Using emails for online business strategy is like a puzzle. If you agree then you should look into what some of the best email services providers can do for you. They provide you with new tools to make your existing tasks easier as well as revealing totally new possibilities.
Before starting let’s make it clear that Email deliverability is not a problem unless you have to send a lot of them.
As a WordPress website beginner, you do not need any email-related delivery service at all. You can use services like MailPoet and have the emails sent but ideally, it is not the most optimized solution.
Best Free SMTP Servers – Comparison Table 2023
| Free SMTP Servers | Starting price | Free email Daily limit | Free Email /month | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sendinblue | $25/month for 20K emails | 300 | 9000 | SMTP, email marketing, SMS, and marketing automation |
| Pepipost | $25/month for 150K emails | 100 | 30000 for the First 30 days | SMTP service, email marketing |
| Elastic Emails | $18/month for Unlimited emails | 100 | 3000 | Email campaigns |
| Sendpulse | $6.40 for Unlimited emails | 400 | 15000 | Email marketing, WhatsApp campaigns, and SMS |
| Amazon SES | $0.10 per 1000 emails | NA | 62000 | Email marketing, notifications, and transactional emails |
| Mailgun | $35/month for 50K emails | 200 | 5000 | Transactional emails |
| Google SMTP | $6/month for 2000 emails/day | 500mails/day for 14 days | Valid for 14 days | For low email volumes |
| Sendgrid | $19.95/month for 50K emails | 100 | 3000 | Promotional emails, Newsletters, Password reset emails |
| Moosend | $9/month for Unlimited emails | Unlimited | Unlimited | Email marketing |
| SMTP2GO | $10/month for 10K emails | 200 | 1000 | Transactional and Marketing emails |
Problems with Sending Emails
Basically, You can differentiate the emails that you need to send into two main types, i.e bulk email, and transactional email.
- The first type i.e bulk emails are the ones where you can send mass emails to multiple users (list of subscribers) all at once.
- The second type of email is the transactional email that is sent to individual recipients and it is one-to-one communication- based on the recipient’s activity. Moreover, it is the recipient who triggers the email to be sent in their direction.
Transactional emails are an important type of email-based communication between a business and its audience or customer base. In a nutshell, if you have the tool, plugin, web service, etc and you want a particular thing to communicate with the user automatically based on specific triggers then it is when transactional email happens.
In that scenario, you do not have to do any work, your tools algorithm will detect the things and triggers the email to the particular user (one-to-one communication) when any transaction happens. Transactional emails can be like this:
- New account creation emails
- Order confirmation mail
- Comment responded to mail, etc
So, transactional emails are important and must be delivered to your recipients without fail and fast.
You can achieve this by using PHP’s mail() function or similar in other technologies but these are not recommended as you can run into some deliverability issues here. Especially when you have a shared web server and the server’s IP might already be on spam blacklists, which will send your emails to the recipient’s spam folder and hence conflict with the deliverability. And therefore, this is not a recommended way to send transactional emails.
10 Best Free SMTP Servers Compared
If you are in hurry!! Here is a quick comparison of the top Free SMTP Servers you can check.
Free SMTP Servers – The Best One To Choose
(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) SMTP is an international electronic standard for the transmission of emails. Nearly all emails use a free SMTP server. If you get an email in your inbox, most likely it is sent from an SMTP server. Today we will explore some of the free SMTP service providers.
Check out our free SMTP server list and choose which plan is best suited for your needs –
1. SendinBlue
The SendinBlue is again a very good free SMTP server provider which is easy to use and also supports API, Plugins, and Integrations. Integrating SendinBlue with WordPress is very easy. We highly recommend using Sendinblue.
SendinBlue Features
Some of the features of SendinBlue are:
- Easy to send Transactional and standard email campaigns
- Import/export features for email data
- Advanced Tracking and statistics
- Marketing automation
- Easy to manually send emails using the user panel
SendinBlue Pricing
Although the SendinBlue SMTP plugin is available and Free to use with a limitation of 300 emails per day or 9000 emails a month. But if you want to use its full potential, you can go for their paid plans starting at $25 per month and going up to $1000 per month.
Scalability: SendinBlue is available from free to $66/month. It also gives you the opportunity to choose the “Enterprise” plan in which you can customize your plans according to your need. The full details of the plans can be seen here.
WordPress Integration
SendinBlue can be integrated with the WordPress site and integrating it is very easy. You can use the SendinBlue plugin to integrate the service into WordPress. To integrate it check this document.
2. Pepipost
Pepipost or Netcore email API is a cloud-based SMTP Email delivery service. It boasts of having lighting fast deliveries. With servers all around the globe, it can push your emails from the optimum locations to give you fast service and reduce network latency. If you are looking for SMTP relay servers, we recommend giving Pepipost a chance.
Pepipost Features
Some of the features of Pepipost are:
- Real-Time Reports
- Subaccount Management
- Email API to connect your apps
Pepipost pricing
Pepipost provides 30,000 emails free when you sign up for the first 30 days and then 100 free emails per day. You can send 150,000 emails with their starting plan costing $25 per month for annual plans. If you exceed this limit, you will be charged $0.60 for an extra 1000 emails.
Scalability: It scales between free i.e. $0/month (for 30,000 emails for the first month) to $311.50/month for 2,000,000 emails and then you are charged $.40 for an extra 1000 emails. There are several plans according to your requirements.
WordPress Integration:
Pepipost too can be integrated with WordPress very easily.
3. Elastic Emails
Elastic Email is a free SMTP service provider. It has a set of tools for everyone whether you are a developer, marketer, or a designer, the tools developed by them fit all. It provides the ultra-fast global infrastructure for transactional emails.
Features of Elastic Email
Some of the features of Elastic Email are:
- Tools for designers, marketers, as well as developer
- A/B testing
- Large Integration library
- Email automation
Pricing of Elastic email
Elastic Email has two offers to choose from. Email API and Email Marketing. Depending on the plan you choose, you either pay a monthly fee of $18 per 5000 contacts and unlimited emails or pay as you go for $0.10 per 1000 emails and an additional daily fee of $ 0.50.
Free Emails: It provides you with 3,000 emails/month for free. [ 100 Emails per day]
Scalability: The plan ranges from a free trial account. Email Marketing ranges from $15 to $1200 and you can get an individual pricing plan if you wish to send emails on a large scale. Email API is from $0.10 to $0.40 per 1000 emails and you can get purchase email as you would like to go.
WordPress Integration
It provides the WordPress plugin hence WordPress integration of Elastic email with your site becomes easy for this service too.
4. SendPulse
SendPulse is a Multi-Channel Marketing Platform and a free SMTP service. They provide Email, SMS, Transactional Emails, Facebook Messenger, etc. services. For Emails, they provide features like an Email Editor, Subscriber Ratings, segmentation, A/B testing, etc. They have a smooth interface and are good for marketers and developers.
SendPulse Features
Some of the features of SendPulse are:
- Convenient Email Editor
- Automation 360
- Subscriber Rating
- Subscription Forms
Sendpulse Pricing
Sendpulse provides 500 free subscribers and lets you send 15000 free emails. Their paid plans start at $6.4 per month when billed annually and $8 when paid monthly. They also have a pay-as-you-go feature for $0.0032 per email. Valid for 12 months after purchase.
Free Emails: SendPulse Provides you with 15,000/month Free Emails.
Scalability: You can send unlimited emails to the size 4,000,001 – 5,000,000 contacts list for $9,480 per month when billed yearly.
WordPress Integration
SendPulse can be easily integrated with WordPress using the “SendPulse Email Marketing Newsletter” plugin you can download from WordPress Directory.
5. Amazon SES
Amazon SES (Amazon Simple Email Service) is another cloud-based email-sending service designed to send transactional and marketing emails to help digital marketers as well as application developers. It can also be integrated into the software you already use, such as ticketing systems and email clients. You can use a Free SMTP server for testing.
Features of Amazon SES
Some of the features of Amazon SES are:
- Basic numbers on successful deliveries, complaints, and bounced or rejected messages.
- All you get is their API and SMTP
- DKIM and Dmarc integration
Amazon SES Pricing
This service is free as well as paid. For free service, you can send up to 62,000 emails per month, but there is a special condition. You can only take advantage of the free tier (free service) if you are an Amazon EC2 user and “when you call Amazon SES from an Amazon EC2 instance directly or through AWS Elastic Beanstalk.” Also, $0.12 per GB of attachments sent.
Free Emails: Amazon gives 62,000 emails per month for sending more emails, the plan must be upgraded.
Scalability: It allows you to send free mail up to 62,000 per month for the charge of $0 if you are an EC2 user and after 62,000 emails $0.10 per 1,000 emails will be charged.
WordPress Integration
Amazon SES can be integrated with WordPress using the plugin “WP SES”. It is easy to install and configure. Check how to install the WP SES plugin and configure it with Amazon SES here.
6. Mailgun
Mailgun is an email automation service for free SMTP relay provided by Rackspace, especially for developers. It provides powerful APIs for sending, receiving, and tracking emails effortlessly. It offers a complete cloud-based email service. Read about online business strategies here to grow your business.
Mailgun Features
Some of the features of Mailgun are:
- It automatically delivers the emails at the best time
- Emails Analytics to enhance the email sending performance
- Logs are maintained for 30 days
- All you get is their API and SMTP
Mailgun Pricing
Mailgun is available free of cost in which you can send a maximum of 5,000 emails/per month. If you need a higher-level service then paid options are also available, starting from $35/month and going upto $90/month.
Free Emails: Mailgun gives you 5,000 emails/month for free. If you want to send more emails then you can send them an extra charge/per email.
Scalability: You can send as many emails as you want ranging from 5,000 emails per month to 100,000 emails per month, depending upon the plan you choose.
WordPress Integration
Mailgun can be integrated with WordPress very easily. Mailgun provides the WordPress Plugin to make WordPress integration easy. The plugin is easy to install and configure.
7. Google SMTP Server
Gmail SMTP is the most well-known free SMTP provider. Instead of using an unreliable service or technology for sending emails, you can simply configure Google’s SMTP server settings into whatever script or program you wish to send email from.
Since a lot of people use Gmail to access their Emails, emails sent from Gmail SMTP have a very small chance of going into the spam folder. It provides the best deliverability for Gmail users.
Gmail SMTP Features
Some of the features of Gmail SMTP are:
- Instant access to google drive and other google services
- Manage users, devices, and data securely and easily
- Google’s level Security
- Access googles forms, sheets, etc. to create whatever, you want
Gmail SMTP Pricing
However, Google SMTP server is completely free of cost, but as we all know nothing is there for free without its limits. There are limits on how many emails you can send per day, recipients per message, etc.
Free Emails: It gives 500 emails per day for a trial account (valid for 14 days). Then you must choose a plan and upgrade.
Scalability: Google also offers you paid plans starting from $6/month in which you can send up to 2000 emails in 24hr.
WordPress Integration
Gmail Smtp can be integrated with WordPress but the procedure takes some time and is easy. Firstly, you need to install the Gmail SMTP plugin for your WordPress and then configure it.
Want to learn more about setting up Gmail SMTP on your WordPress site? Check out our dedicated blog, “What Is A Gmail SMTP Server and How to Use It for Sending Emails for Free,” for more information!
8. SendGrid
SendGrid is basically a Denver, Colorado-based customer communication platform for transactional and marketing email. It provides a cloud-based service to send transactional and marketing emails to hundreds of thousands of customers.
Sendgrid Features
Some of the features of Sendgrid are:
- Secure sending environment (for example two-factor authentication when sending).
- APIs supporting Node.js, PHP, Java, etc.
- Scheduling, segmentation, A/B testing, and other marketing features.
Sendgrid Pricing
Sendgrid offers three different pricing options, Essential, Pro, and Premier. Apart from these paid plans, you can also try them for free as details are given below.
Free Emails: SendGrid gives you 3,000 emails for a month after that you need to upgrade the plan to continue the service.
Scalability: SendGrid is not free after the trial version is over. The pricing of the SendGrid service differs according to the plan. Essentials start at $ 19.95/month with 50K emails, Pro starts at $89.95/month with 100K emails and Premier plans allow you to pitch custom plans.
WordPress Integration
SendGrid can be integrated with the WordPress site very easily using the SendGrid Plugin.
9. Moosend
Moosend is a powerful email and marketing automation platform designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. With Moosend, you can easily create marketing campaigns, design landing pages, build forms, and manage your audience all in one place.
Moosend Features
Some of the features of Moosend are:
- Managing contacts and checking for spam
- Tracking Website Visitors
- Drag and Drop editor
- Lead Management and Scoring
Moosend Pricing
Moosend offers two pricing plans, one is a Free trial which comes with a 30-days limitation. However, please note that the trial version does not include an SMTP server.
Free Emails: You can send unlimited Free emails in their 30-day trial plan.
Scalability: After your free trial period ends, you’ll need to upgrade to the pro plan, which starts at $9 per month (billed monthly) for up to 500 contacts, and send unlimited emails with pricing increasing based on the size of your mailing list.
WordPress Integration
Moosend can be integrated with the WordPress site using the Moosend WordPress Plugin but you might find it a bit difficult to use.
10. SMTP2GO
SMTP2GO is a reliable provider of email delivery services, offering the necessary tools to ensure the proper configuration and maintenance of your outbound emails. Their multi-datacenter infrastructure, which includes redundant systems, guarantees that your emails will be delivered even if the internet goes down.
SMTP2GO Features
Some of the features of SMTP2GO are:
- Email monitoring
- Blacklisting and detecting spam
- Easy Email authentication
- Easy-to-use API
SMTP2GO Pricing
SMTP2GO offers simple plans covering all types of users and their requirements. They have basically three types of plans Free, Professional, and Premium. The details are given below:
Free Plan: SMTP2GO offers a Free plan with a limitation of 1000 emails per month, 5 days of email reporting, and Ticket Support only.
Scalability: If you want more features, you can easily upgrade to their paid plans starting at $10/month for 10,000 emails and going up to $520/month for 1Million emails.
WordPress Integration
You can easily integrate your WordPress site using SMTP2GO’s official WordPress plugin available in the WordPress directory.
Best Free SMTP Servers – Comparison Table 2023
| Free SMTP Servers | Starting price | Free email Daily limit | Free Email /month | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sendinblue | $25/month for 20K emails | 300 | 9000 | SMTP, email marketing, SMS, and marketing automation |
| Pepipost | $25/month for 150K emails | 100 | 30000 for the First 30 days | SMTP service, email marketing |
| Elastic Emails | $18/month for Unlimited emails | 100 | 3000 | Email campaigns |
| Sendpulse | $6.40 for Unlimited emails | 400 | 15000 | Email marketing, WhatsApp campaigns, and SMS |
| Amazon SES | $0.10 per 1000 emails | NA | 62000 | Email marketing, notifications, and transactional emails |
| Mailgun | $35/month for 50K emails | 200 | 5000 | Transactional emails |
| Google SMTP | $6/month for 2000 emails/day | 500mails/day for 14 days | Valid for 14 days | For low email volumes |
| Sendgrid | $19.95/month for 50K emails | 100 | 3000 | Promotional emails, Newsletters, Password reset emails |
| Moosend | $9/month for Unlimited emails | Unlimited | Unlimited | Email marketing |
| SMTP2GO | $10/month for 10K emails | 200 | 1000 | Transactional and Marketing emails |
General FAQ:
What is an SMTP server?
An SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server is a service that sends and receives emails. It is the “post office” for email messages, responsible for delivering emails to their intended recipients.
What is the best free SMTP Server?
We recommend using SendinBlue for all your bulk email and SMS needs. They provide Customization, automation, and segmentation of your emails in a very effective and efficient manner. Also, they have a very good dashboard and CRM for tracking all your clientele.
How to set up a free SMTP server?
There is no particular way to set up your SMTP, different service providers have different ways. Kindly visit your SMTP service provider for accurate information.
Do I need an SMTP Relay for Email testing?
If you wish to test how emails are being sent or capture SMTP traffic then we recommend something like Mailtrap, even WPOven provides a free SMTP server for testing. These will capture all outbound Emails and allow you to see how things work.
How to configure Gmail SMTP?
Make sure you have a Gmail account with 2-step authentication. Generate an App Password that is used for SMTP integration and choose other custom names. Choose whether you want SSL or TLS and then chose your port.
Which one do you think is the best?
Hi Taylor,
Thanks for showing interest in our blog
According to us, you can choose sendinblue.
Rest depends on your requirements.
Thanks but i really to get smtp inbox to hotmail
Is there any smtp service that has their data centre in Canada.
MailGun – since I’ve implemented MailGun, we started to receive junk mails every day. Avoid.
Thanks for sharing your feedback Andy.
Can you follow up with which alternate service you used to replace MailGun and what was your experience with that.
It might help our readers choose the best SMTP server
I did not see the “free” plan at the Elastic Mail site.
Am I missing something?
Good Info About Mailing Server
Thanks you Time4server
Glad we could help
very informative blog
thanks
Thanks for reading our blog
glad we could help 🙂
Thank you for the guidance.. You guys really help me out . I really need this information.
Thanks John for reading our blog 🙂
Glad we could help 🙂
Hi,
Just started using sendinblue after your recommendation. It is looking great. They even have automation features and workflow. I am yet not sure if it is going to cost me or not but it seems to be free at the moment.
The abandoned cart sequence is super nice. Unfortunately, there is a big learning curve.
Thanks for reading our blog. We are glad we could help 🙂
Thank you for your valuable information. It was a nice article. If you want to know more about how to set up iCloud mail android SMTP it’s an easy job to do. visit us for further assistance.
Very informative post. I’ve tried 5 email services of the mentioned and can say that a service not listed here saved me since 2017. It is smtpboxes and these guys have free support and it is astonishingly better than many paid ones such as MailChimp support (again not listed?).
Hey Aman it was a wonderful article. Thank you for your guidance. I recently blogged about this as well
Apparently SparkPost has changed their FREE limit to only 500 per month, not 15,000. Just an FYI
Hi . This is really helpful and informative for me .i hope you will write such an informative post in the future.
Hélio guys, thanks for this valuable information:)
Mailgun no longer offers free 10,000 emails, now all plans are paid. They offer 3,000 free emails/month for 3 months; after that only paid plans.
Cheers
If you are going for finest contents like I do, just pay a quick
visit this web page everyday as it offers feature contents,
thanks
Google smtp only vailable for g suite account.
mailjet really confusing and need contack support team first.. ithink i will try some others.
thanks for the list
Great article. Thanks for the comparison
MAILGUN changed their offer to “Get 5,000 free emails per month for 3 months, then only pay for what you send
“
Why produce a list of “free SMTP providers” when several of them charge, and do not provide anything for free?
Hi, Nobody would give a complete package of FREE Smtp Servers. But in this list of Free SMTP provider, most of them have a free pricing plan which beginners can use to get started. It is a win-win situation for both buyers and providers. A starter can’t afford a paid plan so they can start for free. As they grow, they can upgrade the plans. Similarly for the provider, it helps them to create a free subscription that allows their users to check out the potential of using their tool.
In the end, everyone has to charge money not for their work, but for the time they had to spend to create these tools.
how about Mail chimp?
It was a wonderful and beneficial article for us. I got pleasured after reading your article. 🙂
22-OCT-2021 I have tested all.
1) Mailjet is best. 200 per/day. no ads and fast. Can verify a domain with file or DNS.
2) SendGrid is ok. 100/day. Verify with DNS only.
——
3) Gmail can’t spoof from: field.
4) Sendinblue sends mail as HTML and contains tracking code.
Thank you for sharing this list of free SMTP servers for sending emails! It can be a challenge to find a reliable solution for sending emails, especially if you are on a budget. These free options will be a great resource for anyone looking to send emails without breaking the bank. It’s always a good idea to compare a few different options to find the best fit for your needs. Thanks again for sharing this helpful information!
I recently switched to using a free SMTP server to send emails and have been happy with the results. These servers are reliable and easy to set up, making them an excellent choice for individuals and businesses looking to send emails without incurring additional expenses. I would definitely recommend considering a free SMTP server if you need to send emails but don’t want to pay for a paid service. Thanks for sharing this valuable article!
Are there any potential downsides to using a free SMTP server, and how can these be mitigated?
There are a few potential downsides to using a free SMTP server, some of them are Security and reliability, Limitations, Branding, and Customer support. As mentioned, free SMTP servers may not offer the same level of features as paid options. To mitigate this risk, be sure to do your research and choose a reputable free SMTP server.