Self-host your newsletter on Amazon SES for cents
After beehiiv raised prices, Marc Lou built MailCheap, which coverage on X describes as vibe-coded, then open-sourced it: self-hosted newsletters on Amazon SES at $0.10 per 1,000 emails, with an editor, signup forms, archive, stats and list cleanup.
Source
@marclou on X · 2026-10-10
Written in our own words. Credit to the original author. Link checked 2026-10-17.
What they did
After beehiiv raised prices, Marc Lou built MailCheap, which coverage on X describes as vibe-coded, then open-sourced it: self-hosted newsletters on Amazon SES at $0.10 per 1,000 emails, with an editor, signup forms, archive, stats and list cleanup.
Result (as claimed)
Open source; 2,543 likes on X.
Tools they used
Cost: Pricing depends on the tools you pick; check each official pricing page.
Set it up
Pick one goal and metric
For example replies to outreach, ad ideas per week or landing page conversion.
Set up the tools
Open AWS. Load your offer, audience and examples of what already works.
Generate, then review
Have the agent research and draft. You approve every message, post or ad before it goes out.
Measure and iterate
Track the metric for a week, keep what works and feed the results back into the prompt.
Copy the full setup prompt
Paste into your agent and it will walk you through the setup, asking before anything that sends, posts or spends.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Claude Code. Goal: Self-host your newsletter on Amazon SES for cents What the original author did: After beehiiv raised prices, Marc Lou built MailCheap, which coverage on X describes as vibe-coded, then open-sourced it: self-hosted newsletters on Amazon SES at $0.10 per 1,000 emails, with an editor, signup forms, archive, stats and list cleanup. Reported result (as claimed by the author): Open source; 2,543 likes on X. Source: https://x.com/marclou/status/2108918232279400920 Tools they used: AWS Category: Marketing & growth Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Codex. Goal: Self-host your newsletter on Amazon SES for cents What the original author did: After beehiiv raised prices, Marc Lou built MailCheap, which coverage on X describes as vibe-coded, then open-sourced it: self-hosted newsletters on Amazon SES at $0.10 per 1,000 emails, with an editor, signup forms, archive, stats and list cleanup. Reported result (as claimed by the author): Open source; 2,543 likes on X. Source: https://x.com/marclou/status/2108918232279400920 Tools they used: AWS Category: Marketing & growth Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Grok Bot. Goal: Self-host your newsletter on Amazon SES for cents What the original author did: After beehiiv raised prices, Marc Lou built MailCheap, which coverage on X describes as vibe-coded, then open-sourced it: self-hosted newsletters on Amazon SES at $0.10 per 1,000 emails, with an editor, signup forms, archive, stats and list cleanup. Reported result (as claimed by the author): Open source; 2,543 likes on X. Source: https://x.com/marclou/status/2108918232279400920 Tools they used: AWS Category: Marketing & growth Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
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