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Email Marketing · head to head

Keila vs Moosend

Keila logo

Keila

Email Marketing

AGPL newsletter tool from Germany, self-hostable or hosted in the EU with no free plan

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Moosend logo

Moosend

Email Marketing

Low-cost email marketing from 9 US dollars a month, owned by Sitecore since 2021

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Keila has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Keila there is no free hosted plan at all, stated as deliberate policy, so unlike almost every competitor there is no way to run a small list at zero cost without self-hosting it yourself.; Moosend there is no free forever plan, only a 30-day trial, so a very small list that would sit inside Mailchimp or MailerLite free tiers has to start paying immediately.
  • They diverge on capability: Keila covers Priced by emails sent, Moosend covers All features at every tier.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Keila and Moosend actually diverge.

Attributes where Keila and Moosend differ
AttributeKeilaMoosend
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelPer month by emails sentPer month by contact count
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Linux, Self-hostedWeb, API

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Email Marketing).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Keila

  • Priced by emails sent
  • Bring your own sender
  • Self-hosting
  • EU hosting
  • Sign-up forms
  • Markdown and block editor
  • Multiple projects
  • Discounts

Only in Moosend

  • All features at every tier
  • Automation workflows
  • Drag-and-drop email builder
  • Landing pages and forms
  • SMTP relay
  • Credit model
  • Ecommerce tracking
  • A/B testing

Both cover

  • Segmentation

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Keila

  • A membership organisation holding forty thousand contacts but sending only one newsletter a month, where contact-metered pricing would cost many times morenot Moosend
  • A European publisher or public body that needs subscriber data held in the EU under a GDPR-friendly arrangementnot Moosend
  • A technical team that wants to self-host its newsletter tool and route sending through its existing AWS SES accountnot Moosend
  • An agency running several separate client lists that does not want to pay per project or per additional listnot Moosend

Moosend

  • A small ecommerce store that wants abandoned cart automation without paying for a tier upgrade to unlock itnot Keila
  • A charity or seasonal business that sends heavily twice a year and would waste a monthly subscription, using the credit packs insteadnot Keila
  • An agency managing several small client lists that needs automation on every account without per-account tier jumpsnot Keila
  • A business moving off Mailchimp purely on cost that still needs landing pages and a working automation buildernot Keila

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Keila

  • There is no free hosted plan at all, stated as deliberate policy, so unlike almost every competitor there is no way to run a small list at zero cost without self-hosting it yourself.
  • Marketing automation is minimal, with none of the behavioural triggers, journey builders or e-commerce revenue attribution that Klaviyo, Brevo and Mailchimp treat as table stakes.
  • The self-hosted route puts deliverability entirely on you: reputation, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, warm-up and bounce handling are your problem, and a badly configured instance will land in spam folders.
  • It is a small project from a small company, so the integration ecosystem is thin and there is no partner network, template marketplace or large body of community expertise to draw on.
  • Email volume tiers step in fixed blocks, so an organisation whose sending is uneven across the year either overbuys at the annual peak or has to change plan repeatedly.

Moosend

  • There is no free forever plan, only a 30-day trial, so a very small list that would sit inside Mailchimp or MailerLite free tiers has to start paying immediately.
  • Sitecore acquired Moosend in 2021 and Moosend is a low-price product inside an enterprise digital experience vendor, so it competes for investment against products with far higher deal values.
  • The prices for higher contact tiers are not shown as a table; you must select your contact count to reveal a figure, which makes comparing the cost curve against competitors tedious.
  • The integration catalogue is small compared with Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign, and deep ecommerce features such as predictive segmentation and advanced product recommendations are shallow by comparison.
  • Deliverability on shared infrastructure at the entry tier is adequate rather than good, and dedicated IP access sits in the quoted Enterprise tier, which matters if you send high volume to cold-ish lists.

Pricing, plan by plan

Keila

Free
  • Self-hostedFree
    • AGPL-3.0-or-later licence with no fee
    • Official Docker image and sample compose file
    • You supply hosting and a sending backend
  • Keila XS$8/month
    • Two thousand emails per month
    • Unlimited contacts and projects
    • Send with Keila or bring your own email server
  • Keila M$32/month
    • Fifteen thousand emails per month
    • Unlimited contacts and projects
    • Sign-up forms and segmentation
  • Keila XXL$256/month
    • Two hundred and fifty thousand emails per month
    • Unlimited contacts and projects
    • Intermediate tiers at 16, 64 and 128 EUR for 5,000, 50,000 and 100,000 emails

Moosend

On request
  • Pro$9/month
    • 500 contacts at this price, scaling with list size
    • Unlimited emails
    • Automation workflows
  • Moosend+$undefined/month
    • Pro features plus selected enterprise add-ons
    • Configured per customer
    • Pricing quoted, not published
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Dedicated account management and SLA
    • Custom reporting and priority support
    • Dedicated IP options
  • Email credits$350/month
    • 350,000 credits for 350 US dollars, scaling to 1,000,000 for 1,000
    • No monthly subscription required
    • Suited to businesses that send in bursts rather than continuously

Which should you pick?

Choose Keila if

  • You need priced by emails sent.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, Self-hosted.
  • You also want bring your own sender.
Keila review

Choose Moosend if

  • You need all features at every tier.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want automation workflows.
Moosend review

Questions people ask

Is Keila or Moosend better?
Neither clearly leads. Keila starts at Free and Moosend at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Keila or Moosend?
Keila has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Keila and On request for Moosend.
Does Keila or Moosend run on more platforms?
Keila runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted. Moosend runs on Web, API.
Can I use Keila for free?
Yes. Keila has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Moosend starts at On request.
What is Keila best used for?
Keila is most often used for a membership organisation holding forty thousand contacts but sending only one newsletter a month, where contact-metered pricing would cost many times more, a european publisher or public body that needs subscriber data held in the eu under a gdpr-friendly arrangement, a technical team that wants to self-host its newsletter tool and route sending through its existing aws ses account, an agency running several separate client lists that does not want to pay per project or per additional list. Of those, a membership organisation holding forty thousand contacts but sending only one newsletter a month, where contact-metered pricing would cost many times more and a european publisher or public body that needs subscriber data held in the eu under a gdpr-friendly arrangement are not what Moosend is typically brought in for.
What can Keila do that Moosend cannot?
Keila covers Priced by emails sent, Bring your own sender, Self-hosting, EU hosting. Moosend covers All features at every tier, Automation workflows, Drag-and-drop email builder, Landing pages and forms. Both handle Segmentation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Keila: Is Keila free?

The software is, under AGPL-3.0-or-later, if you self-host. The hosted service has no free plan by deliberate policy and starts at 8 EUR a month.

Moosend: Does Moosend have a free plan?

No. It has a 30-day trial with unlimited sends to 1,000 contacts, then you must move to a paid plan or buy credits.

Keila: How is the hosted service priced?

By emails sent, from 8 EUR for two thousand up to 256 EUR for two hundred and fifty thousand a month. Contacts and projects are unlimited on every tier.

Moosend: Are features restricted on the cheapest plan?

No, and this is the main reason to choose it. Every Pro feature is available at every contact tier; only list size changes the price.

Keila: Can I use my own email provider?

Yes. AWS SES, Sendgrid, Mailgun, Postmark, generic SMTP or a personal inbox are all supported as sending backends.

Moosend: Who owns Moosend?

Sitecore, which acquired it in 2021. The product remains sold under the Moosend name at its own pricing.

Keila: Are there discounts?

Pentacent offers reduced rates to nonprofits and open source projects on request.

Moosend: What are email credits for?

Irregular senders. 350 US dollars buys 350,000 credits with no monthly subscription, which is cheaper than a year of subscription for a business that sends in bursts.

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