# phpList

> phpList 3 (877 stars, v3.6.17 Aug 2026) is a long-running PHP/MySQL email campaign manager. It does subscriber import and attributes, segmentation, personalisation, scheduled and repeating campaigns, bounce processing, domain throttling, real-time analytics and RSS-to-email. AGPL-3.0. It sends via SMTP or built-in Amazon SES, and runs on ordinary PHP hosting. It has no visual automation journeys or paid subscriptions; a hosted service (phplist.com) is offered.

- Repository: https://github.com/phpList/phplist3
- Official docs: https://www.phplist.org/manual/
- Checked: 2026-10-16

## What it replaces
- Mailchimp: Subscriber lists and segments, Campaign editor and templates, Open and click analytics (partial). Lists, segmentation, campaigns and analytics; no automation journeys or landing-page builder.
- beehiiv: Subscriber lists and segments, Campaign editor and templates, Open and click analytics (partial). Newsletter sending only; no website or paid subscriptions.
- Brevo: Subscriber lists and segments, Write and send email campaigns, Campaign analytics (partial). Subscriber segmentation, newsletter campaigns and statistics cover email marketing; delivery needs configuration; Brevo SMS, WhatsApp, CRM and complete automation are not covered.

## Facts, with sources

| Question | Status | Answer | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on my machine? | Confirmed | Self-hosted on PHP/MySQL hosting or Docker; hosted phplist.com also offered | https://github.com/phpList/phplist3#readme | 2026-10-16 |
| Code licence | Partial | AGPL-3.0 (copyleft) | https://github.com/phpList/phplist3/blob/main/LICENSE | 2026-10-16 |
| Model weights licence | Confirmed | No separate model weights | https://github.com/phpList/phplist3#readme | 2026-10-16 |
| Commercial use | Partial | Yes under AGPL-3.0 copyleft terms | https://github.com/phpList/phplist3/blob/main/LICENSE | 2026-10-16 |
| Paid services needed? | Partial | Software is free; you need an SMTP server or Amazon SES to send | https://github.com/phpList/phplist3#readme | 2026-10-16 |
| Hardware | Unknown | No hardware figures; needs MySQL/MariaDB, Apache and PHP 8.1+ | none found | - |
| Operating systems | Partial | PHP web hosting with MySQL; manual documents a local Windows install via XAMPP | https://www.phplist.org/manual/books/phplist-manual/page/installing-phplist-manually | 2026-10-16 |
| Setup effort | Confirmed | Medium; upload files, create a MySQL database, edit config.php and finish in the web interface | https://www.phplist.org/manual/books/phplist-manual/page/installing-phplist-manually | 2026-10-16 |

GitHub: 877 stars, 290 forks, last push 2026-09-24, archived: no.
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Source: RepoQuarry (https://repoquarry.dev/projects/phplist). Data licence: CC BY 4.0. Quotes are from project documentation and belong to their authors.