Infomaniak

Infomaniak is an independent Swiss hosting and cloud company, and its Newsletter tool lets you write, send and measure email newsletters without a subscription. The product page calls it "Die unbegrenzte Lösung ohne Abonnement für den Newsletter-Versand" (the unlimited, subscription-free solution for sending newsletters). Contacts are unlimited, and you pay with prepaid credits: "1 Credit entspricht 1 gesendeten Newsletter" (1 credit equals 1 sent newsletter). The tool sits in the company's Events and Marketing line next to ticketing, guest management and streaming, and the page pitches it at anyone who wants to set up a newsletter on their website, with a particular deal for Infomaniak's own customers, who receive free credits every month with their other products.

Writing a newsletter

The product page promises a complete and intuitive newsletter editor ("Vollwertiger und intuitiver Newsletter-Editor") and a gallery of professional themes. The themes are free, and the idea is to drop your own content and images into a professional layout to save time. Every newsletter is optimized for smartphone, tablet and computer, and the editor shows a real-time preview of how it will look. Multiuser management lets several people in a team work in the same account.

Sending is kept simple. You can send a large number of newsletters immediately to as many recipients as you like, or schedule the send for a specific time. The page presents the whole tool as easy enough that you can concentrate on content, design and audience rather than on the software.

Contacts, lists and signup forms

Contact management is built around lists. The page lists these features:

• Unlimited contacts
• Segmentation of contacts into lists
• Automatic import of contacts from Gmail, Workspace or a CSV file
• Statistics per contact list
• An intuitive signup form editor

Imports are meant to be quick: Workspace or Gmail contacts come in with one click, and a CSV file brings over contacts from another email service. Lists can also be exported to keep a backup. Signup forms can carry custom fields, and new subscribers from a form on your website are imported automatically, so the list grows without manual work. The page closes with the promise that you can import your contacts or install your newsletter on your website in a few clicks.

Statistics

Results are analyzed in real time. The tool tracks the links in your newsletters, gives statistics per campaign (open rate, unsubscribe rate and so on) and per contact (open rate, click rate and so on), plus the per-list statistics mentioned above. The page frames this as the way to improve your newsletters from one campaign to the next.

What is planned, not yet available

Infomaniak is upfront that some features are still to come. Under the heading about a strong, scalable tool, it says the current version already covers everything needed to send newsletters and measure their success, and that the following will be added in future:

• Autoresponder
• Advanced contact segmentation
• A/B testing of newsletter subject lines
• A spam score estimate before sending
• Advanced campaign analytics
• Managing and using the tool through an API
• Progressive sending of newsletters

A reader who needs automated welcome sequences, subject line tests or API control today should take that list at face value: those are on the roadmap, not in the product. The wider Infomaniak site does have a REST API and API documentation for its other services.

Credits and pricing

Pricing runs on credits with no monthly subscription. The page states that credits are valid without time limit ("Die Credits sind unbegrenzt gültig"), that the pricing is degressive, so the rate falls as you buy more, and that Infomaniak customers get a loyalty program. Prices are in Swiss francs and exclude VAT. Emails are ordered à la carte in blocks of 10'000, and the pricing section shows a 20% discount on 100'000 emails.

New users currently get 1'000 free credits, which the page describes as the perfect opportunity to set up a newsletter on your website and test the tool.

Existing Infomaniak products also come with a monthly quota of newsletter credits, which the page notes cannot be accumulated from month to month:

• Domain name: 100 credits a month
• Mail Service: 800 credits a month
• Web Hosting: 1500 credits a month
• Classic hosting: 2300 credits a month
• Cloud Server VPS: 2500 credits a month

Put simply, a customer who already hosts a website or email with Infomaniak can send a small newsletter every month without paying anything extra, and pays only for what goes beyond that quota.

Where the data lives and who runs it

The company's home page describes Infomaniak as an independent Swiss company controlled by its staff, and says the data entrusted to it is hosted exclusively in Switzerland and processed by open source or in-house software, in Geneva and Zurich. The newsletter page adds the environmental side: ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 certification, what it calls the most environmentally friendly data center in the country, electricity from 100% renewable sources, and CO2 emissions compensated at 200%. The home page mentions the company's environmental commitment since 2007, a data center that reuses all of its energy to heat 6,000 homes, and a news item announcing plans for a listing on the Swiss stock exchange.

Support and languages

Support is listed as help 7/7 with FAQ and guides, plus a premium support offer available 24/24, 7/7, and a business sales contact. The site, including the newsletter page, is available in German, French, Italian, English, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese.

Who it suits

The Newsletter tool fits an association, club, small business or event organizer that sends a regular newsletter to a list of any size and wants no subscription and no contact-based fees. It suits existing Infomaniak hosting or email customers best, since their monthly credits may cover a modest newsletter entirely. Senders who value data kept in Swiss data centers run by an independent company will find that stated clearly on the home page. Teams that depend on automation, A/B testing or an API for their email program should wait for the roadmap items or look at the tool as a campaign sender only.