Federated Computer to Fund Development

[davidpaulyoung]

Federated Computer would like to fund the development and integration of a template editor within Listmonk. Ideally, this editor would be something like EmailBuilder.JS with full support for the Listmonk templating tags. We would contribute all work back to the Listmonk project. Please reach out to me if you'd like to work on this project: david@federated.computer. Thanks.

[vividvilla]

EmailBuilder.JS integration to Listmonk is work in progress, in a week or two we should have a alpha build for this.

[MrSuddenJoy]

@candidexmedia Most of what you linked are pure SCAMS. They claim to be free but they require payment.

[odhiambo]

@MrSuddenJoy, that is what I found out. Plus they want your data :(

[candidexmedia]

@MrSuddenJoy Can you mention which ones that did and didn't work for you, and which were scams? This is a list I've kept for a while now after doing a search for my own templates, but I'd be happy to take out the ones which don't work anymore. I just need more info to work with...

@odhiambo Which specific ones, and what data are they requesting?

In any case, the EmailBuilder.JS that will be integrated soon has a demo on its site that you can use now to create and export emails. I would just use that. Or Google and share other options that work for you.

[MrSuddenJoy]

@candidexmedia which one(s) worked for me? From the list you shared there is only one that suits my goals in 100%; thats last one: Mosaico. To Mosaico, I have no bad feelings. However I cannot say this for all the rest from list.

Mosaico looks (and works) as intended. All the rest are, moreless, scams.
One cannot advertise itself as free service and demand money at the same time. Its free OR paid.

Just an example of Unlayer: their motto/slogan is Free HTML Email templates. And now: 90% of their templates are.... paid ones. Freaking sad joke man. Its purest scam.

[candidexmedia]

Offering free and paid templates, or having freemium plans doesn't make something a scam... The commenter asked for templates, and all the sites I shared offer free templates and/or visual email building.

I did a deeper dive of each one to get a better sense of where each one is at.

Unlayer, to use your example, has a page titled "Free HTML templates" (which is not their motto or slogan) because the page offers just that. There's a filter for free templates which lets you hide the paid ones.

I did just that, expecting to only see a dozen based on what's been written here, and found hundreds of free templates, if not more! (I stopped clicking "Load More" at some point because I couldn't reach the end — there was that many)

I'm not sure where the 90% figure came from, but from what I saw, there were more than enough free templates to go around...

Their template editor doesn't require an account, although an email is required to receive the free HTML + images export. That said, I was able to use a disposable email, and could paste the code into Listmonk.

I wasn't able to sign up to Stripo, Parcel, and BeeFree with my disposable email service (maildrop, but it might work with others), but I was able to use my free email mask forwading addresses (Mozilla Relay). I was able to keep my email private to use all of these services, and I wasn't asked to provide my phone number — something ChatGPT and Claude.ai require...

For the other services:

• BeeFree: 6 monthly free exports, templates are all free

• Stripo: 4 monthly exports, can filter by free templates

• Parcel: more for building visually from scratch, but it has a great list of resources for crafting good emails, including more places to find templates

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Now, the final appearance of these emails in Listmonk will depend on your own design and HTML + CSS skills... 😅 This is why the EmailBuilder.js integration will be a godsend, and help bridge the visual editing to code gap in Listmonk.

Before that, though, I was downloading and customizing free templates from those sites for my Listmonk instance just fine. :shrugs:

[odhiambo]

[MrSuddenJoy]

@odhiambo ChatGPT is not ideal. Especially with complex tasks like templating.......

[candidexmedia]

I'm glad you found a solution. Are you willing to share the code and template?

To add: ChatGPT requires personal data (an email and phone number to use), whereas the other services only need an email (which can be a disposable one, or an email mask).

[odhiambo]

[MrSuddenJoy]

@odhiambo why do you write CSS rules inside HTML document instead of just separating these two?
Oh, and btw, GitHub is not forum. Its code sharing/collaboration platform.......

[candidexmedia]

HTML+CSS for emails has different limitations and considerations than HTML+CSS for web pages: https://myemma.com/blog/css-in-html-emails-what-you-need-to-know-to-get-started/

External stylesheets and embedding CSS in the <head> (like the AI example) are not supported on every platform; those lines may be stripped or blocked in certain email clients. It's why inline CSS is preferred, and can be converted using an CSS inliner like this one: https://templates.mailchimp.com/resources/inline-css/

Here's a comprehensive list of what is and isn't supported in emails: https://www.caniemail.com/

Finding or designing templates that work across email clients and look good is tough.

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Forum-wise: GitHub is more than just code sharing and collaboration. We are conversing in the GitHub Discussions area of the Listmonk repo. GitHub Discussions was made to "ask questions, share ideas, and build connections".

The Listmonk developper added this feature to basically serve as a forum:

[MrSuddenJoy]

GitHub Discussions was made to "ask questions, share ideas, and build connections".

@candidexmedia well, thats true, but, still, technically speaking, GitHub Discussions are not discussion forum. Same way as you would not call Discourse proper forum engine (although its goal is similar).

[odhiambo]

[MrSuddenJoy]

Let me see how it should look when separated.

@odhiambo please see this Gist