The Most Complete MailWizz Tutorial for Beginners (1/3)

If you are looking for a practical MailWizz tutorial for beginners, you are probably ready to move from a SaaS email platform to a self‑hosted solution you fully control.​
In this MailWizz tutorial, you will go from a fresh MailWizz install to sending your first campaign, covering both the backend configuration and the customer interface step by step.​
By following this MailWizz step by step guide, you will learn which tools you need, how to connect your SMTP and bounce servers, how to create and upload your lists, how to build templates, and how to launch a test campaign safely.​
The process is designed for marketers, founders, and technical users with basic hosting knowledge, and you can complete it in about 30–60 minutes if you already have your server and SMTP ready.

MailWizz prerequisites before you start

Before you follow this MailWizz tutorial for beginners, make sure you have a few essentials ready.

• A domain name you control, with access to DNS (to create records for your MailWizz app and your sending domains).
• A server to host MailWizz: VPS or shared hosting with PHP, MySQL, and enough resources for your expected list size and volume.
• An SMTP or delivery provider (own SMTP server or third‑party SMTP such as a transactional ESP) that you can connect as a delivery server.
• Basic DNS readiness: ability to create SPF, DKIM, and custom subdomains (for example app.yourdomain.com for MailWizz, plus tracking/sending domains if needed).
• A clean email list you are allowed to email, ideally already cleaned from obvious bounces and spam traps.

Mailwizz is a self-hosted email marketing software that helps businesses and entrepreneurs to create, manage, design, and send their email marketing campaigns. Mailwizz allows users to create a personalized email template with all the information they need.

It also provides a drag-and-drop editor for easy content management and a powerful segmentation tool for highly targeted marketing. It’s the perfect tool for anyone who wants to optimize their email campaigns or grow their business, without the risk of getting banned, like what happens sometimes with SAAS Email Marketing Platforms, and without spending a load of dollars for a certain number of contacts or campaigns. Moreover, if you have more than one business or many websites, this can be probably the perfect tool to handle all of this.

Self-hosted means that your email marketing solution, including the application interface and the servers, is set up inside a machine, this machine can be a Virtual Machine (VM), Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS), or mostly a Virtual Private Server commonly named, VPS. But it can be on a Docker as well.

If you are Mailwizz newbie, here is what you have to probably retain the most: Once Mailwizz installation is set up, the App has 3 main URLs, or interfaces:

1. Backend Interface: where you will make your backend configuration
   URL: https://app.yourwebsite.com/backend
2. Customer Interface: from where you will send your campaigns. And the is the main Mailwizz login
   URL: https://app.yourwebsite.com/customer
3. Frontend Interface: You will probably not need it
   URL: https://app.yourwebsite.com/frontend

MailWizz vs typical SaaS email platforms

In this Mailwizz tutorial, we will see together the main features and functionalities of this superb tool, because, in the beginning, it may seem a bit difficult and “from where I have to start?” app, but it’s not the case actually. However, some of the features may require some advanced level in using Mailwizz.

Let’s start!

Complete your Profile and Update your Timezone

If you just set up your Mailwizz App, this is probably the first step that you have to do: Updating your profile.

Obviously, you should give a name to the App, which will be the default sender name afterwards, choose a language and probably an avatar. Once these steps are done, you will choose the right Timezone.

Updating your Timezone is crucial because you will need this to schedule your campaigns later according to your Timezone. Example: you cannot be in London and have an Australian Timezone.

So from your backend interface, go on the Top Right => Click on My Account => Adjust your Timezone

Set up your MailWizz delivery servers

Make sure that the Delivery server(s) is well set up and active, if it’s an embedded delivery server setup in the same VPS, it should have the same IP, according to each SMTP server setup.

The SMTP port should be always 25, 465, or 587 or related. Example: 2525, 4650, etc..

Configure your MailWizz bounce servers

The Bounce Server(s) is where the bounce reports will land and this is where you make sure that you established a solid server structure.

The IMAP port should be either 143 for NOTLS or 993 for SSL/TLS

Upload your global email blacklist

The email blacklist feature allows Mailwizz users to upload unsubscribed recipients, spam traps, invalid emails, email blocks, catch-alls, and all undesired emails.

In order to do this: Go to your Bakend => Click on Email Blacklist => Click on the Import button

The valid format for Mailwizz blacklist upload to Mailwizz Backend is:

• A CSV file
• The list headers should be: “,” comma separated and contain at least these 2 headers Email,Reason

Finally, you can do also all of the above through Mailwizz API. You can find through the Mailwizz documentation.

Create and manage MailWizz warmup plans

One of the most important Mailwizz tools is the warmup plan. A Warmup Plan can be implemented for multiple delivery servers, giving you the opportunity to benefit from its advantages in more than one place.

Upon finishing the plan for a delivery server, the restrictions imposed on its quota will be lifted.

To ensure timely delivery, the system will not move on to the next schedule until all scheduled deliverables have been sent out, irrespective of whether the quota is met or not.

As long as the sending is temporarily on hold, the program will automatically resume from the same point once resumed.

If you remove a Warmup Plan and the delivery server had it attached to it, you must make the necessary manual adjustments to the server quota afterward manually.

It’s not recommended to change plans while they are in the process of being generated. Instead, let the Warmup Plan complete its entire cycle before switching over. If you decide to switch anyway, the current plan will be temporarily frozen and can only be resumed if used with this same delivery server.

MailWizz deliverability basics for new senders

When you start sending from a new IP or a new domain, MailWizz gives you tools to protect your sender reputation rather than blasting your whole list at once.

• Start with low sending limits: combine your delivery server quota and warmup plan so you send in small daily batches and gradually increase volume instead of sending hundreds of thousands of emails on day one.
• Keep strict list hygiene: import only contacts who have opted in, remove obvious role accounts and known bad domains, and use the blacklist upload feature to block unsubscribes, spam traps, and problem addresses before any send.
• Use warmup plans to help inboxing: a warmup plan controls how many emails a delivery server can send over time, which helps mailbox providers trust your traffic and reduces the risk of bulk spam or blocking.
• Avoid changing warmup plans mid‑way: let a plan complete its cycle to keep a consistent sending pattern and avoid sudden jumps in volume that can hurt deliverability.

The frontend interface is your main dashboard, this is from where you will create and upload your lists, create your templates and newsletters, and send your email campaigns, which are actually the main Mailwizz frontend features.

Create Your First List

In order to create a list in Mailwizz, follow these steps:

1. On your Customer interface Click on “Create New”

2. Fill in all the red star-marked fields *, they are compulsory.

3. Fill in the company details

4. You can skip this step in the future if you fill in the Company Profile, which you can find by accessing your Account Settings.

5. Once our list is created, it’s time to upload our list. Click on either your list Unique ID, your list Name, or your list Display Name, like shown below.

Click on Tools

Click on Import

Click on CSV

Click on Choose File and upload your list. It should be in CSV format.

You should adapt your list to this Mailwizz’s header format:

Email,”First name”,”Last name”,”Age”
mail@domain.tld,John,Doe,25

Congrats! You uploaded your first email list.

Create your first template in MailWizz

When it comes to Template creation on Mailwizz, you have the choice between 3 methods: Template Upload, Drag-and-Drop, and Copy/Paste HTML.

In order to create a template on Mailwizz, go to Email Templates >> Templates

Click on Create New if you don’t have an uploadable HTML Template. You will be directed to this page:

Once there, give a name to your template, and preferably keep the other options as they are: Only plain text to No and Auto plain text to Yes.

Here you have the choice to either upload your template, copy and paste your HTML code or design directly your template

Template Upload

This is probably the easier option if you know how to do it. It’s not difficult actually. The template should follow these criteria:

• Be compressed in a zip file
• Inside the zip: you should have a parent folder
• Inside the parent folder: you should have an Index.html file and an images folder

Once all these criteria are fulfilled, you can upload your template

Copy/Paste HTML

This is probably the easiest option. To do this, go to Source

And paste your HTML code

Drag-and-Drop Email Template Builder

Drag-and-Drop Email Template Builder is a good option for beginners too. In order to create your template, click on Toggle Email Builder, and start your work.

Send your first MailWizz campaign

Create a New Campaign

Creating an Email Campaign is the final big step before the campaign is sent. For this, go to Campaigns >> All Campaigns >> Create New

Fill in campaign details

Fill in the necessary fields, and click on Save and next

Configure campaign setup and tracking

Do the same process on the next page and scroll down

Keep the Campaign tracking options as they are, and click on “Save and next”

Select your campaign template

Select the template that you have created and click on “Save and next”

Schedule and confirm your campaign

Schedule your sending time, or keep it as it is if you want to send it immediately, and click on Save changes and… Schedule campaigns

Track and analyze your MailWizz campaigns

Before you schedule your first MailWizz campaign, make sure tracking is configured so you can actually measure performance.

• Open and click tracking: leave the campaign tracking options enabled so MailWizz can measure opens and clicks for every campaign and every subscriber.
• UTM parameters: append UTM tags (for example utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign) to your links so you can see MailWizz traffic and conversions inside your web analytics tool.
• Send a tracking test: send a small test campaign to your own inboxes, click the links, then verify in MailWizz reports that opens and clicks are recorded and that your analytics tool receives the correct UTM data.
• Use stats before scaling: once tracking is confirmed, use open rate, click rate, and bounce rate from your first campaigns to decide which segments to send more to and which addresses or sources to remove.

MailWizz frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Next steps with MailWizz

• MailWizz unsubscribe link
• How to choose an SMTP for MailWizz