The open-source Stripo alternative

Why people look for a Stripo alternative

Stripo is a solid cloud editor, but its model has hard edges you only meet after adopting it. The free plan allows 4 template exports per month and 10 stored emails; going over on paid tiers costs $0.10–$0.50 per extra export. Everything requires an account, and every template you design is stored in Stripo's cloud rather than on anything you control. If you outgrow the free tier, plans run from $20 to $125 per month, with the embedded Plugin priced separately from $100 per month.

None of this is hidden — it is standard SaaS economics. But if what you actually need is an editor, not a platform, you are paying monthly for infrastructure you could own.

What Card gives you instead

Card is a free, open-source (AGPL-3.0) visual email editor built with Vue and TypeScript. You can open it in the browser with no signup, assemble an email from 78 drag-and-drop blocks, and export as often as you like — responsive HTML for your sending platform, plus editable JSON so the design can be reopened and revised later.

Because Card is a static application, you can also deploy it on your own domain and keep the entire editing workflow inside your infrastructure. Templates are stored in the browser's local storage by default: your designs never touch anyone's cloud, because there is no cloud behind the editor. That same property means backup is your job — export the JSON and keep it wherever your team keeps files that matter.

The code is public and has been developed in the open since 2022, so "trust us" can be replaced with reading the source.

What Stripo still does better

To be fair to it: Stripo's real advantage is everything around the canvas. It pushes finished emails directly into 90+ sending platforms, offers co-editing and approvals on paid plans, and bundles AI-assisted authoring. Card does none of that — it exports HTML and JSON, and the handoff to your ESP is a manual step you own.

If a distributed marketing team ships several campaigns a week and the bottleneck is review and delivery rather than editing, Stripo's subscription can be money well spent. If you are embedding an editor into your own product, compare Card's commercial licence with the Stripo Plugin (from $100/mo) — not with the regular cloud plans.

Who should switch — and who shouldn't

Switch to Card if you hit Stripo's export caps, don't want template data in a vendor's cloud, need the editor on your own infrastructure, or simply refuse to rent a tool you could own for free. Stay on Stripo if its integrations and team workflow are load-bearing for your process — replacing them with in-house process has a cost too.

The fastest way to decide is not another comparison page. Open the Card editor — no account, nothing to install — rebuild your latest campaign, and export it. If the result works in your sending platform, you have just replaced a subscription with a free tool you control.