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Ask HN: Cheap way to run a small newsletter?
14 points by tombot 11 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 25 comments
For a newsletter of around 1,500 subscribers mailchimp wants £34 a month.

What cheaper / better alternatives are out there for less than 2,000 subscribers? Are we using Amazon SES + an open source tool, what’s good?



Plunk will run you $1.5 every time you want to send out an email ($0.001/email * 1500)

Plunk is pretty much Amazon SES + an open source tool turned into a product. It's selfhostable but if you prefer software intended to be selfhosted then Sendy might work well for you too. Issue is Sendy costs $70~ upfront.

Plunk: https://useplunk.com

Sendy: https://sendy.co


ty!


Looks like usePlunk is solving a problem people had for long


I manage phplist for a small doctor's office. Works well with 4k subscribers. Open Source.

https://www.phplist.com


Template + contact managing aside, I guess my concern is all of the various pieces that need to be setup and monitored to keep the email bit working


I used emailoctopus for the newsletter I shut down a while back. Worked well, but you need to test it to make sure deliverability is good from the get go.


Came here to say the same thing. EmailOctopus (https://emailoctopus.com/pricing) is free for 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month.

There was a service called tinyletter.com but it is now defunct has MailChimp bought them and shut them down. Super simple UI, and free newsletters, it was awesome.


Thank you, Octopus looks good!


Gumroad is a free option. I run a programming newsletter with about 1000 subscribers.


Thanks I'll take a look!


Why is no one mentioning Substack? It's an honest question. To me, in OP's situation, it's the obvious choice. What am I missing?


There are competitors out there as well if substack doesn't work for some reason!

I understand the desire to own one's own data and all that, but the most popular solutions are often popular for at least one or two good reasons!


Yeah good point, not one I had considered tbh. In my head it was a bit like medium, seems like offer a lot these days


last I checked, Substack did not allow writers to set canonical links for their posts.


Buttondown.com is really good, with a founder that still cares about the business.


ah nice, that one had come up in my searches too. Looks good!


ConvertKit (soon to be Kit) is free for up to 10,000 subscribers.

convertkit.com

(I work there)


ok, I'll take a look!

Edit: What is Creator Network and why can't the free account opt-out? does not look like we get API access either? so it seems like I have to use your forms which my customers can get recommended other accounts? seems weird honestly


You can use https://listmonk.app or https://sendy.co and use a provider lke SES under the hood.


Had not seen listmonk, will take a look!


You may consider MailerLite. Cheap and reliable.

SES + Sendy is pretty cheap but SES production approval is not very easy to get these day, specially for new projects


Yea, I'd also read that if you don't send frequently SES then it's not that great.


£34 a month

That’s not nothing and can feel like more than it should cost. It’s also less than a one sided Xerox at Kinkos, that is cheap relative to historical newsletter costs and within the budget of any business and most organizations.

White listed email servers are what you are paying for. Tools and service are also what you are paying for. A hobby project might not need those, but it is a cost of doing business for a business. £34 a month can and should be passed on to customers. Good luck.


Thanks, I don't know what a Kinko's is, but £34 is more than we're paying to run our entire stack and live streaming video infra. It doenst make sense to be paying more to send a newsletter twice a month.


Whitelists are why it is value for money. Email is more complicated than it appears because the infrastructure is so mature.

Statistically, your 1500 emails is spam. I'm not saying it is spam. But every default across the internet is to treat it as spam.

I can't tell you that optimizing £34/month is not the best use of your time and energy. Statistically, it isn't.




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