{"id":13149,"date":"2024-05-30T11:12:49","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T10:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/?p=13149"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:40:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:40:59","slug":"sendportal-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/sendportal-review\/","title":{"rendered":"SendPortal Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this first impressions review I\u2019m going to have a look at self-hosted email marketing software SendPortal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How easy is it to install and set-up, how good are the features and should you use it for your next project?<\/p>\n\n\n

SendPortal Review<\/p>

\ud83c\udfc6 Highly recommended<\/p>

Installation<\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg><\/div><\/div>
Onboarding<\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg><\/div><\/div>
Features<\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg><\/div><\/div>
Ease of use<\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg><\/div><\/div>

TL;DR<\/p>

\u2705 User friendly and simple to navigate
\u2705 Great support documentation
\u274c Tricky installation for non-tech users<\/p>

4.5<\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/rect><\/mask><\/defs> <\/path><\/path>\n\t\t\t<\/svg><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

What is SendPortal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

SendPortal is open-source, self-hosted email marketing software to help manage your email campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SendPortal acts as a control panel for your email marketing, but doesn\u2019t send any emails itself: it acts as a GUI to integrate with email sending services such as Mailgun<\/a>, Mailjet<\/a> or Sendgrid<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How easy is it to install SendPortal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

SendPortal is available as a one-click app on our Managed Hosting<\/a> and Reseller Hosting<\/a>, so installing SendPortal was as easy as it gets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you use a host that doesn\u2019t include SendPortal in their one-click apps, their official set up guide can be found here: https:\/\/sendportal.io\/docs\/v2<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s worth noting that manual installation is not as easy as the likes of WordPress and does require a certain degree of dev skills, using Git and Composer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Setting up SendPortal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

SendPortal smoothly walks me through the technical setup, and it\u2019s clear what information is required at each stage to progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once I\u2019ve created my account and logged in; I\u2019m left on my own. There are no onboarding prompts or on-screen guides on what to do next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a small niggle, and to be fair most people using this software will be experienced enough to work out the next steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know I\u2019ll need to connect SendPortal to an email service to starting sending emails, so I\u2019m going to go there first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looks promising and it is very easy to actually do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve added your credentials, you can run a quick test to make sure it is all set up correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Campaigns in SendPortal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The campaign creation content builder is very basic if you\u2019re used to the likes of MailChimp\u2019s WYSIWYG GUI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can put together a simple email using the style editor, but nothing fancy. This is really for users who can copy and paste in existing HTML through the code view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SendPortal let\u2019s you build and save \u2018Templates\u2019 to reuse content and designs across your campaigns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dynamic templating system also allows you to insert subscriber details (e.g. their name) into your templates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a quick example using a free HTML template<\/a> from Github.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The code:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The preview:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In \u2018Campaigns\u2019 I can now select that template to help build my email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subscribers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

SendPortal allows you to easily import multiple subscribers via a CSV upload. This can be used to create new subscribers and update existing ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The following information can be saved for each Subscriber:<\/p>\n\n\n\n