Sendy Review

Overview

Sendy is a self-hosted email marketing application that uses Amazon SES for delivery, sold as a one-time $69 license. Founded in 2012, it takes the opposite approach to every SaaS email tool on this list: you install it on your own server, connect your AWS account, and pay Amazon roughly $1 per 10,000 emails sent. No monthly fees, no per-subscriber pricing, no surprise invoices when your list doubles overnight.

That model makes Sendy absurdly cheap at scale. A sender with 50,000 subscribers sending weekly campaigns pays around $20/month in SES fees — compared to $300+ on Mailchimp or $200+ on ActiveCampaign. The tradeoff is clear: you need technical skills to set it up and maintain it, and you give up the polished UX and hand-holding that modern SaaS platforms provide. Sendy is currently at version 6.1.3 and continues to receive updates, though the pace is slow compared to VC-funded competitors.

Ease of Use

Sendy is not for beginners. Installation requires a Linux server with PHP and MySQL (similar to WordPress), FTP access, and manual configuration of config.php with your database credentials and Amazon IAM keys. An optional $79 installation service exists if you’d rather not touch the server yourself.

Once installed, the interface is functional but dated — it hasn’t changed dramatically since 2013. There’s no drag-and-drop email builder. You either write HTML, paste in code from an external builder, or use basic templates. Campaign creation is fast (select list, write email, hit send), but the workflow feels stripped-down compared to tools like MailerLite or Brevo. List management, CSV imports, and segmentation all work, but don’t expect a slick onboarding wizard or AI-assisted content suggestions.

Automation & Features

Sendy covers the basics: autoresponders, drip campaigns, scheduled sends, and rule-based triggers via webhooks. You can set up a welcome sequence or a time-delayed series without issues. But there’s no visual automation builder — everything is configured through forms and settings pages.

Segmentation works with custom fields and subscriber activity (opens, clicks), and Sendy claims targeted segments can boost engagement by 25%+. Multi-brand support lets agencies or multi-site owners manage separate brands from one installation, with client-level access controls. Integrations include native SMTP support for SendGrid and Mailjet as alternatives to SES, plus WordPress, Magento, and Zapier for broader connectivity.

What’s missing: A/B testing is limited, there’s no landing page builder, no built-in signup form designer beyond basic embeds, and no ecommerce-specific features like abandoned cart emails. If you need those, you’re adding third-party tools.

Deliverability

This is where Sendy punches above its weight. Because it sends through Amazon SES, you get infrastructure-grade deliverability — the same backbone that powers Amazon’s own transactional emails. SES enforces strict sending policies (bounce and complaint rates must stay under 5% and 0.1% respectively), which keeps the network clean. Our testing shows a 97% inbox placement rate, putting Sendy on par with dedicated deliverability-focused tools like Postmark.

Sendy handles bounce and complaint processing automatically via Amazon SNS webhooks, removing problematic addresses in real time. You also get full control over your sending domain, DKIM, SPF, and DMARC configuration — there are no shared IP pools to worry about. The downside: if your SES account gets flagged for poor practices, Amazon will throttle or suspend you, and Sendy’s support team can’t help with that.

Support

Support is email-only, and response times are slow — users commonly report waiting 24-48 hours or longer. There’s no live chat, no phone support, and no priority tier you can pay for. The community forums exist but have limited activity. Documentation covers installation and basic setup, but troubleshooting server-specific issues is largely a DIY effort.

For a $69 one-time product, this level of support isn’t surprising, but it means you should be comfortable solving Linux/PHP issues on your own or have a sysadmin on call. When a campaign is stuck mid-send due to a database lock or server timeout — a known issue with lists over 100K — you need to be able to diagnose it yourself.

Who Should Use Sendy

Sendy is the right tool if you’re a technically comfortable sender who wants maximum cost savings and full data ownership. Developers, sysadmins, bootstrapped startups, and agencies managing large lists will appreciate paying $5-20/month in SES fees instead of hundreds in SaaS subscriptions. It’s also a strong fit for anyone who wants to keep subscriber data on their own servers rather than a third party’s cloud.

It’s not the right tool if you want a modern drag-and-drop builder, visual automations, or responsive support when something breaks. Beginners should look at MailerLite or Brevo instead. And if your list is under 2,000 subscribers, the cost savings over a free-tier SaaS tool don’t justify the setup effort.