Looking for web hosting with no email throttling for a mailing list

February 16, 2009 7:59 PM

A non-profit organization runs a time-sensitive email-based service and we are looking for web hosting which provides no email throttling.

We have about 2000 subscribers and need emails to these subscribers to go out on a timely basis - within an hour for each email and preferable instantaneously. There can be up to 20 emails per week with a peak volume of 10 emails a day (maximum). The website and the email list are pretty closely tied together so it would be best if one place can do both. Web traffic is minimal - 1G a month. We would probably rely on a pre-build email admin tool like Mailman but will need root access in order to make custom modifications. Any suggestions on hosting companies to go with? 1and1 has been mentioned as having no email throttling but we don't have any experience with them. And as a non-profit, we have limited money so would prefer a package that would cost less than $30US/month.

posted by dithered to technology (4 comments total)

"Fast, Cheap, and Good. Pick two."

$30/mo will get you a basic or basic+ type webhost with shell access. From there it's up to shopping and asking questions of sales. Tell them what you want to be able to do and see what they quote as a price. If you're not understating your figures, any ISP would be able to handle your volume without a problem and any restrictions would likely be only as a matter of policy. Which can be flexible if they're not a nationwide lowest-common-denominator provider. Look in the yellow pages or ask nerdy friends for mom-n-pop ISP recommendations and start calling.

1and1 is terrible.
posted by rhizome at 8:39 PM on February 16

The website and the email list are pretty closely tied together so it would be best if one place can do both.

Can you clarify what you mean by "tied together." Do you mean that most people who sign up for your list do so from your website? Or that the same person is responsible for both the site and the emails, and would like to manage it all in one place?

Because you sound like a perfect candidate for a broadcast email service.

This article from Idealware offers lots of good info for non-profits about choosing a mailing list provider. Vertical Response will let you send 10,000 emails a month for free. Emma's service EmailNow lets you send 20,000 a month for $30. And either of these will allow you to sign up new recipients with a snippet of form code you can add to your website.
posted by junkbox at 9:34 PM on February 16

You say you want a root account, this leads me to believe you could handle the admin duties of said account. If you believe this is a fair assesment try Linode. They have been great for me and for the amount of traffic you specify the base plan should be plenty.
posted by DJWeezy at 10:44 PM on February 16

Is that a referrer link in that Linode URL?
posted by rhizome at 4:44 PM on February 17