Compass Designs .net

MosListMessenger

www.phil-taylor.com

Pros
Relatively robust and a sophisticated interface. Useful search feature and duplicate handling on import.
Cons
Commercial component, $40. No bounce processing or statistics.

Features: 4 stars
Interface: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars

MosListMessenger is a port to Joomla of a commercial email component, ListMessenger. The license is locked to a specific domain. To install you need to upload a php file and then a mini component to read that file and unlock the full component. Is is relatively robust, reflecting its commercial cost.

• Reliable sending mechanism
  There don't seem to be any known issues related to sending emails from MosListMessenger and it has a useful pause/continue progress monitor. On large lists (thousands) either very long sending times or a powerful server are needed.
• Ability to throttle sending
  When you send an email, you can set how many you need to send out at once as well as set a time delay to pause between batches.
• Unsubscribe mechanism
  All emails have an unsubscribe automatically added to the email as a footer.
• Subscribe form
  The subscribe form module works well, its a one step process. This is always better as more steps lead to abandonment.
• Double opt in
  MosListMessenger has a simple, but effective double opt in process.
• Multiple lists
  You can have as many lists as you need with MosListMessenger. Each one can be subscribed to individually.
• Bounce handling
  MosListMessenger does not have any bounce processing.
• HTML templating
  Emails can be created with html and a text only version provided.
• Import/Export subscribers
  MosListMessenger allows importing from CSV files and XML files, and allows exporting to XML. Duplicates are discarded on import.
• Integration into Joomla user database
  There is a free patch that will add new user registrations to the email list. However, this means that if someone unsubscribe's from your list, you might re-add them if you ever did an export or import as they would still be part of the user database. This can quickly lead to conflicts with the CAN-SPAM act.
• Email Statistics
  MosListMessenger does not track any statistics about open rates etc.

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