✓ COVERED
Cron job monitoring
ContinuousAll MailWizz crons monitored 24/7. Alerts within 15 minutes of failure.
RECURRING · CANCEL ANYTIME MailWizz operations, off your plate.
MailWizz operations, off your plate.
€49/month covers what your team shouldn't be doing.
MailWizz works once it's set up. Then comes the boring ongoing maintenance: cron jobs that occasionally fail silently, MailWizz updates with breaking changes, database tables that grow until queries slow, queue health to watch, license renewals to coordinate. Most teams skip this work until it bites; managed maintenance keeps it from biting.
We monitor crons continuously, deploy updates in your maintenance window after staging-test, run daily database backups with encryption, optimise database performance quarterly, and respond to integration issues during operating hours. €49/month for one MailWizz instance, cancel anytime, no contract.
price €49 / month
scope 1 instance
cron monitoring 24/7
commitment none
The maintenance debt nobody budgets for.
MailWizz is well-built. It mostly runs itself once configured. The "mostly" is what causes problems. MailWizz crons sometimes fail silently when system loads spike or database connections drop; without active monitoring, you discover it when a campaign doesn't ship and customers ask why. MailWizz releases updates that occasionally break working configurations; deploying without staging-test bites operations that don't have staging environments. Database tables grow indefinitely; without periodic optimisation, queries that were milliseconds become seconds, and MailWizz UI becomes painful to use.
None of this is hard to do. The work is well-documented in MailWizz forums, GitHub issues, and our own runbooks. The discipline is the cost. A team that has 200 things on their backlog rarely prioritises "review database indexes" until query slowness becomes intolerable. Managed maintenance treats the operational work as a predictable monthly fee rather than a discretionary task that gets postponed.
We've seen the alternative across many customers. The pattern: MailWizz set up well, runs fine for 6-9 months, then gradually degrades. Cron failures get caught only when campaigns don't ship. Database performance erodes. A PHP or MariaDB upgrade breaks something subtle. Eventually a campaign-day crisis surfaces all the deferred maintenance at once. Recovery takes 1-2 weeks of expensive engineering time. €49/month spread over 12 months is €588; one campaign-day crisis with associated lost revenue and customer impact rarely costs that little.
The honest counter-argument: if you have an engineer who actively maintains MailWizz, paying us duplicates work. Some operations have that engineer; most don't. The work falls between marketing (who don't have the technical depth), devops (who have higher-priority work), and product (who own features rather than infrastructure). When MailWizz operations fall in that gap, managed maintenance is rational.
Operational tasks coverage matrix.
Filter to see what we cover vs what stays your responsibility. Customers often assume "managed" includes everything; honest scope reduces surprises.
✓ COVERED
MailWizz core updates
Per releaseUpdates pre-tested in staging then deployed during your maintenance window. License updates included.
✓ COVERED
Security patches
As releasedCritical patches deployed within 48 hours of release. Coordinated with you for timing.
✓ COVERED
Daily database backups
Daily, 30-day retentionMySQL/MariaDB dumps automated daily, encrypted, retained 30 days. Off-site copy weekly.
✓ COVERED
Database optimisation
MonthlyIndex review, table optimisation, slow-query analysis. Performance tuning as data grows.
✓ COVERED
Queue health monitoring
ContinuousSending queue depth, deferred queue, bounce queue tracked. Alerts when anomalies detected.
✓ COVERED
PHP / Apache / Nginx tuning
Quarterly reviewConfiguration optimisation as MailWizz version and traffic patterns change.
✓ COVERED
License renewal coordination
AnnualMailWizz license renewal handled with vendor. License fee billed separately at cost.
✓ COVERED
Integration troubleshooting
On requestPowerMTA integration, webhook delivery, API issues, queue configuration. Best-effort during operating hours.
✗ OUT OF SCOPE
DNS authentication setup
Separate productSPF, DKIM, DMARC setup is our DNS Authentication Setup (€99) one-time service.
✗ OUT OF SCOPE
Deliverability monitoring
Separate productPostmaster Tools, RBL polling, FBL ingestion is Deliverability Monitoring (€49/mo).
✗ OUT OF SCOPE
Custom feature development
Out of scopeMailWizz extensions, custom plugins, theme work bills at consulting rates (€199/hour).
✗ OUT OF SCOPE
Content writing / list management
Out of scopeEmail content, subscriber list curation, segmentation strategy is your team's responsibility.
✗ OUT OF SCOPE
Server hosting / hardware
Separate productVPS/dedicated server hosting is our infrastructure service. Managed assumes hosting in place.
Out-of-scope items aren't things we don't do; they're things that fit other products in our catalog or that belong to your team. Most managed customers also subscribe to Deliverability Monitoring (€49/mo) since reputation tracking complements operational maintenance. About 60% of managed customers run both subscriptions.
Managed vs Sendy, Mailtrain, Mailgun.
Different products, different cost structures, different tradeoffs. Toggle to highlight what matters for your case. MailWizz remains our recommended self-hosted option; managed maintenance is what makes self-hosted sustainable for non-engineering teams.
| us MailWizz Managed | Sendy (self-hosted) | Mailtrain (open source) | Mailgun Managed (SaaS) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software cost | ~€59 license + ~€60/yr maintenance | $69 license one-time | Free, open source | SaaS, no software cost |
| Hosting cost (you) | €20-80/mo (VPS) | €20-80/mo (VPS) | €20-80/mo (VPS) | $0 (included) |
| Management cost | €49/mo (us) | You or hire ($) | You or hire ($$) | $0 (vendor manages) |
| Year 1 total (10K daily) | ~€830 | ~€350 (DIY) | ~€280 (DIY) + your time | ~$1,200 (Mailgun Foundation tier) |
| List management UI | Comprehensive (MailWizz) | Basic | Moderate | Comprehensive |
| Campaign automation | Advanced (MailWizz workflows) | Basic (autoresponders) | Moderate | Advanced |
| API for application integration | REST API + webhooks | Basic API | API + webhooks | REST API + webhooks |
| Multi-list / multi-customer | Yes, full multi-tenant | Yes (Sendy lists) | Limited | Yes |
| You manage hosting | Yes (we manage MailWizz layer) | Yes (everything) | Yes (everything) | No (vendor) |
| You handle MailWizz ops | No (we do) | Yes (Sendy ops) | Yes (Mailtrain ops) | No (vendor) |
| You handle DNS authentication | Yes (or our DNS Auth Setup €99) | Yes | Yes | Limited (vendor handles some) |
| You handle deliverability strategy | Yes (or our other products) | Yes | Yes | Vendor handles some |
| Subscriber data location | Your server | Your server | Your server | Vendor (US-based) |
| GDPR data residency control | Full (you choose hosting region) | Full | Full | Limited (vendor regions) |
| Vendor lock-in risk | Low (cancel managed, run yourself) | None (own everything) | None | High (data + workflows tied to vendor) |
Sendy is genuinely good for simple use cases (SES integration, one-time license). Mailtrain has technical merit but limited commercial support ecosystem. Mailgun managed offers convenience but at the cost of data control and significant recurring fees at scale. MailWizz is our recommended option for operations needing control + features + reasonable cost; managed maintenance is what makes that option sustainable for non- engineering teams.
Issue response simulator.
Pick a scenario. The simulator shows typical response time and what we do. Response time depends on severity; cron failures during a campaign send hit faster than database slowness during a quiet weekend.
scenario detail
Cron failure during campaign
MailWizz crons run sending, bounce processing, and delivery state management. When a cron fails during active campaign sending, message delivery stalls. Without monitoring, you discover this when customers ask why mail didn't arrive; with monitoring, we detect within 15 minutes.
Investigation: confirm cron is actually failed (vs slow), identify root cause (PHP error, database timeout, system resource exhaustion, external API failure). Restart cron, verify resumed operation, catch up backlog if any. Document for follow-up if pattern repeats.
Response times are best-effort during operating hours (typically 09:00-23:00 across multiple timezones to provide near-continuous coverage). Outside operating hours, urgent issues get attention as soon as on-call sees them; non-urgent issues queue for next operating window. For 24/7 phone support, our managed service doesn't offer that; consider Mailgun managed or similar SaaS if 24/7 coverage is required.
Who subscribes, and who shouldn't.
good fit
- Self-hosted MailWizz operations without dedicated MailWizz engineer. The work falls between marketing, devops, and product; managed handles it.
- Recently-completed PowerMTA + MailWizz Setup customers. Common path: bundle setup with managed maintenance to keep the operation running cleanly past month 1.
- Operations that have been deferring maintenance. Honest pre-flight check: when did you last run database optimisation? When did you last update MailWizz? If "I don't remember," this product is the discipline you've been postponing.
- Multi-customer / multi-list operations where MailWizz handles complex segmentation. Database growth becomes performance-relevant earlier; managed optimisation prevents UI degradation.
- Cold outreach operations running MailWizz alongside multi-domain warmup or subdomain rotation. MailWizz is the orchestrator; managed keeps it healthy while focus stays on sending strategy.
- Operations where downtime cost exceeds €49/month. If a single MailWizz outage during campaign send costs more than €49 in lost revenue, the math is straightforward.
poor fit
- You have a dedicated MailWizz engineer. Paying us duplicates work. Most operations don't have that role; if yours does, this product isn't for you.
- Hobby or low-volume sending under 1K daily. The maintenance overhead doesn't compound at this scale. Manual quarterly checks suffice.
- You want SaaS convenience. Mailgun, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign handle hosting + management together. Self-hosted MailWizz with managed maintenance gives you control + features but isn't as hands-off as SaaS. Both are valid; this product fits the self-hosted path.
- You expect 24/7 phone support. Managed is best-effort during operating hours. For 24/7 phone-pickup support, look at SaaS ESP options or hire dedicated ops staff.
- You want feature development included. Custom plugins, theme work, MailWizz extensions bill separately at consulting rates (€199/hour). Managed is operational maintenance, not development.
- Multi-instance MailWizz operations. Each instance is €49/month separately. For 5+ instances, fleet pricing available; contact us at intake. Multi-instance ops may benefit more from architectural review than per-instance management.
What's in the €49/month.
Cron monitoring 24/7
All MailWizz crons watched continuously. Sending crons, bounce processing crons, delivery state management crons, queue processors, scheduled task runners. Failure detection within 15 minutes of cron not completing expected cycle.
Common failure modes we catch: PHP fatal errors (cron stops), database connection drops (cron hangs), system resource exhaustion (cron OOM-killed), MailWizz update corruption (cron syntax errors). All trigger Telegram alerts immediately.
MailWizz updates
Each MailWizz release pre-tested in our staging environment against your specific configuration profile. Breaking changes identified before production deployment. Updates scheduled in your maintenance window with rollback plan ready.
License updates handled. MailWizz license is annual; we coordinate renewal with vendor and apply to your instance. License fee billed separately at cost (no markup); typically $59-89/year depending on extension licenses.
Security patches
CVE monitoring across MailWizz, PHP, MariaDB/MySQL, web server (Apache/Nginx), Linux kernel. Critical patches (CVSS 7.0+) deployed within 48 hours of release; lower- severity within next maintenance window.
Patch deployment includes pre-deployment backup, post- deployment verification, rollback if regression detected. Deployment timing coordinated with you; we don't auto-deploy during your active campaign sends.
Daily encrypted database backups
MySQL/MariaDB dumps automated daily. Encrypted with AES-256 using rotating keys. Local retention 30 days; weekly off-site copy to encrypted object storage in different region. Restore tested quarterly.
Backup integrity verified daily (dump completes, encryption valid, file size within expected range). Failed backups trigger alerts; we re-run within hours. About 1 in 200 daily backups requires re-run due to transient issues; all re-runs succeed.
Database optimisation monthly
Index review against current query patterns. Slow-query log analysis. Table optimisation as data grows. Subscriber list tables and campaign delivery tables get dedicated attention because they grow fastest.
Performance baseline tracked over time. UI response time for key pages monitored; degradation triggers investigation. Most optimisations are routine (index additions, table optimisation runs); occasionally requires schema-level adjustments.
Queue health monitoring
Sending queue depth, deferred queue, bounce queue tracked continuously. Anomaly alerts when depths exceed thresholds tuned to your typical sending profile. Stuck messages detected and surfaced; queue blockages investigated.
Queue health correlates with PowerMTA delivery health and with MailWizz delivery state machine. Issues at the queue layer often surface from upstream (DNS issues, IP reputation issues, content classifier blocks) and require coordinated investigation.
PHP/Apache/Nginx tuning
Quarterly review of web server and PHP configuration as MailWizz version and traffic patterns change. PHP-FPM worker counts, Apache MaxRequestWorkers, Nginx worker_connections, OPcache settings, memory limits all tuned to current operation profile.
Out of scope: complete server rebuild, OS-level upgrades (those bill at consulting rates separately). In scope: ongoing tuning within current OS/PHP/web server stack.
Integration troubleshooting
PowerMTA integration issues, webhook delivery failures, API timeouts, queue configuration problems, third-party integration breaks. Best-effort during operating hours; urgent issues during active campaigns get expedited.
Out of scope: custom integration development (your engineers + our consulting), application-side debugging (your engineers), MailWizz feature requests (vendor). We handle operational integration issues, not custom development.
Frequently asked.
What does "managed" actually cover?
Cron monitoring, MailWizz updates, security patches, daily database backups, performance tuning, queue health, integration troubleshooting, license maintenance. Detailed list in the coverage matrix above.
Does not include: DNS authentication setup (separate product), deliverability monitoring (separate product), custom feature development (consulting), content writing or list management (your team), server hosting (your infrastructure or our separate hosting service).
Does this replace my technical team?
It replaces the operational MailWizz tasks. It doesn't replace strategic technical decisions, custom development, or broader infrastructure work. Most customers keep their team for strategy and product work; managed handles routine MailWizz operations.
Honest framing: managed is for operations where MailWizz ops fall in the gap between marketing, devops, and product. If you have a dedicated MailWizz engineer, managed duplicates that work.
What hours do you cover?
Operating hours are typically 09:00-23:00 across multiple timezones. Urgent issues during active campaigns get expedited even outside operating hours. Non-urgent issues outside operating hours queue for next operating window.
We don't offer 24/7 phone-pickup support. For that requirement, SaaS ESP managed services (Mailgun, SendGrid) are the right fit. Most self-hosted operations don't need 24/7; the boring middle-of-night MailWizz issues are rare enough that next-morning response is fine.
How do you access my MailWizz?
SSH access to the server (you provide), MailWizz admin credentials (you provide). We don't request unnecessary access; only what's needed for the specific operations. Access is logged and auditable. We can use jump-box architecture or your existing privileged access management if you prefer.
For high-security operations, we support hardware-token authentication, IP-restricted SSH, and access reviews on cancellation. Mention specific security requirements at intake; we work within your constraints.
What if MailWizz update breaks something?
We pre-test updates in staging against your configuration profile before deploying to production. Breaking changes identified at staging stop the deployment. If a breaking change reaches production despite staging-test, we roll back within 1 hour and investigate before retrying.
About 1 in 30 MailWizz updates we test for customers requires staging-only investigation before production deployment. About 1 in 200 reaches production with unexpected regression; all rolled back without lasting impact. Pre-deployment backup means rollback is fast.
Can I see backup files / restore process?
Yes. Backup files are yours; we provide download access on request. Restore process is documented in your customer portal and can be executed by us or your team. Quarterly restore tests verify backups are actually restorable (not just complete-looking).
Cancel-to-handover: on cancellation, we provide final backup and restore documentation. You can continue running MailWizz yourself; the operation doesn't depend on us after handover.
What about MailWizz extensions / custom code?
Standard MailWizz extensions (officially supported) included in updates and maintenance. Custom code or third-party extensions requires case-by-case evaluation; we maintain them when they're well-built, surface concerns when they're not. Custom development bills at consulting rates (€199/h) separately.
Honest disclosure: some MailWizz extensions are poorly-maintained by their authors. We flag those and recommend alternatives. If your operation depends on a poorly-maintained extension, we maintain it best-effort but can't guarantee future updates won't break it.
How does cancellation work?
Cancel anytime via Telegram. Subscription ends at month boundary. Last-month handover delivered: current MailWizz state, pending tasks, latest backup, restore documentation, recommended ongoing maintenance schedule for self-management.
After cancellation, MailWizz continues running on your server unchanged. Without ongoing management, maintenance tasks become your team's responsibility. Most cancellations happen because customers brought MailWizz expertise in- house; some because they migrated to SaaS ESP.
How does payment work?
Monthly billing in advance. €49 charged on subscription anniversary. Payable in any of our 11 supported cryptocurrencies via self-hosted BTCPay. Pre-paid 6-month subscription: €269 (one month free). Pre-paid 12-month: €499 (two months free). MailWizz license fee billed separately at cost when annual renewal happens.
Related services and references.
Managed MailWizz vs self-managed: operational tradeoffs
Self-managed MailWizz produces lower direct cost but requires operational expertise that not every operator has. Managed MailWizz produces higher direct cost but eliminates the operational burden. The choice depends on the operators specific situation rather than universal cost optimization.
Self-managed appropriate when: operator has internal engineering team familiar with PHP and MySQL, operator can dedicate at least 10-20 hours monthly to ongoing MailWizz maintenance, operator has 24/7 incident response capability for production sending issues, operator prefers operational control over operational simplicity.
Managed appropriate when: operator focused on marketing operations rather than infrastructure operations, operator lacks dedicated engineering team for MailWizz-specific work, operator values predictable operational cost over potentially-lower variable cost, operator wants to outsource the technical operational risk of MailWizz infrastructure.
Hybrid approaches exist for operators wanting some self-management with vendor backup. Common pattern: customer self-manages routine operations (campaign creation, segment management, content production) while we handle infrastructure operations (server management, MTA tuning, deliverability incident response, upgrade coordination). The hybrid produces lower total cost than fully-managed while preserving operational simplicity for the customer-facing workflow.
MailWizz operational practices for production sending
Production MailWizz operations develop specific practices that the standard documentation does not cover but that production operators settle on after experiencing the consequences of less-developed approaches.
Practice 1: customer account isolation through delivery server segmentation. Each customer or sending category gets its own delivery server configuration with isolated IP allocation. The isolation prevents reputation contamination across categories and supports per-customer reputation tracking. Standard MailWizz multi-customer setup supports this but requires explicit configuration during setup.
Practice 2: list health management through external email verification before send. New list segments run through validation services (Kickbox, ZeroBounce, BriteVerify) before adding to active campaigns. The verification cost is small (USD 0.001-0.01 per address); the reputation cost of bouncing to invalid addresses is large.
Practice 3: campaign segmentation patterns matching engagement tiers. Most-engaged segments receive higher frequency or higher-priority content; less-engaged segments receive lower frequency or re-engagement content; unengaged segments enter sunset processes. The segmentation discipline matters substantially for reputation.
Practice 4: external bounce processing rather than relying entirely on built-in MailWizz bounce handler. The built-in handler works for moderate volume but high-volume operations benefit from external bounce processing with receiver-specific classification rules. Our bounce processing service integrates with MailWizz through standard webhook patterns.
Practice 5: database tuning beyond default configuration. MailWizz default MySQL configuration is too conservative for production volume. Buffer pool size, InnoDB optimizations, query analysis for subscribers table at scale all require explicit tuning beyond defaults. The tuning produces materially better performance at scale.
Pricing tiers and infrastructure scope
MailWizz managed service comes in tiers reflecting operational scale. The standard tier at EUR 299 monthly covers operations sending up to 1M monthly with single-customer MailWizz deployment. Suitable for operators using MailWizz for their own sending without offering MailWizz as a service to others.
Professional tier at EUR 699 monthly covers operations sending 1-10M monthly with multi-customer MailWizz deployment (operator hosts MailWizz for their own customers). Includes per-customer isolation, custom branding capabilities, dedicated subdomain configuration per customer.
Enterprise tier at EUR 1,599 monthly covers ESP-style operations with substantial customer base. Includes advanced multi-tenant configuration, custom integration with operator billing and management systems, dedicated technical contact, quarterly strategic reviews.
All tiers include underlying infrastructure (servers, MTA integration, monitoring, backup), MailWizz license costs, ongoing version management, security updates, deliverability incident response. The pricing is fully inclusive without surprise charges for typical operational requirements.
Upgrade and migration support across MailWizz versions
MailWizz releases major versions every 12-18 months with substantial changes that affect operational deployments. Our managed service handles version upgrades transparently to customers; the upgrade discipline matters because in-place upgrades sometimes produce issues that require manual intervention.
Standard upgrade pattern: we deploy the new version in parallel infrastructure, migrate customer data through MailWizz built-in migration tooling, validate functionality through synthetic testing across customer configurations, schedule the cutover during low-impact maintenance windows, complete the migration with rollback capability for at least 7 days post-cutover.
Plugin compatibility verification happens before each upgrade. Customer-specific plugins (custom delivery server types, custom segment conditions, custom reporting) need verification against each new major version. We handle the verification work and adapt plugins as needed; customers do not engage with this complexity unless their requirements depend on specific plugin behaviors that the verification surfaces as incompatible.
Migration from other ESP platforms to managed MailWizz is supported for customers consolidating from existing infrastructure. The migration pattern: data extraction from source platform, transformation to MailWizz format, validation testing, parallel operation during cutover period, decommissioning of source platform. Migration timeline typically runs 4-8 weeks depending on data complexity.
Ready to stop deferring MailWizz maintenance?
Telegram subscription takes 15 minutes. SSH and MailWizz admin access shared during onboarding (24-48 hours). First weekly status report within 7 days. Cancel anytime, no contract.
# Median Telegram response: 12 minutes during operating hours