Third-party vs System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient

Question

We have to set up a notification system which needs to reliably deliver notification emails to clients.

In the past we have used .NET's System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient libraries to quickly hook up and send various low-priority emails. Reliable and effective delivery wasn't critical.

Now we need to be able to delivery emails to clients - a different story.

Is it worth using some third-party service (like SendGrid) or is the regular SmtpClient just fine?

We don't need any analytic, marketing or subscription features. Our volume requirements are not huge either - perhaps 10k per day. Only email sending capabilities are required.

Answer 1

Is it worth using some third-party service (like SendGrid) or is the regular SmtpClient just fine?

Absolutely wrong question as you compare a sending API with a full-fledged email server.

You should have your local email sending relay either local on the machine (smtp service) or in your network and SmtpClient should go to that one. This then relay the emails - either to the end users or to a distribution service (sendmail).

I would NEVER use a setup where the web app has to directly send via a remote third party. This is bound for all kinds of problems. As such, the question whether it is something like SendGrid or SmtpClient never would even be considered. It would never show up - it would be BOTH. Plus a local relay. There are some nice third party email servers that are free as long as you have a LOW list of LOCAL Mailboxes - which means that they are perfect free email relays.

Answer 2

Companies like SendGrid (for whom I work) focus on deliverability and making integration really simple for developers.

You can certainly implement your own solution with success, provided you have the time. We have a free Deliverability guides that helps you do that, here are a couple: http://go.sendgrid.com/Deliverability-Guide-V2.html and here: http://sendgrid.com/blog/10-tips-to-keep-email-out-of-the-spam-folder

We regularly post tips for deliverability on our blog at http://sendgrid.com/blog