Best for
Best for teams that want to send newsletters at scale on their own servers, without a per-contact bill.
Email Marketing Comparison
listmonk vs. SendPulse
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for small teams that want email, chatbots, SMS and a CRM on one bill rather than four.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | listmonk | SendPulse |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free and open source, self-hosted There is no licence fee. The server and the email sending provider are your own, and the project offers no hosted service. | Free plan; Standard from $9.60 / month Prices are the annual-billing rate at the smallest list size of 500 subscribers and rise with subscriber count. Pro from $11.52 and Enterprise from $16.13 per month at the same size. A pay-as-you-go option is sold alongside the plans. |
| Free trial | Not stated | Free plan for up to 500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month |
| Commercial use | Yes, AGPL v3 | Not stated |
| API | Yes, a REST API across subscribers, lists, campaigns, media, templates, transactional email, bounces and imports, with SDKs and granular API tokens | Yes, REST API and webhooks on every plan, plus an official SendPulse MCP server |
| Hosting | Self-hosted on your own infrastructure, as a single binary or through Docker, with PostgreSQL | Cloud (SaaS) |
| Campaign types | Newsletters and email campaigns, plus transactional messages through the API. Messenger webhooks send SMS, WhatsApp or FCM notifications through providers you supply | Email campaigns and transactional email alongside chatbots for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Telegram and Viber, bulk SMS, web push, live chat, pop-ups, landing pages and an online course builder |
| Automation and journeys | No, listmonk is a one-way mailing list manager with no journey or drip builder; sequenced sends are driven from outside through the API | Yes, Automation 360 triggers flows of emails, chatbot messages, web push and SMS from subscriber actions. The free plan allows 5 flows; Enterprise lifts the limit |
| Segmentation and personalisation | Yes, subscribers are queried and segmented with SQL expressions, across single and double opt-in lists | Yes, segmentation by tags, variables and subscriber behaviour that updates as people act, with dynamic text personalisation. Tags are not included on the free plan and dynamic segmentation starts with Pro |
| Templates and editor | Yes, a visual drag-and-drop builder, a WYSIWYG editor, Markdown, syntax-highlighted raw HTML or plain text, with Go templating and 100+ functions in subject lines and content | Yes, a drag-and-drop builder with more than 130 free templates on every plan, plus AI copywriting that drafts, improves, retones and translates email text |
| Deliverability and testing | Multi-threaded, multi-SMTP sending queues with throughput and sliding-window rate limiting, bounce processing, and analytics for campaign performance, bounces and top links. The sending provider is your own | A built-in spam checker before sending, A/B testing of subject lines and content from the Standard plan, and email verification from Pro (100 verifications on the free plan) |
| Ecommerce and CRM data | No built-in ecommerce or CRM data; external systems connect through the REST API and webhooks | Yes, a built-in CRM with contacts, deals and pipelines, plus Shopify and WooCommerce for stores and connectors for Salesforce, Pipedrive and HubSpot |
| Integrations and API | Yes, extensive API coverage for all features with SDKs, granular API tokens, messenger webhooks and a media library on an S3-compatible backend | Yes, REST API and webhooks on every plan, an integration marketplace including Zapier and Make, and an official MCP server compatible with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other clients |
| AI features | No | stated Yes |
| MCP-ready | No | stated Yes |
| Deployment | On-premise | more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Not stated | Chat, 24/7 |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials |
| Company size | Not stated | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized |
| Integrations | PostgreSQL, SMTP, Docker, Amazon S3 | more entries Shopify, WooCommerce, Salesforce, Pipedrive, HubSpot, Zapier, Make, Typeform, Slack, PayPal |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price listmonk Free and open source, self-hosted SendPulse Free plan; Standard from $9.60 / month
- Deployment listmonk On-premise SendPulse Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
- Hosting listmonk Self-hosted on your own infrastructure, as a single binary or through Docker, with PostgreSQL SendPulse Cloud (SaaS)
- AI features listmonk No SendPulse Yes
- MCP-ready listmonk No SendPulse Yes
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
listmonk
Strengths
- No licence fee and no per-contact charge, so list growth does not change the bill
- Single binary with PostgreSQL, with a small CPU and memory footprint
- SQL segmentation over subscriber attributes, and Go templating in subject lines and content
- API coverage for all features, plus OIDC single sign-on with roles and permissions
Limitations
- No journey or automation builder; it is a one-way mailing list manager
- You supply, configure and pay for the SMTP sending provider
- SQL segmentation assumes someone on the team writes SQL
- No hosted service from the project, so running and patching the server is your own work
SendPulse
Strengths
- Free plan covers 500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month
- Email, chatbots, SMS, web push, CRM and landing pages in one account
- REST API and webhooks on every plan, including the free one
- Official MCP server is free to connect, so AI assistants can run the account
Limitations
- Tags and A/B testing are missing from the free plan, and automation flows are capped at 5
- Dynamic segmentation and email verification start with the Pro plan
- Quoted prices are the annual-billing rate and rise with subscriber count
- Phone numbers are for pre-sale questions only; support runs through 24/7 live chat
Plans
Pricing
listmonk
- Self-hosted $0 The open source application under AGPL v3. No licence fee; the server and the SMTP provider are your own.
SendPulse
- Free $0 Up to 500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month, 3 chatbots, 130+ templates and 5 automation flows. No tags, no A/B testing, 100 email verifications.
- Standard $9.60 Per month billed annually, at 500 subscribers. Unlimited emails, A/B testing, advanced automation and 3 users. The price rises with subscriber count.
- Pro $11.52 Per month billed annually, at 500 subscribers. Adds dynamic segmentation, email verification, 10 users and a dedicated coordinator.
- Enterprise $16.13 Per month billed annually, at 500 subscribers. Unlimited users and automation flows, full A/B testing and dedicated support. A VIP plan is quoted for accounts above 5 million subscribers.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
listmonk
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
SendPulse
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.
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What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on their own declaration, on whatever we ask them for, and on the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.
A vendor cannot buy a review, and cannot have one removed or changed because they dislike it. We remove or edit a review only if it breaks our rules or the law, for example a false statement of fact. Paid placement has no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
listmonk https://listmonk.app · no check date recorded yet
SendPulse https://sendpulse.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-16
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.