Having difficulty choosing the best SMTP service provider on MailBluster?
Sending emails on MailBluster has been ported to two more email providers, but what is the best email service to choose for yourself?
Choosing the best SMTP service requires considering their platform, pricing, features, and assurance of uninterrupted service, which is at the top of the chart that matters.
Additionally, it is surprising that more than half of the marketing professionals reported that the ROI of their email campaigns has shown a 100 percent improvement. Moreover, the United States alone is the highest email sender, with almost 10 billion, according to a survey.
So, email marketing is a widespread channel these days, and there is a lot to choose from the email provider’s perspective. Hence, we are heading to select the best SMTP email service on MailBluster. Read on!
Table of contents
- What does SMTP stand for?
- Choosing SMTP: What should you keep in mind?
- Overview of MailBluster’s SMTP service providers
- Getting Started on MailBluster: Choosing the best SMTP service provider
- Choosing the best SMTP provider: Which one should you pick?
- FAQs
- Wrap Up
What does SMTP stand for?
SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It refers to the SMTP servers for bulk emailing or sending emails to recipients that use SMTP relay servers to reach and deliver them with more accuracy.
Some free SMTP services like Gmail or Outlook provide limited sending capacity, and bulk email sending without spam is quite impossible. Therefore, users prefer dedicated SMTP servers, such as Postmark, Mailgun, or Amazon SES, for bulk emailing.
So, what service is provided by the SMTP?
SMTP providers use TCP/IP protocol to send emails from a server to another, which is received by the recipient. These protocols are sets of rules that define how email is routed and sent through services like SMTP relays to relay the email to the specific recipient’s mail server.
Then, email servers inspect the email for delivery. If it is not delivered, the server attempts another delivery following the protocols and rules set by the specific SMTP provider. Additionally, emails utilize DMARC, SPF, and DKIM to prevent being directed to spam.
Choosing an SMTP service provider: What should you keep in mind
Choosing the best SMTP service for email marketing is not a hard nut to crack. While providing more trusted and reliable service is invaluable, SMTP should contain efficient deliverability, an easy-to-use platform, and effective security features.
Additionally, setting up an SMTP server with greater convenience is of utmost importance, especially if the documentation on setup is provided and adequate customer support is available for resolving issues.
Overview of MailBluster’s SMTP service providers
| SMTP Provider | Best For | Free Plan | Features | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon SES | Cost-effective email sending, high deliverability | The free plan provides sending 3K emails monthly for 1 year | API access, SMTP, Virtual deliverability manager, Email security | 0.10 per 1000 emails Pay-as-you-go tier |
| Postmark | High deliverability, SMTP service, Transactional & Marketing email delivery | Free Developer plan includes 100 emails per month forever | SMTP, Message streams, Integration, Security | Basic, Pro, and Platform tiers start from $15 to $138, depending on the number of emails |
| Mailgun | Transactional email delivery, Deliverability management | Only 100 emails per day | API access, Email deliverability, Mailgun optimization | Basic, Foundation, and Scale tiers start from $15 to $90, depending on the number of emails |
Let’s proceed to the SMTP service provider details in the next section to gain a better understanding of their services. This will help you identify the best SMTP service to choose on MailBluster.
Getting started on MailBluster: choosing the best SMTP service provider
Feeling indecisive about which SMTP to choose on MailBluster?
Don’t worry; this section will help you make an accurate choice on SMTP hosting service. Previously, MailBluster only had Amazon SES included in the SMTP provider. Recently, two other potential SMTP providers have been added, Postmark and Mailgun.
These SMTP providers have some unique features and convenience that will help you improve your email delivery, and they feature the best email server for mass emailing for sending transactional or marketing emails.
Let’s find out which one features or suits you the best in terms of their service.
1Amazon SES
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Finding the cheapest SMTP server to send thousands of emails?
You are in the right place. For years, Amazon SES has been a trusted name for businesses for bulk emailing. Additionally, their convenient SMTP setup, especially the ability to send thousands of emails without any cost, makes them one of the best free SMTP services on the market.
But the downsides are a lot here! Amazon SES is not for beginners. It’s especially for developers who can create or program certain features to send emails. Yes, more features need to be implemented here due to a lack of built-in Amazon AWS features like tracking, creating emails, or even building an email template. You need to connect the Amazon API to create an email template.
They provide comprehensive details and documentation on how to configure, send, and receive emails using the Amazon AWS email service. Most importantly, their pricing is the most competitive, which is a key factor in Amazon SES’s immense popularity.
Features
iSend emails with several options
Amazon SES offers several options for sending emails for your email marketing campaigns. Use Amazon SMTP, SDK, or API to send emails.
iiVirtual Deliverability Manager
Virtual deliverability is a key feature of Amazon SES. Enhance your email deliverability with this feature for improved email sending.
iiiSecurity management
The security management feature is the standard SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication process that every SMTP email marketing tool typically includes. Amazon SES processes every email through its server with this authentication procedure.
ivReputation dashboard
Amazon SES includes Amazon CloudWatch, which monitors the bounce rate, spam rates, and other email delivery issues.
Pros
- Cheapest costs for email marketing
- Send unlimited bulk emails
- Easy SMTP setup & deployment
- Dedicated IPs as a value-added service
Cons
- Complex setup process
- Requires an advanced user for the setup process
- Complex pricing
- The deliverability manager requires more costing
- Customer support is unreachable sometimes
Pricing
Amazon SES offers two tiers: Free and Pay-as-you-go.
Free tier includes sending 3000 emails per month for 1 year
Pay-as-you-go tier includes 0.10/1000 emails.
These pricing tiers are the basic costing for sending and receiving emails on Amazon SES. Their pricing structure is more complex, with add-ons that depend on the number of emails you send.
For more → details on Amazon SES pricing.
However, you can send emails without programming, coding, or tracking issues with MailBluster. Send emails with the MailBluster app while connecting your Amazon SES account and use essential email marketing features on MailBluster that cover your email marketing with a cost-effective solution.
Learn more about → Connecting Amazon SES with MailBluster
See the combined pricing → MailBluster and Amazon SES pricing combo.
2Postmark
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Looking for a high-deliverability and user-friendly SMTP provider for bulk email?
Postmark is a great choice here. Postmark features a user-friendly interface that allows beginners to configure this SMTP bulk email service provider easily.
After setting up all the essentials, you need to send an approval request to the customer service to start sending emails. Once approved, you can begin sending emails immediately.
Also, they have all the necessary documentation to guide every user, whether you are on the free or paid tier. Additionally, dedicated IPs are available as add-ons, but they incur additional costs to your tier.
The downside is that the Postmark doesn’t have an email composer or a convenient email template-building option for beginners. Only developers can generate/compose email here.
Features
iMessage streams
Message streams is one of the popular features of Postmark. This feature identifies the type of email you are sending, such as bulk emailing or transactional emails, and ensures high email deliverability.
iiTemplate builder
This feature is not for beginners. The template builder of this app is inclined towards developers, and no basic users can use this feature to create templates.
iiiAdd domain or Sender signature
This feature lets you add a single email through the verification process, or you can use any email from a single domain. The domain verification requires expert interference to work on adding DKIM, SPF, and DMARC.
Pros
- High email deliverability
- Simple interface for beginners
- Easy to set up SMTP
- Send transactional or marketing emails
Cons
- Expensive email tiers for small or individual marketers
- Dedicated IPs are costly
- No visual email editor
- Free developer mode for testing only
- Only the Platform tier has an unlimited SMTP server
- Developer mode lets you send 100 emails/month
Pricing
Postmark app has three pricing tiers –
The pricing below increases when the number of emails exceeds a specific limit, such as sending 10k emails will cost you $15. If it reaches the 10,000 mark in a month and you need to send more, this will incur an additional $1.80 per 1,000 emails. Additionally, sending 50k or 100k emails will cause you to fall into the more expensive tiers. Take a look –
- Basic for 10k emails – $15/month – $1.80 extra per 1000 emails when 10k exceeds/month
- Pro for 50k emails – 60.50/month – $1.30 extra per 1000 emails when 50k exceeds/ month
- Platform for 125k emails – $138/month – $1.20 extra per 1000 emails when 125k exceeds/month
Their pricing tiers are too expensive for small or individual marketers. Rather, the pricing tier is more inclined towards enterprise or industry-level businesses that have an email tool without SMTP.
However, MailBluster contains all the email marketing features that beginners can operate. Unlike Postmark, MailBluster includes automation, integration, a visual drag-and-drop email builder, A/B testing, and more exclusive features.
So, start connecting Postmark with MailBluster and send highly engaging emails at a low cost with high deliverability!
Learn more about → Connecting Postmark with MailBluster
See the combined pricing → MailBluster and Postmark pricing combo
3Mailgun
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Want to send transactional emails with high deliverability?
Mailgun is your source. This SMTP email marketing app is filled with interactive features for email marketers and developers. Mailgun has an easy setup process. The DMARC verification may require you to verify it only with an upgrade to a higher pricing tag. That’s a setback for an SMTP provider.
Apart from that, Mailgun has covered most of the email marketing features, unlike Postmark and Amazon SES. However, most features are basic and require an advanced user or developer to use.
All pages have feature documentation, and sometimes a link is attached to it to provide new users with valuable information about features.
Features
iMailgun API
Send thousands of emails through Mailgun’s API and its efficient SMTP relay. Mailgun’s API offers optimized email routing and parsing that make email communication simpler. Mailgun’s API has a 300 requests per minute per account rate limitation. Also, deploy SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for deliverability and maintaining email compliance.
iiEmail routing
Get rid of the email clutter using the intuitive parsing of inbound routes. It cleanses the unnecessary data in your email solution. This helps you obtain the most relevant information rather than wading through a lengthy email thread and collecting signatures.
iiiDedicated IPs
Dedicated IPs let you send emails on demand and send bulk emails. This also ensures increased deliverability for your email sending and immediately extends your email capacity.
Pros
- Many features for tracking and authorizing emails
- Strong deliverability with in-built tools
- Nice, intuitive dashboard for the free tier
- Easy connect with the API for developers
Cons
- Expensive pricing tiers when email sending goes higher
- Lots of features, but a very basic interface
- Most features are intended for developers
- DNS verification might face difficulty when on the free tier
Pricing
Mailgun has four pricing tiers –
They are also quite similar to Postmark, but Mailgun offers a free tier, and the price increases when email sending volume reaches its peak. Take a look –
- Free – $0 per month – 100 emails per day
- Basic – $15 per month for 10k emails
- Foundation – $35 per month for 50k emails
- Scale – $90 per month for 100k emails
Additionally, features such as dedicated IPs or Spam trap monitoring require more when you need their value-added services.
On the bright side, MailBluster has dedicated and in-built features like automation, segmentation, easy drag-and-drop email builder, real-time tracking & reports, and many more interactive features that require no advanced users.
So, connect MailBluster with Mailgun and start sending emails with high deliverability and advanced features.
Learn more about → Connecting Mailgun with MailBluster
See the combined pricing → MailBluster and Mailgun pricing combo
Choosing the best SMTP service provider: Which one should you pick?
So, still thinking which one is the best SMTP email service?
After a comprehensive review of the different email SMTP providers, we can pick one. But it also depends on what kind of business you run, how many emails you need to send, and how much you can spend on email marketing.
So, considering these scenarios –
- High email deliverability – Postmark & Mailgun
- Cheapest cost for email sending – Amazon SES
- Provide Instant setup & sending – Postmark
- Transactional email sending – Mailgun
- Transactional & marketing email sending – Postmark & Mailgun
- Best free tier mail server – Amazon SES
- Best Instant SMTP service – Postmark
- Best service based on user review – Postmark
- Best SMTP service based on rating – Postmark
Based on these criteria, you can choose the best SMTP service provider or the one that suits your business.
FAQs
Open relay SMTP server. Anyone can access the open relay SMTP servers, so spammers use them.
SMTP refers to the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, which enables you to send emails to another server and receive email messages from a server.
It usually depends on the software or the service you are using for the SMTP service. Check their guide or documentation to find SMTP server.
An SMTP server address is the address of a mail server that handles email communication. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol – used by mail servers to send, receive, and relay outgoing emails.
An SMTP relay service is an application managed by a third party that transfers email from one server to another or to the right recipients. Also, the service helps you to send bulk emails through the routing on their servers.
To set up an SMTP server, you need to install MailServer, set localhost, configure it by TCP and IP ports, set protocols, security, and finally test the feature for accuracy. There will be additional steps in between the setups depending on the server you are using.
Setup your free mail server that includes a free-tier cloud service with hardware. Additionally, you need to purchase a domain name with an IP address.
You can’t entirely block an email address on Gmail; it will still receive emails, and these emails will be directed to the spam folder.
It usually depends on the software or the service you are using for the SMTP service. It is located in the account information settings, where you can find SMTP servers.
Access to these servers requires your username, password, server configurations like ports, encryptions, hosts, and authentication. It depends on the service provider what credentials you need to access as well.
Incoming mail servers hold the sender’s email message using the POP3, IMAP, or POP protocols. When the recipient opens the email, it is marked as delivered to the intended recipient.
Wrap Up
That’s a wrap! When you’re stuck on choosing the best SMTP service provider for your business, this guide will help you find one. You can find many SMTP relay servers and free SMTP service providers for your business, but which one will help you hit your ultimate goal is the main concern here.
Discover the most suitable, moderate pricing, and modern features with great amenities that cater to your needs and preferences. MailBluster has all the modern features with interactive visuals. Just connect your preferred SMTP service and enjoy sending emails right away!
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