Lumail vs EmailOctopus
Lumail
EmailOctopus
Straightforward email marketing platform (campaigns, automations, forms)
Lumail and EmailOctopus pricing and feature comparison
Free emails / month
Lumail
3,000
EmailOctopus
10,000
Unlimited subscribers · $0
2,500 subscribers · $0
Paid entry
$20/month, 40,000 included, then $0.60/1,000
$9/month billed yearly ($10/month) for up to 500 subscribers
Pricing basis
Unlimited subscribers; pricing follows email volume
Subscribed-contact count across lists, plus a monthly email send cap on hosted EmailOctopus (typically 10× the tier’s subscriber ceiling).…
Automation
Graph workflows with triggers, branches, goals, exits, and A/B paths
Tree-view automations with templates. Triggers: contact added, field updated, tag added/removed, another automation, API,…
AI and developer access
ChatGPT OAuth, MCP, skills, CLI, SDK, REST API, and visual editor
No official MCP, ChatGPT OAuth plugin, CLI, or in-product campaign writer. Help-center AI chatbot answers from the knowledge base only.…
Transactional email
Included through API, SMTP, SDK, CLI, and agent tools
Hosted EmailOctopus has no SMTP and no API send. All mail is created in the dashboard. EmailOctopus Connect users can send transactional…
Publishing surface
Capture pages and custom web domains; not a general website builder
Scheduled campaigns, hosted landing pages on *.eopage.com, and embeddable inline/popup/hello-bar/slide-in forms. Not a public newsletter…
Choose Lumail if…
- You store a large list but send selectively and do not want list-size billing (Lumail: unlimited subscribers; Premium $20/mo for 40,000 emails)
- You need transactional email via API or smtp.lumail.io:587 in the same org — EmailOctopus does not send via API or SMTP on the hosted product
- You want write-capable agent access (89 org-scoped MCP tools, ChatGPT OAuth plugin, CLI, TypeScript SDK) rather than dashboard-only sends plus a list/contact REST API
Choose EmailOctopus if…
- You want the cheapest simple ESP: Pro from $9/month billed yearly, or a forever-free 2,500-contact / 10,000-email plan
- You prefer subscriber-tier pricing with a ~10× monthly send cap and automatic upgrades as the list grows
- You already run Amazon SES and want EmailOctopus Connect (unlimited platform emails; Pro from $8/month billed yearly plus AWS send charges)
Where EmailOctopus is strong
A real alternative, not a straw man.
EmailOctopus is a UK-based email-only marketing tool that prices Pro by stored subscriber count plus a monthly send cap, with a forever-free Starter plan of 2,500 contacts and 10,000 emails. People pick EmailOctopus when they need small teams and newsletters that want inexpensive, email-only marketing with a generous free plan and are willing to pay by list size..
- Forever-free Starter at 2,500 subscribers / 10,000 emails/month with no credit card, plus Pro from $9/month billed yearly
- Email-only product: campaigns, automations, tags/segments, forms, and landing pages without SMS or a bloated suite
- REST API v2, webhooks (2 endpoints/team), WordPress plugin, Zapier, and 1,000+ listed integrations
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 EmailOctopus, stay.
The questions people actually ask
Is Lumail cheaper than EmailOctopus?
Sometimes. Lumail is $0 for 3,000 emails, then $20 for 40,000. EmailOctopus'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 EmailOctopus?
Choose EmailOctopus when you want cheap, simple campaigns, forms, and drip automations priced by list size, with no SMS or extra products. Choose Lumail when you want unlimited stored subscribers billed by emails sent, graph workflows and transactional API/SMTP in the same org, and agents that can operate the account.
Can I migrate from EmailOctopus 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.