Overview
Sendy proved years ago that a newsletter does not need a monthly SaaS bill: install a PHP app, connect Amazon SES, and pay about $0.10 per 1,000 emails. MailCheap is the 2026 version of that idea, open-sourced by Marc Lou with a modern editor, a public website per newsletter and an MCP server for AI agents.
Running costs
Both send through SES. A weekly issue to 10,000 readers is about 43,000 emails, or roughly $4 to $7 a month in SES fees. The rest differs:
| Cost | MailCheap (self-hosted) | Sendy |
|---|---|---|
| Software | Free | $69 once, paid major upgrades |
| Hosting | Vercel or any Node host | Any PHP and MySQL host |
| Extra | MongoDB (Atlas free tier works), QStash | None |
| Hosted plan | MailCheap Cloud from $19/month | None (installation service $79) |
Features
Sendy has had over a decade to grow. It supports autoresponders (drip series, annual and date-based emails), segments built from custom conditions, custom fields, rules and webhooks, and white-labeled brands so an agency can give each client its own login.
MailCheap is narrower. It sends campaigns and one welcome email per newsletter, with no segments or custom fields. In return it has a block editor with slash commands, pre-send checks (unsubscribe link, Gmail's 100 KB clipping limit, postal address), "send to most engaged first", and a public site with a page per issue and a sitemap.
Deliverability
This is where MailCheap is most different. It warms new accounts up automatically, sends to a 5% slice of never-emailed contacts and waits three hours before the rest, drops typos, spam traps, role and disposable addresses on import, and pauses a send above 2% hard bounces or 0.08% complaints. It also keeps a server-wide never-email list of bad addresses.
Sendy processes bounces, complaints and unsubscribes in real time and offers one-click cleanup of inactive subscribers, but pacing and list hygiene are up to you and SES's own sending limits.
Decision checklist
- Choose Sendy for autoresponders, segments or client brands on cheap PHP hosting.
- Choose MailCheap for a modern, free codebase with built-in guardrails, an MCP server and an optional hosted plan.
- Choose Sequenzy to skip servers and SES approval and get automations. See also MailCheap alternatives and Sendy alternatives.

