Listmonk
MarketingHigh-performance, self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager — a Mailchimp alternative.
About this project
Listmonk is a blazing-fast, self-hosted newsletter and mailing-list manager — an open-source alternative to Mailchimp and Brevo. It handles millions of subscribers, segmentation, templated campaigns, and detailed analytics from a single Go binary.
Market opportunity
Email marketing returns roughly $36–$42 for every $1 spent, and the market is worth $10B+. But Mailchimp's pricing scales painfully with list size — hundreds to thousands per month for large lists. Listmonk's only real cost is your SMTP/sending bill, making it ideal for senders with big lists.
Technical overview
- Stack: Go (single binary, very low memory), PostgreSQL, with a Vue admin UI.
- Performance: built for high throughput — millions of subscribers and fast bulk sends.
- Features: list segmentation, custom subscriber attributes, transactional + campaign APIs, and SMTP/Amazon SES support.
Who's it for
Creators with large audiences, agencies running client email, and SaaS apps needing cheap transactional + marketing email.
How to use it
Get started
mkdir listmonk && cd listmonk
curl -LO https://github.com/knadh/listmonk/raw/master/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d
Open http://localhost:9000, set your SMTP (or Amazon SES) credentials, create a list, design a campaign, and send. Use the import tool or API to load subscribers.
💡 How to make a business with it
How to make money with it
1. Email-as-a-service for creators. Host Listmonk + Amazon SES and offer cheap, high-volume newsletters priced under Mailchimp.
- Example: a $30/month flat plan for up to 50k subscribers (your SES cost is a few dollars) sold to 100 creators = $36k/year.
2. Agency email management. Run campaigns for local businesses and bill per campaign or on a monthly retainer.
3. Bundle with your product. Use self-hosted Listmonk as the email engine inside your own SaaS to avoid SendGrid/Mailchimp markups.
Need technical help?
Want help setting up Listmonk, customizing it, or building your product on top of it? Knock me — let's talk.