Free Gmail mail merge with Sheets

There are several mail merges applications where you can merge information from Google:s "Sheets"(GS), but not so may free ones that are good.

The point using mail merge is that you can personalize your outgoing mails and you will fore sure get a better response rate.  

There should also be said that if you are having a free Gmail account you are limited to 100 outgoing mails per 24 hours.

The first application, free !, handles the merge via a GS with a built in JavaScript macro and in the second application, 25 free mails per 24 hours(limit in app), the merge is done via an installed GS add-on with many nice functions.

JavaScript Solution

The first solution is done by Martin Hawksey, described here, and you can also find additional information in his blogpost.

I have used it for some time and would like to add 

Thought 1

In the instructions list item "6. When prompted......." it could be worth mentioning that the "Subject" itself is the key for retrieving the right document from the "Draft" message. If not spelled right you will get an "Error: Oops - can't find Gmail draft"

Thought 2

If you don't want to send e-mails when testing you can edit the script so it creates the output in the Draft folder instead. In the Sheet change the script via "Tools => Script editor".  Find the row

"GmailApp.sendEmail(row[RECIPIENT_COL], msgObj.subject, msgObj.text, {"  

and change it to 

"GmailApp.createDraft(row[RECIPIENT_COL], msgObj.subject, msgObj.text, {"

and save

Google Sheet add-on

The other application is well documented and more sophisticated. It uses the same merge function so you can use same syntax substituting the fields from GS. 

Besides the documentation, at above link, you can also watch a fresh video at YouTube