Select mailing list system for announcements

[mjherzog]

We need a way to announce major AboutCode proposals and changes to interested parties. The primary purpose is to have a way to officially announce major changes beyond Slack/Gitter and GitHub and keep a record of those announcements. The intended audience is people who are interested in AboutCode projects but are not active in the Slack conversations or GH discussions or issues and do not check the website for news. We also expect that most people who are active in Slack/Gitter or GitHub will join the announcement mailing lists.

The primary use cases are similar to a newsletter because we need a way to make announcements but we want to keep the discussions in GitHub and Slack, not create another channel for discussions within email threads. More specifically we need this for broad reach announcement of changes that will likely affect people who actively use AboutCode software or data. Some recent examples of this type of announcement are:

• Major changes to VulnerableCode to replace "vulnerabilities" with "advisories" (this will merit multiple announcements as we progress)
• Refinement of Copyleft Limited license categories - Enhancement request: Refine License Category - Copyleft Limited dejacode#499

Beyond the actual tool for publishing announcements a key feature is building up email lists of people who are interested in AboutCode and its projects. We will need robust email list management capabilities including subscribe/unsubscribe according to GDPR and other regulations. Regardless of which solution we pick now it should be feasible to transfer email lists to another platform in the future.

It would be highly desirable to use an open source solution but this is a "narrow" application so we do not want to take on self-hosting.

There are many options but a short list is:

• listmonk - good demo at: https://demo.listmonk.app/;

  • Pros:
    • Open source (AGPL)
    • Apparently healthy project
    • Relatively simple deployment with Docker
  • Cons:
    • Requires self-hosting - there are several suppliers who will run a Docker instance for you but none provide any compliance services

• Groups.io

  • Pros:
    • Very commonly used for open source projects (incl. CycloneDX & SPDX) so well-known and low friction for users
    • Provides basic GDPR compliance - https://groups.io/static/compliance#
    • Could also be used for email-based discussions in future if we want that for other use cases
  • Cons:
    • Announcements feature requires Premium plan - $220/year will cover up to 500 members in one Group with unlimited Subgroups
    • Proprietary

• Groups groups

  • Pros:
    • Already available under AboutCode's Google Workspace subscription for the core AboutCode team
    • Google acts as the data processor; seems to be GDPR compliant with specific configuration
    • Could also be used for email-based discussions in future if we want that for other use cases
  • Cons:
    • Declining general popularity
    • Awkward UI

AboutCode could possibly also support announcement functionality for the PURL and VERS specification projects.

[adaaaam]

@mjherzog i did a comprehensive search and review of options for a mailing list system for announcements, also considering additional features and functionalities required for other use cases. i would ideally like for us to adopt one single platform that can do several things.

priorities and preferences

• open source
• no self-hosting
• GDPR compliance
• portability

options

google groups: https://groups.google.com

• proprietary
• requires deliberate config for compliance
• limited use case = listserv
• provides email discussion option but i'd prefer those conversations are on other communication channels (GitHub issues/discussions, Slack/Gitter)

groups.io: https://groups.io

• proprietary
• would require premium plan ($220/year) for use of subgroups (necessary for segmentation)
• more use cases but probably won't use them (or can easily use alternatives)
• provides email discussion option but i'd prefer those conversations are on other communication channels (GitHub issues/discussions, Slack/Gitter)

mautic: https://mautic.org / https://github.com/mautic/mautic

• open source (GPL-3.0)
• robust marketing automation but more than needed
• previously used hosted version but renewal pricing expensive

listmonk: https://listmonk.app / https://github.com/knadh/listmonk

• open source (AGPL-3.0)
• self-hosted with option for third-party hosts (compliance concerns)
• would require setting up SMTP server
• mature open source project (~7 years, ~20k GitHub stars)
• no built-in automation but could use n8n or similar

sendportal: https://sendportal.io / https://github.com/mettle/sendportal

• open source (MIT)
• self-hosted only
• would require setting up SMTP server
• comparable feature set to listmonk but smaller community

keila: https://www.keila.io / https://github.com/pentacent/keila

• open source (AGPL-3.0)
• option for free self-hosting or EU-hosted managed cloud tier starting at $9.50/month (2000 emails/month) = this is run by the project itself (not a third party) and provides a GDPR Data Processing Agreement
• SMTP built-in with cloud offering (or can use dedicated SMTP server)
• can support more use cases than announcements (either through n8n or planned roadmap features: https://www.keila.io/roadmap/)
• smaller, younger community (~2k stars, founded 2021) but actively maintained

recommendation

given the priorities and preferences, i recommend keila. it will require some dev support to implement all the necessary functions (manage subscriptions form) but this should be minimal. the cloud tier would satisfy our requirements and help support the project development.

if we are open to self-hosting or using a managed instance (requires data residency in EU, audit logging, DPA, etc. for GDPR), we can reevaluate listmonk. however, it will require significant dev support to set up transactional emails and other functions.

[mjherzog]

Thank you - I captured this as https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xGiJ7e98m7GMq0cMHkQwCi3hIXMPeeuxMkVk2qArtv8/edit?usp=drive_link for reference

…

On Fri, Jul 17, 2026 at 3:51 PM adam ***@***.***> wrote: @mjherzog <https://github.com/mjherzog> i did a comprehensive search and review of options for a mailing list system for announcements, also considering additional features and functionalities required for other use cases. i would ideally like for us to adopt one single platform that can do several things. priorities and preferences - open source - no self-hosting - GDPR compliance - portability options google groups: https://groups.google.com - proprietary - requires deliberate config for compliance - limited use case = listserv - provides email discussion option but i'd prefer those conversations are on other communication channels (GitHub issues/discussions, Slack/Gitter) groups.io: https://groups.io - proprietary - would require premium plan ($220/year) for use of subgroups (necessary for segmentation) - more use cases but probably won't use them (or can easily use alternatives) - provides email discussion option but i'd prefer those conversations are on other communication channels (GitHub issues/discussions, Slack/Gitter) mautic: https://mautic.org / https://github.com/mautic/mautic - open source (GPL-3.0) - robust marketing automation but more than needed - previously used hosted version but renewal pricing expensive listmonk: https://listmonk.app / https://github.com/knadh/listmonk - open source (AGPL-3.0) - self-hosted with option for third-party hosts (compliance concerns) - would require setting up SMTP server - mature open source project (~7 years, ~20k GitHub stars) - no built-in automation but could use n8n or similar sendportal: https://sendportal.io / https://github.com/mettle/sendportal - open source (MIT) - self-hosted only - would require setting up SMTP server - comparable feature set to listmonk but smaller community keila: https://www.keila.io / https://github.com/pentacent/keila - open source (AGPL-3.0) - option for free self-hosting or EU-hosted managed cloud tier starting at $9.50/month (2000 emails/month) = this is run by the project itself (not a third party) and provides a GDPR Data Processing Agreement - SMTP built-in with cloud offering (or can use dedicated SMTP server) - can support more use cases than announcements (either through n8n or planned roadmap features: https://www.keila.io/roadmap/) - smaller, younger community (~2k stars, founded 2021) but actively maintained recommendation given the priorities and preferences, i recommend keila. it will require some dev support to implement all the necessary functions (manage subscriptions form) but this should be minimal. the cloud tier would satisfy our requirements and help support the project development. if we are open to self-hosting or using a managed instance (requires data residency in EU, audit logging, DPA, etc. for GDPR), we can reevaluate listmonk. however, it will require significant dev support to set up transactional emails and other functions. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#304?email_source=notifications&email_token=ABFBAB4KIUNEMTNPEHOXC3T5FKUVVA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCNZWG43TEMRRUZZGKYLTN5XKO3LFNZ2GS33OUVSXMZLOOSWGM33PORSXEX3DNRUWG2Y#discussioncomment-17677221>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABFBABYUBPBBQ2ICTNDASRL5FKUVVAVCNFSNUABHKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHM3DMMJTG42TAMJ3IRUXGY3VONZWS33OHMYTAMJZHE3TCN5BOYBA> . Triage notifications, keep track of coding agent tasks and review pull requests on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/ios/ABFBABZB7VGRGMXZ35DAIP35FKUVVA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCNZWG43TEMRRUZZGKYLTN5XKO3LFNZ2GS33OUVSXMZLOOSVGM33PORSXEX3JN5ZQ> and Android <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/android/ABFBABYWJZOUP7GJYS6ZWE35FKUVVA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCNZWG43TEMRRUZZGKYLTN5XKO3LFNZ2GS33OUVSXMZLOOSXGM33PORSXEX3BNZSHE33JMQ>. Download it today! You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.*** com>

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