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Email Marketing · head to head

Sailthru vs TinyLetter

Sailthru logo

Sailthru

Email Marketing

Retail and publisher email personalisation, now one product inside the Marigold portfolio

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
TinyLetter logo

TinyLetter

News

The simplest way to send newsletters

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only TinyLetter has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Sailthru the product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.; TinyLetter tinyLetter merged into Mailchimp; no longer offered as standalone product
  • They diverge on capability: Sailthru covers Interest profiles, TinyLetter covers Newsletter publishing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Sailthru and TinyLetter actually diverge.

Attributes where Sailthru and TinyLetter differ
AttributeSailthruTinyLetter
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotesubscription
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, REST APIWeb
CategoryEmail MarketingNews
FoundedUnknown2011

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Sailthru

  • Interest profiles
  • Personalisation engine
  • Prediction Manager
  • Site personalisation
  • Zephyr templating
  • Lifecycle optimiser

Only in TinyLetter

  • Newsletter publishing
  • Email templates
  • Subscriber management
  • Archive creation
  • Email delivery
  • Simple editor
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

What people use each for

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

Sailthru

  • A publisher sending a personalised daily newsletter assembled per reader from a content cataloguenot TinyLetter
  • A retailer that wants email and on-site recommendations driven by the same affinity modelnot TinyLetter
  • High-cadence sending where per-recipient content assembly matters more than journey branchingnot TinyLetter
  • Teams that want churn and lifetime value scores available as native campaign conditions rather than imported fieldsnot TinyLetter

TinyLetter

  • Email newsletter distribution to subscribersnot Sailthru
  • Automated email marketing campaignsnot Sailthru
  • Customer communication and engagementnot Sailthru
  • E-commerce order notification systemsnot Sailthru

Where each one falls short

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

Sailthru

  • The product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.
  • Pricing counts stored profiles, so retained inactive readers keep costing money long after they stopped opening anything.
  • On-site personalisation requires a developer to implement the JavaScript and maintain the content feed, which puts the highest-value feature behind engineering time.
  • Zephyr is a proprietary templating language, so template maintenance skills are scarce compared with the Liquid syntax used by most competitors.
  • It is built for high-cadence content and retail sending, and B2B lifecycle programmes with long sales cycles sit poorly on the model.

TinyLetter

  • TinyLetter merged into Mailchimp; no longer offered as standalone product
  • Free tier limited to 250 contacts maximum
  • Pricing varies significantly by contact volume tiers
  • Premium plan at $350/month may be cost-prohibitive for small newsletters

Pricing, plan by plan

Sailthru

On request
  • Sailthru$undefined/year
    • Priced on stored profiles and send volume
    • Site personalisation and prediction features licensed by module
    • Annual contract through Marigold

TinyLetter

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Up to 250 contacts
    • Basic email campaigns
    • Customer insights
  • Essentials$13/month
    • A/B testing
    • Scheduling
    • Limited templates
  • Standard$20/month
    • Automations
    • Personalization
    • Generative AI
  • Premium$350/month
    • Phone support
    • Priority support
    • Multivariate testing

Which should you pick?

Choose Sailthru if

  • You need interest profiles.
  • You work on Web, REST API.
  • You also want personalisation engine.
Sailthru review

Choose TinyLetter if

  • You need newsletter publishing.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want email templates.
TinyLetter review

Questions people ask

Is Sailthru or TinyLetter better?
Neither clearly leads. Sailthru starts at On request and TinyLetter at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Sailthru or TinyLetter?
TinyLetter has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Sailthru and Free for TinyLetter.
Does Sailthru or TinyLetter run on more platforms?
Sailthru runs on Web, REST API. TinyLetter runs on Web.
Can I use TinyLetter for free?
Yes. TinyLetter has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Sailthru starts at On request.
What is Sailthru best used for?
Sailthru is most often used for a publisher sending a personalised daily newsletter assembled per reader from a content catalogue, a retailer that wants email and on-site recommendations driven by the same affinity model, high-cadence sending where per-recipient content assembly matters more than journey branching, teams that want churn and lifetime value scores available as native campaign conditions rather than imported fields. Of those, a publisher sending a personalised daily newsletter assembled per reader from a content catalogue and a retailer that wants email and on-site recommendations driven by the same affinity model are not what TinyLetter is typically brought in for.
What can Sailthru do that TinyLetter cannot?
Sailthru covers Interest profiles, Personalisation engine, Prediction Manager, Site personalisation. TinyLetter covers Newsletter publishing, Email templates, Subscriber management, Archive creation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Sailthru: Who owns Sailthru now?

Marigold, formerly CM Group, which also owns Campaign Monitor, Emma, Selligent, Liveclicker and Cheetah Digital.

TinyLetter: Is TinyLetter still available separately?

No, TinyLetter has been merged into Mailchimp and is no longer offered as a standalone product. Existing TinyLetter users were migrated to Mailchimp's marketing platform.

Source
Sailthru: Does that affect the roadmap?

It can. Overlapping products in one portfolio compete for investment, so ask which platform is the strategic one for your segment before signing multi-year.

TinyLetter: Does Mailchimp offer a free email plan?

Yes, Mailchimp's free plan supports up to 250 contacts and allows you to create email campaigns and learn customer insights at no cost.

Source
Sailthru: Is it worth it just for newsletters?

For personalised daily newsletters at publisher scale it remains one of the strongest options. For simple broadcast sending it is heavily over-specified.

TinyLetter: What discounts does Mailchimp offer for annual billing?

Mailchimp offers 15% off the first 12 months for accounts with 10,000 or more contacts.

Source
TinyLetter: Is there a free trial available for Mailchimp's paid plans?

Yes, a 14-day free trial is available for Standard and Essentials plans without requiring a credit card for the first 100 emails.

Source
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