Important Changes to Mandrill

SQLIK

Active Member
Mail form Mandrill Team.

Going forward, all Mandrill users will be required to have a paid monthly MailChimp account and verify ownership of all sending domains. Here's the timeline: Starting 3/16, all new Mandrill users will create accounts through MailChimp, and current Mandrill users can merge their existing Mandrill account with a monthly MailChimp account. Current users will have until 4/27 to merge their accounts.

Why we're making this change

The MailChimp team built Mandrill in 2012 as a transactional email tool. Mandrill has always been under the MailChimp umbrella, but it has functioned as a completely separate product. Mandrill is now becoming an optional add-on to paid MailChimp accounts. This is a strategic change we're making to close the gap between the two products and focus on the MailChimp marketing platform. MailChimp is designed for marketing, and Mandrill is designed for transactional messages. Each is powerful on its own, and offering Mandrill as an add-on makes MailChimp even more powerful for our small business and e-commerce customers. Our CEO and cofounder Ben Chestnut wrote more about the changes on the MailChimp blog.

What you need to know

The application's functionality and look and feel are not changing at this time. Here are the important changes that will affect your account:

  • Starting today, Mandrill will adopt MailChimp's Terms of Use and Acceptable Use Policy. These terms reinforce that Mandrill should be used for transactional email, and bulk email/email marketing campaigns should be sent through MailChimp. In addition, MailChimp's Privacy Policy, which has always covered Mandrill, has been updated. If you have any questions about our policy changes, please email legal@mailchimp.com.
  • To continue using Mandrill, all users will be required to have a paid monthly MailChimp account by 4/27.
  • All Mandrill users will be required to verify their sending domains and add SPF and DKIM records by 4/27. This is already in effect for new Mandrill users.
  • Starting 3/16, all new Mandrill accounts will be created and accessed through MailChimp.
  • Starting 3/16, the Mandrill mobile application will no longer be available for installation. It will remain functional for existing users until 4/27.
  • Our billing and pricing model is also changing. MailChimp will generate one consolidated bill that covers your MailChimp and Mandrill charges. Mandrill credits will be sold in blocks of 25,000 emails. Blocks will start at $20 per month. This goes into effect once your accounts are merged.
  • Any existing discounts, free credits, and free accounts will no longer be valid once your accounts are merged.
What you need to do

  • If you already have a paid monthly MailChimp account, you’ll be able to merge your accounts starting on 3/16. We’ll send detailed instructions at that time.
  • If you don't have a paid monthly MailChimp account and decide to create one, you can go to mailchimp.com and do so at any time. You'll be able to merge your accounts starting on 3/16. We'll send detailed instructions at that time.
  • If you haven't already done so, you'll need to add SPF and DKIM records and verify ownership of your sending domains. Here's an article explaining how to do that. Starting 4/27, Mandrill will not send any email from unverified domains or domains without valid SPF and DKIM records, including public domains like gmail.com and yahoo.com.
If you don't have a paid monthly MailChimp account merged with your Mandrill account by 4/27, then your Mandrill account will be disabled.

If you have questions or need technical support, please log in to your Mandrill account and click Support in your dashboard. We've made support available to all users on free and paid accounts.

We know this is disruptive, and we understand that it may affect your decision to use Mandrill. Please know that we carefully considered these changes. The new structure will allow us to create more flexible products and better serve our customers. Thanks for using Mandrill, and we hope to welcome you to MailChimp soon.

- The Mandrill team
 
I saw this today when logged into the mandrill account since i am using mandrill a lot.
It's bad news but i am not going to go along with what they decided, so personally i will be switching to sparkpost from now on.
 
Yes, it's really bad news. My case is the same as yours. Now I'm already on Sparkpost and Sendgrid.
Head of MailChimp in his entry on MailChimp blog hit between the lines in solutions such as MW:
Today, some customers want a transactional email service to be a utility—like a “dumb pipe” or ISP that very quickly and efficiently delivers emails, and only delivers emails.
 
@SQLIK - well, it's entirely their choice, they'll lose a lot of customers because of this.
As long as we have alternatives (sparkpost / mailgun/ dynemail / etc) it really doesn't matter what they do...
What surprises me is that they do all this silently, they should at least have sent an email or something.
 
they should at least have sent an email or something
They sent emails today to Mandrill members. It does not change the fact that many users chose them just for those features that are cutting today. I only hope that others like Sparkpost not follow in their footsteps.
 
Try Sparkpost. more chance to be inbox! (I've tested both mandrill and sparkpost, mandrill near 10% open rate and sparkpost 20% open rate with same message)
 
Yup - I got the dreaded email from them today.

As soon as you think you have finally found a solution that offers good inbox rate they decide to change.

has anyone used Mailgun? - The provide 10k emails free every month but if you signup from google cloud compute then you get 30k free emails a month https://www.mailgun.com/google Ive just signed incase they change things after the mandrill announcement.. Im guessing many of these smtp providers will see loads of new signups
 
For info, i just notice that SparkPost just remove ( today) the intermediate Plan ( between the free account and the Pro account) We are now forced to take the $44.99 /month Plan at minimum.
 
and the $44.99 package now gives you 200k emails - I tried to signup to the express package using the google cache page - but it didnt work :-(

here is the old pricing table I managed to get of google cache
sparkpost.png
 
Hey there, have a question :)

If I use Sparkpost to route emails from MW, will MW be able to track bounces/fbl etc without any further modification ?
 
If I use Sparkpost to route emails from MW, will MW be able to track bounces/fbl etc without any further modification ?
Yes :)
Webhooks___SparkPost.png

But remember - SparkPost don't allow 'from' email spoofing.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: VVT
Back
Top