This website runs on Astro, and like many of my other projects, I've built a custom newsletter system rather than reaching for a bespoke newsletter third-party service. Here's why and how I did it.

Most newsletter services either cost too much for small lists or come with limitations that don't fit how I want to engage with readers. I wanted something lightweight, cost-effective, and completely under my control.

I last wrote PHP professionally over 15 years ago. Back then, CodeIgniter and FuelPHP were my go-to frameworks—well before Laravel became the powerhouse it is today. After years in the Rails ecosystem, then Node, Go, React, and GraphQL, I decided it was time to come back.

And like any self-respecting developer, I built a framework to do it.