head to head · open source
Listmonk vs lotus
Listmonk has 24,112 GitHub stars, 2,740 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lotus has 1,842 stars, 137 forks, 35 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Listmonk leads on adoption by 1,209% (24,112 vs 1,842 stars). Listmonk is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; lotus is written in Python under MIT. Listmonk has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, lotus 7%. lotus was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (self-hosted), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Listmonk | lotus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 137 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Listmonk if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick lotus if
- You want the lotus feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and lotus fits your workflow better
About Listmonk
listmonk is a standalone, self hosted, newsletter and mailing list manager. It is fast, feature rich, and packed into a single binary. It uses a PostgreSQL database as its data store. Visit listmonk.app for more info. Check out the live demo . Installation Docker The latest image is available on DockerHub at listmonk/listmonk:latest . Download and use the sample docker compose.yml. Visit See installation docs Binary Download the latest release and extract the listmonk binary. ./listmonk new config to generate config.toml. Edit it. ./listmonk install to setup the Postgres DB (or upgrade to upgrade an existing DB…
read the full Listmonk overview →
About lotus
Lotus: Pricing & Packaging Infrastructure For Any Business Model Usage Based, Per Seat, Bespoke Enterprise Plans And More Documentation • Lotus is a pricing and billing engine that enables SaaS companies to deploy, monitor, and experiment with custom subscriptions and complex models like usage based pricing. Lotus provides a flexible and modular control panel on top of your existing quote to cash stack that allows you to integrate data from multiple systems to help you figure out the optimal pricing scheme for your products. Getting Started :bust in silhouette: Self Hosted Version (currently the only…
read the full lotus overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Listmonk or lotus more popular?
Listmonk has 24,112 GitHub stars and lotus has 1,842. Listmonk has the larger community by that measure.
Are Listmonk and lotus free?
Both are open source. Listmonk is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and lotus under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Listmonk and lotus?
Listmonk is written in Go and lotus in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Listmonk or lotus?
Choose Listmonk if you want the larger community (24,112 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose lotus if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.