XF 2.2 Why Switch to an Email Sending Service When Using XenForo Built-In Email?

[VisEntities]

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to understand why I should switch to an email sending service and pay extra when I can use XenForo's built-in email (noreply@community.forum) (I'm a cloud user) I'm failing to see the benefits. Can someone explain the advantages? I'm a noob in these things

Also, is it possible to use both? In case I'd like to avoid wasting my email limit on the email service if I can use XenForo's default for some normal things

Thanks!

 

[philmckrackon]

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to understand why I should switch to an email sending service and pay extra when I can use XenForo's built-in email (noreply@community.forum) (I'm a cloud user) I'm failing to see the benefits. Can someone explain the advantages? I'm a noob in these things

Also, is it possible to use both? In case I'd like to avoid wasting my email limit on the email service if I can use XenForo's default for some normal things

Thanks!

I see the main advantage is you do not have to be sure all your email smtp settings are correctly setup (DKIM, PTR reverse lookup, DMARC, SPF, A AAAA, TXT records and more) as your external provider handles that.
I prefer using my internal service and maintaining the records myself.

 

[Marcus]

You do have to setup DKIM in any case. This is the bare minimum today to have a chance getting delivered into the inbox.

Main issue for todays email is the reputation of the server that sends out the emails. There is lots of spam going on. First there are whole ranges of IP from data centers already black listed. Even if you have an unknown IP: it is not “white listed”. The large email services are white listed and they work hard to keep their reputation. They throw out clients with lots of emails which do not work anymore or getting marked as spam by the recipient. In fact some even at onboarding ask many questions where you got these emails from what is the reason you want to email and how many mails you intend to sent.

If you pay for an email service you make sure the emails go into the recipients inbox. That’s it.

 

[philmckrackon]

You do have to setup DKIM in any case. This is the bare minimum today to have a chance getting delivered into the inbox. ~~~

Oops, was typing so fast I just added what came to mind...
XF has this function.

 

[Marcus]

I prefer using my internal service and maintaining the records myself.

If you are lucky having a “good IP” it is much easier to use the XenForo mailer. I was not so lucky I prefer using the internal functionality of XenForo. As for example my Redis integration, I use the official one from XenForo and only have to add some entries into config.php and it works also with any beta release.

 

[philmckrackon]

If you are lucky having a “good IP” it is much easier to use the XenForo mailer. I was not so lucky I prefer using the internal functionality of XenForo. As for example my Redis integration, I use the official one from XenForo and only have to add some entries into config.php and it works also with any beta release.

Very true, if your IP is part of a segment that is on any black list, it can be a major pain to get off of it...

 

[Mr Lucky]

I'll copy what I said in DM so people can either take it as advice or maybe check I'm correct:

To clarify

If you need to be certain of good deliverability for xenForo generated mails then something like postmark is good (but as I said in the other thread) Amazon SES is also good and I think is free until you get into huge numbers.

For mailing list outside xenforo mailchimp is good. Also if you have Wordpress you can use mailpoet which has a free tier up to ?? emails

 

[BassMan]

I use Amazon SES. It is not free, but it is very cheap and reliable.

 

[Opus X]

I use Amazon SES. It is not free, but it is very cheap and reliable.

just had ses set up for my site.
the guy that set it up uses it also and so far his site has not had to pay anything but it is not really busy.
but he did say even if it starts costing it is not that much for what you get from it.
i was using a hotmail account before to send from after he moved the service he was using for the site over to another when i bought it from him.

 

[BassMan]

Amazon Simple Email Service Pricing | Cloud Email Service | Amazon Web Services

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is a pay-as-you-go service based on the volume of emails sent and received. There are no subscriptions, no contract negotiations, and no minimum charges.

aws.amazon.com