AcyMailing Starter is a free component for creating, editing, and sending email newsletters on websites running on Joomla. It is one of the most popular solutions in the Joomla ecosystem, allowing you to organize full-fledged email marketing without the need to receive third-party services or pay for expensive subscriptions.
If you are a Joomla website owner and want to afford communication with subscribers, send news newsletters, welcome letters, or automatic notifications — AcyMailing Starter will become your reliable assistant. And all of this is completely free.
What is AcyMailing Starter?
AcyMailing is an email marketing extension developed by Acyba. It is available for both Joomla and WordPress. The component has a free version called Starter, as well as two paid versions — Essential and Enterprise.
Even in the free version, AcyMailing Starter offers quite a wide range of functionality for work. You can sit subscribers, create beautiful emails using a visual editor, track open and click statistics — all without knowing HTML.
Key features of AcyMailing Starter
1. Drag-and-drop email editor
You do not need to know HTML to create professional emails. The built-in visual editor with drag-and-drop functionality allows you to assemble email templates from ready-made blocks in just a pale minutes. You can add images, links, videos, and dynamic content.
2. Subscriber and list management
AcyMailing Starter allows you to efficiently sit an unlimited number of subscribers, organize them into mailing lists, and send personalized emails. You can import users from various formats: CSV, Acajoom, Letterman, Communicator, ccNewsletter, Yanc, jNews.
3. Email personalization
Use dynamic tags to address subscribers by name, insert their email, date of birth, and other custom data. This increases email open rates and audience engagement.
4. Sending queue with load control
The queue system allows you to send emails in batches, which helps bypass hosting limitations. In the free version, the sending process is started manually and runs within your session.
5. Mailing statistics
Track the number of sent emails, opens, and clicks. Analyze who and when opened your email to better understand your audience.
6. Integration with Joomla
The component automatically synchronizes with Joomla users. The subscription module can be displayed on the site as a pop-up or with a slide effect. A mailing archive is also available for display on the frontend.
7. Support for SMTP and external services
AcyMailing supports SMTP with secure connections, as well as integration with external delivery services: Amazon SES, SendGrid, ElasticEmail, and others.
8. Multilingual
The AcyMailing interface is translated into 60 languages, including Russian.
Advantages of AcyMailing Starter
Here is what users and developers highlight among the key advantages of the component:
- No HTML knowledge required, execute creating promotional newsletters using the visual editor
- Real-time message queue usage process
- Subscription module with beautiful effects
- Sit subscriptions for registered users and site visitors
- User IP logging for legal compliance
- Validation and confirmation of the sending address
- Mass subscription using filters and actions
- Automatic synchronization of Joomla users
- Import users from any format: CSV, Acajoom, Letterman, Communicator, ccNewsletter, Yanc, jNews
- Easily add a Joomla article to the newsletter
- Quickly include user information (name, e-mail, login...)
- Facebook and Twitter share button
- Display lists in the Joomla registration form
Version comparison: Starter, Essential, and Enterprise
AcyMailing is available in several editions. Below is a comparative table that will help you understand which version is right for your tasks.
| Feature | Starter (free) | Essential (29€/year) | Enterprise (89€/year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 0€ | 29€ / year | 89€ / year |
| Email editor | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Basic statistics | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Automatic sending | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Captcha | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Advanced statistics | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| API access | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Custom user fields | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| SPAM test | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Bounce handling | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| List segmentation | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Frontend management | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Number of sites | unlimited | 1 | 1 |
Comparison with alternatives
There are many email marketing solutions on the market. Let's look at how AcyMailing Starter differs from popular alternatives.
| Criteria | AcyMailing Starter | RsMail | MailPoet | Brevo (Sendinblue) | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | Joomla, WordPress | Joomla | WordPress | SaaS | SaaS |
| Free version | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ (limited) | ✅ (300 emails/day) | ✅ (500 subscribers) |
| Self-hosted | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Drag-and-drop editor | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Automation | ❌ (in Starter) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Statistics | ✅ (basic) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| CMS integration | ✅ (native) | ✅ | ✅ (native) | ❌ | ❌ |
| Price (paid version) | from 29€/year | from ~50€ | from ~100€/year | from ~25€/month | from ~13€/month |
As can be seen from the table, AcyMailing Starter is the only completely free solution for Joomla with self-hosting capability. The paid versions of AcyMailing also remain among the most affordable on the market.
User reviews
On the Trustpilot platform, AcyMailing has a rating of 4.1 out of 5. Here is what real users say:
Positive reviews
- "Very versatile and easily adaptable for any type of use. Many add-ons for other Joomla extensions. Once you sing the basics, it's easy to set up and use"
- "I have been using AcyMailing for many years, it is a very good system for my news, messages, and posts. Over the years, AcyMailing only gets better"
- "We use AcyMailing for mass mailings for our clients. It is easy to use and integrates well with Joomla and other external components"
- "As a web designer, I use AcyMailing on every site. Even the free version works thick for sending news"
- "Impressed with AcyMailing's outstanding customer support. Every time I had a question, the support team responded quickly and resolved my issues"
Constructive criticism
- "The product has many good features, but they are not that easy to understand. The interface seems non-intuitive, especially the translations leave much to be desired"
- "Canceled subscription due to form limitations. It did not meet our needs for flexible data collection"
Overall, users highly rate AcyMailing for its functionality, integration with Joomla, and the availability of a free version. The main comments concern the complexity of initial learning and some limitations of the free version.
How to sing started with AcyMailing Starter
- Installation: go to the Joomla Extension Directory (JED), find AcyMailing Starter and install it through the Joomla extension manager.
- Initial setup: after installation, go to the AcyMailing component in the administrator panel. During installation, a standard mailing list "Newsletters" is automatically created, which contains all registered Joomla users.
- Creating a mailing list: if necessary, create additional lists for subscriber segmentation.
- Creating an email: use the drag-and-drop editor to create an email template. Add images, text, links, and dynamic tags.
- Sending: select the recipient list, configure sending settings, and start the mailing. In the free version, the process is performed manually through a pop-up window.
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion
AcyMailing Starter is a powerful and completely free email marketing tool for Joomla. It provides all the necessary basic functions: subscriber management, email creation in a visual editor, sending with load control, and basic statistics.
For most simple projects, blogs, and online stores on Joomla, the functionality of Starter is more than enough. If you need automation, advanced analytics, or protection for subscription forms, you can always upgrade to the paid Essential or Enterprise versions while retaining all data.
The main advantage of AcyMailing Starter is its complete free of charge with no limits on the number of subscribers or emails. This makes it an ideal choice for starting email marketing without financial investment.
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