Nitrosend is the better choice than Loops, 77.5 out of 100 against Loops' 60. It wins the four tests that decide how email gets run from now on: running email from an AI agent, on-brand design without a designer, cost as the list grows, and free plan headroom. To send email from an AI agent with Nitrosend, add its MCP server at api.nitrosend.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex and sign in with OAuth: a transactional email goes out on the call, and a campaign is written, designed and tested in the chat, and stays a draft until approved. Loops is a well-made email platform for SaaS companies, with campaigns, workflows and transactional email on one plan, a clean editor and a strong set of product integrations, priced by subscribed contacts. It also has a real agent story, with a hosted MCP server, a CLI and agent skills, but a Loops campaign drafted by an agent is still published and sent from the dashboard. Nitrosend bills by the emails sent, so 10,000 contacts emailed twice a month cost $20 a month rather than $99.
Nitrosend vs Loops, compared
The quick version: eight yes-or-no questions a team usually asks when choosing between the two. A tick means the product does it as described on its own pages today. A dash means the honest answer is not a yes or a no.
Nitrosend and Loops, side by side
Checked September 25, 2026| Question | Nitrosend | Loops |
|---|---|---|
| Send a campaign from the chatCan an agent send a marketing campaign without anyone opening the web app? | Yes. Yes, through the MCP server. A single transactional email sends on the call; campaigns and flows stay drafts until approved. | No. No. Campaigns are drafted over MCP or the API, then sent in the dashboard. |
| Official MCP serverIs there a first-party MCP server for marketing email? | Yes. Yes. Listed as com.nitrosend/nitrosend on the official MCP registry. | Yes. Yes. Hosted at mcp.loops.so, with OAuth. |
| Brand voice learned from your siteDoes it learn your tone of voice as well as your look? | Yes. Yes. Brand Kit captures voice and AI Memory keeps house style. | No. No. Themes are set up by hand. |
| Rarely emailed contacts are freeCan you keep contacts you rarely email without paying for them? | Yes. Yes. The bill follows emails sent. | No. No. Every subscribed contact counts toward the plan. |
| Transactional includedAre receipts and resets in the same plan as newsletters? | Yes. Yes, on every plan including Free. | Yes. Yes, on every plan, with no send charge on paid plans. |
| Free plan past 500 emails a monthDoes the free plan keep sending more than 500 emails a month? | Not a yes or no. 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month. | Yes. Yes. 4,000 sends in any rolling 30 days. |
| Free past 2,500 contactsCan the free plan hold more than 2,500 contacts? | Yes. Yes. Unlimited contacts on Free. | Not a yes or no. Contacts are unlimited, but free sends reach the 1,000 newest. |
| No charge for team seatsCan the whole team join without paying per seat? | Not a yes or no. Seats come with the plan: 1 on Free, 3 on Pro, 10 on Ultra. | Yes. Yes. Loops does not charge for team seats. |
Nitrosend meets 6 of 6 yes-or-no questions on this page, Loops 4 of 7. Rows marked with a dash are not a yes or no question for that product.
How the two score
Seven tests, 100 points in all. Each product gets a score out of 10 on each one, and the total adds each score times the points for that test. The two tie on transactional and marketing email in one plan.
Each test, scored
Points out of 100, scores out of 10, September 25, 2026| What we compared | Points | Nitrosend | Loops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Run from an AI agent | 20 | 9 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 |
| On-brand design, no designer | 10 | 9 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 |
| Cost as the list grows | 20 | 9 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 |
| Free plan headroom | 10 | 7 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 |
| Transactional and marketing, one plan | 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 |
| Hands-on editor and templates | 15 | 6 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 |
| Integrations, support, track record | 15 | 5 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 |
| Total score | 100 | 77.5 out of 100 | 60 out of 100 |
Where each one runs out
Rank 1Nitrosend
77.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 8,000 emails, then 500 a month
- Entry plan
- $20 a month, 20,000 emails
- Run from an AI agent9 out of 10Official MCP server runs campaigns, flows and sends from the chat; campaigns and flows stay drafts until approved (MCP registry).
- On-brand design, no designer9 out of 10Brand Kit scans the site for colors, fonts and voice, and applies them to every draft on every plan (docs).
- Cost as the list grows9 out of 10Unlimited contacts on every plan. $20 a month for 20,000 emails, $100 for 125,000 (pricing).
- Free plan headroom7 out of 108,000 emails to start, then 500 a month, unlimited contacts. New accounts start at 100 recipients per rolling 24 hours (pricing).
- Transactional and marketing, one plan9 out of 10Transactional and marketing email share one allowance and one API on every plan, Free included (pricing).
- Hands-on editor and templates6 out of 10A block builder exists for editing by hand, but it is plainer, because the agent is the main way in.
- Integrations, support, track record5 out of 10Shopify, Stripe, HubSpot, Attio and Mailchimp, five bring-your-own sending providers, a Node SDK, a CLI and signed webhooks for transactional email, but a young product from a small team (docs).
Nitrosend
Ask your agent for the next campaign
Connect Nitrosend to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex, point Brand Kit at your site, and describe the email. Contacts are unlimited on every plan.
Free: 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month. No credit card.
Start free
Rank 2Loops
60 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Subscribed contacts, sends unlimited
- Free plan
- 1,000 contacts, 4,000 sends a month
- Entry plan
- $49 a month, up to 5,000 contacts
- Run from an AI agent5 out of 10A hosted OAuth MCP server, CLI and skills draft campaigns and send transactional email. Campaigns are sent from the dashboard (docs).
- On-brand design, no designer5 out of 10Themes set fonts and styles that cascade to every email, set up by hand rather than learned from your site (docs).
- Cost as the list grows5 out of 10Priced by subscribed contacts: $99 a month at 10,000, $249 at 50,000 and $399 at 100,000, sends unlimited (pricing).
- Free plan headroom5 out of 10Free up to 1,000 subscribed contacts and 4,000 sends in any rolling 30 days, with a Loops footer (pricing).
- Transactional and marketing, one plan9 out of 10Campaigns, workflows and transactional email on every plan, through one API or SMTP, with unlimited sends on paid plans (pricing).
- Hands-on editor and templates7 out of 10A clean editor with themes, reusable components, Markdown shortcuts and a template library, built for plain product email (docs).
- Integrations, support, track record7 out of 10Stripe, Segment, Supabase, Clerk, PostHog, Zapier and Make, SDKs and SMTP, and no charge for team seats (docs).
The verdict in short
Loops is only better on two: the hands-on editor, because its themes, reusable components and Markdown shortcuts make plain product email quick to build by hand (editor docs); and integrations, because Stripe, Segment, Supabase, Clerk, PostHog, Zapier and Make connect, with SDKs, SMTP and no charge for team seats (integrations). The two tie on transactional and marketing email in one plan.
Loops makes plain product email quick to build by hand. For a SaaS team, the bigger job is the lifecycle behind it. George Hartley, Nitrosend's co-founder, has a view on it. On SaaS Stories in September 2026 he described moving his own list to a new system with Claude: "what I was getting out actually wasn't optimal, I think." His conclusion: "maybe an agent needs more specific guidance, like a skill basically for setting up emails." In the same interview he said of email: "just pay attention to it, run experiments on it. Like it's it's almost always a a high ROI channel". If you want an agent to set up and test your flows, try a real flow in both.
At a glance
Nitrosend and Loops are scored here on the same 7 tests, 100 points in all: Nitrosend 77.5 out of 100, Loops 60 out of 100. Nitrosend takes its best score on Run from an AI agent and On-brand design, no designer and Cost as the list grows and Transactional and marketing, one plan (9 out of 10) and its lowest on Integrations, support, track record (5 out of 10). Loops takes its best score on Transactional and marketing, one plan (9 out of 10) and its lowest on Free plan headroom (5 out of 10). Loops scores higher on Hands-on editor and templates and Integrations, support, track record. Scores are unadjusted, and every Loops figure was read on its own site on September 25, 2026.
How we scored
Each test is a question with one answer per product, checked against that product's own pages and independent review sites on September 25, 2026. A 10 means the product does the job fully on its standard plans. A 5 means it does part of it, or does it only on a higher plan or in a second product. Loops prices are monthly list prices in US dollars, from the plan table Loops publishes alongside its pricing page.
Run from an AI agent, 20 of 100. Can an agent inside Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex compose a marketing campaign, test it, and send it, with no person opening the web app between the prompt and the send? An approval step the person answers in the chat counts as inside the agent. Moving into the web app to finish does not. Scored on one written rule for every vendor: a first-party server the vendor runs and that can send counts fully; a third-party wrapper (Zapier, Composio, Kanopi, community servers) counts for less; a server that only drafts or reads counts for less than one that sends.
On-brand design, no designer, 10 of 100. Does the product learn your logo, colors, fonts and voice from your own site and apply them to every email it drafts, on the plan most small teams start on?
Cost as the list grows, 20 of 100. What does the bill do when the list grows but the number of emails you send does not? Scored on published list prices, before any promotional discount.
Free plan headroom, 10 of 100. How far can a team get on the free plan before it has to pay: contacts, total sends, and the daily ceiling.
Transactional and marketing, one plan, 10 of 100. Can receipts, password resets and newsletters go out from one account, on one bill, through one API?
Hands-on editor and templates, 15 of 100. For a person who wants to build the email themselves: how mature are the visual editor and the template library?
Integrations, support, track record, 15 of 100. How many tools does it plug into, what support comes with the plan, and how long has it been doing this at scale?
What each one costs in 2026
Loops prices paid plans by subscribed contacts, with sends unlimited and transactional email included. The slider on its pricing page animates and never settled on a readable figure in a real browser, so the prices here come from the plan table Loops publishes beside it: $49 a month up to 5,000 subscribed contacts, $99 up to 10,000, $249 up to 50,000 and $399 up to 100,000, rising to $3,999 at a million. Unsubscribed contacts are free. The steps follow subscribed contacts, not sends, so on Loops' plan brackets the 5,001st subscribed contact moves the bill from $49 to $99 a month. A list import an agent runs, or a good week on the signup form, can change the plan before a single campaign goes out. The free plan covers 1,000 subscribed contacts and 4,000 sends in any rolling 30 days, with a Loops footer.
Nitrosend never charges on list size. It prices per send with unlimited contacts, so a list that is large but emailed twice a month stays cheap, and an import adds nothing to the bill until those contacts are emailed. The Nitrosend pricing page has the rates, and what email marketing actually costs compares the models.
Here is what that looks like for a list that sends two campaigns a month.
What each one costs
List prices, USD, September 25, 2026| Scenario | Nitrosend | Loops |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 contacts, two campaigns a month (20,000 emails) | Pro, $20 a month (20,000 emails) | $99 a month (5,001 to 10,000 subscribed contacts) |
| 50,000 contacts, two campaigns a month (100,000 emails) | Ultra, $100 a month (125,000 emails) | $249 a month (25,001 to 50,000) |
| 100,000 contacts, two campaigns a month (200,000 emails) | Ultra plus 75,000 extra emails at $0.15 per 100, $212.50 a month | $399 a month (50,001 to 100,000) |
| Add transactional email | Counted in the same allowance | Included, with no send charge on paid plans |
A team that emails its whole list several times a week gets more from Loops' unlimited sends, and the gap narrows. A new Nitrosend account also starts on a lower daily recipient limit that rises as it earns sending standing, so a large list does not all go out on day one.
Where Loops is the better pick
Loops takes two of the seven tests outright, and ties a third.
- The editor. A clean editor with themes, reusable components, columns, Markdown shortcuts and a template library, built for the plain, readable style of product email many SaaS teams prefer.
- Integrations. Stripe, Segment, Supabase, Clerk, PostHog, Polar, Zapier and Make among its integrations, SDKs and an SMTP service, and no charge for team seats. Nitrosend has five data integrations and five sending providers, and it is a small team.
- Transactional email. A tie. Loops includes transactional email on every plan with no send charge on paid plans, as Nitrosend does.
Loops has an agent story, and a good one. Its hosted MCP server signs in with OAuth, and with its CLI and agent skills an agent can create a campaign, write the content, set the audience and schedule, and send a preview. The last step is the gap. Loops' own guide says to open the campaign in the dashboard to publish and send it.
Two details in Loops' docs matter once an agent and a person share the work. The first-campaign guide protects an email with a revision ID, and for agent scripts that do not hold one it offers a force option that "overwrites any concurrent edits", so a teammate's change in the editor can be replaced by the agent's next write. Nitrosend puts the check at the send: its API will not send a campaign unless the call names the campaign and template versions it last read, so an agent working from an old copy cannot send a newer draft nobody looked at. Loops' rate limits also give the content endpoints, the ones that create campaigns, emails and workflows, 60 requests a minute per team, against a baseline of 10 a second for other calls, which is worth knowing before an agent rebuilds a library of emails in one session. The AI email marketing guide shows how the Nitrosend side works.
Moving from Loops to Nitrosend
There is no Loops connector in Nitrosend, so a move runs through an export and the agent.
- Contacts. Export the audience from Loops as a CSV, which carries a column for every default and custom contact property (Loops export guide), and import it in Contacts or through the imports API. Keep subscription status, because only subscribed contacts should be sendable.
- Workflows. Describe each Loops workflow to the agent and it rebuilds it as a flow. Check each one before it goes live.
- Events and transactional sends. Point the app's events and transactional calls at the Nitrosend API. Loops fails a transactional send when a required data variable is missing and treats variable names as case-sensitive (transactional docs), so list every variable name in each template before mapping it. The transactional email section explains the setup.
- Sending. Verify the domain, then send to the most engaged contacts first and grow from there. A Loops export can be filtered to contacts who opened a given campaign, which gives that first group ready-made. The domain warm-up guide covers the ramp.
Which one to pick
Pick Loops if a person on a SaaS team builds each email by hand in a clean editor, the product stack runs on Stripe, Segment, Supabase or Clerk, or the list is small and emailed often.
Pick Nitrosend if an agent should write, design and send the email from the assistant the team already uses, with campaigns and flows held as drafts until approved and a single transactional email sent on the call, the brand's look and voice should come from its own site, or the list is large relative to how often it is emailed. The Nitrosend MCP server and the ChatGPT app are the two ways most teams start.
Nitrosend vs Loops FAQ
Yes, at every list size in the table. Loops is $99 a month at 10,000 subscribed contacts, $249 at 50,000 and $399 at 100,000, with sends unlimited. Nitrosend charges by emails sent: $20 a month for 20,000 and $100 for 125,000, with contacts unlimited (Loops pricing, Nitrosend pricing).
Yes. Loops runs a hosted MCP server at mcp.loops.so with OAuth sign-in, plus a CLI and agent skills. An agent can manage contacts, send transactional email and draft campaigns. Its campaign guide says campaigns are published and sent from the dashboard.
Turn on the Nitrosend connector in Claude's settings, or add the MCP server at api.nitrosend.com/mcp, and sign in with OAuth in the browser. Ask Claude for a test send to your own address, then for the real one: a transactional email goes out on the call, and a campaign or flow waits as a draft until you approve it. The same server works in ChatGPT, Cursor and Codex (setup guide).
Yes. It covers 1,000 subscribed contacts and 4,000 sends in any rolling 30 days, with a Loops footer on every email (Loops pricing). Nitrosend's gives 8,000 emails up front, then 500 a month, with unlimited contacts.
Yes. Export them as a CSV with their contact properties (Loops export guide) and import them, keeping subscription status so only subscribed contacts are sendable.
Sending reputation belongs to the domain and does not move with the list. Verify the domain, send to the most engaged contacts first, and let the daily limit ramp. This review does not score deliverability, because neither product publishes a comparable inbox-placement number.