8 alternatives to Yahoo Groups

Even before Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo, Yahoo Groups was in maintenance mode with no new development being done in years – but now they’re struggling to keep the lights on. The end is near for Yahoo Groups and now is the time to find a replacement groups alternative. All of these offer free email services and there is no need to pay to get the same functionality.

So if you’re currently running a group on Yahoo Groups and looking to move on, here’s a few suggestions for email groups:

• GroupList.io – Easy to set up and free for up to 200 recipients. Send secure, unbranded email from any email system to your group. Features include managing where replies are sent and who has permission to send them to the group, advanced spam filtering, and easy management of a shared inbox with team members. It works with any email client and email service, including, Yahoo mail, iCloud mail, Zoho mail, Aol mail, Gmail, and other free email accounts. With paid accounts, there are more features and also the option to add custom domains and keep track of advanced mailing lists.

• Microsot 365 – A modern take on the traditional Listserv.  You get all the benefits of your own group email address with the ability to configure and customise how your group behaves all wrapped up in an easy-to-use, modern web interface that anyone can use and backed with customer support for when you need help.

• Google Groups – This is an obvious choice as a leading search engine for your web browser, it’s Google’s equivalent of Yahoo Groups with much the same functionality.  You have to bear in mind Google’s main business is advertising and they will be scanning your group’s messages in order the show ads.  Their emailing into and out of the group isn’t as good as Yahoo’s and you and your members will need Google accounts to participate. It does integrate well with Google Drive if you happen to use that for cloud storage and extra storage space, it might make it easier to share files.

• Facebook Groups – Given Facebook’s ubiquity it’s a popular choice for it’s community platforms.  If you’re happy living in Facebook’s closed platform and their advertising-based model then there’s lots of functionality.  Photo sharing, unlimited storage, and event planning are all mature and user-friendly features.

• OnlineGroups.net – Think of this as a paid-for Yahoo Groups replacement.  It has lots of features of the free service but it comes with a substantial cost.  If you really need everything that Yahoo Groups does and don’t mind paying then this is one to look at.

• LSoft Listserv – If you currently take advantage of Yahoo Group’s ability to post by email and receive posts via email then a Listserv could be what you need.  It’s a group email platform with no advertising that gives you the ability to run it as you see fit.  You can either use a hosted service or host your own.  Hosting your own Listserv does require some technical knowledge but it is cheaper than using a hosted service to manage groups of people.

• Mail-list.com – For over 20 years Mail-list.com has been providing a group email discussion solution.  It has lots of features including message moderation and a searchable archive (at a price) but it is starting to show its age and can be expensive for larger groups.

• FreeLists – For a completely free group email option there is FreeLists.  It’s been around for over 15 years and allows completely free discussion groups.  It has quite basic functionality with quite a rudimentary interface but you can do the basics like keep people posted on group events – and it’s free!