Sendy proved self-hosted email could be cheap. Punchmail proves it doesn't have to look and feel like a tool from 2012.
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.
Sendy pioneered the idea of cheap self-hosted email marketing: pay once, connect an SMTP provider, and send emails for fractions of a penny. For its time, it was revolutionary. But Sendy's interface hasn't evolved since it launched. The UI feels like a CodeIgniter admin panel from 2012 — because that's exactly what it is.
Every task in Sendy takes more clicks than it should. Creating a campaign means navigating through clunky multi-step forms. The subscriber management is a wall of tables with tiny text and no bulk actions that actually work well. The email editor is a basic WYSIWYG that produces inconsistent HTML across email clients — you'll spend more time fixing rendering issues than writing content.
The dashboard gives you almost nothing at a glance. Want to see how your last campaign performed? Click, click, click. Want to compare campaigns? Open multiple tabs. There's no automation engine — just basic autoresponders. A/B testing is limited, segmentation is primitive, and the overall experience feels like fighting the tool instead of using it.
Punchmail keeps what made Sendy great — self-hosted, one-time pricing, your data — and wraps it in an interface you'll actually enjoy using. A block editor that produces bulletproof MJML output. A dashboard that shows you what matters. Automation workflows with visual builders. The same cost model, built for how people work today.
Clean, modern dashboard designed for marketers. No more squinting at tiny tables and navigating through endless form pages.
Drag-and-drop builder with 10 block types, compiled to bulletproof HTML via MJML. No more fighting with Sendy's broken WYSIWYG output.
Visual workflow builder with conditions, delays, and branching. Welcome series, re-engagement, drip campaigns — not just basic autoresponders.
Real-time analytics on millions of events. Campaign dashboards, subscriber timelines, and instant aggregation — not Sendy's slow MySQL queries.
We're not competing with Mailchimp's marketing budget. We're competing with their feature set.
| Punchmail | Sendy | Listmonk | Mailchimp | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Modern UI/UX | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Block email editor | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| SMTP pools + failover | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Automation workflows | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| A/B testing | ✓ | Basic | ✗ | ✓ |
| Advanced segmentation | ✓ | Basic | Basic | ✓ |
| ClickHouse analytics | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Visual campaign dashboard | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| One-time pricing | ✓ | ✓ | Free | $350+/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 used Sendy for three years. It sent emails fine, but every time I opened the dashboard I dreaded using it. Punchmail gives me the same self-hosted savings with an interface I actually look forward to opening.
Your subscribers. Your data. Your server. One price, forever.