How I Built My Own Newsletter Setup (And Why)
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A developer shares how they rebuilt their personal newsletter infrastructure after Tinyletter shut down in 2024. After evaluating and rejecting commercial services for being too expensive, marketing-focused, or tracking-heavy, they settled on Plunk (an open-source sending service) combined with a custom Rust CLI and a small HTTP subscribe service. The setup stores issues as plain markdown files in git, uses a local CLI for drafting, linting, testing, and publishing, and runs on Fly.io with near-zero resource usage. The author also merged two separate newsletters into one list and shares lessons learned about cold lists, email deliverability, and the value of owning your own tooling.
Table of contents
The Tinyletter YearsDenialMigrating to Fly.ioThe Hunt for a Sending ServiceThis Feels Like Home!A Minor HiccupOne List, Not TwoWhat I’d Tell YouSort: