Best Loops Alternative in 2026
Loops charges $49/month for 5,000 contacts and scales up from there. mailtani is €89 once: your own SES key, unlimited contacts, warmup, sequences, and no monthly bill.
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Key takeaway
Loops is a polished SaaS email tool with a clean API and product-triggered workflows. mailtani is a focused email platform built for founders and indie hackers who want to own their sending infrastructure and pay once.
- Pricing model: per-contact monthly vs mailtani's €89 one-time
- At 5k contacts: $49/month ($588/year) vs €89 total, forever
- Loops is SaaS-only and API-first; mailtani adds warmup, inbox rotation, and cold outreach
- mailtani suits bootstrappers and early-stage SaaS; Loops suits funded teams with engineering resources
Loops is a genuinely good product. The problem is the pricing model: every contact milestone is a larger monthly bill. At $49/month for 5k contacts, founders pay €588/year before their list meaningfully grows. Every user acquisition milestone triggers a pricing conversation.
- Monthly contact-based pricing — $49/mo at 5k contacts, scales steeply
- No bring-your-own SMTP at any tier
- No email warmup or inbox rotation tools
- SaaS-only focus — no cold outreach or broadcast-first workflows
- Limited workflow logic — no visual automation builder or conditional branching
Loops vs mailtani: At a Glance
| Features | Loops | mailtani |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Monthly per contact | One-time €89 |
| Starter plan | $49/mo (5k contacts) | €89 one-time (unlimited) |
| At 25k contacts | $99–$149/mo | €89 one-time |
| At 50k contacts | $249+/mo | €89 one-time |
| Bring your own SMTP | No | Yes (SES, Resend, any SMTP) |
| Email warmup | No | Yes |
| Inbox rotation | No | Yes |
| Cold outreach sequences | No (SaaS triggers only) | Yes |
What Is Loops?
A clean SaaS email tool — but contact-based pricing that keeps growing every month.
Loops launched in 2022 targeting a clear niche: SaaS companies that need product-triggered email without the complexity of a full marketing automation platform. The API is clean, React Email support makes developer onboarding straightforward, and the product-focused positioning resonated with a technical audience tired of Mailchimp's generalist bloat. For funded SaaS teams with engineers who will wire up the integration properly, it is a genuinely solid choice.
The constraint is the pricing model. Loops charges monthly per contact: $49/month for up to 5,000 contacts, scaling to $99-$249/month for 25,000 contacts and $399/month for larger lists. For a bootstrapped founder with 3,000 users, that is $588 in year one just to run onboarding emails. Every user acquisition milestone becomes a billing event instead of a pure win.
What Is mailtani?
A one-time purchase email platform for founders, indie hackers, and small SaaS teams.
Loops also does not offer bring-your-own SMTP at any tier. Your transactional and marketing emails go through Loops's shared sending infrastructure. For founders who care about deliverability — particularly for critical onboarding sequences — there is no way to isolate your sending reputation or build your own IP history. Warmup and inbox rotation tooling do not exist in the product.
mailtani takes the opposite approach: connect your own AWS SES or Resend account, pay €89 once, and send from your own dedicated infrastructure. Warmup and inbox rotation are included. Costs stay flat no matter how many contacts you add. For early-stage founders who want SaaS-ready email sequences without another growing monthly bill, mailtani changes the economics entirely.
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Why Users Switch from Loops
The common reasons teams move on.
- Every user milestone triggers a larger bill: Loops pricing is contact-based. The moment your SaaS crosses a contact tier, your monthly cost steps up. For bootstrapped founders, that means every successful growth month also increases your overhead. There is no ceiling.
- No bring-your-own SMTP at any tier: Loops sends through its own shared infrastructure regardless of plan. You cannot connect AWS SES or Resend. Your deliverability depends on Loops's IP reputation, which you share with every other Loops customer — with no way to isolate yourself.
- No warmup or inbox rotation tools: If your domain has a sending reputation problem, Loops gives you no tooling to address it. There is no warmup feature, no inbox rotation, and no deliverability diagnostics beyond basic bounce tracking.
- Limited for non-SaaS workflows: Loops is built around product-triggered emails. If you want broadcast campaigns to a cold list, multi-step outreach sequences, or anything outside the SaaS onboarding model, the platform starts to feel like the wrong tool.
- Automation logic is shallow: Loops does not have a visual workflow builder with conditional branching or fallback logic. Reviews consistently flag this as a ceiling hit by teams who need more than simple trigger-then-send flows.
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Loops vs mailtani: Pricing
Loops charges more as your list grows. mailtani charges once, regardless of list size.
| Plan / Scenario | Loops | mailtani |
|---|---|---|
| Starter (up to 5k contacts) | $49/mo (€588/yr) | €89 one-time |
| Growth (up to 25k contacts) | $99–$149/mo | €89 one-time |
| Scale (larger lists) | $399/mo | €89 one-time |
| Bring your own SMTP | Not available | Included |
| Year 1 cost (5k contacts) | $588 | €89 |
Prefer a lower start? Try the Yearly plan from €79/year — 14-day free trial included.
14-day free trial
Loops vs mailtani: Feature Breakdown
See all mailtani features →| Feature | Loops | mailtani |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited contacts | ||
| One-time payment, no subscription | ||
| Bring your own SMTP (SES, Resend) | ||
| Email warmup | ||
| Inbox rotation | ||
| Full deliverability control (own IPs) | ||
| Cold outreach sequences | ||
| Email sequences / drip campaigns | ||
| Broadcast campaigns | ||
| API-triggered emails | ||
| Contact tagging and segmentation | ||
| Open and click tracking | ||
| Unsubscribe handling | ||
| CSV contact import / export | ||
| Signup forms | ||
| Transactional email sending | ||
| React Email template support | ||
| Visual workflow / automation builder | ✓ limited logic | |
| Built-in lead database | ||
| CRM integration (native) | ✓ HubSpot, Segment | |
| Free ongoing plan | ✓ 1k contacts / 4k sends |
What You Get With mailtani
The features founders and indie hackers actually use — on your own infrastructure, for a one-time payment.
Bring Your Own SMTP
Connect your own AWS SES, Resend, or Mailtrap account and send at infrastructure cost. Your sending reputation is entirely yours — not pooled with other users on shared IPs.
Email Warmup
Automatically ramps up your sending volume over 3–6 weeks, building genuine sender reputation with Gmail and Outlook. Set it once — mailtani handles the daily schedule without a separate tool.
Inbox Rotation
Distribute sends across multiple inboxes automatically to protect deliverability and scale volume without burning a single sending address. No manual scheduling required.
Sequences and Drip Campaigns
Build multi-step email sequences with conditions, delays, and branching logic. Welcome flows, onboarding drips, and re-engagement campaigns all run on the same builder.
One-Time Flat Pricing
Pay €89 once. No monthly fees, no per-contact tiers, no price increases as your list grows. Whether you have 500 or 500,000 subscribers, the cost is the same: done.
Full Deliverability Control
Sending reputation, IP addresses, authentication records, and SMTP credentials all belong to you. Diagnose and fix deliverability issues directly rather than waiting on platform support.
14-day free trial
Loops vs mailtani: Pros & Cons
Loops
Pros
- Clean SaaS-focused product with a fast onboarding experience
- React Email template support — great for developer teams
- Native transactional email sending included on all plans
- Free plan available (1,000 contacts, 4,000 sends/month)
- Native integrations with HubSpot and Segment
Cons
- Contact-based pricing: $49/month at 5k contacts, scales to $399/month
- No bring-your-own SMTP at any tier
- No email warmup or inbox rotation tools
- No cold outreach sequences — SaaS triggers only
- Limited automation logic with no visual workflow builder
mailtani
Pros
- One-time €89 payment: no recurring fees regardless of contact count
- Bring your own AWS SES, Resend, or any SMTP key (~€0.10/1,000 emails)
- Built-in email warmup and inbox rotation included
- Cold outreach sequences alongside product-triggered email
- Full deliverability control on your own dedicated infrastructure
Cons
- No native transactional email API: for real-time system emails (password resets, receipts) triggered by application events, you would pair mailtani with SES or Resend directly
- No React Email template support: mailtani uses its own editor; developer-authored React components are not supported
- No native CRM integrations: Loops connects natively to HubSpot and Segment; mailtani connects via SMTP and API
- No free ongoing plan: Loops has a free tier (1k contacts / 4k sends/month); mailtani offers a 14-day trial
- Shallower visual workflow builder: mailtani sequences are powerful but not a full visual automation canvas
Who Should Use Loops vs mailtani?
What each product is built for and who it suits.
Optimised for funded SaaS teams with engineering resources.
Choose Loops if...
- Your SaaS has engineering resources to build tight API integrations
- You use React Email and want native template support
- You need fully automated transactional email triggered by your product in real time
- You have a funded runway and predictable monthly costs are acceptable
Optimised for bootstrapped founders and early-stage SaaS teams.
Choose mailtani if...
- You are a bootstrapped founder or indie hacker watching every recurring cost
- Your Loops bill grows every time your contact count does
- You want warmup and inbox rotation that Loops does not offer
- You want cold outreach sequences alongside product-triggered sends
- You want to own your sending infrastructure with your own SES key
14-day free trial
See How mailtani Compares
Loops vs the Competition
What You Get with mailtani
How Founders Use mailtani
Ready to Switch from Loops?
14-day free trial. No charge until the trial ends — cancel anytime. Connect your SES key and send your first campaign today.
€89 lifetime No monthly fees