Aldus

Aldus is an AI newsletter platform that researches, writes, designs and sends a newsletter for a business, which then reads the issue and approves it. It is aimed at businesses that keep meaning to start a newsletter and never do: dental practices, accountants, lettings agents, physios, law firms, garden centers and consultancies are the examples on its home page. The site says the service is "Now in public beta."

How it works

The home page promise is blunt: "Tell Aldus what you do and upload your customer list. Your first issue is written, designed and ready to review in fourteen minutes." It also says what the product leaves out: "No writing. No designing. No drag-and-drop editor."

Setup runs in three steps, each marked at about two minutes. First the business pastes its website, and Aldus works out what it does, who its customers are and how it talks about itself. Second it uploads a customer list as a CSV from a CRM, a booking system or a spreadsheet; the site says Aldus cleans it, removes duplicates and handles the unsubscribe rules. Third, Aldus researches the industry, writes the issue, makes the images and picks the send time, and the business reads it, changes anything it does not like and presses send. The page adds: "Then it does it again next month without being asked." Sending can be weekly, fortnightly or monthly.

The research step is a large part of the pitch. The site says Aldus scans hundreds of industry sources every cycle and brings back what matters to the business's customers rather than what is trending on social media. The sample issue on the home page, drafted for an accountancy practice, leads with changes to thresholds and reporting deadlines that affect sole traders, which shows the kind of practical, customer-facing content the tool aims for.

Writing in the business's voice

A fair worry with AI-written newsletters is that they read like it. Aldus answers that it learns from the business's website, its services and its last twenty issues, and that the business remains the editor: "Nothing goes out that you haven't read." The FAQ adds that it learns from the website first and then from every issue the team edits, and that "Most businesses find issue five noticeably closer than issue one." Any section can be rewritten by hand, or the business can tell Aldus what to change.

Images are generated too. The site describes custom illustrations in a style chosen once, fresh for every issue, with no stock photos and no designer. For writers who want more control, the editor accepts Markdown input, and the AI editor's output can be edited as rich text or raw HTML.

The site names its writing and research model: Anthropic Claude, adapted for newsletter writing, research and subject-line optimization.

Sending, testing and engagement

Aldus sends through Resend. The FAQ says it sends "with proper SPF and DKIM authentication on your custom domain, automatic bounce handling and complaint processing," and that "We monitor sender reputation and automatically suppress problematic addresses to keep your deliverability high." Connecting a custom sending domain takes one DNS record, according to the Ghost alternatives page. The service is fully hosted, with no servers, patching or backups for the customer to manage.

On the optimization side, the home page lists an optimal send time per subscriber and subject lines tested automatically, with a system that learns from every open and click. The alternatives pages describe automatic A/B testing on every send, two-way subscriber Conversations with optional AI auto-reply, and a built-in referral widget.

Each newsletter also gets a subscribe page and a public archive on the business's own domain, so new readers can join without the business building anything. The FAQ says that once the imported list is in, the signup page "collects new ones on its own."

Lists and consent

The FAQ is direct about where subscribers come from: most businesses already have them in a CRM, booking system, invoicing software or spreadsheet. Aldus deduplicates and validates as it imports.

On sending to customers who never opted in, the FAQ says a business needs a lawful basis for marketing email, and that in the UK this usually means consent or the soft opt-in for existing customers who bought something similar. Aldus adds the unsubscribe handling and record-keeping, but it says the decision about who is on the list stays with the business. That is a clear and useful answer, and it places responsibility where it belongs.

Migration and data ownership

The alternatives pages describe imports from other newsletter tools. Ghost members can be exported as a CSV and imported with their tier metadata preserved, and existing Stripe-paid members come across with their subscription state intact. Buttondown subscribers can be exported as a CSV and imported with tags and metadata preserved. The home page FAQ also says a business can import its Mailchimp list.

Ownership terms are spelled out. The FAQ says the business owns every issue and every image, with full commercial rights, and can export everything at any time. On cancellation, access runs to the end of the billing period and the list and archive stay exportable. In the site's words, "We don't hold your contacts hostage."

API and MCP server

For developers, Aldus exposes a public REST API and a first-party MCP server at /api/mcp with 14 tools, which the Buttondown alternatives page says lets a team "drive every operation from code or from any AI agent." API access is listed on the Pro plan.

Plans and pricing

The pricing section says AI writing, research and imagery are included in every plan, with no per-email fees. Billing and payments run through Stripe.

• Free ($0 forever): 2,500 subscribers, 1 newsletter, 4 issues a month, basic analytics. The home page also says the first issue is free and no card is needed.
• Starter ($19 a month): 5,000 subscribers, 1 newsletter, 30 issues a month, custom domain, A/B testing, and removal of Aldus branding.
• Growth ($39 a month): 25,000 subscribers, 3 newsletters, 90 issues a month, custom domain, priority processing, and Conversations.
• Pro ($79 a month): 100,000 subscribers, 10 newsletters, 300 issues a month, everything in Growth, API access and priority support.

The alternatives pages give the overall price range as running from free to $379 a month, so larger tiers exist beyond the four shown on the home page. The free plan is a standing plan rather than a trial.

Who it is for

The home page is headed "Built for businesses, not bloggers," and lists dental and medical practices, accountants and bookkeepers, estate and lettings agents, physios, chiropractors and clinics, law firms, financial advisers, consultancies and agencies, trades and home services, gyms and studios, veterinary practices, independent retail and B2B software. The common thread is a business with customers worth keeping in touch with and no one on staff to write to them.

The site also lists its own limitations: it is a newer platform, it has no built-in commerce or digital product sales, and its recommendations network is still in development. Anyone who wants to sell products inside the newsletter, or who wants fine control over every layout decision, will find those gaps real. For a small business that needs a steady, approved newsletter with the writing done for it, the offer is focused and easy to try on the free tier.