Any email APIs that are free and easy to use?

Sultan Mustafa

Sultan Mustafa

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So I'm busy with my final project with one of my subjects (using LAMP stack), which requires emails to be sent.

I've tried EmailJS, the PHPMailer example in the prescribed book, and the PHPMailer latest from GitHub. Nothing works, I've never received a single mail. Even tho the functions might fire, and requests are logged...

Are there any free (freemium at worst) and easy to use Email APIs I could use to deal with this?
 
Email needs a domain

Do you have Gmail? If so, configure phpmailer to use the Gmail smtp + auth
 
_kabal_ said:
Email needs a domain

Do you have Gmail? If so, configure phpmailer to use the Gmail smtp + auth
Click to expand...
That is exactly what I used...

Switched between 465 and 587 for ports...

Nothing, still haven't received a single mail despite the function that I house all the code in fires without an error...
 
Sultan Mustafa said:
So I'm busy with my final project with one of my subjects (using LAMP stack), which requires emails to be sent.

I've tried EmailJS, the PHPMailer example in the prescribed book, and the PHPMailer latest from GitHub. Nothing works, I've never received a single mail. Even tho the functions might fire, and requests are logged...

Are there any free (freemium at worst) and easy to use Email APIs I could use to deal with this?
Click to expand...
Azure communication service and Azure email service are pay as you go and very affordable. You can send email using API or SMTP. Its a bit of a mind bend to set up but easy once you've done it once.
You can use the built in domain you get from Azure, but you will likely want to use your own which is easy to set up.
Just remember that modern email needs DKIM, SPF and DMARC to be configured to work well when paired with your own domain.
 
Willie Trombone said:
Azure communication service and Azure email service are pay as you go and very affordable. You can send email using API or SMTP. Its a bit of a mind bend to set up but easy once you've done it once.
You can use the built in domain you get from Azure, but you will likely want to use your own which is easy to set up.
Just remember that modern email needs DKIM, SPF and DMARC to be configured to work well when paired with your own domain.
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How's SendGrid (ChatGPT also recommended it to me)?
 
Willie Trombone said:
I'm sure it works fine, I've used it and similar services before, but found that their servers are occasionally flagged as spam.
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SendGrid should almost never end up being flagged as spam unless the email content is so sus that it's single-handedly causing spam filters to take notice. Could be SendGrid is misconfigured or there's an issue with the specific address that is sending mail.

Postmark is by far my favourite sending service. But if you want a really awesome free option, Mailgun has a free tier in their Flexi Plan or whatever it's called that allows 1,000 emails a month. They don't advertise it. You have to start a 30 day free trial for a paid account, and then cancel it. You'll be able to continue with 1,000 monthly emails. I use it with a specific customer that I don't want on my Postmark account, and it works great.
 
Bryn said:
SendGrid should almost never end up being flagged as spam unless the email content is so sus that it's single-handedly causing spam filters to take notice. Could be SendGrid is misconfigured or there's an issue with the specific address that is sending mail.

Postmark is by far my favourite sending service. But if you want a really awesome free option, Mailgun has a free tier in their Flexi Plan or whatever it's called that allows 1,000 emails a month. They don't advertise it. You have to start a 30 day free trial for a paid account, and then cancel it. You'll be able to continue with 1,000 monthly emails. I use it with a specific customer that I don't want on my Postmark account, and it works great.
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Oh sendgrid, like all bulk mailers, have their servers flagged for sending spam regularly. It’s the nature of their business.

 
Willie Trombone said:
I'm sure it works fine, I've used it and similar services before, but found that their servers are occasionally flagged as spam.
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It's fine as long as it works and actually sends mails when requested...

It's just my final assignment and will be put on my GitHub portfolio, it's not "for real", if I can put it that way.
 
Willie Trombone said:
Oh sendgrid, like all bulk mailers, have their servers flagged for sending spam regularly. It’s the nature of their business.
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No premium mail sending service should ever end up in spam folders unless it’s the sender’s fault with their behaviour or content. There are no excuses, ever. It’s their job to manage their IP addresses and their reputations. That’s all you’re really paying for. I’ve used SendGrid, SES and Postmark for many years and had zero issues relating to reputation that was on the service side of the equation. This is why these companies react so violently to bad sending etiquette.
 
Bryn said:
No premium mail sending service should ever end up in spam folders unless it’s the sender’s fault with their behaviour or content. There are no excuses, ever. It’s their job to manage their IP addresses and their reputations. That’s all you’re really paying for. I’ve used SendGrid, SES and Postmark for many years and had zero issues relating to reputation that was on the service side of the equation. This is why these companies react so violently to bad sending etiquette.
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It’s not up to the sender, it’s the receiver that decides. You know how this stuff works, right?
 
@Sultan Mustafa I can generate you one on one of my domains and keep it around till end of December, as a fellow dev.
Just don't make me regret trying to help.
 
Willie Trombone said:
It’s not up to the sender, it’s the receiver that decides. You know how this stuff works, right?
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In terms of deliverability, it should have nothing to do with the receiver. They can flag items as spam all they want, it won’t negatively impact other recipients if your setup and behaviour checks out, and your sending service is doing its job.

Over and above that, your analytics should show any recipients who are on a bizarre reporting mission and you can just delete them from the list if it makes you feel better.

I’ve been doing this for a while bud. There’s no way you can say your deliverability is up to recipients. It’s up to you as the sender.
 
Bryn said:
In terms of deliverability, it should have nothing to do with the receiver. They can flag items as spam all they want, it won’t negatively impact other recipients if your setup and behaviour checks out, and your sending service is doing its job.

Over and above that, your analytics should show any recipients who are on a bizarre reporting mission and you can just delete them from the list if it makes you feel better.

I’ve been doing this for a while bud. There’s no way you can say your deliverability is up to recipients. It’s up to you as the sender.
Click to expand...
How does your service provider control deliverability to my service provider? You can scrub things and make them as squeaky clean as you like, if my SP scores it badly because yours is on a bad senders list, it’s going to spam.

Bulk senders work harder than most to guarantee delivery. Nobody can guarantee it quite simply because its not all on the sender.

It’s likely to be a pool IP on a Sendgrid free package. Good luck with guaranteeing deliverability with that.
 
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