I Built My Own Newsletter Platform in a Day

I wanted a newsletter page that looks clean, loads fast, and doesn’t box me into weird styling limits or pricing tiers.

I tried the usual platforms. The pattern was always the same:

either it looks great but costs too much, or it’s affordable but feels like a template from 2012.

So I gave myself a challenge: ship a production-grade newsletter engine in one day.

The stack

• Next.js for a fast, SEO-friendly site

• Resend to send this email

• Postgres + Drizzle for the database (type-safe ORM)

• Vercel Blob for image uploads

I didn’t reinvent the wheel. I assembled a stack that lets one person move fast.

What I shipped in 24 hours

This isn’t a static page. You’re using real features already:

1) A better writing and reading experience

A Tiptap-based editor with markdown shortcuts, code blocks, and drag-and-drop images, so posts look good on web and in your inbox.

2) Actual community, not a monologue

• Threaded comments

• Magic-link login (no passwords)

• Likes on comments

3) Built-in analytics for growth

Open/click tracking via Resend webhooks, attribution (where subscribers come from), and churn tracking so I can learn what works and improve.

Why bother building this?

Owning the platform gives me superpowers: I can tweak the design, add features overnight, and own the data end-to-end.

It’s also a reminder of how far the modern dev stack has come: what used to take a team can now be shipped by one person fast, if you keep scope tight.

What’s next

I’ll use this newsletter as my build log: what I’m shipping, plus notes on product decisions, marketing insights, and AI integration.

P.S. Try the comments below. Reply to someone. That loop is the point.

— Dewi