Dispatch — Email Marketing for Craft CMS

Lightweight email marketing and newsletter plugin for Craft CMS 5. Manage subscribers, send campaigns, and track delivery — all natively within your control panel.

Editions

Feature	Free	Lite ($49)	Pro ($79)
Subscriber management	✓	✓	✓
Mailing lists	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
CSV import/export	✓	✓	✓
Queue-based sending	100/mo	Unlimited	Unlimited
Twig email templates	✓	✓	✓
Unsubscribe handling (RFC 8058)	✓	✓	✓
Basic send tracking	✓	✓	✓
Craft User sync	—	✓	✓
Open/click analytics	—	✓	✓
Delivery dashboard	—	✓	✓
Custom transports (SES, Mailgun, etc.)	—	✓	✓
Drip sequences / automation	—	—	✓
A/B subject line testing	—	—	✓
Dynamic segments	—	—	✓
Webhook integrations	—	—	✓
REST API	—	—	✓

Requirements

• Craft CMS 5.0+
• PHP 8.2+

Installation

composer require justinholtweb/craft-dispatch
php craft plugin/install dispatch

Configuration

All settings are available in the control panel under Dispatch → Settings, or you can configure them via config/dispatch.php:

<?php

return [
    'defaultFromName' => 'My Site',
    'defaultFromEmail' => 'hello@example.com',
    'defaultReplyToEmail' => '',
    'sendBatchSize' => 50,
    'sendRateLimit' => 0,
    'enableTracking' => true,
    'trackOpens' => true,
    'trackClicks' => true,
];

Usage

Subscribers

Subscribers are a custom element type with full field layout support. Create them via the CP or programmatically:

use justinholtweb\dispatch\elements\Subscriber;
use justinholtweb\dispatch\Plugin;

$subscriber = new Subscriber();
$subscriber->email = 'user@example.com';
$subscriber->firstName = 'Jane';
$subscriber->lastName = 'Doe';
Craft::$app->getElements()->saveElement($subscriber);

// Add to a mailing list
Plugin::getInstance()->subscribers->subscribe($subscriber->id, $listId);

Mailing Lists

use justinholtweb\dispatch\elements\MailingList;

$list = new MailingList();
$list->name = 'Weekly Newsletter';
$list->handle = 'weeklyNewsletter';
Plugin::getInstance()->lists->create($list);

Campaigns

Campaigns use Twig templates for email content. The template receives campaign, subscriber, and unsubscribeUrl variables:

{# Your email template #}
<h1>{{ campaign.subject }}</h1>
<p>Hi {{ subscriber.firstName ?? 'there' }},</p>
{{ content|raw }}
<p><a href="{{ unsubscribeUrl }}">Unsubscribe</a></p>

Send a campaign programmatically:

Plugin::getInstance()->campaigns->send($campaignId);

CSV Import

Upload a CSV with at minimum an email column. Optional columns: firstName (or first_name), lastName (or last_name). Imports are processed in the background via the queue.

Unsubscribe

Every email includes List-Unsubscribe and List-Unsubscribe-Post headers per RFC 8058, enabling one-click unsubscribe in supporting email clients. A subscriber preference center is also available at /dispatch/preferences.

Tracking (Lite+)

When enabled, Dispatch injects a 1×1 tracking pixel for opens and rewrites links for click tracking. All tracking URLs are HMAC-signed to prevent spoofing. View results on the Dashboard tab.

Custom Transports (Lite+)

Configure sending via Amazon SES, Mailgun, Postmark, or SendGrid under Settings → Transport. The default craft transport uses your existing Craft email configuration.

Webhooks (Pro)

Dispatch accepts inbound webhooks for bounce and complaint processing:

POST /dispatch/webhook/ses
POST /dispatch/webhook/mailgun
POST /dispatch/webhook/postmark
POST /dispatch/webhook/sendgrid

Set a webhookSecret in your settings for HMAC signature verification.

REST API (Pro)

Authenticate with a Bearer token (using your webhookSecret):

# List subscribers
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" https://example.com/dispatch/api/v1/subscribers

# Subscribe
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -d "email=user@example.com&list=weeklyNewsletter" \
  https://example.com/dispatch/api/v1/subscribe

# Unsubscribe
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -d "email=user@example.com" \
  https://example.com/dispatch/api/v1/unsubscribe

# Campaign stats
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  https://example.com/dispatch/api/v1/stats?campaignId=123

Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/dispatch/api/v1/subscribers	List subscribers
POST	/dispatch/api/v1/subscribers	Create subscriber
GET	/dispatch/api/v1/lists	List mailing lists
GET	/dispatch/api/v1/campaigns	List campaigns
GET	/dispatch/api/v1/stats?campaignId=	Campaign statistics
POST	/dispatch/api/v1/subscribe	Subscribe an email to a list
POST	/dispatch/api/v1/unsubscribe	Unsubscribe an email

Permissions

Permission	Description
dispatch:accessPlugin	Access the Dispatch CP section
dispatch:manageCampaigns	Create/edit/delete campaigns
dispatch:sendCampaigns	Trigger campaign sends
dispatch:manageSubscribers	Create/edit/delete subscribers
dispatch:importSubscribers	Import subscribers via CSV
dispatch:manageLists	Create/edit/delete mailing lists
dispatch:viewDashboard	View analytics dashboard
dispatch:manageSettings	Modify plugin settings

Events

Dispatch fires events you can listen to in a custom module or plugin:

use justinholtweb\dispatch\elements\Campaign;
use justinholtweb\dispatch\events\CampaignEvent;
use justinholtweb\dispatch\events\SubscriberEvent;
use justinholtweb\dispatch\events\TrackingEvent;
use justinholtweb\dispatch\services\Tracker;
use yii\base\Event;

// Before a campaign sends
Event::on(Campaign::class, 'beforeSend', function (CampaignEvent $event) {
    // $event->campaign
});

// After a campaign sends
Event::on(Campaign::class, 'afterSend', function (CampaignEvent $event) {
    // $event->campaign
});

// On email open (Lite+)
Event::on(Tracker::class, Tracker::EVENT_ON_OPEN, function (TrackingEvent $event) {
    // $event->campaignId, $event->subscriberId
});

// On link click (Lite+)
Event::on(Tracker::class, Tracker::EVENT_ON_CLICK, function (TrackingEvent $event) {
    // $event->campaignId, $event->subscriberId, $event->url
});

License

This plugin is released under the Craft License.