Dalmas Ogembo

Why Sentinmail

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The idea came from a simple frustration. I was paying close to $80/month for about 5,000 subscribers with a popular email tool. One day I looked up what it actually costs to send the same volume through your own SMTP: roughly $3. That's a 25x markup just for a UI and some automation logic.

I kept thinking, what if there was a platform that gave you the full experience - visual email builder, campaigns, automations, analytics; But let you plug in your own SMTP provider? You'd get the same power without the per-subscriber tax that punishes you every time your list grows.

So I started building SentinMail. The early version was just a campaign sender with SMTP config. But the more I used it, the more I realized people need the full toolkit to actually switch, a proper drag-and-drop builder, subscriber management, segmentation, scheduled sends, bounce handling, team access. A half-solution wouldn't get anyone to switch.

The biggest evolution was the email builder. I initially tried a simple block editor, but emails are notoriously hard to render across clients. I ended up building the builder on top of MJML, which handles the responsive HTML nightmare. That decision changed everything - suddenly the emails looked professional on every device without writing a single line of HTML.

The approach evolved from "build a cheaper alternative" to "build a platform that respects the user." No per-email fees. No pricing traps when your list grows. Bring your own SMTP, control your own infrastructure, own your own data.

I'm launching today because the core is solid - campaigns, builder, automations, subscriber management, team collaboration, analytics, api access. But I'm here for honest feedback. What's missing? What would make you switch? That's what I want to learn from this community.

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Wambugu Gichuki

This is actually so cool, simple and straightforward.

I do have one sugggestion, maybe include a distribution/growth feature that allows you to effectively distribute and grow your own subs, so everything is all in one place. most likely your first users will be newbies starting out, and they probably would like a way to also help with growing and distributing their content. overall, great work!

Dalmas Ogembo

@wamgi Yeah, sure this is good feature to have to help users track and grow their subs