Sendy Alternatives: 8 Self-Hosted Options for When You Outgrow It
Cem Hurturk, Founder of Octeth
Updated First published
Sendy deserves its reputation. For $69 once, you get a self-hosted newsletter app that sends through Amazon SES at SES prices, with client "brands", autoresponders and an API. For a lot of senders that is all they will ever need.
People start looking for a Sendy alternative when their needs change: automation that branches on behavior, A/B tests, many client accounts with their own limits, or sending through more than one provider. This page compares eight self-hosted alternatives, with facts checked on 2026-10-03. I build one of them, Octeth, and I say where it is the wrong choice.
Short answer
| If you need | Look at |
|---|---|
| Something just as light and free, on SES or SMTP | listmonk, Keila |
| Visual automation with branching | Octeth, Mautic, Acelle Mail, Mailcoach |
| Many client accounts with billing and white-label | Octeth, MailWizz (Extended), Acelle Mail (Extended) |
| Several delivery servers at once, or your own IPs | Octeth, MailWizz, Acelle Mail |
| A Laravel package inside your own app | Mailcoach |
| A plain open source list manager with SES support | phpList |
What Sendy does well, and where it stops
From Sendy's own site, as of October 2026:
- Price: $69 one-time, one license per domain. Updates are free within a major version. The upgrade to 7.x cost $34.
- Sending: built around Amazon SES. Each brand can also send through its own SMTP server instead. Sendy does not only work with SES, despite what several comparison pages say.
- Editor: Sendy 7 includes a drag-and-drop editor. That is another myth on older comparison pages.
- Automation: time-based autoresponders plus simple rules and webhooks. There is no visual journey builder that branches on opens or clicks.
- A/B testing: not listed among Sendy's features.
- Hosting: runs on ordinary PHP hosting. Apache is the officially supported web server, and sending relies on cron.
- Support: a forum plus email, for the latest version.
None of these is a flaw for a single newsletter on SES. They become limits when you send for clients, build lifecycle automation, or need more than one delivery path.
8 Sendy alternatives compared
Checked against each vendor's site and GitHub on 2026-10-03.
| Tool | License | Self-hosted price | Automation | Client accounts | Sending |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Octeth | Commercial, perpetual | Free Community License, paid from $790 one-time | Journey builder with branches, email and SMS steps | Yes, white-label | Multiple delivery servers: SES, Mailgun, SendGrid, PowerMTA, any SMTP |
| listmonk | AGPL-3.0 | Free | No journeys | No | SMTP, multiple servers |
| MailWizz | Commercial | $79 lifetime, $275 Extended | Autoresponders, recurring campaigns | Yes (Extended) | Unlimited delivery servers, SMTP and ESP APIs |
| Acelle Mail | Commercial | $80, $220 Extended | Visual automation designer | Yes (Extended) | SES, ESP APIs, SMTP, local MTA, load balancing |
| Mautic | GPL-3.0 | Free | Full campaign builder, lead scoring | No | SMTP or API transports |
| Keila | AGPL-3.0 | Free | Not confirmed | Cloud only | SMTP, SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark |
| Mailcoach | Commercial | $249 one domain, $999 unlimited | Automation workflows | Via your own app | SES, Mailgun, Postmark, SendGrid, Resend, Brevo |
| phpList | AGPL-3.0 | Free | No journeys | No | SMTP, built-in SES |
If you want to stay light
listmonk is the closest in spirit: a free, single-binary app with PostgreSQL that sends through SMTP, including several servers with rate limits. It is faster than most tools here and actively maintained. It has no journeys. Keila adds a friendlier, Mailchimp-style editor and native SES support. phpList is the long-running PHP option with built-in SES support and strong bounce handling.
If you need automation
Octeth's journey builder starts from triggers such as a subscription, a tag, an open, a click, a custom field change, a schedule or the API. It then runs email and SMS steps, waits with delivery windows, true and false branches, and webhooks. Mautic is the most complete free option, with lead scoring and landing pages, and the heaviest to run. Acelle Mail has a visual automation designer and A/B testing. Mailcoach has automation workflows and A/B tests for Laravel teams.
If you send for clients
Sendy's brands give each client its own sending limits and SMTP. Platforms built for resale go further. Octeth gives each client group its own branding, limits, permissions and delivery servers, with optional built-in billing. MailWizz Extended and Acelle Mail Extended add customer accounts, price plans and payment gateways at a low license price, with one month and six months of support included respectively.
Moving from Sendy
- Lists: export each list with its custom fields from Sendy and import it into the new platform. Keep unsubscribes and bounces as suppression lists. Do not re-mail them.
- Sending: if you use SES, the same SES account and verified domains work in every tool on this list. Keep your SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. Our SPF and DKIM checker confirms them after the switch.
- Templates: copy your HTML templates over, and rebuild autoresponders as journeys if the new tool has them.
- Brands: each Sendy brand becomes a client account or client group, with its own sender domains.
- Warm-up: if you move to new IPs instead of SES, ramp up volume gradually. The IP warm-up planner builds a schedule.
Where Octeth fits
Octeth is for agencies and high-volume senders who have outgrown a single-brand newsletter tool:
- Multi-client accounts with their own branding, lists, limits and delivery servers.
- Journeys with email and SMS steps, decision branches, waits and webhooks.
- Delivery routing across Amazon SES, Mailgun, SendGrid, PowerMTA or any SMTP server, per client and per channel.
- A full API and webhooks.
- Installation, onboarding and support from the team that builds it.
If you send one newsletter through SES and Sendy covers it, stay with Sendy or move to listmonk. Octeth costs more and a full setup takes two to four weeks. It pays off when you run email for many clients or at high volume. For the wider landscape, see our self-hosted email marketing comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Can Sendy work without Amazon SES?
Yes. Each Sendy brand can send through its own SMTP server. Sendy is built around SES, and SES is the default and best-documented path.
Does Sendy have automation?
It has time-based autoresponders plus simple rules and webhooks. It does not have a visual journey builder that branches on opens, clicks or other behavior. Octeth, Mautic, Acelle Mail and Mailcoach do.
Does Sendy support A/B testing?
A/B testing is not listed among Sendy's features as of October 2026. Acelle Mail, Mautic, MailWizz and Mailcoach list it.
Is Sendy still worth it in 2026?
For a newsletter on Amazon SES, yes. At $69 once plus SES costs of $0.10 to $0.16 per 1,000 emails, it is still one of the cheapest ways to send. It was last released as 7.1.5 in November 2025.
What is the best free Sendy alternative?
listmonk, for a light newsletter sender. Mautic, if you need automation. Both are open source and actively maintained.
Sendy vs MailWizz: which is better?
Sendy is simpler and cheaper for newsletters on SES. MailWizz is a fuller reseller platform with unlimited delivery servers and customer accounts on its Extended license. See our MailWizz alternatives page for how it compares with other reseller platforms.
Is there a self-hosted Sendy alternative for high volume?
Yes. Octeth, MailWizz and Acelle Mail can spread sending across several delivery servers or your own IPs. listmonk handles high throughput over multiple SMTP servers.
Can I migrate from Sendy to another tool?
Yes. Export your lists and suppression data from Sendy, import them into the new platform, and keep your SES account and DNS records if you stay on SES.