Selva Mail vs
Listmonk
Free and open source, self-hosted, single Go binary.
What Listmonk does well
Beautifully engineered. A single Go binary, genuinely fast at millions of subscribers, SQL-based querying for anyone comfortable writing it, and a clean admin UI. For newsletters it is excellent.
Where the pricing model hurts
Newsletters only — no automation engine and no transactional sending, so you end up running a second vendor alongside it. Non-technical users cannot build campaigns without help.
Newsletters only — no automation, no transactional.
What it costs at 5k, 10k and 25k
Assumes four emails per contact per month. Selva Mail is a one-time $497 license, then AWS bills you for what you actually send.
| Contacts | Listmonk | Selva Mail (AWS) | Annual saving | Payback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | free software | ≈$2/mo | — | never — you are already cheaper |
| 10,000 | free software | ≈$5/mo | — | never — you are already cheaper |
| 25,000 | free software | ≈$12/mo | — | never — you are already cheaper |
Public list prices, 2026. Where a competitor is free software, the saving column is blank on purpose — the cost you are comparing is your own server and your own hours, not a license fee.
Selva Mail costs $497 once, then AWS at cost — about $6/mo at 50,000 emails. It is priced per email sent, not per contact, so it does not grow with your list.
Migrating from Listmonk
Export subscribers and lists as CSV. Your SES configuration carries over. What you gain is the automation and transactional half you were previously solving elsewhere.
Stop paying for the same contacts
every month.
$497 once. Runs on your infrastructure, sends through your own AWS SES account. Launch buyers get agency rights permanently — unlimited client workspaces. First 100 licenses.