MailCheap
Newsletter tool that charges for the emails you send, not the people sitting quiet on your list. Write and schedule issues, with a free signup page and website built in.
Our take
Worth it the moment your list gets big enough that beehiiv or Mailchimp start charging for subscribers who never open your email — MailCheap only charges for emails it actually sends. The catch: it's one indie developer's year-one product, so it hasn't got beehiiv's track record, and self-hosting the open-source version is the fallback if mailcheap.ai ever has a bad week.
The quick breakdown
- Good for
- A creator or small business sending a weekly or monthly newsletter who's tired of paying for subscribers who never open it.
- Not great for
- A huge list that rarely emails. You pay per email sent, so a list of 50,000 people getting one email a week costs real money regardless of how many actually read it.
- Watch out
- It's a young, one-developer product (shipped October 2026 by indie maker Marc Lou, who also built ShipFast and other bootstrapped tools), not a company with years of uptime history like beehiiv or Mailchimp. It's open source, so you can self-host instead of trusting mailcheap.ai to stay up.
Based on MailCheap pricing: pay per email, not per subscriber, marclou/mailcheap on GitHub, plus the tool's own site. Not much independent feedback exists yet. Checked Oct 21, 2026. Prices change, so confirm before you pay.
Good for
Quick facts
- Price: Paid (From $19/month (20,000 emails, up to about 10,000 subscribers); $0.95 per 1,000 emails sent, billed monthly, 2 months free billed yearly).
- You get: text.
- Last checked: Oct 21, 2026.
- Category: Marketing & Sales.
- Where it was found: GitHub, first seen Oct 10, 2026, with 1,261 GitHub stars when last checked.
- Traction: 1,261 GitHub stars.
- Official link: mailcheap.ai
Common questions
What is MailCheap good for?
A creator or small business sending a weekly or monthly newsletter who's tired of paying for subscribers who never open it.
Is MailCheap free?
From $19/month (20,000 emails, up to about 10,000 subscribers); $0.95 per 1,000 emails sent, billed monthly, 2 months free billed yearly. Prices change, so check the official site before you pay.
How hard is MailCheap to use?
ShipRadar rates it Beginner-friendly: no tech skills needed.
What should I watch out for with MailCheap?
It's a young, one-developer product (shipped October 2026 by indie maker Marc Lou, who also built ShipFast and other bootstrapped tools), not a company with years of uptime history like beehiiv or Mailchimp. It's open source, so you can self-host instead of trusting mailcheap.ai to stay up.
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