How to Migrate from Mailchimp to Listmonk

Mailchimp's free plan now limits you to 500 contacts. Paid plans start at $13/month and scale to $350+/month for larger lists. Listmonk is a blazing-fast, self-hosted newsletter manager that handles millions of subscribers on a $5 VPS.

Step 1: Export from Mailchimp

Go to Audience → All contacts
Click Export Audience → Export as CSV
Download the CSV file

The export includes: email, name, subscription status, tags, merge fields, signup date.

Step 2: Deploy Listmonk

# Docker — running in 2 minutes
mkdir listmonk && cd listmonk

# Download config
curl -o config.toml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/knadh/listmonk/master/config.toml.sample
curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/knadh/listmonk/master/docker-compose.yml

# Edit config.toml with your SMTP settings
# Start
docker compose up -d

# Initialize database
docker compose run --rm app ./listmonk --install

Access at localhost:9000 — default login: listmonk / listmonk.

Step 3: Configure SMTP

You need an SMTP provider to send emails. Options:

Provider	Free Tier	Cost at Scale
Amazon SES	62K emails/month (free tier)	$0.10/1000 emails
Resend	3K emails/month	$20/month for 50K
SendGrid	100 emails/day	$15/month for 50K
Mailgun	1K emails/month	$15/month for 50K
Brevo	300 emails/day	$9/month for 5K/day

Configure in Listmonk → Settings → SMTP:

[smtp]
host = "email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com"
port = 587
auth_protocol = "login"
username = "YOUR_SES_KEY"
password = "YOUR_SES_SECRET"
tls_type = "STARTTLS"

Step 4: Import Subscribers

Go to Listmonk → Subscribers → Import
Upload your Mailchimp CSV
Map columns: email → email, name fields → name
Select the mailing list to add subscribers to
Choose: Subscribe (active) or Block listed (unsubscribed)

Important: Only import subscribers who are subscribed (status = "subscribed" in the CSV). Don't import unsubscribed users.

Step 5: Create Templates

Listmonk supports HTML templates with Go templating:

<!-- Simple newsletter template -->
<html>
<body style="font-family: sans-serif; max-width: 600px; margin: 0 auto;">
  <h1>{{ .Subject }}</h1>
  {{ .Body }}
  <hr>
  <p style="font-size: 12px; color: #666;">
    <a href="{{ .UnsubscribeURL }}">Unsubscribe</a>
  </p>
</body>
</html>

Step 6: Recreate Automations

Mailchimp Feature	Listmonk Equivalent
Welcome email	Campaign with "on subscribe" trigger
Regular campaigns	Campaigns (manual send)
A/B testing	Not available (manual approach)
Audience segments	Lists + SQL-based segments
Tags	Subscriber attributes (JSON)
Templates	HTML templates
Analytics	Open/click tracking
Landing pages	Not included (use external)

Step 7: Set Up DNS Records

Configure for deliverability:

# SPF
v=spf1 include:amazonses.com ~all

# DKIM — from your SMTP provider
# DMARC
_dmarc.yourdomain.com TXT "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com"

Cost Comparison

Subscribers	Mailchimp	Listmonk + SES	Savings
1,000	$13/month	$5/month (VPS)	$96/year
5,000	$60/month	$6/month	$648/year
10,000	$100/month	$7/month	$1,116/year
50,000	$350/month	$10/month	$4,080/year
100,000	$800/month	$15/month	$9,420/year

Listmonk cost = VPS + SES sending fees (~$0.10/1000 emails)

What You'll Lose

Drag-and-drop email builder — Listmonk uses HTML templates
A/B testing — not built-in
Landing pages — not included
Pre-built automations — limited automation support
Audience insights/predictions — not available

What You'll Gain

No subscriber limits — handle millions
No sending limits — limited only by SMTP provider
Full data ownership — subscribers on your server
Blazing performance — Go binary, 50 MB RAM
SQL-powered segments — more powerful than Mailchimp's UI
$0 software cost — just hosting + SMTP

Compare newsletter tools on OSSAlt — features, deliverability, and self-hosting options side by side.