Compare · Xem vs Sendy
Xem vs Sendy.
Sendy is $69 once. Xem is $49 once.
Sendy is a proven, no-frills way to send newsletters through your own Amazon SES account, with a one-time licence instead of a monthly bill. Xem is also self-hostable and open source, with newsletters on a $49 one-time license, and adds visual automations, signup forms with a CRM and a shared inbox, and comes as a hosted service if you’d rather not run a server.
A weekly newsletter, priced.
Four sends a month to the whole list, on monthly billing in US dollars. Sendy on self-hosted on Amazon SES (licence and server not included); Xem on its cheapest plan for that volume. Sendy prices checked November 5, 2026.
| Subscribers | Emails a month | Sendy | Xem |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | 40,000 | ≈ $4 + licence + server | $19 · Starter |
| 50,000 | 200,000 | ≈ $20 + licence + server | $59 · Growth |
| 100,000 | 400,000 | ≈ $40 + licence + server | $99 · Scale |
Sendy is a one-time $69 licence, with free updates until the next major version and a paid upgrade after that. These figures are Amazon SES sending costs at $0.10 per 1,000 emails, before the licence and your server. Xem self-hosted is free and costs the same to send; the Xem column is Xem Cloud, where we run it for you.
How they charge
- Sendy
- A one-time licence ($69) for software you run on your own server with PHP and MySQL, sending through your own Amazon SES account. There is no monthly fee and no per-subscriber charge. Updates are free until the next major version, which is a paid upgrade. Each licence covers one domain.
- Xem
- Per email sent. Free for 3,000 a month, then from $9. Contacts are free to keep, campaigns, automations and forms are on every plan, and you can self-host the open-source version and pay only your email provider.
When Sendy fits better
- You want a simple PHP and MySQL newsletter sender that you pay for once and rarely touch.
- You manage several clients or brands and need Sendy’s white-labelled client accounts with sending limits.
- You already run Sendy happily and don’t need automations beyond autoresponders.
Running it from an AI agent
- Sendy
- Sendy has a documented HTTP API for subscribing, unsubscribing, listing lists and creating or sending a campaign. It has no official MCP server, so agents reach it through third-party connectors.
- Xem
- Xem runs a hosted MCP server at mcp.xem.email with 43 tools for campaigns, newsletters, contacts, CSV imports, forms, CRM notes, automations, sending domains and analytics, or you can run @xem.email/mcp locally. It works with Claude, Cursor, Codex and any MCP client. Campaigns start as drafts, imports preview first, and sending is a separate tool. Set up the MCP server.
Questions.
Is Xem cheaper than Sendy?
Self-hosted, Xem is cheaper: Sendy is $69 once, and Xem's license, which adds newsletters and the shared inbox, is $49 once. Both cost the same to send through SES. If you don’t want to run a server, Xem Cloud is $19 a month for a weekly newsletter to 10,000 people; Sendy has no hosted plan.
Can I move my Sendy list to Xem?
Yes. Export each list as a CSV from View all lists, one status tab at a time. Xem imports any CSV with an email column and keeps unsubscribed people unsubscribed.
When is Sendy the better choice?
You want a simple PHP and MySQL newsletter sender that you pay for once and rarely touch. You manage several clients or brands and need Sendy’s white-labelled client accounts with sending limits. You already run Sendy happily and don’t need automations beyond autoresponders.
Can an AI agent like Claude run Sendy or Xem?
Sendy has a documented HTTP API for subscribing, unsubscribing, listing lists and creating or sending a campaign. It has no official MCP server, so agents reach it through third-party connectors. Xem runs a hosted MCP server at mcp.xem.email with 43 tools for campaigns, newsletters, contacts, CSV imports, forms, CRM notes, automations, sending domains and analytics, or you can run @xem.email/mcp locally. It works with Claude, Cursor, Codex and any MCP client. Campaigns start as drafts, imports preview first, and sending is a separate tool.
Sources
Prices change. We check these pages by hand; tell us at team@xem.email if something is out of date.