SEWOBE AG

SEWOBE AG is a German software company whose SEWOBE MANAGER is an online, all-in-one system for managing members, donors and customers, with newsletters and bulk email built in rather than bolted on. The homepage says SEWOBE has been developing it for more than 20 years and calls it "die führende deutschsprachige All-In-One Online-Software für Mitglieder-, Spender- und Kunden-Verwaltung" (the leading German-language all-in-one online software for member, donor and customer management). It is aimed at clubs (Vereine), federations and associations (Verbände), and also at service businesses and delivery services. The newsletter page says the company uses only German data centers and describes itself as "Made in Bavaria". The site is in German, and the product is plainly built for German organizations and German data protection rules.

What a sender actually gets

Email in SEWOBE is not a separate product. Newsletters are sent directly from the member database, from inside whichever edition an organization runs: the VereinsMANAGER for clubs, the VerbandsMANAGER for federations (the homepage stresses that it can handle complex hierarchies), the OfficeMANAGER for start-ups and small service companies, and the LieferdienstMANAGER for delivery businesses. Because every contact already lives in the system, any of them can be addressed with a newsletter without exporting a list anywhere.

The newsletter editor was rebuilt in April 2021, according to a post on the company's site, after many users asked for simpler newsletter creation. It is a drag-and-drop editor built on ready-made design blocks. You place the blocks where you want them, add your own images and text, and the company says you have a new newsletter in a few minutes, "ganz ohne HTML Kenntnisse" (with no HTML knowledge at all). The feature list on that page adds:

• design templates that take your own text, images and videos
• saving newsletters and emails and adapting them again later
• reusing newsletters you have already built
• storing each recipient's newsletter consent, with the IP address, in the system
• more than 60 variables and placeholders for personalized sending
• as an option, custom designs that the SEWOBE team turns into email-client-compatible HTML

Personalization is the part SEWOBE leans on. More than 60 standard variables and placeholders pull data from the member record into the text, and organizations can also output their own individual fields. The company points out that because sending happens inside the member management system, the full send history for each person is visible, and so is the consent record.

The most unusual feature is the individual PDF attachment. SEWOBE can generate a personalized PDF letter for each member, using the same placeholders to decide where the letter adapts to the individual. That letter can go out by post, or be attached automatically to the email. The company's example is a membership meeting: Erika Mustermann gets her personal invitation email with a PDF attachment produced just for her, and the whole group is sent "in einem Rutsch" (in one go). You choose the recipient group exactly before sending. For associations that still send formal letters, invoices or invitations, this merges two jobs into one run.

The homepage describes a bulk email function (Serien-E-Mails) that sends thousands of personalized messages, with individual PDF attachments, in a few clicks, and it says you can see at any time who has agreed to receive the newsletter.

On the sending side there are two routes. Mail can go out through SEWOBE's own server, in which case you add an SPF record for your domain, or through your own mail server over SMTP. The company says that sending through your own mail server is the recommended route, with the lowest spam rate, and that you set it up by entering the connection details your email provider gives you.

The rest of the suite

The newsletter sits among many other modules, which is the real reason to choose SEWOBE. The site lists a flexible member portal, online banking integration, bulk email, customizable PDF attachments, an integrated event module (in the professional VereinsMANAGER it handles invitations and complex events with ticketing), a newsletter tool and a shop module. The module menu adds a club website, an online membership application form, a member login and online member profile, a fishing permit module for angling clubs, photo galleries, portal news, donation forms, surveys and a newsletter signup form. Optional smartphone apps are offered for clubs and federations; the site shows several branded apps built for customers.

SEWOBE calls some of these "Hybridmodule": modules embedded in the organization's own website, so that membership applications and orders submitted online flow straight into the management system without being typed in again. The homepage also says the company now focuses on automated workflows, and the OfficeMANAGER can send e-invoices.

Scale, customers and support

The homepage publishes its running totals: more than 30,000 users set up, more than 10 million contacts created, more than 40 million emails sent and more than 9 million invoices issued. The newsletter page adds that millions of newsletters are sent every year directly from the MANAGER solutions.

Named customers on the homepage include the Radsportverband NRW (25,000 members), the Württembergischer Ringerverband (10,000 members), the Deutscher SanOA, the Deutsche Pharmazeutische Gesellschaft, the Bundesverband Volkssolidarität, the Gesellschaft für Operations Research, sailing clubs, allotment garden associations, a fishing club and Bäckerbote, a bakery delivery service. The mix runs from small local clubs to national federations, which matches the homepage's claim that the software fits large organizations with complex structures as well as small clubs.

Support runs through a service portal the company describes as available 24/7. For demanding requirements, SEWOBE sells service level agreements with a dedicated phone hotline and prioritized handling. The service menu also lists online seminars, training (including one-to-one accounting training), a help section and a changelog. Switching from another system is treated as a project in its own right: the homepage offers a data import check, a data migration guide and individual advice.

Pricing and trial

The site publishes no prices; the homepage describes the product as a cloud platform "zum fairen Preis" (at a fair price). What it does offer everywhere is a free test account (kostenloser Testzugang). You request it by choosing an edition (federations, clubs, allotment gardens, fishing clubs, companies or delivery services) and entering an email address. There is also an online showroom for trying the hybrid modules.

Data protection

Data protection is the company's main argument. The newsletter page says the whole newsletter process is GDPR (DSGVO) compliant, that SEWOBE uses only German data centers, and that the company holds the Trusted Cloud Label, which confirms that its online solution meets the requirements defined by the Trusted Cloud association. The homepage repeats that consent records are available in a GDPR compliant way.

The same page is candid about the trade-off: the company writes that it will never match specialist newsletter providers on feature range, but that it can guarantee data protection and data security. That is a fair summary of the product: member management software that sends good-looking, personalized newsletters from the same database.

Who it suits

SEWOBE fits German clubs, federations and associations that want members, dues, events, donations and newsletters in one system hosted in Germany. The per-recipient PDF attachment is a genuine time saver for organizations that still send formal letters, invitations or statements, and the stored consent with IP address helps anyone who has to document opt-ins. Federations with regional structures are an explicit target of the VerbandsMANAGER.

It suits a newsletter-only sender less well. The newsletter page itself says a specialist newsletter provider will offer a wider feature range, and the whole offer, from the editor to the support portal, is in German. An organization that already runs member management elsewhere and only needs a mailing tool would be buying far more software than it uses. For an association that wants to retire spreadsheets and a separate mailing tool at once, it is a strong fit.