Description
Owldraft Newsletter turns your WordPress posts into a newsletter. Publish a post and every subscriber gets it as an email: the whole post, laid out for the inbox, under your own name and your own domain.
- Your list, in your WordPress. Subscribers live in your own database, not on someone else’s platform. Import a CSV from anywhere, export it any time.
- Your brand. Your logo, your colour, your domain in the From line.
- A beautiful email. Blocks become clean, inbox-safe HTML: images, quotes, buttons, tables, code and video embeds all work in Gmail, Apple Mail and Outlook.
- Your own sending account. Emails go out through your Resend account, so deliverability is yours too. Resend’s free plan covers up to 1,000 contacts.
What it does
- Send on publish. A “Newsletter” panel in the editor: send this post as an email when it is published, send a test to yourself, preview it in a new tab. A post is never sent twice.
- Subscribe form. A Subscribe block and a
[owldraft_newsletter_subscribe]shortcode, with double opt-in and spam protection. - One list, one click to leave. Every subscriber gets every post, and the Unsubscribe link in each email works in one click, on your site.
- Reader account page. Readers sign in with a magic link (no passwords, no WordPress accounts) to change their name or unsubscribe.
- Subscribers screen. Search, add, edit and delete subscribers. CSV import (Substack, beehiiv, Ghost, Mailchimp, Kit or any file with an email column) and CSV export.
- Two-way sync with Resend. Unsubscribes, bounces and spam complaints come back to WordPress through a signed webhook.
- Email results per post. Delivered, bounced, marked as spam and unsubscribed, from Resend’s events. No open or click tracking.
- Email Design. Logo, site name and brand colour, with a live preview built from your real posts and a Send test button.
- Guided setup. Connect your Resend API key, add and verify your sending domain (with the DNS records to copy), set your sender addresses and postal address, and send a test email, step by step.
More about the plugin: owldraft.com/plugins/owldraft-newsletter.
Requirements
- A Resend account (free to start) and a domain you can add DNS records to.
External services
The plugin connects to the following services. Nothing is sent to any of them until you connect your Resend API key in Newsletter > Setup.
Resend
Resend is the email service that sends your newsletters. The plugin calls the Resend API (https://api.resend.com) with your own API key to:
- list, add and verify your sending domains;
- create the segment, contact property and webhook your newsletter uses;
- keep subscribers in sync as contacts: email address, first and last name, subscription status and an unsubscribe key;
- send newsletters, test emails and sign-in links: the email’s subject, HTML and text, the sender and the recipients.
Resend calls back to your site’s REST API (a signed webhook) with delivery events: delivered, bounced, complained, unsubscribed, delayed and failed.
Resend Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
YouTube and Vimeo thumbnails
When a post you send has a YouTube or Vimeo embed, the plugin downloads the video’s thumbnail image once, from https://i.ytimg.com or https://i.vimeocdn.com, and saves a copy on your site so the email can show it. Only the video’s thumbnail address is requested; no data about you or your readers is sent.
YouTube: Terms of Service and Google Privacy Policy. Vimeo: Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Blocks
This plugin provides 1 block.
- Subscribe A heading, a line, an email field and a button, with small print below for consent. Readers confirm by email, then they get every new post.
Installation
- Install and activate Owldraft Newsletter.
- Go to Newsletter > Setup and paste your Resend API key.
- Add your domain and copy the DNS records it shows into your DNS provider, then check again until it says Verified.
- Set the newsletter address (for example
newsletter@yourdomain.com), your postal address, and click Run setup. - Add the Subscribe block to a page, a post or a footer widget.
- Write a post, tick Send as email when published in the Newsletter panel, and publish.
FAQ
-
Why Resend, and what does it cost?
-
The plugin sends through your own Resend account, so you own your sending reputation and nothing is resold to you. Resend’s free plan covers up to 1,000 contacts. Above that, Resend’s paid plans start at $40/month for marketing email. See resend.com/pricing for current prices.
-
Where are my subscribers stored?
-
In your WordPress database, in the plugin’s own table. They are copied to Resend as contacts so Resend can deliver to them. If you stop using the plugin, export them as a CSV from Subscribers > Import/Export.
-
Does it track opens or clicks?
-
No. Results come from Resend’s delivery events: delivered, bounced, marked as spam and unsubscribed.
-
Can I import my list from Substack, Mailchimp or another tool?
-
Yes. Subscribers > Import/Export takes any CSV file with an email column. Names and subscribe dates come along when the file has them.
-
Does it add a credit or ads to my emails?
-
No. Your emails carry your name, your logo and your domain, and nothing else.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Owldraft Newsletter” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Owldraft Newsletter” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
0.9.1
- Fix: Sync to Resend no longer stops with “Too many requests” on lists of more than a few hundred subscribers.
0.9.0
- First release on WordPress.org.