Email sending approaches

Question

In my project have to suggest email sending approaches to my manager. As a part of design document. Following are the approaches available. Kindly share your views on pros and cons for these approaches

Approach 1: Use third party SMTP
Pros: Readily available
Cons: Costs

Approach 2: Host own SMTP on Windows Azure
Pros: ?
Cons: ?

Approach 3: Using Public email Account
Pros: No additional cost or dependency.
Cons: Requires more effort in terms of designing and implementation.

Third Party should not cost much. We use SendGrid and it costs virtually nothing, like 10,000 emails for a dollar. — Craig, May 17 '12 at 23:53

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered May 17 '12 at 07:44

13

Approach 2 is not recommended by Microsoft, and I am also with that. The main reason is that the chance for IP Address of Azure datacenter to become blacklisted because of SPAM is very high.

Don't quite understand Approach 3.

The highly recommended approach (also by Microsoft) is to use a third party mail sending system, such as SendGrid. Microsoft & SendGrid are partnering to offer Azure developers free and easy way to reliably, securely and easily send e-mail message from the Windows Azure platform. Read more on the link provided. And this is the official reccomendation.

answered May 17 '12 at 07:44

astaykov

30,768
3
70
86

SendGrid's prices are outlandish... only 60 days free. – IrishChieftain Jan 07 '13 at 21:02
No, now it's always free, but it's only good to send email... not so good as an actual email address people can send stuff back to and you can reply to them, etc... – Serj Sagan Jul 17 '13 at 23:11
Good solution -- If you follow the steps to sign up through Azure, the free plan is 25k credits per month. It looks like there's also a free plan for the public for 12k credits monthly. I did not go through the sign up process for the later, but it advertises "No expiration." – emragins Sep 11 '15 at 16:37

Drona · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-17T08:00:00.297

6

Does not matter what SMTP server you use because all your code needs to know is about the SMTP host, port, secure mode authentication and user credentials. And ofcourse your application should be able to connect to the SMTP host. If your application supports connecting to any SMTP, then no need to bother about what to use. You can very well use your own company's SMTP server or use public SMTP severs like Gmail, yahoo etc.

edited May 17 '12 at 08:00

answered May 17 '12 at 07:40

Drona

6,886
1
29
35

5

This is how we send e-mail from our Azure instances -- using the System.Net.Mail class and our company's SMTP server and an account we set up just for that reason. Works like a charm. – RobinDotNet May 17 '12 at 07:59
3

You're probably looking for this: http://sendgrid.com/windowsazure.html – Serj Sagan Jun 23 '13 at 22:35
downvoted for suggesting Gmail, you will get banned – Toolkit Mar 06 '16 at 13:34
How so? @Toolkit – Basit Anwer Oct 21 '18 at 01:27

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered May 17 '12 at 17:02

4

We use Amazon's SES service to send emails from AzureWatch to our customers. Currently sending north of 3000-4000 emails per day. Works wonderfully and is very affordable.

answered May 17 '12 at 17:02

Igorek

15,716
3
54
92

Me too. SES is easy, reliable and cheap. – Rory Feb 16 '13 at 20:56

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 25 '12 at 10:33

There is also option to queue emails before sending them using services like SendGrid or AWS SES. You should consider this option if your solution is dealing with high loads or if you do not like the fact that third-party smtp service is out of the Azure and out of your (direct) control.

Take a look at:

Lack of disclosure that the commercial solution you have linked to is your own. — Andrew Barber, Sep 26 '12 at 07:37

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered May 17 '12 at 13:28

1

third party is the recommended way to do this, take a look at:

http://blog.smarx.com/posts/emailtheinternet-com-sending-and-receiving-email-in-windows-azure

answered May 17 '12 at 13:28

Tom

1,611
10
11

Email sending approaches

5 Answers5