ActiveCampaign
Email marketing and CRM platform for customer experience automation
Listmonk
Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager in one binary
High-performance, self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager with a modern dashboard. Packed into a single binary with PostgreSQL backend.
Overview
Fast, Self-Contained Newsletter Management
listmonk is a standalone newsletter and mailing list manager designed for teams and organizations that need full control over their email campaigns. Built as a single binary application, it combines speed, simplicity, and powerful features without the complexity of traditional email marketing platforms.
Modern Architecture, Simple Deployment
The backend is written in Go for performance and reliability, while the frontend uses Vue with Buefy to deliver a clean, intuitive dashboard. PostgreSQL serves as the data store, ensuring robust data management and scalability. Deploy via Docker or download the binary directly—both paths offer straightforward setup with minimal dependencies.
Built for Control and Privacy
Ideal for developers, marketers, and organizations prioritizing data sovereignty, listmonk eliminates vendor lock-in and recurring SaaS fees. It supports campaign management, transactional emails, SMS gateways, and SMTP integration. Licensed under AGPLv3, it's free to use and modify, with an active community contributing to ongoing development.
Highlights
Single binary deployment with PostgreSQL backend for minimal infrastructure overhead
Modern Vue-based dashboard for campaign management and subscriber analytics
Supports transactional emails, SMS gateways, and custom SMTP configurations
AGPLv3 licensed with active community and straightforward upgrade path
Pros
- Extremely fast performance with low resource footprint
- No vendor lock-in or recurring subscription costs
- Simple installation via Docker or standalone binary
- Full control over subscriber data and email infrastructure
Considerations
- Requires PostgreSQL database setup and maintenance
- Self-hosting demands server management and security responsibility
- AGPLv3 license requires source disclosure for modifications in network services
- Smaller ecosystem compared to established SaaS email platforms
Managed products teams compare with
When teams consider Listmonk, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.
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Fit guide
Great for
- Organizations requiring data sovereignty and privacy compliance
- Developers comfortable with self-hosted infrastructure
- Teams seeking to eliminate recurring SaaS email marketing costs
- Projects needing both newsletter campaigns and transactional email in one tool
Not ideal when
- Non-technical users without server administration experience
- Teams requiring extensive third-party integrations out of the box
- Organizations needing enterprise support contracts and SLAs
- Projects requiring proprietary modifications without source disclosure
How teams use it
Product Update Newsletters
SaaS companies send feature announcements and release notes to segmented user lists while maintaining full control over subscriber data and delivery infrastructure.
Community Engagement Campaigns
Open-source projects and non-profits manage member communications and event notifications without monthly platform fees, scaling as their audience grows.
Transactional Email Delivery
E-commerce platforms send order confirmations, shipping updates, and password resets through a self-hosted solution integrated with existing SMTP providers.
Multi-Channel Marketing Automation
Marketing teams orchestrate email and SMS campaigns from one dashboard, leveraging custom segmentation and analytics without third-party data sharing.
Tech snapshot
Go40%
Vue25%
JavaScript21%
TypeScript9%
HTML2%
SCSS2%
Frequently asked questions
What are the system requirements for running listmonk?
listmonk requires a PostgreSQL database and minimal server resources. It runs as a single binary on Linux, macOS, or Windows, or can be deployed via Docker with the provided docker-compose.yml file.
Can I migrate from another email marketing platform?
Yes, listmonk supports importing subscriber lists. The specifics depend on your current platform's export format. Check the documentation for CSV import guidelines and best practices.
Does listmonk handle email delivery directly?
listmonk manages campaigns and subscribers but relies on SMTP servers or services for actual email delivery. You can configure any SMTP provider, including self-hosted mail servers or third-party services.
What does the AGPLv3 license mean for my use case?
You can use, modify, and deploy listmonk freely. If you modify the code and offer it as a network service, you must make your source code available under AGPLv3. Internal use without distribution has no disclosure requirement.
How do upgrades work?
Run the binary with the --upgrade flag to update the database schema. Upgrades are idempotent, meaning you can safely run them multiple times without side effects or data loss.
Project at a glance
Active- Stars
- 18,790
- Watchers
- 18,790
- Forks
- 1,907
LicenseAGPL-3.0
Repo age6 years old
Last commit13 hours ago
Self-hostingSupported
Primary languageGo
Last synced 3 hours ago