Show IH: I built an email marketing platform that doesn't charge you for growing
I got tired of watching the same thing happen over and over.
A founder signs up for Mailchimp. List grows to 10,000 contacts.
Price jumps to $110/month. Grows to 25,000. Now it's $270/month.
Same product. Same one button they actually use: "Send Campaign."
The math that bothered me most:
50,000 contacts, 4 newsletters/month (200,000 emails/year)
→ Mailchimp Standard: ~€450/month (~€5,400/year)
→ QeakFlow + Amazon SES: ~€47/month (~€565/year)
That's €4,800/year saved doing exactly the same thing.
The problem isn't Mailchimp specifically.
It's the model.
Traditional ESPs charge based on stored contacts - not emails sent.
You pay every month for subscribers who haven't opened
an email in 6 months.
Storing a row in a database costs essentially €0.00.
You're paying a contact storage tax, not for actual sending.
What I built:
BYO-SMTP separates the software layer from the sending infrastructure.
You pay a flat monthly fee for QeakFlow (€9 or €29/month).
You connect your own SMTP provider - Amazon SES, Mailgun, Postmark, Brevo.
You pay ~€1 per 10,000 emails actually sent.
Your sender reputation belongs to you, not a shared IP pool.
Each customer gets their own isolated Listmonk instance.
One bad sender can't affect your deliverability.
EU-hosted. GDPR-ready. No vendor lock-in.
I'm launching in Germany first, where many small businesses need GDPR-compliant email marketing but don't want to pay hundreds of euros just because their contact list grows.
Where I am now:
Backend is done - provisioning, billing (Stripe),
DNS verification, SMTP setup, onboarding state machine.
Landing page is live: qeakflow.com
Looking for the first 10 beta users.
What I'm not sure about:
The onboarding still requires SMTP setup.
That's a real friction point for non-technical users.
I'm trying to make it as guided as possible
but it's not zero effort.
If you've solved this problem for a similar product
I'd genuinely love to hear how.
→ Early access: qeakflow.com
#ShowIH #EmailMarketing #BuildInPublic #BYO-SMTP
The SMTP setup seems especially important because it isn't just onboarding friction — it's part of the model that creates the cost advantage you're selling.
Have you tested yet whether the small businesses most attracted to the savings are actually willing to complete that setup, or is that what the first 10 beta users are meant to establish?
Exactly. It's the main tradeoff. A few minutes of setup in exchange for much lower costs and full ownership of your sending infrastructure. The first beta users will help me understand how much guidance people actually need during onboarding.
That’s helpful context. The tradeoff between setup effort and long-term ownership is an interesting one to validate with real users.
I’d like to continue the conversation outside the thread. What’s the best email to reach you on?
Sure, you can reach me at andrii@qeakflow.com. Happy to continue the conversation.
Thanks! I’ve just sent it over.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts whenever you have a chance.