# Groundhogg review (2026): is it worth $20 a month, billed yearly?

> Flat-rate CRM and email marketing plugin for WordPress

Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA.

Groundhogg is a CRM and marketing automation plugin that runs on your own WordPress site. It combines contact records, email broadcasts, automated flows and reports, with a licence priced by feature tier instead of contact count. The vendor describes it as open source (GPL) and self-hosted.

- **Category:** Email Marketing & Newsletters
- **Made by:** Groundhogg Inc. (since 2018)
- **Website:** https://groundhogg.io
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Who should skip it:** Not for you if you are not on WordPress, as it only runs there.
- **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026

## Pricing

As of Nov 12, 2026, Groundhogg is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $20 per month for 1 site, billed annually ($240).

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 14-day free demo of the Pro plan in a private WordPress sandbox, no credit card.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic | $20 per month for 1 site, billed annually ($240) | Premium support, basic add-ons, premium flow steps and superlinks. No company records, booking calendar or sales pipeline. |
| Plus | $40 per month for up to 3 sites, billed annually ($480) | Adds form plugin integrations, sales, CRM and marketing add-ons, company records, booking calendar, lead scoring and sales pipeline. |
| Pro | $50 per month for up to 5 sites, billed annually ($600) | Adds SMTP, SMS, ecommerce and membership integrations and conditional logic. |
| Agency | $100 per month for up to 25 sites, billed annually ($1,200) | Adds white-label branding, all integrations and all add-ons, and permits use for clients. |

Read from https://groundhogg.io/pricing/ on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Groundhogg before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **50% off for registered nonprofits** (Nonprofit): A grant gives registered nonprofits 50% off annual licenses for Groundhogg Pro, MailHawk and HollerBox. It does not renew automatically, so it must be re-applied for each year. Source: https://groundhogg.io/crm-and-marketing-automation-grant/

## Key features

- **Contact management:** Contact records with tags, custom fields, notes, tasks, activity timelines, saved searches and segments inside the WordPress dashboard.
- **Email broadcasts:** Send broadcasts, batch large sends and handle bounces and complaints; bounce handling is a Pro feature.
- **Automated flows:** Build automations that move contacts through sequences. Conditional logic needs Pro.
- **Unlimited contacts:** The vendor says it never charges more for extra contacts, users, flows or email sends.
- **Sales tools:** Booking calendar, lead scoring, content restriction and a sales pipeline from the Plus tier up.
- **AI assistant connection:** Connect Claude or ChatGPT to the CRM over MCP so an assistant can work with contacts and flows.

## Good for

- WordPress site owners who want a CRM and email tool on their own domain
- Teams with large lists who want a price that does not rise with contacts
- Agencies that run several client sites under one licence

## Worth knowing

- It runs only inside WordPress; the vendor's price comparison assumes you host it yourself.
- Sending email needs an SMTP or sending service. SMTP and SMS integrations are listed from Pro.
- A single licence covers 1, 3, 5 or 25 sites depending on the tier.
- Refunds are offered within 14 days of purchase.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.0 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Groundhogg is a CRM and email marketing plugin for WordPress, with flat pricing and unlimited contacts from $20 a month for 1 site. It only runs inside WordPress, and you need a separate SMTP or sending service to get email out.

- **Value for money: C.** Basic is $20 a month for 1 site on annual billing ($240), inside the email category's middle band. Plus is $40 for 3 sites, Pro $50 for 5 and Agency $100 for 25.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** 14-day demo of Pro in a private WordPress sandbox, no credit card. No free plan.
- **Features: C.** Contact management, broadcasts, automated flows, unlimited contacts, sales tools and an AI assistant connection. Sending needs an SMTP or sending service.
- **Ease of use: D.** No store rating on record. It needs a WordPress site you host and set up, plus an email sender.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Runs only inside WordPress, with 7 integrations on record.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Groundhogg's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among email marketing and newsletter tools

- Groundhogg's GPA of 2.0 is higher than 7 of the 57 other email marketing and newsletter tools we grade, and level with 9.
- It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 7 of 57) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $20 a month, against a middle price of $15 for the category: 30 of the 47 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.0 out of 4. 28 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/email-marketing

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Groundhogg you would be making newsletters sent to thousands of people that still reach the inbox. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 41 of the 57 other email marketing and newsletter tools grade higher. It costs $240 a year. Groundhogg is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself.

- You could make: Sales pipeline: an app builder makes this well.
- You could not: Newsletters sent to thousands of people that still reach the inbox.
- You could not: Email sent in volume that still reaches the inbox.
- You could not: An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, WooCommerce, Contact Form 7 and BuddyBoss among them.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, BuddyBoss, AffiliateWP, Amazon Web Services, LifterLMS, Google Calendar

**Tags:** Email campaigns, Marketing automation, Open source, Self-hostable, Sales pipeline, AI agents

## Alternatives

- [FluentCRM](https://toolgpa.com/tools/fluentcrm): CRM and email marketing plugin that runs inside WordPress. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/fluentcrm-vs-groundhogg)
- [Mailster](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailster): Email newsletter plugin that runs inside WordPress. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/groundhogg-vs-mailster)
- [MailPoet](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailpoet): Email marketing plugin that runs inside WordPress and WooCommerce. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/groundhogg-vs-mailpoet)
- [ActiveCampaign](https://toolgpa.com/tools/activecampaign): Email marketing and multi-step automation priced by contacts. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/activecampaign-vs-groundhogg)
- [Mautic](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mautic): Open source marketing automation you can self-host. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/groundhogg-vs-mautic)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026:

- https://groundhogg.io/pricing/
- https://groundhogg.io/features/
- https://groundhogg.io/try/
- https://groundhogg.io/crm-and-marketing-automation-grant/

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/groundhogg
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).