How We Built a Cheap Newsletter with FluentCRM and Amazon SES

Paying a newsletter service by the subscriber gets expensive fast. So for the QuickOnlineTips weekly newsletter we built our own FluentCRM Amazon SES setup inside WordPress: FluentCRM keeps the subscriber list and sends the campaigns, and Amazon SES delivers the emails for about 10 cents per 1,000. This post explains how we did it, why we picked these two tools, what it costs at 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers, and how a free Cloudflare Turnstile check keeps bots out of the signup form.

Quick answer: Install the free FluentCRM plugin to store subscribers and write campaigns in WordPress, connect WordPress to Amazon SES with the free FluentSMTP plugin, verify your domain in SES and ask AWS for production access, then add a signup form protected by Cloudflare Turnstile. At Amazon SES’s standard rate of $0.10 per 1,000 emails, a weekly newsletter to 10,000 subscribers costs about $4 a month in sending fees.

Our setup at a glance

Why we chose FluentCRM

• It lives inside WordPress. Subscribers, campaigns and reports sit in the same dashboard as our posts, and the list is stored in our own database, not on someone else’s servers.
• No fee per subscriber. We use the free FluentCRM plugin, so a growing list doesn’t push us into a more expensive plan. Our only running cost is Amazon SES sending. A paid Pro version exists if you need advanced automations.
• It does the basics well. Lists and tags, email campaigns, an unsubscribe link in every email, and bounce handling.

Why we chose Amazon SES

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is the bulk email engine from Amazon Web Services. You pay only for what you send: the SES pricing page lists $0.10 per 1,000 outbound emails on its pay-as-you-go pricing, plus $0.12 per GB of attachments. A text-and-image newsletter that loads its pictures from your website has no attachments, so the email count is what matters. New AWS customers can also get Free Tier credits, which AWS says can be used on SES.

FluentCRM Amazon SES cost at 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers

Here is the sending cost for one issue a week (about four issues a month) at SES’s $0.10 per 1,000 emails:

Welcome emails add a few cents more. Your WordPress hosting is a cost you already pay, and FluentCRM and FluentSMTP are free plugins, so there is no extra software bill.

FluentCRM Amazon SES setup: step by step

1. Install FluentCRM from Plugins > Add New and run its setup wizard. Create a list for the newsletter.
2. Set up Amazon SES. In the AWS console, verify your sending domain (SES gives you DNS records, including DKIM, to add at your domain host). New SES accounts start in a sandbox where you can only email verified addresses, so request production access before your first real campaign.
3. Connect WordPress to SES with the free FluentSMTP plugin: choose Amazon SES as the connection, add your AWS access keys and region, and send a test email. FluentCRM then sends its campaigns through SES automatically.
4. Add the signup form. We wrote a small shortcode with the Code Snippets plugin that shows a one-field signup box on our newsletter page and after every post, and adds each new address straight to the FluentCRM list.
5. Protect the form with Cloudflare Turnstile and a honeypot (next section).
6. Send a welcome email the moment someone subscribes, with an unsubscribe link, so new readers know the signup worked.
7. Write the first campaign in FluentCRM, send a test to yourself, check it on a phone, then send it to the list.

How we use Cloudflare Turnstile to secure the form

Cloudflare Turnstile is a CAPTCHA alternative with a free plan. Visitors don’t have to solve a picture puzzle: Turnstile checks the browser quietly and gives the form a token, and our signup code checks that token with Cloudflare before it adds anyone to the list. You don’t need to move your site to Cloudflare to use it; you just create a widget in the Cloudflare dashboard and add its site key and secret key to your form.

We also added a hidden honeypot field that people never see but bots tend to fill in, and a limit on how many signups one visitor can try in a short time. Together they keep fake addresses off the list, which matters because sending to bad addresses hurts your SES reputation.

Single opt-in, with safeguards

We chose single opt-in, so readers are subscribed as soon as they enter their email, with no confirmation click. To keep the list clean we rely on the bot checks above, the instant welcome email, automatic removal of addresses that bounce or mark us as spam, and a clean-up of subscribers who haven’t opened an email in about 90 days. If you’d rather have double opt-in, FluentCRM can send a confirmation email instead.

Why do people still pay for other newsletter services?

Hosted newsletter services cost more, but they do more of the work for you:

• They handle sending, deliverability and bounces, so there is no AWS account, DNS setup or sandbox approval to deal with.
• They come with ready-made templates, landing pages and signup forms.
• Support is a chat window away when something breaks.
• Nothing runs on your own hosting, so a busy WordPress site isn’t slowed down by sending.

If you are comfortable in WordPress and don’t mind a one-time setup, a FluentCRM Amazon SES newsletter gives you the same core job, a list and a weekly email, for a few dollars a month.

See it working: our weekly newsletter

We run this exact FluentCRM Amazon SES setup on QuickOnlineTips right now. Every week it sends one short email with the week’s AI news in plain English, our newest guides, and free tools and games worth bookmarking. Subscribe to the free QuickOnlineTips newsletter to see how it looks in your inbox. Designing your own emails? Our web safe fonts list shows which fonts display reliably in email.

FAQ

Is FluentCRM free?

The core FluentCRM plugin is free and is what we use. A paid Pro version adds more automation features.

How much does Amazon SES cost for a newsletter?

Amazon lists $0.10 per 1,000 emails on its pay-as-you-go pricing, plus $0.12 per GB of attachments. A weekly email to 5,000 subscribers is about 20,000 emails a month, or roughly $2.

Do I need Cloudflare to use Turnstile?

No. Turnstile works on any website. You only need a free Cloudflare account to create the widget keys.

Why are my first SES emails not sending?

New Amazon SES accounts start in the sandbox, which only allows emails to verified addresses. Request production access in the SES console and verify your domain.

Photo by Oleg Laptev on Unsplash