---
title: listmonk (open source)
description: Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager in a single Go binary, fast enough to push millions of emails, if you bring your own SMTP.
canonical: "https://10xgtm.ai/oss/listmonk"
type: open-source-review
license: AGPL-3.0
repo: "https://github.com/knadh/listmonk"
language: Go
---

# listmonk

Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager in a single Go binary, fast enough to push millions of emails, if you bring your own SMTP.

The **leanest** self-hosted newsletter engine going, a single Go binary that has pushed 7 million emails on under one CPU core. Two catches decide it: listmonk **sends nothing on its own**, so you wire up your own SMTP or Amazon SES and own deliverability yourself. And there is **no official managed cloud**, so the free download is free as in puppy.

## Project facts

- **License:** AGPL-3.0
- **Repo:** https://github.com/knadh/listmonk
- **Stars:** 23.2k
- **Language:** Go

## What it does

- Sends bulk email campaigns to millions of subscribers from a single Go binary backed by Postgres, with multi-SMTP queues and rate limiting doing the heavy lifting
- Manages single and double opt-in lists, imports and exports subscribers, and slices them with raw SQL queries for segmentation
- Builds emails in a drag-and-drop editor, a WYSIWYG editor, Markdown, raw HTML, or plain text, with Go templating for dynamic content
- Sends transactional messages over an API and fans out to email, SMS, WhatsApp, or push through messenger webhooks
- Tracks opens, clicks, bounces, and top links in a built-in analytics dashboard
- Locks down access with OIDC single sign-on, granular roles, API tokens, and S3-compatible media storage

## What it can't do

- Send a single email on its own; listmonk has no sending infrastructure, so you connect your own SMTP server or Amazon SES and pay for it separately
- Fix your deliverability; sender reputation, IP warmup, SPF, DKIM, and staying off blocklists are all on you, not the tool
- Give you a managed cloud from the maintainer; hosting is DIY, and the one-click options come from third-party providers, not listmonk itself
- Offer a company-backed support desk; one person maintains it, so help means GitHub issues and the docs, not an SLA
- Match a polished marketing suite on template design and campaign tooling; the drag-and-drop builder helps, but the tool still feels engineered for developers more than marketers

---
Full review: https://10xgtm.ai/oss/listmonk