Email Marketing · head to head
Attentive vs Listmonk
Attentive
Email Marketing
Enterprise SMS and email marketing for retail brands, sold on quarterly minimum spend commitments
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Listmonk
Email Marketing
Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager that ships as a single Go binary
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Listmonk has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Attentive minimum spend commitments are use it or lose it: if quarterly usage falls short, the shortfall is invoiced anyway, which makes Attentive expensive for any brand whose sending is seasonal rather than even.; Listmonk it is not an email service provider. It hands mail to SMTP servers you configure and does nothing about IP warm-up, domain reputation, DKIM, DMARC or inbox placement, so deliverability failures are entirely yours to diagnose and fix.
- They diverge on capability: Attentive covers SMS-first journeys, Listmonk covers Single binary deployment.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Attentive and Listmonk actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Email Marketing).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Attentive
- SMS-first journeys
- Two-tap sign-up units
- TCPA compliance tooling
- Email channel
- Revenue attribution
- Concierge
- Identity resolution
- Negotiated order form rates
Only in Listmonk
- Single binary deployment
- SQL segmentation
- Multi-SMTP queues
- Arbitrary subscriber attributes
- Go templating
- Transactional API
- Bounce processing
- Messenger webhooks
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Attentive
- A direct-to-consumer brand where SMS is the primary revenue channel and needs cart abandonment triggered within minutes of a sessionnot Listmonk
- A retailer capturing in-store phone numbers at the till and needing TCPA-compliant consent records to go with themnot Listmonk
- A consumer brand running SMS and email from one audience so subscribers are not messaged twice for the same promotionnot Listmonk
- A high-volume merchant with predictable year-round send patterns that can commit to a quarterly minimum and negotiate rates down against itnot Listmonk
Listmonk
- A publisher with hundreds of thousands of subscribers faces a five-figure annual bill from a hosted provider and can send the same volume through Amazon SES for a fraction of it.not Attentive
- A developer wants campaign audiences defined by an arbitrary SQL query against subscriber attributes, which no hosted segment builder will express.not Attentive
- An organisation under privacy or data residency rules needs subscriber data to stay on infrastructure it controls, which rules out every hosted newsletter platform.not Attentive
- An open source project or nonprofit needs a mailing list tool with no per-subscriber cost, where the list will grow faster than any budget for it.not Attentive
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Attentive
- Minimum spend commitments are use it or lose it: if quarterly usage falls short, the shortfall is invoiced anyway, which makes Attentive expensive for any brand whose sending is seasonal rather than even.
- No rates are published anywhere, so a buyer cannot benchmark a quote before entering a sales process, and the effective per message cost is only visible once an order form is drafted.
- Contracts commonly run six to twelve months, so a brand that finds performance disappointing after two months still owes the balance of the term.
- Total cost combines a platform fee, per message SMS and MMS charges and carrier pass-through fees, and MMS at two to five cents per message means image-heavy campaigns cost several times what the SMS rate suggests.
- It is priced and built for established consumer brands, and the entry commitment puts it out of reach of small merchants that Postscript and similar tools serve on usage-based plans with no floor.
Listmonk
- It is not an email service provider. It hands mail to SMTP servers you configure and does nothing about IP warm-up, domain reputation, DKIM, DMARC or inbox placement, so deliverability failures are entirely yours to diagnose and fix.
- Running it means running PostgreSQL, backups, upgrades and a mail relay, and the true cost is the engineering time to keep that stack healthy rather than the zero licence fee.
- The campaign editor and analytics are basic next to Mailchimp or Klaviyo: reporting is limited to opens, clicks and bounces, with no revenue attribution, no ecommerce integration and no deep engagement scoring.
- SQL-based segmentation puts audience definition beyond a non-technical marketer, so a marketing team without engineering support will be blocked on routine tasks.
- The AGPLv3 licence obliges you to release source modifications if you offer the software as a network service, which is a real constraint for anyone considering embedding it in a commercial product.
Pricing, plan by plan
Attentive
On request- Attentive$undefined/year
- No public rate card; rates are set in an individual order form
- Platform fee plus per message SMS and MMS charges
- Contracts commonly six to twelve months
Listmonk
Free- Self-hostedFree
- Full AGPLv3 source
- Unlimited subscribers and campaigns
- No feature gating and no send limits in the software
- Third-party managed hosting$undefined/month
- Several unaffiliated providers offer hosted Listmonk
- No official hosted service from the maintainer
- Prices vary by provider and are not published centrally
Which should you pick?
Choose Attentive if
- You need sms-first journeys.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want two-tap sign-up units.
Choose Listmonk if
- You need single binary deployment.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Self-hosted, Docker, Linux, macOS, Windows.
- You also want sql segmentation.
Questions people ask
- Is Attentive or Listmonk better?
- Neither clearly leads. Attentive starts at On request and Listmonk at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Attentive or Listmonk?
- Listmonk has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Attentive and Free for Listmonk.
- Does Attentive or Listmonk run on more platforms?
- Attentive runs on Web, iOS, Android. Listmonk runs on Web, Self-hosted, Docker, Linux, macOS, Windows.
- Can I use Listmonk for free?
- Yes. Listmonk has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Attentive starts at On request.
- What is Attentive best used for?
- Attentive is most often used for a direct-to-consumer brand where sms is the primary revenue channel and needs cart abandonment triggered within minutes of a session, a retailer capturing in-store phone numbers at the till and needing tcpa-compliant consent records to go with them, a consumer brand running sms and email from one audience so subscribers are not messaged twice for the same promotion, a high-volume merchant with predictable year-round send patterns that can commit to a quarterly minimum and negotiate rates down against it. Of those, a direct-to-consumer brand where sms is the primary revenue channel and needs cart abandonment triggered within minutes of a session and a retailer capturing in-store phone numbers at the till and needing tcpa-compliant consent records to go with them are not what Listmonk is typically brought in for.
- What can Attentive do that Listmonk cannot?
- Attentive covers SMS-first journeys, Two-tap sign-up units, TCPA compliance tooling, Email channel. Listmonk covers Single binary deployment, SQL segmentation, Multi-SMTP queues, Arbitrary subscriber attributes.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Attentive: How much does Attentive cost?
It does not publish rates. Costs are a platform fee plus per message charges set in your order form, with minimum spend commitments commonly around 2,000 to 3,000 USD per quarter.
Listmonk: Does Listmonk send my emails?
No. It composes, queues and tracks campaigns, then hands the messages to SMTP servers you provide, such as Amazon SES, Postmark or your own relay.
Attentive: What happens if I do not use my minimum?
You are invoiced for the shortfall at the end of the quarter. Unused commitment is not carried forward.
Listmonk: What does it cost to run?
The software is free. The real cost is a small server, a PostgreSQL database and per-email SMTP charges, which through SES are a fraction of hosted newsletter pricing at large list sizes.
Attentive: How long is the contract?
Typically six to twelve months, billed monthly or quarterly.
Listmonk: What licence is it under?
AGPLv3, which requires you to publish modifications if you offer it as a network service to others.
Attentive: Does it do email as well as SMS?
Yes, with shared audiences and journeys, though the product was designed SMS-first and that remains its strength.
Listmonk: Is there an official hosted version?
No. Some unaffiliated providers offer managed Listmonk, but the maintainer does not run a hosted service.
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