Mailrith vs. listmonk
Choose Mailrith if you want a hosted email marketing platform, visual automations, setup help, and delivery-service choice without running servers or PostgreSQL. Choose listmonk if your technical team wants free, open-source software, high-volume sending, SQL-based segmentation, extensive APIs, and direct control over the application and data. Your team must also handle hosting, security, backups, upgrades, and recovery.
Pricing Model
Compare How Each Product Charges
Mailrith is a hosted subscription. Public paid plans include unlimited Subscribers, and email delivery charges remain separate. listmonk is free open-source software under the AGPLv3 license, but you still pay for hosting, PostgreSQL, email delivery, monitoring, security, backups, and staff time.
Best Fit
Choose Based On The Work You Need To Do
Choose Mailrith When
- You do not want your team to run and maintain a newsletter application.
- You want guided setup, visual automations, and a managed product.
- You want delivery-service choice without managing PostgreSQL and servers.
Choose listmonk When
- Your team can run, secure, monitor, and upgrade a self-hosted service.
- You need SQL-expression segmentation or very high-throughput queues.
- Open-source code access and direct control over hosting are firm requirements.
Key Differences
What Changes In Practice
Compare the pricing model, who manages email delivery, and which tasks each product supports.
Your Team Runs listmonk
listmonk runs as a self-hosted application with PostgreSQL. Mailrith is a hosted service.
listmonk Is Designed For Technical Teams
Its SQL segmentation, multiple SMTP queues, APIs, and custom connections can work well for engineering-led teams.
Mailrith Includes More Marketing Tools
Mailrith provides managed forms, landing pages, sequences, visual automations, templates, reports, SDKs, and MCP access.
Side By Side
Mailrith vs. listmonk Comparison
| Criteria | Mailrith | listmonk | What To Consider |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application Hosting | Hosted and operated by Mailrith. | Self-hosted binary or Docker deployment with PostgreSQL. | Who will run listmonk for your live email program? |
| Software Cost | Recurring hosted plan. | Free open-source software under AGPLv3. | What will hosting and staff time cost? |
| Email Delivery | Supported services and Custom SMTP. | Customer-configured SMTP and multi-SMTP queues. | Which delivery service will you connect, and how much control do you need? |
| Segmentation | Saved segments based on Subscriber data and activity. | SQL-expression segmentation. | Does your team need to write segmentation logic in SQL? |
| Marketing Automation | Visual automations and sequences. | Campaigns, APIs, webhooks, and transactional messaging tools. | Do marketers need to build automated follow-ups without engineering help? |
| Updates And Recovery | Managed as part of the hosted product. | Customer handles upgrades, PostgreSQL backups, restores, and security. | Has your team tested listmonk upgrades and backup recovery? |
| Customization | Product APIs, SDKs, MCP, and supported workflows. | Open-source code, APIs, and direct access to hosting and the database. | Do you need access to the source code and database? |
Migration Plan
Moving From listmonk To Mailrith
A listmonk migration must preserve list and Subscriber status. You must also replace any SQL queries, templates, APIs, webhooks, and transactional email connections tied to listmonk.
- 1
Record The Current Setup
Record where and how listmonk runs, including its listmonk and PostgreSQL versions, SMTP connections, storage, scheduled jobs, proxies, and integrations.
- 2
Export Subscribers And Lists
Preserve status, attributes, list membership, consent, bounces, complaints, and blocklists.
- 3
Translate SQL Segments
Document every query. Decide whether each one becomes a Mailrith segment, tag, field, or a data process outside Mailrith.
- 4
Rebuild Messaging Workflows
Recreate campaigns, templates, forms, API connections, webhooks, and transactional emails in the right system.
- 5
Keep The Old System Available During The Move
Confirm that data and sending work first. Keep the backups you need, then shut down the old system after the agreed recovery period.
Before You Choose
Verify These Details In Your Own Account
Product rules and plan limits change. Check the exact account, plan, list, and tasks you would use.
License Responsibilities
If you plan to modify listmonk or have questions about network use, ask qualified counsel to review the AGPLv3 requirements.
Database Operations
Plan PostgreSQL monitoring, backups, restores, migrations, storage growth, and access control.
Security And Upgrades
Assign responsibility for vulnerability response, application upgrades, dependencies, TLS, SSO, tokens, and secrets.
Who Maintains The Setup
Confirm who will maintain SQL segments, templates, APIs, webhooks, and email delivery connections.
Plain Facts
Facts Used In This Comparison
These facts summarize the main product and pricing differences.
- Every public paid Mailrith plan includes unlimited Subscribers.
- Your Mailrith plan price does not increase only because your Subscriber list grows.
- Customers connect their own email delivery service, such as Amazon SES, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun, Resend, Brevo, or Custom SMTP.
- The connected email delivery service sends the emails and charges separately for sending.
- Mailrith is hosted, so customers do not maintain Mailrith servers, databases, backups, or product updates.
- Mailrith includes forms, landing pages, broadcasts, sequences, visual automations, reusable email templates, reports, a public API, official SDKs, and an official MCP server.
- listmonk is free, open-source, AGPLv3 self-hosted software.
- listmonk uses PostgreSQL and supports binary and Docker deployments.
- listmonk includes SQL-expression segmentation, multi-SMTP queues, APIs, analytics, templates, and transactional messaging.
- listmonk customers manage hosting, PostgreSQL, upgrades, backups, security, and maintenance.
Questions People Usually Ask
Is Mailrith A Hosted listmonk Alternative?
Yes. Mailrith gives customers a hosted marketing application and lets them connect an email delivery service without running listmonk or PostgreSQL.
Is listmonk Really Free?
Yes, the software is free and open source. Running it still costs money for hosting, email delivery, monitoring, security, backups, upgrades, and staff time.
Which Tool Handles Large Lists Better?
Both can support large Subscriber lists in different ways. listmonk is built for high-volume self-hosted sending. Mailrith provides unlimited Subscribers on paid plans without requiring the customer to run the application.
Does Mailrith Support SQL Segments?
Mailrith provides saved segments, but it is not positioned as a direct SQL-expression segmentation interface like listmonk.
Where Do These Comparison Details Come From?
Competitor facts come from official product and help pages. Check these pages for the current prices and plan details.
- listmonk
Current release, installation options, lists, SQL segmentation, analytics, templates, queues, APIs, and transactional messages.
Last checked 2026-07-28 - listmonk Documentation
Self-hosted architecture, PostgreSQL dependency, and AGPLv3 license.
Last checked 2026-07-28