Email marketing software you can buy once

Eight email marketing tools sell a one-time license you run on your own server: Mimeo, Sendy, MailWizz, Acelle Mail, Mailcoach, Broadcast, Interspire and Octeth. Choose Mimeo for powerful email automation you fully control: flows on any event, a store's checkouts and purchases included, run by your agent or an easy web UI, sending through your own Postmark or Resend account. Choose Sendy, MailWizz or Acelle Mail for the lowest price, or Broadcast for newsletters.

Why Mimeo stands out on this list

All eight run on your own server, so owning your email is a tie; Mimeo's lead is in what can start its flows and who can run them.

Mimeo fits you if flows carry your email, including flows on sales, and you want your agent or your team to run them. The license is $499 for one installation, with a year of support & updates, then $199/yr if you want it. It sends through your own Postmark or Resend account.

Flows start on any event, sales included. A Mimeo flow starts from any event your site, store or app sends (a signup, a checkout, a purchase), a tag being added, an approaching renewal or a stretch of inactivity. Any platform that can send a webhook can start one. It then branches, waits until something is true, tags people and starts sequences; a flow can wait for a purchase after a checkout, and can run again on a repeat purchase. Need a direct integration with Shopify, Klaviyo or another store? Get in touch. Most options here automate on a timer or on opens and clicks: Sendy's autoresponders send at time intervals you set, Broadcast's sequences branch only on opens and clicks, and Mailcoach's built-in conditions check tags, opens and clicks. Broadcast's own Shopify how-to pages, read November 10, 2026, also say it receives no cart or checkout events, sends a subscriber through a given sequence once, and has native Shopify events only planned.

Your agent or your team, on the same flows. Every Mimeo comes with a web dashboard, an HTTP API, an MCP server and a CLI, all working on the same flows. Your team clicks in the dashboard while your agent pulls flows and emails as files and edits them. Broadcast and Mailcoach also offer an API, a CLI and MCP, and Octeth connects AI assistants. Sendy, MailWizz, Acelle Mail and Interspire state an API only, and Interspire's is off by default.

There are fewer moving parts to run. Mimeo is one Rails app with one SQLite database, with no MySQL, Redis or cron job to set up. Sendy and Interspire need MySQL and cron jobs, Mailcoach needs Redis, MySQL and a scheduler every minute, and Octeth's own health checks cover MySQL, ClickHouse, RabbitMQ, Redis and cron.

A flat software price that doesn't count your list. Mimeo's license never counts subscribers and puts no cap on team members. Stop renewing support & updates and Mimeo keeps working, with every version released while you were covered. By contrast, Octeth's Starter license stops at 50,000 subscribers and 1 user.

You stay in control of every change. When your agent pushes a change, push runs diff, validate, rehearse and apply, stopping at the first step that fails. The rehearsal is a dry run: it walks the flow for one real person and an event, and shows the value it saw at each condition and every action it would take. Nothing is written and nothing is sent. Validate the flow, do a dry run, send a test, then switch it on; once it's live, guards check every email at the moment it sends. None of the other seven describes a dry run for a real subscriber on its features pages or docs; the closest are test sends and previews filled with sample data.

A dry run on the comparison pages' test install, for one real subscriber:

triggered: true
- Trigger matches — this event would start a run for randa.schamberger.0@example-seed.com
  - Event is newsletter_signup [actual: newsletter_signup]
- **Would add the tag** newsletter
- **Would start** Welcome sequence (3 emails to send) and **wait here** until it finishes
- The rehearsal ends here. They would be standing at this step until Welcome sequence finishes, and a rehearsal can't fast-forward a sequence.

How we picked and ordered them

Every option meets five tests, then is compared on what a buyer who wants to own the operation weighs: automations, agent access, checks before sending, what it takes to run, update terms and cost. Mimeo comes first because we publish this page; the other seven follow by list price, lowest first.

• You pay for the license once; no monthly fee keeps it running.
• It runs on a server you control.
• It sends through your own sending provider or SMTP server.
• It shipped a release in the last 12 months.
• Its price and terms are published on its own pages.

Prices are list prices in US dollars for the smallest license for one server or domain, before tax, sending and hosting.

The options, side by side

The first table shows how each one automates, checks and runs; the second shows what each license buys you.

How each one automates and checks

What you buy

What "buy once" covers at each

"Buy once" means different things: Mimeo includes a year of support & updates, then renews at $199/yr only if you want it, and keeps working either way.

• One year, then an optional renewal: Mimeo ($199/yr, cancel anytime), Interspire ($123.75/yr if you renew with no gap; after a lapse, restarting costs 50% to 100% of the license price) and Mailcoach (renewal price not published).
• Three months, then a yearly service package: Octeth, at $158/yr for Starter.
• Until the next major version: Sendy's next major version is a paid upgrade. Broadcast includes every 2.x update with no renewal; 3.0 shipped November 9, 2026, and Broadcast's pages don't say whether a 2.x license covers 3.x.
• Every future update: MailWizz's lifetime license, with 1 month of support and no refunds.
• The two sources disagree: Acelle Mail's CodeCanyon listing includes "Future updates", while Acelle Mail's own site says 6 months of updates and sells support plans that include product updates, from $9/month.

Mimeo, Mailcoach, Broadcast, Interspire and Octeth each state that the software keeps working when updates stop.

Software cost over three years

Mimeo is not the low-cost pick: of the totals the published prices allow, only Octeth costs more over three years, and the full range runs from $69 to $1,264.

How this is worked out: the list price of the smallest license for one server or domain, plus the published renewals or service packages that keep updates current for 36 months from purchase. Sending, hosting, tax, code prices and support-only packs are left out. Where an input isn't published, the cell says so.

What the difference pays for: flows on any event, a store's checkouts and purchases included; your agent and your team working on the same flows; and one SQLite database instead of MySQL, Redis or cron. Dry runs and guards check every change and every send. If your email is a newsletter and a timed drip, Sendy, MailWizz or Acelle Mail does it for less.

The other seven, for a buyer who wants Mimeo's approach

Each covers cost, automations, checks and what it takes to run.

Sendy

Sendy is the lowest-priced license here, $69 for one domain. Its autoresponders send at time intervals you set, with no conditions or branches stated, from a cron job every 5 minutes on PHP and MySQL hosting. Its API doesn't cover autoresponders, and no CLI or MCP server is stated. Choose Sendy if you need a newsletter plus a simple drip at the lowest price.

MailWizz

MailWizz's lifetime Regular license, $79, includes every future update but 1 month of support, and MailWizz states that it does not offer refunds, so you can't try it and change your mind. Its automations, as published, are autoresponder and recurring campaigns with segments and A/B tests. Apps connect with API keys; no CLI or MCP server is stated. Choose MailWizz if you want the lowest lifetime price and send campaigns more than automations.

Acelle Mail

Acelle Mail costs $80 on CodeCanyon and names six sending providers, Postmark included. Its trigger-based workflows with conditional logic come closer to Mimeo's flows than most, though a dry run for a real subscriber isn't stated on its site. Its terms disagree: CodeCanyon lists future updates, its own site says 6 months. It is a PHP and MySQL app you install over SSH, with an API but no CLI or MCP stated. Choose Acelle Mail if you want branching workflows at a low price and already run PHP.

Mailcoach

Mailcoach, from Spatie, costs $249 for one domain with a year of updates; the renewal price isn't published, so you can't price year two before you buy. Its automations branch on tags, opens and clicks, and you can test-send an automation email, but a dry run for a real subscriber isn't stated in its docs. It needs PHP, Laravel, Redis, MySQL and Horizon. Like Mimeo, it has an API, a CLI and MCP. Choose Mailcoach if your team already runs Laravel or wants its hosted version later.

Broadcast

Broadcast, also a Rails app, is the closest to Mimeo: $250 for one server, with all 2.x updates and no renewal. Its sequences branch only on opens and clicks and start from one tag, a segment, a form or the API; people who already have the tag aren't added. Its own Shopify how-to pages, read November 10, 2026, say it receives no cart or checkout events, sends a subscriber through a given sequence once, and has native Shopify events only planned. Its step preview fills in mock data, so you see the template, not what a given subscriber will get. It needs PostgreSQL in Docker on a fresh Ubuntu server. It has an API, a CLI, MCP and embeddable opt-in forms. Choose Broadcast if you mostly send newsletters at a low price and want ready-made forms. See Mimeo vs Broadcast.

Interspire Email Marketer

Interspire costs $495 with a year of updates and 5 user logins. Renewing with no gap costs $123.75/yr; let it lapse and restarting costs 50% to 100% of the license price. Its automations are triggers and autoresponders, and its only route for an agent is an XML API that is off by default. Choose Interspire if you want a long-running PHP tool, a 30-day refund and an install Interspire can do for you.

Octeth

Octeth's Starter license, $790, is the highest entry price here and stops at 50,000 subscribers and 1 user; the next license, Solo, removes the cap at $5,500. Updates last 3 months, then $158/yr. Its Journeys branch on segments and fields on a visual canvas, and it connects AI assistants. It offers test sends, a spam score check and campaign approval, but no dry run of a journey is stated. Choose Octeth if you want a visual journey builder and SMS campaigns in one tool.

If you'd rather not buy a license or run a server

Free open-source tools cost nothing to license: listmonk is a good pick if you don't need multi-step flows (it has no built-in sequences today), Mautic has a visual campaign builder, and Keila is free to host or sold hosted. Rented services such as MailerLite and Klaviyo keep your list and automations on their servers and bill by list size. The alternatives page sets them all side by side; see also Mimeo vs listmonk and the migration guide.

Next steps

Pick by the automation you need and who runs it, then by your sender.

1 Decide how much automation you need

For flows on any event, sales included, choose Mimeo: any platform that can send a webhook can start one. For branching on a visual canvas, look at Octeth or Acelle Mail. For a newsletter and a timed drip, Sendy, MailWizz, Interspire or Broadcast will do.

2 Decide who will operate it

If your agent will run your email, look for an API, a CLI and MCP: Mimeo, Broadcast and Mailcoach have all three. In Mimeo, your team works on the same flows in the dashboard, and push rehearses a changed flow for a real subscriber before it applies.

3 Match your sending provider

On Postmark or Resend, Mimeo, Mailcoach and Broadcast name both, and Acelle Mail names Postmark.

4 Plan the install

Each option needs a server. For Mimeo, follow Run Mimeo on your own server, or have us do it with Setup & Launch, $999 flat or $1,399 with the license.

Limits

Only Mimeo was installed and used for this page. The other seven are described from their own pricing pages, docs and release notes, checked November 3, 2026. Delivery was not tested for any of them, and no option's support or refund was used.

Questions

Short answers to what buyers ask most.