Best Self-Hosted Alternatives to Mailchimp
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Mailchimp is the best-known email marketing tool: audiences, campaign editor, automations and reports, billed by contact count. What sends senders looking elsewhere is that the bill grows with the list, whether or not you send. The self-hosted tools below handle subscriber lists, campaigns and analytics, and you pay your sending provider for volume instead.
Mailchimp is free — but your data lives on its servers, not yours. These researched, open-source alternatives give you the same workflow on hardware you own — here's what each needs to run.
The alternatives
KeilaAGPL-3.0
CategoryNewsletterStackElixir · Phoenix · PostgreSQLMin RAM512 MBOfficial imageYesDifficulty2 / 5
listmonkAGPL-3.0
CategoryNewsletterStackGo · Vue · PostgreSQLMin RAM512 MBOfficial imageYesDifficulty2 / 5
MauticGPL-3.0-or-later
CategoryNewsletterStackPHP · Symfony · MySQLMin RAM2048 MBOfficial imageYesDifficulty3 / 5
What you give up by leaving Mailchimp
Leaving Mailchimp means giving up its template library, its landing pages and ad tools, and managed sending reputation. listmonk is a single Go binary on PostgreSQL that handles lists, campaigns and templates, sending through your own SMTP servers. Keila adds a visual and Markdown campaign editor, sign-up forms and segments, and sends through SMTP or providers such as Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun and Postmark. Neither delivers mail by itself: you still need an SMTP relay, and deliverability (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is yours to manage.
Where to host itaffiliate disclosure
Kamateratrial any of these on
The entry tier is a free trial — fine for a first look. Size it up (or run the 2 vCPU / 4 GB box the cost figures above assume) once you're keeping it.1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · 20 GB SSD · $4.00/moDigitalOceanalso works on
From $6/mo · 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB · US + EU + AsiaPaid link — we earn a commission if you shop through it.
Head-to-head
Common questions
Are these Mailchimp alternatives really free?
The software is open-source and free to run. Your only cost is the server it runs on — often a few dollars a month, less than most SaaS subscriptions.
How much server do I need to self-host one?
Most of these run comfortably on a small VPS — 1–2 GB of RAM is enough for a single-user or small-team setup. Each app's page lists its minimum RAM.
Will I lose features by leaving Mailchimp?
It depends on the app. The alternatives below cover the core workflow; polish and integrations vary, so check each one's stack and difficulty before you commit.