Newsletter platform by Marc Lou. Pay per email sent; MIT-licensed, self-host free.
Sniffed 0d ago Card required#newsletter#email#open-source#self-hosted#amazon-ses#marc-lou#mcp
MailCheap is a newsletter platform built by Marc Lou (Unicorne, TrustMRR, DataFast). It charges for emails sent, not for subscribers, so dormant readers don't raise your bill. The hosted MailCheap Cloud has no free plan and no free trial, starting at $19/month for 20,000 emails, and every plan includes every feature. The code is MIT licensed on GitHub (marclou/mailcheap), so you can self-host it for free on your own Amazon SES account, provided as is with no support. MailCheap publishes its live delivery rate (99.3%) and spam complaint rate (0.045%) at mailcheap.ai/open.
Free tier quotas
Hosted free plan
None. No free trial.
Free option
Self-host the MIT-licensed code (needs your own Amazon SES and other services)
Cheapest hosted plan
$19/month for 20,000 emails (up to 10,000 subscribers)
Last sniffed Oct 25, 2026. Always confirm on the official pricing page.
👍 Good boy
+Pay for emails sent, not dormant subscribers
+Open source under MIT, so a free self-host route exists
+Every feature on every plan, no 'Powered by' badge
+Imports from beehiiv, Substack and Mailchimp via CSV; bad addresses filtered at import
+Built-in deliverability: DKIM/SPF/DMARC, staged sending, list cleanup, auto-pause on high bounces
+Publishes live delivery, bounce and spam stats publicly
+AI agent support via MCP and REST API (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex)
+Cancel anytime; newsletter and subscribers are kept after cancelling
👎 Watch out
−No free plan and no free trial on the hosted service
−Self-hosting is provided as is, without support
−Self-hosting needs your own Amazon SES and other infrastructure
−No refunds for partial months or years
−Going over the monthly email limit pauses new sends (and welcome emails) until you upgrade or the month resets
−Billed in US dollars only
The catch
The hosted MailCheap Cloud is paid only: no free plan and no free trial, from $19/month. The free route is self-hosting the MIT-licensed code on your own Amazon SES account, which comes without support and with your own infrastructure costs.
What’s included
✓Campaigns, scheduling and stats
✓Newsletter website on a free subdomain (yourname.mailcheap.ai)
✓Signup forms, double opt-in and welcome emails
✓CSV import from beehiiv, Substack, Mailchimp
✓Send from your own domain
✓MCP server and REST API
✓Rich editor with phone preview and 8 website/email themes
✓Deliverability protections on by default
Screenshots
HomepagePricing page
Paid plans
Starter
$19/month for 20,000 emails (about $0.95 per 1,000), for up to 10,000 subscribers.
Higher tiers (monthly)
75,000 emails $39; 200,000 emails $79; 500,000 emails $149; 2,000,000 emails $349; 5,000,000 emails $799 per month. More than 5M: contact them. Yearly billing gives 2 months free.
What counts as an email
Every email MailCheap sends for you: issues, tests, welcome and confirmation emails. An issue to 1,000 subscribers is 1,000 emails. The count resets monthly on your plan start day.
Common questions
Is there a free trial?
No. Plans start at $19 a month and you can cancel anytime.
Can I self-host for free?
Yes. The code is MIT licensed at github.com/marclou/mailcheap and runs on your own Amazon SES. It is provided as is, without support.
What happens if I go over my plan?
Signups and confirmation emails keep working. New sends wait until you upgrade or the next month starts; welcome emails pause once the month's emails are used up.
What happens when I cancel?
Your plan runs to the end of the paid period. Then sending stops, and your newsletter, subscribers and issues are kept.
