A self-hosted email marketing API you own
Broadcast is a full email marketing platform with a clean REST API — manage subscribers, tags, and segments, trigger automations, and send campaigns straight from your application. The difference: it runs on your server for a one-time license, sends through any ESP, and never charges per contact.
The short answer
An email marketing API lets your application manage subscribers and send campaigns or automations programmatically, instead of clicking around a dashboard. Most options (Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, SendGrid Marketing) are hosted SaaS that price by contact and store your list on their servers. Broadcast is the self-hosted alternative: a one-time-purchase ($250) platform with a REST API that runs on your own infrastructure, sends through Amazon SES, Postmark, Mailgun, or any SMTP, and supports unlimited subscribers with no per-contact fees.
curl -X POST https://mail.yourdomain.com/api/v1/subscribers \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $BROADCAST_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"email": "[email protected]",
"tags": ["trial", "from-app"],
"fields": { "plan": "pro" }
}'
# → 201 Created — subscriber added,
# tagged, and entered into your
# "trial onboarding" automation.Straight answer: if all you need is a transactional sending API for receipts and password resets, use Amazon SES, Postmark, or Mailgun directly — you don’t need a marketing platform. Broadcast’s API is for the marketing layer: subscriber state, segments, campaigns, and automations driven from your code. You bring the ESP for delivery; Broadcast gives you the programmable platform on top, and you host and own all of it.
What you can drive from the API
Wire your product events straight into your email program
Manage subscribers
Create, update, tag, and segment subscribers with custom fields — keep your list in sync with your app’s source of truth.
Trigger automations
Fire onboarding, trial, and lifecycle sequences from product events instead of guessing in a dashboard.
Send campaigns
Create and send broadcasts programmatically, with templates and merge fields rendered server-side.
Webhooks back to you
Receive opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes as webhooks so your app reacts in real time.
Bring your own ESP
Delivery goes through SES, Postmark, Mailgun, or any SMTP — swap providers without touching your integration.
Own the data
Everything runs on your server. No per-contact API pricing, no third party holding your subscriber list.
Building Broadcast into a product? See the developers use-case and the documentation.
Self-hosted API vs SaaS marketing APIs
| Feature | Broadcast API | SaaS marketing APIs |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Your server | Vendor cloud |
| Pricing | $250 one-time | Monthly, per contact |
| Subscriber limits | Unlimited | Tiered |
| Sending provider | Any ESP / SMTP | Locked to vendor |
| Subscriber data | Your database | Vendor-held |
| Rate limits | Your infrastructure | Plan-dependent |
| Setup & maintenance | You self-host | Fully managed |
A hosted API is less to operate. A self-hosted API is yours to keep — no per-contact metering, no vendor holding your list, and a sending provider you choose.
Frequently Asked Questions
An email marketing platform you can program — and own
Self-hosted, REST API, any ESP, one-time license.
