Does Listmonk require an SMTP server?

Yes — Listmonk is an email sender, not an SMTP relay. You need to connect it to an SMTP provider: AWS SES (very cheap at $0.10/1000 emails), Mailgun, Brevo, Postmark, Sendgrid, or any standard SMTP server including your own mail server. Enter the credentials in Settings → SMTP after installation.

How many subscribers can Listmonk handle?

Listmonk has been benchmarked sending to millions of subscribers. On a 1 GB VPS with PostgreSQL it comfortably manages tens of thousands of subscribers. For very large lists (1 M+) use a 2–4 GB VPS and tune PostgreSQL's `max_connections` and shared_buffers. The real throughput bottleneck is your SMTP relay's hourly sending quota — Listmonk's concurrency settings let you throttle sends to stay within it.

Does Listmonk support double opt-in?

Yes. When you create a list, choose 'Double opt-in' as the opt-in type. Listmonk will send a confirmation email to each new subscriber containing a confirmation link. Only subscribers who click the link are added to your active list. You can customise the confirmation email template in Settings → Templates.

Can I use Listmonk to send transactional emails?

Yes. Listmonk exposes a REST API endpoint at `POST /api/tx` for transactional messages. Create a template in the Listmonk UI (e.g. 'Order confirmed'), then call the API from your backend with the recipient email, template ID and any variables. Transactional messages are sent immediately through your SMTP relay and logged in the subscriber's event history.

Yes. Listmonk is AGPL-3.0 open-source software — free to download, deploy and use. There are no subscriber limits, no campaign caps and no paid tiers. You pay only for the ServOrbit VPS that runs it and whatever SMTP volume your relay charges.

Automate business processes.

Listmonk

Open-source newsletter platform — unlimited subscribers, campaigns and transactional email, self-hosted on your VPS.

1 GB RAM 1 vCPU Port 9000 Available

Tech stack

DockerGoPostgreSQL 17

Minimum RAM1 GB

Minimum CPU1 vCPU

Default port9000

Compatible OSChoice of Linux distributions

Listmonk (AGPL-3.0, 17.4 k+ stars, v6.2.0) is a high-performance, self-hosted newsletter and bulk email platform written in Go. Unlike Mailchimp, ConvertKit or Brevo, Listmonk imposes no subscriber limits, no per-email fees and sends through your own SMTP relay — giving you full control over deliverability, bounce handling and cost.

Deployed on a ServOrbit VPS, Listmonk handles subscribers, campaigns, transactional emails and custom attributes through a clean web UI. The Go binary weighs under 15 MB and idles below 100 MB of RAM alongside its PostgreSQL companion — letting you send to lists of tens of thousands on a 1 GB VPS without incurring SaaS bills.

Advanced features include subscriber segmentation with custom fields, double opt-in flows, CSV import, bounce processing via provider webhooks, link-level click tracking and a full REST API for sending transactional messages (order confirmations, password resets, account alerts) directly from any application.

Key features

Unlimited subscribers, lists and campaigns — no tier-based caps, no per-email fees, no subscriber limits

HTML drag-and-drop editor plus plain-text mode — or bring your own Go template via the API

Subscriber segmentation with custom attributes — filter lists by country, plan tier, signup date or any field

Double opt-in and single opt-in flows — GDPR-compliant list building with confirmation emails

Built-in transactional email API — send order confirmations, password resets and account alerts from any app

Bounce processing via webhooks (AWS SES, Mailgun, Postmark, Sendgrid) — auto-unsubscribe on hard bounce

Campaign analytics: open rates, click rates, per-link tracking, subscriber-level event timeline

Sub-15 MB Go binary, under 100 MB RAM, PostgreSQL storage — scales to millions of subscribers on modest hardware

AGPL-3.0 licence — no telemetry, no vendor lock-in, full API access

When to use this solution?

1

Transactional email for your SaaS or e-commerce store

Plug Listmonk's transactional API into your application to send order confirmations, shipping updates, password resets and account alerts through your own SMTP relay. Because Listmonk runs on your VPS, you pay only for the SMTP volume — not a per-message SaaS fee. Set up templates once in the Listmonk UI and call the REST endpoint from your backend to fire personalised messages in milliseconds.

2

Weekly product newsletter

Build your audience on a Listmonk list with a double opt-in form embedded on your website. Draft your weekly update in the HTML editor, preview it on desktop and mobile, schedule delivery and let Listmonk throttle the send rate to stay within your SMTP provider's hourly limits. Open rates, click rates and per-link stats appear in the campaign dashboard as sends complete — all without paying Mailchimp's subscriber-tier pricing.

3

Segmented bulk campaigns

Import subscribers via CSV and tag them with custom attributes (plan tier, country, language, last purchase date). Listmonk's query-builder lets you create dynamic segments — for example, all active subscribers on the Pro plan who haven't opened the last three campaigns — and target them with a specific offer. Run A/B tests across two subject lines and promote the winner automatically once a statistically significant sample has received each variant.

Deploy Listmonk on your VPS

Guide optimized for ServOrbit Cloud VPS.

01

Order a ServOrbit VPS

A 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM plan on Ubuntu 24.04 is more than sufficient. Listmonk's Go binary idles under 100 MB of RAM; PostgreSQL needs another 100–200 MB. On a 1 GB VPS you can comfortably manage lists of tens of thousands of subscribers. Scale up only if you send high-volume campaigns (100 k+ emails per day) and need parallel SMTP connections.

02

One-click deploy from the ServOrbit marketplace

Open your ServOrbit control panel, go to Marketplace → Automatisation & Workflows → Listmonk, and click Deploy. The provisioning playbook pulls listmonk/listmonk:latest and a PostgreSQL 17 container, runs --install --idempotent to seed the schema, and starts the Listmonk server on port 9000. The web UI is ready in under 30 seconds.

03

Configure your SMTP relay

Navigate to http://:9000 and log in with the admin credentials shown in your ServOrbit control panel. Go to Settings → SMTP and enter your relay credentials (AWS SES, Mailgun, Brevo, Postmark or any SMTP server). Set the From name and email address. Click Send test email to verify delivery before building your first list.

04

Import subscribers and create a list

Go to Lists → New list, name it (e.g. "Product Newsletter") and set the opt-in type (double or single). Under Subscribers → Import, upload a CSV file with an email column (optional: name and any custom attribute columns). Listmonk deduplicates and imports the file in the background, reporting success count and skipped duplicates in the job log.

05

Create and send your first campaign

Go to Campaigns → New campaign. Select a list, write a subject line and draft your message in the HTML editor (or paste a raw HTML template). Click Preview to check rendering, then Send — or schedule for a specific date and time. Monitor real-time delivery progress, open rates and click rates in the campaign stats panel as Listmonk throttles sends through your SMTP relay.

Frequently asked questions

Listmonk is an open-source, self-hosted newsletter and bulk email platform written in Go (AGPL-3.0, 17.4 k+ stars, v6.2.0). It lets you manage subscriber lists, send HTML or plain-text campaigns, fire transactional emails via a REST API, and track opens and clicks — all through your own SMTP relay, with no per-email fees and no subscriber-tier pricing.