Readit NewsAm I misunderstanding the limitations of which services are available to use for “bring your own SMTP”?
Fertit is designed to work with newsletter-appropriate SMTP services like SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, Postmark, and Mailjet - providers that explicitly support bulk email sending. These typically cost $10-50/month depending on volume, which is still much cheaper than the $79+ full-service ESPs charge. The value prop is: instead of paying ConvertKit $79/month for 1000 subscribers, you pay SendGrid ~$15/month for SMTP + Fertit $9.99/month = ~$25/month total, while still getting proper unsubscribe handling, preference management, and basic compliance features.
You're right that it requires users to handle the SMTP setup themselves - it's positioned for people who want more control and cost savings but don't need the full white-glove deliverability management of premium ESPs.
Thanks for pointing this out - I should make the SMTP requirements clearer in the marketing!
If you're interested in SMS features, supporting us with a subscription would definitely help us prioritize and build this faster. Are you currently stuck with expensive SMS providers? Would love to understand your volume/use case to make sure we build something that actually solves your problem.
1. Deliverability. Email marketing providers like MailChimp charge a premium because they have highly trustworthy send addresses and IPs that email servers can trust. The BYO SMTP aspect of your product has the potential to ruin that for customers who aren't aware of those issues. I probably wouldn't be surprised if that aspect also makes it harder for you to clamp down on fraud, abuse, and spam. If you don't control the send server then you might not know everything that's going on from front to back.
2. Someone looking to save money can already find MailChimp competitors that are cheaper without the overhead of having to also hook up a second service to send the emails. For example, 15K contacts at mailerlite is $98/month. Or I could do something email send-based like Brevo and send 40,000 emails per month at $35. If I go with Brevo I don't have to bring my own email send service.
3. The LSV of an email subscriber is so high that the end result is you're going too far downmarket. Customers would benefit more from more effective campaigns with better deliverability, more powerful business logic, more integrations to other business platforms, etc. In other words, paying more is worth the investment. The LSV of an email subscriber is often somewhere between $10-50. So if you have 15,000 active contacts you are looking at revenue from those subscribe rover their lifetime as potentially being something like $150,000-$750,000. In that frame of reference, $230/month for MailChimp is a steal.
I'm just not sure who this is for. Sure, you do say it's for indie developers, but I think that target customer has the most options to use something else.
I think the Mom test would be applicable here. I worry that you built a product just for yourself that doesn't really appeal to anyone else. The main differentiators seem to be low price and splitting up the business logic from the send service, which to me is kind of like making someone buying an ice cream buy the ice cream cone next door.
On market positioning, I think there's still room between "build your own email system" and "pay $200+/month for enterprise features you don't need." Our target isn't competing with MailChimp for high-LTV businesses, but serving the gap where small businesses outgrow basic tools but aren't ready for enterprise pricing. That said, your "Mom test" concern is valid. We're validating this with real users to ensure we're not just building for ourselves.
Restricting on the number of contacts is kinda just made-up, so the FREE tier is generous at 5000 contacts, with 50,000 Emails/SMS sends.
https://sendune.com/pages/pricing
This also attracts a lot of spammers, and suspending their accounts is another routine.
One thing I don’t particularly like about listmonk is that it doesn’t really support multitenancy. It’s lightweight enough that I can spin up multiple instances for different domains, but it’d be nice not to.
Positioning differences: Listmonk: Power-user tool with SQL segmentation, advanced templating, high-throughput queues Fertit: Simplified interface targeting small businesses who want "just works" newsletter management
Architecture approach: Listmonk: Single binary + PostgreSQL (requires more ops knowledge) Fertit: Docker Compose setup with Redis for caching, designed for easier deployment
Business model: Open-source version addresses your self-hosting needs Hosted service ($5-10/month) for users who want zero ops
When you'd choose Fertit over Listmonk: You manage newsletters for multiple clients/domains (multi-tenancy) You prefer simpler UI over advanced segmentation features You want commercial support option You're hitting operational complexity with multiple Listmonk instances
When you'd stick with Listmonk: You need the advanced features (SQL queries, high-throughput queues) Current multi-instance setup works fine for your scale You prefer the mature, battle-tested codebase
Would love your thoughts on the multi-tenancy approach - is that the main friction point you're hitting with multiple instances?
How does Fertit position itself in relation to that?
Use Established ESPs for Delivery: Fertit connects to your existing SMTP provider (SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, etc.) - so you still get their deliverability infrastructure and IP reputation.
Save on Interface & Features: Instead of paying $50-300/month for ConvertKit or Mailchimp's full platform, you pay $5-10/month for Fertit's management layer while using a cheaper transactional email service for actual delivery.
Cost Comparison: Traditional ESP: $79/month for 5,000 subscribers Fertit approach: $9.99/month (Pro plan) + $15/month (SendGrid) = ~$25/month total
I always receive a ton of newsletters. Never once have I signed up, I always uncheck all sign up prompts and always immediately unsubscribe if I receive one.
Even then, immediately after any sort of purchase I get resubscribed. I’m convinced that most shops completely ignore all user choices and resubscribe everyone to all mailing lists after purchase.