listmonk vs SendPortal
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted mail servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
listmonk
Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager
VS
SendPortal
Self-hosted email marketing and newsletter platform
| Feature | listmonk | SendPortal |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 97 · Excellent | 17 · At risk |
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 23,552 | ★ 2,174 |
| First released | 2020 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Mailchimp, Sendinblue | Mailchimp |
What are listmonk and SendPortal?
listmonk
listmonk is a high-performance, self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager written in Go. It supports millions of subscribers, rich campaign analytics, and a built-in admin dashboard.
- Handles millions of subscribers
- Campaign analytics dashboard
- Single binary deployment
- REST API and SMTP support
SendPortal
SendPortal is a self-hosted email marketing application for Laravel that manages subscribers, segments, and campaigns, delivering newsletters through providers such as Amazon SES, Mailgun, or your own SMTP.
- Self-hosted newsletter platform
- Subscriber segments and campaigns
- Works with SES, Mailgun, and SMTP
listmonk vs SendPortal: key differences
Listmonk is written in Go, while SendPortal is built with PHP. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for listmonk versus MIT for SendPortal. Listmonk has the considerably larger community, at 23,552 GitHub stars versus 2,174. Listmonk lists first-class Docker deployment; SendPortal does not.
Why pick each one
Choose listmonk if…
- Fast and scalable
- Modern admin UI
Watch out for
- Newsletter-focused, not a mail server
- Requires Postgres
Choose SendPortal if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is listmonk or SendPortal better?
listmonk is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider SendPortal if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are listmonk and SendPortal free and open-source?
Yes. listmonk is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SendPortal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run listmonk and SendPortal with Docker?
listmonk: yes. SendPortal: check the project docs for container support.