Keep the tools you already run.We plug into them.
Your members sync to the email platform you already pay for, your newsletters can go out through your own sending account, and two APIs plus webhooks let your own code read, write and react.
TribeTale connects to ten email marketing platforms and keeps your members in step with them when people sign up, upgrade, downgrade or unsubscribe. From Creator ($29), you can send through your own Amazon SES, Postmark, Resend, SendGrid, Mailgun or SMTP account, and we stop counting your subscribers. Admin and Content APIs and webhooks let you build whatever else you need.
Keep your email platform.Your members stay in step with it.
Connect Mailchimp, Kit or any of ten platforms, then choose which list or tag a member joins or leaves when something happens to them here.
There are five triggers: "Free subscriber created", "Paid subscriber created", "Member unsubscribes", and two for a paid member dropping to free, one to remove them from a list and one to add them to another. That last pair is how a buyers-only sequence stops and a win-back sequence starts.
When a paid member cancels at the end of their billing period, the downgrade does not sync on the day they click cancel. It waits until the period ends, checks they are still on the free plan, and only then moves them. Someone who resubscribes in the meantime is left alone.
What travels is the member's email address and name, split into first and last. Your welcome series, tags and automations stay exactly where you built them.
- 01
Add the connection
In Settings, open Membership, then "Email integrations" and "Add integration". "Select a platform", give it an optional name, and "Connect".
- 02
Sign in or paste a key
Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Kit, GetResponse and MailerLite take an API key (ActiveCampaign also asks for your Account URL). HubSpot, GoHighLevel, AWeber and Constant Contact connect by signing in to them.
- 03
Map the moments
Press "Configure". For each trigger, choose "Add to list", "Remove from list" or "No action", and pick the "List or tag" from the lists TribeTale loads from your account. Then "Save".
- 04
Check it
"Test" confirms the connection works. Each connection shows "Connected", "Error" or "Reconnection required", so a broken link does not fail silently.
- Substack
- Substack's sync to outside marketing tools is limited. If your automations live in Kit or Mailchimp, they stay disconnected from your subscribers there.
- beehiiv
- beehiiv also syncs members to marketing tools, so this is not a reason to leave beehiiv on its own.
- Sync runs from TribeTale to the platform. An unsubscribe someone makes inside your email platform is not pulled back into TribeTale yet.
- Only email and name are sent. Tier, labels and custom fields do not sync as contact fields; use separate lists or tags per trigger instead.
Send through your own account,and we stop counting subscribers.
Your newsletters go out through a sending account you control, from your domain, under your own sender reputation, instead of through ours.
Subscriber limits apply to sending we handle. Connect your own sending provider and we stop counting your subscribers. Fair use applies to storage, not to list size.
The reason is cost. Sending email is the largest variable cost of running a newsletter. When you carry it on your own account, there is nothing for us to meter, so the cap goes. On our sending, Creator covers 10,000 subscribers, Pro 50,000 and Business 200,000.
It also means deliverability is yours. Bounces, complaints and sender reputation sit on an account you can inspect and move.
- 01
Switch the sending mode
In Settings, open "Email delivery". Change "Sending mode" from "Managed" to "Bring-your-own".
- 02
Pick the provider
Choose SES, Mailgun, Postmark, Resend, SendGrid or SMTP under "Provider".
- 03
Add its credentials
SES asks for a region, access key ID and secret access key; Mailgun for a region (US or EU), domain and API key; Postmark for a server token; Resend and SendGrid for an API key; SMTP for host, username and password.
- 04
Set up the sending domain
Under "Sending domain", the DNS records to add appear once your custom domain is connected. From then on every newsletter goes out through your provider.
- Substack
- Substack does not let you bring your own sending provider. It sends everything, which is part of why setup is so simple there.
- beehiiv
- beehiiv does not offer it either. It does win on price for big lists on its own sending: $43 a month covers 100,000 subscribers.
- It is more setup than pressing send. You need an account with a provider, a verified sending domain and the DNS records in place.
- Your provider bills you for what you send. Amazon SES costs roughly ten cents per thousand emails.
- Needs your own domain, which starts on Creator.
Read and write your publicationfrom your own code.
Two REST APIs: a read-only Content API for your published work, and an Admin API that can create and change it.
The reference is written as OpenAPI 3.1 specs taken from the server's own route and serializer code, so field names match what the server actually accepts and returns.
The admin key carries full write access to your publication. Keep it on a server, never in a browser or a mobile app. The content key only reads what is already public.
- 01
Create a custom integration
In Settings, open Integrations and press "Add custom integration". Give it a "Title" and an optional "Description".
- 02
Copy the keys
The integration shows a "Content API key", an "Admin API key" and the "API URL" to call. Either key can be regenerated if it leaks.
- 03
Read with the Content API
Pass the content key as a query parameter to read posts, pages, authors, tags, tiers, newsletters and public settings. Good for a custom front end, an app or a static site.
- 04
Write with the Admin API
Sign a short-lived token with the admin key (tokens expire after five minutes) to create and update posts and pages, manage members, tiers, tags and newsletters, and upload images and media.
- Each set of keys belongs to one custom integration, and integrations count toward your plan's integration allowance.
- The public reference leaves some admin endpoints out for now, including comments, stats, member import and export, and webhooks.
Tell your own systemsthe moment something changes.
Send a JSON request to a URL you control when a post publishes, a member joins or changes, or your site changes.
The events: post.added, post.edited, post.deleted, post.published, post.published.edited, post.unpublished, post.scheduled, post.unscheduled, post.tag.attached and post.tag.detached; eight matching page events, from page.added to page.tag.detached; tag.added, tag.edited and tag.deleted; member.added, member.edited and member.deleted; and site.changed, labelled "Site changed (rebuild)" for triggering a static-site rebuild.
With a secret set, each request carries a SHA-256 HMAC of the body and a timestamp in a signature header. Your endpoint has two seconds to answer, failed deliveries are retried up to five times, and an endpoint that answers 410 Gone has its webhook removed.
Webhooks do not fire for records created during an import, so moving a list in does not flood your endpoint.
- 01
Open a custom integration
Webhooks live inside a custom integration, next to its API keys. Press "Add webhook".
- 02
Choose the event
Give it a "Name", then "Select an event" from Global, Posts, Pages, Tags or Members, for example "Post published" or "Member added".
- 03
Give it a URL and a secret
Enter the "Target URL". Add a "Secret" and every request is signed, so your endpoint can reject anything that did not come from your publication.
- 04
Watch it fire
The webhooks table shows each one's event, URL and when it was "Last triggered".
- One event per webhook. To hear about five events, add five webhooks.
- Paid upgrades and cancellations reach you as member.edited, not as separate events.
- If your account goes over its integration allowance, custom webhooks pause until it is back within it.
Questionsanswered plainly.
Do I have to leave Mailchimp or Kit to use TribeTale?
What happens in my email platform when a paid member cancels?
Is there really no subscriber limit on my own sending?
How do I know a webhook request really came from my publication?
Can I build my own front end on TribeTale?
The rest of itone page per job.
Your tribe. Your tale.Your terms.
Join the waitlist. Bring your list over when we open, and keep every cent your readers pay you.