The Mailing List Dilemma

Perhaps more accurately, my mailing list dilemma as I'm not sure how many others see it as a dilemma. I am still in the process of choosing a mailing list. On the one hand there are online services with free versions like Brevo, aweber, mailchimp, getresponse and benchmark as mentioned here. Or on the second hand Roll your own mailing list services with free versions you install and manange yourself like Mailman, Sympa, listmonk, Discourse, schleuder, exmlm-idx, Dada mail, Majordomo and ulist mentioned here. For most the first option is the only option, but for the tech oriented contract adverse like myself it is a dilemma.

100 Page Contracts: Nobody Got Time For That

I was reading one of the contracts for one of the mailing list softwares in the first category above and it was going to take all day to read it. Tired of reading a contract I could barely understand(or barely have time to even try to understand). I started looking at the second list again.

A First Glance at the Choices

Basically the criteria for self hosting a mailing list is going to be which one is the simplest to install and get running quickest. I have configured a mailing list in the past and It was a bit complicated to configure so the simplest will be the winner. I eliminated mailman right off the bat because I can already tell the docs will be ardous. Sympa and listmonk look promising. Discourse sounds awesome as it is really a complete forum software but is overkill. schleuder sounds cool but is more for privacy and does not seem to have the bells and whistles needed. ezmlm seems simple but I cannot find installation instructions. Dada mail is too limited with 3 lists and 100 users each for the free version making it not worth the trouble. ulist seems too primitive and depends on mailman. Again this is a first glance and I may come back to some that I may be writing off to soon.

Winners So Far

Sympa, listmonk and Discourse are the ones I will be looking deeper into for my self hosting mailing list service. All the others are either not well suited, not well documented or seem to complicated, again at first glance.

Dilemmas Dilemmas

Mailing list software is an important service to consider using for an online business or for a private group. While it can be convenient to use a commercial service, communication and privacy are very important and should not be taken lightly. Finding one you can trust with your groups private information be they sales pitches or just a social group may be something to consider. Having a middle man for my mailing list bothers me, so hosting my own list server is very appealing. I may cotinue looking at the commercial options as well, but with the contracts as the first barrier in mind. To be continued...