List of free SMTP relay providers for transactional emails

Freek · May 2020

Below is a list of SMTP relay providers that offer free plans for transactional emails. Perfect for sending logfiles to your email without having to setup a SMTP server

I made this list for personal use but might as well share it here. Feel free to list your additions in the comments.

Provider	Free emails/mo	DC Location(s)	Remarks
SMTP2GO.com	1000	USA & EU	Outstanding support, new way of managing SPF & DKIM records using CNAME.
MailJet.com	6000	EU/France	Horrible support, can't even fend off phising attacks sent using their own infrastructure.
SendGrid.com	3000	USA
Pepipost.com	3000	?	No 2FA login. What is this, amateur hour?
SendInBlue.com	3000	EU
Mailgun.com	1250	USA/EU	Use Flex plan and stay below $1, see mikho's post below

mikho · May 2020

If I remember correct, Mailgun changed it back to FREE. If you manage to keep the invoice to less than $0.80.

That is ~1000 emails if I remember the email correct.

Freek · May 2020

@mikho said:
If I remember correct, Mailgun changed it back to FREE. If you manage to keep the invoice to less than $0.80.

That is ~1000 emails if I remember the email correct.

Thanks for the addition! It looks like the Mailgun Free plan has been discontinued and replaced by the Flex plan:
https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/203068914-What-Are-the-Differences-Between-the-Free-and-Flex-Plans-

So I'm not quite sure if it's really free, even if you stay under $0.80

mikho · May 2020

@Freek said:

@mikho said:
If I remember correct, Mailgun changed it back to FREE. If you manage to keep the invoice to less than $0.80.

That is ~1000 emails if I remember the email correct.

Thanks for the addition! It looks like the Mailgun Free plan has been discontinued and replaced by the Flex plan:
https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/203068914-What-Are-the-Differences-Between-the-Free-and-Flex-Plans-

So I'm not quite sure if it's really free, even if you stay under $0.80

I'm on the Flex plan and I got this email on May 21st - (found the mail now)

Hey there,
Do you like getting invoices for $0.04? We don't like sending them! Starting June 2020, we will no longer charge for amounts less than $1 as we are instituting a $1 minimum fee instead. Now when you send 1,251 or more messages (equivalent to $1 worth at $0.80 per 1,000 emails), we start billing.

What does this mean for you?

If you send fewer than 1,250 email messages in a given month, you will receive an invoice for $0, and there will be no balance rolled over. If you send more than 1,250 emails, you will be charged $1.00 at 1,251 messages (consistent with your plan’s $0.80 per thousand email price rate), and $0.80 per thousand for anything beyond 1,251.

InceptionHosting · May 2020

this is a good reminder to drop mandrillapp/mailchimp, I have been planning it for ages but never got around to it, they are a pile of turd these days.

Freek · May 2020

@mikho Thanks, added to the list

mikho · June 2020

Guess I spoke to soon.

Got this note on my invoice.

Note: invoices of less than $0.50 will not be charged and will continue to aggregate until a balance of $0.50 or greater is achieved.

TheDP · June 2020

https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/84/list-of-email-service-providers-with-free-plans-tiers

Nyr · June 2020

@Freek said: SPF & DKIM records using CNAME

This is also the case with SendGrid.

corey · June 2020

Yeah I've been using https://www.mailjet.com/pricing/ for a bit and not too happy with their support. Their replies are mostly "well sorry, you're screwed" but it works good enough for now.

mikho · June 2020

@thedp said:
https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/84/list-of-email-service-providers-with-free-plans-tiers

Both these threads should be combined into a wiki page. Easier to maintain.
@AnthonySmith : will there be a wiki section on LES? Perhaps name it LESW(hat)?

flips · June 2020

@Nyr said:
[...] SendGrid.

My impression from mxroute support chat reports, are that quite a few emails sent using sendgrid free are sent using IP's blocked by SpamCop ... (Or: The free plan are used for a lot of spamming, hence you will be blocked some of the time ...)

InceptionHosting · June 2020

@mikho said:

@thedp said:
https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/84/list-of-email-service-providers-with-free-plans-tiers

Both these threads should be combined into a wiki page. Easier to maintain.
@AnthonySmith : will there be a wiki section on LES? Perhaps name it LESW(hat)?

yeah good plan, will take a look into that tomorrow.

Nyr · June 2020

@flips said: My impression from mxroute support chat reports, are that quite a few emails sent using sendgrid free are sent using IP's blocked by SpamCop ...

This is a problem with many others too (Postmark comes to mind).

Freek · June 2020

@thedp said:
https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/84/list-of-email-service-providers-with-free-plans-tiers

Aah, that's a very nice list. Best indeed to incorporate the two into a Wiki as mentioned, as I can't update my initial post anymore

@mikho said:
Guess I spoke to soon.

Got this note on my invoice.

Note: invoices of less than $0.50 will not be charged and will continue to aggregate until a balance of $0.50 or greater is achieved.

The CEO of Mailgun wants your pennies!

Intelpentium0 · June 2020

Bookmarked..

InceptionHosting · June 2020

hmm well-reminded thanks for the bump, I was enthusiastic about getting some sort of lists/wiki up for this sort of thing before I got sick and forgot.

Islantay · June 2020

Alibaba Cloud has free email delivery for 200 emails free per day.

SMTP service address (China East 1): smtpdm.aliyun.com

SMTP service address (Singapore): smtpdm-ap-southeast-1.aliyun.com

SMTP service address (Sydney): smtpdm-ap-southeast-2.aliyun.com

SMTP port: 25, 80, 465 (SSL encrypted).

I use it for my own blog and the latency is pretty low to my gmail when using SG address.

chocolateshirt · June 2020

Unfortunately the SMTP are unaccesable from IPv6 only server..

List of free SMTP relay providers for transactional emails

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