Loops review: pricing by contact count, features and verdict (2026)
Loops is a product email tool for software companies that has been shelved in a newsletter category, and the price step from free to paid is the steepest here. Our check of loops.so on 15 June 2026 recorded a free plan to 1,000 contacts with 4,000 sends a month, then Starter at $49 a month for 5,000 contacts. That evidence is four months old.
The short answer
Buy Loops Buy Loops Starter if you run a software product and want marketing, product and transactional email from one place. Starter was $49 a month for up to 5,000 contacts with unlimited sends when we checked loops.so on 15 June 2026, which is $588 across a year, and every paid tier carried the full feature set.
Skip it if you are writing a newsletter. There are no growth tools, no paid subscriptions and no publishing layer, and MailerLite at $12 a month on Comfort, verified 1 October 2026, or Buttondown at $9 a month on Basic, verified 13 June 2026, will do the newsletter job for a fraction of $49.
Where Loops fits
Loops is built for a software company that is tired of running one tool for marketing email and another for password resets. Marketing campaigns, event-triggered sequences and transactional messages live in the same place, trigger off the same product events, and are billed on one contact count. That is a real problem solved, and it is not a newsletter problem.
The meter is contacts, not sends. Our 15 June 2026 check of loops.so recorded a free plan for up to 1,000 contacts with 4,000 sends a month and Loops branding on the emails, then Starter at $49 a month for up to 5,000 contacts with unlimited sends, then a Growth tier described as scaling with contacts, then Enterprise quoted for 100,000 contacts and above.
The step from free to paid is the sharpest thing on the rate card. There is nothing between $0 and $49 a month, so a project with 1,200 contacts pays the 5,000-contact price. Spread across a full band, $49 for 5,000 contacts is about a cent per contact a month, which is reasonable; spread across 1,200 it is four times that.
We cannot tell you what Growth costs. Our check recorded the tier as scaling with contacts and recorded no figure for any band, and we are not going to estimate one. If your contact count is heading past 5,000, the price you will pay is a number only Loops can give you, and that is worth knowing before you build against the API.
The free plan is metered twice, like most free tiers here. One thousand contacts and 4,000 sends a month means four sends to a full list, which is 4,000 divided by 1,000, and transactional messages come out of the same allowance. For a pre-launch product that is workable; for anything with a weekly email and onboarding sequences it is not.
Against the newsletter tools in this category Loops is expensive for what a writer needs. Buttondown was $9 a month on Basic for up to 1,000 subscribers, verified 13 June 2026, two days before our Loops check. MailerLite was $12 a month on Comfort and Kit was $33 a month on Creator, both verified 1 October 2026. Mailchimp was $13 a month on Essentials, verified 10 June 2026.
This pricing was last verified on 15 June 2026, four months before this review, and Loops is a young company with an unpublished middle tier, which is the combination most likely to have moved. Read the current page before committing. The newsletter platforms category holds the alternatives with their own check dates.
Loops pricing
Loops prices by contact count and does not gate features between paid tiers. The figures below come from our check of loops.so on 15 June 2026 and have not been re-verified since, so confirm them before you buy, and note that one of the four tiers carried no published figure at all.
| Plan | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 1,000 contacts, 4,000 sends a month, Loops branding on emails |
| Starter | $49/mo | 5,000 contacts, unlimited sends, the full feature set |
| Growth | Scales with contacts | Higher contact bands. Our check recorded no figure for any band |
| Enterprise | Custom | Quoted. 100,000 contacts and above, dedicated support |
One meter runs here, contacts, and two of the four tiers are unpriced. Four things set what you pay:
- Contact count, which is the only meter. Our 15 June 2026 check recorded 1,000 contacts free and 5,000 on Starter at $49 a month, with higher bands on Growth at a price we do not hold.
- Where you sit inside a band. Starter covers up to 5,000 contacts for a flat $49 a month, so the cost per contact falls across the band and a 1,200-contact list pays the same as a 4,900-contact one.
- Sends, but only on the free plan. Free was capped at 4,000 sends a month on our check and every paid tier carried unlimited sends, so send volume stops mattering the moment you pay.
- Whether transactional email replaces a second tool. Our check recorded transactional sends as included and unlimited on paid plans, which is the whole argument for the $49 rather than a cheaper marketing-only tool.
Loops pricing against the newsletter platforms
Judged as a newsletter tool, Loops is the dearest entry price in this category. Buttondown was $9 a month on Basic for 1,000 subscribers, verified 13 June 2026. Moosend was $9 a month for 500 subscribers, verified 13 June 2026. MailerLite was $12 a month on Comfort, verified 1 October 2026. Mailchimp was $13 a month on Essentials, verified 10 June 2026, and $20 on Standard. Judged as a product-email tool the comparison is different and this category does not contain the right rivals for it, which is the fairest thing we can say.
Loops billing terms worth knowing
The unpriced middle tier is the term that should shape your decision, because it is where a growing product ends up.
- Free plan
- 1,000 contacts and 4,000 sends a month with Loops branding, as recorded on 15 June 2026.
- Starter
- $49 per month for up to 5,000 contacts with unlimited sends. $588 across a year.
- Growth
- Scales with contacts. Our 15 June 2026 check recorded no figure, so we publish none.
- Enterprise
- Custom quote for 100,000 contacts and above.
- Feature gates
- None recorded between paid tiers. Marketing, product and transactional email on every paid plan.
- Free send cap
- 4,000 sends against 1,000 contacts is four full-list sends a month, transactional included.
- Check date
- 15 June 2026. Not re-verified since, so confirm before buying.
Loops uses simple, contact-based pricing. The free plan covers up to 1,000 contacts with 4,000 sends per month. Paid plans start at $49/month for up to 5,000 contacts with unlimited sends. Every paid tier includes the full feature set (marketing, transactional, and product emails) with no feature gates between plans. Enterprise pricing is custom for 100,000+ contacts.
These figures are four months old and two of the four tiers had no price on them even then. If the current page differs, the current page is right. The Loops pricing breakdown carries the longer version, and our creator tool cost calculators will total a year of email once you know your contact count.
What Loops gives up
You give up everything a newsletter business needs. No referral programme, no recommendation network, no paid subscriptions and no public archive, so there is no path here from a list to revenue. Beehiiv at $43 a month on Scale, verified 1 October 2026, exists precisely for that path.
Automation logic is shallower than the event model suggests. Triggering off product events is well handled and complex branching, conditional waits and multi-step logic are not, so a workflow that needs to ask three questions about a contact will need rethinking rather than building.
Reporting is thin. You get sends, opens and clicks rather than revenue attribution or cohort analysis, which is a strange gap in a tool sold to product teams who measure everything else.
The integration list is short. Our product notes record a handful of native connections and Zapier or Make for the rest, so a stack with anything unusual in it means middleware, and middleware is another subscription and another failure point.
The step from free to Starter is the harshest in this category. Going from $0 to $49 a month with nothing in between, on our 15 June 2026 check, means a project at 1,100 contacts pays as if it had 5,000, and there is no cheaper tier to grow into.
The Growth tier has no published price, which is a cost of its own. You can plan a budget to 5,000 contacts and you cannot plan one beyond it, and finding out means a sales conversation after you have already built against the API.
Our pricing evidence is from 15 June 2026, which is the weakest part of this page. Four months is long enough for a young company to reprice, rename a tier or put a figure on Growth, and we would rather date the evidence than present it as current.
How Loops compares
The three tools below are the ones a reader comparing Loops in this category will weigh against it, and the axis is product email against newsletter publishing. Prices are each vendor's own published rates with the date we checked them, and those dates differ by up to four months. The rest of the field sits in the newsletter platforms category.
| Tool | Best for | Price | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loops | Software products wanting marketing and transactional email in one place | Free to 1,000 contacts, $49/mo Starter for 5,000 (June 2026) | No newsletter growth or monetisation; Growth tier unpriced |
| Buttondown | Writing and sending a newsletter cheaply | Free to 100 subs, $9/mo Basic (June 2026) | No product or event-driven email |
| MailerLite | General marketing email on a small budget | Free, $12/mo Comfort (Oct 2026) | Not built for transactional sending |
| Kit (formerly ConvertKit) | Creators who need automation and a network | Free, $33/mo Creator (Oct 2026) | Creator-shaped rather than product-shaped |
What to test on the Loops free plan
The free tier gave 1,000 contacts and 4,000 sends a month with Loops branding on our 15 June 2026 check. Confirm both numbers first, because they are four months old and the send cap is the one that bites.
- Check the current rate card on loops.so, and ask what Growth costs at your expected contact count. Our figures are from 15 June 2026 and Growth had no published price even then, so this is the step to take before any build work.
- Wire one real product event through to one real email. The event model is the reason to choose Loops, and it either fits your codebase in an afternoon or it does not.
- Send a transactional message and a campaign on the same day and watch both land. Keeping them in one tool is the saving, so confirm the transactional path is not queued behind marketing.
- Count your sends against the 4,000 free cap, transactional included. Four full-list sends a month at 1,000 contacts is the ceiling, and onboarding sequences eat it faster than campaigns do.
- Work out where your contact count will be in a year. If it passes 5,000 you are heading into an unpriced tier, and that is a question for Loops rather than for this page.
- Try to build the most awkward automation you need. Branching logic is the known weak point, so test the hard one rather than the easy one.
- If your real need is a newsletter rather than product email, price the alternatives instead. Buttondown at $9 a month on Basic, verified 13 June 2026, and MailerLite at $12 a month on Comfort, verified 1 October 2026, are the honest comparisons, and the cost calculators will total the year.
Loops questions buyers ask
How much does Loops cost per month?
Loops offers a free plan for up to 1,000 contacts with 4,000 sends per month. Paid plans start at $49/month for up to 5,000 contacts with unlimited sends. Pricing scales based on your contact count, with all paid tiers including the full feature set. Enterprise pricing is custom for 100,000+ contacts.
Does Loops have a free plan?
Yes. The free plan supports up to 1,000 contacts and 4,000 email sends per month. You get access to campaigns, automated loops, transactional email, and the API. The only limitations are the contact and send caps, plus a small 'Powered by Loops' footer on your emails.
Who is Loops best for?
Loops is built specifically for SaaS companies. It's ideal for founders and product teams who need to send onboarding sequences, product updates, and transactional emails (password resets, receipts, notifications) from one platform. It's not a good fit for newsletter creators, bloggers, or e-commerce: those use cases are better served by Beehiiv, Kit, or Substack.
Loops vs Beehiiv: which is better?
They serve different audiences. Loops is built for SaaS teams sending event-triggered and transactional emails. Beehiiv is built for newsletter creators who want growth tools, monetization (paid subscriptions, ads), and subscriber referral programs. If you're building a software product, choose Loops. If you're building a newsletter as a business, choose Beehiiv.
Does Loops handle transactional email?
Yes: this is one of its strongest features. Loops handles marketing, product, and transactional emails in the same platform. Transactional sends (password resets, receipts, notifications) are free and unlimited on all paid plans. You trigger them via API, and they send immediately without going through marketing queues.
What does Loops integrate with?
Loops has native integrations with Stripe, Segment, Clerk, and Census. For other tools, you connect through Zapier or Make. The API supports custom integrations for pushing events, syncing contacts, and triggering transactional emails. The integration list is smaller than established tools like Kit or MailerLite, but covers the core SaaS stack.
Is Loops good for newsletters?
Loops can send newsletters (it calls them 'Campaigns'), but it's not designed for newsletter-first businesses. There are no subscriber growth tools, no referral programs, no paid subscription features, and no content publishing capabilities. If newsletters are your primary use case, Beehiiv, Substack, or Kit will serve you much better.
Can teams collaborate in Loops?
Yes. You can invite team members to your Loops workspace, and everyone gets access to campaigns, automated flows, and contacts. However, there are no role-based permissions or approval workflows on standard plans. Any team member can edit and send. Enterprise plans offer more granular access controls.
Is Loops worth it compared to Mailchimp plus SendGrid?
For SaaS teams, often yes, but do the sum with real figures rather than ranges. Our check of Loops on 15 June 2026 recorded Starter at $49 a month for up to 5,000 contacts with unlimited sends, marketing and transactional email included. Mailchimp, checked separately on 10 June 2026, recorded Essentials at $13 a month and Standard at $20 at the entry contact band, and that covers marketing email only, so you would still be paying a transactional provider on top. We hold no verified price for SendGrid and are not going to estimate one. The saving from Loops comes from consolidation rather than from a cheaper rate card. If you only need marketing email and send nothing transactional, MailerLite at $12 a month on Comfort, verified 1 October 2026, is the cheaper tool.
Can I cancel Loops anytime?
Yes. Loops is month-to-month with no contracts or cancellation fees. You can downgrade to the free plan at any time. Your data stays accessible on the free plan as long as you're under 1,000 contacts. If you're over the free plan limit, you'll need to export your data before downgrading.