[opensourcedex]

Keila is a free, open source email & communication project written in Elixir and released under AGPL-3.0. It has 2,211 GitHub stars, 167 forks and 76 open issues, and was last pushed 26 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #6 of 13 tracked projects in Email & Communication, and is listed as an open source replacement for 1 paid product, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 2 stars over the last 6 tracked days.

What is Keila?

What it is

Keila is an open-source newsletter and email marketing tool written in Elixir and licensed under AGPL-3.0. It is presented as an open alternative to Mailchimp and Sendinblue, and it lives in the open-source email marketing and newsletter ecosystem for people who want to manage campaigns and subscriber sign-ups without relying only on a paid hosted service.

The concrete problem it solves is the need to create, send, and collect newsletter contacts from one self-managed or hosted application. The README says that smaller newsletters can use an operator's own email inbox to send campaigns, while larger newsletter projects can connect to AWS SES, Sendgrid, Mailgun, Postmark, or SMTP. That gives users a path from a simple personal newsletter setup to a more scalable sending configuration without changing the basic campaign workflow.

Key capabilities

  • Keila includes a campaign editor with a WYSIWYG interface and a default template for composing newsletter campaigns.
  • Keila supports sign-up forms for collecting newsletter contacts.
  • Keila can send smaller newsletters through an operator's own email inbox.
  • Keila supports AWS SES, Sendgrid, Mailgun, Postmark, and SMTP for larger newsletter projects.
  • Keila can be deployed with the official Docker image pentacent/keila or the sample Docker Compose config.

Who uses it and how

  • Smaller newsletter operators can use Keila as a self-managed campaign tool while sending from their own email inbox.
  • Larger newsletter projects can connect to AWS SES, Sendgrid, Mailgun, Postmark, or SMTP for campaign delivery.
  • Self-hosters can deploy Keila on their own server by using the official Docker image or the repository's sample Docker Compose configuration.
  • Prospective users can evaluate Keila through the hosted registration page at app.keila.io before deciding whether to use Keila Cloud.

Getting started

The README points users to the official Docker image pentacent/keila, the sample Docker Compose config, and the Installation Docs for self-hosted deployment. It also points to app.keila.io for a hosted trial.

When to use it — and when not to

Use Keila when you want an AGPL-licensed newsletter tool that can replace Mailchimp or Sendinblue for campaign editing, sign-up forms, and configurable email delivery. Do not choose it if you need a mature managed platform without operating your own deployment, because the metadata shows a 0-year-old repository, 0 listed contributors, and 76 open issues, while self-hosters must still run the application and configure delivery through an own inbox or supported SMTP and provider integrations. It is best for operators who are comfortable with Docker-based deployment and email service setup.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

GitHub Workflow Status Docker Image Version (latest semver) GitHub release (latest SemVer) GitHub Sponsors

The Keila logo is a stylized elephant Keila - An Open Source Newsletter Tool

Keila is an Open Source alternative to newsletter tools like Mailchimp or Sendinblue.

With Keila you can easily send out newsletter campaigns and create sign-up forms.

For smaller newsletters, you can use your own email inbox to send out campaigns. For larger newsletter projects, AWS SES, Sendgrid, Mailgun, and Postmark are supported in addition to SMTP.

Screenshot of the Keila campaign editor showing the WYSIWYG editor and the default template

Give Keila a Try!

You can give a hosted version of Keila a try on app.keila.io. More information about the pricing of Keila Cloud here.

If you want to deploy Keila on your own server, you can use the official Docker image pentacent/keila or use the sample Docker Compose config in this repo.

Follow the Installation Docs for more details.

Contributing

You can contribute to the Keila project with translations or code! Learn more about how to contribute code or translations to Keila here: CONTRIBUTING.md

The Name

Keila is the name of the elephant mascot of this project. She’s a wise and diligent elephant lady, able to remember countless email addresses and contact names. Fun fact: Keila loves going on holiday trips to the lakes of Finland.

License

Keila is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Keila is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

For more details about the AGPL, please read the full license here.

Please note that the Keila logo and all files included in the extra directory are not subject to the license.

For more details about the files in the extra directory, please refer to the extra README.

Frequently asked questions

Is Keila free to use?

Keila is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does Keila do?

Open-source email marketing for the privacy-conscious

What is Keila written in?

Keila is primarily written in Elixir. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/pentacent/keila, and it has 2,211 GitHub stars.

What is a good open source alternative to Mailchimp?

Keila is one of the open source options listed as an alternative to Mailchimp. Compare licences, stars and activity side by side on the Keila profile.