EmailOctopus vs Substack
Pricing
EmailOctopus: Free up to 2,500 subs, from $9/mo
Substack: Free, 10% of paid subs
Description
EmailOctopus: Simple, affordable email marketing
Substack: The OG paid newsletter platform
Pros
- 1/3 the price of Mailchimp for comparable features
- Free tier covers 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month
- Simple interface that does not try to be a CRM
- Built-in audience discovery
- No upfront costs
- Simple and focused
Cons
- Automation is basic: no complex branching or conditional workflows
- Email template library is small compared to Mailchimp or MailerLite
- Free tier holds fewer subscribers than Kit (formerly ConvertKit), which allows 10,000
- 10% cut is steep at scale
- Limited customization
Details
EmailOctopus offers email marketing at roughly a third of Mailchimp’s price. Built on Amazon SES for reliable delivery at low cost.
Bootstrapped to $3M ARR by Jonathan Bull and Tom Evans. Remote team of 9, serving 92,000+ organizations across 119 countries.
Substack pioneered the paid newsletter model. Founded by Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie in 2017. Free to start, they take 10% of paid subscriptions. Over 5M paid subscriptions on the platform. Great for writers who want zero setup friction.
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