mailcheap
by marclou
MailCheap is a newsletter app for writing issues, sending them to a mailing list and publishing them on the web. You pay for emails sent rather than for inactive subscribers, and you can self-host it or use the hosted version.
- Stars
- 1.5k +18 a day
- Licence
- AGPL-3.0
- Runs on
- A small server
- Setup
- Technical
- Language
- JavaScript
- Age
- 16 days
What you can do with it
- Write and send newsletter issues to a list, immediately or on a schedule
- Import subscribers from beehiiv, Substack, Mailchimp and similar services using CSV exports
- Publish each issue on a public newsletter website with a signup form, or control it from an AI agent via MCP or the REST API
Could replace
- beehiiv
- Mailchimp
- Substack
Mailchimp Essentials starts at £9.89 a month (500 contacts, monthly, excl. VAT; rises with list size; source, checked 2026-10-26)
Our suggestion based on what it does, not a feature-by-feature comparison.
Make money with it
Launch a niche newsletter and monetise it through sponsorships or paid promotions, or set up and manage newsletters for clients as a service.
An idea, not financial advice. Check the licence before charging for anything built on it.
Ways a business could use it
- Run a customer or industry newsletter and pay only per email sent, roughly $4 to $6 a month for 10,000 readers on Amazon SES
- Move an existing list off a pricier platform to cut monthly subscriber-based fees
Can you use it commercially?
Free to use. Anything you distribute that includes it must be open-sourced under the same licence. Running it as an online service also counts, so a hosted version must offer its source.
Not legal advice. Read the project's licence file before building a product on it.
Getting it running
Deploy the Next.js app (a Vercel one-click option is provided) with a MongoDB database and an Amazon SES or PostShiba account, plus DNS records for your domain; the README estimates about an hour.
Follow the official instructions in the project README.
Things to check
- Self-hosting comes with no support; issues are turned off
- Needs a separate Amazon SES or PostShiba account, with production sending approval and DNS setup
- AGPL-3.0 licence has obligations if you modify and offer it as a service
- Hosted version's marketing site is not part of the open source
Who's talking about it
Checked 27 Oct 2026. Summary drafted by AI from the project's README.
