TinyLetter is a free-to-use web service which enables us to create an e-mail newsletter and get subscribers.

It has a very straightforward functionality and interface. You just pick a name for the newsletter and embed a code into the website which displays a sign-up form.

Also, you can ask the users to go to the custom URL provided by the service (like http://tinyletter.com/listName) where the design of it can be customized.

You can see the past newsletters, read replies, see the list of subscribers and also import e-mails.

An original feature is the support for “asking a payment for subscription” to the newsletter where the amounts can be collected by the service or directly sent to any given PayPal address.

It doesn’t have any advanced features like reporting, custom text per subscriber or ready-to-use templates but, for some projects, simplicity is all we need.

Simple Mailing List is a simple-yet-powerful and free mailing list manager script that is built with PHP/MySQL.

It helps you to control a mailing list by adding/removing members (one-by-one or in bulk), seeing the active/passive ones and sending mailings.

Every message sent can have an “unsubscribe link” and, optionally, the administrator can be notified about such updates via e-mail.

E-mails to be sent can be both plain or HTML and they can be scheduled for a future date (works with cron jobs).

In order not to overload the e-mail server, the script has the ability to throttle/limit/queue messages.

Simple Mailing List keeps the archive of previous mailings and “how many users they were sent to”.

Also, it is possible to create HTML templates and send your e-mails using them.

E-mail marketing, when done professionally, has a serious return rate and measurable.

OpenEMM is a beautiful e-mail marketing (or newsletter management) application with business level capabilities. And best of all, it is open source.

Using this e-mail marketing tool, event and time triggered e-mails can be sent which is a great feature for smarter mailing lists.

Some other features of OpenEMM are:

• Set of pre-configured action forms and template
• Import and export workflows simplified by wizards
• Configuration of different users with different rights/roles
• Create mailing lists for groups of recipients
• Subscription to your mailing lists via confirmed opt-in, double opt-in or via e-mail
• Unsubscription with one click, optional with confirmation query and unsubscribe confirmation by e-mail
• Import and export wizards
• Separation of layout and content (like a content management system)
• Templates
• Detailed real-time statistics with graphical output
• Analysis of opening rate, click rate, unsubscriptions, bounces
• Comparison of multiple mailings based on key data

Sending newsletters to 1000′s of users, tracking clicks, unsubscribe links, risk of sending e-mails twice? Yes, these are some concerns of newsletter management.

phplist, an open source PHP – MySQL based newsletter management application makes sending newsletters easy, professional and managable.

Some powerful features of phplist:

• No duplicate messages. No ‘forgotten’ messages.
• View and click tracking
• Templating and multiple subscribe pages
• Dynamic subscriber columns
• User specific content like “name, e-mail”
• Lists
• RSS subscription
• Scheduling
• CVS import and export
• Bounce detection and cleaning
• Auto PDF messages
• Attachments
• Throttling to prevent server overload

AtMail Open Source is an open source webmail client written in PHP.

This lightweight Ajaxed webmail client has a simple to use interface and can be used with existing IMAP mailservers.

Xuheki is an open source IMAP client with an Ajaxed interface.

It looks-feels like a desktop application & supports multiple IMAP servers/identities.

Hastymail is a free IMAP webmail software (open source) built with PHP.

The application is lightweight, has a clean interface & compatible with all major browsers including mobile ones.

With its plugin support, new features can be added. Some available plugins are: calendar, filtering, RSS/Atom.

Hastymail can be customized via CSS & has a PHP based template system.

6zap is an open source communication platform with e-mail, calendar, file management and contacts management.

The application comes in 3 flavors:

• Hosted version
• Downloadable version for installing it to any server
• Hosting it in the cloud with the pre-configued Amazon-AMI

The e-mail module is similar to Outlook, a slick three-pane interface (that can also work offline) with auto-save, drag’n drop & spelling features.