Visual email creation
Start with one of more than 200 editable templates, then adjust blocks, images, and copy in the visual editor. AI can turn a brief into an editable starting design.
Xem
Xem is an open-source email marketing workspace for creating newsletters, managing contacts, sending campaigns, and building automated customer journeys. It supports existing SMTP providers, managed Amazon SES delivery, and AI-assisted workflows through its MCP server.
Open-source email marketing workspace
Xem is an open-source email marketing workspace for creating newsletters, managing audiences, sending campaigns, and building automated customer journeys. It brings the email editor, templates, CRM data, sending setup, and campaign reporting into one product rather than treating the send button as the whole workflow.
Teams can use their existing SMTP provider or configure Xem’s managed sending through Amazon SES. The product also offers an AI-assisted workflow through its MCP server, allowing users to draft newsletters, organize contacts, preview CSV imports, and explore campaign results while keeping writes and sends explicit.
Core capabilities
Automations and customer journeys
Build welcome journeys and other follow-up sequences visually, with timed steps, responses to audience actions, and audience insights informing the next message.
Audience and CRM
Collect contacts through lead forms, organize them with lists and tags, and keep lifecycle stages and contact details in the CRM.
Flexible sending
Connect an existing SMTP provider or use Xem’s managed Amazon SES delivery. Managed sending includes domain checks, delivery history, scoped credentials, and feedback handling.
Campaign analytics
Review campaign comparisons, date filters, audience cohorts, delivery reports, audience growth, device information, opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes.
AI-assisted workspace access
Use the hosted HTTPS MCP endpoint or run the server locally from npm to work with drafts, contacts, CSV previews, and analytics from an AI assistant.
Practical ways to use Xem
Welcome and onboarding sequences
Create a welcome journey that begins when someone joins a list, sends an initial message, waits between steps, and follows up based on the contact’s actions.
Recurring newsletters
Use a template or an AI-generated starting point to assemble a recurring newsletter, refine the blocks and copy, and send a test before the audience receives it.
Audience collection and cleanup
Bring contacts in through lead forms or CSV, map source columns to contact fields, preview the batch, and keep lists, tags, and lifecycle context organized in the CRM.
AI-assisted campaign operations
Connect an AI assistant through MCP to ask for campaign engagement, inspect bounces or unsubscribes, draft the next edition, or find contacts without leaving the assistant workflow.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Open-source email marketing product with an editable visual editor and a library of more than 200 templates.
- Combines campaigns, automations, audience organization, CRM context, sending configuration, and analytics in one workspace.
- Supports both an existing SMTP provider and managed Amazon SES delivery.
- MCP support enables AI-assisted drafting, contact work, CSV import previews, and analytics queries without making sends implicit.
Cons
- Managed sending requires domain verification and workspace approval, and the workspace displays applicable sending allowances.
- Xem’s managed SMTP is for outgoing mail; it does not replace the mailbox that receives replies.
- The MCP workflow requires a workspace API key and passes returned contact data to the connected MCP client.
FAQ
How does Xem send email?
Xem supports two sending paths: connect an existing SMTP provider, or use Xem’s managed sending through Amazon SES. Managed sending requires domain verification and workspace approval before messages can be sent.
Can Xem help create newsletter drafts?
You can start with an editable template, build an email in the visual editor, or use AI to turn a brief into an editable draft. Campaigns created through the MCP server remain drafts until you explicitly schedule or send them.
What can the Xem MCP server do?
Yes. The Xem MCP server can find lists, look up subscribers, create contacts, map CSV columns, preview imports, create campaign or newsletter drafts, and inspect campaign opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes. Access follows the permissions on the workspace API key.
Does managed SMTP provide an inbox?
No. Managed SMTP handles outgoing delivery, while your existing mailbox provider continues to receive mail and replies. Xem’s setup can use a Reply-To address that points to that mailbox.
Quick Facts
- Category
- Email marketing and marketing automation
- Source model
- Open source
- Sending options
- Your SMTP provider or Xem-managed Amazon SES
- AI workflow
- MCP server with hosted HTTPS and local npm options
- Templates
- More than 200 editable email templates
- Primary workspace data
- Campaigns, contacts, lists, tags, lifecycle stages, and analytics
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