listmonk vs Mox
| Tagline | High-performance self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager | Complete, modern self-hosted email server with JMAP, DANE, and built-in junk filtering |
| Category | Email & Newsletters | Email & Newsletters |
| Replaces | Mailchimp, ConvertKit (Kit), SendGrid | Gmail / Google Workspace, SendGrid, Mailchimp |
| GitHub stars | 22k | 5.7k |
| Language | Go | Go |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 14 days ago | 11 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
listmonk
- No built-in marketing automation/journey builder like Mailchimp
- No bundled deliverability/IP reputation management — you supply your own SMTP/SES
- No native landing page or e-commerce/CRM integrations
- Reporting and analytics are basic compared to commercial suites
Mox
- No Docker image provided officially; manual binary deployment only
- Not designed for high-volume transactional or bulk email sending
- Admin UI and webmail are functional but lack polish compared to hosted solutions
- Relatively young project; some edge-case RFC compliance gaps may exist
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose listmonk for the larger community and ecosystem. Mox has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Mox
Complete, modern self-hosted email server with JMAP, DANE, and built-in junk filtering