Both run inside WordPress and both send newsletters. The difference is in the limits: MailPoet's free plan is built around its own sending service and a subscriber cap, while Postalion is free without limits and sends through your site. Here is how they compare, including where MailPoet is the better pick.
At a glance
| Postalion (free) | MailPoet (free plan) | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscribers | No limit | Up to 500, per MailPoet's knowledge base |
| Sending | Through your site: WordPress mail or any SMTP service (Brevo, Amazon SES, Mailgun, Postmark…) | MailPoet's own sending service, with an account and monthly caps |
| Account with the vendor | None | A MailPoet account and key |
| Their logo in your emails | Never | On the free plan |
| Forms, popup, form under posts, page builders | Yes | Forms and popups |
| Spam protection on sign-ups | Trap field, rate limit, throwaway domains, Akismet, Cloudflare Turnstile | Built-in CAPTCHA options |
| Templates | Twelve, plus the Pro drag-and-drop builder | Many, with a drag-and-drop editor |
| Behaviour segments, automations with branches, WooCommerce emails | Pro, from $59 a year (one site) | Paid plans |
| Import | From MailPoet in one click, with lists and statuses | CSV, Mailchimp |
What Postalion gives you without paying
- No caps: subscribers, newsletters and emails are unlimited. You pay only your mail service, if you use one, and many have free tiers.
- Nothing leaves your site except the emails you send: no account, no tracking by us, statistics counted on your own server and off until you turn them on.
- Lists, tags and custom fields; double opt-in; a preferences page; one-click unsubscribe; the reason people leave; a 30-day chart of who joined and who left.
- Welcome email, new-post emails, weekly or monthly digests by category, resend to the people who did not open.
- Sign-up forms as a block, a shortcode, a popup (centred or in a corner, after a delay, on scroll or on exit), under every post, and in Elementor, Beaver Builder, Bricks, Divi, Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Formidable, Forminator and WooCommerce.
Where MailPoet is the better choice
- You want sending handled for you. MailPoet's service takes care of delivery and reputation; with Postalion you pick an SMTP service once (it takes ten minutes, and our sending guide walks you through it).
- You want a visual editor without paying. MailPoet's free editor is drag-and-drop; Postalion's free composer is a text editor with email blocks, and the drag-and-drop builder is part of Pro.
- You are deep in WooCommerce and Automattic's tools. MailPoet belongs to the same family as WooCommerce.
Moving over
With MailPoet still active, install Postalion and open Settings → Import from MailPoet: subscribers come over with names, lists, statuses and sign-up dates, and nothing in MailPoet is changed. The full checklist is on Switching from MailPoet.
Postalion is not affiliated with MailPoet. MailPoet is a trademark of its owner. MailPoet's free-plan limits are as described in its knowledge base in October 2026; plans change, so check their site before deciding.