Listmonk vs Zoho Campaigns
Listmonk is a newsletter platform while Zoho Campaigns is a email marketing platform. Zoho Campaigns has been around since 2012, giving it a 6-year head start over Listmonk (founded 2018). Listmonk is free, while Zoho Campaigns starts at $4.70/mo. Their pricing is not measured the same way, so we don't rank them on price. Both offer free plans to get started. Listmonk stands out with advanced analytics, while Zoho Campaigns offers marketing automation and A/B testing.
Quick Verdict
Listmonk wins on deliverability.
Zoho Campaigns wins on rating, integrations.
Best for most users: Zoho Campaigns (small businesses already using zoho crm or zoho one).
Listmonk
Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager
Listmonk is a free, open-source, self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager written in Go. It handles millions of emails with minimal resources and is best for developers and technical users who want full control over their email infrastructure.
Zoho Campaigns
Affordable email marketing deeply integrated with the Zoho ecosystem
Zoho Campaigns is the email marketing arm of the Zoho ecosystem, launched in 2012 and designed to work directly with Zoho CRM, Zoho One, and 45+ other Zoho products. Its standout value proposition is extraordinary affordability — starting at just $3.50/month with unlimited email sends — making it one of the cheapest full-featured email marketing platforms available. For businesses already invested in Zoho's suite, the native CRM sync eliminates the data silos that plague multi-tool setups.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Listmonk | Zoho Campaigns |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.1/5 | 4.3/5 |
| Starting Price | Free | $4.70/mo |
| Free Plan | Unlimited (self-hosted, open source) | 2,000 contacts, 6,000 emails/month, 5 users |
| Founded | 2018 | 2012 |
| Email Templates | 5 | 50 |
| Integrations | 10 | 40 |
| Deliverability Rate | 97% | 95% |
| Marketing Automation | No | Yes |
| A/B Testing | No | Yes |
| Landing Pages | No | No |
| Segmentation | Yes | Yes |
| Drag & Drop Editor | Yes | Yes |
| SMS Marketing | No | Yes |
| Ecommerce Features | No | Yes |
| API Access | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-Language | Yes | Yes |
| Web Push Notifications | No | No |
| Live Chat | No | Yes |
| Advanced Analytics | Yes | No |
Listmonk: Pros & Cons
Pros
- + Completely free and open source with no usage limits
- + Handles 7+ million emails with minimal CPU and 57 MB RAM
- + Single binary deployment with Docker support
- + SQL-based subscriber segmentation for advanced querying
- + Zero recurring costs — self-hosted with no per-subscriber fees
Cons
- − Requires technical knowledge to set up and maintain
- − No built-in SMTP, must configure an external provider like Amazon SES
- − Lacks automation workflows, A/B testing, and landing pages
- − Community support only via GitHub
- − No managed hosting option — you handle server maintenance yourself
Zoho Campaigns: Pros & Cons
Pros
- + Native two-way sync with Zoho CRM auto-updates email lists when contacts become customers, eliminating manual data transfers
- + Exceptionally affordable starting at $3.50/month for 500 contacts with unlimited emails — one of the lowest entry points in the market
- + Forever Free plan includes 2,000 contacts, 6,000 emails/month, and 5 users, generous for small teams getting started
- + Professional plan includes 25+ workflow automation components with contact scoring, cart abandonment, and optimal send-time optimization
- + 14-day free trial with full feature access and no credit card required lets users test all capabilities before committing
Cons
- − Email deliverability is inconsistent with users reporting emails failing for no clear reason and higher-than-expected bounce rates
- − Interface design feels dated compared to modern competitors with slow loading times that impact daily workflow productivity
- − No built-in landing page builder — a significant gap when competitors like Mailchimp and MailerLite include this feature
- − Third-party integrations outside the Zoho ecosystem are limited to around 40 native connections, requiring middleware for most external tools
- − Reporting lacks real-time insights and advanced customization, falling behind competitors on campaign performance analytics depth
The Verdict
Zoho Campaigns edges ahead with a 4.3/5 rating compared to Listmonk's 4.1/5. The gap comes mainly from ease of use (4.4 vs 3.5) and support (4.4 vs 3.7). On deliverability, Listmonk reports 97% compared to 95% for Zoho Campaigns — a meaningful difference if inbox placement is critical for your campaigns.
| Criterion | Weight | Listmonk | Zoho Campaigns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | 30% | Free | $4.70/mo |
| Deliverability | 25% | 97% Winner | 95% |
| Rating | 25% | 4.1/5 | 4.3/5 Winner |
| Integrations | 10% | 10 | 40 Winner |
| Free Tier | 10% | Yes | Yes |
Weights determine how much each criterion counts toward the final score. See full methodology
Choose Listmonk if…
- + You need advanced analytics
- + You're a developers
- + You're a self hosters
Choose Zoho Campaigns if…
- + You need SMS marketing
- + You need marketing automation
- + You need ecommerce integrations
- + You need A/B testing