Mail Service

[TeakMcGlukes]

Hey guys, I am at my wit's end with this.

I really want to use CiviCRM and CiviMail for our non-profit organization.  It's perfect software to track memberships, trainings we put on, just about everything.

I have been using MailChimp to do our mass mailings for our newsletter and to alert members to our upcoming annual conference.  But, we are just now bumping up against our 2,000 subscriber limit.  We send maybe 1-2 email blasts a month, so we have approximately 2,000-4,000 messages per month.  Some months we send none at all.  I do get paid a small salary for my work, but I really don't have a budget to work with, anything that costs would likely have to come out of my pocket.  Sucks, but that's the way it is.

So, what would you suggest we use for a mail server?  I use Google Apps for the rest of our email, but I know they have tight sending limits.  I got Mandrill hooked up (I know it's more for transactional emails) but I wasn't able to figure out how to process bounces, which is important for list health.  It seems like all of the pay services are cost prohibitive for our number of customers.

Please, suggestions?

[Hershel]

What precisely are the limits for Google Apps?

Have you asked your host if they support outgoing mail? Most do.

Another option is CiviSMTP.

[clarkac]

I've installed Civi for several smallish charities using a shared hosting site, with no problems.  All are using CiviMail, and sending hundreds of emails at most (and not every day), and not thousands.   The above posts seem to assume that there is a limit in this setup that requires another solution.  What are the limits of using CiviMail?  Comments?