# How to Vibe Code Your Own MailerLite (and Stop Paying for It) > Email marketing and digital growth platform designed for creators and businesses - Site: https://mailerlite.com - Category: Email Marketing & SaaS - Verdict: **Solid side project** (65/100 vibecodeable) - Estimated effort: 2-3 weeks of part-time work ## Verdict Build a personal-use subset focusing on the subscriber manager, drag-and-drop email campaign builder, and basic automation queues; email deliverability at production scale is the single biggest catch. Replicating MailerLite's core loop—managing a subscriber list, drafting a newsletter with a visual block editor, and triggering automated sequences—is a very feasible project for a solo developer using modern AI tools. However, trying to use a self-hosted clone for actual marketing blasts to real inboxes will immediately run into strict spam filters, missing DKIM/DMARC alignment, and missing ISP feedback loops. For personal testing and local learning, you can mock email sending with Resend, but production deliverability requires years of domain reputation management that code cannot shortcut. ### What you can't replicate - Established ISP sending reputation and white-listed domain status - 24/7 dedicated support team - 16 years of battle-tested edge infrastructure handling millions of concurrent deliveries ## What it does An all-in-one email marketing, website building, and digital product monetization platform that makes complex workflows simple. ### Core features - Visual drag-and-drop newsletter builder - Visual workflow automation builder for drip campaigns - Subscriber management and segmentation (tags, groups) - Website and landing page builder with customizable blocks - Digital product storefront and Stripe checkout integration - Campaign analytics and comparative reporting ## The business ### Pricing - Free Plan: $0 / month - Comfort Plan: $12 / month - Power Plan: $25 / month ### Funding unknown raised. - Bootstrapped organic growth - Acquired by Vercom (2021/2022) Investors: Vercom Founded 2010. Team size: 140-170. ## The hard parts - Email Deliverability: Managing sender reputation, IP warming, SPF/DKIM/DMARC alignment, and bounce processing at scale - Cross-Client HTML Email Rendering: Translating visual drag-and-drop elements into bulletproof HTML that renders consistently across Outlook, Apple Mail, and Gmail - Reliable Background Job Processing: Executing complex, time-delayed multi-step automation workflows without race conditions - WYSIWYG/Visual Drag-and-Drop Editor: Building a responsive page and email block editor with real-time state management ## How to vibe code MailerLite ### Prerequisites - Node.js (free): Required runtime for Next.js development - GitHub (free): Source control and deployment pipeline integration - Resend Account (free tier (3k emails/mo)): Provides transactional and test email sending APIs ### Recommended AI tools - Claude Code: Best-in-class multi-file agentic coding tool for scaffolding the complete SaaS architecture from prompts - Cursor: Ideal for fine-tuning complex React drag-and-drop UI components and visual builder interfaces ### Stack - Frontend: Next.js with Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui - Backend: Next.js Server Actions and API Routes - Database: Turso (SQLite at the edge) - Auth: better-auth - Payments: Stripe - Other: Resend for email delivery, Inngest for durable background automation queues, Vercel AI SDK for AI writing assistant features ### Hosting - Vercel (Hosting the Next.js frontend and serverless API endpoints): $0/mo (Hobby Tier) - Turso (Serverless SQLite database for subscribers, campaigns, and automations): $0/mo (Free Tier) ### Build guide 1. **Project Scaffolding & Database Schema** — Initialize the Next.js application with Tailwind CSS, configure Turso database connection, and set up better-auth for user authentication. ``` Initialize a new Next.js 16 project with Tailwind CSS and TypeScript. Set up Drizzle ORM connected to Turso (SQLite). Create database schemas for users, subscribers (id, email, status, custom_fields, created_at), campaigns (id, subject, content_html, status, sent_at), and automations. Integrate better-auth for secure email/password authentication with full TypeScript types and session management. Ensure all configurations are modular and ready for serverless deployment on Vercel. ``` 2. **Subscriber Management & Segmentation** — Build the audience dashboard for managing subscribers, importing CSV lists, and applying tags and custom fields. ``` Build the subscriber management interface within the Next.js dashboard using shadcn/ui components. Create pages for viewing subscribers, adding individual subscribers, and bulk importing via CSV file upload parsing. Implement database models and API endpoints for subscriber tags, custom fields, and status filtering (active, unsubscribed, bounced). Include search functionality and pagination over the Turso database. ``` 3. **Drag-and-Drop Newsletter Editor** — Implement a visual block-based email editor that allows users to construct newsletters using text, image, and button blocks, compiling into responsive HTML. ``` Build a visual drag-and-drop newsletter builder component in React. Allow users to add, reorder, and configure content blocks (Header, Paragraph, Image, Button, Spacer, Footer). Implement real-time state management for block properties and render a live preview pane. Create an export function that compiles the block tree into a clean, inline-styled HTML string optimized for email clients (Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail). ``` 4. **AI Writing Assistant Integration** — Integrate the Vercel AI SDK and Anthropic API to provide AI-generated subject lines and newsletter copy generation. ``` Integrate the Vercel AI SDK and Anthropic API into the email campaign builder. Create server endpoints that accept a prompt or newsletter topic and return optimized subject line options and body copy drafts. Build a modal UI in the editor allowing users to generate text, refine tone, and insert AI output directly into selected content blocks. ``` 5. **Campaign Dispatch & Resend API Integration** — Connect campaign sending logic to the Resend API to dispatch newsletters to segmented subscriber lists. ``` Implement email campaign dispatch functionality using the Resend API SDK. Create a backend action that iterates through active subscribers for a given campaign, personalizes template variables (e.g., {{name}}), and submits batch send requests to Resend. Track campaign delivery metrics, open rates, and click tracking in the database, and update campaign status to 'sent'. ``` 6. **Visual Automation Workflow Engine** — Build a visual workflow automation builder and use Inngest to execute time-delayed trigger sequences reliably. ``` Build a visual workflow automation builder interface using a node-graph or step-list UI. Allow users to configure triggers (e.g., 'Subscriber joins list') and actions (e.g., 'Wait 2 days', 'Send Campaign email'). Integrate Inngest as the durable background job processor to handle time-delayed workflow execution steps reliably across serverless function invocations without losing state or timing precision. ``` 7. **Digital Product Storefront & Stripe Checkout** — Add digital product creation and Stripe checkout integration to allow selling downloads with automated post-purchase emails. ``` Create a digital products module enabling users to define a product name, price, description, and file upload (stored in Cloudflare R2). Integrate Stripe Checkout API sessions to handle secure payments. Implement a Stripe webhook handler endpoint that listens for successful checkouts, automatically provisions subscriber access, and triggers an automated email delivery workflow containing the secure download link. ``` ### Cost vs paying **Starting costs (one-time):** - Custom domain (optional): $12/year - Total: ~$12 one-time **Ongoing costs (monthly):** - Resend API (beyond free tier): $0-20/mo - Total: $0-20/mo - Paying for the SaaS instead: $25/mo (Power Plan) - Build time: 35-50 hours - AI tool credits: $20 (Cursor/Claude Pro) - Break-even: N/A (built for learning and personal use) ## Sources - [MailerLite Official Website & Feature Pages](https://mailerlite.com) - [GetLatka - MailerLite Revenue & Valuation Data](https://getlatka.com) - [PitchBook - MailerLite Company Profile & Acquisition Data](https://pitchbook.com)