Ethical Mailing List Service
August 22, 2023 6:40 AM Subscribe
I work for a small research lab with broad public interest. We need a mailing list provider and we want something that feels polished and user-friendly (in other words Mailman and fam is probably a no) and also doesn't snoop too much on subscribers, nor is owned by companies w/unethical track records (in other words MailChimp/Intuit and their ilk is also no). Recommendations?
We do have a marketing/comms staff member who will want some level of feedback on how the newsletter is growing/received (though I could argue against it if this is, itself, problematic). We would need the ability to send messages to certain subgroups of subscribers.
Whatever tracking happens should be reasonable. We'd want to be transparent about it.
We do have a marketing/comms staff member who will want some level of feedback on how the newsletter is growing/received (though I could argue against it if this is, itself, problematic). We would need the ability to send messages to certain subgroups of subscribers.
Whatever tracking happens should be reasonable. We'd want to be transparent about it.
Best answer: Buttondown seems to get good feedback from people interested in ethical but polished email software.
posted by Klipspringer at 7:30 AM on August 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Klipspringer at 7:30 AM on August 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
Ah! Totally good then :) I just didn't want you to go down the wrong path. You're looking for an Email Service Provider (ESP) then. Since I work for one, I'll refrain from offering my suggestions on specific services, but I'll make two recommendations on what to look for in one:
1. You appear (from your bio/Twitter) to work for a nonprofit. Make sure they offer a nonprofit discount. If they don't mention it, ask for one.
2. No idea of your intended send volume, but if you're sending in excess of 100,000 emails per month, make sure you're sending from a Private IP. This will ensure no other organizations that the ESP works with are sending from the same IP, and you won't be penalized for someone else's bad sending practices. If you aren't sending that much volume, a private IP can paradoxically be harmful, though, as the Gmails and Yahoos of the world tend to treat IPs with little volume as potential bad actors.
And by 100,000 emails a month, I mean sending one message to 100,000 people or 100,000 messages to one person (but don't do the second one dear deity).
posted by po822000 at 7:30 AM on August 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
1. You appear (from your bio/Twitter) to work for a nonprofit. Make sure they offer a nonprofit discount. If they don't mention it, ask for one.
2. No idea of your intended send volume, but if you're sending in excess of 100,000 emails per month, make sure you're sending from a Private IP. This will ensure no other organizations that the ESP works with are sending from the same IP, and you won't be penalized for someone else's bad sending practices. If you aren't sending that much volume, a private IP can paradoxically be harmful, though, as the Gmails and Yahoos of the world tend to treat IPs with little volume as potential bad actors.
And by 100,000 emails a month, I mean sending one message to 100,000 people or 100,000 messages to one person (but don't do the second one dear deity).
posted by po822000 at 7:30 AM on August 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
My company sends about 11MM emails a month to about 5MM unique addresses. I don't have a recommendation for you, but I can tell you that we have been unhappy with sendgrid, especially after their acquisition by Twilio.
Technically, the service is fine, and we don't have much trouble getting into inboxes, etc. Their business and billing side is horrendous, and I hope to never do business with them again. It is not enough of a priority for us to switch at this point, but I wouldn't ever recommend it to anyone else.
posted by toxic at 8:02 AM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
Technically, the service is fine, and we don't have much trouble getting into inboxes, etc. Their business and billing side is horrendous, and I hope to never do business with them again. It is not enough of a priority for us to switch at this point, but I wouldn't ever recommend it to anyone else.
posted by toxic at 8:02 AM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Maybe Mailcoach? I am aware of this as it's produced by the people at Spatie, who are a pretty respected name in the Laravel (PHP, web developer) community. I've seen good reviews of Mailcoach (though specifically by people integrating it into Laravel apps - that said, my view here is skewed since web devs are basically who I pay attention to for these sorts of things). Tracking is possible but off by default. It has an extensive API for building your own stuff with if you want to go that route.
posted by mrg at 8:10 AM on August 22, 2023
posted by mrg at 8:10 AM on August 22, 2023
Best answer: Would Substack work for this? I'm not sure if it offers everything you need, but all the newsletters I get from creators and ethically-minded groups I follow seem to be hosted on there.
posted by guessthis at 8:19 AM on August 22, 2023
posted by guessthis at 8:19 AM on August 22, 2023
Mod note: Comment removed, OP's response left in to help clarify things. Please stick to responding to the OP's actual question, thanks!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 8:26 AM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 8:26 AM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
Substack does meet the criteria of an ethical newsletter platform as far as snoopage, but it has come under a lot of (imo justified) fire for actively courting, promoting, and bankrolling people who peddle transphobia and other hateful ideas, and then dodging responsibility for doing so. Though there are many great (personal, and maybe organizational?) newsletters still hosted on Substack, looking through the offerings makes it clear that transphobes have heard the whistle loud and clear, and consider it to be a welcoming place for them. If ethics are important to you, I wouldn't get on that train.
Most people I know who left Substack for ethical reasons went to either Ghost or Buttondown. Ghost looks slicker and costs a little more; I think it's probably the better choice for an org that wants to present a really polished look. I've exclusively had experience with Buttondown, which is more bare-bones as far as design but has uncanny levels of customer service. My experience was with a newsletter for personal writing, not org communications, but I do think both services can do everything you need.
posted by babelfish at 8:49 AM on August 22, 2023 [4 favorites]
Most people I know who left Substack for ethical reasons went to either Ghost or Buttondown. Ghost looks slicker and costs a little more; I think it's probably the better choice for an org that wants to present a really polished look. I've exclusively had experience with Buttondown, which is more bare-bones as far as design but has uncanny levels of customer service. My experience was with a newsletter for personal writing, not org communications, but I do think both services can do everything you need.
posted by babelfish at 8:49 AM on August 22, 2023 [4 favorites]
If you’re already using Gmail, Google has recently incorporated free mail merge and email template capabilities into Google workspace.
Whether or not google’s snooping ethics are acceptable, unacceptable, or so pervasive as to be moot is an exercise left to the reader
posted by Jon_Evil at 12:40 PM on August 22, 2023
Whether or not google’s snooping ethics are acceptable, unacceptable, or so pervasive as to be moot is an exercise left to the reader
posted by Jon_Evil at 12:40 PM on August 22, 2023
Perhaps a WordPress site with the MailPoet plugin? It certainly lets you segment your subscriber list and you can control how much you track.
posted by greatgefilte at 8:28 PM on August 22, 2023
posted by greatgefilte at 8:28 PM on August 22, 2023
I use and like Buttondown, but Beehiiv is an alternative I've seen a couple of people recommend too.
posted by fabius at 5:59 AM on August 23, 2023
posted by fabius at 5:59 AM on August 23, 2023
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by 10ch at 7:22 AM on August 22, 2023 [2 favorites]