Colossus’ documentation

Colossus is a free and open source email marketing application. It’s a self-hosted Web application that can be used with any SMTP email service provider.

Quickstart

If you want to have a quick look or just run the project locally, you can get started by either forking this repository or just cloning it directly:

git clone https://github.com/vitorfs/colossus.git

Ideally, create a virtualenv and install the projects dependencies:

pip install -r requirements/development.txt

Create a local database:

python manage.py migrate

Create a user account:

python manage.py createsuperuser

Start development server:

python manage.py runserver

Go to the login page on your browser:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/accounts/login/

PS: Campaign scheduling will not work out-of-the-box. You need to install a message broker and setup Celery properly.

Features

In this page you will find an overview of features available on Colossus and a few screenshots of some of its features.

Overview

  • Create and manage multiple mailing lists;
  • Import lists from other providers (csv files or paste email addresses);
  • Create reusable email templates;
  • Customize sign up pages (subscribe, unsubscribe, thank you page, etc.);
  • Default double opt-in for sign ups;
  • Schedule email campaign to send on a specific date and time;
  • Track email opens and clicks;
  • Change link URL after email is sent;
  • Reports with geolocation;
  • Compatible with Mailgun, SendGrid, Mandrill, or any other SMTP email service.

Screenshots

Create new campaign page:

Colossus new campaign

Compose emails using a rich text editor:

Colossus email rich text editor

Campaign listing page. Each campaign is an email you sent to your mailing list:

Colossus campaigns page

View reports how your campaign is performing:

Colossus campaign reports

Import subscribers from other services like MailChimp or SendGrid. With Colossus you can import emails in any format by defining to which field each column should be save:

Colossus import subscribers

Create customizable email templates to be used in campaigns:

Colossus email template

Modules

Here you will find general information about the Django apps that compose the Colossus project.

Campaigns

The campaigns app holds all the code related to sending emails to subscribers.

Core

The core app is responsible for managing installation settings and holding code used across the entire project, such as template tags.

Lists

The lists apps is responsible for managing the mailing lists and subscription forms.

Subscribers

The subscribers app store the lists subscribers information and activities (e.g. opens, clicks). It is also the interface with the external world.

Templates

The templates app is responsible for managing email templates customization used to send emails to subscribers.