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Claros vs Loops: self-hosted control for SaaS email.
Both are built for SaaS. Loops is hosted and simple. Claros is open-source and yours to run.
What this comparison is about
Loops is a modern email platform built specifically for SaaS companies. It combines transactional and marketing email in one product, charges per subscribed contact, and includes all features on all plans with no per-seat charges. Their free tier includes 1,000 contacts and 4,000 monthly sends. Paid tiers scale via a slider, and sends are unlimited on paid plans.(Source: loops.so/pricing, retrieved August 7, 2026. Paid tier dollar amounts use a calculator and were not fully extractable as static values.)
Claros and Loops share an audience (SaaS companies) and both reject the complexity of enterprise marketing platforms. The difference is ownership: Loops hosts everything for you, Claros gives you the engine to run yourself. This is a choice between convenience and control, and both are valid depending on what you need.
Why choose Claros over Loops?
Claros
- No per-contact pricing. Contacts live in your Postgres. You pay for sends and infrastructure, not list size.
- Own your stack. Your database, your transport, your data. No third-party access or pricing changes.
- Deeper lifecycle automation. 7-state lifecycle machine, engagement depth scoring, and 4x4 retention grid.
- AI-drafted content. The Brain drafts with your LLM key and holds every message in an approval queue.
- Open source. MIT-licensed source. Fork it, audit it, modify it. If the project disappears, your instance keeps running.
Deployment model
Who should stay on Loops
- You do not want to manage infrastructure, period. You want email to be someone else's operational problem.
- You need transactional and marketing email combined in one simple product and do not need lifecycle depth.
- Your contact list is small enough that per-contact pricing is still reasonable for your budget.
- You value a visual email editor and polished templates over AI-drafted or hand-coded content.
- You need SOC 2 compliance from your email provider without managing it yourself.
Loops is a well-designed product for its audience. The switch to Claros makes sense when your list outgrows your budget, when you need data ownership, or when you want deeper lifecycle automation. If Loops is working and affordable, there is no urgent reason to leave.
At a glance
| Claros | Loops | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free (MIT), BYO infrastructure | Per subscribed contact (free at 1,000) |
| Built for | SaaS lifecycle email | SaaS email (transactional + marketing) |
| Deployment | Self-hosted (Docker + Postgres) | Cloud only |
| Sends | Unlimited (your transport) | Unlimited on paid plans |
| Flow definition | Natural-language prompt, compiled once | Automation builder (simpler than enterprise tools) |
| AI | Drafts content with BYO LLM, approval queue | No AI features |
| Open source | Yes (MIT) | No |
Loops pricing from loops.so/pricing, retrieved August 7, 2026.
Three commands on your own server.
Self-hosting is the only way to run Claros today. Install in about five minutes and send your first real email from your own server.
git clone https://github.com/claroshq/claros.git && cd claros
docker compose run --rm install
docker compose up -dNo LLM key needed to start.Full installation guide →