Launched a decade ago, when Facebook was in its infancy and Twitter was merely an idea, Feedburner quickly became the go-to-tool for RSS feeds.
The reason I’m giving you all this background is so it’s easier to imagine the shocked looks on people’s faces when the news started spreading that the platform was due to be shut down.
This was all two years ago, so what’s happened since?
Well, the service is still standing, but only just (it’s more like crawling). It’s weaker than ever, with most people either reporting that their blogs aren’t pulling in the latest feeds, or just jumping ship completely.
In case you haven’t had the chance to change yet, or maybe you’ve switched already but would like to re-evaluate your options, I’ve put together this handy list of features packed Feedburner alternatives.
Billed as an ‘all-in-one solution for email and social media marketing integration’, Feedblitz is a budding contender for the top alternative to Feedburner. It openly markets itself as offering better capabilities, reliable service and efficient support, a factor in which Feedburner was sorely lacking.
The software integrates seamlessly with social media profiles and provides users with plenty of metric measurement and tacking options.
Their email marketing service will already be familiar to Feedburner users, as Feedblitz have powered their competitors’ emails since 2005. The auto-template generator also helps businesses create customized templates at the drop of the hat.
Mad Mimi is primarily an email marketing company, but their easy-to-use RSS to Email functionality, coupled with their high levels of design customizability, make them an ideal choice for delivering updated content to subscribers.
Whilst it’s cheaper than both MailChimp and Aweber (both of which we’ll discuss later), it doesn’t offer quite as many metrics and analytical options.
It’s the design options which really make this service stand out though, with a wide range of customizable templates that allow companies to deliver truly branded content. Check out their email gallery for more information.
Free Trial Available? - Free plan available (without support)
Rapidfeeds is actually the combination of two services are FeedManager and FeedEmbed.
The first is used to easily manage and organize your RSS feeds, whilst the latter enables you to convert RSS to HTML, allowing you to embed them directly onto your website and emails.
With advanced tracking statistics and the ability to schedule and automatically tweet your RSS updates, this really is a powerful RSS management tool.
Free Trial Available? - 15 Days
Price - Prices start at $4.49 for Feed Manager + $4.49 for FeedEmbed
Much like Mad Mimi, MailChimp offer an easy-to-use RSS to Email function that can deliver fresh updates to your mailing lists as often as you like. MailChimp puts you behind the steering wheel of your emails (so-to-speak), allowing you to dictate exactly how your emails look, how often they go out and who it is they go to.
With a service that allows you to send up to 12,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers a month for completely free, MailChimp have rapidly built themselves a very user-friendly reputation, and are the perfect choice for small businesses that are just getting started.
One major downfall here is that MailChimp doesn’t actually have the capabilities to generate an RSS feed, so you’ll need to stick with Feedburner for now and simply move your subscriber list. They do offer a Feedburner Migration Guide in order to make the transition from the previous platform as easy as possible though.
Free Trial Available? - Free up to 2,000 subscribers
With its detailed analytics reporting dashboard, and dedicated phone and email support, Aweber is MailChimp for grownups. Its flexible mailing system allows you to broadcast updates to your followers whenever you want, including specific times during the day, week or month.
You also have the option to send an email only after a specific number of posts have gone live on your blog, meaning your users will always be provided with sufficient amounts of information to keep the completely up to date.
Free Trial Available? - No
Price - $1 for the first month, then prices start at $19 per month
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