Topica

List Size:
1K to 5K

Empl:
2 to 6

Training:
2 hr

Cust Serv: 2

Qual: 3

Ease: 2

Country:
US

Strengths: Good capabilities for managing mailings and lists.

Weaknesses: Requires double opt-in which is not necessary for my newsletter. Also I don't think Topica has given me the proper credits for their ads which they've run in the newsletter.

Missing? HTML publishing -- I understand that this is now available for their premium product.

List Size:
100 to 1K

Empl:
7 to 25

Training:
5 hr

Cust Serv: 4

Qual: 4

Ease: 4

Country:
UK

Strengths: Reliable intuitative. I also like to option to have single messages a daily digest and a x 10 message digest (most seem to offer 2 out of 3 of these). Customer support is a little slow but it's free so I can't really complain!

Weaknesses: Personally I don't like the fact that you can no longer put people straight on the database but understand why they need to do this. However I always invite people to join personally they say yes then get emailed from Topica asking if they want to subscribe. A bit convoluted. That's it really!

Missing? Can't think of any.

List Size:
1K to 5K

Empl:
one

Training:
3 hr

Cust Serv: 5

Qual: 4

Ease: 4

Country:
US

Strengths: Their web site is easy to negotiate and their speed at delivering my newsletter once it's sent over is very fast.

Weaknesses: They inviet the subscribers I pay for however I have had some personal subscribers including young teens who have responded to their request to confirm themselves a s subscribers. If they can respond as asked by Topica then anyone can. I think maybe it's the quality of the subsribers rather then Topica. I've dealt in the past with bounced mail and it's a hassle. I don't blame them for using a double opt-in system.

Missing? At this time I can't think of anything.

List Size:
< 100

Empl:
one

Training:
hr

Cust Serv: 3

Qual: 3

Ease:

Country:

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Missing?

List Size:
100 to 1K

Empl:
one

Training:
1 hr

Cust Serv: 3

Qual: 3

Ease: 4

Country:
Middle East

Strengths: Personalisation Speedy Delivery Scaleable

Weaknesses: None. Very Happy!

Missing? Click-Thru Tracking

List Size:
1K to 5K

Empl:
one

Training:
1 hr

Cust Serv: NA

Qual: 1

Ease: 5

Country:
Other

Strengths: I used ListBot and Topica but now I only use Eudora and WorldMerge and am supersatisfied. I eactly know how many people get my Ezine how many emails bounce are not in existence any more I am in the complete control of things. The people who want to receive HTML can receive it other group wants only text. No problems whatsoever.

Weaknesses: ListBot was fine but Topica excels in arrogancy from time to time with no warning not informing the Ezine owner at all they send out new subscription forms to subscribers you have no information how many people actually get the Ezine you can't add subscribers only negatives.

Missing? I would never use it again. I can't see any help for them.

List Size:
100 to 1K

Empl:
2 to 6

Training:
1 hr

Cust Serv: 4

Qual: 4

Ease: 4

Country:
Canada

Strengths: I like the simplicity. It is very easy to set up and manage. It seems quite reliable. On the couple of occassions that I've needed support the response was relatively quick. It's free!

Weaknesses: It's relatively intuitive although I've had to contact support for help on functions that could have been more intuitive or obvious. The help manual is good but could be beefed up a little. I cannot import people from my mail list without making those people go through an opt-in process again.

Missing? Although you can invite an unlimited number of people to join your list you have to get permission for each thousand and that process took several days.

List Size:
< 100

Empl:
one

Training:
2 hr

Cust Serv: 2

Qual: 3

Ease: 4

Country:
US

Strengths: It's free

Weaknesses: Double opt-in requirement & Advertising

Missing? Ability to just upload an existing database of e-mail addresses

List Size:
1K to 5K

Empl:
2 to 6

Training:
3 hr

Cust Serv: 4

Qual: 5

Ease: 3

Country:
US

Strengths: Subscriber management is the strongest feature.

Weaknesses: Haven't been able to find a way to view the entire list of participants at once. I've only had the program for about a month but something that should be simple and obvious to find isn't. It's probably something that's offered on their upgraded program.

Missing?

List Size:
< 100

Empl:
one

Training:
2 hr

Cust Serv: NA

Qual: 3

Ease: 3

Country:
Canada

Strengths: Easy to set-up Free service with option to omit ads Double opt-in

Weaknesses: Sometimes you can't turn off the ad The system wouldn't let some people couldn't sign up so we had to send an invite from within the control panel Hard to change the owner email address Sometimes I don't receive the newsletter at my email address

Missing? No HTML with free program (that I know of)

List Size:
< 100

Empl:
one

Training:
1 hr

Cust Serv: 3

Qual: 5

Ease: 3

Country:
US

Strengths: It's free and I can choose to leave off their advertising text -- which I do. I would not have considered using it otherwise.

Weaknesses: I have used Topica for some time now for my small lists. I have never had any trouble. However -- I am just about to see if they forward HTML newsletters. If they don't I guess I'll be changing services!

Missing? I have to find out about the above. If they do not handle HTML I'll change services.

List Size:
100 to 1K

Empl:
one

Training:
2 hr

Cust Serv: NA

Qual: 3

Ease: 3

Country:
W Eur

Strengths: I only use it because Listbot was taken over by Microsoft and they *demanded* payment or the service would stop. So I switched. Nothing really strong about it - maybe the fact that I can switch off their ads.

Weaknesses: - sign up is very confusing My target group is non-native speakers. My newsletter is for English learners - no record of subscribers per issue This was great at Listbot. I could see how many per issue (historically). With Topica it only shows the cu

Missing? See number 9!

List Size:
25K to 100K

Empl:
500 to 1K

Training:
> 40 hr

Cust Serv: 2

Qual: 2

Ease: 1

Country:
US

Strengths: dont really know

Weaknesses: asdfasdf

Missing? asdfasdf

List Size:
100 to 1K

Empl:
one

Training:
3 hr

Cust Serv: 3

Qual: 4

Ease: 4

Country:
US

Strengths: 1) Free 2) No forced advertisement for the ASP himself or 3rd parties - in other words: I can keep my list completely free of ads. 3) Having an ASP take care of all the technical issues (hosting message distribution managing subscribers) and just having to deal with a few simple subscribe / unsubscribe / post email addresses and/or web page forms to run everything.

Weaknesses: No easy way to export the subscriber database if I ever decide to use something different such as my own mailing list software.

Missing? No significant features missing

List Size:
100 to 1K

Empl:
one

Training:
2 hr

Cust Serv: 3

Qual: 5

Ease: 4

Country:
South Africa

Strengths: handles unsubscribes invites people to subscribe

Weaknesses: topping up invites to subscribe

Missing? none can think of