Lumail vs Campaign Monitor
Lumail
Campaign Monitor
Email marketing platform for small businesses and agencies
Lumail and Campaign Monitor pricing and feature comparison
Free allowance
Lumail
$0
Campaign Monitor
30-day trial
$0 · 3,000 emails · Unlimited subscribers
30-day trial
Paid entry
$20/month, 40,000 included, then $0.60/1,000
$13/month
Pricing basis
Unlimited subscribers; pricing follows email volume
Plan (Lite / Essentials / Premier) plus contact-count tier; Lite also caps monthly sends (5× contacts). Annual is 10% off. 50,001+…
Automation
Graph workflows with triggers, branches, goals, exits, and A/B paths
Visual journey designer with prebuilt journeys (welcome, abandoned cart, anniversary, thank-you, events); drip/campaign series; RSS. Lite:…
AI and developer access
ChatGPT OAuth, MCP, skills, CLI, SDK, REST API, and visual editor
In-app only: AI Writer (Lite+), unlimited AI Email Booster / Segment Mapper / Marketing Monitor on Essentials and Premier. No official…
Transactional email
Included through API, SMTP, SDK, CLI, and agent tools
Included on monthly plans (not pay-per-campaign). Smart transactional via API; classic via API or SMTP at smtp.api.createsend.com. Lite:…
Publishing surface
Capture pages and custom web domains; not a general website builder
Signup forms (limited on trial), landing pages, optional Website Builder ($10/month on Lite/Essentials, included on Premier). SMS is a…
Choose Lumail if…
- You store a large list and do not want the bill to jump with every contact-tier step
- Agents, CLI, TypeScript SDK, and REST should operate campaigns, graph workflows, and transactional email in one org
- You want graph workflows and transactional SMTP/API on every plan, including a real free send allotment (3,000 emails/month)
Choose Campaign Monitor if…
- You want a marketer-facing builder, prebuilt journeys, and agency white-label / client billing under Campaign Monitor by Marigold
- Your team will only use the dashboard and in-app AI Writer / Email Booster, not MCP or a CLI
- You send infrequently and prefer pay-per-campaign credits instead of a monthly subscription
Where Campaign Monitor is strong
A real alternative, not a straw man.
Campaign Monitor by Marigold is a dashboard-first email marketing tool priced by contact tier, with in-app AI writing, visual journeys, agency white-label, and transactional API/SMTP on monthly plans — not an agent-operated email OS. People pick Campaign Monitor when they need design-led marketers and agencies that want a familiar email dashboard, templates, white-label client accounts, and in-app AI — not agent/CLI operation..
- Live public USD ladder through 50,000 contacts, plus agency white-label, markup billing, and unique API keys per subaccount
- Drag-and-drop builder, 100+ templates, visual journeys, drip campaigns, and transactional Smart/Classic email on the same monthly account
- REST API v3.3 (OAuth 2 or API key) with official wrappers and SMTP at smtp.api.createsend.com for classic transactional
Don't trust the table. Run one journey.
Checklists lie by flattening the work. Build one real path: a trigger, a wait, a branch, a goal, an exit. Then open one subscriber and see what actually happened. That tells you more than any feature row.
- 1. Import a small, consented sample. Not the whole list.
- 2. Recreate one campaign and the audience it actually hits.
- 3. Publish one automation with a goal you can measure.
- 4. Fire a test and read every event on one person.
- 5. Compare the weekly work, not the setup afternoon.
Try it on a real send
Keep the whole list. Pay when you send.
3,000 emails free, no card. Rebuild one campaign, one workflow, and one transactional message before you move anyone. If it feels worse than Campaign Monitor, stay.
The questions people actually ask
Is Lumail cheaper than Campaign Monitor?
Sometimes. Lumail is $0 for 3,000 emails, then $20 for 40,000. Campaign Monitor's number only makes sense after you know what they cap: contacts, seats, a daily send limit, or a feature they hide behind a paid plan. Read the honest take above, then price a normal month and a launch month on both pages.
What is the main difference between Lumail and Campaign Monitor?
Choose Campaign Monitor when a marketing team or agency wants a polished drag-and-drop builder, contact-tier plans, white-label client billing, and in-app AI copy. Choose Lumail when you want unlimited stored subscribers billed by send volume, graph workflows on every plan, transactional SMTP/API in the same org, and 89 MCP tools agents can run.
Can I migrate from Campaign Monitor to Lumail?
Yes. Don't move the whole list on day one. Export a small consented sample, rebuild one campaign and one automation, authenticate your domain, then watch one subscriber go through the run. If that feels right, move the rest.