The EU couldn't agree amongst themselves because the US (and its biggest vassal, the UK when it was in the EU) did everything to prevent such agreement.
We'll see what the States that were the most against any form of common European defense will do now that the US has proven unreliable. And if they are still under the delusion that the current US policies will go away, then it's time for Two-Speed Europe.
Don't blame this on the UK. UK leave vote was a few months before the 2016 election, so the timing is convenient. But let's not pretend that it was anything but complacency (that was shattered by Trump) is to blame here.
The main reason people pay expensive ESPs is deliverability, which is practically impossible when self-hosting when it comes to marketing, non-transactional emails, and in any case much more expensive than any ESP subscription.
How does Fertit position itself in relation to that?
Fertit actually leverages the best of both worlds through our SMTP integration approach:
Use Established ESPs for Delivery: Fertit connects to your existing SMTP provider (SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, etc.) - so you still get their deliverability infrastructure and IP reputation.
Save on Interface & Features: Instead of paying $50-300/month for ConvertKit or Mailchimp's full platform, you pay $5-10/month for Fertit's management layer while using a cheaper transactional email service for actual delivery.
Cost Comparison:
Traditional ESP: $79/month for 5,000 subscribers
Fertit approach: $9.99/month (Pro plan) + $15/month (SendGrid) = ~$25/month total
Deliverability is not a purely technical SMTP-level issue. It also involves domain/IP reputation, email content quality, bounce rate management, spam complaints etc etc etc. Also I'm pretty sure there is a buuuunch of compliance stuff you can't just punt to SES no? How much are you handling on your side and how much can SES do?
Fertit provides essential newsletter infrastructure (preferences, unsubscribes, basic compliance) for a low cost (1.99-9.99$/month) vs $79 for full-service ESPs, but users handle advanced deliverability optimization themselves.
It's positioned between "raw SMTP" and "full-service ESP" - covers the regulatory basics but not the sophisticated deliverability management that determines inbox placement rates.
Don’t most of these services explicitly disallow using them for newsletter type of use? If you send a bunch of the same types of emails to bursts of thousands of users at once, those companies have algorithms that will eventually pick it up (especially if there are lots of images/content embedded).
Am I misunderstanding the limitations of which services are available to use for “bring your own SMTP”?
Good point! You're absolutely right that many basic SMTP providers (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) restrict bulk newsletter sending to large number of emails.
Fertit is designed to work with newsletter-appropriate SMTP services like SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, Postmark, and Mailjet - providers that explicitly
support bulk email sending. These typically cost $10-50/month depending on volume, which is still much cheaper than the $79+ full-service ESPs charge.
The value prop is: instead of paying ConvertKit $79/month for 1000 subscribers, you pay SendGrid ~$15/month for SMTP + Fertit $9.99/month = ~$25/month total, while still getting proper unsubscribe handling, preference management, and basic compliance features.
You're right that it requires users to handle the SMTP setup themselves - it's positioned for people who want more control and cost savings but don't need the full white-glove deliverability management of premium ESPs.
Thanks for pointing this out - I should make the SMTP requirements clearer in the marketing!
If you look at Postmarks website, they explicitly disallow the service you are promoting. Marketing emails are not allowed to be sent through Postmark.
I generally like your idea, but as someone in growth, I hope you provide the users with a lot of instruction and warning on compliance, CASL are particularly eager to enforce.
Fertit handles the core compliance infrastructure (double opt-in, one-click unsubscribe, preference management, suppression lists) but you're right that users need clear guidance on the legal requirements.
You can still pair with Sendgrid or SES, etc. It doesn't have to be THAT expensive. I think the hardest part is figuring out how you need to enter some of the DNS settings depending on where your DNS is provided and the UI/UX.
Aside: I really wish Google hadn't sold off domains.
Assuming it's translated literally from French, and the meaning of the French verb "couper" hasn't changed since the Middle Ages, it means mixing with water, and is a widely used expression in French.
And malnutrition isn't only about lack of food, it's also about mediocre quality of food:
> Similarly, new estimates of adult obesity show a steady increase over the last decade, from 12.1 percent (2012) to 15.8 percent (2022). Projections indicate that by 2030, the world will have more than 1.2 billion obese adults. The double burden of malnutrition – the co-existence of undernutrition together with overweight and obesity – has also surged globally across all age groups.
Obesity will soon, if not already, become a major public health disaster in poor countries.
I'm in France, but my Google, browsers and devices languages are English. So Youtube randomly auto-dubs (and auto-translates the title of) some French videos into English, and some English videos into French. But they're never the same videos depending on the devices or the browsers. However, the automatic subtitles during the preview remain in the original langage.
Do note that when rolling out features like these, they geoblock them, even on a per run basis, so it might be happening a lot throughout the world but it just hasn't reached your country. For an example, mobile YouTube in the US lets me minimize the video and multitask while still seeing a picture-in-picture window and the audio, while as soon as one lands on France that feature gets immediately disabled.
I've heard about different features in different regions, but GP is also in France.
I am also not connected to my account when I browse in Edge (it's my work PC, it also uses a separate IP), so I don't think it's related to the feature being rolled out on a per-account basis.
I'm in France, my devices are set to en-GB, I've watched only English videos (plus the odd French one) yet youtube decides to auto translate audio in German and lately in Spanish.
If only it was that easy. I'm French living in France. My account settings are in English, my browsers and apps (phone, TV) are in English but my Youtube region is France. So Youtube serves me:
- French videos auto-dubbed with AI and with the titles auto-translated in English.
- English videos auto-dubbed with AI and with the titles auto-translated in French.
- French videos not dubbed, but with the titles auto-translated in English.
- English videos not dubbed, but with the titles auto-translated in French.
- French videos kept as is.
- English videos kept as is.
Also, Youtube keeps suggesting me French accents videos, even though I never watched a similar video (but watched videos on American accents and Spanish accents years ago)
We'll see what the States that were the most against any form of common European defense will do now that the US has proven unreliable. And if they are still under the delusion that the current US policies will go away, then it's time for Two-Speed Europe.
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