Both self-hosted: different jobs

Broadcast vs Listmonk

Both run on your own server, but they solve different problems. Listmonk is a free, fast, no-frills list manager for sending broadcasts. Broadcast is a paid, batteries-included email marketing platform with automations, deep segmentation, and support included.

Buy Broadcast for $250 See all self-hosted options

At a Glance

License
Listmonk: Free (AGPL)
Broadcast: $250 one-time
Automations
Listmonk: None
Broadcast: Drip + branching
Support
Listmonk: Community
Broadcast: Email support
Best at
Listmonk: Fast bulk sends
Broadcast: Full marketing

Straight answer: if you send a newsletter and nothing else, Listmonk is excellent and it’s free, so use it. Choose Broadcast when you need welcome sequences, triggered drips, deeper segmentation, ready-made templates, and someone to email when something breaks. This page is an honest look at where that line falls.

Feature Comparison

Where Broadcast and Listmonk each pull ahead

Feature Broadcast Listmonk
Software cost $250 one-time Free (AGPL)
Subscribers Unlimited Unlimited
Bulk send throughput High Very high
Drip / welcome sequences Built-in None
Triggered / conditional automations Yes No
Segmentation Tags, lists, custom fields Query-based, basic
Signup form builder Yes Basic embed only
Template editor Drag-and-drop blocks, brand kit, HTML Visual builder (v5) and HTML
Transactional email API Yes Limited
ESP choice SES, Postmark, Mailgun, any SMTP Any SMTP / SES
Data ownership Your server Your server
REST API Full Full
Support Email and Discord, included Community / GitHub
Footprint Rails app + Postgres Single Go binary
Release speed 139 since Nov 2025 4 since Nov 2025
Updates Every 2.x release included. One-click upgrade in the dashboard. Pull a new image and run the upgrade command
AI assistant Ask AI, included (bring your own key) No
Two-factor sign-in Authenticator app, can be required for all users Yes (TOTP, v5)
Subscriber preferences Topics with per-topic unsubscribe Choose lists on the preferences page
Scheduled offsite backups Built in: S3, R2, B2 or any S3-compatible storage No, back up Postgres yourself
SPF / DKIM / DMARC monitoring Built in, with alerts No

Listmonk is genuinely excellent at what it does: fast, lightweight bulk sending. The gaps above aren’t bugs: they’re a deliberate “less surface area, fewer footguns” design. The question is whether your email program needs that extra surface area.

How often each product ships

Releases since November 2025

Broadcast
139
Listmonk
4

Last release: Broadcast yesterday ยท Listmonk 2 days ago.

Shipped in the last 90 days

  • v2.51.0 Sequences now list the subscribers that stopped with an error. You can retry the failed step for one subscriber, or retry or dismiss all of them at once.
  • v2.51.0 Sequence webhooks report retried and dismissed subscribers (sequence.subscriber_resumed with reason “retry”, sequence.subscriber_removed with reason “dismissed”).
  • v2.50.0 Sequences have a Reply-To address in their settings, so replies to sequence emails go to the inbox you choose instead of the sender address.
  • v2.50.0 Each Send Email step in a sequence can set its own Reply-To address, which overrides the sequence’s.
  • v2.50.0 Each Send Email step on the sequence canvas shows how many emails it sent, opened and clicked, with open and click rates and bounces.

See the full release chart → | Read the changelog

What each one actually costs

Listmonk’s software is free; Broadcast’s is paid. But “free” and “cheap” aren’t the same thing once you count the work. Here’s the honest version.

Listmonk

  • Software: $0 (open source)
  • Hosting: ~$5–20/mo VPS
  • Sending: your SMTP/SES (~$0.10 / 1,000 emails)
  • Your time: wiring welcome series and triggers in external scripts/cron; self-supporting when something breaks

Best value when you only broadcast and your team is comfortable filling the gaps in code.

Broadcast

  • Software: $250 one-time (then yours)
  • Hosting: ~$5–20/mo VPS
  • Sending: your SMTP/SES (~$0.10 / 1,000 emails)
  • Your time: sequences, segmentation, and forms ship in the product; email support included

Best value when the hours you’d spend building and maintaining the missing pieces cost more than $250.

Where They Differ Most

Automations & Sequences

This is the biggest gap. Listmonk is a broadcast tool: there are no drip sequences, triggered emails, or branching. A welcome series means wiring it up yourself with cron and the API. Broadcast ships drip campaigns, triggers, and conditional logic in every license.

Segmentation & Signup Forms

Listmonk handles lists and query-based segments well, with a basic embeddable subscribe form. Broadcast adds tags, custom fields, and a form builder, so you can target precisely and capture subscribers without hand-coding pages.

Support & Maintenance

With Listmonk, support is the community and GitHub issues, which is great if you’re technical, slower when you’re stuck before a send. Every Broadcast license includes email support and updates, so deliverability questions and upgrades aren’t on you alone.

Deliverability

Both send through your own SMTP/SES, so you own your IP and domain reputation either way, a real advantage over shared-IP SaaS. Broadcast adds bounce/complaint handling and deliverability guidance; Listmonk handles bounces but leaves the strategy to you.

Who Should Choose What

An honest take on when each tool makes sense

Choose Broadcast if you…

  • Need welcome series, drips, or triggered automations
  • Want tags, custom fields, and a form builder out of the box
  • Prefer included support over self-supporting from GitHub
  • Run a real marketing program, not just a newsletter
  • Value your build/maintenance time at more than $250

Listmonk might be better if you…

  • Only send a newsletter, no sequences needed
  • Want zero software cost and a single tiny binary
  • Have a technical team comfortable filling feature gaps in code
  • Prize raw send throughput and minimal surface area above all

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Listmonk is open source under the AGPL license, so the software itself is free to self-host. You still pay for your server and your email sending (SMTP/SES), and your own time to operate it. Broadcast charges a one-time $250 license but includes automations, segmentation, and support that you’d otherwise build or do yourself.
No. Listmonk is a broadcast and list-management tool: there are no built-in drip sequences, triggered emails, or branching workflows. You can build them externally against its API, but it’s work you maintain. Broadcast includes drip campaigns, triggers, and conditional logic in every license.
Yes. Export your subscribers from Listmonk as CSV and import them into Broadcast, including tags and custom fields. Because both run on your own infrastructure, you keep full control of your data throughout the move.
It depends on what you send. If you only broadcast a newsletter, Listmonk’s free and a great fit. If you need welcome series, triggered automations, deeper segmentation, signup forms, and included support, those are the things you’d otherwise build and maintain on top of Listmonk, and a one-time $250 is usually cheaper than the engineering hours to recreate them.
Both self-host in well under an hour. Listmonk is a single Go binary plus Postgres, a very small footprint. Broadcast installs on an Ubuntu server with an automated installer and connects to your chosen ESP. The bigger difference isn’t install time, it’s what you do afterward: with Broadcast, sequences and segmentation are already there.
Listmonk, Mautic, Sendy, phpList, Keila, and Broadcast each suit different needs. See our honest 2026 comparison of self-hosted email marketing software for the full picture.

Self-host, without rebuilding the missing pieces

Keep the ownership Listmonk gives you, and add the automations, segmentation, and support a full email program needs.

Every 2.x update is included. Version 2.0 shipped on March 16, 2026. A license bought that day has received all 97 releases of version 2 at no extra cost.

Try the live sandbox Buy Broadcast for $250

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Still deciding?

Comparisons cover the tradeoffs. How To covers whether Broadcast does the specific thing you need, organized by what you are trying to accomplish rather than by feature name. If the answer is no, it says no.

Browse How To Segment subscribers Branch a sequence Bring an existing list