listmonk vs Plunk vs SendPortal

Side by side, as alternatives to beehiiv. Rows that differ are highlighted; the strongest value in a row is marked. Unknown means no source yet.

listmonkknadh/listmonk

Plunkuseplunk/plunk

SendPortalmettle/sendportal

beehiivpaid product

Cost and coverage

Price

$0 software; you run it

See pricing page source ↗

Subscriber lists and segments

Partly

Yes

Campaign editor and templates

Partly

Yes

Automations and drip sequences

Partly

Yes

Signup forms and landing pages

Yes

Open and click analytics

Partly

Yes

Paid subscriptions and newsletter website

Yes

Jobs covered

3 of 6 jobs

All 6

Popularity and activity (from GitHub)

Stars

23,886Top

5,535

2,178

—

Gain this week

Unknown

—

Signal

Building history

—

Commits / 4 wk

129Top

—

Latest release

v7.0.0-beta.1 · 2026-10-20Top

v0.16.0 · 2026-10-08

v4.0.0 · 2026-10-12

—

Commits / 12 wk

195

139

—

People committing / 12 mo

32+

—

Issues opened / closed, 30 days

29 / 68

5 / 4

0 / 0

—

Facts, with sources on each project page

Runs on my machine?Differs

Self-hosted binary or Docker Compose with PostgreSQL

Self-hosted with Docker Compose, or hosted Plunk

Self-hosted Laravel application

Hosted by the vendor

Code licenceDiffers

AGPL-3.0 (copyleft)

MIT

—

Model weights licence

No separate model weights

—

Commercial useDiffers

Yes under AGPL-3.0 copyleft terms; no paid edition or feature gating

Yes under AGPL-3.0 copyleft terms

Yes, MIT

—

Paid services needed?Differs

App is free; you need an SMTP server or sending service such as Amazon SES to deliver mail

Self-hosting requires an AWS SES account for sending

App is free; needs an email service such as Amazon SES, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun, Mailjet, Postal or SMTP

Subscription

HardwareDiffers

Light; a production instance sent 7M+ emails using a fraction of one core and 57 MB peak RAM

Not documented

No hardware figures; needs PHP 8.3+ and MySQL 5.7+ or PostgreSQL 10+

—

Operating systemsDiffers

Binaries for Linux, macOS (Darwin), Windows and the BSDs; Docker image

Any host with Docker and Docker Compose; host OS not listed

Any server with PHP 8.3+, Composer, a web server and MySQL or PostgreSQL; host OS not listed

—

Setup effortDiffers

Easy; download binary or docker compose up, plus a PostgreSQL database

Medium; Docker Compose plus AWS SES setup and DNS for app, api and other subdomains

Medium; git clone, composer install, configure a web server and database

—

Stars over time

Switch to Growth % to compare projects of different sizes fairly.

listmonk
Plunk
SendPortal

Focus a point, use arrow keys, or tap for its value.

Tracked daily since 16 Oct 2026. Dashed history: estimated from public records of when people starred the repo. Lines connect observations only; gaps contain no measured points.

Growth % starts at each project's first observed point in the shown range. Zero-star starts are unavailable.

Notes for a video or post

A plain summary with today's date and a link to the sources. Check each project page before you publish.

listmonk vs Plunk vs SendPortal (as alternatives to beehiiv)
Figures from RepoQuarry, 21 Oct 2026. Sources: https://repoquarry.dev/compare?ids=listmonk,plunk,sendportal&product=beehiiv

beehiiv: See pricing page
listmonk: free software; does 3 of 6 beehiiv jobs
Plunk: free software; does 3 of 6 beehiiv jobs
SendPortal: free software; does 3 of 6 beehiiv jobs

- listmonk: 23,886 GitHub stars, 195 commits in 12 weeks, licence AGPL-3.0 (copyleft)
- Plunk: 5,535 GitHub stars, 139 commits in 12 weeks, licence AGPL-3.0 (copyleft)
- SendPortal: 2,178 GitHub stars, 2 commits in 12 weeks, licence MIT

Where they differ:
- Runs on my machine?: listmonk Self-hosted binary or Docker Compose with PostgreSQL; Plunk Self-hosted with Docker Compose, or hosted Plunk; SendPortal Self-hosted Laravel application
- Code licence: listmonk AGPL-3.0 (copyleft); Plunk AGPL-3.0 (copyleft); SendPortal MIT
- Commercial use: listmonk Yes under AGPL-3.0 copyleft terms; no paid edition or feature gating; Plunk Yes under AGPL-3.0 copyleft terms; SendPortal Yes, MIT
- Paid services needed?: listmonk App is free; you need an SMTP server or sending service such as Amazon SES to deliver mail; Plunk Self-hosting requires an AWS SES account for sending; SendPortal App is free; needs an email service such as Amazon SES, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun, Mailjet, Postal or SMTP
- Hardware: listmonk Light; a production instance sent 7M+ emails using a fraction of one core and 57 MB peak RAM; Plunk Not documented; SendPortal No hardware figures; needs PHP 8.3+ and MySQL 5.7+ or PostgreSQL 10+
- Operating systems: listmonk Binaries for Linux, macOS (Darwin), Windows and the BSDs; Docker image; Plunk Any host with Docker and Docker Compose; host OS not listed; SendPortal Any server with PHP 8.3+, Composer, a web server and MySQL or PostgreSQL; host OS not listed
- Setup effort: listmonk Easy; download binary or docker compose up, plus a PostgreSQL database; Plunk Medium; Docker Compose plus AWS SES setup and DNS for app, api and other subdomains; SendPortal Medium; git clone, composer install, configure a web server and database

Stars show popularity, not quality. Check each project page before publishing.

Want share images and a ready video description? Open a project's creator kit.

Numbers: GitHub, fetched nightly. Facts: read from each project's own documentation, with the source on its page. How we check. knadh/listmonk ↗useplunk/plunk ↗mettle/sendportal ↗

listmonk vs Plunk vs SendPortal

Stars over time

Notes for a video or post

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