The Newsletter Plugin
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Choose it if you run WordPress, have a small-to-mid list, and want newsletters without monthly SaaS fees.
New check
Comparison
The Newsletter Plugin vs Drip
The Newsletter Plugin and Drip both land on Depends.
Drip
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you run an ecommerce brand that depends on automated email workflows and can absorb the cost.
| Compare | The Newsletter Plugin | Drip |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | WordPress sites wanting free newsletters | Direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands |
| Who it's not for | Non-WordPress sites | Small teams that just send newsletters |
| Privacy | Poor recent track record: multiple 2025-2026 CVEs (stored XSS, CSRF, auth bypass) on top of a 2020 flaw wave hitting 300,000+ sites.⁷ | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed. |
| Support quality | Forums exist; no quality evidence found | No support evidence found |
| Public sentiment | Redditors actively debate whether it's worth it for lists from thousands to tens of thousands of subscribers, with free-tier appeal weighed against self-hosted tradeoffs.⁹ | Reviewers like the visual workflow builder and ecommerce focus, but some users are publicly angry about price increases.11 |
| Biggest gotcha | Multiple 2025-2026 CVEs (XSS, CSRF, auth bypass); unpatched installs are targets | Users called a past price increase 'a huge middle finger'; expect costs to rise16 |
Pick The Newsletter Plugin when
- WordPress sites wanting free newsletters
- Bloggers avoiding monthly SaaS fees
- Lists up to ~10,000 subscribers
- Teams keeping subscriber data on their own site
When The Newsletter Plugin is not a fit
- Non-WordPress sites
- Guess: high-volume senders needing guaranteed inbox placement
- Anyone who won't patch plugins promptly
- Guess: teams needing advanced marketing automation and segmentation
Pick Drip when
- Direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands
- Teams running complex email automation
- Merchants wanting CRM + email in one
When Drip is not a fit
- Small teams that just send newsletters
- B2B lead-gen teams (built for ecommerce)
- Budget-sensitive startups dreading price hikes
- Anyone requiring a free plan
Sources
review
- MailPoet and WordPress Newsletter Plugins vs Mailchimp and Dripdeliciousbrains.comreview
- Best WordPress Newsletter Plugins . WPBeginnerwpbeginner.comreview
- Newsletter . WordPress.org plugin pagewordpress.orgofficial
- Pricing . The Newsletter Pluginthenewsletterplugin.comofficial
- CVE-2026-86824: Newsletter Plugin Auth Bypasssentinelone.comsecurity
- CVE-2025-3584 . Stored XSS to JS Backdoorresearch.cleantalk.orgsecurity
security
review
- The Newsletter Plugin . Crunchbasecrunchbase.comnews
- Drip Reviews . G2g2.comreview
review
review
- Drip Review . Forbes Advisorforbes.comreview
- Drip Reviews . Capterracapterra.comreview