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Plugin Documentation — direct deep-dives
Email marketing cost
Most email marketing platforms bill you every month, and the bill rises every time your list grows — even for subscribers who never open an email. AcelleMail flips that model: it is self-hosted software you buy once for a $80 one-time license — no monthly fee, no per-subscriber charge, unlimited subscribers and lists. You run it on your own server and pay only your sending relay (Amazon SES is about $0.10 per 1,000 emails) plus a small VPS.
There are two fundamentally different pricing models, and the difference compounds over time:
Neither is universally "better" — a fully-managed SaaS handles the servers and deliverability for you, which is worth paying for if you never want to touch infrastructure. But if you are cost-sensitive, plan to grow, or want to own your data and software, the one-time model wins on total cost — usually within the first few months.
Published monthly rates at three common list sizes. Figures are each vendor's own rate card (or a dated third-party estimate where the vendor quotes by request) as of July 2026 and are subject to change — always confirm on the vendor's pricing page. AcelleMail is shown for contrast as a one-time license plus bring-your-own sending.
Prices as published July 2026, USD, tiered by contacts unless noted; billing term (monthly vs annual) and promotions change these — verify on each vendor's pricing page. † Brevo bills by emails sent, not contacts (unlimited contacts on every plan); its column shows the Business-plan tier that covers the email volume a list of that size typically sends. AcelleMail is a one-time license, so its cost does not appear as a monthly figure — you add only your sending relay (~$0.10 / 1,000 on Amazon SES) and a small VPS. See the full cost-savings guide and calculator.
The gap widens as your list grows, because a per-subscriber SaaS bill never stops climbing while a one-time license price never moves. Three worked examples using the published rates above:
Your data and your list stay on your server, and the software is yours to keep and modify — full, unencrypted PHP source is included.
Hosted ESPs bundle delivery into their subscription, so you pay for sending indirectly through the per-subscriber fee. When you self-host, you connect a dedicated sending relay and pay only for what you send. Amazon SES is the cheapest at about $0.10 per 1,000 emails, and AcelleMail ships 8 sending drivers (Amazon SES, SendGrid, SparkPost, Mailgun, Elastic Email, Blastengine, Gmail relay, generic SMTP) plus a plugin SDK, so you can pick the cheapest relay for your volume or mix providers. AcelleMail adds the marketing layer on top: a drag-and-drop builder, lists and segments, visual automation, A/B testing, and open/click/bounce analytics.
For a deeper breakdown of relay economics see the Amazon SES frontend page, or the cost-savings guide with an interactive calculator.
The AcelleMail Regular License is $80, paid once, and includes:
The trade-off is real and worth stating plainly: you run and maintain your own server. In exchange you own the software, keep your data, and hold your cost flat as your list grows.
If you want to be on the other side of the monthly bill, the Extended License ($199) turns one install into a multi-tenant product. It bundles customer accounts, subscription plans, 6 payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Razorpay, Paystack, Offline), prorated upgrades, dunning, and white-label branding. You pay once for the software, set your own recurring prices, and keep the margin. See For Developers.
Own the data Mailchimp rents — the self-hosted options compared.
Outgrown Sendy's SES-only, lean setup? Where to go next.
How the open-source & source-available platforms really differ.
Self-hosted PHP/MySQL sending apps you run on your own VPS.
Send through SES at cost with a full marketing front-end.
Sending to tens of thousands at once, on your own infrastructure.
Receipts, resets and alerts sent from a server you control.
Running a list without a per-subscriber bill.
Every AcelleMail vs-competitor comparison in one place.
It depends entirely on the pricing model. Hosted ESPs charge a recurring monthly fee that climbs with your subscriber count — commonly $20–$60/month for a small list and hundreds per month once you pass 50,000 contacts, every month, forever. AcelleMail takes the opposite approach: a one-time license of $80 (Regular) with no monthly fee and no per-subscriber charge. You run it on your own server and pay only your sending relay (e.g. Amazon SES at about $0.10 per 1,000 emails) plus a small VPS.
Yes. AcelleMail is a self-hosted platform sold as a one-time license ($80 Regular / $199 Extended) — there is no monthly software subscription and no per-subscriber pricing. After you buy it, the software is yours: unlimited subscribers, unlimited lists, and lifetime point/minor updates. Your only ongoing costs are your own server and whatever your chosen sending provider charges for delivery.
Their pricing is tied to how many contacts (or how many emails) are on your account, so the bill rises every time your list grows — even for subscribers who never open an email. As published in July 2026, a 50,000-contact list runs roughly $450/month on Mailchimp Standard, about $720/month on Klaviyo, and around $759/month on ActiveCampaign Plus. Those figures are the vendors' own rate cards and change over time. With a one-time license the cost of the software does not move as your list grows — only your sending volume does.
Own the software and bring your own sending backend. Amazon SES delivers at roughly $0.10 per 1,000 emails — so 500,000 emails is about $50 of SES — and AcelleMail gives you the campaign builder, lists, automation and analytics on top for a one-time $80. Sending 500,000 emails/month through SES on a modest VPS costs on the order of $50–$70/month total, with no per-subscriber fee, versus the hundreds per month a hosted ESP charges at the same volume.
Over any multi-year horizon, almost always — the break-even is usually within the first few months. Take a 10,000-contact list: Mailchimp Standard is roughly $135/month as published (about $4,860 over three years), while AcelleMail is a one-time $80 plus your own SES + VPS (on the order of $20–$25/month). The larger your list, the sooner the one-time license pays for itself, because the SaaS bill keeps climbing while the license price never changes.
The honest costs are your own: a server/VPS (about $10–$20/month), a sending relay billed by volume (Amazon SES ~$0.10 per 1,000, or SendGrid/SparkPost/Mailgun/Elastic Email/Postmark — AcelleMail ships 8 drivers), and your own time to install and maintain it (a 5-minute web installer plus routine updates). What you do NOT pay is a recurring per-subscriber software fee, contact overage charges, or a tax on list growth. The trade-off is real: you run your own infrastructure in exchange for owning the software and a flat cost.
No. There is no per-subscriber or per-contact fee at all. The $80 Regular license covers unlimited subscribers and unlimited lists; whether you store 1,000 or 1,000,000 contacts, the software price is the same. You pay only for the emails you actually send, at your sending provider's rate — not for the size of your list.
Yes — that is the AcelleMail Extended License ($199). It adds a multi-tenant layer on top of one install: customer accounts, subscription plans, 6 payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Razorpay, Paystack, Offline), prorated upgrades, dunning, and white-label branding. You pay once for the software, then set your own recurring prices and keep the margin. See For Developers.
AcelleMail Regular is $80, one-time — full PHP source, unlimited subscribers, no per-subscriber fee, lifetime updates. Try the live demo before you buy.
Join thousands of companies that have taken control of their email marketing with full source code, no recurring fees, and unlimited sending. One-time $80 license, lifetime updates.
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