Member Avatar for paptamas

Helo:)
I'm working on a new social network site, where users will receive an email when something important happends on their page (new private message, etc)

I need a cheap/free smtp server to send mails?
Can you suggest something?

Thank you;)

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by stevenpeter

Dani AI

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A quick practical summary tied to the thread: confirm exactly what your current host allows (hourly/day quotas, outgoing authentication and relay limits) — as suggested, that determines whether you need an external relay or simply a queuing/throttling layer. Estimate your peak notifications per hour so you can pick a provider that matches peaks without risking account suspension; if you consider using Google Workspace for low-volume sending, check its published sending limits first. ()

If an external service is the right move, pick a transactional provider (SMTP relay + API) rather than a consumer mailbox. Low‑cost, developer‑friendly options today include Amazon SES, Twilio SendGrid, Mailgun and Postmark — each offers SMTP relay + APIs, bounce/webhook support and tiered pricing or free trials so you can start small and scale. Compare pricing, deliverability features, and what they include for bounces/suppression lists before signing up. Amazon SES pricing | SendGrid pricing | Mailgun pricing | Postmark pricing. (aws.amazon.com)

Do the deliverability work up front: authenticate your sending domain (SPF/DKIM) and publish DMARC, send from a dedicated transactional subdomain, and plan for bounce and complaint processing. If you lease dedicated IPs, warm them up gradually. Providers document domain authentication and IP‑warmup steps — follow those guides rather than guessing. (dmarc.org)

Implementation tips you can apply right away: prefer the provider API over raw SMTP for reliability, implement a message queue with rate‑limiting and exponential backoff (handle 429s/Retry‑After), and wire provider webhooks to remove hard bounces/complaints automatically. Monitor delivery metrics and escalate to a dedicated IP or deliverability service only if inbox placement suffers. Example guides for retry/backoff and bounce dashboards are available from providers and API best‑practice docs. (zuplo.com)

Notes: for very small volumes a mailbox-based relay can work short‑term, but it’s not suitable for production notifications at scale.

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Member Avatar for Salem

Why can't the host you're on send emails?

If it can't, I can't see how it's fit for your purpose.

Member Avatar for paptamas

It can, but I have a 200 mail/hour limit, and sometimes it can be not enought.
So I need an external SMTP server.

Member Avatar for Salem

More than 4800 per day?
More than 33600 per week?

If not, it's just a scheduling problem.

And if you're willing to go for 'cheap', what's the next price break from your current host provider to allow more emails per time period?

A random hit from a search - https://www.edson.net/
They do an email only service for $30/pa
Scroll down to "EMAIL ONLY SERVICES"

Member Avatar for paptamas

Thank you Salem!
Probably I will work with edson.net

Member Avatar for avanthu

Google offers 2000 Daily mail sent limit for premium email accounts and it costs only 50-60 per year! I think its ideal for startup social networking sites .

If you want to go more go to smtp.com they offer excellent pricing

Edited by avanthu because: content added
Member Avatar for stevenpeter

Googles premier email account is better for that purpose .

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