No platform can shut you down, throttle your sends, or hold your subscribers hostage. Self-hosted newsletter freedom for €49.
Punchmail isn't a hobby project with a queue bolted on. It's a multi-layered sending engine designed from day one to handle millions of emails without breaking a sweat.
7 priority queues — tracking, sending, campaigns, automations, bounces, imports, default. Each with dedicated workers via Laravel Horizon.
Campaigns split into 500-subscriber batches. Multiple workers process batches simultaneously. Template compiled once, cached in Redis, reused across all batches.
Every open, click, bounce, and unsubscribe stored in ClickHouse with 6 materialized views for instant aggregation. No more slow MySQL GROUP BY on millions of rows.
Redis SETNX locks → MySQL unique index with INSERT IGNORE → job idempotency. Three layers guarantee zero duplicate sends, even during crashes and restarts.
Enterprise email marketing features without the enterprise price tag. Built by someone who's been sending email since before Gmail existed.
Drag-and-drop email builder with 10 block types. Compiles to bulletproof HTML via MJML. Looks perfect in every client — yes, even Outlook.
Nested AND/OR conditions across subscriber fields, tags, engagement history, and campaign activity. "Opened campaign X but didn't click in 90 days" — milliseconds.
Trigger-based workflows with conditions, delays, and actions. Welcome series, re-engagement, cart abandonment. Set it and forget it.
Connect any SMTP provider. Create pools with weighted distribution for IP warmup. Automatic failover. Per-campaign throttling. This is what enterprise ESPs charge thousands for.
Event tracking powered by ClickHouse. Millions of events, instant queries. Full per-campaign reports and per-subscriber activity timeline.
Test subject lines and content with 2-3 variants. Auto-send the winner based on opens or clicks. Data-driven sending.
IMAP/POP3 mailbox polling plus webhook receivers for SES, Postmark, and SendGrid. Automatic hard/soft classification with configurable thresholds.
Multiple suppression lists with email AND domain blocking. Platform-wide suppression for spamtraps and global unsubscribes. Three-layer dedup prevents duplicate sends.
RFC 8058 one-click unsubscribe (Gmail/Yahoo required), in-body unsubscribe, and full preference center. List-Unsubscribe headers automatic on every send.
Newsletter platforms come and go. Revue shut down. Bulletin shut down. Substack takes 10% of your revenue. Beehiiv, ConvertKit, and Ghost are great today — but you're building on someone else's platform. If they change pricing, alter terms, or decide your content isn't welcome, your newsletter is at risk.
Self-hosting your newsletter means nobody can deplatform you. Your subscriber list lives on your server. Your content lives on your server. Your sending infrastructure is yours. If a platform changes direction, you're unaffected. Your newsletter is truly independent — not just in spirit, but in architecture.
The practical advantages go beyond independence. You control your deliverability with your own SMTP servers and IP reputation. You don't share sending infrastructure with other publishers (including spammers). Your analytics data is yours — stored in ClickHouse on your server, not feeding someone else's machine learning models.
Punchmail makes self-hosted newsletters practical. The block editor makes creating beautiful emails fast. Automation handles welcome sequences and drip campaigns. ClickHouse powers instant analytics. SMTP pools with multiple providers ensure reliable delivery. All for €49, running on a $20/month server.
Subscribers, content, analytics — all on your server. No platform can shut you down or change the terms.
Your own SMTP, your own IP reputation. Don't share infrastructure with millions of other senders.
Block editor with 10 block types. Create professional newsletters as fast as any SaaS platform.
Opens, clicks, subscriber growth, engagement trends. ClickHouse-powered analytics on your server.
We're not competing with Mailchimp's marketing budget. We're competing with their feature set.
| Punchmail | Listmonk | Mailtrain | Ghost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Block email editor | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Automation workflows | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | Basic |
| A/B testing | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| SMTP pools | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| ClickHouse analytics | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Advanced segmentation | ✓ | Basic | Basic | Basic |
| Bounce processing | ✓ | Basic | Basic | Basic |
| Suppression lists | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| One-time pricing | ✓ | Free | Free | $25+/mo |
No PhD required. If you can copy-paste three commands, you can run Punchmail.
Clone the repo, copy the environment file, set your admin credentials.
git clone https://github.com/punchmail/punchmail && cp .env.example .env
One command spins up all 7 containers — app, database, analytics, queue, cache, email renderer. Done.
docker compose up -d
Add your SMTP provider in settings — Amazon SES, Postmark, your own Postfix, whatever. Create pools, set weights, configure failover.
Import subscribers, build your first campaign with the block editor, hit send. Welcome to email freedom.
No subscriber tiers. No send limits. No "contact sales." Just a price that makes sense.
🚀 Launch price for the first 100 customers. Then €99.
I watched three newsletter platforms shut down in two years. Each time, creators scrambled to export subscribers and find a new home. I self-host with Punchmail. My newsletter depends on my server, not someone else's business model.
Your subscribers. Your data. Your server. One price, forever.