Free Listserver ASP Comparison:
Yahoo! Groups and Topica Exchange
Web Marketing Today, Issue 111, April 11, 2002
One of the best bargains in e-mail list handling programs are the free services available through Yahoo! Groups (www.yahoogroups.com) and Topica Exchange (www.topica.com). Though some other free services are available, these are the main companies in the industry. The other major service, bCentral's free ListBot was discontinued and re-offered as a paid ASP called ListBuilder (www.listbuilder.com).
Both Yahoo! Groups and Topica Exchange are advertising supported -- every e-mail sent out includes an ad after the message. But with the drought of online advertising dollars, both are seeking revenue elsewhere. Topica has developed a paid e-mail ASP service, Topica EmailPublisher that provides e-mail services without ads.
Yahoo! Groups is by far the largest free service, obtained when Yahoo! acquired eGroups.com, which had previously acquired OneList.com. I've had extensive experience using Yahoo! Groups to host Bible study sections for my JesusWalk.com Bible study. Though service is occasionally interrupted for several hours, they do a good job. Businesses can use Topica and Yahoo! Groups for both newsletters and e-mail discussion groups, though Yahoo! Groups is probably better for e-mail discussion groups, due to its special features for moderators. (See "Using Listservers to Drive E-Mail Discussions," Web Marketing Today, 1/14/02. www.wilsonweb.com/wmt7/lserver_discussion.htm)
Both Yahoo! Groups and Topica Exchange provide excellent services for online businesses. What follows is a detailed comparison of the features of Yahoo! Groups and Topica Exchange.
|
Administration |
Yahoo! Groups |
Topica Exchange |
|
"My Lists" webpage summarizes activity on the various lists you either own or belong to |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Profile update area allows you to disclose to other list members as much or as little about yourself as you desire |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Lists categorized in a hierarchy of categories, subcategories, and so on. |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Subscription |
Yahoo! Groups |
Topica Exchange |
|
E-mail subscription enabled by mailto link, FormMail.pl, and FormHandler.cgi |
Yes, but does not capture the sender's name |
Yes, but does not capture the sender's name |
|
Vendor-supplied sign-up box |
Yes, takes to website with choice of seeing more about the group |
Yes, takes to website and asks more optional information about subscriber, then asks to subscribe to a variety of other groups or for special offers. |
|
Webpage for site includes description and access to messages, etc. |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Double-opt-in response required |
Yes, by replying to e-mail. Not required when subscribers are added directly by listowner. |
Yes, by clicking on URL or replying to message. |
|
Subscriber choice of message type |
Yes, individual messages, digests, Web viewing only (no e-mail) |
Yes, individual messages, digests, Web viewing only (no e-mail) |
|
Inviting people to subscribe |
Invitations to subscribe must be confirmed by recipient. No limit to invitations sent |
Invitations to subscribe must be confirmed by recipient. Up to 1000 invitations without further permission required. |
|
Adding subscribers directly |
Add directly up to 100 subscribers per day without opt-in confirmation message. Larger groups must be added by staff. |
No |
|
Download or upload subscriber lists |
Yes, paste in address up to 50 at a time. Download to screen, may be saved as file. |
Yes, 1,000 invitations available when uploading. May download file to computer. |
|
Promotion of list to other list subscribers |
No |
Yes. Promotional ad "points" for promotional ads based on number of subscribers on your list. |
|
Additional features |
Yahoo! Groups |
Topica Exchange |
|
Offers an advertising-free service |
No |
Yes, paid Topica Email Publisher |
|
Other features for subscribers |
Chatroom, upload files, photos, bookmarks, flat file database, polls, calendar |
No |
|
Exclude objectionable ad topics |
No |
Yes -- adult, alcohol, politics, religion, tobacco, gambling |
|
Info on a list gives listname, description, owner, subscribe and unsubscribe e-mail addresses, photo |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Number of listowners |
Not available, but probably in the hundreds of thousands. |
70,000 listowners |
|
Allows individual moderation of "problem" members |
Yes |
No |
|
Attachments. Either allows attachments or strips attachments to avoid virus problems |
Yes |
No |
|
Allows viewing messages as "threads" on website |
Yes |
No |
|
Auto-delivery periodically of files to subscribers (such as lists of guidelines) |
Yes |
No |
|
Archiving of previous messages online |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Archiving of messages from another listserver ("remote group") |
Yes |
No |
