Keila

What Is Keila?

Mailchimp charges by subscriber count. ConvertKit charges by subscriber count. Every major newsletter platform penalises list growth — the more readers an organisation accumulates, the more it pays, regardless of how often it actually sends. For a non-profit with 50,000 subscribers sending one newsletter per month, the economics are punitive.

Keila rejects that model entirely. Built in Germany and licensed under AGPL-3.0, Keila is a 100% open-source newsletter tool that charges by email volume rather than subscriber count. Unlimited contacts on every plan. No proprietary premium features withheld from the open-source edition. Every capability available in the paid Keila Cloud service is available to anyone who deploys the free Docker image on their own server.

Developed by Pentacent and hosted on EU infrastructure in Germany and France, Keila Cloud runs entirely within European borders. The self-hosted edition extends that control further — subscriber data never leaves the organisation's own infrastructure. Campaign analytics are built in, but tracking can be completely disabled per campaign for organisations that consider open-rate surveillance incompatible with their values.

Keila launched around 2021 and has grown steadily as a privacy-respecting alternative to the commercial newsletter platforms. The Elixir-based codebase is actively maintained on GitHub with regular releases and community contributions.

Key Features

True Open-Source Architecture

Keila's AGPL-3.0 licence is not an open-core marketing strategy. There are no "Pro" features, no premium tiers hidden behind the cloud offering, no enterprise-only capabilities gated by licence keys. The Docker image that runs Keila Cloud is the same Docker image available to self-hosters. This matters for organisations evaluating long-term vendor risk: if Pentacent stopped operating tomorrow, the community could fork the project and continue development without losing any functionality.

Visual and Code-Based Editing

The block editor provides drag-and-drop newsletter construction with pre-built content blocks. For teams comfortable with code, Markdown and MJML (Mailjet Markup Language) editing modes offer direct control over email structure and styling. Plain text mode handles accessibility-first newsletters. The base templates are tested across Gmail, Outlook, Thunderbird, and mobile clients, which eliminates the rendering inconsistencies that plague hand-coded email HTML.

Privacy-First Analytics

Campaign analytics track opens, clicks, and bounces by default — but the key differentiator is the ability to completely disable tracking on a per-campaign basis. An organisation can track its product announcement emails while disabling all analytics on its community newsletter. This granular control is unique among newsletter platforms and respects the growing audience segment that blocks tracking pixels and rejects surveillance-based email marketing.

Advanced Segmentation

The visual segment editor lets non-technical users create subscriber subsets based on contact data, tags, custom fields, and engagement metrics. For complex filtering logic, Keila exposes a segment language that supports nested conditions, Boolean operators, and date-range queries. A non-profit could segment by language preference, membership tier, and engagement recency in a single query — something that Mailchimp reserves for its Standard plan at USD 20 per month.

Flexible Sender Configuration

Keila supports multiple email delivery backends: AWS SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, and generic SMTP. Self-hosted users choose the provider that best fits their volume, deliverability requirements, and budget. Keila Cloud includes managed sending infrastructure, but self-hosters can route through whichever provider offers the best deliverability or pricing for their region.

Pricing

Keila Cloud pricing starts at EUR 9 per month for 2,000 emails with unlimited contacts. The Growth tier at EUR 19 per month covers 10,000 emails. The Scale tier at EUR 49 per month handles 50,000 emails. All cloud plans include managed email delivery on EU infrastructure.

The self-hosted edition is free — the cost is limited to server hosting and an SMTP provider. Running Keila on a EUR 10 per month VPS with AWS SES at approximately USD 0.10 per 1,000 emails, a 50,000-email monthly send costs roughly EUR 15 total — a fraction of Mailchimp's equivalent pricing for the same subscriber base.

For open-source projects, non-profits, and small businesses with budget constraints, Pentacent offers discounted cloud pricing on request.

The per-email pricing model is Keila's most radical commercial decision. It rewards organisations with large subscriber lists and low send frequency — precisely the opposite of what Mailchimp's per-subscriber model does.

EU Compliance & Privacy

Keila Cloud operates on European infrastructure in Germany and France. No data transfers to the United States. No US-based sub-processors. The AGPL-3.0 licence ensures complete transparency about how subscriber data is processed — the source code is public.

GDPR compliance features include built-in double opt-in for sign-up forms, the ability to disable all tracking per campaign, and full data export capabilities for data subject access requests. Self-hosted deployments give organisations absolute control over data residency, retention, and deletion.

For organisations that consider email tracking pixels a privacy concern rather than a business necessity, Keila's per-campaign tracking toggle is a meaningful differentiator.

Who It's Best For

Privacy-conscious organisations — non-profits, advocacy groups, membership organisations — that want to communicate with subscribers without surveilling them. The optional tracking disable is unique in the market.

Developers and technical teams comfortable with Docker deployment who want full control over their newsletter infrastructure. The self-hosted edition costs nearly nothing to operate.

Organisations with large lists and low send frequency where Mailchimp's per-subscriber pricing becomes punitive. Keila's per-email model can reduce costs by 80% or more for these use cases.

European businesses requiring GDPR-compliant email marketing without the compliance risk of US-based platforms processing subscriber data on American infrastructure.

The Verdict

Keila is not for everyone. It lacks the template library, automation sequences, and polish of Mailchimp or MailerLite. The small development team means features arrive on a different timeline than venture-backed competitors. But for its target audience — privacy-respecting organisations, self-hosting enthusiasts, and budget-conscious publishers with large lists — Keila delivers genuine differentiation. The per-email pricing, true open-source architecture, and optional tracking disable reflect a coherent philosophy rather than a feature checklist. That philosophy will not fit every use case, but for the organisations it does fit, nothing else in the market matches it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Keila GDPR compliant?

Yes. Keila Cloud runs on EU infrastructure in Germany and France with no US data transfers. The self-hosted edition keeps all subscriber data on the organisation's own servers. Built-in double opt-in and per-campaign tracking disable support GDPR compliance.

Can I self-host Keila?

Yes. Keila provides an official Docker image with all features included under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Self-hosters supply their own SMTP provider (AWS SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, or generic SMTP).

How does Keila compare to Mailchimp?

Keila charges by email volume; Mailchimp charges by subscriber count. For large lists with infrequent sends, Keila can cost 80% less. Mailchimp offers more templates, automation, and third-party integrations. Keila offers full open-source transparency and EU-only data processing.

What email delivery services does Keila support?

Keila supports AWS SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, and any standard SMTP provider. Keila Cloud includes managed sending infrastructure on EU servers.

Is Keila really free?

The self-hosted edition is free under AGPL-3.0 with all features included. Keila Cloud starts at EUR 9 per month for managed hosting with 2,000 emails and unlimited contacts.