Sending newsletters with site updates is a common task, as is sending out one off special notifications. Which module is the best choice?

We should add notes for about modules with Drupal 8/9 versions.

External mail services

Mime Mail

Mime mail, https://drupal.org/project/mimemail, can also replace the standard Drupal mail so that all your administration mail, registration confirmations, and everything else, is themed the same way as your site. Some other mail modules (such as Simplenews) uses Mime mail to format and send mail.

92,428 sites report using this module as of April 12, 2016. There is the start of a D8/9 version. There is currently an alpha release that is compatible with D8/9.

Simplenews

Simplenews, https://drupal.org/project/simplenews, is the easiest way to produce newsletters for email. In Simplenews a newsletter issue is a content node and lets you produce the type of newsletter that will go through the email system.

Simplenews uses Mime Mail to send HTML mail.

Simplenews lets you send out a test email from the newsletter issue edit page and Mime mail will use the theme from the edit page. If you use a separate theme for administration, or for content editing, your newsletters will use the wrong theme. There is an issue open for this and it looks close to resolution.

51442 sites currently report using this module. There is a full D7 release.

Mass Contact

Mass Contact is expanded from the core site contact module to send email by user role. Now has groups of roles, opt out, and a bunch of other features.

Used by 6255 sites. There is a full D7 release.

Newsletter

Newsletter module aims to be a full blown newsletter solution for Drupal 7. It is especially recommended for people that need more than one newsletter list for their site.

4,926 sites currently report using this module. D7 version is beta 10.

Notify

The Notify module allows users to subscribe to periodic emails which include all new or revised content and/or comments of specific content types, much like the daily newsletters sent by some websites.

Used by about 2100 sites. There is a full release for D7. For D8/D9, there is a dev-release (version 2.0.0.-dev). It is fully functional, but more testing is required before a full release is created.

Advanced User

The Advanced User module allows users who have "administer users" permission to send mail to selected groups of users, and that includes selection by role.

Used by 8223 sites. The D7 port is up to alpha 2.

E-publish

E-publish, https://drupal.org/project/epublish, lets you build a newspaper online and could be used for a newsletter. E-publish divides issues into sections then topics and every topic can have multiple stories with each story a separate node. If you used all the features of E-publish to produce a newsletter, including multiple writers adding articles into each topic, the email would be too big for Gmail and similar services.

E-publish sends the newsletter to the Send module then Send sends the mail to Mime Mail to produce HTML mail. Send is still in alpha for D6 and has many bugs when used with Mime Mail. An attempt to use E-publish at http://d-theme.com for a HTML mail based newsletter was a disaster. Simplenews replaced E-publish and did everything required for a newsletter.

130 sites use the D6 version of this module. See https://drupal.org/node/984360 for the status of D7 (none so far).

Autoresponder

Autoresponder, https://drupal.org/project/autoresponder, uses Mime Mail to send email to subscribers with Autoresponder handling the subscriptions.

98 sites currently report using this module. D6 version still alpha. No sign of a D7 version.

Email Newsletters

60 sites use Email Newsletters. The project contains a bunch of modules that collectively provide a lot of functions. The modules have many dependencies. Email bounce handling is under development.

There is no mention of a D7 version, not even an issue open for D7. This would be a dangerous choice for a D6 site that is going to be upgraded. When looking toward a D6 to D7 upgrade in 2012, you want a project that has a D7 version at least at the beta stage.

The documentation is a slideshow spread out and the content really hard to read. Would be better to copy the documentation to regular HTML pages.

CiviCRM

There are newsletter facilities in the CRM modules including CiviCRM, https://civicrm.org. You should look at them when you want more contact information and management or want to run campaigns in addition to simple newsletters.

Used by 11,000+ sites. Releases for Drupal 6, 7, 8, and Backdrop.

Mailing List

Mailing List is a multipurpose module to manage list of subscribers.

D8 version is entity based and pretty integrable with other modules or your own custom code. A simple and quick newsletter system can be made using it with the Views Send module as follows:

  1. install and set up a mailing list (see the README.txt file in the mailing list module)
  2. create a view of subscriptions and add a "send email" field
  3. just go to your view page and send your first newsletter to all or selected subscribers

External mail services

Notes on external services:
From dan3h:
One nice thing about having a third-party service, like MailChimp, handle your actual mailing, is that they will deal with the hassle of your site getting black-listed as a possible spam-source, if ever that happens. If Google, Yahoo, or any other major email service ever suspects your site as being a source of spam and decides to blacklist you (meaning that anyone with an @gmail.com or @yahoo.com email address will suddenly and silently stop receiving your mailings), getting your server unblacklisted is a *giant* pain, and a bit of a black art. But with a third-party service, they have experts on staff who know how to deal with this sort of thing and get it cleared up if/when it happens.

From Peterx:

On one project the Web host had no limitations on sending email but slowed the mail delivery down to less than a 1000 per hour. Weekend specials sent out on Friday might not arrive until the following Monday. After a few months the Web host changed their terms of service without notification and threw away any mail over 1000 per hour. If you do not have a written agreement with your hosting company on mail volumes, use an external service.

Mailman

Mailman, www.gnu.org/software/mailman, is the world's most popular open source mailing list manager. There are several Drupal modules for connecting Drupal to Mailman.

You need to check the limitations on mail sent from the Mailman server. Find out what spam checking is in use and test your email before a bulk send. test what happens with a bounce. Check the mail received by the customer to make sure all the links have the right domain name. You may need to learn a few of the Mailman configuration options if the Mailman server is configured by someone else and not clearly documented.

Mailman Manager

Mailman Manager, https://drupal.org/project/mailman_manager, is the most popular Mailman interface with 2143 sites using it and a Drupal 7 version has reached release candidate .

User mailman register

User mailman register, https://drupal.org/project/user_mailman_register, is the next most popular Mailman interface with 2047 sites using it and there is a Drupal 7 version in alpha.

PHP list (no longer maintained)

PHP list is an option for e-mail campaigns. It is an outside program with Drupal integration at https://drupal.org/project/phplist.

From the developer: I have started the conversion process and released a D7-DEV version. Please test and let me know of any problems! If a couple of people can conform that it basically works, I can release it as a beta version.

E-goi

E-goi Synchronization is an experiment at https://drupal.org/sandbox/E-goi/1110712.

MailChimp

The MailChimp module, https://drupal.org/project/mailchimp, connects to the external MailChimp service at mailchimp.com. You would use an external service if your Web host limits your email activity. MailChimp has an easy to read Web site and a million users. The service is free up to 2000 subscribers and 12000 email per month.

The MailChimp module is loaded into 6000 web sites. I am working on a project where the MailChimp module and service slipped in easily. There is a full module for D7 which makes a change from all the D7 modules still in beta.

The D7 version 2 module has many more features than the D6 version. One is the API for connecting from other modules. If you developed your own mail module and want to convert to D7, you might consider connecting to the MailChimp module API to reduce your workload.

Campaign Monitor

772 sites have the Campaign Monitor module installed. The D7 version in beta. The module connects to www.campaignmonitor.com, a service I have not used. There is no free use level.

A quick read suggests Campaign Monitor has extra features overlapping CRM. If you need those features and have a low volume of mail, consider the mailout features of CivicCRM coupled with a free entry level service from MailChimp or equivalent.

ConstantContact

Similar to Campaign Monitor, the ConstantContact module, from www.constantcontact.com, is an external service with no free entry level and some overlap with CRM.

MailUp

The MailUp Drupal newsletter module was developed in partnership with Commerce Guys for Drupal 7 and Drupal Commerce and is included in Commerce Kickstart. The module is actively maintained by Commerce Guys. For more info visit www.drupal.org/project/mailup

Cakemail

This project provides integration of CakeMail within Drupal.
Cakemail provides Email marketing for small businesses.

CleverReach

A project integrating Drupal with German email marketing service CleverReach used by Spotify, Levi’s, BMW, DHL, among others. For more information see the module page here.

See also

Please add

This is a wiki page. Please edit and add your experience of the following.

  • Sending newsletters from Drupal
  • Sending mail using anything other than the default Drupal mail
  • Displaying archives of previous newsletters
  • Managing and searching archives of previous mail

Comments

pieterbezuijen’s picture

pieterbezuijen commented

For the ones that like fast clickthrough to the module pages:

E-publish: http://drupal.org/project/epublish
Simplenews: http://drupal.org/project/simplenews
Mime mail: http://drupal.org/project/mimemail
CRM (although it seems that it is no longer supported): http://drupal.org/project/crm

Maybe 'E-mail Marketing Framework' (http://drupal.org/project/emf) could be added as well.

I've some experience with (older versions of) Simplenews, but had a hard time implementing the theme correctly, don't know how this is done in the newest versions...

mattcasey’s picture

mattcasey commented

There's also a list in the Drupal wiki

Comparison of Newsletter / External E-Mail Campaign Integration Modules: http://groups.drupal.org/node/21982

spgd01’s picture

spgd01 commented

PHP list is another option for e-mail campaigns. It is an outside program with drupal integration.
http://drupal.org/project/phplist

vtavares’s picture

vtavares commented

E-goi: http://drupal.org/sandbox/E-goi/1110712

dan3h’s picture

dan3h commented

I've had good results with the MailChimp module, which integrates with the popular mailchimp.com commercial email engine. The maintainer of that module also mentions these two as "other players in the field":

One nice thing about having a third-party service, like MailChimp, handle your actual mailing, is that they will deal with the hassle of your site getting black-listed as a possible spam-source, if ever that happens. If Google, Yahoo, or any other major email service ever suspects your site as being a source of spam and decides to blacklist you (meaning that anyone with an @gmail.com or @yahoo.com email address will suddenly and silently stop receiving your mailings), getting your server unblacklisted is a *giant* pain, and a bit of a black art. But with a third-party service, they have experts on staff who know how to deal with this sort of thing and get it cleared up if/when it happens.

Alain DG’s picture

Alain DG commented

http://drupal.org/project/enewsletter

AFowle’s picture

AFowle
he/him
commented

In D6, the combination of organic groups, notifications and messaging works very well. OG maintains access security amongst different groups. N & M handle messaging, but also digests etc. What I really liked was a combination of forum and email that this allowed - you can post up a message and others in the group know when something new is available - but you don't have to clog up mailboxes with the whole lot, a short text alert will do.

It's not clear to me whether N & M will survive in D7.

Edmin Yangtsali’s picture

Edmin Yangtsali commented

I think the email newsletter must have a blank box by default for users and visitors to submit thier mails directly and click subscribe. Infortunately, this module is vague because you actually have to click subscribe button and redirect users to add additional information to another page.

I will be more than happy if you guys add simple features which users submit their mail id, click sunscribe and done.

http://www.nagaspiderweb.net

spyros12a’s picture

spyros12a commented

I have tried most modules available and I vote for simplenews but I had some problems when sending e-mails with simplenews newsletter module for Drupal. While this is a very good module, sometimes made Drupal cron to fail and stuck. I also wanted full control on sending mails and to avoid some of the limitations of Drupal cron timings. Since I didn't have the time to enhance the simplenews module I did this script to be sure that my mails are sent. This script needs simplenews newsletter module and Drupal in order to work. It has been tested with Drupal 7 (but should work on any version) and simplenews 7.

The script works out of drupal and speaks to the database so its better for performance and mail control. You can set the time step and the mails it sends every time based on your server sending limits. At the end logs any bad mails. For me it is the solution for sending my newsltters.

You can learn more and get the script from

http://tecorange.com/content/mail-send-addon-drupal-simplenews-newsletter