FeedBlitz and FeedBurner - A Comparison

Author: Phil Hollows Reference Number: AA-00444 Views: 64704 Created: 2010-06-22 12:52 Last Updated: 2012-05-08 17:21

100 Rating/ 3 Voters

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

RSS Feeds

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).

Subscriber Management

Feature	FeedBlitz	FeedBurner	More
Subscriber Management	Yes	No	FeedBurner handles subscriptions and unsubscribes to each list individually. That's it.
Branded subscriber landing pages	Yes	No	FeedBurner uses their branding, not yours.
Multi-list subscription forms	Yes	No	Only FeedBlitz lets you offer your subscribers multiple lists at one go (e.g. you can offer different content, or different schedules for the same content).
Embeddable subscription forms	Yes	No	With FeedBlitz you can embed the entire email subscription form, including CAPTCHA and custom field data, on your web site with a single line of JavaScript. FeedBurner cannot.
Custom landing pages	Yes	No	At FeedBlitz you can optionally specify the URL activating subscribers are sent to. This is arguably the most important page in the dual opt in subscription process. At FeedBurner it's theirs, not yours, and you cannot customize it.
Email notifications on all major events	Yes	No	FeedBlitz keeps you in the loop by emailing you when a subscriber joins or leaves the list, and the notifications include custom field data and the results (if appropriate) of the unsubscribe survey. FeedBurner can only be configured to tell you a subscriber has unsubscribed.
Unsubscribe survey	Yes	No	FeedBlitz asks subscribers to tell you why they're leaving with a single, simple form: even a subscriber leaving your list becomes actionable intelligence for you. FeedBurner does not.
Automatic bounce handling	Yes	No	FeedBlitz automatically handles bounces for you; there is no need to manually cull your list periodically. That way your list is kept at a high quality and it helps ensure continued ISP deliverability.
Fully self service for publishers	Yes	No	You can transfer email subscribers from FeedBurner automatically into FeedBlitz. You can also import opted in subscribers via text or CSV files. With FeedBurner you cannot transfer in an existing list; they force you to start from scratch.
Fully self service for subscribers	Yes	No	Your subscribers can manage their own subscriptions at FeedBlitz. They don't have to ask you to do it for them, saving you time and hassle. FeedBurner has no end user subscriber features.

Subscriber Emails

Feature	FeedBlitz	FeedBurner	More
Subscriber Emails	Yes	Yes	At a basic level both send emails, but...
Smart abridged emails	Yes	No	When your mailings send abridged text, FeedBlitz preserves HTML links, layout and more. FeedBurner converts it all to plain text, losing your formatting, your links: reducing the visual impact of your mailing and all but eliminating the opportunities for subscribers to click through.
Video Thumbnails	Yes	No	When FeedBlitz finds an embedded video from a major service (e.g. YouTube, Metacafe, Blip.tv, Hulu and more) which normally will not display in email software, FeedBlitz automatically converts the video to a frame capture thumbnail that email readers can see and click through on.
Variable subject lines	Yes	Partial	FeedBlitz varies the subject line by default, and allows other customizations such as the mailing date. FeedBurner's subject lines are not variable by default and have fewer options.
Automatic recaps	Yes	No	FeedBlitz adds a list of recent posts not included in the main body of the mailing to keep older content visible for longer. FeedBurner has no recap capability.
Personalization	Yes	No	FeedBlitz lets you personalize and tune the email content; there are no such controls in FeedBurner.
Seed lists and Segmentation	Yes	No	Even if you do not use custom fields, FeedBlitz lets you create and manage segments based on subscriber email alone, so you can create a seed list. You can send on demand mailings and email blasts to a segment instead of the whole list with FeedBlitz. FeedBurner has none of these capabilities.
Mail from any RSS feed	Yes	No	FeedBurner requires that your RSS feed be with them. FeedBlitz is happy to work with whatever service or product creates your RSS feed - even FeedBurner!

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.

Comments

There are no comments for this article.

Add Comment

Ask a Question