Very disappointed with MailPoet 3

Classic, text book case of over-thinking and over-reaching. Too many things changed, too quickly, too many faux pas, poorly planned transitions, changes to the money making model taking priority over users and features priorities. Removal of basic functionality and features. Unforeseen problems, of course are impossible to prevent, but it comes down to how you respond.

On my side, it’s been pins and needles hoping for success. Making excuses to clients for the problems. Fingers crossed that the investment in time and effort is not wasted. Hopeful, but not confident.

Can’t consider this solution for large projects, but hoping it stabilizes for small jobs.

Hello Epstarr, thanks for the in-depth feedback. We know change can be hard, so it takes a bit of getting used to.

> We were able to insert posts that would have blurb text wrap gracefully around the thumbnail images.

MailPoet 3 will include image alignment in June 2018. Soon!

> We were able to add custom CSS styling to our newsletters through the use of themes.

The customization in MailPoet 2 was rather simple. There are lots more widgets and display options in the new MailPoet. Plus, the emails now render well in mobile phones, which accounts for about 50% of all opens.

> We had lots of different options for styling our social media icons.

You can add your own custom icons in MailPoet 3 which you couldn’t in version 2.

Simply search online and download your favorites. Upload them to MailPoet.

> We could easily add background colors to our section blocks and headings.

You can add background color to blocks. See animated gif.

@robertburr you seem to be in all conversations! ??

> Classic, text book case of over-thinking and over-reaching.

In terms of features, MailPoet 3 mostly brings a new designer. The rest of the experience was mostly kept the same. The speed of the UI is the most noticeable change in the other parts of the plugin.

> Too many things changed, too quickly, too many faux pas

You’re a little hard on us. Consider this:

A. We don’t force anyone to upgrade

B. You can have both MailPet 2 and 3 side by side

C. We beta tested MailPoet 3 for 1 year to make sure most common bugs wouldn’t appear in the thousands of installs out there. Not exactly an easy feat, even for WordPress core.

D. We’ve been very reactive since the launch in 2018 to ensure stability and good users experience in our releases.

> changes to the money making model taking priority over users and features priorities. Removal of basic functionality and features.

The number 1 problem our users had was reaching the inbox. We’ve solved this at a very decent price offering. We even offer a free sending plan for free.

We’re profitable, but not swimming in cash. I would highly recommend you to also become a customer (if you’re a free user!) to encourage the improvements we bring.

We want to do more for free users, but we need more means. Version 2 was too free.

> Unforeseen problems, of course are impossible to prevent, but it comes down to how you respond.

We have a satisfaction rate on support of 85%. We also provide support to free users.

Considering that 95% of our users are free, we’re not sure what else we could give for free without undermining our mission.

Can you suggest any?

You address these issues well. I am happy that you take the time to listen to our perspective. Without it, you have no direction except your own perceptions.

Since your biggest complaint is non-delivery, it’s obvious that many users don’t understand the process well, so it’s fine for you to offer viable solutions, and that has value. I don’t disagree. For me, its not an issue. I’ve tried your service on one account and it works very well, comparable to serious transactional services.

I personally would be happy to give you more money, but my clients don’t have it in their budget. It’s the same with many fine plugins. Small clients cannot afford annual fees, monthly fees, hosting, development, updates, etc. they must have a dependable income stream to make this leap of commerce.

In my case, I can only compare your solution to others I’ve used over the past 25 years of hosting sites and email newsletters. Your solution is easy, effective and pleasant, but without the basic ability to judge metrics, deal with bounces, and broadcast to significantly larger audiences. These are limitations that are difficult for me.

Thank you for continuing to improve, respond, evolve, listen. I hope one day your solution works for more of my needs.