Headless by NewsCord vs Action Network
Action Network is a large-list email and petition platform for progressive organisations, priced on the emails you send. If your work is sending a lot of email to a list you already have, and your list is big, it is cheap and it is built for exactly that.
Every Action Network figure below was read from actionnetwork.org/get-started on 8 September 2026. Anything that page does not say is written as not stated, never as no. Tell us if something has changed: [email protected].
| Feature | Headless | Action Network |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A campaign engine and a public hub you run under your own name. A supporter fills in one form and a personalised letter, complaint or filing goes to the institution in their name. | An organising platform built around email to a supporter list, with petitions, events, fundraising and forms alongside it. |
| Entry price | $29 a month on Starter, which carries 1,000 credits and 10,000 emails. Growth is $149 a month. | $15 a month minimum on the Movement partnership, covering the first 12,000 emails, then $1.25 per 1,000. |
| Pricing basis | A monthly plan. Credits pay for campaign deliveries to institutions, and a separate monthly allowance pays for emails to your own list. Neither draws on the other. | Usage-based on emails sent, with a monthly minimum and a rate per 1,000 above it. The Network partnership is $125 a month covering 50,000 emails, then $2.50 per 1,000. |
| Email to your own list | 100,000 emails a month on Growth, 10,000 on Starter, included in the plan. A broadcast to your own list never costs a credit. | This is what the price is for. The Movement minimum covers 12,000 emails a month and the Network minimum covers 50,000, with a per 1,000 rate above each. |
| Email your representative | Yes, on Growth and above. Twelve countries, the representative resolved from the supporter's postcode, region or address, and the greeting rebuilt in code with the name the lookup returned. | Letter campaigns are listed as included on paid plans, alongside email campaigns, petitions, events, fundraising, forms and surveys. |
| Complaints to press regulators in the supporter's name | Yes, on Growth and above. A personalised filing to IPSO, Ofcom or the BBC in the supporter's own name, 5 credits each, with the regulator writing back to the supporter directly. | Not stated on the vendor's pricing page. |
| Letters personalised per supporter, with the supporter sending first | Yes, on Starter and above for direct email and the cinema chain address book, and on Growth and above for the Tunisian embassy channel. The letter is held so the supporter can send it from their own inbox first, and only what they did not send is dispatched. Every channel personalises each supporter's copy. | Not stated on the vendor's pricing page. |
| White-label hub on your own domain | Yes, on Scale and above. Your hub, your campaign pages and your posts on your own domain, with your name, your colours and your logo on the email that goes out. | Not stated on the vendor's pricing page. |
| AI assistant access | Yes, on Scale and above. An assistant can read the catalogue, draft a campaign and review it through the documented tools, and it can never publish one. | Not stated on the vendor's pricing page. |
| Free trial | 14 days on any plan with a card on file, and 1,000 credits to run a real campaign. Tell us before the trial ends and nothing is charged. | A free tier with basic email and action tools. |
| Who can use it | Any organisation that passes screening. | Action Network "exclusively partners with progressive causes". |
Which one to buy
Take Headless when the point of the campaign is what lands on the institution's desk rather than what lands in your supporters' inboxes. Action Network will send a hundred thousand emails to your list more cheaply than we will, and it should: that is the product. Their pricing page does not mention an Editors' Code complaint filed with IPSO in a supporter's name, a self-send window that holds a letter back so the supporter can send it themselves, or a campaign hub on your own domain. Plenty of organisations run both, with the list on one and the filings on the other. If your cause would not be described as progressive, read their eligibility line before you plan around them.