Billionmail: guides & tutorials

Billionmail and Listmonk are both self-hosted, open-source email tools. But comparing them head-to-head misses the point: they solve different problems, and the most effective self-hosted email stack often uses both together.

Mailchimp Essentials charges $20/month for 500 contacts and 6,000 sends. Self-hosting removes both caps: a Liquid Web 2–4 GB Managed VPS running Listmonk can send to an unlimited subscriber list at the cost of your SMTP relay — typically $1–3 per 10,000 emails via Postmark or Mailgun.

TL;DR

• One docker-compose.yml: Listmonk (newsletters) + Postal (SMTP delivery) + Billionmail (IP reputation) + PostgreSQL 16 + MySQL 8.0 + RabbitMQ + Redis 7 + Caddy
• Measured idle RAM: 2.4 GB; peak: 3.5 GB (10k Listmonk campaign + Postal queue flush)
• Requires an 8 GB VPS with a dedicated IP — self-hosted email is an ops commitment, not a drop-in replacement
• Replaces Mailchimp Essentials ($20/mo) + Postmark ($15/mo for 10k emails) with unlimited sending at ~$33/mo VPS + dedicated IP
• Postal requires MySQL 8.0 and RabbitMQ — read the first-run section carefully before starting

This guide deploys a three-layer self-hosted email stack: Listmonk handles subscriber lists and campaign management, Postal provides the SMTP delivery engine with bounce processing and DKIM signing, and Billionmail monitors IP reputation and blacklist status. Together they replace the Mailchimp + Postmark combination for teams that want full control over their email infrastructure.

TL;DR

• One docker-compose.yml: Billionmail (SMTP) + Mautic (automation) + PostgreSQL + MariaDB + Caddy
• Measured idle RAM: 2.0 GB; peak: 3.6 GB (5k campaign + 500 emails/hr SMTP queue)
• Requires a 16 GB VPS with a dedicated IP — Mautic alone needs 8 GB; adding Billionmail needs the extra headroom
• Read the sustainability flags for both tools before committing: Billionmail is early-stage; Mautic has a documented 2026 funding crisis
• Mailgun Flex + ActiveCampaign Plus (10k contacts): ~$110/mo; this stack: ~$40–$55/mo on Liquid Web

This guide pairs Billionmail (self-hosted SMTP server) with Mautic (marketing automation) on a single Liquid Web 16 GB VPS. Mautic handles contact segmentation, campaign flows, landing pages, and lead scoring. Billionmail provides the SMTP relay that Mautic sends through.