AcelleMail

AcelleMail is self-hosted email marketing software that a business installs on its own Linux server and uses to manage lists, design and send campaigns, run automations and track results. It is built on PHP and Laravel, the full source code ships with every license, and it sends through whatever service the owner connects: Amazon SES, SendGrid, SparkPost or any SMTP server. The home page says "You buy it once and own it forever: no monthly fees, no per-subscriber pricing, and full control of your data", and that "Since 2016, thousands of businesses around the world have used AcelleMail". The footer names GUARDIAN HOLDINGS HK LIMITED, under license by BASIC TECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE, with a registered office in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

The FAQ is careful about one point: AcelleMail is "source-available commercial software, not free/open-source software". The PHP source is unencrypted and can be modified and white-labeled, but the license is a paid one.

What a sender actually gets

Campaigns and the editor. A drag-and-drop editor builds responsive emails from "100+ templates" or from scratch, with no coding. Content blocks listed on the home page include QR codes, RSS blocks, charts, social icons, barcodes and stat or KPI blocks. The walkthrough videos promise a first campaign in 3 minutes, from compose and design to scheduling and sending.

Lists and segmentation. Owners "Import unlimited subscribers, segment by custom fields, and manage multiple lists from one dashboard." The FAQ says "The application places no cap on subscribers or sends; the only ceilings are your server's storage and your chosen SMTP transport's per-second send rate", and that "Typical single-server installs handle 100,000+ subscribers comfortably."

Automation. The automation engine runs "24/7 on your own infrastructure" and covers welcome emails for new subscribers, drip campaigns, re-engagement sequences for inactive contacts, and date-based triggers for birthdays and events. The home page also lists triggered emails.

Reporting. Built-in analytics track opens, clicks, bounces and conversions in real time.

Deliverability. AcelleMail includes a built-in email verification service to clean lists before sending, automatic bounce and complaint handling with feedback loop processing, SPF, DKIM and DMARC configuration guides, and IP warmup scheduling for new senders.

AI. An AI plugin, listed in the footer as Aurius 4.0, "ships with your license". It catches spam-trigger words and deliverability risks "in any language" before sending, and generates email templates and pages from a prompt. It can run privately on the owner's hardware with Ollama, use the owner's own OpenAI, Anthropic or Groq key, or draw on credits from the hosted AcelleMail Hub.

Sending services

The home page says AcelleMail "supports all major delivery services out of the box" and that owners can switch "anytime without losing a single subscriber". Amazon SES is pitched as the cheapest route for volume, with the page citing SES pricing of "$0.10 per 1,000 emails". SendGrid and SparkPost connect with an API key, with "Full delivery tracking and bounce handling built in". Mailgun, Elastic Email, Postmark or the owner's own server connect over standard SMTP.

For developers

The developer section calls AcelleMail "built to be the email marketing platform your developers extend". The REST API offers "Token-authenticated CRUD for campaigns, lists, subscribers, templates, automations" with "Webhook events for every domain happening", and the page stresses that plugins use the same API as external clients. A typed hook system has four extension patterns (REGISTRY, EVENT, BEHAVIOR, FILTER). Plugins are Composer-shaped folders dropped under storage/app/plugins/ and can add sending drivers, payment gateways, AI assistants, custom UI, admin pages or REST APIs without touching core.

Running it as a SaaS

The Extended License "includes a complete multi-tenant SaaS framework". Each customer gets a workspace "with separate lists, campaigns, automations, and sending servers" and full white-label support. The built-in billing layer creates plans "with subscriber limits, sending quotas, and feature gates", with PayPal, Stripe, Braintree and Paddle for payments. The site's open-source guide positions the Extended License as a way to resell without the copyleft obligations of AGPL or GPL tools.

Pricing and licensing

The FAQ gives both prices: "Regular License costs USD 80 (single domain) and Extended License costs USD 199 (SaaS rights). Both are one-time payments with lifetime updates and no recurring fees." Every purchase includes the full PHP/Laravel source, free lifetime updates and "six months of support". The pricing block lists unlimited subscribers and emails, the automation engine, the drag-and-drop builder and "GDPR-compliant data handling".

Sending costs are separate and paid to the chosen provider, which is the point of the model.

Installation and hosting

Installation needs SSH access to a Linux server with PHP 8.1+, MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.3+, and nginx or Apache. The home page adds that it works on shared hosting, VPS or cloud servers, with a one-click web-based installer. The knowledge base has "1-day setup guides for Ubuntu, cPanel, and Docker", and a walkthrough shows install plus SMTP setup in 5 minutes. Upgrades run from the browser, with "minimal downtime, your data preserved". The current long-term support release is version 4.2.0 LTS. A live demo needs "No registration form, no credit card".

Data and compliance

Because the software runs on the owner's server, the site says subscriber data "never leaves your infrastructure". It lists "Built-in GDPR tools, CAN-SPAM compliance, and role-based access control", including consent forms, data export and deletion tools, and automatic unsubscribe links.

Support

Support comes through a help center, contact form, community forum, documentation, video guides and a monthly newsletter with release notes and deliverability tips. The home page mentions "Active community and priority support". Forum threads shown on the home page cover configuring Amazon SES, email warmup strategy, abandoned cart automation and running AcelleMail as a SaaS, which gives a fair picture of what owners actually deal with. The footer lists partners including IPwarmup.com and Mobile Message.

Who it suits and who it does not

AcelleMail suits a team comfortable running a Linux server that wants to own its email marketing outright: a publisher with a large list sending through Amazon SES, a business that wants subscriber data on its own machine, a developer who needs a REST API and plugin hooks, or an agency or entrepreneur using the Extended License to sell email marketing under its own brand.

It does not suit a sender with no one to install and maintain a server. Day-to-day campaign work needs no technical skill, per the FAQ, but installation, SMTP setup, updates and deliverability are the owner's job.