Ask HN: Low Cost Email Automation?

1 point·tmaly··4 comments

Is there a very low cost or DIY email automation sequence service?

I was using Mail Chimp but they don’t offer automations on the free tier. I purchased Convert kit, but paying $300+ a year for tutorials I give away for free does not make sense.

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If you mean email campaigns, then no. This is a large topic. Without covering all the details of what is required to set up an email marketing business/platform this is not in any way something one could do on a small budget. Anything one hosts on rented servers or VPS would be blocked by the destination almost immediately once the email volume goes over their threshold and that threshold is very tiny nowadays.

Hosting a personal email server works fine on some providers assuming one sets up FCrDNS, DMARC, and finds a clean IP. By personal email server I mean that one sends emails to their friends and family. Some providers are starting to require people to prove they comply with the CAN SPAM act [1]. Once that server starts targeting random or large numbers of people it will be promptly sink-holed off the internet and the VPS account would be at risk of suspension.

[1] - https://www.fcc.gov/general/can-spam

Define what, specifically, you mean by: "email automation sequence service"?

I am looking for the ability to setup an automated sequence of emails like aweber or convert kit offers

If you're able, SMTP + a quick email service is free (minus the cost to host)

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