Choosing an Email Service Provider (ESP)

For transactional emails (app notifications, password resets), you cannot use your personal Gmail. You need a reliable API provider designed for high-volume delivery.

1. Amazon SES (Simple Email Service)

• Best for: High volume, low cost, engineering teams.
• Pros: Unbeatably cheap ($0.10 for 1,000 emails). Runs on AWS infrastructure, so it scales infinitely.
• Cons: Bare-bones. No fancy dashboard. Weak analytics. Getting out of the "Sandbox" (approval process) can be strict and frustrating for new accounts.

2. SendGrid (Twilio)

• Best for: Startups and Marketers who need a UI.
• Pros: Excellent drag-and-drop template editor. Great analytics (visualizing open rates, click maps). Easy to integrate with almost every platform.
• Cons: Expensive at scale. The "Essentials" (cheaper) tier puts you on a shared IP pool, whose reputation might be damaged by other spammers on the same pool.

3. Postmark

• Best for: Critical reliability (Transactional ONLY).
• Pros: Obsessed with speed and deliverability. They strictly ban marketing emails to protect their IP reputation. If an email must arrive in seconds (e.g., password reset), use Postmark.
• Cons: Premium pricing. Not for marketing blasts.

Recommendation: Start with Postmark for your core application emails to ensure excellent user experience. Use Amazon SES for bulk notifications or marketing blasts where cost is the main factor.