communication.
MailerLite provides a visual automation builder with triggers based on actions such as joining a group, clicking a link, completing a form, making a purchase, updating a subscriber field, or reaching a specific date. Ecommerce-related triggers can also support workflows such as abandoned-cart and post-purchase campaigns.
This matters if your email strategy goes beyond a basic welcome sequence.
A simple newsletter business might only need:
- Subscriber joins
- Welcome email
- Free resource
- Follow-up email
Both platforms can handle this type of workflow.
A growing online store might need:
- Customer views or buys a product
- Customer enters a segment
- Follow-up message
- Product recommendation
- Review request
- Repeat-purchase campaign
MailerLite is better suited to this more involved setup.
Winner: MailerLite
Forms and landing pages
Both services let you build tools for collecting email subscribers.
EmailOctopus provides forms and landing pages designed to be quick to create without coding. Its free plan currently includes one landing page and one form, while its Pro plan provides unlimited landing pages and forms.
MailerLite goes further with embedded forms, pop-ups, promotional pop-ups, landing pages, and websites. Its form tools also include options such as double opt-in, reCAPTCHA, subscriber grouping, and form performance tracking.
If your goal is simply to add an email signup box to a blog, either works.
If you want to build multiple lead-generation pages and connect them to a larger funnel, MailerLite is the stronger option.
Winner: MailerLite
Segmentation and personalization
EmailOctopus lets you organize subscribers using tags and fields. This can help you separate subscribers and personalize emails based on information you’ve collected.
MailerLite also offers dynamic segments, interest groups, custom variables, subscriber management, and personalization tools. Its reporting can show engagement and other subscriber information, depending on the plan and setup.
For a small newsletter, the difference may not matter much.
For a business with multiple products, audiences, or customer journeys, MailerLite’s broader segmentation and personalization system is more useful.
Winner: MailerLite
A/B testing and analytics
EmailOctopus provides reporting for campaign and automation performance, including engagement information such as opens and clicks.
MailerLite offers more extensive testing and reporting options. Its tools include email A/B testing, landing-page testing, comparative reporting, and more advanced multivariate testing on eligible plans.
This is useful when you’re trying to improve results over time rather than simply send emails.
For example, you could test two subject lines for the same newsletter and compare which version generates more engagement. With a landing-page test, you can also compare different versions of a signup page.
Winner: MailerLite
Websites and monetization
This is one of the clearest differences.
MailerLite includes website-building features alongside its email tools. It also supports selling digital products, paid newsletter subscriptions, bookings, and other monetization options on eligible plans.
EmailOctopus is much more focused on email marketing. It provides forms and landing pages, but it isn’t trying to replace your website or become a complete creator-commerce platform.
If you already have a WordPress website or ecommerce store and only need email marketing, this difference may not matter.
If you want fewer separate tools, MailerLite has a major advantage.
Winner: MailerLite
Which one is easier to use?
Both platforms are designed to be approachable.
EmailOctopus keeps its feature set relatively focused, which can make it appealing to someone who doesn’t want to spend time learning a large marketing platform. Its own feature pages emphasize simplicity and avoiding unnecessary clutter.
MailerLite also focuses heavily on ease of use, but it gives you more tools. That can be helpful as your business grows, although having more features can naturally mean more things to learn.
If you want the simpler experience, choose EmailOctopus.
If you want more capabilities without moving to a much more complex enterprise platform, choose MailerLite.
Which one should you choose?
The answer depends mostly on what you plan to do with email.
EmailOctopus is the better choice when your priority is sending newsletters and basic automated campaigns while keeping costs low.
Its free subscriber allowance is particularly attractive for a new website or newsletter that already has more than a few hundred subscribers.
It also makes sense if you already have your website, landing pages, ecommerce system, and other marketing tools and don’t need your email provider to handle those jobs.
Choose MailerLite if email is part of a bigger marketing system
MailerLite is the better choice for most businesses that expect their email strategy to become more sophisticated.
You get email campaigns, automation, forms, landing pages, websites, segmentation, testing, analytics, and monetization tools in the same ecosystem.
It is especially compelling for creators, small businesses, online stores, coaches, bloggers, and publishers that want to build a subscriber funnel rather than just send occasional newsletters.
Frequently asked questions
Is EmailOctopus better than MailerLite for beginners?
EmailOctopus can be easier for beginners who only need newsletters, basic subscriber management, and simple automation. MailerLite is also beginner-friendly, but its larger feature set makes it a better choice if you expect to build more advanced campaigns later.
Does EmailOctopus have a better free plan than MailerLite?
For subscriber capacity, yes. EmailOctopus currently allows up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 monthly emails on its free plan, while MailerLite’s free plan supports up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails. MailerLite, however, includes a wider selection of marketing tools in its free offering.
Which is better for a growing small business, EmailOctopus or MailerLite?
MailerLite is generally the stronger choice for a growing small business because it combines email marketing with automation, landing pages, websites, forms, testing, and monetization tools. EmailOctopus is a better fit when you want to keep your email system focused and don’t need those additional capabilities.
EmailOctopus or MailerLite: final verdict
MailerLite wins overall, mainly because it provides a broader marketing toolkit and stronger automation capabilities.
However, that doesn’t make EmailOctopus a bad choice. In fact, EmailOctopus can be the smarter option for a newsletter owner who wants a simple platform and a generous free plan.
Choose EmailOctopus if simplicity, a larger free subscriber allowance, and basic email marketing are your main priorities.
Choose MailerLite if you want automation, landing pages, websites, testing, ecommerce features, or monetization tools that can support a growing business.
Before you sign up, compare the current plan limits against your actual subscriber count and monthly sending needs. Don’t choose based only on the starting price. The features you need six months from now can matter more than the price you pay today.
