Listmonk vs Mailchimp: Real Monthly Cost

Mailchimp prices by the size of your audience: the more contacts you keep, the higher the plan, whether you email them weekly or once a quarter. Listmonk, a self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager, has no contact or subscriber price at all. You pay for the server it runs on and for an email service that delivers the mail. Mailchimp and Amazon SES prices below are from their own pricing pages as of 2026-10-19.

The monthly cost

Listmonk is not in the one-click catalogue. Its installation guide describes it as a single binary that needs a PostgreSQL database, version 12 or later, so the setup here is the one-click PostgreSQL app, which installs PostgreSQL 16, on Veloxa 1 ($8 a month, $0.02 an hour), with the Listmonk binary on the same server.

The server cannot deliver the mail itself: VeloxaHost blocks outbound port 25 by default, so Listmonk sends through an SMTP relay on port 587 or 465. This page uses Amazon SES, whose pricing page lists outbound email at $0.10 per 1,000 emails. The table assumes a weekly newsletter, four sends a month to the whole list.

Contacts	Emails a month	Mailchimp Essentials	Mailchimp Standard	Listmonk on VeloxaHost + SES
500	2,000	$13	$20	$8 + $0.20 = $8.20
2,500	10,000	$45	$60	$8 + $1.00 = $9.00
5,000	20,000	$75	$100	$8 + $2.00 = $10.00
10,000	40,000	$110	$135	$8 + $4.00 = $12.00
50,000	200,000	$385	$450	$8 + $20.00 = $28.00

The Mailchimp figures are the monthly prices its pricing page shows for each contact range after any introductory offer. On plans of 10,000 contacts or more, the page offers 15% off for the first 12 months. Each plan has a monthly send limit tied to the contact count: 10 times your contacts on Essentials and 12 times on Standard, and overages apply above it. Mailchimp's Free plan covers 250 contacts and up to 500 emails a month, at most 250 a day.

SES also charges $0.12 per GB of attachments sent, which a newsletter without attachments does not use. If sending to a large list is too slow on one vCPU, Veloxa 2 ($15 a month, $0.03 an hour) makes the last row $35.

What the VeloxaHost column leaves out

• Delivering the mail well. SES sends what Listmonk hands it, but domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), bounce handling and your sender reputation are yours to set up and watch. On Mailchimp, the sending side is the vendor's job.
• HTTPS on your domain. Unsubscribe links, the public archive and the admin panel should be on HTTPS. VeloxaHost servers get a block of ports on a shared IPv4 address, which does not include 80 and 443, so HTTPS on port 443 needs a dedicated IPv4 address, a paid add-on with limited availability. The console shows its current price.
• Your time. You install Listmonk, upgrade it, and keep PostgreSQL backed up. Snapshots before an upgrade are not charged.
• A second account. SES is an AWS service with its own sign-up and billing.

Where Mailchimp is the better pick

• Small lists. Up to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, Mailchimp's Free plan costs $0.
• Nobody wants to run a server or a mail setup. Mailchimp has no upgrades, DNS records to debug or bounces to process by hand.
• Marketing tools ready to use. Mailchimp's pricing page describes Standard as adding automations, personalization and optimization tools to Essentials' testing and scheduling. With Listmonk, anything beyond lists, campaigns and templates is yours to build.

Where self-hosted Listmonk is the better pick

• Lists past a few hundred contacts. At 10,000 contacts, Mailchimp Standard is $135 a month; Listmonk with SES is about $12.
• Keeping contacts you rarely email. Mailchimp charges for the size of the audience. On Listmonk, a subscriber you have not emailed this month costs nothing.
• Your subscriber data on your server. The list lives in your PostgreSQL database, and you choose the relay.

FAQ

Why does Listmonk need an SMTP relay?

Listmonk sends email through the SMTP servers you set in its settings. Delivering straight from your own server would need outbound port 25, which VeloxaHost blocks by default, so use a relay such as Amazon SES on port 587 or 465.

Can I use a relay other than SES?

Yes. Listmonk can send through any SMTP service. Prices vary by provider; check the relay's own pricing page and replace the SES figures above with its price.

Does the one-click PostgreSQL app install Listmonk?

No. It installs PostgreSQL 16. Download the Listmonk binary from its project, run ./listmonk --new-config, set the database details in config.toml, run ./listmonk --install to create its tables, then start it. It listens on port 9000.

Can I import my Mailchimp audience?

Export your audience from Mailchimp as CSV and import it into a Listmonk list. Check that the export only contains people who agreed to receive your email, and keep their consent records.

What does it cost if my list is tiny?

The server's $8 plus a few cents of SES. Under 250 contacts, Mailchimp's Free plan is cheaper.