Keila is the privacy-first newsletter tool for teams who want EU hosting, open code and every feature in the box

Keila set out to answer a simple question: what if a newsletter tool worked like Mailchimp but you could run it on your own server? The first version was announced on the Elixir forum in February 2021, and it has kept growing since, adding a visual editor, campaign tracking, segmentation, custom contact fields, a REST API and a hosted edition.

Today Keila offers several ways to write an email, from a visual block editor to Markdown, MJML and plain text. It handles contact lists with custom data, audience segments, sign-up forms with captcha and double opt-in, A/B testing and transactional email. The whole thing is licensed under AGPLv3, and the team is proud that there are no premium features held back from the open source version.

Where it shines

Keila is a natural fit for European businesses and anyone who takes privacy seriously. The cloud service is made in Germany and runs on infrastructure in Germany and France, and analytics come with privacy controls. Plans are based on how many emails you send, with unlimited contacts and projects, so agencies and teams running several newsletters can keep them all under one roof. The company is bootstrapped and explains that it skips a free cloud tier so that customers, not their data, pay the bills.

The best way to start

If you want it hosted, sign up for Keila Cloud and start with the visual editor and a sign-up form. If you like running your own stack, pull the official Docker image; small lists can even send through your own email inbox, and bigger ones can plug into AWS SES, Sendgrid, Mailgun, Postmark or SMTP. Open source projects and nonprofits can also ask the team about discounts.

The whole newsletter toolkit, open source and European, with nothing locked behind an upgrade.

The verdict