Managing newsletters and mailing lists doesn’t have to rely on third-party SaaS platforms with escalating monthly subscriptions, subscriber caps, or opaque privacy terms. When we decided to launch our own hardware projects and manage the early bird backers for Hive, we chose not to rent infrastructure from Mailchimp or HubSpot. We deployed Listmonk.

Listmonk is a blazingly fast, standalone newsletter and mailing list manager written in Go, backed by a PostgreSQL database. In this guide, we walk you step by step through configuring, securing, and operating Listmonk in a containerized environment on a Raspberry Pi (Pi 4, Pi 5, or a Compute Module carrier board).

Why choose Listmonk for edge hardware?

Unlike bloated PHP-based solutions or cloud tools, Listmonk is packed into a single compiled Go binary. On an ARM64 architecture like Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit:

• Minimal resource footprint: The Listmonk container consumes under 50 MB of RAM while idle, and PostgreSQL consumes approximately 60–80 MB.
• High-throughput concurrency: It can dispatch thousands of transactional emails per minute via multi-threaded worker pools without choking the Pi’s CPU.
• Total privacy and compliance: Your user lists, analytics, and unsubscribes stay entirely on your disk, meeting strict GDPR and data protection requirements.

Hardware and initial requirements

• Device: Raspberry Pi 4, Raspberry Pi 5, or Compute Module 4/5 (2GB RAM minimum is plenty).
• Operating system: Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) recommended.
• Storage: High-endurance microSD or NVMe SSD (recommended for fast database writes).
• Static IP: A reserved local IP address configured in your router or via dhcpcd.conf / NetworkManager.

Step 1. Prepare Docker and Docker Compose

Before installing containers, update your host packages:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

Because Listmonk requires a companion PostgreSQL service, deploying via Docker Compose keeps the installation clean, isolated, and simple to back up. If you don’t have Docker installed yet, execute the official convenience script:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh && sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

(Log out and log back in or reboot for user group permissions to take effect).

Step 2. Project structure and environment credentials

Create a dedicated directory for Listmonk and enter it:

mkdir -p ~/listmonk && cd ~/listmonk

Next, create a .env file to hold your database passwords and initial administrative credentials:

nano .env

Paste the following environment variables (make sure to replace the placeholder passwords with strong, unique strings):

POSTGRES_USER=listmonk
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=generate_a_secure_db_password
POSTGRES_DB=listmonk
LISTMONK_ADMIN_USER=admin
LISTMONK_ADMIN_PASSWORD=generate_a_secure_admin_password

Step 3. The Docker Compose configuration

Download the official compose manifest or create your own docker-compose.yml file:

nano docker-compose.yml

Insert the following hardened compose configuration:

version: "3.8"

services:
  db:
    image: postgres:15-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: ${POSTGRES_USER}
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_DB: ${POSTGRES_DB}
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U ${POSTGRES_USER}"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

  app:
    image: listmonk/listmonk:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
    ports:
      - "9000:9000"
    environment:
      LISTMONK_db__host: db
      LISTMONK_db__user: ${POSTGRES_USER}
      LISTMONK_db__password: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      LISTMONK_db__database: ${POSTGRES_DB}
      LISTMONK_app__address: "0.0.0.0:9000"
      LISTMONK_app__admin_username: ${LISTMONK_ADMIN_USER}
      LISTMONK_app__admin_password: ${LISTMONK_ADMIN_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - uploads:/listmonk/uploads
    command: ["sh", "-c", "./listmonk --install --idempotent --yes && ./listmonk --upgrade --yes && ./listmonk"]

volumes:
  db_data:
  uploads:

Key details in this setup:

• postgres:15-alpine provides a featherweight PostgreSQL engine compatible with 64-bit ARM.
• The healthcheck ensures Listmonk never attempts to migrate before the database daemon is fully awake.
• The --idempotent flag in the entry command permits clean database initialization on the very first boot without wiping your data on subsequent container restarts.

Step 4. Booting the stack

Launch the containers in detached mode:

docker compose up -d

Check the container logs to ensure database migrations executed properly:

docker compose logs -f app

Once you see the output indicating that Listmonk is listening on port 9000, open your web browser and navigate to:

http://YOUR_PI_IP:9000

Log in using the administrator credentials configured in your .env file.

Step 5. Resolving the admin credential security warning

Upon initial login, Listmonk displays a warning advising you to remove the admin credentials from configuration files or environment variables. This is an intentional security measure: once the admin user is created inside PostgreSQL, leaving hardcoded passwords inside .env or docker-compose.yml presents an unnecessary security risk.

1. Verify that your admin user exists under Settings → Users.
2. Edit your .env file and comment out or remove the following lines:

   # LISTMONK_ADMIN_USER=admin
   # LISTMONK_ADMIN_PASSWORD=...

3. Restart your containers:
   docker compose restart app

Refresh the dashboard. The warning is dismissed, and your authentication remains securely stored inside the encrypted database.

Configuring SMTP relay and outbound deliverability

To deliver real emails to inboxes (and not the spam folder), point Listmonk to an external relay under Settings → SMTP:

• Host and port: E.g., smtp.sendgrid.net on port 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (SSL/TLS).
• Auth: Username and API key provided by your relay.
• Concurrency / Rate limit: You can define batch sizes (e.g., 25 emails per batch) and worker pools to comply with your provider’s sending rate limits.

Designing campaigns and managing subscription forms

Listmonk features a visual template manager and full support for raw HTML. You can create public lists (e.g., for hardware announcements) and private lists for internal notifications. Each list provides:

• Custom opt-in confirmation emails (Double Opt-In).
• A standalone subscription URL and clean embeddable HTML forms.
• API webhooks for integration with static websites, WordPress, or e-commerce backends.

Video walkthrough: See the complete setup in action

If you prefer a visual guide, we recorded our lab setup showing the entire process, including container provisioning and dashboard navigation:

Conclusion

Self-hosting your newsletter platform on a Raspberry Pi is one of the most rewarding home-lab projects you can deploy. By pairing Listmonk’s hyper-efficient Go backend with an established SMTP provider, you get the best of both worlds: complete data privacy on your own hardware without sacrificing deliverability.

For reverse proxy configurations (using Nginx or Caddy with automated Let’s Encrypt TLS certificates) and database backup automation, explore the official Listmonk documentation.

If you enjoy practical hardware guides and self-hosted infrastructure, visit our blog, check out our projects on our YouTube channel, or join our community newsletter powered directly by our own setup.