Is Sendy or Shortwave better?

Neither clearly leads. Sendy starts at $69/one-time and Shortwave at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Sendy or Shortwave?

Shortwave has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $69/one-time for Sendy and Free for Shortwave.

Does Sendy or Shortwave run on more platforms?

Sendy runs on Web, Linux. Shortwave runs on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows.

Can I use Shortwave for free?

Yes. Shortwave has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Sendy starts at $69/one-time.

What is Sendy best used for?

Sendy is most often used for a publisher with a large list sending frequently, where a hosted platform bills by subscriber count month after month, an agency managing newsletters for several clients who each get their own brand and login under one licence, a business that must keep subscriber data on its own infrastructure for privacy or contractual reasons, a developer wiring signups from a custom application into a mailing list without paying platform api fees. Of those, a publisher with a large list sending frequently, where a hosted platform bills by subscriber count month after month and an agency managing newsletters for several clients who each get their own brand and login under one licence are not what Shortwave is typically brought in for.

What can Sendy do that Shortwave cannot?

Sendy covers One-time licence, Amazon SES delivery, Multiple brands, Autoresponders. Shortwave covers AI Email Filtering, Intelligent Autocomplete, Voice-Style Composition, Meeting Scheduling.

Email Marketing · head to head

Sendy vs Shortwave

Sendy

Email Marketing

Self-hosted newsletter app bought once for $69 that sends through your own Amazon SES account

From: $69/one-time
Rated: -

Full review Website

Shortwave

Email Marketing

AI-powered email assistant for intelligent inbox management

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Shortwave has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Sendy free updates run only to the next major version, so the one-time purchase is really one purchase per major release and the long-term cost is not zero.; Shortwave per-seat pricing increases team costs compared to flat-rate email solutions
They diverge on capability: Sendy covers One-time licence, Shortwave covers AI Email Filtering.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Sendy and Shortwave actually diverge.

Attributes where Sendy and Shortwave differ
Attribute	Sendy	Shortwave
Starting price	$69/one-time	Free
Pricing model	One-time purchase	Unknown
Free tier	No	Yes
Platforms	Web, Linux	iOS, Android, macOS, Windows

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 Sendy

One-time licence
Amazon SES delivery
Multiple brands
Autoresponders
Segmentation
Bounce and complaint handling
Reporting
Client access

Only in Shortwave

AI Email Filtering
Intelligent Autocomplete
Voice-Style Composition
Meeting Scheduling
Email-to-Todo Conversion
AI-Powered Search
Team Collaboration
Email Summaries

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Sendy

A publisher with a large list sending frequently, where a hosted platform bills by subscriber count month after monthnot Shortwave
An agency managing newsletters for several clients who each get their own brand and login under one licencenot Shortwave
A business that must keep subscriber data on its own infrastructure for privacy or contractual reasonsnot Shortwave
A developer wiring signups from a custom application into a mailing list without paying platform API feesnot Shortwave

Shortwave

Reducing inbox overload through AI-powered organizationnot Sendy
Drafting professional emails using natural languagenot Sendy
Scheduling meetings without back-and-forth coordinationnot Sendy
Searching email archives using conversational queriesnot Sendy
Converting emails to tasks for team task trackingnot Sendy

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Sendy

Free updates run only to the next major version, so the one-time purchase is really one purchase per major release and the long-term cost is not zero.
Deliverability becomes entirely your problem: SES gives you a raw sending pipe and no warm-up guidance, reputation dashboards or deliverability consultants when a campaign starts landing in spam.
Amazon SES requires production access approval and will suspend accounts on high bounce or complaint rates, which can take a list offline mid-campaign with little warning.
The template editor and design tooling are basic next to Mailchimp or Klaviyo, so anything visually ambitious means hand-written HTML email.
You own the server: PHP upgrades, database backups and patching are yours, and an unmaintained Sendy install holding a subscriber list is a data breach waiting to happen.

Shortwave

Per-seat pricing increases team costs compared to flat-rate email solutions
AI features may require higher tier plans, limiting value for smaller teams
Dependency on third-party integrations for full feature depth
Learning curve for effective use of AI-powered features
Limited customization for AI filter behavior compared to manual rules

Pricing, plan by plan

Sendy

$69/one-time

Sendy licence$69/one-time
- One-time purchase, no subscription
- Free updates only up to the next major version
- Unlimited lists, subscribers and campaigns
AI Assistant bundle$39/one-time
- Optional add-on, listed at a discount from $49
- AI writing assistance inside the campaign editor
Installation service$79/one-time
- Optional one-off setup by the vendor
- For buyers who do not want to configure hosting and SES themselves

Shortwave

Free

FreeFree
- Email search and organization
- Basic inbox tools
- Limited AI features
Business$30/month
- Full standard search history
- 5 years AI search history
- Max 50 threads per AI search
Premier$45/month
- Everything in Business
- 2x more AI usage
- Unlimited AI search history
Max$120/month
- Everything in Premier
- 6x more AI usage
- Max 150 threads per AI search

Which should you pick?

Choose Sendy if

You need one-time licence.
You work on Web, Linux.
You also want amazon ses delivery.

Sendy review

Choose Shortwave if

You need ai email filtering.
You want to start without paying.
You work on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows.
You also want intelligent autocomplete.

Shortwave review

Questions people ask

Is Sendy or Shortwave better?: Neither clearly leads. Sendy starts at $69/one-time and Shortwave at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Sendy or Shortwave?: Shortwave has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $69/one-time for Sendy and Free for Shortwave.
Does Sendy or Shortwave run on more platforms?: Sendy runs on Web, Linux. Shortwave runs on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Shortwave for free?: Yes. Shortwave has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Sendy starts at $69/one-time.
What is Sendy best used for?: Sendy is most often used for a publisher with a large list sending frequently, where a hosted platform bills by subscriber count month after month, an agency managing newsletters for several clients who each get their own brand and login under one licence, a business that must keep subscriber data on its own infrastructure for privacy or contractual reasons, a developer wiring signups from a custom application into a mailing list without paying platform api fees. Of those, a publisher with a large list sending frequently, where a hosted platform bills by subscriber count month after month and an agency managing newsletters for several clients who each get their own brand and login under one licence are not what Shortwave is typically brought in for.
What can Sendy do that Shortwave cannot?: Sendy covers One-time licence, Amazon SES delivery, Multiple brands, Autoresponders. Shortwave covers AI Email Filtering, Intelligent Autocomplete, Voice-Style Composition, Meeting Scheduling.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Sendy: What does it actually cost to send?

The licence is $69 once. Delivery is Amazon SES at roughly $1 per 10,000 emails, plus your own hosting, so a 50,000-contact weekly newsletter costs a few dollars a month to send.

Shortwave: Is there a free trial for Shortwave?

Yes, Shortwave offers a 14-day free trial for all paid plans with no credit card required.

Source

Sendy: Are updates free forever?

No. Updates are free up to the next major version, for example within 7.x. Moving from 7.x to 8.x is a paid upgrade.

Shortwave: What platforms does Shortwave support?

Shortwave is available on iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows for full cross-platform email management.

Source

Sendy: Do I need to know how to set up a server?

Standard PHP and MySQL hosting is enough and the vendor compares it to installing WordPress, but the SES side needs AWS configuration. An $79 installation service is offered if you would rather not.

Shortwave: How much AI usage do I get per plan?

Business plan includes 3 AI-powered filters and standard AI usage. Premier (2x more AI) and Max (6x more AI) plans provide increasing levels of AI feature access.

Source

Sendy: What happens if Amazon suspends my SES account?

Your sending stops until you resolve it with AWS. There is no alternative delivery route built in, and this is the single biggest operational risk of the model.

Shortwave: What integrations does Shortwave support?

Shortwave integrates with Slack, Calendar, Notion, Asana, HubSpot, and 3,000+ apps via Tasklet.

Source

Sendy vs Shortwave

Sendy

Shortwave

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Sendy

Only in Shortwave

What people use each for

Sendy

Shortwave

Where each one falls short

Sendy

Shortwave

Pricing, plan by plan

Sendy

Shortwave

Which should you pick?

Choose Sendy if

Choose Shortwave if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Sendy

More on Shortwave

Keep looking

Other head to heads