Onset vs ReleaseNotes.io

Both tools publish a hosted changelog, embed a widget in your app, and email your subscribers, and both bill per changelog site. The differences are what a site costs, what the free tier can actually do, and whether your subscriber list shows up as a line item.

Subscribers are included, not metered

ReleaseNotes.io adds $10 for every 1,000 email subscribers on top of its $39 Teams plan, so by about 4,000 subscribers the metering has pushed you onto their $79 Business plan. Onset includes 10,000 on the $30 Team plan.

The essentials are not paywalled

A custom domain, the embeddable widget, the REST API, and unlimited releases with full history are all on the Onset free plan. ReleaseNotes.io gates the widget and API behind Teams and the custom domain behind its $79 Business plan.

Same shape of pricing, lower numbers

Both tools charge per changelog site, so this is a like-for-like comparison rather than a billing trick: $30 against $39 to get started, $60 against $79 at the top. Their paid plans do include unlimited teammates, where Onset includes five.

What each one costs you

For one changelog site. Set your team size and subscriber count to see both bills side by side.

Figures are for one changelog site. Both tools bill per site — what ReleaseNotes.io calls a “project” is the same unit as an Onset workspace.

Who writes and publishes.

3
2,500
0100,000

Each one can force a higher plan.

Onset

Team
$30/month

$24/month billed yearly

  • Unlimited releases and history$0
  • 5 team members included$0
  • 10,000 subscribers included$0

ReleaseNotes.io

Teams
$69/month

  • Teams plan$39
  • Unlimited team members$0
  • 3 × 1,000 subscribers @ $10$30

Onset saves you $39 a month — $468 a year.

Start free
How this is calculated

These figures are for one changelog site. Both products bill per site: a ReleaseNotes.io “project” is an independent site with its own billing, team, subscribers and theme, which is the same unit as an Onset workspace. Running two sites means paying twice on either tool.

Onset’s own “projects” are a way to group releases inside a single site, closest to tags on ReleaseNotes.io. They are unlimited on every plan and never change the price.

The ReleaseNotes.io Starter plan is free but caps you at 5 releases with a 90-day history and no email subscribers, so the calculator only uses it when that genuinely covers you.

Switching on a custom domain or private notes limits ReleaseNotes.io to its Business plan, the only tier that offers either. The in-app widget needs at least their Teams plan.

Team members are the one axis where ReleaseNotes.io is more generous: seats are unlimited from their $39 Teams plan, while Onset includes 1 on Free, 5 on Team, and unlimited on Business. Above 5 people the calculator moves Onset up and leaves them where they are.

The calculator always picks the cheapest ReleaseNotes.io plan that fits. Their subscriber metering therefore stops mattering above about 4,000 subscribers, where their $79 Business plan with unlimited subscribers becomes the cheaper option.

Both columns show list prices billed monthly. ReleaseNotes.io pricing last checked August 12, 2026.

Feature by feature

Compare the features of Onset and ReleaseNotes.io side by side to see which one is right for you. “Not stated” means the feature is not documented on their pricing page or in their docs, not that it definitely does not exist.

Feature
OnsetOnset
ReleaseNotes.ioReleaseNotes.io

Pricing and limits

Billing unit

Per workspace (one site)
Per project (one site)

Entry paid plan

$30/month
$39/month

Top plan

$60/month
$79/month

Subscribers included

1,000 Free / 10,000 Team / unlimited Business
Metered at $10 per 1,000

Team members

1 Free / 5 Team / unlimited Business
1 Starter / unlimited Teams and up

Releases on free plan

Unlimited
5

History on free plan

Unlimited
90 days

Publishing

Grouping releases

Projects and labels
Tags

Projects included

Unlimited on every plan, no price change
Each project billed separately

AI release drafting

Team and up
Teams and up

AI summaries

Team and up
Not stated

Scheduled releases

Team and up
Not stated

Versioning and pre-release flags

All plans
Not stated

Named contributors on a release

All plans
Not stated

Release reactions

All plans
Not stated

One-click importers

ReleaseNotes.io, AnnounceKit, Beamer, Changelogfy, Noticeable
Not stated

Audience and email

Subscriber lists and segments

All plans

Subscriber CSV import

All plans
Not stated

Custom sender address

Business
Not stated

Custom email subject line

Business
Not stated

Page and privacy

Custom domain

All plans
Business only

Private changelog

All plans
Business only

Password-protected page

Team and up
Not stated

Email-whitelisted pages

Business

Approved email domains for sign-up

Business
Not stated

Remove vendor branding

Team and up
Not stated

RSS, Atom and JSON feeds

All plans
Not stated

llms.txt for AI assistants

All plans
Not stated

Developers and integrations

Embeddable widget

All plans
Teams and up

REST API

All plans
Teams and up

Webhooks

All plans
Teams and up

Incoming webhook (publish from CI)

All plans
Not stated

MCP server

All plans

Issue tracker integrations

GitHub, Linear, Jira
GitHub, Jira, Azure DevOps

Chat integrations

Slack, Discord
Slack

Status page integrations

Statuspage, Instatus, Status.io, Statuspal, Incident.io
Not stated

Bring your own analytics

Google Analytics, Plausible, Fathom
Built-in analytics, Teams and up

Where they do more

SSO for private pages

Business only

Custom theme (CSS/HTML/JS)

Business only

Questions & answers

Can't find the answer here? Contact our support team.

Can I move my existing release notes over?

Yes. Onset has an importer for ReleaseNotes.io that brings across your published releases, dates, and tags. See the import guide in our documentation, or email support@onset.io and we will run it for you.

Do I need a paid plan to use a custom domain?

No. Custom domains are on every Onset plan including Free Forever, along with the embeddable widget, the REST API, webhooks, and the MCP server.

A “project” means different things in the two tools. How do they line up?

On ReleaseNotes.io a project is a whole independent site — their docs describe it as relating to a single website or web app, with separate billing, team members, subscribers and themes. The equivalent unit in Onset is a workspace, and like their projects, each one is billed on its own. Onset also has something called projects, but those group releases inside a single site and are closest to tags on ReleaseNotes.io. They are unlimited on every plan and do not affect the price.

What if we need more than one changelog site?

Both tools charge per site, so two sites means two subscriptions on either one. If the changelogs can live on the same page, Onset projects and labels let you group and filter releases by product without paying twice.

What happens when I pass my subscriber limit?

We tell you before you hit it and you upgrade when you are ready. There is no per-subscriber surcharge on any Onset plan.

Is this pricing current?

ReleaseNotes.io figures come from their public pricing page and are re-checked periodically. Vendors change prices, so treat the calculator as an estimate and confirm on their site before you decide.

Moving from ReleaseNotes.io?

Our importer brings your published releases, dates, and tags across.

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