Listmonk — Self-Hosted Newsletter & Mailing List Manager

What it is

Listmonk is a high-performance, self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager built with Go and PostgreSQL. It handles subscriber management, campaign creation, templating, analytics, and delivery at scale. The application ships as a single binary with a built-in web UI, making deployment straightforward.

Content creators, businesses, and developers who want to run email campaigns without per-subscriber pricing from Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or Substack benefit most. Listmonk handles millions of subscribers on modest hardware because of Go's performance characteristics.

How it saves time or tokens

Listmonk eliminates recurring SaaS email costs. Commercial newsletter platforms charge $50-500+/month based on subscriber count. Listmonk is free -- you pay only for your SMTP relay (Amazon SES, Postmark, or your own SMTP server). The Go binary uses minimal resources: a single server can manage hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Templating with Go templates and the visual editor reduces the time to create campaigns.

How to use

1. Deploy Listmonk with Docker:

mkdir listmonk && cd listmonk
curl -sL https://github.com/knadh/listmonk/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml -o docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d

1. Run the initial setup:

docker compose run --rm app ./listmonk --install

1. Open http://localhost:9000 and configure your SMTP settings, create subscriber lists, and compose your first campaign.

Example

# Listmonk REST API: Add a subscriber
curl -X POST http://localhost:9000/api/subscribers \
  -u 'admin:password' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"email": "user@example.com", "name": "Jane", "lists": [1], "status": "enabled"}'

# Send a campaign via API
curl -X PUT http://localhost:9000/api/campaigns/1/status \
  -u 'admin:password' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"status": "running"}'

Related on TokRepo

• Self-Hosted Solutions -- Self-hosted productivity and communication tools
• Email Tools -- Email automation and management tools

Common pitfalls

• Listmonk sends emails but does not provide SMTP delivery. You need an external SMTP service (Amazon SES, Postmark, Mailgun) for reliable email delivery and reputation management.
• Email deliverability depends on proper DNS setup (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). Without these records, your emails will land in spam. Configure DNS before sending to your full list.
• The single-binary architecture means upgrades require stopping the service briefly. Plan maintenance windows for version updates.