If you have ever considered switching to a free or open-source email marketing platform to reduce costs or improve deliverability, be aware that there are downsides and several core components that you need to configure. Even with advanced open-source platforms such as Mautic or phpList, which include many built-in email marketing features that you will find in paid platforms, you are still responsible for configuring and maintaining these layers.
1. Email Templates
Most free or open-source email marketing platforms include basic template builders. If you need professional newsletter template designs (like those offered by Mailchimp) that work consistently across email clients, then you will need to create or customize your own HTML email templates. The alternative is to stick to sending plain text emails.
2. Subscription Form Integration
Collecting email subscribers is another area where open-source platforms require more work.
Hosted email marketing platforms such as Mailchimp provide APIs and ready-made integrations for WordPress, website builders, landing page tools, contact forms, Facebook Lead Ads, and other marketing platforms. This makes it easy to collect subscribers and automatically add them to your email lists.
With many open-source platforms, you only have a basic HTML subscription form. If you want advanced integrations with your website, CRM, forms, or advertising platforms, you will need to build them.
3. Email Deliverability
Getting an email delivered to the inbox is a dark art.
At a minimum, you should configure SPF and DKIM for your sending domain. DMARC is optional but strongly recommended because it helps protect your domain from spoofing and improves trust with mailbox providers. Without proper authentication, your emails are more likely to go to the spam folder or be rejected. You can read this post we wrote about factors affecting email deliverability.
A self-hosted platform also doesn’t deliver email on its own. You still need to connect it to an SMTP or email delivery service such as Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Mailjet, etc.
It is important to note that SMTP or Email delivery providers such as Amazon SES, SendGrid, and Mailgun expect you to maintain low bounce and spam complaint rates. If your subscription forms don’t include protections such as CAPTCHA, email verification, or double opt-in, you may collect fake or temporary email addresses. Over time, those addresses can increase your bounce rate and spam complaints, which puts your sender reputation at risk.
4. Legal Compliance
Another downside of using free or open-source marketing platforms is that you are on your own when it comes to compliance.
Subscription-based platforms regularly update their features and products to help their customers comply with changing email marketing laws and industry standards. When you manage your own email platform, that responsibility falls on you.
Some of the areas you should review include how you collect email addresses (single opt-in versus double opt-in), providing a one-click unsubscribe option, and email trackig optin/opt-out.
You should also stay up to date with privacy regulations such as the GDPR, France’s CNIL guidelines, particularly around consent and email tracking.
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