External Email Handlers

[eberkund]

I was wondering how many people are using external email providers such as SendGrid or Mandrill? What made you decide to switch over from using the basic PHP mail method on your server? Also what is your hosting setup? Shared hosting, VPS, managed, unmanaged?

 

[m1ne]

I use Mandrill primarily for its reliability and analytics. Sending around 8,000 emails a month with 0 bounces or spam complaints.
Using an unmanaged dedicated server.

 

[Mouth]

I use Mandrill primarily for its reliability and analytics. Sending around 8,000 emails a month with 0 bounces or spam complaints.

Same reason.

 

[eberkund]

How does it gather the click rate? Does it redirect the links in your email?

 

[Mouth]

How does it gather the click rate? Does it redirect the links in your email?

Yes, changes the URL's to themselves with an immediate redirect to your actual page.

 

[eberkund]

Wow that is really cool. Are you using SMTP or the API?

 

[Mouth]

Wow that is really cool. Are you using SMTP or the API?

API, via [bd] Mails add-on.

 

[rdn]

I'm using Mandrill and via SMTP method.

 

[MattW]

Mandrill for me as well.

 

[imthebest]

For those using Mandrill or SendGrid with the API instead of SMTP, do they expose your server IP in the headers? Last time I checked Mandrill via SMTP they include the origin server IP in the headers.

I don't want to share my server IP because I'm using CloudFlare as DDoS protection.

 

[MattW]

For those using Mandrill or SendGrid with the API instead of SMTP, do they expose your server IP in the headers? Last time I checked Mandrill via SMTP they include the origin server IP in the headers.

I don't want to share my server IP because I'm using CloudFlare as DDoS protection.

Yes they do.

 

[Sim]

Another vote for Mandrill - been using it for over 2 years now. I use it on all of my sites, and I manage over a dozen Mandrill accounts on behalf of my clients as well.

I segment my outbound email by various criteria (site, source application, type of email, etc), which makes it easy to identify the source of deliverability issues and identify potential problems with your application.

Can also be especially useful for development servers where you want to capture outbound emails for diagnostic purposes, but not actually send them to a real user.

 

[MrB]

Mandrill user here too, via SMTP.

 

[eberkund]

Thanks for all the feedback, I'm not using Mandrill via SMTP and love all the stats it gives me that I didn't have before

 

[eberkund]

Is there anyway to get the bounced email handling to work with Mandrill? Currently it doesn't send a bounced email notification message to my email so XF can't check it

Edit: Nvm, if you follow this link it will explain how to do it: http://help.mandrill.com/entries/25524828-Can-I-receive-bounce-notifications-via-email-

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Hmmm... maybe time to look into this as I'm now venturing further into email methods for bringing users back... and wanting to venture into some email subscriber stuff in the future. Impressive.

 

[snoopy5]

Hi,

I dig this old thread because Mandrill changed its pricing structure. In the past, you could send 12.000 emils for free per month. Now if you want to open a new account, the maximum is 2000 emails for free. And only one time. If you used these 2000, you have to pay. Even if it is the next month.

You pay now $9.95 for 25k per month, $0.20/thousand next 1m emails per month. So with 250.000 emails per month I have to pa $50 per month. This is a lot for me. Sendgrid seems to be even more expensive...

I saw this comparison on the net (but is is a year old, so not with the new price structure):

Which Transactional Email Service is the Best? Mandrill vs. Sendgrid & More | Venture Harbour

Any suggestion for a better/cheaper alternative?

 

[Mouth]

Any suggestion for a better/cheaper alternative?

Yikes! So I guess they'll move existing accounts over to that model soon too?
Amazon SES (often teamed with Sendy) is a favourite amongst many.

 

[Sim]

Yikes! So I guess they'll move existing accounts over to that model soon too?

There has been no suggestion yet that existing accounts will change. I think they would lose a lot of existing customers if they did it any time soon.

It seems to me that they have been told to harmonise their offering with MailChimp - possibly to avoid people using Mandrill as a cheap MailChimp substitute? Just a guess on my part.

So with 250.000 emails per month I have to pa $50 per month. This is a lot for me.

Actually, if you're sending 250,000 emails per month, I think $50 per month is actually quite cheap!

 

[Nuno]

SendGrid is a viable alternative.
They have lite plan $0,10 per 1k and a 12k free account.