The FeedBurner Alternative - FeedBlitz
Many publishers come to FeedBlitz looking for a FeedBurner alternative. This article's intent is to provide a brief overview into some of the key differences between these two services. Please drill down on the links or explore this knowledge base category further for more information before deciding on when, how and what to switch over.
Why Switch to A FeedBurner Alternative?
Publishers switch to FeedBlitz from FeedBurner for different reasons.Some of the most frequently cited ones include FeedBlitz's:
- Prompt corporate support and ongoing development;
- More consistent and reliable RSS stats tracking and updating;
- Greater email design flexibility (e.g. add your own sponsorships to the mailing);
- Multiple email scheduling options;
- Ability to send an email newsletter blast to your list without a blog or feed entry;
- Custom fields, personalization and segmentation;
- Autoresponder capability for drip marketing or simple incentive mailings;
- Extensive email reports for click, bounce, open tracking and more;
- Automatic subscriber management, including automatic dual opt-in reminders;
- Better email deliverability to major US internet service providers, such as AOL;
- Greater integration with social media.
Migrating from FeedBurner
FeedBlitz has two wizards to help you migrate from FeedBurner. If you want to use FeedBlitz just for our better email and social media subscriber services, click here to learn more. If you want to leave FeedBurner altogether and have FeedBlitz track your RSS subscribers as well, click here to see how.
Tweeted Testimonials
- See our real-time feed of the most recent Twitter testimonials: http://feeds.feedblitz.com/favorites
- View all tweeted testimonials here: http://twitter.com/phollows/favorites
Blogged Testimonials
- Jeff Nickles: http://www.feedblitz.com/how-i-created-a-listbuilding-machine-by-jeff-nickles/
- Michael Hyatt: http://michaelhyatt.com/2009/06/why-i-switched-email-subscription-services.html
- Carrie Isaac: http://springsbargains.com/feedblitz-coupon-code/
- Ed Harrison: http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2009/05/google-why-i-am-switching-from-feedburner-to-feedblitz.html
Case Studies
- Juli Tamarin: Simplify Technology and Increase Readership - http://blog.feedblitz.com/2010/12/simplify-technology-and-increase.html
- Andy Bailey: If you’re going to do it, do it right, right from the start - http://blog.feedblitz.com/2010/11/guest-post-if-youre-going-to-do-it-do.html
- Julia Scott: Putting the Personal into Customer Service - http://blog.feedblitz.com/2010/07/i-compared-handful-of-email-newsletter.html
- Stephanie Langford: Fear of Switching: Subscriber Loss - http://blog.feedblitz.com/2010/07/guest-post-fear-of-switching-subscriber.html
- Carrie Isaac: Why I Switched to Feedblitz - http://blog.feedblitz.com/2010/06/guest-post-why-i-switched-to-feedblitz.html
Feature Comparison Overview
| Feature | FeedBlitz | FeedBurner | More |
| RSS Serving | Yes | Yes | FeedBurner feeds often seem to get stuck and can be slow to update. FeedBlitz feeds don't have these problems. |
| RSS subscriber stats | Yes | Yes | FeedBurner's stats are notoriously volatile. FeedBlitz's aren't. |
| RSS subscriber counter | Yes | Yes | You can also change the colors in FeedBurner's widget FWIW. |
| Reads password protected feeds | Yes | No | If your original feed is password protected using HTTP authentication, FeedBurner cannot read it. FeedBlitz can. |
| RSS tag filtering | Yes | No | You can create category feeds automatically at FeedBlitz, but not at FeedBurner. |
| Internal click tracking | Yes | No | FeedBurner does not track links that are inside a feed post. FeedBlitz does. |
| Splices and flares | Yes | Yes | FeedBurner's splices and flares are dated. Unlike FeedBurner, FeedBlitz's splices support modern social media services like Twitter, and can also merge any other RSS feed into yours. FeedBlitz can also auto post top articles each week. |
| Mobile version | Yes | No | FeedBlitz automatically creates a small, mobile version of your feed for hand held devices and phones. FeedBurner doesn't. |
| Includes comments | Yes | No | FeedBlitz includes recent comments in your feeds, pushing the conversation out to your readers and encouraging interactions. FeedBurner doesn't. |
| Your brand on Browser Friendly | Yes | No | Unlike FeedBurner, which is pretty much all them above the fold, FeedBlitz is all you when it comes to branding. |
| SEO Friendly | Yes | No | True but complicated - see this article. |
| Long feed handling | Yes | No | If your feed is 512k, FeedBurner simply stops updating. FeedBlitz keeps going, intelligently truncates your feed and recaps the omitted posts. |
Email Subscriptions and List Management
| Feature | FeedBlitz | FeedBurner | More |
| Email subscriptions and List Management | Yes | Yes | FeedBurner's options are more limited; see below. |
| Multiple mailings from a single blog / feed | Yes | No | Each feed can only have one mailing list in FeedBurner. You can power as many as you like from a single feed in FeedBlitz |
| Multiple email delivery schedules | Yes | No |
FeedBurner has just a daily round up. FeedBlitz offers Express, every 4, 8 or 12 hours, daily, weekly, summary and manual on demand mailings. With FeedBlitz you can offer subscribers the choice of how often they want to hear from you, so you keep more of them. |
| Branded landing pages | Yes | No | FeedBurner's graphics are on their forms and dual opt in landing pages, not yours. FeedBlitz customizes all the subscriber pages we serve on your behalf with your graphics, including your ads if you run them. |
| Comprehensive graphic customization | Yes | No | You can customize all elements of your mailings at FeedBlitz. 'Burner lets you add a single graphic logo and some basic font selections. You cannot add more banners, your own sponsorships or other HTML elements to a FeedBurner mail. |
| Non-blog mailing blasts | Yes | No | You can send a hand-crafted email blast to your list (or a segment of your list) whenever you like using FeedBlitz, without an underlying blog post. It's great for breaking news, sponsored email blasts or special offers just for your list. FeedBurner can only send emails that come from the feed; you cannot mail your list whenever you want. |
| Email user-defined feeds | Yes | No | FeedBlitz can set up branded mailings for user-defined feeds via a single URL or form. This enables you to offer custom category, search or other email subscriptions without defining the feed to FeedBlitz first. FeedBurner requires you to predefine the feed and cannot offer email or RSS stats tracking for feeds generated on the fly. |
| Master Templates | Yes | No |
Define a graphic design (template) once and FeedBlitz can format all your emails from all your feeds with it for total brand consistency for the least effort (but you can override a Master Template at the individual list level if you want to). Change the master template and all FeedBlitz mailings and subscriber pages pick up the change immediately. FeedBurner does not have this capability and makes you make your limited logo, color and font choices for each list, each and every time you make a change. One by one by one. |
| Custom fields | Yes | No |
Want to ask for first name, last name, gender, state? The more data you have the smarter you can be about your subscribers. You can't collect any data beyond email address with FeedBurner. FeedBlitz lets you define required, optional, visible and hidden custom fields. You can also import this data from a CRM system. Once collected, you can use your custom field data to segment your Feedblitz mailings or personalize the mail. You can't do any of this in FeedBurner. |
| Tag filtering | Yes | No | FeedBurner always mails all posts. FeedBlitz can filter (in or out) by tag / category / label, so you can prevent posts from being mailed simply by tagging it in your blog. Or you can offer topic-based mailings by creating different lists for the same feed (something you cannot do at FeedBurner) and then modifying the tag filters for each clone. |
| Autoresponders | Yes | No | You cannot even mail a thank you note with FeedBurner. With FeedBlitz you can send single or multi-step autoresponders, activated by a new mailing list subscription or used as standalone lead generation forms. |
| Email metrics reporting | Yes | No |
You should be able to track open, click through, bounce and complaint rates. FeedBlitz has all this data in its Deliverability Metrics report. There isn't a single email report on FeedBurner for any email metrics; with FeedBurner you're driving blind with respect to mailing list performance. |
| Archives | Yes | No | FeedBlitz automatically archives sent emails for online viewing, sharing and more. FeedBurner has no email archive features at all. |
| Send posts to your Twitter followers | Yes | Yes | FeedBurner's actually a little more flexible in terms of Tweet formatting. But there's no Twitter reporting so you do not know how well it's working. FeedBlitz's social media engagement report can show you which Twitter accounts generated what activity for any individual mailing. We also allow your visitors to post your news to their followers, dramatically increasing your potential reach. |
| Send posts as Twitter DMs | Yes | No | FeedBlitz allows Twitter users to receive DMs from your list. FeedBurner does not. |
| Facebook support | Yes | No | FeedBlitz can post to any Page or Wall you administer, encourage new subscriptions using that post, give you activity metrics and more! FeedBurner doesn't. |
| Instant messenger support | Yes | No | FeedBlitz can reach subscribers via Skype, AOL, Yahoo and MSN messengers. FeedBurner cannot reach your entire potential audience; FeedBlitz can. |
| Diagnostic and test tools | Yes | No | FeedBlitz has diagnostics to let you send test emails, view RSS feed metadata and more. FeedBurner does not, not even for RSS feeds. |
| Multiple feeds in a single email | Yes | No | Add other feeds to your mailings with FeedBlitz. |
| Deliverability excellence | Yes | No | FeedBurner is currently (May 2010) struggling to get emails through to AOL. FeedBlitz has significant experience with deliverability - we get the emails where they're needed for you because we apply best practices at every step of the subscription life cycle. We monitor our reputation and all the lists we serve every day to detect and manage problems before they affect deliverability. |
| Comprehensive Authentication | Yes | No | FeedBlitz uses SPF and DKIM to authenticate its email; FeedBurner does not use DKIM or its predecessor technology, Domain Keys. Use of best practice and industry standard authentication enables FeedBlitz to be on major ISP feedback loops and white lists. FeedBurner cannot do this (for example, Yahoo requires DKIM or Domain Keys for feedback loop membership; FeedBurner therefore cannot use Yahoo's feedback loop which will hurt its deliverability to Yahoo domains). |
Corporate Commitment and Support
| Feature | FeedBlitz | FeedBurner | More |
| Commitment and Support | Yes | No | FeedBlitz is dedicated to its service, and provides full, knowledgeable corporate support. Our commitment is obvious by how much we continue to enhance FeedBlitz's services. We're here, available and happy to help. There is no support for FeedBurner from Google, its owner. Aside from adding auto-tweeting, there have been no major changes of note at FeedBurner since Google bought it. In fact, they have been dropping features quietly (e.g. FeedFoundry for corporate customers). |
Switching to a FeedBurner Alternative - The Bottom Line
FeedBlitz's richer feature set comes at a price. FeedBlitz is harder to learn because there is so much more it can do for you. FeedBlitz is also not free.
If you want a basic, unsupported email service that is free but doesn't do much, isn't supported and may at times leave you in the lurch without recourse, choose FeedBurner.
If on the other hand you want an engaged, committed, professional business partner for your email and social media automation; if you want centralized statistics, complete branding and time saving features; if you understand that you get what you pay for, then you should choose FeedBlitz, the only full feature FeedBurner alternative.