Broadcast

Broadcast removes the per-subscriber tax that makes email retainers shrink as client lists grow. A $150 Regular License covers unlimited subscribers on one production server, and the $1000 Extended License permits installs across up to 25 servers for client work. The trade is explicit: agencies swap recurring SaaS margin leakage for Ubuntu server maintenance they must own.

The Extended License costs $1000 one-time and permits installation on up to 25 servers, which sets a hard ceiling on how many client deployments a single purchase can cover. Divide that figure across the installs you actually run and the per-client license cost lands near $40, but only if you fill the slots. An agency running six client installs carries roughly $167 of license cost per account, while the same $1000 spread across twenty-five accounts drops to $40 each. The Regular License at $150 covers one production server and suits a single internal deployment, not a multi-client book. Before quoting a retainer, count how many Broadcast installs you can realistically maintain on Ubuntu with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configured, because unfilled license slots are the quietest margin leak in a self-hosted email practice.

Retainer Floor Math is the discipline of pricing email work against the platform fee a client would pay without you. A 5,000-contact list on Moosend or EmailOctopus costs the client roughly $10 to $30 a month, so a retainer built on "we send your campaigns" has a ceiling near that number and no room for margin. The framework says: calculate the tool fee first, then decide whether the engagement can carry strategy, list growth, segmentation, and creative on top of it. If it cannot, the work is a loss leader, not a service line. BigMailer's white-label structure lets agencies resell under their own brand across unlimited client brands, which changes the math because the platform cost sits inside the agency's margin rather than the client's card. MailMunch's Agency Plan at $6.90 a month shows how low the send layer has fallen, which is exactly why the bundle, not the send, is the billable unit.

Bundle Gravity Model holds that the email platform fee is never the product; it is the anchor weight that pulls a larger service bundle into the retainer. A $6.90/month agency plan on Mailmunch or a single-price multi-brand dashboard on BigMailer cannot support a retainer on its own, so the tool's job is to make list growth, segmentation, creative, and sends inseparable in the client's mind. Once a client buys the bundle, the platform fee becomes a rounding error and pricing conversations shift to outcomes. The model matters because agencies that quote sends alone compete on per-email cost and lose; agencies that quote the bundle defend margin. Emma's multi-tenant architecture, supporting 10+ subaccounts and 25+ users, is the clearest example: the platform's value to an agency is the account structure that makes a multi-brand bundle operationally possible, not the send itself.

Buy the $1000 Extended License only once you have two or more client deployments to place on it; below that, start on the $150 Regular License and prove the delivery model first.

Bundle list growth, segmentation, and creative into one retainer before quoting, because the underlying send fee is too small to carry the engagement on its own.

IF your agency already runs Ubuntu infrastructure and can absorb SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup, THEN the Regular License at $150 one-time removes per-subscriber fees across unlimited campaigns. IF you need to install for multiple clients, THEN the Extended License at $1000 one-time covers up to 25 servers with priority email support. IF nobody on staff owns server maintenance, THEN the license savings get eaten by delivery overhead.

Deploy Broadcast on a client-dedicated Ubuntu server, wire it to Amazon SES or Postmark, and hand over a branded email platform the client owns outright for a one-time license instead of a monthly SaaS bill.