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Autoresponse Plus vs Interspire...Which Would You Use for Self-Hosted AutoResponder?

by Dexx
37 replies
So setting aside Aweber, GetResponse, and the other ARs

For those who wish to create their own solution for delivering emails to customers etc.

Would you prefer:

Follow Up Autoresponder and Mailing List Software - AutoResponse Plus

or

Email Marketing | Email Marketing Software | Interspire Email Marketer


It doesn't appear you could (or would) use both together...so just seeing which one comes more recommended by other Warriors who prefer to host themself.

PS - Let's keep the topic on recommended self-hosted solutions and NOT on "what about spam complaints!?!?!" etc. etc.
#autoresponder #autoresponse #interspirewhich #selfhosted
  • Profile picture of the author Feedwire
    I have used Interspire's EM or years. The latest version is phenomenal. In terms of features and price, it has no competition. The only suggestion is that if you are sending a lot of emails, take advantage of their relationship with smtp.com. That way you will never have any issues with email servers.
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    • Profile picture of the author newsecrets
      Originally Posted by Feedwire View Post

      The only suggestion is that if you are sending a lot of emails, take advantage of their relationship with smtp.com. That way you will never have any issues with email servers.
      Feedwire

      Can you elaborate on this? You mean if you use Interspire Email Marketer, you're less likely to get your server blocked when sending email from your server, because of Interspire's relationship with smtp.com?

      How does that work? (Since the emails are sent from your server, not Interspire's, I don't understand how their relationship with smtp.com makes you less likely to have email server issues.)
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  • Profile picture of the author Dexx
    Thanks for the feedback Feedwire, how big is your current list numbers you are working with? Have you ever had any issue with spam complaints etc. that you had to deal with?

    Any gripes or things you wish the software did differently?
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    • Profile picture of the author Feedwire
      Sorry for the delay in responding to your question.

      I have several lists that I manage with EM. Some have over 10,000 subscribers. i don't have any delivery issues because I use smtp.com's white-label service to send all of my campaigns.

      For servers, I am in the cloud. Amazon's EC2 service is the best: Easy to maintain dedicated servers. I pay about $77.00/month for each dedicated server that I use.

      Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    Hey Dexx

    Just sent you a PM.

    Cheers,

    Neil
    Signature

    Easy email marketing automation without moving your lists.

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    • Profile picture of the author skywalker
      Hi Neil,

      I'd really appreciate a response to the questions emailed on 23/09, 26/09 (reminder) and PM'd on 28/09.

      Subject: *** Friendly Reminder - Re: AutoResponse Plus Question/Comment

      Thanks in advance.

      Alan
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  • Profile picture of the author quiescen
    Just to let you know, you should check your host to see if they're banned by Yahoo, Google, etc.

    Since many ... and I mean many people use free accounts, your email won't be delivered.

    Having said that, I recommend Neil's software Getresponse Plus.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dexx
    heh you mean AutoResponse Plus? =P

    on a sidenote, I'm using a reseller account with HostGator with my own purchased domain name hosted on namecheap.
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  • Profile picture of the author jacktackett
    I can highly recommend ARP. I've been using it for several years now and it works like a charm. When I've had issues they've been resolved quickly, though most issues have come from the hosting provider rather than autoresponse plus. While I still recommend a hosted service for large lists, for a self hosted program you can't beat ARP.
    best,
    --Jack
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    Let's get Tim the kidney he needs!HELP Tim
    Mega Monster WSO for KimW http://ow.ly/4JdHm


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  • Profile picture of the author Dexx
    Hi Jack, how big is your current list with ARP, and what size would you recommend the software is useful UP TO (since you recommend large lists go to a hosted service)

    Have you had any issues with spam complaints / deliverabilty?

    ALso do you have a dedicated server for the software, or use a shared server of some type?
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  • Profile picture of the author jacktackett
    Dexx,

    If you had a list of 10's of thousands of IM related folks - notorious for their fickle nature - AND most are using free email services, then hosting on your own may (not will, but may) cause you problems.

    What I'm trying to say is its not so much the number of subscribers but rather their nature. If its a list of customers and prospects for a specific product/service then you can probably supports thousands of folks with AR software (of which ARP would be my recommendation).

    Next, I would not recommend using any such software on a shared server! First, any decent sized list (and sorry, I really don't have hard and fast rules) will overload the services running on the server and get you in trouble with the host. Next, someone else on the server is going to buy one of the 93 million email lists and spam the server, its ip block, and your business into oblivion.

    If you're going to run an AR get at least a VPS (virtual private server), but if possible, go with a dedicated server. If you're not a sys admin type person, or know someone you can hire to do sys admin work, then get a managed dedicated server.

    Now a days I personally don't get any complaints, but my lists know me and I don't spam them. Back in 2000 and 2001 when I was new and promoting any and all affiliate programs without much thought to it, I did get complaints. Typically from folks who signed up and then forgot they had done so, or who just didn't like what I was pitching. I of course was basically breaking just about every 'rule' in email marketing (except spamming - I hate spammers) by treating them as cash registers rather than people.

    If you're really relevant to your list, double opt them in, and communicate clearly, and tell them how to unsubscribe (AOL users are notorious for using the spam complaint button as the unsubscribe button) etc, you can host 10's of thousands of folks on your dedicated server without ever having any problems.

    It does take more work - you have to keep the server up to date and do other system admin tasks - but the rewards are you're totally in control. and you're not at the mercy of some far off corporation who can literally shut down your business in a few seconds over a misunderstanding.
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    • Profile picture of the author steve-w
      Originally Posted by jacktackett View Post

      Dexx,

      Next, I would not recommend using any such software on a shared server! First, any decent sized list (and sorry, I really don't have hard and fast rules) will overload the services running on the server and get you in trouble with the host. Next, someone else on the server is going to buy one of the 93 million email lists and spam the server, its ip block, and your business into oblivion.
      I use ARP for the simple fact that it's a great piece of software! But like jack said using it on a shared server might cause some problems...

      But, I've had it for about a year and haven't had any problems with it, other than server problems.

      I'm on a shared server and allowed to send 300 messages an hour when I send a broadcast message.

      But that's never been a problem!

      ARP has a feature that allows you to set how many messages you want to send...and its for that very reason.

      Its has many great features like that!


      Steven-W
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      • Profile picture of the author frankgotgame818
        Could someone tell me what level of technical skill is needed to manage ARP on a dedicated server? I would consider myself an intermediate at best. I can write simple scripts and do minimal damage in a UNIX environment.

        Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vision888
    My vote goes to Interspire Email marketer.

    Reason: we all know how important split-testing is. Interspire Email Marketer has very neat split-testing features. E.g. you can split-test multiple versions (not just 2 versions) of your emails. And you also can split-test to a portion of your list, then send the winner to the rest of your list.

    On the other hand, Autoresponse Plus doesn't have split-testing.

    So Interspire Email marketer is the way to go for serious email marketers. It costs slightly more than Autoresponse Plus, but the extra features are more than worth the extra cost.



    P.S. Jacktackett, who do you recommend for a dedicated server / VPS?
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  • Profile picture of the author andrusito
    ON my early days I used PHPlist, an autoresponder script, all hosted on my servers, finally I purchased interspire but the problem is the same. if your server gets banned then subscribers do not get emails, plus there's the deliverability issue. COmpanies like aweber have special deals with Yahoo, Gmail, Live, etc, so sending using their service is the best option
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    • Profile picture of the author netpup
      Originally Posted by andrusito View Post

      ON my early days I used PHPlist, an autoresponder script, all hosted on my servers, finally I purchased interspire but the problem is the same. if your server gets banned then subscribers do not get emails, plus there's the deliverability issue. COmpanies like aweber have special deals with Yahoo, Gmail, Live, etc, so sending using their service is the best option
      Interesting. So...do services like smtp.com or fusemail have the same kind of relationship with gmail, yahoo, etc. that aweber does? Or...Would using smtp.com or fusemail's servers provide the same level of deliverability as aweber?
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      • Profile picture of the author abs007
        Originally Posted by netpup View Post

        Interesting. So...do services like smtp.com or fusemail have the same kind of relationship with gmail, yahoo, etc. that aweber does? Or...Would using smtp.com or fusemail's servers provide the same level of deliverability as aweber?
        Really sorry to bump an old thread.

        ARP have just released a new version called arpReach - ive been looking at going to a self hosted AR for the exact same reason noted by Jack, you get total control and dont risk being closed down.

        Ive been looking at Interspire for sometime now and didnt hear of ARP untill I stumbled on a great thread right here on the warrior forum. I wish i had the link to paste but I didnt bookmark it

        I've just purchased arpReach and will be looking to work with it. I will keep my current aweber account but will be kicking myself to get to grips with arpReach.

        I have a few shared servers and 1 dedicated windows based but arpReach will not work on windows based servers so i had a question regarding both the resources and send limit when using the script with 3rd party smtp relay services such as smtp.com, sendgrid or even amazon ses?

        I was speaking to hostgator earlier today and made them aware of my desired setup, arpReach with smtp.com or sendgrid smtp relay service. They couldnt give me a clear answer.

        I was made aware of the 500 emails per a hour limit so my question is however I will be using smtp.com so shouldnt this relieve me from this server restriction and as the quoted post above then wouldnt smtp.com also have good relations with free email providers ?

        I also understand that the ip is noted in the email header, is this the server ip where i have arpReach installed? Is this where ip issues can come into force if your on a shared server and someone has had the ip blocked?

        Finally if your hosting on a dedicated server with a clean ip and plan to keep your campaigns clean then what advantage would using a smtp server have over your own server provided smtp service?

        I think it will take me some time to get to grips with everything and can certainly see myself remaining with aweber till i am fully comfortable with a self hosted solution, fortunatly i have coders and a team to see me through coding issues so i should be ok as long as i know what needs to be done

        Thanks alot and hope you dont mind the post

        Abbs
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        • Profile picture of the author Andrew W Wong
          Abbs,

          Since SMTP.com is a mail relay, the 500 e-mails per hour limit imposed by Hostgator would not apply. Currently I'm using Mailjet.com as the mail relay along with Arpreach on shared hosting.

          My delivery rates are better than other marketers using Aweber, iContact, etc. How do I know this? I take their exact e-mail that I get in my Hotmail SPAM and resend it to myself using Arpreach (with Mailjet). No SPAM there.

          BTW, Arpreach is doing their launch tomorrow (May 16), so if you want the old price, you better act fast and go to AutoResponse Plus

          Andrew
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          • Profile picture of the author abs007
            Originally Posted by Andrew W Wong View Post

            Abbs,

            Since SMTP.com is a mail relay, the 500 e-mails per hour limit imposed by Hostgator would not apply. Currently I'm using Mailjet.com as the mail relay along with Arpreach on shared hosting.

            My delivery rates are better than other marketers using Aweber, iContact, etc. How do I know this? I take their exact e-mail that I get in my Hotmail SPAM and resend it to myself using Arpreach (with Mailjet). No SPAM there.

            BTW, Arpreach is doing their launch tomorrow (May 16), so if you want the old price, you better act fast and go to AutoResponse Plus

            Andrew
            Thanks for the notes Andrew

            Ive already purchased it and got the free upgrade

            I use aweber and have always been happy with them, maybe because I started with them and everyone seems to be vouching for them.

            I just find it very concerning when I find more and more emails in my spam folder that have been sent by marketers using aweber. Im sure I will come to my own findings as soon as I start testing and I honestly believe that my findings will be the same as yours.

            as your on a shared server then does your IP get associated with the emails you send using mailjet smtp?

            Thanks

            Abbs
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  • Profile picture of the author trishworks4u
    great thread. I installed autoresponse plus a few months ago and love it so far. However, I'm not an email marketer and have only been using it to collect contacts from my opt-ins. I'm too busy to sit down and set anything up.

    I do however, have clients that are going to need heavy email marketing and am wondering if i'm going to have to go to aweber for their needs. I'd hate to set it all up with ARP and then have to switch it all over later.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nerubriv
      The problem I have with Interspire is you can't automatically move a prospect from one list to another without a bunch of rigamarole. EG: if you have a prospect on a prospect list and they become a customer, I would want to unsub them from the prospect list when they sub to the customer list. This needs to be done automatically. You can do this in autoresponse plus.
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  • Profile picture of the author trishworks4u
    I'm actually leaning towards using ARP for my clients. I have 2 that are ready to sign and are saying they're going to be dumping up to 20,000 contacts each on me...that they've been running in-house..

    I'd think that if I went to a dedicated server on hostgator and even set up ARP on a domain for each of them I"d be alright. It would be a bear to have to explain to them why 60% of the lists that they sent over failed to re double-opt-in.
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  • Profile picture of the author mhobach
    I've used the paid services including aweber, 1shoppingcart, etc. I've been online since 1994 and to be honest, doing it yourself isn't for the newbie!

    AutoResponse Plus may look like the total solution - but... because of the design of the current version, Domainkeys will not work out of the box.

    We have gotten our outgoing Emails white listed at most of the free mail services (Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, Gmail, etc) - but Domainkeys are necessary!

    The other issue that I have with AutoResponse Plus is that if I want to do a broadcast to number of my lists at once, it is difficult to manage the from name and Email address for each list. What I mean by this is I have to queue multiple broadcasts if I'm using multiple from info in my lists. For me - annoying!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrew W Wong
    Abbs,

    The IP that is used is that of Mailjet's. That's the beauty of using a mail relay service.

    Andrew
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    • Profile picture of the author ronr
      Andrew can you explain something.

      I use ARP and am upgrading to the new version.

      I understand that normally the IP is the servers IP address that you have it hosted on but if you use mailjet also then it allows you to change the IP to improve delivery? Is that correct?

      Thanks, Ron

      Originally Posted by Andrew W Wong View Post

      Abbs,



      The IP that is used is that of Mailjet's. That's the beauty of using a mail relay service.

      Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author abs007
    Thanks Andrew, Thats what I was hoping to hear

    I think this is great because if one of the SMTP providers delivery rate gets effected for any reason then it would be as easy as changing the SMTP settings in arpReach to use another provider.

    Ive been looking at mailjet and a few others so will be running the tests and comparing them to aweber.

    Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrew W Wong
    That would be correct Ron. ArpReach allows you to use 3rd party providers to send your e-mails. So you could use Mailjet, Send Grid, Amazon SES, Crit Send, SMTP, etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author jimproser
      I have been referred to emaildelivered.com as a relay - I believe you call it. If anyone has experience with this service, please let me know.
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      Jim Proser
      The Wellness Revolution
      www.mywellnessrevolution.com

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  • Profile picture of the author rts2271
    Didn't realize we were talking about ARP reach, no experience with it.
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    Ralph Smith
    Mercenary development and deployment.

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    • Profile picture of the author marykay77
      I'm sold on Interspire on a self-hosted platform. I've had just too many issues over the years with autoresponder services. I just got out of one, and to move to another one, most want me to send a new confirmation email to my whole list. I know many of subscribers don't want to reconfirm and I risk loosing subscriber. This is just one of the reasons.

      Anyway, does anyone know of a decent shared hosting provider that will allow the use of external smtp services? I know many will not, such as Godaddy or Hostgator. I have no need or desire to be on a VPS or Dedicated server - too much hassle and extra, unnecessary expense. Shared is working great for me now, except my provider won't allow external smtp services.

      Andrew W Wong mentioned earlier in this post that he has this setup, but I can't PM him because of my post settings. I've been searching for days - if anyone has any suggestion, please met me know.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrew W Wong
    I'm currently using Host Duplex.
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  • Profile picture of the author marykay77
    Andrew W Wong - Thank you very much for sharing that hosting account. I will check into this.
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    • Profile picture of the author salsacrazy
      Thanks! Will also look into Host Duplex, as I've run into the same problem with shared hosting of AR programs. Hope it works.
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      • Profile picture of the author HeidiRichards
        So happy to find this thread!

        I was in the process of purchasing the ArpReach System and thought I should do a little more research before doing so.

        This discussion helped me decide the best solution for my business. I can always count on Warrior Forum for answers to all my internet marketing needs!

        Thank you.

        Heidi Richards Mooney
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        Heidi Richards Mooney is an internet marketing and social media expert who specializes in helping clients get their Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blog on. Heidi and her team employ a variety of organic search strategies to help her clients get VISIBLE online. Learn more at http://redheadmarketinginc.com/ and http://heidirichards.com/

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  • Profile picture of the author ezjob
    I have ARPReach and I like it. No monthly payments.

    Also, I can make as many autoresponder list as I want. It is hosted on your own server.

    It keeps improving year after year.

    I know it's good but I don't know about Interspire.

    Hope this helps,
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    My Help Shack - Massive Amounts of Free Training & Tools For Online Marketers
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  • Profile picture of the author leo1in88
    I'm very newbie in email marketing, so can anyone explain for me what is the different things between these softwares with others auto response service like getresponse or aweber?
    And which one should i use?
    Thank you so much.
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  • Profile picture of the author jacobspaulsen
    My vote is for Interspire Email Marketer as well. Its important to consider that your self hosted solution has to have two parts. First is the application and second is the delivery partner. I use IEM for my application (along with some custom development to get the features I need) and SendGrid for my delivery partner.

    I do not have any experience with Autoresponse Plus so I can't try to compare the two but I'm very happy with Interspire Email Marketer.
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