Plunk

New

The free alternative toMailchimp,Brevo

🟡 Intermediate⏱️ ~30 min to installYou save €11/mo

Plunk gathers in one tool what you pay Mailchimp or Brevo for: campaigns (a newsletter to your whole list, with the editor and templates), automations (a welcome email when someone signs up, a sequence when they take some action) and transactional emails sent by your site or app through a simple API. Your contacts, segments and history live on your server, with no contact cap and no logo forced at the bottom of your emails. The twist: Plunk does not send by itself, it relies on Amazon SES, AWS's sending service, which charges about 9 cents per thousand emails. So you need an AWS account with your verified domain. The install uses Docker Compose, a Postgres database and a Redis, following the official docs. The project is AGPL-3.0 licensed, maintained by one developer who also sells a cloud version (1,000 emails a month free, then per email sent), and the repo is past 5,400 stars with regular updates.

5.5kView on GitHub ↗

Versus Mailchimp: the match

Price
Plunk
€0, plus a small VPS and about 9 cents per thousand emails at Amazon
Mailchimp
€11 a month for 500 contacts, then by tier
Contacts
Plunk
No limit
Mailchimp
500 on Essentials, the price climbs with the list
Logo in your emails
Plunk
None
Mailchimp
Present on free, €12 more at Brevo to remove it

Mailchimp ↗

VS	Plunk	Mailchimp ↗
Price	€0, plus a small VPS and about 9 cents per thousand emails at Amazon	€11 a month for 500 contacts, then by tier
Contacts	No limit	500 on Essentials, the price climbs with the list
Logo in your emails	None	Present on free, €12 more at Brevo to remove it
Transactional emails	Included, by API	Separate service, billed separately
Where your contacts live	On your server	With them
Deliverability	Up to you: SPF, DKIM and Amazon SES	Handled by them, it is their job

How to install it (even from zero)

An AWS account with your domain verified in Amazon SES, a server, a domain name. The prompt installs Plunk with Docker Compose and sends a first email. Count thirty minutes, half of it at AWS.

Paste this prompt into Claude (Code or Desktop)

It walks you through Amazon SES, deploys Plunk from the official project with Docker Compose and checks a first send:

Installe Plunk sur mon serveur (la plateforme email open source, alternative à Mailchimp et Brevo, repo GitHub useplunk/plunk, image Docker driaug/plunk) en suivant la doc officielle docs.useplunk.com/self-hosting/introduction. Pars de zéro : vérifie que Docker et Docker Compose sont présents, sinon installe-les. Commence par Amazon SES : explique-moi comment créer un compte AWS, vérifier mon nom de domaine dans SES (enregistrements DNS DKIM et SPF à poser), créer un configuration set, demander la sortie du mode bac à sable pour envoyer à n'importe qui, et créer une clé d'accès IAM limitée à SES. Ensuite récupère le docker-compose.yml officiel de la doc, crée le fichier .env avec un JWT_SECRET long et aléatoire, les URL de mon tableau de bord et de mon API sur deux sous-domaines (app. et api.), la base Postgres et le Redis du compose, la région et les clés SES, et DISABLE_SIGNUPS à true dès que mon compte est créé. Mets un reverse proxy Caddy devant qui sert les deux sous-domaines en HTTPS avec certificats automatiques, sans publier les ports du conteneur. Lance le tout, crée mon compte, ajoute mon domaine d'envoi, puis envoie un mail de test à mon adresse depuis une campagne et un autre depuis l'API. 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 set your first automation
A CSV from Mailchimp or Brevo, then a “signup” event that triggers your welcome email. That is where you gain the most.
3
Warm up your domain before the big campaign
At Amazon, your reputation starts from zero. Send to your most active contacts first, in small volumes, before writing to the whole list.

What you actually do with it

Your newsletter, with no contact cap

You write in the editor, pick a segment, send. At 5,000 or 50,000 subscribers, the price does not move, only Amazon counts the emails.

The automatic welcome email

Someone leaves their address on your site or through Manychat, your site sends the event to Plunk, the sequence goes out by itself.

Your app's or shop's emails

Confirmation, invoice, login code: one API call and the email goes out, with the same domain and tracking as your campaigns.

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.

79/100

Good

Healthy, followed project: a good everyday choice.

Activity: 100
Maintenance: 100
Community: 70
Maturity: 80
Momentum: 45

The repo in numbers

GitHub stars: 5.5k
Forks: 401
Contributors: 45
Commits: 941
Project age: 2.2 yrs
Last commit: 3 d ago
Size: 7.8 MB
License: AGPL-3.0

Built with

TypeScript 94%
MDX 4.8%

Scores computed automatically from the GitHub API (last-30-days activity, update freshness, community size, project age). Refreshed daily.

Loucash’s take

7/10

Let me say it upfront: this library runs on Brevo, and I have not migrated yet. Plunk is still the right alternative if you pay Mailchimp or Brevo for your list: campaigns, automations and transactional emails in one place, unlimited contacts, no forced logo, and everything stays with you. The API is simple, the dashboard is clean. What you have to accept: Plunk cannot send without Amazon SES. You need an AWS account, your verified domain, a request to leave the sandbox, and you carry the sending reputation. Mailchimp and Brevo, you mostly pay them for that, deliverability handled by people whose job it is. If your list is small or your sends rare, the price gap is not worth the time spent at AWS. My math: from a few thousand contacts and one send a week, Plunk saves you several tens of euros a month for a few cents at Amazon. That is when I will switch.

It’s for you if: You pay Mailchimp or Brevo for a list of several thousand contacts, you have a server, and you accept to spend half an hour at Amazon SES.