If we compare different autoresponders that are currently on the market, we will see that they can be classified into one of the following groups: Remotely-hosted, Locally-hosted and Desktop-hosted autoresponders.

Let's talk about the pros and cons of each of these types of email autoresponder software.

Remotely-hosted autoresponder:

A remotely hosted autoresponder is hosted on another website, usually via a web-based subscription service.

The most important pro of this autoresponder is the ease of setting up and reliability.

There are many good autoresponder services to choose from. Users are usually charged a monthly subscription fee of about $20 per month.

The disadvantage is the inflexibility with no room for customization as the program is not hosted on your server and you do not have access to them.

Locally-hosted autoresponder:

Locally-hosted auto responder is hosted on your own web server, typically they come in a form of some script that you need to install on your hosting.

These usually involve the purchase or leasing of a program or script written in Perl, PHP or other scripts with a database backend e.g., mySQL, SQL2000 or Postgres. After installation, you use a web browser to access these programs, for example to set up or to run the program and to backup the subscribers list.

[spin]The use of these programs usually does not[|Most often these programs do notspin] require much knowledge of the scripting language it is written in.

You buy the program once and you can use it for life. There is no monthly subscription fee.

You can install this type of scripts yourself if you have the knowledge or you can request for help from the vendor to install it for you.

What makes this type of the mailing list manager a better choice is that they are flexible and have very powerful features. This is suitable if you have your own web server.

Desktop-hosted autoresponder:

A desktop-hosted autoresponder is run directly on your own PC.

To run this type of autoresponder, you need a dedicated computer with 24 hour access to the internet via a high speed connection.

As this is a software, it needs to be installed on your computer.

Desktop-hosted autoresponders are more suitable for non-professional marketers with a small subscriber list and not recommended for professional marketers who have a large subscriber list.

Conclusion:

Professional internet marketer with a large subscriber list and active newsletter internet marketing strategy should consider using a locally-hosted autoresponder and not a desktop autoresponder for the following reasons:

a. Technical reliability of a web server hosted autoresponder.
b. Easy to expand and customize so that you could meet growing demand by adding more autoresponder.
c. Can handle very large subscribe list.
d. No need for a dedicated computer with 24 hours internet access.

There is an option of a locally-hosted autoresponder to handle tasks such as subscription and following-up, and a desktop autoresponder to handle tasks such as sending email-on-demand or to respond to specific enquiries.