A busy few days: Apple apps and an agency edition
Paul O'Brien · 3 min read
Morning all,
It’s been a busy few days, so here’s a quick catch up.
Site Patrol is heading for the App Store
My first ever Apple apps, for iPhone, iPad and Mac, are nearly ready to be submitted to the App Store. It’s been a learning curve, but one I’ve enjoyed and embraced. I’m also really excited, as the apps round off Site Patrol nicely. You can check your sites, see what’s down and get alerts wherever you are.
One thing I left out above: the app also works on the Apple Watch. To be completely transparent, I don’t own one, so I tested it on my wife’s watch and it worked a treat.
Text message alerts are ready to switch on. The last piece of the jigsaw is WhatsApp alerts, which are waiting on approval from Meta, and I’m expecting that any day now.
Newsletter Sender’s agency edition is live
Newsletter Sender now has its agency edition live. If you’ve used Sendy, you’ll feel at home, as it’s very much a Sendy alternative. The big difference is where it runs. Sendy runs on your own server with PHP and MySQL, whereas Newsletter Sender is built to run on Cloudflare, on the Workers paid plan, which is $5 a month. That makes it far more stable, with no PHP edits, no MySQL log files running out of control and no server updates to worry about.
| Sendy | Newsletter Sender | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Your own server or web hosting, with PHP and MySQL | Your own Cloudflare account, with no server at all |
| Updating | Download the new version and replace every file | Deploy the new version and the database updates itself |
| Scheduled sends | Cron jobs on your server | Built in, Cloudflare runs them |
| Security patches | You keep PHP, MySQL and the server up to date | Cloudflare keeps the platform patched |
| Sending services | Amazon SES, plus SMTP | Amazon SES, Postmark, Mailgun, Brevo and Resend |
I’ve tested it with a send to 100,000 subscribers at 100 emails a second, and it finished in under 20 minutes. It has full bounce and complaint handling, link and open tracking you can switch on, automations and plenty more.
I send mine through Amazon SES, which costs a fraction of what you’d pay with the likes of Mailchimp. It also supports sending via Postmark, Mailgun, Brevo and Resend.
There’s a free solo edition you can install today and be sending your own newsletters in under 30 minutes. The agency edition supports multiple brands, each client gets their own login and sending limit, plus lots more besides.
Articles galore
I stockpiled some reviews for a rainy day, which, looking out of the window now, seems rather fitting, so I’ve been posting more regularly on paulobrien.com. To name a few:
- Google Keeps Asking Me to Verify It’s You: Why and How to Stop It
- Infomaniak Mail Review (2026): Swiss Business Email for Less Than Gmail
- Zoho Mail Review (2026): The Business Email Most People Often Overlook
- docker-mailserver Review (2026): A Mail Server in One Container, Configured by Files
Did you know I built a free app to move email between providers? Well, now you do. Email move copies a whole mailbox, up to 10 GB, and it’s free for members, so you just need a free account.
In brief
- ReaderCount now shows visits by town as well as by country, and it still doesn’t log IP addresses.
- Blog by Email lets your readers subscribe to your posts and get an email the moment your next masterpiece goes live.
Until next time, stay safe and wrap up warm. And remember, if the news going round 24/7 is getting you down, simply switch off, grab a cuppa and read one of my very interesting articles over at paulobrien.com.
As always, sharing the love.