Our verdict on Dada Mail

Dada Mail suits a small adult site on shared hosting that can run Perl scripts and wants a simple newsletter without renting a VPS, as long as it can live with software that is barely maintained. It installs through a web wizard and sends via the host’s mail server, SMTP or Amazon SES.

For a list meant to grow, the lack of a new release in three years is a real risk, especially after Gmail and Yahoo tightened their bulk sender rules.

Dada Mail home page announcing “Dada Mail 11 is here!” next to a demo list’s subscriber view in the control panel — Dada Mail

Dada Mail pricing: free, $150 a year or $300 for life

The free version allows three lists and comes with no support. Pro Dada costs $150 for one year or $300 once for the life of the project, and removes the list and subscriber limits. The free subscriber cap contradicts itself on the same page: 100 per list in the plan grid, 5,000 in the body text.

Pro Dada adds the manual, online or as a PDF, and ticket support for one installation. There are no refunds unless your login never arrives, so the live demo is the trial. The team also installs Dada Mail for $100 to $400 depending on the subscription included, with a 14-day money-back guarantee on that service.

Is Dada Mail still maintained?

The latest release, 11.22.0, shipped in September 2023, and the main code branch has not changed since November 2023. The last blog post, in January 2024, covered Gmail and Yahoo’s new SPF, DKIM and DMARC requirements. The GitHub repository, opened in 2008, has 169 open issues. The project is run by Justin Simoni, with no company listed.

Hosting requirements

Dada Mail needs a Unix or Linux server, Perl 5.10.1 or later and a web server that runs CGI scripts. It is tested with MySQL 5.7, PostgreSQL 8 and SQLite 3, and never on Windows. Many shared hosts meet that, so no VPS is required.

How Dada Mail sends

Dada Mail hands delivery to the server’s sendmail, an SMTP account or the Amazon SES API. Sending speed and deliverability therefore come from the relay you pick, along with the SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup.