Last verified
Host newsletters on Amazon SES with a self-contained Next.js app. MIT licensed, single-admin, with an editor, public archive, and deliverability tooling.
Mailcheap targets one person running one or several newsletters and paying for emails sent rather than subscribers stored. The single-admin model and SES-based pricing match the scale of a solo operator better than any per-subscriber SaaS product.
You need a team of writers, editors, or managers. Mailcheap has one admin account and no roles.
The REST API for adding contacts (POST /api/v1/contacts) and creating drafts (POST /api/v1/campaigns) lets you wire newsletter signup directly into any app with an API key. The MIT-licensed Next.js codebase is approachable for modification.
You need a no-code tool your teammates can use without developer involvement. Mailcheap requires environment variable management and server access.
Both Sendy and MailWizz are self-hosted, SES-connected newsletter tools. Mailcheap covers the same core workflow (write, schedule, send, archive, track) with a modern Next.js and MongoDB stack and MIT licensing, which allows modification without a commercial license.
You rely on Sendy's or MailWizz's autoresponders, multi-user management, or existing email templates. Mailcheap has no automation sequences or template library.
For a founder with a small list who wants to own the stack, Mailcheap provides the full newsletter workflow at near-zero operating cost. The public archive builds an SEO-indexed issue history with no third-party dependency.
Your list is large enough that managing SES sending limits, monitoring deliverability, and maintaining the codebase adds operational overhead you cannot absorb. A managed newsletter platform handles those concerns for you.
Newsletter platforms charge for every subscriber, every month. That billing model means you pay the same whether you send 12 issues a year or 52, and costs climb whether or not your list growth is translating into revenue.
SES charges for the emails actually sent. At Amazon SES rates, 10,000 readers and 4 issues a month is 40,000 emails, about $4. SES alone handles email delivery, with no subscriber management, editor, archive, bounce suppression, or unsubscribe tooling included. Building that from scratch takes weeks. Tools like Sendy and MailWizz fill the gap but come with their own licensing costs and codebases that are not yours to modify without a commercial agreement.
Before every send, Mailcheap verifies the subject line, preview text, unsubscribe link, email size (Gmail clips messages over 100KB, hiding the unsubscribe link), postal address, and that the sending domain is verified in SES. A campaign cannot be sent until all checks pass.
Each newsletter in the same install has its own from address, reply-to, postal address, signup form, and public archive. Confirmed opt-in and list cleanup settings are configured per newsletter. There is no limit on the number of newsletters per install.
SES publishes delivery, bounce, and complaint events to an SNS topic. Mailcheap subscribes at /api/webhooks/ses and updates campaign stats, message status, and a suppression list shared by every newsletter. A send pauses automatically when bounces pass 2% or complaints pass 0.08%, which is below SES's own enforcement threshold.
Tracking pixels and redirect links run on your app domain (/o/... and /c/...) rather than a third-party service. Clicks within 30 seconds of the send and from known link scanners are filtered out automatically.
Each newsletter gets a public archive with per-issue pages, an author page, share images, and a sitemap. You can serve the archive from its own domain by setting ARCHIVE_HOSTS, which keeps issue HTML on a separate origin from the dashboard.
When you start a campaign, you can set a recipient limit to reach your most engaged readers first. The campaign report shows delivery, open, click, bounce, and complaint rates broken down by mailbox provider (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud), so you can review results before sending to the rest of the list.
Both Mailcheap and Sendy are self-hosted newsletter tools that route sending through Amazon SES. The core value proposition is the same: pay for emails sent, not for subscribers stored. The differences are in licensing, features, and maintenance.
| Feature | Mailcheap | Sendy |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | Proprietary (one-time purchase) |
| Multi-user | No (single admin) | Yes |
| Autoresponders | No | Yes |
| Tech stack | Next.js, MongoDB | PHP, MySQL |
| Maintenance | One-time release | Actively maintained |
Sendy is the established product in this category, with multi-user access, autoresponders, and years of updates. For a team or anyone who needs automation sequences, Sendy is the practical choice. Where Mailcheap has an advantage is in licensing: MIT means no purchase cost and no restriction on forking. The Next.js codebase is more approachable for a JavaScript developer who wants to modify the sending pipeline or integrate newsletter signup into an existing app.
MailWizz is a PHP newsletter platform with a broader feature set: multiple delivery server support (SES, SendGrid, Postmark, SMTP), extensive automation, detailed reporting, and multi-user team management. It is licensed per domain with a one-time fee.
| Feature | Mailcheap | MailWizz |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | Proprietary (one-time purchase) |
| Multi-user | No | Yes |
| Delivery servers | Amazon SES only | Multiple (SES, SendGrid, Postmark, SMTP) |
| Automations | No | Yes |
| API | Basic (contacts, drafts) | Extensive |
| Tech stack | Next.js, MongoDB | PHP, MySQL |
MailWizz is the right choice for agencies managing multiple clients, teams with complex automation needs, or operators who want flexibility across delivery providers. Mailcheap is a better fit for solo operators who want MIT-licensed code they can read and extend, a modern JavaScript stack, and no purchase cost.
Deploy on any Node.js server behind HTTPS, or use the Vercel Deploy button in the README for one-click setup.
```bash
git clone https://github.com/marclou/mailcheap.git
npm ci && npm run build && npm start
```The code is MIT licensed and free. Running costs are Amazon SES (approximately $0.10 per 1,000 emails, per Amazon's published pricing), MongoDB Atlas (free tier works for most list sizes), Upstash QStash (free tier to start), and hosting (Vercel free tier works). For 10,000 readers sending 4 issues a month, total sending cost is about $4.
Yes. Each newsletter has its own from address, reply-to, postal address, public archive, and signup forms. Confirmed opt-in and list cleanup are configured per newsletter. There is no per-newsletter limit.
The README is explicit that this is a one-time open-source release with issues disabled and no updates planned. The code ships working, but future security patches, dependency updates, and AWS compatibility changes are your responsibility. Fork the repo if you need a maintainable base.
SES publishes delivery, bounce, and complaint events to an SNS topic; Mailcheap subscribes and maintains a shared suppression list. A campaign pauses automatically if the bounce rate passes 2% or the complaint rate passes 0.08%, which is below SES's own enforcement threshold. RFC 8058 one-click unsubscribe headers are included in every email.
A MongoDB cluster (Atlas free tier works), an Amazon SES account with a verified sending domain and production access approval (AWS typically responds within a day), and an Upstash QStash account for background job scheduling. The README estimates about an hour for the full setup, most of it waiting for DNS propagation and AWS approval.
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