Head to head

Email Bump vs listmonk

listmonk is free software you run that sends through your own SMTP. We're a hosted platform with sending included. The comparison is about who does the work and who owns the reputation.

Eight rows below, including the three where listmonk wins outright.

8 rows Checked 2 August 2026
The short version

Which one you want, in three sentences

Pick listmonk if you have a large list, a server you already run, and someone comfortable owning deliverability. At volume the saving is enormous and it isn't close.

Pick Email Bump if you need automation and a transactional API rather than campaigns alone, and would rather not be the person reading Postmaster Tools at 11pm.

Pick Mautic if you want open-source automation specifically, and can carry a PHP, MySQL and cron stack to get it.

Line by line

8 differences that matter

listmonk's column comes from their published pricing and documentation on 2 August 2026.

 
listmonk
Email Bump
Licence
AGPL-3.0, self-hostable, free at any list size.
Proprietary. No self-hosted build.
Cost
Free software plus your SMTP provider and a server.
$19/mo at 10,000 contacts, sending included.
Who runs it
You — the binary, Postgres, upgrades, backups.
Us.
Deliverability
Entirely yours.
Ours — Amazon SES with reputation monitoring on top.
Automation
None — campaigns to lists.
Flows with triggers, waits and branches on every plan.
Transactional API
Transactional templates, not a high-volume product API.
Included — same plan, same key, SMTP on the same credential.
Contact pricing
None at any size.
Metered — $19 at 10,000, $99 at 100,000.
Maturity
22,000+ stars and years of production use.
Younger, with less public history.
Against us

Three places listmonk is the better choice

No per-contact cost, ever. A 500,000-name list costs the same as a 500-name one: nothing. Our top published tier is $399/mo at 500,000 contacts. If your list is large and your budget isn't, that's the entire decision.

It's open source and far more established than us. 22,000 stars, years of production use, and code you can read. We have neither the licence nor the track record.

One binary and a database. No Redis, no queue broker, no container orchestra. As self-hosted software goes it's unusually easy to run, which makes the trade much more attractive than it looks.

FAQ

Email Bump vs listmonk, asked and answered

Is Email Bump more expensive than listmonk?

Always, and it should be — you're paying for software you don't maintain and deliverability you don't own.

The question is what an evening spent on a blocklist removal is worth, and whether you need automation and a transactional API that listmonk doesn't provide.

Can I import my listmonk subscribers?

Yes — listmonk exports CSVs per list with attributes. Take the export with subscription status attached so unsubscribes arrive as unsubscribes.

There are no automations to port, since listmonk doesn't have any.

Do you have a transactional API?

Yes — on every plan, using the same key as the campaigns, with SMTP on the same credential and everything landing in one log. That's the main functional gap between us and listmonk.

Try it against your own list

Import a segment and compare

5,000 contacts and 5,000 emails free. Run one campaign through both and let the delivery and click numbers decide.