Lumail vs Elastic Email
Lumail
Elastic Email
Email marketing and delivery platform
Lumail and Elastic Email pricing and feature comparison
Free emails / month
Lumail
3,000
Elastic Email
100/day
Unlimited subscribers · $0
1,000 subscribers · $0
Paid entry
$20/month, 40,000 included, then $0.60/1,000
$19/month (Email API Starter); $29/month (Email Marketing Starter)
Pricing basis
Unlimited subscribers; pricing follows email volume
Monthly USD subscription. Email Marketing scales on stored active contacts plus a monthly send cap. Email API scales on monthly email…
Automation
Graph workflows with triggers, branches, goals, exits, and A/B paths
Visual automations with triggers, sequences, and behavior-based flows. Product page: Email Marketing Pro only (unlimited). Pricing matrix…
AI and developer access
ChatGPT OAuth, MCP, skills, CLI, SDK, REST API, and visual editor
Hosted MCP at https://mcp.elasticemail.com, included with Email Marketing and Email API (API-key auth). Help center lists ~17 actions. AI…
Transactional email
Included through API, SMTP, SDK, CLI, and agent tools
REST API v4 and SMTP (smtp.elasticemail.com; ports 25, 2525, 587, 465) on Email Marketing Starter+ and Email API plans. Webhooks and…
Publishing surface
Capture pages and custom web domains; not a general website builder
Landing page editor, signup forms, Link in Bio. Pro adds paid newsletters and Stripe checkouts. Inbox is a separate helpdesk/live-chat…
Choose Lumail if…
- You want unlimited subscriber storage billed only by email volume, in one organization
- Agents should operate campaigns, workflows, subscribers, and transactional email through a large MCP catalog plus CLI and TypeScript SDK
- You need graph workflows on every plan, not a Pro-gated automation builder
Choose Elastic Email if…
- You need a sending API at $19/month for 50,000 emails, or SMTP on an owned MTA
- You want contact-priced email marketing with landing pages, forms, and (on Pro) paid newsletters plus Stripe checkouts
- You are an agency/reseller that needs white-label SMTP/API, subaccounts, and custom branding
Where Elastic Email is strong
A real alternative, not a straw man.
2010 ESP with an owned in-house MTA, sold as three products: Email Marketing (contacts + send cap), Email API (email volume), and Inbox (seats). People pick Elastic Email when they need cost-conscious SMBs, creators, and developers who want affordable marketing tools plus SMTP/API delivery on an owned MTA..
- Email API Starter is $19/month for 50,000 emails; Marketing Starter is $29/month for 2,500 contacts / 37,500 emails
- Owned in-house MTA with REST API v4, SMTP, and official libraries for 12 languages
- Marketing Pro adds paid newsletters, Stripe checkouts, landing pages, and reseller/subaccount tools
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 Elastic Email, stay.
The questions people actually ask
Is Lumail cheaper than Elastic Email?
Sometimes. Lumail is $0 for 3,000 emails, then $20 for 40,000. Elastic Email'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 Elastic Email?
Choose Elastic Email when you want a cheap owned-MTA ESP for SMTP/API sending or contact-priced campaigns with landing pages and Pro paid-newsletter checkout. Choose Lumail when you want unlimited subscribers, graph workflows on every plan, transactional email in the same org, and a full agent surface (MCP + CLI + SDK) instead of a hosted MCP with a short action list.
Can I migrate from Elastic Email 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.