listmonk does what you pay Brevo or Mailchimp for your newsletter. You import subscribers as a CSV, sort them into single or double opt-in lists, write your campaign in the drag-and-drop editor or in Markdown, and schedule it. You track opens, clicks and bounces, your site sends its transactional emails through the API, and a signup form drops into your page. The interface is available in French. No paid version, no official cloud: one Docker image, a Postgres database, AGPL-3.0 license. Emails go out through the SMTP of your choice, Amazon SES for instance, at under €0.15 per thousand. Worth knowing: listmonk has no automated flows. Apart from the double opt-in confirmation, nothing goes out by itself on signup: your site or n8n triggers your welcome email through the API.
Versus Brevo: the match
Price
listmonk
€0, plus your server and under €0.15 per thousand emails at Amazon SES
Brevo
€7 a month for 5,000 emails, €28 for 20,000
Emails per month
listmonk
No limit on the software side, only your sending service counts them
Brevo
5,000 on Starter, then by tier
Logo in your emails
listmonk
None
Brevo
Present on Starter, €9 more to remove it
| VS | listmonk | Brevo ↗ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | €0, plus your server and under €0.15 per thousand emails at Amazon SES | €7 a month for 5,000 emails, €28 for 20,000 |
| Emails per month | No limit on the software side, only your sending service counts them | 5,000 on Starter, then by tier |
| Logo in your emails | None | Present on Starter, €9 more to remove it |
| Automations | None, your site or n8n triggers the emails through the API | Follow-up email on signup with Starter, full workflows from Standard |
| SMS | Not built in, you plug in an external service | Included, credits sold separately |
| Deliverability | Up to you: SPF, DKIM and bounces at your sending service | Handled by them, it is their job |
| Where your contacts live | On your server | With Brevo |
How to install it (even from zero)
A server with Docker, a domain name and an Amazon SES account. The prompt installs listmonk with Docker Compose, puts it behind HTTPS, wires up sending and sends a first email. Count thirty minutes, half of it at AWS, which then answers your request to leave the sandbox within 24 hours.
- 1
Paste this prompt into Claude (Code or Desktop)
It walks you through Amazon SES, deploys listmonk from the official project with Docker Compose and checks a first send:
Installe listmonk sur mon serveur (gestionnaire de newsletters open source, alternative à Brevo et Mailchimp, repo GitHub knadh/listmonk, image Docker listmonk/listmonk) en suivant la doc officielle listmonk.app/docs/installation. Pars de zéro : vérifie que Docker et Docker Compose sont présents, sinon installe-les. Commence par Amazon SES, qui enverra les mails : explique-moi comment créer un compte AWS, choisir une région européenne (Paris par exemple), vérifier mon domaine (DNS DKIM, SPF et DMARC), créer des identifiants SMTP et demander la sortie du bac à sable. En attendant, fais vérifier mon adresse de test dans SES pour pouvoir m'écrire. Aide-moi aussi à choisir le tarif : les nouveaux comptes démarrent sur le plan Essentials, la tarification à la carte coûte moins cher au mail. Ensuite récupère le docker-compose.yml officiel du dépôt, remplace le mot de passe par défaut de la base par un mot de passe long et aléatoire, publie le port 9000 seulement sur 127.0.0.1 et crée le super administrateur au premier démarrage avec LISTMONK_ADMIN_USER et LISTMONK_ADMIN_PASSWORD. Mets devant un reverse proxy en HTTPS sur un sous-domaine (newsletter. par exemple) : Caddy, ou celui déjà en place sur mon serveur. Lance le tout, puis dans Paramètres : URL racine, langue française, adresse d'expédition, dossier des médias /listmonk/uploads comme l'indique le compose, et SMTP avec le préréglage Amazon SES, validé par Tester la connexion (si le port 465 est bloqué, passe en STARTTLS sur le 587). Active le traitement des rebonds avec le webhook SES comme le décrit listmonk.app/docs/bounces (rubrique SNS, abonnement HTTPS vers mon instance, notifications de rebond et de plainte de mon domaine). Crée une liste en double opt-in, inscris mon adresse et envoie-moi une campagne de test, puis un mail par l'API transactionnelle avec un modèle transactionnel et un utilisateur API. Termine en me montrant comment sauvegarder la base chaque jour et mettre à jour listmonk sans rien perdre. Explique chaque étape simplement, je débute. Review the GitHub repository and check whether it is safe to install given my machine and my infrastructure. Ask me as many questions as possible, using widgets, to clarify my request and be as precise as you can.
- 2
Import your list and open signups
Import the CSV exported from Brevo or Mailchimp. Then create a public double opt-in list: the Forms page gives you the code to paste on your site.
- 3
Wire up your welcome email
No welcome email goes out by itself. Create a transactional template, then ask Claude to have your site or n8n call the API for every new subscriber.
Paste this prompt into Claude (Code or Desktop)What you actually do with it
Your newsletter, with no subscriber meter
You write in the drag-and-drop editor or in Markdown, pick your lists, schedule the send. At 2,000 or 50,000 subscribers, listmonk costs nothing, only your sending service counts the emails.
The guide delivered right after signup
Someone leaves their address on your site. Your site or n8n adds them to your list and sends your guide through the transactional API, with your template and your domain.
Write only to the people it concerns
Each subscriber carries attributes: product bought, city, source. A SQL query isolates the ones who bought your course, and Claude writes it for you if you do not speak SQL.
Project health, at a glance
Before installing an open-source tool, one question matters: is the project alive? These scores are computed from public GitHub data. They are not made up.
67/100
GoodHealthy, followed project: a good everyday choice.
- Activity
- 30
Is the code moving? (commits in the last 30 days)
- Maintenance
- 100
How fresh is the latest update? Fresher is better.
- Community
- 90
Stars and contributors: people around means help and fixes.
- Maturity
- 100
Project age. Old enough to be solid, still alive.
- Momentum
- 15
Current pace versus its usual pace: speeding up or dozing off?
The repo in numbers
- GitHub stars
- 23.7k
- Forks
- 2.7k
- Contributors
- 256
- Commits
- 2k
- Project age
- 7.3 yrs
- Last commit
- today
- Size
- 51.2 MB
- License
- AGPL-3.0
Built with
- Go 41.6%
- Vue 24.2%
- JavaScript 19.3%
- TypeScript 9.7%
- HTML 1.7%
Scores computed automatically from the GitHub API (last-30-days activity, update freshness, community size, project age). Refreshed daily.
Loucash’s take
8/10
listmonk ticks everything I expect from a free tool: no paid version, no subscriber cap, and an interface available in French. You only pay for your server and for sending through Amazon SES, a few euros a month even with thousands of subscribers. What I like: it has been around since 2019, it is very light and runs on the smallest server. Your contacts stay with you, you send through the service of your choice, and its API also handles your site's emails. Why 8 and not more: it has no automated flows. No welcome email that goes out by itself, no follow-up sequence: your site or n8n has to trigger them through the API. And deliverability becomes your job, with SPF, DKIM and bounces to set up yourself.
It’s for you if: You send a newsletter to a few thousand subscribers and your Brevo or Mailchimp bill climbs with every tier. If you need automated sequences (welcome, follow-ups) without touching code, Plunk does better.
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