Are you ready to integrate your site or app with SendLayer?
SendLayer provides flexibility by offering 2 different ways to send transactional emails: over SMTP and through the SendLayer API.
In this tutorial, we’ll help you decide which option is best for you.
What’s the Difference Between SMTP and an API?
There are a few differences between sending email with SMTP and sending email through an API:
- Complexity: SMTP is easy for beginners. Sending an email through an API requires some development experience.
- Usage: SMTP is widely used in lots of applications, including most desktop email programs. APIs are designed for developers to send emails directly from an application.
- Efficiency: If you’re sending large numbers of emails from an application, sending through an API is more efficient. SMTP is slower.
- Functionality: SMTP is a basic way to send email. APIs allow you to send email and also retrieve information about the email after it has been sent.
Should I Use SMTP or an API?
If you want to send individual emails, or a small number of emails over a long time, SMTP works just fine. SMTP also has the added bonus of being supported by almost every application.
If you want to send a lot of emails, or you want to make sure you don’t run into limits, it’s better to use an API. That’s because:
- Sending email through an API is more efficient than SMTP; it doesn’t need to communicate back and forth quite so much, so it’s better suited for sending many emails quickly.
- SMTP servers usually have lower sending limits, which means you can’t send as many emails per hour (or per day) compared to sending through an API.
- Sending through an API provides more flexibility as it allows you to set specific parameters to meet your sending needs. With SMTP, you get a more out-of-the-box solution with fewer options for customization.
- SMTP servers can only send emails up to a total size of 10 MB, including both the email content and attachments. If you use SMTP to send emails, you won’t be able to send attachments larger than 10 MB. However, with an API, the attachment limit is higher at 25 MB.
That said, you’ll need more technical knowledge to send emails through an API. If you want an easy way to send email without hiring a developer to help, SMTP is likely a better option.
Sending Emails Over SMTP
SendLayer makes it quick and easy to send emails through our SMTP server. If you’re ready to get started with this option, be sure to check out our step-by-step guide to connecting your site with SMTP.
Sending Emails With the SendLayer API
If you’ve decided that sending emails through our API is the best option for you, you’ll want to explore our guide to getting started with the SendLayer API. Here you’ll find details on building an API call for sending transactional emails.
That’s it! Now you know how to integrate with SendLayer.
Next, would you like to learn how to check if your emails are sent successfully? See our tutorial on checking your domain’s email log for more information.