pommo

If you are looking to start an email list or perhaps take over an existing email newsletter, I'm sure you've been surprised, frustrated, and confused by the high costs and confusing service some email newsletter management companies charge. Is there another way?

There actually is. Technically you can run your own email list management software on a shared hosting, or VPS (virtual private server), or dedicated server you or your company and organization already pay for. (Assuming you have a website up.) I've compiled this list of the free and open source email newsletter managers which can be downloaded and installed to run on a server and be used via a graphical interface in browser.

PHPList

PHPList is probably the best known and most popular open source email management software that's available today. While it's probably not going to win any awards from design snobs the email software works well.

PHPList has a lot of nice features like click tracking, bounce management, list segmentation, PDF documents, RSS integration, HTML templates, and more. Most importantly PHPList has throttling and batch processing capabilities. This means you can control how many emails are sent out in say 1 hour, which is why most people use it in shared hosting environments. This is also why the majority of major web hosting companies recommend PHPList, since they don't want you going over their shared hosting email limits.

If you don't feel like using your own server there is a phpList Hosted service where they handling sending out your email newsletters from their servers. I have not used phpList hosted but the pricing looks competitive and might be an ideal option if your email list is large and you don't want to switch to using another email program.

There is a new community manager for PHPList and Tincan, the company behind phpList, seems quite committed to continually improving it. They recently updated their community portal and Anna, the phpList community manager, will be releasing tutorials videos this year along with better documentation.

@DogsSing well, we will be able to help a lot over this year with better documentation and videos etc 🙂

— phpList (@phpList) March 6, 2014

As a side note, something I find personally pretty funny is the PHPList documentation list uses Mailman, see below.

Dada Mail

Dada Mail is a great email list management software that is ideal for anyone. The interface is clean and everything is pretty straightforward on how to use it. I wrote about Dada Mail before on this blog and said it was much easier to use than MailMan or phpList in my opinion. You should be able to install it and get going within a few minutes without having to read too much in the Dada Mail forum or documentation. (Although it's always a good idea to.)

Dada Mail comes with nice features which includes closed loop-opt-ins, email message archiving, sharing via RSS feeds, individual subscribers can edit their profiles, email analytics, and more. There is a fairly active support forum and Justin, the developer, tries to answer questions readily. So if you are having an issue you can get help easily.

The major disadvantage here is that Dada Mail is open source and free… but only if your email newsletter is under 1,000 subscribers. After that you will need to buy a Dada Mail Pro License for $74.95, which is a one-time fee.

OpenEMM

OpenEMM (open e-email marketing manager) is an open source email list management software I've not personally used. However, from what I've read OpenEMM is stable and seems to to have a nice interface from these videos. It has all the functionality of phpList and Dada Mail (from what I can tell). It even supports many languages outside of English.

There's great documentation for OpenEMM and in addition to an active support form. On the website OpenEMM's developers boast that major corporations use use the e-mail marketing manger such as IBM, Daimler, Siemens and Deutsche Telekom. If it's good enough for them it is probably good enough for you.

MailMan

mailman Mailman, or GNU Mailman, comes pre-installed in most cPanel installations to my understanding. Mailman is used by a lot of colleges and institutions since it is quite stable and reliable email newsletter software. It has several advantages over other email managers, specifically you can setup Mailman so that any user on an email list can respond or start threaded discussions. Thinks of how Yahoo Groups works.

This is why a lot of documentation email lists for open source software use Mailman, like PHPList's documentation list. As far as I know this the group communication feature it Mailman's best feature actually.

Even though Mailman is on this list I wouldn't recommend using it if you are a “regular person” as it's quite hard to use and has a high learning curve. I couldn't even figure out how to setup and send an email newsletter, and I consider myself fairly technically inclined. It's really for people that love coding and hate graphical interfaces I guess (ie hardcore Linux users). Still I had to mention it on this post for email list management software options.

I've put Pommo (Post Modern Mail Manager) on this list tentatively as I have not used it and the developers stopped supporting the email newsletter manager several year ago. Thanks to the magic of Github Pommo has been able to live on.

People have clung to Pommo since it's got a dead simple interface and is easy-to-use. From what I've read it doesn't have batch processing handling like Dada Mail, PHPList, or OpenEMM and lacks some other features. Still people are using Pommo.

I did actually tried to install Pommo on a shared hosting server I use just for testing out things like this but there was an PHP issue I tried to install Pommo. It won't work with the current version of PHP installed on most shared servers and throws an error code. There are some workarounds but honestly I haven't had time to figure to figure it out and fix it. Unsure if I really want to considering the other options above are supported.

If you have money, time, resources, and skills feel free to find developers to resurrect Pommo. I'm sure a lot of people would be really happy. Unfortunately I don't but it would be nice to have Pommo as a usable option.

Sympa

Sympa, like Mailman, is a popular email list management software used at colleges and institutions. I've read on some forums people have successfully installed this on shared servers and VPS hosting environments but most people seem to use Sympa on dedicated servers.

Sympa supports Galician, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, and German in addition to English and they are working on translating more languages. Sympa features that other email newsletter managers don't have is users can review each other, you can upload pictures, and more.

If you are going to use Sympa it does have a fair amount of documentation but it's a bit hard to understand if you are not a computer geek. For that reason it's probably best if you stick with another email manager listed above especially. It's mainly used for college classes and sport groups as far as I can tell.

Email List Management Software Options

If you got to the end of this article you are probably wondering, “What email newsletter software should I go use?” My recommendation would probably be to stick with PHPList or OpenEMM. Dada Mail is also an ideal option even if you have to pay for a pro license. I listed Mailman, Sympa, and Pommo merely as email list management software options you could consider just for kicks. I just don't really recommend people use them. PHPList, OpenEMM, and Dadamail are all actively developed and have documentation that can be understood by normal human beings.

I hoped you liked this list and round-up. If you have anything to add or have any comments please leave them below. Do you like or hate any of these email list managers? Have a suggestion of a newsletter manager I missed? Let me know below.

Dada Mail Pros

Dada Mail comes with a lot of great features which includes closed loop-opt-in, message archiving, sharing via RSS feeds, individual subscribers can edit their profiles, email analytics, and a lot of other cool stuff. Some features I like about is that you can invite subscribers from the dashboard and it is easy setup batch emails so your host doesn't get upset and ban your account for sending to many emails per hour.

What's great about Dada Mail is that the setup and install are relatively easy. It should not be too hard for people to configure email lists with Dada Mail. In addition the layout and interface is quite easy-to-use and understand. You should be ok figuring things out on your own after spending a bit of time in the Dada Mail dashboard.

Even if you are having trouble and need help with something Justin, the developer, is pretty good about answering support questions and helping people via the Dada Mail support forum. You will probably find most questions you would have there in the forums. Justin also has a service where you can pay him to install and configure Dada Mail on your server for you. Surprised more developers don't offer this service actually, as it's a great idea.

There are some, but not a lot, of Dada Mail tutorial videos on YouTube under the username “leaddadaist” which is the official channel. Unfortunately the videos are hot in HD and the resolution only goes up to 360p which can make it a bit difficult to watch.

Compared to phpList and Mailman I think Dada Mail is definitely an easier-to-use web based email manager.

Dada Mail Cons

Dada Mail is free and open source but the free version only allows for 3 email lists and up to 1,000 subscribers. After that you can either pay for a yearly Pro Dada Mail subscription which costs $34.95 or a Lifetime subscription for $74.95. Then your email list Quota is unlimited. Paying for a Pro Dada Mail license also allows you to remove links back to Dada Mail sites in emails generated by the program to my understanding. There are a few other benefits as well.

For those that like using WordPress, the CMS this site uses, there is no WordPress plugin. I emailed Justin and he said at this time there is not a plan to develop a WP plugin for Dada Mail. WordPress runs 18.9% of the web and 176,000 people download WordPress files everyday (this statistic only includes manual file downloads and not automatic script installs.) It would be a great for there to be a plugin to easily integrate Dada Mail with WordPress in my opinion. Maybe Justin can run a Kickstarter or IndieGoGo to raise funds for a Dada Mail WP plugin as I imagine he's gotten other requests for it.

One thing that concerns me about Dada Mail is that it is written in Perl. I honestly don't know anyone developing in Perl nowadays. Not saying it's a bad programming language but if you are having issues and need a someone to help solve a Dada Mail issue, they might have a hard time if they are completely unfamiliar with Perl. This is just my assumption though and not my experience.

Final Thoughts about Dada Mail

Even though Dada Mail has some shortcomings there are not that many other free email managers out there. Even if you have to spend the $74.95 for a Pro Data Mail license I imagine it would be worth it. (I haven't bought one but I am considering it.)

Between Mailman, phpList, and Dada Mail I strongly lean towards using Dada Mail. Some might argue that you should put in the money for a pro email service such as Aweber, MailChimp, GetResponse, YMLP, etc. Those can get pricey quickly and I know a lot of bloggers and non-profits on tight budgets and I believe Dada Mail would work fine for their needs.

Keep in in mind that it is hard to truly know how good an email list service is until you have actually built up an email list and sent a fair amount of newsletters via the program. That's why this isn't necessarily a review so much as a post about my initial thoughts about Dada Mail. There are a few other email manager clients I haven't tried like OpenEMM and Pommo but I am not sure how much time I want to invest in searching for an email list tool. I will keep people updated and post a more detailed review and even tutorials as I get more into setting up and sending emails through it.

Are you a Dada Mail user? Do you like the software and it's features? What do you think could be improved? Would you like to see a WP plugin for it too? If you used to use Dada Mail what are you using now and why? What did you switch to? I'd be happy to hear compliments and complaints and anything else people recommend.

Tag: pommo

6 Free Email List Management Software Tools to Consider