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Most email tools bill you for your list. day3 bills you for sends.
We think that's the fairer model for a small software team with a growing list. Here's an honest, model-level comparison with the tools you're probably weighing.
Two meters, and the one number that picks between them
Almost every email tool meters one of two things: how many people are on your list, or how many emails you send them. Which is cheaper for you is not a matter of taste. Divide your monthly sends by your subscriber count and you have the answer.
Below roughly one, meaning you don't email everyone every month, a send-based meter is cheaper and the gap widens as the list grows. Above roughly one, meaning a weekly or daily letter to a modest list, a per-subscriber plan can genuinely cost less. Software teams usually land well below one, because lists compound and release cadence doesn't.
That is the whole argument, and it is worked out properly in the pricing-model guide, including the cases where day3 is the wrong choice.
How we write these comparisons
Every page here compares pricing models and product scope, never a competitor's specific prices or feature counts. Those change without telling us, and a stale number on our site reads as a lie rather than as an oversight. The model is the durable thing, and it is the actual decision anyway.
Each page also carries a section saying when to stay where you are. Those are written to be used, not as a rhetorical move: if you need automation flows, a markdown-first writing surface, or a newsletter you can monetise, day3 does not have those and the page will tell you so.
See how the math works for your list.
Related reading
- How send-based pricing worksWhat counts as a send, what happens at the monthly cap, and why list size never moves the bill.Read on
- Per-subscriber vs per-send email pricing, worked outAlmost every email tool meters one of two things: how many people are on your list, or how many emails you send them. Which is cheaper is not a matter of opinion, and you can work it out with one division.Read on
- How to migrate an email list without wrecking your deliverabilityMoving providers is mostly a data-import problem with one deliverability trap in it. Get the order right and mailbox providers barely notice. Get it wrong and you can undo years of reputation in one send.Read on
- PricingNine plans from $1/mo for 1,000 emails to $220/mo for 1,000,000. Unlimited subscribers on all of them.Read on
- StartupsYou add subscribers quickly and send sparingly. day3 bills by send, not list size, so a fast-growing list never inflates the bill.Read on
- All featuresEverything day3 does, and the things it deliberately doesn't.Read on