Reliable way to send email to users?

[Blum]

Is there a free option to get emails to reliably show up in users' inboxes? Is there anything I can do to improve the likelihood of emails arriving?

On two relatively small XF2 boards I'm running I've tried using both Mailgun and SendGrid to send email over SMTP and I get a large amount of people saying they don't receive these emails (even in spam). Apparently these services have a problem with their IPs getting blacklisted?

 

[sbj]

Try Zoho Mail.

 

[nrep]

Amazon SES is fantastic, no complaints with it here.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Mailgun and SendGrid to send email over SMTP and I get a large amount of people saying they don't receive these emails (even in spam). Apparently these services have a problem with their IPs getting blacklisted?

I'm currently using malign and I know what you mean. You need to keep on top of it, check your stats and from time to time there will be a spate of blacklisting which they do fix reasonbaly quickly (given that for a small amount of traffic they aren't charging). Their prices for dedicated Ip is too much for a small forum.

Amazon SES is fantastic, no complaints with it here.

Yes, I've also used SES and may go back to it, though I remember I was finding issues with btinternet blacklisting them.