How CARL's Subscriber System Works
CARL includes a built-in email subscriber system that collects and manages your list directly on your server. Visitors sign up through a form on your site, their details are stored in your database, and you can export the list at any time. No third-party list service is required to start collecting subscribers.
How Signups Work
When a visitor submits your signup form, CARL records their email address, an optional name field, the page they signed up from, and a timestamp. Each new subscriber is added with confirmed status by default, which means they're immediately on your list and no email verification step is required. If you're sending to a platform that requires confirmed opt-in, you can use the Kit integration to handle that on the platform side.
Subscriber Records
Each subscriber record includes their email, name, sign-up date, source page, and current status: active, unsubscribed, or bounced. The status can be changed manually from the Subscribers dashboard in the admin panel. Active subscribers appear in your exports. Unsubscribed and bounced records are retained in the database but excluded from exports by default, so you have a complete history without contaminating your active list.
The Subscribers Dashboard
In the CARL admin panel, the Subscribers section shows your total subscriber count, a breakdown by status, and a list of recent signups. You can search by email or name, filter by status, and delete individual records. The dashboard also shows which pages are generating the most signups, so you can see at a glance which forms and content are working.
Exporting Your List
The export function downloads your active subscriber list as a CSV with one click. The file includes email, name, signup date, and source page for every active subscriber. Use this to import into your email-sending platform, back up your list, or cross-reference it against your sending platform's own list. Your subscribers are in your database on your server, not locked inside a platform you don't control.
Kit Integration
If you're using Kit as your email sending platform, CARL can push new subscribers directly to your Kit list at signup instead of storing them locally only. See How CARL integrates with Kit for the setup steps. Both systems can run in parallel: CARL stores the record locally and forwards it to Kit at the same time, so you always have a copy of your list on your own server regardless of what happens with your Kit account.
