Updated October 15, 2026
MailCheap
Sendy

MailCheap vs Sendy

A new open-source SES newsletter app vs the long-running original

12
Features Compared
4
Key Differences
5
FAQs Answered
TL;DR

Both send through Amazon SES at about $0.10 per 1,000 emails. Sendy is a $69 one-time PHP and MySQL app with over a decade of use, autoresponders, segments and white-label client brands. MailCheap is free, open source (AGPL-3.0), runs on Next.js with MongoDB and Upstash QStash, adds automatic warm-up and bounce protection, a public issue website and an MCP server, and has a hosted version from $19/month. Sendy is more capable; MailCheap is more modern and safer by default.

Platform Overview

See how each platform looks

MailCheap

MailCheap dashboard screenshot

Open-source newsletter app by Marc Lou, priced by emails sent: self-host it on Amazon SES or use the hosted cloud.

Sendy

Sendy dashboard screenshot

Self-hosted newsletter application that uses Amazon SES for low-cost email delivery.

Key Differences

The main things that set these tools apart

Maturity
Sendy wins

Sendy has been sold for over a decade and has autoresponders, segments, custom fields, rules and webhooks, and white-label client accounts. MailCheap was open-sourced in October 2026 and does campaigns plus one welcome email.

Protection by default
MailCheap wins

MailCheap warms new accounts up automatically, sends to a small batch of new contacts first, cleans imports and pauses sends that bounce or draw complaints. On Sendy those decisions are yours, within SES's own limits.

Hosting and support
Tie

Sendy runs on ordinary PHP hosting and offers a paid installation service. MailCheap needs MongoDB and Upstash QStash, and its repository says self-hosters get no support. MailCheap does offer a hosted version with chat support; Sendy does not.

Agents and API
MailCheap wins

MailCheap has a 44-endpoint REST API and an MCP server for ChatGPT, Claude and coding agents. Sendy has a smaller API for subscribers and campaigns and no MCP server.

Pricing Comparison

At 10,000 subscribers

MailCheap
$0/month

Self-hosted, plus about $4 to $7 of SES for a weekly issue and hosting. MailCheap Cloud Growth is $39/month.

Visit MailCheap
Sendy
$69one-time

License for one domain, plus about $4 of SES for a weekly issue and PHP hosting.

Visit Sendy
Best for SaaS
Sequenzy
$49/month

At 10,000 subscribers

60,000 emails/mo (~6 per contact), unlimited contacts.

Free plan: up to 2,500 emails/month. Paid plans from $19/month (15,000 emails), unlimited contacts on every plan. See all plans

Start for free

Feature Comparison

12 features compared side-by-side

Feature
MailCheap
Sendy
Sequenzy
Cost and setup
Software cost
Free (AGPL-3.0)
$69 one-time, major upgrades paid
Hosted plans, free tier
Hosted option
MailCheap Cloud from $19/month
Stack
Next.js, MongoDB, Upstash QStash
PHP, MySQL or MariaDB
Fully managed
Sending providers
Amazon SES or PostShiba
Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailjet, Elastic Email
Managed sending
Features
Autoresponders
One welcome email
Drip series, annual and date-based emails
Visual builder and sequences
Segmentation
Custom-condition segments
Multiple brands or clients
Up to 3 newsletters per account
Unlimited white-label brands
Public newsletter site
Issue pages, author page, sitemap
Web version links
Deliverability and access
Warm-up and send pacing
Automatic
Manual (SES limits)
Managed
Bounce and complaint protection
Auto-pause at 2% bounces or 0.08% complaints
Processes bounces and complaints automatically
Managed suppression
Import cleaning
Drops typos, spam traps, disposable and role addresses
Bulk import, manual cleanup
Validation on import
MCP server
Official, read and write
Official remote MCP

API, CLI and MCP: How AI-Ready Is Each Tool?

What you, or an AI assistant like Claude or ChatGPT, can do in each tool without opening the dashboard. “MCP” means the vendor's own MCP server can do it. Each status links to the doc that confirms it.

MailCheap
MCP server
Official, read and writeHosted

mailcheap.ai/mcp. OAuth for ChatGPT, Claude and Grok, API key for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. Every API endpoint is also a tool; sends are marked irreversible so agents ask first.

MCP docs
CLINoneAPIREST
Through its MCP (6 of 14)

Create and update contacts, Create campaigns, Send or schedule campaigns, Read campaign analytics, View or manage unsubscribes, Set up sending domains

Checked October 15, 2026
Sendy
MCP server
None

Self-hosted Sendy publishes no MCP; only third-party hosted wrappers.

CLINoneAPIREST
Through its MCP (0 of 14)

Nothing through an official MCP.

API only

Create and update contacts, Add contacts to lists or tags, Create campaigns, Send or schedule campaigns, View or manage unsubscribes

Checked September 28, 2026
Sequenzy
MCP server
Official, read and writeHosted or local

250+ tools. Hosted with OAuth or local with an API key.

MCP docs
CLIOfficialAPIREST
Through its MCP (14 of 14)

Create and update contacts, Add contacts to lists or tags, Create segments, Create campaigns, Send or schedule campaigns, Build automations, Trigger automations, Create A/B tests, Create and edit templates, Send transactional email, Read campaign analytics, View or manage unsubscribes, Set up sending domains, Create forms or landing pages

Checked September 28, 2026

If You Leave Later: What You Can Take With You

Switching is easier when your data comes with you. Unsubscribes matter most: without them, people who opted out get emailed again.

MailCheap
Contacts and custom fields
Yes

GET /api/v1/contacts/export returns a one-hour CSV link, filterable by newsletter and status

MailCheap docs
Unsubscribes and bounces
Yes

Contacts export with status=unsubscribed

MailCheap docs
Templates as HTML
Yes

GET /campaigns/{id} returns each issue's content

MailCheap docs
Automations
Not confirmed

No automations to export beyond the welcome email

Open and click history
Not confirmed

Per-campaign reports via API; per-subscriber event history not documented

Sendy
Contacts and custom fields
Yes

List > Export all subscribers (CSV); self-hosted so full MySQL database access

Sendy docs
Unsubscribes and bounces
Not confirmed

Segment CSV exports include only active subscribers; statuses are in your own MySQL database

Sendy docs
Templates as HTML
Not confirmed

No template export documented; content is in your own database

Automations
Not confirmed

Autoresponders; no export documented. Data resides in self-hosted database.

Open and click history
Yes

Campaign report: export opens and clicks CSVs

Sequenzy
Contacts and custom fields
Yes

Subscribers > Export downloads a CSV with status, tags and custom attributes, or page through GET /subscribers

Sequenzy docs
Unsubscribes and bounces
Yes

Unsubscribed and bounced contacts carry their status in the CSV export, and GET /suppressions lists them

Sequenzy docs
Templates as HTML
Yes

GET /templates/{id}/render returns the exact email-safe HTML that is sent

Sequenzy docs
Automations
Yes

GET /sequences/{id} returns each sequence's steps, delays and conditions as JSON; other tools cannot import it directly

Sequenzy docs
Open and click history
Yes, on request

Full per-contact open and click history is exported on request; opens and clicks also stream out through webhooks as they happen

Pros & Cons

Honest strengths and weaknesses of each platform

MailCheap

Pros
  • Free and open source
  • Automatic warm-up, import cleaning and bounce pauses
  • Public issue website with sitemap
  • MCP server and full REST API
  • Hosted version available
Cons
  • No autoresponders or segments
  • Needs MongoDB and Upstash QStash
  • No support for self-hosters
  • New project with little track record

Sendy

Pros
  • $69 one-time license
  • Autoresponders, segments and custom fields
  • White-label client brands
  • Runs on ordinary PHP hosting
  • Over a decade of production use
Cons
  • Dated interface
  • No hosted option
  • No MCP server
  • Deliverability management is up to you

What Users Say

Reviews from Trustpilot, linked to the source

Trustpilot

“Saves me a lot of money and works well for me. It requires a little bit of technical knowledge, but if you are good at that, you can't find a cheaper solution for sending marketing campaigns.”

Trustpilot

“I purchased their product along with custom domains. Couldn't get them working at all. They just stopped replying to my emails. Horrible customer service.”

Best For

When to choose each tool

Choose MailCheap if you...
  • Developers comfortable with Next.js and serverless hosting
  • Senders who want automatic deliverability guardrails
  • Agent-driven newsletter workflows
Choose Sendy if you...
  • Agencies running newsletters for several clients
  • Lists that need segments and autoresponders
  • Anyone with cheap PHP hosting already
Choose Sequenzy if you...
  • Teams that want per-email pricing without running servers
  • Product companies that need lifecycle and transactional email
Start for free

When Sequenzy fits better than either

No servers or SES approval

Both tools need Amazon SES production access and a server. Sequenzy is hosted, with a free plan and per-email pricing.

Real automations

Sequenzy has a visual automation builder, sequences, segments and A/B tests, beyond Sendy's autoresponders and MailCheap's welcome email.

Product email in one place

Sequenzy also sends transactional and billing-triggered email from Stripe, Paddle or Polar.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

5 questions answered about MailCheap vs Sendy

Testimonials

Sequenzy Testimonials

Yusuke

Yusuke

Founder, LandingBoost

It’s the first tool where I’m actually willing to keep working on email without it turning into one giant scary blast. Favorite part is still what I said, being able to split stuff. Drafts vs campaigns vs a single-person send. I can park a lot of “don’t send this yet” work with labels and not feel like it’s one click away from going to everyone. Sequences later. Consent / lists first. I’m slow on purpose.

Rakesh Reddy

Rakesh Reddy

Founder, CrawlRaven

We used Sequenzy to replace a generic onboarding flow with coordinated lifecycle journeys covering signup, connecting Google Search Console, discovering SEO opportunities, upgrading, and paid-customer retention. Event triggers, conditional branches, personalization, and enrollment cancellation gave us precise control over who receives each message - and when someone should exit a journey. We backfilled eligible users into the appropriate journeys. The initial emails went out without bounces, complaints, suppressions, or unexpected recipients. Future users now enter the relevant journeys automatically based on their activity in CrawlRaven.

Elvis Sun

Elvis Sun

Founder, PressPulse & Medialyst

Codex basically one-shotted the migration for syncing our audience from SendGrid to Sequenzy. Sequenzy is fully observable, so agents can just set everything up. The net impact is saving $45/mo, plus 2 hours of my time every time I need to repurpose a newsletter. That's 8 hours a month. My consulting rate is $550/hr, so every hour automated is super valuable.

Caden Sumner

Caden Sumner

Solo founder, Moxie Docs

Lifecycle email was the kind of thing I knew I would need eventually, but have never had to build it out myself and had no idea where to start. In literal hours I had a fully working (but basic) flow for onboarding new users, detecting churn, and re-engaging people who have trials lapsing to hopefully convert. Sequenzy let me offload the entire “keep users engaged and recover the ones who are slipping” workflow to something that just runs. Every hour I'd have spent building and babysitting lifecycle emails went into shipping the actual product instead.

The Stand Comedy Club

The Stand Comedy Club

Edinburgh, Glasgow & Newcastle

I'd been looking for an alternative transactional and marketing email platform for some time, and I'm really glad I came across Sequenzy. The system is easy to configure and use, the email builder is excellent, and the API integration and documentation are first class. Best of all, the support is exceptional. Nic is always available, responds quickly, and is genuinely keen to improve the platform. We've had numerous feature requests implemented incredibly quickly, and any issues we've encountered have been resolved almost immediately. The AI integration is also genuinely useful, rather than feeling like it's been added simply for the sake of having AI. We've already seen improved open and click rates compared with our other providers, and the platform offers excellent value for money. Highly recommended - definitely worth trying. Anything I had disliked about the system has already been addressed. We had improvements made to the email builder and we had team/user access controls expanded just by asking. The turn around time for making these changes has been very impressive.

Oct 7, 2026

G2
Jim

Jim

Founder

I run a SaaS, and found Nic on X where I kept seeing posts about his email marketing tool, Sequenzy. I decided to try it for email marketing. Literally on the first day, I used it to send a marketing campaign and I got 5 sales. What I like most is the ai assistant because it actually writes emails that feel real instead of the usual ai slop chatgpt returns, so they do not end up in spam. It also has a 2.5k free email limit which is way better than most tools that only give you around 1k. The best part though is that it handles everything for me, tags, subscribers, sequences and all of it. Without it i would probably be managing a database and a bunch of cron jobs just to make email automation work. Sequenzy just makes my life a lot easier. it can also be set up with 2-3 clicks! Give it a try!!

Mar 10, 2026

Dhiva Logu

Dhiva Logu

Founder

I love everything about Sequenzy and also the kind of support I get from Nic. It's already the best choice for campaigns & Sequences. Specially the integrations with payment providers, auth providers & analytics etc.. is really spot on. Best in terms of features & pricing in the email segment 100% recommend it for SaaS emails :)

Mar 10, 2026

Petros

Petros

Shopify App Store review

The setup was fast and simple. It synced customer, product, and order data quickly. Generating automated flows was simple, and it improved my monthly bottom line by about 7%.

Filip Panoski

Filip Panoski

Founder, Bazzly

I've used 2 other email marketing tools. They were supposedly "market leaders". Both were clunky, unnecessarily expensive and horrible support. When I tried Sequenzy I thought there'd be trade-offs compared to the others. But there weren't, it had everything I needed, there was no bloat, emails delivered extremely fast, and the founders shipped anything I asked in a day. The best part is that Sequenzy is AI native, I rarely do stuff in the dashboard, just use my AI to create campaigns, sequences and segment customers which saves me a ton of time. Never been happier with an email marketing tool.

Max Eccles

Max Eccles

Founder, InstantInterior AI

$600 revenue in 30d from email automations. Very happy I migrated to Sequenzy. Before I was making zero from email automations.

Leo

Leo

Maintainer, Email SDK

Sequenzy's most powerful feature is probably those campaigns. It seems useless at first but they are one of the most important things to send to your users. I get to talk to my users 1:1 and help them set it up for their use case. The owner is really active on X, really nice and helpful. He's the type of person to go out of his way to help you, so you get really good support!

Viraj

Viraj

Founder, SnapCount

After using Loops and Resend, I was looking for an email infrastructure service that had MCP support, Affonso and Dodo Payments integrations, and was affordable. Came across Sequenzy, and the support from Nic has been unbelievable. Migration was done in 24 hours without any issues, and I can run all of my products from a single account.

Louis

Louis

Founder

Easy migration from another tool. Premium customer service and easy to set everything up

Apr 9, 2026

Jim

Jim

Founder, FixMyLanding

It helped me grow to $100 MRR, get #1 on Uneed, make more sales, get acquired. I literally love Sequenzy, it's so simple, I love the dashboard. I also saw the integrations and was shocked. 3 sales today, all thanks to Sequenzy. Honestly, thanks.

King Killers

King Killers

Shopify App Store review

Loving the Sequenzy app so far due to the affordability and large subscriber limits. Planning on this becoming my main email app. Campaign + flows setup with the help of their AI took less than 30 minutes.

Verified User

Verified User

Computer Software

SaaS-focused feedback, fast processing, and plenty of integrations. It is very SaaS-focused, supports a wide range of integrations, and processes feedback right away.

Jun 17, 2026

G2

Not sure which to pick?

If you're a SaaS founder who needs Stripe integration and unified email, try Sequenzy free. No credit card required.

Related Comparisons

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Written by Sequenzy, which appears in this comparison. How we compare tools

Sequenzy pricing reference

Sequenzy - Complete Pricing Guide

Pricing Model

Sequenzy uses email-volume-based pricing. You only pay for emails you send. Unlimited contacts on all plans — storing subscribers is always free.

All Pricing Tiers

  • 2.5k emails/month: Free (Free annually)
  • 15k emails/month: $19/month ($205/year annually)
  • 30k emails/month: $29/month ($313/year annually)
  • 60k emails/month: $49/month ($529/year annually)
  • 120k emails/month: $99/month ($1069/year annually)
  • 300k emails/month: $199/month ($2149/year annually)
  • 600k emails/month: $399/month ($4309/year annually)
  • 900k emails/month: $599/month ($6469/year annually)
  • 1.2M emails/month: $799/month ($8629/year annually)
  • 2M emails/month: $1299/month ($14029/year annually)
  • 3M emails/month: $1999/month ($21589/year annually)
  • 4M emails/month: $2499/month ($26989/year annually)
  • 5M emails/month: $2999/month ($32389/year annually)
  • Unlimited emails/month: Custom pricing (Custom annually)

Yearly billing: All plans offer a 10% discount when billed annually.

Free Plan Features (2,500 emails/month)

  • Visual automation builder
  • Transactional email API
  • Team and agent inbox
  • Landing pages
  • Unlimited team members
  • Goal tracking & revenue attribution
  • Unlimited lists and segments
  • Payment integrations
  • API, MCP, and CLI access
  • Unlimited sending domains
  • SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
  • Deliverability monitoring
  • Send time optimization
  • A/B testing

Paid Plan Features (15k - 5M emails/month)

  • Visual automation builder
  • Transactional email API
  • Team and agent inbox
  • Landing pages (Create hosted signup pages and attach a custom domain.)
  • Unlimited team members
  • Goal tracking & revenue attribution
  • Unlimited lists and segments
  • Payment integrations (Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy)
  • API, MCP, and CLI access
  • Unlimited sending domains
  • SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
  • Deliverability monitoring
  • Send time optimization
  • A/B testing

Enterprise Plan Features (Unlimited emails)

  • Visual automation builder
  • Transactional email API
  • Team and agent inbox
  • Landing pages
  • Unlimited team members
  • Goal tracking & revenue attribution
  • Unlimited lists and segments
  • Payment integrations
  • API, MCP, and CLI access
  • Unlimited sending domains
  • SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
  • Deliverability monitoring
  • Send time optimization
  • A/B testing

Important Pricing Notes

  • You only pay for emails you send — unlimited contacts on all plans
  • No hidden fees - all features included in the price
  • No credit card required for free tier

Contact

  • Pricing Page: https://sequenzy.com/pricing
  • Sales: hello@sequenzy.com