My Sendy Review: Cheap Email Marketing, But How’s the Deliverability?

Maybe you’re checking out this Sendy review because you’re looking at switching to a self-hosted autoresponder. Or perhaps you’re already using one that’s not working out well for you.

Whatever your reason, you’re here because you’ve heard good things about Sendy and want to know if it’s worth it.

Before getting into the review, let’s quickly discuss some of the current email marketing problems you may be experiencing, making Sendy worth considering.

featured image for the Sendy Review article showing a keyboard with a blue email button

Web-based Autoresponder Issues

 

 

Control

A big reason why people leave popular web-based email marketing services is because of various restrictions and a lack of control.

Restrictive because there are limits in place for the number of bulk emails you can send or subscribers you can have depending on your subscription plan.

And lacking in control regarding your most valuable asset… your email list. So, you’re at risk of losing your email list instantly if your account gets shut down.

Another big problem with web-based autoresponders is the cost.

 

 

Cost

You see, most web-based autoresponder tools come with a monthly subscription.

The subscription plans are modeled on the volume of emails you send each month or the number of email subscribers you have.

This cost dramatically increases when you build a big list and can easily reach 3-4 figures every month.

So that’s the most prominent issue people tend to have with web-based services. But what are some of the problems associated with using self-hosted autoresponders?

 

Self-Hosted Autoresponder Issues

 

 

Difficult Setup

A big reason why many people are put off by self-hosted autoresponders is the difficulty level of setting it all up. Which can lead to wasting a lot of time trying to get it working or even resorting to hiring developers to get it working for you.

 

 

Quality issues

Choose the wrong self-hosted autoresponder, and you’ll face endless bugs and frustration when features just don’t work.

 

 

Deliverability Problems

Probably the biggest issue with self-hosted autoresponders. This can result from various factors, including poor SMTP setup and email sending reputation. And of course, if your marketing emails aren’t landing in your subscribers’ inbox, they’re not being opened, and you’re not making any profit.

 

 

Too Basic

Some self-hosted options are also just too basic. In today’s world of email marketing, the top-rated autoresponders all provide essential features like tracking and segmenting.

So, it’s vital for Sendy to:

  • Be reliable and bug-free
  • Give you excellent deliverability
  • Provide consistent low costs regardless of list size or sending volume
  • Give you complete control as well as advanced features

And if in this review Sendy proves to be:

  • Reliable
  • Inexpensive
  • Easy to use and get working
  • Providing excellent deliverability
  • Giving you complete control of your list and access to advanced features

 

Would you then agree Sendy is a viable alternative?

 

Let’s find out by looking at the main features:

screenshot of Sendy's homepage

Sendy Features

 

Amazon SES (Amazon Simple Email Service)

 

Sendy uses the Amazon SES platform to send your emails. Here’s why this is a big deal.

 

Poor Deliverability

 

It’s an issue affecting both self-hosted and web-based email marketing software.

With most self-hosted autoresponders, you’re sending emails from your web server. So, you’ll need to be competent in configuring your SMTP and DKIM settings.

Incorrectly setting this up will affect your ability to land in your subscribers’ inbox. Becoming an even bigger problem if you’re on shared hosting because you’re sharing an IP with many other people. If any of them are sending spam emails or getting a lot of complaints, this will negatively impact your deliverability. A problem is that web-based autoresponders don’t offer dedicated IPs on lower plans or have strict quality control measures to monitor senders.

With poor deliverability, your emails are landing in spam. Without being seen by your subscribers’. Which means you’re not building relationships or making money from email marketing.

Using Amazon SES with Sendy, you’re immediately getting excellent deliverability and inboxing.

Why?

Well, you’re taking advantage of the authority and reputation of Amazon. Not some little shared hosting IP address with no established trust or credibility with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and other popular email providers.

Without the worry of emails getting in your readers’ inbox, you can now enjoy:

  • Better engagement on your campaigns
  • More revenue due to more email opens and more link clicks.

 

Low Costs

 

With Sendy, you’re getting one of the most cost-effective autoresponders for 2 reasons.

 

  1. Say Goodbye to Hefty Monthly Subscriptions

 

Most of the reliable marketing tools today come with a monthly subscription. And if you’re like me, you prefer to pay a higher one-time price rather than a smaller monthly fee. These low monthly payments add up with all the different subscriptions you have and can quickly get out of control and eat up a large portion of your budget.

Costs are especially noticeable with autoresponder subscriptions which rapidly scale as your subscriber count and email sending increases.

This affects your profit, as the more you pay in monthly subscriptions, the less profit you’re making.

When you buy Sendy, you’re paying a relatively low one-time fee. It’s affordable even for beginners, and you won’t ever have to worry about a monthly subscription fee.

Digital marketing is full of monthly subscription tools. So, to have something as crucial as an autoresponder at a one-time price is a big bonus.

To put it in perspective, here’s a comparison of what you’ll pay every month using ConvertKit, a popular and affordable subscription-based autoresponder with similar features as Sendy.

ConvertKit lets you send unlimited emails, with the pricing only increasing with your subscriber numbers as follows:[price table/breakdown]

Let’s say in your first-year email marketing, you manage to get 900 total subscribers.3050 in your second year5000 in your third year.

So, with ConvertKit, you’ll pay:

  • Year 1: $348
  • Year 2: $588
  • Year 3: $948

Meaning you’ll pay $1884 in the first 3 years. Which is roughly $52/month. With Sendy, you’re paying $59 once. This means you’re saving $1825 over 3 years.

That’s around a $50 saving every month. Money which you can use for paid ads or whatever to generate even more leads for your business.

It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, new or experienced. I’m sure you agree, saving money is always a good thing.

Over time you’ll appreciate not paying a monthly sub, knowing the money you’re saving is yours to use however you want. Now, I haven’t factored in the cost of sending emails with Sendy in the comparison above. I’ll be doing that next as it’s the second reason making Sendy extremely cost-effective.

screenshot showing how much you save using Sendy and Amazon SES to send bulk emails compared to other email marketing services
  1. Sendy’s Tiny Sending Fee

 

Sendy’s email sending fee is a fraction of the cost of other email marketing services. Which they achieve using AWS SES. To give you an example:

  • Sending 10 000 emails with Mailchimp will cost you around $200
  • Sending 10 000 emails with Campaign Monitor will cost you $105
  • Sending 10 000 emails with Sendy will cost you $1

So, going back to my earlier comparison of using Sendy and ConvertKit:

Let’s say you’re sending your list 16 emails every month (4 per week).To save me a bit of trouble, let’s pretend you have 900 subscribers from months 1 – 12 in your first year. 3050 month 13 – 24 (year 2) and 5000 subscribers’ month 25 – 36 (year 3).

Monthly emails sent:

  • Year 1: 14 400 emails per month (172 800 total)
  • Year 2: 48 800 emails per month (585 600 total)
  • Year 3: 80 000 emails per month (960 000 total)

With ConvertKit, your pricing will stay the same as earlier since you aren’t paying extra for sending emails. So, it looks like this:

  • Year 1: $348
  • Year 2: $588
  • Year 3: $948

Total: $1884.00

And here’s the email sending costs of Sendy:

  • Year 1: $1.44 ($17.28 total for the year)
  • Year 2: $4.88 ($58.56 total for the year)
  • Year 3: $8.00 ($96.00 total for the year)

So, in the above scenario, you’ll be paying $230.84 over 3 years, including the one-time cost of buying Sendy. That’s a $1653.16 saving using Sendy over ConvertKit.

You can see, the more extensive your email list, the more you’ll be saving with Sendy.

 

screenshot of Sendy's dashboard

Full Control

 

When deciding on a web-based autoresponder or self-hosted one, it usually comes down to whether you want more convenience or if you want more control.

We all want fancy features and convenience. However, you are giving up quite a bit of control, which could cause interruptions in your email campaign or, worse, losing your entire subscriber list. This comes about if you’re using a web-based autoresponder and your account gets banned. Now, if you’re following the rules, you are relatively safe.

However, you’re always at risk of being shut down if you’re:

  • Receiving too many email complaints
  • In the affiliate or MLM space
  • Having too many emails bounce

And there’s almost nothing you can do about it.

Getting your account shut down is a big problem if you can’t access your email list. You’re losing an asset that takes time to build up. And, of course, you’re losing revenue because your campaigns are no longer running.

Unlike web-based autoresponders, Sendy is installed on your web server, so you own all the data. This means you have complete control over your list as well as what you’re sending.

So, if you are worried about getting your account shut down, this is the ideal solution.

Screenshot showing how to manage your email list inside Sendy

More than a Basic Autoresponder

 

A common problem with most self-hosted autoresponders is the lack of additional features. They’re just too basic.

This is often the case because it’s not feasible to provide fancy features requiring ongoing resources to develop on a one-time fee pricing model. So, you’re left with a basic autoresponder and not much else.

We’re in 2022. And just like everything else in the world progresses, so too has email marketing. For more effective results, you need more than just a basic autoresponder.

Thankfully, Sendy comes with some of these advanced features. To keep things short, I’ll just mention 2 of them.

 

  1. Segmenting

 

Sendy allows segmenting and tagging of your subscribers based on specific factors like their:

  • Behavior
  • Demographics

Which allows you to send specific emails to individual subscribers based on your segmenting choices.

This is highly effective since you’re now sending more targeted emails, which results in higher conversions.

 

  1. Automatic List Management

 

This feature automatically handles complaints and bounces to save you a lot of time from doing it yourself.

Manually going through your list to remove subscribers who can damage your sending reputation is a pain. So, this feature saves you time and protects your email sending reputation.

 

Sendy does take a bit of time to set up. However, you’ll enjoy smoothly running campaigns with excellent deliverability once it is.

And, when you’re ready, you can implement segmenting for more advanced marketing, all the while maintaining an excellent sending reputation with Sendy’s automatic list handling.

Other advantages I’ve found with Sendy:

 

  • Having complete peace of mind, knowing I’m in total control of my list, data, and emailing sending.
  • Having an edge in more competitive niches by being far more aggressive with my email marketing than others using web-based autoresponders. And still enjoying excellent deliverability.
  • It’s incredibly dependable and works smoothly.
  • Profit. Dirt cheap email sending and no monthly subscription means more money in my pocket.

Here are some of the other features I haven’t mentioned, which you’ll see using Sendy email marketing software:

 

  • Why the White-label option lets you take on clients for an easy side-income
  • How the detailed reporting and trackable emails help you create targeted campaigns for better conversions
  • How you can streamline your business with their popular integrations
  • Why Sendy’s GDPR feature ensures you’re compliant and safe to give you complete peace of mind
  • How being able to entirely modify Sendy’s source code gives you an email marketing tool to fit your exact needs and increase your efficiency

Screenshot of Sendy's white-label feature

Sendy Conclusion

 

If you’re ready to switch to a self-hosted autoresponder, giving you more control over your email marketing and saving big on costs, you should definitely try Sendy.

There is currently a bit of confusion getting to the Sendy co website as other companies are sharing Sendy’s name.

Clicking the button below will take you directly to Sendy’s official website. Once there, scroll to the bottom, where you’ll see the heading “Get Your Copy of Sendy” to get it at its lowest price. Even though no coupon codes currently exist.

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