How is day3 different from Loops?

Mostly the meter. Loops prices by contacts stored, day3 by emails sent, so the two diverge as a list grows quiet. On scope, Loops leans further into event-driven lifecycle campaigns while day3 leans into broadcasts, segments and transactional on one allowance.

Is day3 cheaper than Loops?

For a large list you email occasionally, usually, because dormant contacts cost nothing. For a small list you email constantly, the gap closes and can reverse. Run your own numbers: contacts stored against emails actually sent.

Can I move my Loops contacts across?

Yes, by CSV or API, with properties mapped to custom fields and unsubscribes carried over as unsubscribes. Import your suppression list first so the guard is in place before the contacts arrive.

Does day3 do lifecycle automation?

Yes, as an early preview: triggers, waits and branches, enough for welcome series, onboarding and win-back. It is not a match for a mature event-driven automation builder, and we would rather say so here than after you have migrated.

All comparisons

day3 vs. Loops

A Loops alternative billed by sends, not contacts.

Loops is aimed at the same people day3 is, software teams who want email that does not feel like a marketing suite, and it prices by how many contacts you store.

	day3	Loops
Pricing model	By emails sent each month	By number of contacts stored
Subscriber limits	Unlimited on every plan	Tiered: more contacts cost more
Product scope	Product updates and transactional email, on purpose narrow	Marketing and transactional email for SaaS, with lifecycle loops
Cost of a quiet month	Nothing changes. The meter only moves when you send	The contact bill arrives either way
Best for	Teams with a big list they email occasionally	Teams leaning on event-driven lifecycle campaigns
Starting price	$1/mo for 1,000 emails	Free tier, then priced by contacts

Comparison reflects each product's pricing model and scope, not specific prices, because those change, so always check the latest on Loops's own site.

The core difference

There is less daylight here than on the other comparison pages, and pretending otherwise would be silly. Both tools are narrow on purpose and pleasant to use. The durable difference is the meter: Loops counts the contacts in your workspace, day3 counts the emails that leave it.

The same numbers, both ways

50,000 signed-up users, most of them dormant, emailed once a month with a changelog.

On day3

$14/mo

50,000 sends a month fits the 50,000-email plan. 50,000 subscribers costs nothing, on this plan or any other.

On Loops

Depends

A per-contact plan counts all 50,000 every month, dormant or not, because storage is the meter. We don't print their price here, because it changes and a stale figure would be worse than none. Check it on their own site and run these numbers through it.

Why teams move to day3

Dormant users are free

Most SaaS lists are mostly inactive. day3 does not bill for an address until you email it.

One allowance for everything

Campaigns and transactional sends share a plan and a domain, so there is one number to watch.

EU-only by default

Data stays in the EU on infrastructure we name publicly, with a DPA on offer and every sub-processor listed.

When Loops is the better choice

Stay with Loops if your email is genuinely event-driven and the lifecycle campaigns are the product: day3's automations are newer and narrower, and an early preview. Stay too if your list is small and active, because contact-based pricing is at its most reasonable exactly there. Loops is a good tool built by people who clearly care, and switching for the sake of switching would be a waste of a week.

Moving your list across

Five steps, in this order. The first one is the one people skip.

1

Bring your suppression list first

Push the addresses that bounced, complained, or asked never to be mailed again before you import a single contact. Do it in this order and day3 refuses those rows on the way in, which is the guard working rather than an error. Do it after and you have a window where a re-import can mail someone who already left.

2

Import the contacts

Export your Loops contacts to CSV with their properties, or pull them through the API, and import them into a day3 audience. Properties land as custom fields that register themselves as merge tags. day3 dedupes and skips anyone already suppressed.

3

Carry the opt-outs across as opt-outs

Contacts already marked unsubscribed import with that status and the date they left on, so your new tool honours a decision made in your old one. Nobody gets re-subscribed by a migration.

4

Verify the sending domain

Connect Cloudflare and day3 publishes DKIM, SPF and DMARC for you, then rechecks until the domain verifies. On another DNS host you get the records to paste. Authenticating the domain you already send from is what keeps your reputation intact through the move.

5

Send one real campaign to yourself

A test send goes to addresses you name, through the same pipeline and the same tracking as the real thing. Compare it against your old tool's output before you point the whole list at it.

What doesn't come across

Loops campaigns and the lifecycle loops built around your product events do not import. day3 has automations with triggers, waits and branches, and they are an early preview, so a heavily event-driven setup is a rebuild rather than a move. Check that the events you trigger on exist as day3 API events before you commit to the switch.

Questions

How is day3 different from Loops?: Mostly the meter. Loops prices by contacts stored, day3 by emails sent, so the two diverge as a list grows quiet. On scope, Loops leans further into event-driven lifecycle campaigns while day3 leans into broadcasts, segments and transactional on one allowance.
Is day3 cheaper than Loops?: For a large list you email occasionally, usually, because dormant contacts cost nothing. For a small list you email constantly, the gap closes and can reverse. Run your own numbers: contacts stored against emails actually sent.
Can I move my Loops contacts across?: Yes, by CSV or API, with properties mapped to custom fields and unsubscribes carried over as unsubscribes. Import your suppression list first so the guard is in place before the contacts arrive.
Does day3 do lifecycle automation?: Yes, as an early preview: triggers, waits and branches, enough for welcome series, onboarding and win-back. It is not a match for a mature event-driven automation builder, and we would rather say so here than after you have migrated.