SendLit vs MailCheap
MailCheap and SendLit are both open-source email tools you can run on your own server or use as a hosted service. Both send through an email provider you pay directly instead of a per-subscriber platform fee. They are aimed at different people, though. This post compares them honestly and links to each project's own site, docs and code so you can check every point. MailCheap details were checked against mailcheap.ai and its GitHub repository in October 2026. (This is the newsletter app at mailcheap.ai, not the unrelated email-server host at mailcheap.co.)
Who each tool suits best
MailCheap suits you if...
You run your own newsletter. MailCheap is built by Marc Lou and describes itself as a newsletter app: write an issue, send it to your list, publish it on the web, from the dashboard or from an AI agent. Its pitch is running a newsletter for less than beehiiv, Mailchimp or Ghost, and Marc uses it for his own newsletter.
You want a beehiiv-style setup without beehiiv's bill. Each newsletter gets a website with issue pages search engines can find, a signup form, an author page and a sitemap.
You want to pay for emails sent, not for subscribers. MailCheap Cloud charges by emails per month, from $19 a month for 20,000 emails, and self-hosting is free apart from your provider's per-email cost.
You'd like an AI agent to draft and schedule issues. Everything in the dashboard also works through its MCP server and REST API.
SendLit suits you if...
Several people, brands or customers share one install. Each SendLit team owns its contacts, templates, sending provider, API keys and quota, and a platform can provision one team per tenant through the API.
You need sequences, not only issues. Multi-step sequences enroll contacts when they subscribe or when a tag is added or removed.
You want a choice of providers. SendLit sends over SMTP through Amazon SES, Mailgun, SendGrid, Postmark, Resend or any SMTP service, chosen per team.
You're building email into your own product. The email editor and UI blocks are MIT-licensed React packages.
SendLit vs MailCheap at a glance
SendLit vs MailCheap at a glance
Feature | MailCheap | SendLit |
|---|---|---|
License | AGPL-3.0 ( | AGPL-3.0-or-later for the server and dashboard; MIT for |
Stack | TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Redis, BullMQ, Next.js | |
Self-hosting | Deploy to Vercel or any Node.js host, without support; or MailCheap Cloud | Docker Compose; a hosted version runs at app.sendlit.app |
Sending backend | Amazon SES or PostShiba (PostShiba is invite only for now) | Your own provider over SMTP: Amazon SES, Mailgun, SendGrid, Postmark, Resend or any SMTP service, set per team |
Automation | Send now, schedule, or send to your most engaged readers first; welcome emails | Scheduled broadcasts and multi-step sequences triggered by subscribe and tag events |
Multi-tenant or embedding | Accounts with up to 3 newsletters each, each account its own SES or PostShiba tenant; embeddable signup forms | Teams as the tenant boundary, a team provisioning API, and embeddable React components |
Import and deliverability controls | CSV imports from beehiiv, Substack, Mailchimp, Kit and others, contact cleaning, staged first sends, list cleanup, bounce and complaint limits, one server-wide send rate | CSV import with column mapping; per-provider max send rate and daily warm-up limit |
Editor | Editor with slash commands, images and boxes; Markdown or HTML through the API and MCP | WYSIWYG email editor, also published as an MIT package |
Where MailCheap is the stronger choice
MailCheap is focused, opinionated, and does a lot for a solo newsletter.
A newsletter website out of the box. Public issue pages, an author page, share images and a sitemap come with every newsletter. SendLit doesn't publish your issues as a website.
Strong default deliverability rules. Imports leave out invalid, misspelled, role, throwaway and spam-trap addresses. First sends to new contacts go to a 5% slice first, and the rest follow 3 hours later if bounces and complaints stay low. List cleanup emails readers who stopped opening once, then stops. Sends pause past 2% hard bounces or 0.08% complaints, and MailCheap can read Gmail's spam rate from Google Postmaster Tools.
beehiiv migration in detail. The importer reads beehiiv's full export with tags, custom fields, acquisition source and past opens and clicks, so you can send to your most engaged readers first.
A clear hosted option. If you don't want to run servers, MailCheap Cloud's pricing is public and per email.
Light, serverless self-hosting. It runs on Vercel with MongoDB Atlas and QStash, mostly on free tiers to start.
Where SendLit is the stronger choice
Teams and platforms. SendLit's teams isolate audiences, sending credentials and API keys, and the provisioning API creates them from your backend. MailCheap gives each account up to 3 newsletters, and a self-hosted server lets in only the emails you allow.
Sequences. Welcome series and onboarding drips run as multi-step sequences. We found no multi-step sequences in MailCheap's README or code; it has welcome emails and scheduled issues.
More providers. MailCheap sends through SES or PostShiba. SendLit also works with Mailgun, SendGrid, Postmark, Resend and generic SMTP, and processes bounces and complaints from Resend, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun and SES.
Per-provider pacing. MailCheap uses one send rate for the whole server (14 per second by default). SendLit sets a max send rate per provider, so each team's SES account or other provider is paced on its own, plus a daily warm-up limit that can rise automatically.
Embeddable editor. SendLit's email editor and components can run inside your own React app under the MIT license.
Self-hosting with support channels. MailCheap's self-hosted version comes without support, and GitHub issues are off. SendLit accepts GitHub issues.
Both have an MCP server for AI agents, signup forms, one-click unsubscribe and imports from beehiiv, Substack and Mailchimp. SendLit's import also turns beehiiv's tier into a tag and never makes a contact's status less strict.
An open source newsletter on SES: how each one works
Both are good options if you want an open source newsletter on SES.
MailCheap on SES. You request SES production access, create an SNS topic for events, and give MailCheap an IAM user with a specific SES policy. MailCheap uses the SES API, creates an SES tenant per account, and processes bounces and complaints from SNS. The README estimates about an hour of setup, mostly waiting for DNS and AWS approval.
SendLit on SES. You add SES as a team's sending provider with SMTP credentials, which SendLit stores encrypted, and connect an SNS topic as described in Amazon SES bounces and complaints. Each provider gets its own max send rate, 14 per second by default for SES.
Which is the better open source beehiiv alternative?
For a single creator leaving beehiiv, MailCheap is the closer match: it copies the parts of beehiiv a newsletter writer uses (issues, a website, signups, stats) and is explicit about the savings. SendLit is the better beehiiv alternative when the newsletter is one part of a bigger email setup: several brands, automated sequences, a product that embeds email, or a provider other than SES.
For list managers and marketing suites, see SendLit vs Listmonk and SendLit vs Mautic.
FAQ
What's a good MailCheap alternative for teams?
SendLit. Each team gets separate contacts, templates, sending provider and API keys, and platforms can provision teams through the API. MailCheap is designed around individual accounts with up to 3 newsletters each.
MailCheap vs SendLit: which is easier to self-host?
MailCheap if you like serverless: a Vercel deploy with MongoDB Atlas and Upstash QStash. SendLit if you prefer containers: one docker compose up runs Postgres, Redis, the API and the dashboard on your own server.
Can I move my beehiiv list to either one?
Yes. Both import beehiiv's CSV export, including tags. See MailCheap's import guide and SendLit's contact import.
Do both work with AI agents?
Yes. Both have an MCP server and a REST API. MailCheap's is documented at mailcheap.ai/docs/mcp, and SendLit's at docs.sendlit.app/developers/mcp.
Try SendLit
Read the SendLit docs to see how teams, broadcasts and sequences work. To run it yourself, clone the SendLit repository on GitHub and start it with Docker Compose. Or sign up at app.sendlit.app and connect your own email provider.