In a recent Business Bloomer Club discussion, WooCommerce enthusiasts explored SMTP relay options for sending WordPress transactional emails. Many site owners use these services to ensure reliable email delivery, especially for critical WooCommerce notifications like order confirmations.
While SendGrid is a popular choice, its free plan caps daily emails at 100, which can be limiting for growing stores. This discussion dives into the alternatives to SendGrid, highlighting options with more generous limits and unique features for WooCommerce and WordPress users.
Transactional emails, such as order confirmations, password resets, and shipping notifications, play a vital role in online store operations. However, default WordPress email handling can be unreliable, with messages often ending up in spam or not delivered at all. SMTP relay services solve this problem by routing emails through dedicated servers designed for higher deliverability, ensuring these critical communications reach customers’ inboxes.
Recommended Alternatives to SendGrid
1. Brevo (Formerly SendinBlue)
Brevo was a top recommendation for users seeking a free plan with higher limits. Its free tier supports up to 300 emails per day, which is three times the limit of SendGrid’s free plan. Brevo is also known for its user-friendly interface and robust tracking features, making it popular for WooCommerce stores looking to maintain reliable transactional email delivery.
However, a notable caveat with Brevo’s free plan is the inclusion of branded footers in the emails. For businesses concerned with branding control, this can be a drawback, though Brevo’s affordable paid plans allow for customization.
2. Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)
Amazon SES is an SMTP relay service favored for its affordability and scalability, especially for stores expecting rapid email volume growth. While SES requires a bit more setup, its pay-as-you-go pricing makes it highly economical. Users typically access SES’s free tier when running their WordPress instance on Amazon Web Services (AWS), though the low costs outside the free tier are still a major draw. SES is lauded for its high deliverability rates and seamless integration with WooCommerce plugins like WP Mail SMTP.
3. Mailgun
Mailgun is a robust option, particularly suited for WooCommerce stores that prioritize email deliverability and tracking. With a basic plan starting around $15 per month, Mailgun offers extensive analytics, spam compliance tools, and scalable email sending. Users in the discussion highlighted the convenience of pairing Mailgun with plugins like Post SMTP, which provides detailed logs and lets store owners track and resend emails as needed—a handy feature for WooCommerce shops managing large volumes of customer orders.
4. Mailjet
Mailjet provides an affordable solution for WooCommerce sites, offering a free plan for up to 200 emails per day, along with marketing and transactional email capabilities. While the service is reliable, its standout feature is its collaborative email editor, useful for teams working on brand-aligned email templates. However, users noted that Mailjet’s free plan is limited, and while it’s well-suited for marketing, it may lack advanced features available in Mailgun or SES for transactional email tracking.
5. Postmark
For those who value simplicity and speed, Postmark is a specialized transactional email service with a strong focus on delivering WooCommerce emails rapidly and reliably. Postmark’s plans start at $10 per month, and it doesn’t include marketing emails, which is ideal for stores that solely want to focus on transactional email performance. It also features a unique message stream feature to separate transactional emails from promotional ones, ensuring each category of emails has optimized deliverability.
Making the Right Choice for Your Store
When choosing an SMTP relay service, it’s essential to consider factors such as daily email limits, scalability, and branding needs. For stores handling high email volumes or with stringent branding requirements, services like Mailgun, Amazon SES, or Postmark offer powerful features at competitive prices. Smaller stores with moderate email needs and less focus on advanced features may find Brevo’s free tier or Mailjet to be more budget-friendly choices.
Conclusion
Selecting the best SMTP relay service for WooCommerce requires balancing your email volume, budget, and branding preferences. Whether opting for Brevo’s generous free tier or Amazon SES’s cost-effective scalability, there are numerous choices to ensure your WooCommerce emails reliably reach customers’ inboxes.
