Overview

MailWizz and Sendy are the two most popular buy-once, self-hosted email marketing tools. Both are PHP applications, both are affordable, but they're very different products.

The Feature Gap

MailWizz is a full email marketing platform. Automation workflows, A/B testing, landing pages, multiple delivery servers, bounce management, white-label support. It's been developed since 2013 with consistent feature additions.

Sendy sends newsletters via Amazon SES. That's basically it. No automation, no A/B testing, no landing pages. It does one thing and does it cheaply.

SES Lock-in vs Flexibility

Sendy only works with Amazon SES. If SES restricts your account or you want to switch providers, you're stuck. MailWizz supports SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, SparkPost, and generic SMTP, letting you rotate between providers or use multiple simultaneously.

The Real Cost

Sendy's $69 sounds cheaper than MailWizz's $86, but you also need hosting for both. The $17 difference is negligible compared to the feature gap. If you need anything beyond basic newsletters, MailWizz is the better investment.

For teams that don't want to manage servers at all, Sequenzy offers managed email with Stripe integration and AI sequences at $49/month.

Infrastructure Ownership and Control

The most significant difference between MailWizz and Sendy is who controls the email infrastructure. MailWizz gives you complete ownership of your data and sending infrastructure. Sendy manages everything on your behalf.

Self-hosting provides data sovereignty, complete customization, and freedom from vendor pricing changes. Managed platforms provide convenience, managed deliverability, and professional support. Your choice depends on whether your team has the technical resources to manage infrastructure or prefers to focus entirely on marketing.

Deliverability and Sender Reputation

Email deliverability depends more on your sending practices than your platform choice. Proper SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication, clean subscriber lists, and consistent sending patterns matter more than which tool you use. Both MailWizz and Sendy can achieve good deliverability when configured correctly.

That said, managed platforms typically handle deliverability infrastructure automatically, while self-hosted or API-based solutions require more manual attention. Use an email validator to clean your lists before sending, regardless of which platform you choose.

Migration Path and Switching Costs

If you are considering switching between MailWizz and Sendy, plan for a transition period. Contact lists can be exported and imported via CSV, but automations, templates, and integrations will need to be rebuilt. Domain authentication records need to be updated, and your sender reputation may temporarily dip during the transition.

Budget at least two to four weeks for a full migration, including parallel running of both platforms to ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Use the email warmup calculator to plan your sending ramp-up on the new platform and maintain deliverability throughout the transition.