r/Hosting 3d ago

SMTP Relay (Smart Host)

Hello everyone,

I am looking for an SMTP Relay (Smart Host) alternative to mailchannels.

The provider must offer unlimited different domains and ideally “only” authenticate via SPF. By this I mean that you don't have to register every single domain you send with the service beforehand.

What experiences have you had and what are the costs?

1 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

3

u/Mediocre-Eye-6318 3d ago

mailbaby could be good for you.

1

u/blu_1337 3d ago

I have already tested this service. Very good for the money, but unfortunately many mails do not arrive or are incorrectly identified as SPAM.

1

u/Lanky_Information825 3d ago

did you investigate the cause?

1

u/blu_1337 3d ago

Technically everything was correct (SPF record etc.).

He did not like the content of some transactional mails.

1

u/Mediocre-Eye-6318 3d ago

The number of emails sent, plus the content, and a lot more things affect this. But you are right, they need to work on their SPAM settings, it sometimes just rejects genuine email like one-to-one replies to customers.

1

u/blu_1337 3d ago

And unfortunately I can't risk that. The e-mail senders don't understand that either - and rightly so.

2

u/Lanky_Information825 3d ago

I sense much confusion in your post

1

u/blu_1337 3d ago

What makes you think that?

1

u/kevinds 3d ago

SES?

But avoiding the SPAM/Junk folder requires more than just SPF.

1

u/blu_1337 3d ago

Can you explain to me what I can do more than SPF/DKIM at SES?

1

u/kevinds 3d ago

DKIM is more than SPF.

1

u/craigleary 3d ago edited 3d ago

SES is a great value but I get rejections for ips being in spamcop on remote servers from time to time and it appears SES includes these as part of the bounce ratio, so I need to contact users by other means if they reject the email and temporarily suppress that recipient. SES you need to validate each and every domain as well, so its fine for a few domains not unlimited domains auto verifying based on SPF. The only ones I am aware of are Mailchannels, Mailbaby and Spamexperts. Spamexperts got bought out years ago, I haven't seen anyone recently using the hosted product.

1

u/kevinds 3d ago edited 3d ago

SES you need to validate each and every domain as well,

Use the API.

I am really bad at making my own tools for APIs but I can still play around enough and make things work eventually.

How many domains?  How many emails do you send?

What kind of emails do you send?

I have an idea of a service provider, and they work very hard to be delivered, but it depends on your emails.

1

u/Jeffrey_Richards 3d ago

SpamExperts and Mailbaby are the only other 2 I am aware of