About this plugin
Australcode Email Marketing is a self-hosted newsletter plugin: it turns your WordPress site into a complete email marketing platform. Grow a subscriber list with a compliant subscribe form, confirm every contact with double opt-in, and send campaigns from your own server — unlimited subscribers, no monthly SaaS fee, no per-subscriber pricing.
Your subscribers, your campaigns, and your consent records live in your own WordPress database.
Why self-hosted email marketing?
- Your data stays on your site. Subscribers, consent logs, and campaign history are stored in custom tables in your WordPress database, exportable to CSV at any time.
- No usage-based pricing. The free plugin sends through your site’s own email transport (wp_mail or your SMTP plugin) — the size of your list never changes what you pay.
- One admin. Forms, subscribers, campaigns, and settings live in wp-admin.
Compliance built in
- Double opt-in — subscribers confirm by email before they can receive campaigns.
- Consent log — date, source, and hashed IP recorded for every subscription.
- One-click unsubscribe with a standard List-Unsubscribe header — and a preference center where subscribers pick the lists they want instead of leaving altogether.
- Physical mailing address added to every email footer, as anti-spam law requires.
The sending engine
A queue built on WP-cron batches, throttles, and retries your sends so shared hosting stays happy. The free version sends through your existing email transport (wp_mail or any SMTP plugin); Pro adds high-deliverability transports for larger lists.
Everything in free
- Unlimited subscribers and unlimited lists.
- Subscribe form as a shortcode, a block, and a widget — theme-agnostic.
- Double opt-in with a full consent log.
- Preference center: subscribers choose which lists they stay on, or unsubscribe from everything in one click, with a List-Unsubscribe header.
- Broadcast campaigns: subject, template, rich-text body, send now or schedule.
- Audience segmentation — target by engagement, purchases (with WooCommerce), and subscriber fields.
- A/B subject line testing — split your list 50/50 across two subject lines.
- Self-hosted sending queue with batching, throttling, and retry.
- Per-campaign delivery report: how many were sent, how many failed, and the most common reasons they failed.
- CSV import and export.
- WooCommerce checkout subscribe opt-in (when WooCommerce is active).
WooCommerce (optional)
The plugin is standalone and works on any WordPress site. When WooCommerce is active, it adds a consent-first subscribe opt-in at checkout so buyers can join your list in one click.
Pro
Australcode Email Marketing Pro adds scale and automation: high-deliverability transports (Amazon SES, Postmark, Mailgun, Brevo), automations (welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back), a visual block composer with unlimited saved templates, open and click tracking, and resend to non-openers.
External services
com) for optional usage tracking, licensing, and Pro upgrades.
- What it is: Freemius provides the licensing, checkout, and update delivery for the Pro version, plus an optional “Contact Us” support channel.
- What data is sent and when: Nothing is sent without your action. If you explicitly opt in on the activation screen (you can skip it), your admin email address and site URL are sent to Freemius. If you activate a Pro license, your license key, site URL, and admin email are sent to validate the license and deliver updates. Opening the in-admin “Contact” page loads an external Freemius form whose URL includes your site URL and plugin identifiers.
- Terms of Service: https://freemius.com/terms/
- Privacy Policy: https://freemius.com/privacy/
org) can send your campaigns through a third-party email delivery provider that you choose and configure:
- Amazon SES, Postmark, Mailgun, or Brevo — only the provider you select is contacted.
- What data is sent and when: when the sending engine dispatches a campaign (or you press “Send test email”), the recipient’s email address, the email subject and body, and your configured sender identity are sent to your chosen provider’s API using the API credentials you entered. Nothing is sent to any provider until you configure it and pass its deliverability test.
- Amazon SES — Terms: https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/ · Privacy: https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/
- Postmark — Terms: https://postmarkapp.com/terms-of-service · Privacy: https://www.activecampaign.com/legal/privacy-policy
- Mailgun — Terms: https://www.mailgun.com/legal/terms/ · Privacy: https://www.mailgun.com/legal/privacy-policy/
- Brevo — Terms: https://www.brevo.com/legal/termsofuse/ · Privacy: https://www.brevo.com/legal/privacypolicy/