listmonk vs SendPortal
| Tagline | High-performance self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager | Self-hosted email marketing platform built on Laravel |
| Category | Email & Newsletters | Email & Newsletters |
| Replaces | Mailchimp, ConvertKit (Kit), SendGrid | Mailchimp, SendGrid, ConvertKit (Kit) |
| GitHub stars | 22k | 1.5k |
| Language | Go | PHP |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 2/5 Easy |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 5 days ago | 1 month 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
SendPortal
- No visual drag-and-drop email builder included
- Automation workflows are not yet implemented
- Limited built-in template library
Bottom line
Choose SendPortal if you want the lower-effort setup; choose listmonk for the larger community and ecosystem. listmonk has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.