Review of Locally-Hosted Autoresponders A locally-hosted autoresponder is one that is hosted on your own web server. It is usually in the form of a script or program that you must install on your web server. There are thousands of locally-hosted autoresponders in the market. Each with different features and price range. In this review, five locally-hosted autoresponders are covered. These are either leading brandnames in the market or those showing good potential. 1. Follow-Up Mailing List Processor. 2. SendStudio. 3. Intellisponder Pro. 4. PostMaster. 5. Follow Up Email Autoresponder. Follow-Up Mailing List Processor (FMLP) Follow-Up Mailing List Processor is a new comer in the market. The program is easy to use with a lot of practical useful features. FMLP provides unlimited use of its autoresponders with unlimited follow-up messages and unlimited number of subscribers. It has a lot of useful features including automatic subscribe and unsubscribe, click-through link tracking, email sending in text or HTML formats, newsletter broadcast, import and export database, backup and restore function, handle bounced email and adding to black list, personalization, XML import or export tool, and sending via sendmail or SMTP. You need some ftp knowledge in order to install the software. The program is installed onto your server which may not need to run CRON jobs (to activate the script periodically). However, if you need help, free installation is provided. In terms of features, FMLP do not have the fancy features like spam-checker and list builder in remote host like GetResponse. But its main attraction lies in its lower cost as there is no monthly fee. The purchase price is $49, $99, $149 and $199 for the 2, 7, 15 and 25 domains, respectively. There is no monthly charges involved, since it is locally hosted. The script is written in Perl with mySQL backend database. The program supports huge database and was tested with more than 3 million subscribers. There is a free lite version you can download at the website, and a 90 day refund period if you are unhappy with your purchase. In terms of features and cost per domain, this is the most attractive of all the locally-hosted autoresponders. SendStudio SendStudio is one of the leading locally-hosted autoresponders in the market. It provides unlimited use of its autoresponders with unlimited follow-up messages and unlimited number of subscribers. It has a lot of useful features including automatic subscribe and unsubscribe, link tracking features and sending emails in text or HTML formats. Like FMLP, you need some ftp knowledge in order to install the software. The program is installed onto your server which must be able to run CRON jobs. But free installation is provided. In terms of features, SendStudio do not have the fancy features like GetResponse. But its main attraction lies in its lower cost. The purchase price is $239 or $749 for the single and 20 domains, respectively. There is no monthly charges involved, since it is locally hosted. The script is written in PHP with mySQL backend database. The program supports huge database and was tested with more than 50,000 subscribers. They do not provide a free trial version like FMLP. However, there is a 30 day refund period if you are not happy with your purchase. Intellisponder Pro Intellisponder Pro is another locally-hosted autoresponders in the market. It provides unlimited use of its autoresponders with unlimited follow-up messages and unlimited number of subscribers. In terms of features, Intellisponder has fewer features than the autoresponders reviewed earlier. For examples, it does not have double opt-in, sending attachments, HTML message format, black list for bounced emails, XML import/export tool, backup or restore database. The purchase price is $277.97 for the single domain version. There is no monthly charges involved as it is locally hosted. The script is written in Perl with mySQL backend database. You need some ftp knowledge in order to install the software. They do not provide a free trial version. But there is a 30 day refund period if you are not happy with your purchase. PostMaster Postmaster is another locally-hosted autoresponders in the market. It provides unlimited use of its autoresponders with unlimited follow-up messages and unlimited number of subscribers. It has useful features like the ability to read incoming mail and send responses based on the content of the email. You should consider this program if you need to use such features. However, it does not have features like double opt-in, sending file attachments, blacklist for bounced emails, click-through link tracking, XML import or export tool and backup or restore database. The purchase price is $199 and $599 for the single and three domains version. There is no monthly charges involved as it is locally hosted. The script uses MS Access backend database. There is a 21 day free trial version and 30 day refund period. Follow Up Email Autoresponder Follow Up Email Autoresponder (FUEA) is a simple autoresponder that sends out sequential email messages. It is a popular autoresponder on the internet, judging from the information about the product. It comes with an unlimited number of autoresponders, unlimited follow-up messages and unlimited number of subscribers. Best of all, you can install unlimited copies or on an unlimited number of domains! It has the basic useful features including sending sequential email messages, automatic subscribe and unsubscribe, subscribe via web form or email, generate signup form, personalization and sending attachments. But no newsletter broadcast and double opt-in features. (Note: the broadcast feature can always be disguised as a follow-up message.) You need some ftp knowledge in order to install the software. The program is installed onto your server, but ability to do CRON job is not a necessity. In terms of features, FUEA has less but its main attraction lies in its lower cost and the ability to install as many copies as you wish. The script is written in Perl. The purchase price is $47.95 for unlimited copies or domains. There is no monthly charges involved. There is no free trial version but they provide a 90 days warranty. |
