OpenEMM Installation & Configuration Wiki

Latest version of OpenEMM 26.05: 26.05.045 BETA
Latest version of OpenEMM 25.11: 25.11.078
Latest version of OpenEMM 25.04: 25.04.000.193 (EOL on May 31, 2026)
Latest version of OpenEMM 24.10: 24.10.000.190 (EOL on Nov 30, 2025)
Latest version of OpenEMM 24.04: 24.04.000.102 (EOL)
Latest version of OpenEMM 23.10: 23.10.000.236 (EOL)
Latest version of OpenEMM 23.04: 23.04.000.231 (EOL)
Latest version of OpenEMM 22.10: 22.10.000.230 (EOL)
Latest version of OpenEMM 22.04: 22.04.000.238 (EOL)
(as of May 25, 2026)

OpenEMM Overview

OpenEMM is a web based enterprise application for email and marketing automation. It is used for automated email communication with customers, leads, members and employees. It can be operated via a web browser interface with excellent usability, or in headless mode via its SOAP or REST API. OpenEMM is published under open source license APGLv3.
And should you outgrow OpenEMM in the future, you may seamlessly upgrade to OpenEMM Plus (https://www.agnitas.de/en/e-marketing_manager/email-marketing-software-variants/openemm/#openemm-plus).
NOTE: If certain links do not work in this Wiki, please right-click them and open them in a new tab.
Interactive demo tour of OpenEMM (please click the animation):

OpenEMM Downloads

You can download the source code of OpenEMM at GitHub: https://github.com/agnitas-org/openemm
If you do not want to compile and deploy the source code of OpenEMM manually, we recommend to download the package for OpenEMM deployment & runtime at https://www.agnitas.de/en/download/openemm-binaries/ . This package contains the OpenEMM Maintenance Tool (OMT) which lets you download, install, configure, update and maintain OpenEMM.
Alternatively, you may download the source code of OpenEMM from GitHub and compile and deploy the software manually yourself. See the instructions at the end of this page.

Factsheet OpenEMM 26.05 (EN): Factsheet for OpenEMM 26.05

Factsheet OpenEMM 26.05 (DE): Factsheet für OpenEMM 26.05

Factsheet OpenEMM 25.11 (EN): Factsheet for OpenEMM 25.11

Factsheet OpenEMM 25.11 (DE): Factsheet für OpenEMM 25.11

Factsheet OpenEMM 25.04 (EN): Factsheet for OpenEMM 25.04

Factsheet OpenEMM 25.04 (DE): Factsheet für OpenEMM 25.04

Factsheet OpenEMM 24.10 (EN): Factsheet for OpenEMM 24.10

Factsheet OpenEMM 24.10 (DE): Factsheet für OpenEMM 24.10

Factsheet OpenEMM 24.04 (EN): Factsheet for OpenEMM 24.04

Factsheet OpenEMM 24.04 (DE): Factsheet für OpenEMM 24.04

Javascript Widget to generate Subscribe Forms (EN + DE): Javascript Widget Toolbox

The guide to installation and administration of OpenEMM can be found here:

OpenEMM 25.11: OpenEMM 25.11 Installation & Administration Guide 1.0.0

OpenEMM 25.04: OpenEMM 25.04 Installation & Administration Guide 1.0.3

OpenEMM 24.10: OpenEMM 24.10 Installation & Administration Guide 1.0.2

OpenEMM 24.04: OpenEMM 24.04 Installation & Administration Guide 1.0.1

OpenEMM 23.10: OpenEMM 23.10 Installation & Administration Guide 1.0.5

OpenEMM 23.04: OpenEMM 23.04 Installation & Administration Guide 1.0.2

OpenEMM 22.10: OpenEMM 22.10 Installation & Administration Guide 1.0.1

OpenEMM 22.04: OpenEMM 22.04 Installation & Administration Guide 1.0.0

We also offer an OVA version for OpenEMM 25.11: https://share.agnitas.de/index.php/s/H5MdC9CQpkDddPa/download (see page OpenEMM on VirtualBox for details)

If you want to know more about the inner workings of the backend of OpenEMM: openemm-backend-description.pdf

If you want to check the integrity of your OpenEMM database schema, go to the Administration menu → menu System Status → box “DB schema upload” and upload this file: emm-mariadb-schema-25.04.000.176.json

This JSON file contains a clean schema of the OpenEMM database and OpenEMM uses it to compare its own DB schema with the uploaded schema from the JSON file and to report any deviations.

We kindly ask you to contribute feedback for OpenEMM! Please leave any bug findingy, questions and comments in the OpenEMM Support Forum at https://forum.openemm.org . This helps us to improve the code, installation, configuration, administration and documentation of OpenEMM.
If you want to stay on top of things, please subscribe to the OpenEMM newsletter at the end of page
https://www.agnitas.de/en/e-marketing_manager/email-marketing-software-variants/openemm/ (English)
or
https://www.agnitas.de/e-marketing-manager/email-marketing-software/openemm/ (German)
and follow our X account at https://x.com/openemm .
If you are interested in more OpenEMM Support & Service Offers, please visit website
https://www.agnitas.de/en/e-marketing_manager/email-marketing-software-variants/openemm/openemm-support-services/

More resources

Here is a video with first steps:

https://youtu.be/WBnkq1pzprY (English)

https://youtu.be/9iw81WGoXWE (German)

If you want to install the context-sensitive online help feature of OpenEMM (including the user manual with about 500 pages), visit

https://www.agnitas.de/en/download/openemm-manual/ (English)

https://www.agnitas.de/download/openemm-handbuch/ (German)

to get the download link for the manual package (which contains both, the English and the German version of the documentation). You can also use OMT’s menu “Install or update package from AGNITAS Cloud” to install the documentation.

1. Introduction

OpenEMM is a professional open source software for email marketing and automation with a state-of-the-art user interface. For even more automation of your email communication and integration with other IT systems, you may use the REST or SOAP API of OpenEMM to operate it in headless mode.
Any way you want to use it, OpenEMM is the right choice for you. The software is not artificially limited in any way, because we will not try to push you to use a commercial cloud OpenEMM service instead. You are free to operate OpenEMM on whatever hardware you like, depending on the performance you need. And there is no need to use a (paid) email relay service!
The first version of OpenEMM was published in 2006. The source code of the frontend and the backend of OpenEMM 19.04 and later is available at GitHub. It uses the popular open source license AGLPv3. At the end of this page you can find instructions on how to build OpenEMM by yourself.

2. Basic Requirements

RedHat 8 or 9; AlmaLinux 8 or 9; SLES 15

with VirtualBox: Windows, macOS or any other Linux → see section OpenEMM on VirtualBox for details

Java Open JDK 17 (OpenEMM 26.05 requires Java 21!)

Apache Tomcat 10.1 or 11 (including NIO Connector for HTTPS support)

Python 3.11 or later

DBMS: MariaDB 10.6.10 or later

MTA: Postfix 3.5 or later

3. Mailing Templates and Forms

You do not have to start from scratch when producing mailings and creating forms in OpenEMM. At https://www.agnitas.de/en/download-center/ you can download templates and forms which you can import into OpenEMM. Make sure to replace all placeholders for a company ID with value “1”.

If your forms are attacked by click bots, you should implement a honeypot form field to fight off those click bots. Here is an explanation how this could be done:

Quickguide Honeypot (EN): Quickguide

Kurzanleitung Honeypot (DE): Kurzanleitung

4. Updates

The top of this Wiki lists the latest available versions of OpenEMM code and the deployment & runtime package.

You can download the latest versions of packages with menu “Install or update package from AGNITAS Website” of OMT (OpenEMM Maintenance Tool). An update of the code will also update the schema of the OpenEMM database, if necessary.

If you do not use the latest version of OpenEMM, OMT offers you to upgrade to a new release. If you are not happy with the new release (or any other version of OpenEMM), you can roll back OpenEMM to an earlier (or later) version with menu “Switch OpenEMM version”.

Do not forget to restart OpenEMM with menu “Restart OpenEMM” after you have downloaded and installed an update package to activate it. But do the restart at an convenient time: Do not restart OpenEMM during a dispatch of a mailing, or right after the dispatch (due to the brief downtime of the redirect service causing missed openings and click redirects).

5. Administration

See the Installation & Administration Guides linked at the top of this document for extensive information on administration of OpenEMM.

6. Integrations

To fully exploit the potential of email and marketing automation, integration with other applications such as CRM systems, CMS software or AI agents should be implemented.

Until now, this was only possible via product-specific interfaces. An attractive alternative are integration platforms such as Make or N8N. These offer numerous advantages over classic interfaces, which is why OpenEMM beginning with version 25.04 supports these platforms.

This makes it possible to connect OpenEMM with a variety of other applications easily and flexibly in order to implement automated data exchange. Further information: https://www.agnitas.de/en/emm-offers-connectivity-to-all-major-software-solutions/

Page Documentation of OpenEMM App (Make) and OpenEMM Nodes (N8N) lists all triggers and actions available for Make and N8N.

Here is a webinar recording in German language, demonstrating integration platforms Make and N8N and the use of OpenEMM connectors for those platforms:

7. OpenEMM Videos

Brief introduction of OpenEMM (English): —————————— New Version 25.04 of OpenEMM (English and German):

New Features of OpenEMM 24.04, Installation and Upgrades (English):

Upgrade Opportunities (OpenEMM Plus, English):

Features of OpenEMM and new Features of OpenEMM 23.10 (German):

Installation and Updates (German):

Commercial Support Services and OpenEMM Plus (German):

8. Building OpenEMM yourself

Download the source code of OpenEMM from GitHub at https://github.com/agnitas-org/openemm to a directory of your choice.

Backend

$ git clone https://github.com/agnitas-org/openemm
$ cd openemm/backend
$ chmod 755 build-backend.py
$ ./build-backend.py

Frontend

Copy template files build.properties.default, build-birt.properties.default and build-ws.properties.default to files with names build.properties, build-birt.properties and build-ws.properties and adapt the paths listed in those three files to your needs.

$ cd openemm/frontend
$ ant -f build.xml

Security

If you think that you have found a security problem with OpenEMM, please contact us at email address security@agnitas.de to initiate a responsible disclosure of the security vulnerability you may have found.

Imprint

OpenEMM Wiki is a service of AGNITAS AG: https://www.agnitas.de/en/imprint/