MailPoet vs Newsletter

MailPoet and Newsletter are both WordPress plugins for building a subscriber list and sending campaigns straight from the WordPress dashboard, but they solve the delivery problem in opposite ways. MailPoet runs its own sending infrastructure, so a site can compose and dispatch newsletters without ever connecting to an outside email service. Newsletter, built by Stefano Lissa, instead works as the list-management and campaign-composing layer, then hands the actual sending off to a third-party service you choose yourself, such as Brevo, Amazon SES, or SendGrid.

That architectural split shapes what each plugin optimizes for. MailPoet bundles deliverability tooling and WooCommerce-specific triggers, like abandoned-cart and first-purchase emails, directly into its free plan because it already controls the sending pipe end to end. Newsletter instead puts its effort into the list-building and block-based composing experience, then lets you plug in whichever outbound service already handles mail for the rest of your stack. In practice, a fresh MailPoet install can send its first newsletter with zero extra setup, while a fresh Newsletter install needs an ESP account connected before it can send at any real scale.

Quick verdict: Choose MailPoet if you want to send newsletters and WooCommerce automation emails without setting up a separate delivery service. Choose Newsletter if you already have, or want the freedom to pick, a third-party ESP account and prefer a flexible, block-based campaign composer sitting on top of it.

MailPoet vs Newsletter at a glance

Numbers above are StatWP's own estimates, derived from WordPress.org's bucketed reporting rather than an exact figure the directory publishes, and update automatically rather than reflecting a fixed snapshot.

Feature and starting price at a glance

Because Newsletter's delivery goes through whichever ESP you connect, its real-world sending cap is set by that third party's own free tier rather than by the plugin itself — while MailPoet's free-plan ceiling of 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails a month, by MailPoet's own account, is fixed by MailPoet regardless of any other service you might otherwise be using.

What does MailPoet actually do?

MailPoet's own site frames the plugin around sending mail directly from WordPress rather than integrating with an outside email tool. Its published feature set includes:

• “WordPress Newsletters,” “Latest Post Notifications,” and “Welcome Emails,” each built from customizable templates.

• Subscriber capture through on-site signup forms, with list segmentation and native integration with WordPress users and WooCommerce customer records.

• WooCommerce-specific automation: abandoned-cart emails, first-purchase notifications, and messaging triggered by product or category.

• A dedicated sending infrastructure that, per MailPoet's own figures, moves “30+ million emails each month” with an explicit focus on inbox placement.

• A drag-and-drop template builder with pre-designed layouts aimed at no-code use.

Taken together, MailPoet positions itself as a self-contained email tool: list, design, automation, and delivery all inside one plugin.

What does Newsletter actually do?

Newsletter's own site frames the plugin around building and composing campaigns, then letting you choose how they actually go out. Its published feature set includes:

• An “easy forms creation tool” for placing subscription forms anywhere on a site, with automatic sorting of new subscribers into targeted lists.

• A drag-and-drop “newsletter composer” built from more than 25 content blocks, supporting images, GIFs, blog posts, WooCommerce products, and YouTube videos.

• Scheduling for recurring newsletters (daily, weekly, or monthly) plus autoresponder email series.

• “Indepth stats of opens, clicks and other metrics,” along with retargeting options built on that engagement data.

• Native support for connecting a long list of third-party delivery services, including SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, Brevo, Mailjet, ElasticEmail, SparkPost, SMTP2Go, Resend, Postmark, SendPulse, SMTP.com, and Mailersend.

Taken together, Newsletter positions itself as a composing-and-list layer that stays deliberately agnostic about which service actually sends the mail.

What features does each one have that the other doesn't?

MailPoet's standout is that it needs nothing else to send mail: its own infrastructure, WooCommerce-triggered automation (abandoned cart, first purchase, product-based sends), and deliverability tooling all live inside the one plugin, so a store can go from install to a live abandoned-cart email without touching a third settings screen.

Newsletter's standout is the breadth of delivery services it can plug into, more than a dozen ESPs and SMTP providers, plus a composer built from over 25 distinct content-block types. That combination suits a site that already has an ESP relationship it wants to keep, or wants the design flexibility of a block-based editor rather than a fixed template set.

Which should you actually use?

If the job is sending WooCommerce order-triggered emails or a blog's newsletter without configuring a separate mail service, MailPoet is the more direct route: its free plan already includes sending, list segmentation, and store automation. If the job instead involves working around an existing ESP account, a marketing team's preferred sending provider, or a need for granular content blocks like embedded video and product grids, Newsletter's composer-plus-connector approach fits better. Sites that outgrow MailPoet's free sending cap, or that already pay for SES or Brevo for transactional mail elsewhere, tend to be the ones that lean toward Newsletter instead.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between MailPoet and Newsletter?

MailPoet sends email through its own built-in infrastructure, so a WordPress site can compose and deliver newsletters without any outside service. Newsletter instead manages subscribers and builds campaigns, then hands delivery off to a third-party ESP or SMTP service that you connect separately.

Is Newsletter better than MailPoet?

Neither is strictly better; they fit different setups. Newsletter is the stronger fit if you already use, or want a choice of, a third-party delivery service and prefer a block-based composer, while MailPoet is the stronger fit if you want sending and WooCommerce automation handled inside one plugin with no other account required.

Does MailPoet require WooCommerce to be useful?

No. MailPoet works as a standalone newsletter and signup-form tool on any WordPress site, and its post-notification and welcome-email features don't depend on WooCommerce at all. The WooCommerce-specific automation, like abandoned-cart emails, only activates when WooCommerce is installed alongside it.

Can Newsletter send emails without connecting a third-party service?

Newsletter can technically send through a site's default PHP mail setup, but that path is unreliable for anything beyond small volumes and is not how the plugin is meant to be used at scale. For real deliverability, Newsletter is designed to be paired with one of its supported ESPs, such as Brevo, Amazon SES, or SendGrid.

Is MailPoet free to use?

Yes. MailPoet's free plan, according to its own site, covers up to 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails per month, which is enough for a small blog or store to run a basic newsletter and automated WooCommerce emails before any upgrade is needed.

Which plugin integrates more deeply with WooCommerce?

MailPoet has the deeper native integration, with abandoned-cart, first-purchase, and product-based automation built directly into the plugin. Newsletter can pull WooCommerce products into a campaign as a content block, but equivalent automation typically requires a separate extension.

For the underlying numbers behind this comparison, see StatWP's MailPoet page and StatWP's Newsletter page. To compare either plugin against others in the email space, try StatWP's compare tool.