[HN Gopher] Show HN: Dittofeed - 1-Click deploy, self-host Mailc...
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       Show HN: Dittofeed - 1-Click deploy, self-host Mailchimp
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       Hi HN, we've released Dittofeed v0.4.0, a significant update
       primarily focused on facilitating self-hosting. Dittofeed is an
       open source (MIT licensed) alternative to platforms like
       customer.io, mailchimp, klaviyo, iterable etc.  Self-hosting is
       particularly useful if you:  - Want to evaluate Dittofeed without a
       long-term commitment  - Prefer fixed, non-volume based pricing
       models  - Aim to keep all personally identifiable information
       within your own infrastructure  In this version, we introduced
       'Dittofeed Lite,' which merges the dashboard, API, and worker
       services, simplifying deployment, along with providing an easy auth
       setup.  We've also configured a 1-Click Render deployment. The
       Render setup comes at a fixed cost of $39/month. However, by using
       alternative hosting solutions for the Postgres and ClickHouse
       instances (neon, clickhouse cloud), the monthly costs can be
       reduced to under $20.  We personally feel that there's a big
       problem with how existing platforms handle pricing, charging
       insanely high prices with low contact limits, while restricting
       access to really basic table stakes features.  Excited to share
       this work, and hear your thoughts and feedback!  Github Repo -
       https://github.com/dittofeed/dittofeed  Demo -
       https://demo.dittofeed.com/dashboard/journeys  Docs -
       https://docs.dittofeed.com/getting-started
        
       Author : maxthegeek1
       Score  : 80 points
       Date   : 2023-09-19 16:53 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | edoceo wrote:
       | Nice, I built an internal tool like this once. Love what you've
       | got here. IME the next priority is supporting alternate providers
       | to SG (and I see from the thread it's on your roadmap).
       | 
       | Another option for the SMTP part is using an upstream mail
       | provider perhaps https://mxroute.com/ works for folks.
       | 
       | Oddly, I've had pretty good success with sending from my own
       | Postfix+OpenDKIM based infrastructure for many years (in Linode).
       | I suppose it's mostly because my volume from that box and those
       | domains is so low and is primarily transactional rather than
       | news-letter like things (I send service announcements maybe
       | quarterly). I mentioned it elsewhere in thread but I like
       | Postmark for those newsletter & drip-campaign stuff.
        
       | etse wrote:
       | Git-versioned marketing templates seem unfriendly to presumably a
       | marketing user.
       | 
       | That said, I've been integrating and supporting similar platforms
       | over the past several years, and the feature set and maturity is
       | low for the cost of these services. If Dittofeed puts the
       | pressure on the market, that's fantastic.
        
       | hkt wrote:
       | Glorious, I've wanted something like this for years. Thank you <3
        
         | maxthegeek1 wrote:
         | Thanks for the kind words! Would love to have you in our Slack.
         | We can help you get set up.
         | 
         | https://join.slack.com/t/dittofeed-community/shared_invite/z...
        
       | vishnumohandas wrote:
       | Hey, looks very cool! If you could share a comparison against
       | Listmonk[1], that'd be useful.
       | 
       | All the best!
       | 
       | [1]: https://listmonk.app
        
         | maxthegeek1 wrote:
         | Thank you! The main difference is that intend to support
         | multiple communication channels include mobile push, sms etc
        
           | kowlo wrote:
           | Looks like they do more than just email too [1], including
           | SMS.
           | 
           | [1] https://listmonk.app/docs/messengers/
        
       | mikeshi42 wrote:
       | This is super awesome to see open source - I wonder if there's
       | some value in email flows for self-hosted software as well.
       | 
       | I'm thinking if someone self-hosts a complex OSS app like
       | Dittofeed (or even HyperDX ;) ) - would it be beneficial to allow
       | admins to enable email onboarding flows like they get in the SaaS
       | side of things, so end-users can be drip-fed product docs
       | appropriately (and even customize it themselves if they're a big
       | enough enterprise)? This can probably help onboarding/adoption
       | internally if done well.
       | 
       | Either way - I'm really excited to try this out on our cloud side
       | of things to help our new users learn our platform faster :)
        
         | maxthegeek1 wrote:
         | Hey, great idea! We should probably make our internal
         | onboarding journeys public like you're suggesting so that self
         | hosting users can benefit from them :)
        
       | capableweb wrote:
       | The absolute worst with hosting your own email lists /
       | transactional emails is that you need to be very up to date on
       | the status of your IPs and domains in various blocklists, and
       | it's very easy to get blocked from them.
       | 
       | I don't see anything mentioned about this, nor other similar
       | issues, either on the website or in the GitHub repository.
       | 
       | Are you offering some functionality that help people manage this,
       | or how do you suggest people approach this "when not if" problem?
        
         | slig wrote:
         | Looks like they currently support sending emails through
         | SendGrid
         | https://docs.dittofeed.com/integrations/channels/sendgrid
        
           | rexreed wrote:
           | Sendgrid's deliverability and reliability is starting to
           | tank. Looking to get off Sendgrid myself.
        
             | maxthegeek1 wrote:
             | What alternatives are you looking at?
        
               | concordance wrote:
               | Support for Resend (https://resend.com/) would be
               | appreciated!
        
               | maxthegeek1 wrote:
               | Great idea :)
        
               | zenorocha wrote:
               | Resend founder here. Nice to see a self-hosted
               | alternative for Mailchimp in the world. Would love to see
               | support for Resend on Dittofeed :)
        
               | maxthegeek1 wrote:
               | Hey, love what you guys have done with React Email <3
        
             | turnsout wrote:
             | I used Sendgrid as part of a RocketChat install in 2021,
             | and the deliverability was atrocious. I vowed to never use
             | it again, but haven't explored alternatives recently. What
             | options are you looking at?
        
             | nathancahill wrote:
             | It's been slowly tanking for a decade at least.
        
             | edoceo wrote:
             | Maybe https://postmarkapp.com/ ?
        
         | maxthegeek1 wrote:
         | Hello! We're not an email service provider ourselves (where one
         | would normally configure email domain/ip settings), but we
         | allow users integrate their own ESP accounts. We currently
         | support sendgrid, and in the near term future we plan to
         | support AWS SES.
        
           | capableweb wrote:
           | I see! I understand you're not a email service provider, but
           | "self-hosted" gave me the impression you actually handle
           | sending the emails (via SMTP or whatever) as well as the
           | management around the lists, not just outsourcing the email
           | sending part to a hosted 3rd party. Seems I was mistaken :)
        
             | maxthegeek1 wrote:
             | We plan to support plain SMTP as well, so that users can be
             | self hosted end to end if they want.
        
         | howmayiannoyyou wrote:
         | Mailgun support would be appreciated.
        
           | maxthegeek1 wrote:
           | Great idea!
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-19 23:02 UTC)