Lumail vs Keap: Which Email Platform Fits How You Work?

Lumail is a Keap alternative that prices by email volume, stores unlimited subscribers, and exposes campaigns, workflows, and transactional sending to agents. Keap is a small-business CRM and automation OS that starts at $299/month for 2 users and 1,500 contacts, with a required implementation package.

Keap positions itself as the small-business CRM and automation platform: drag-and-drop automations for marketing, sales, service, and operations so owners follow up, get paid, and cut manual work. Official pages cover contact management, email and SMS, landing pages and funnels, sales pipeline, appointment scheduling, quotes, invoices, checkout, payments (Keap Pay in the US; PayPal/Stripe/Eway), and a mobile app. Keap is a Thryv, Inc. brand (formerly Infusionsoft) and claims 200,000+ small businesses.

This comparison uses public product information checked on 2026-08-17. Check each pricing page before purchasing because plans, limits, and catalogs change. For a condensed version, see the side-by-side comparison table.

Workflow graph

Lumail vs Keap at a glance

Decision	Lumail	Keap
Core focus	Newsletters, workflows, transactional email, and AI-agent operations	Small-business CRM, sales, and marketing automation platform
AI and developer access	89 organization-scoped MCP tools, CLI, TypeScript SDK, REST API, AI editor	In-product Keap AI: AI Content Assistant (draft/tune emails) and AI Automation Assistant (template-to-campaign copy). REST API v1/v2, REST Hooks, OAuth2, Zapier, Node and PHP libraries. No official MCP server, ChatGPT OAuth plugin, CLI, or TypeScript SDK is documented.
Pricing basis	Email volume, with unlimited subscribers on every plan	Contact count plus user seats on a single Keap Max platform; required implementation package; SMS tiers and email overages extra
Free plan	3,000 emails per month, no credit card	No permanent free plan. Official 14-day trial, no credit card. Trial limits from the pricing FAQ: 25 emails, no payments, no SMS; DKIM required before sending.
Paid entry	Premium $20/month with 40,000 emails included	$299/month
Automation	Graph-based workflows on every plan	Easy Automations plus Advanced Automations builder, with a library of proven templates (lead magnet, newsletter signup, cart abandonment, pipeline, billing reminders, and more). AI Automation Assistant can generate a campaign from a template. Same public feature list on the current pricing card; help center still documents older Pro/Max/Ultimate/Max Classic edition names for existing apps.
Transactional email	Included in the same organization through API or SMTP	Not sold as a dedicated transactional ESP or customer SMTP relay. Broadcasts, automation emails, and Gmail/Outlook 1:1 sync are first-class. REST v1 includes POST Send an Email. Billing FAQ confirms monthly email thresholds and overages; the per-email overage rate is not published as a labeled unit on the pricing page.
Publishing	Capture pages for subscriber acquisition	Landing pages, multi-page sales funnels, public forms, internal forms, checkout forms. Not a general website builder.
Best fit	Teams operating email through agents, code, and a visual app	Service and small-business operators who want CRM, follow-up automation, SMS, appointments, and payments in one Keap account and will pay for implementation.

Keap's current plans come from its Keap pricing. Lumail's plans are on the Lumail pricing page.

Choose Lumail if agents should operate your email

Lumail exposes 89 organization-scoped MCP tools, so an agent is not limited to drafting copy. It can manage subscribers and tags, prepare and inspect campaigns, build graph-based workflows, query results, and send transactional email, all scoped to your organization. The same operations run through ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, a CLI, a TypeScript SDK, and a REST API.

No official MCP server, ChatGPT plugin, Claude connector, CLI, or TypeScript SDK is documented on keap.com or developer.keap.com. Developer surface: REST v1 and REST v2 at https://api.infusionsoft.com/crm/rest/v1/ and /v2/; OAuth2 (accounts.infusionsoft.com); REST Hooks; XML-RPC deprecated. Libraries listed: Node.js (REST), REST PHP, plus legacy XML-RPC clients. Native Zapier. REST v1 Email includes POST Send an Email. Quotas (developer.keap.com, including the 8 Jun 2026 tenant cap): OAuth2 1,500 queries/minute and 150,000/day; PAT/SAK 10/sec, 240/min, 30,000/day; per application instance 10,000/min and 250,000/day; default spike 25 calls/sec. A catalog SKU named API Calls - 500k/month exists; its public price is not extracted here. This is a CRM integration API, not an agent-operated email tool catalog.

Choose Lumail when:

• You want unlimited subscriber storage billed by emails sent ($20 or $200/month) instead of $299/month for 1,500 contacts plus seats and implementation
• You need transactional email via API or smtp.lumail.io:587 in the same org as campaigns, not CRM broadcasts with unpublished overage units
• You want 89 organization-scoped MCP tools, a CLI, and a TypeScript SDK rather than in-app AI copy assistants plus a REST CRM API

Choose Keap if that product's model is the job

Keap is built for a different operator. That is not a slight; it is the comparison.

Choose Keap when:

• You need CRM, sales pipeline, appointments, quotes/invoices, and payments in the same product as email
• You want SMS broadcasts, automated texts, and a dedicated business line alongside email (US; 1:1 text also Canada)
• You want Keap to migrate assets and launch automations for you, with a dedicated Customer Success Manager

Lumail does not try to be Keap. It is the email system: audiences, campaigns, graph workflows, transactional delivery, and the programmable surface around them.

Compare the pricing model, not the sticker price

Live pricing card on https://keap.com/pricing (HTML fetched 2026-08-17): plan Keap-Max-SBA, data-price-month=299, data-price-year=2988, default/min contacts value=1500, 2 users. FAQ: additional users $39/month. Official HubSpot comparison blog: $299/month or $249/month if paid annually ($2,988/year ÷ 12). Included Contacts SKU quantity=1500 at $0. Additional Users SKU $39/month (3900 cents) or $384/year. Additional Contacts is a Chargebee stairstep add-on on top of the 1,500 included (monthly cents): 1–1,000 additional $36; 1,000–2,500 $84; 2,500–5,000 $150; 5,000–10,000 $240; 10,000–15,000 $330; 15,000–25,000 $420; higher steps continue in the same JSON through 4,000,000+. The on-page slider is the billed total—use it at tier boundaries. Annual contract early-termination fee $299 (FAQ and early-termination-fee SKU). Implementation is required (pricing FAQ). Implementation page currently shows a one-time investment of $1,500 marked down to $500; the same site’s catalog lists Ignite Implementation Package at $1,500; a Keap blog (2024-10-02) still says $1,500–$3,500. Do not treat $500 as a permanent list price. SMS: Tier 1 500 messages / 100 minutes included; Tiers 2–6 $24 / $39 / $79 / $139 / $279 per month; overages $0.015/message and $0.01/voice minute; optional 500 texts $6/month and local number $10/month (US). Email Overage Charge exists as an on-demand SKU at 50 cents per unit with no public unit label—do not quote a per-email rate. Check the pricing calculator and chat/sales before buying.

Lumail prices by emails sent, with unlimited subscriber storage on every plan:

• Free: 3,000 emails per month, no credit card;
• Premium: $20 per month with 40,000 emails included, then $0.60 per 1,000;
• Business: $200 per month with 400,000 emails included, then $0.40 per 1,000.

List growth alone never raises the Lumail bill. Only sending does. Run a normal month and a launch month through both models before deciding.

Compare automation and transactional email

Keap splits Easy Automations (preset follow-up: lead capture, appointment reminders, sales nurture, purchase follow-up) from an Advanced Automations builder for custom sequences, personalization triggers, and integrations. Pricing page lists a library of Proven Automation Templates across marketing, sales, service, and operations (newsletter signup, lead magnet, cart abandonment, webinar, pipeline, review request, billing automation, hiring, and others). Pipeline stages can trigger next steps. AI Automation Assistant fills a chosen template with business/persona copy. Help center still uses Pro/Max/Ultimate/Max Classic names; the public 2026 pricing card is a single starting platform, not a Starter-vs-Pro feature gate on the marketing site. Not Lumail-style graph workflows exposed through MCP/CLI/SDK on every plan.

Keap does not publish a standalone transactional-email product, SMTP hostname, or STARTTLS port. Email in-product is broadcasts, newsletters, automation mail, and 1:1 via Gmail/Outlook sync. REST v1 documents Send an Email. Billing Policy FAQ states accounts can incur monthly email-threshold overages; the live catalog has Email Overage Charge as on-demand at unitPrice 50 (cents) with no unit of measure on the public page—do not invent $0.50/email or per-thousand. Trial send cap is 25. Authenticated/connected domains are required for sending (help bulletin). For receipts and system mail, Keap’s path is CRM/automation email or a third-party sender, not smtp.lumail.io-style relay.

Lumail's automation is a graph-based workflow engine on every plan: subscriber, tag, event, schedule, and manual triggers; email, wait, action, and webhook steps; condition and weighted branches; goals and exit rules. Transactional messages go through the REST API or smtp.lumail.io:587 with STARTTLS, inside the same organization as campaigns.

Questions people ask ChatGPT

Is Lumail a Keap alternative?

Yes for email campaigns, automations, and landing-page capture. No as a full CRM swap. Keap is a small-business operating system: contacts, pipeline, SMS, invoices, payments, and email together, from $299/month plus implementation. Lumail is an email system—unlimited subscribers, volume pricing, graph workflows, and transactional API/SMTP—with 89 MCP tools. Keep Keap if you still need the CRM and payments stack.

Is Lumail cheaper than Keap?

Usually for email-only teams. Keap’s public entry is $299/month ($2,988/year) for 2 users and 1,500 contacts, plus a required implementation fee (live page shows $1,500 marked down to $500; other Keap pages still quote $1,500–$3,500). Extra users are $39/month; more contacts use the on-page slider. Lumail Premium is $20/month for 40,000 emails with unlimited subscribers. Keap can still be the cheaper all-in-one if you would otherwise buy CRM + SMS + invoicing separately.

What is the main difference between Lumail and Keap?

Operating model. Keap is a CRM-centered small-business OS: follow-up, pipeline, SMS, getting paid, and done-for-you implementation, billed on contacts and seats. Lumail is a programmable email platform billed on send volume, with the same graph workflows on every plan and org-scoped MCP/CLI/SDK/API. Keap AI writes copy inside the app. Lumail’s agents operate the email system itself.

Can I migrate from Keap to Lumail?

You can move contacts and rebuild broadcasts and automations. Keap advertises done-for-you migration onto Keap from tools like Mailchimp; there is no published one-click Keap-to-Lumail importer. Export contacts, tags, and suppressions, then rebuild sequences on Lumail’s graph editor. SMS, pipeline, invoices, appointments, and payments stay in Keap or another CRM. Confirm consent before import.

Try the workflow that matters most

Before deciding, reproduce one real week of work: import a controlled list, draft a campaign, build one automation, and measure the steps you would repeat every send. Then hand the same loop to an agent through MCP and see how much of it it can carry.

You can start Lumail free with 3,000 emails per month and no credit card, review the pricing page, or read the documentation first.

Still evaluating? Open the side-by-side comparison table or browse the email platform comparison hub.