# Comparing Mail Servers
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/comparing-mail-servers/163563
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Tags:** hosting
**Created:** [September 10, 2020, 12:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/comparing-mail-servers/163563 "2020-09-10T00:30:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Alec](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Alec)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2020, 12:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/comparing-mail-servers/163563/1 "2020-09-10T00:30:55Z")
First off I want to thank the community. Last week I moved a football forum from a site that was shutting down. Speaking as a non-techie, with no experience in any of this, the tutorials and advice on this site were brilliant. The move of approx 300-400 people to new site is goning really well. The only exception has been the Mail Server.
I used Mailjet, believing that their free plan (200 emails a day limit) would be ample. However, I realized some of my invites where no being delieved as I was going over my daily limit. After some investigation a couple of users were receiving 60 emails a day š²
I have taken to educating members to change their settings, I have changed the default settings for email notification to āneverā. However, I realize probably sooner than later I need a better solution.
Looking around there seems to be:
Mailier Lite - 1000 users, 12,000 emails a month (average 400 a day)
> **[Simple, Transparent Pricing - MailerLite](https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing)**
>
> MailerLite's pricing is straightforward, fair and affordable for all businesses. Compare the plans and choose the one that fits your needs the best!
Mail Chimp 2000 users, 10,000 emails a month (average 333 a day)
> **[Marketing plans that grow with you | Mailchimp](https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/)**
>
> Create beautiful emails, automate campaigns, and track performance. Try it now and see how our tools can drive your business.
SendGrid After Trail - After 30 day trail, 100/day
Sedinblue Unlimited users, and 300 emails a day
Mailrelay 15,000 users and 75,000 emails/month (averages 2,500 a day)
Mailgun 3 months of 5000, emails then 80c per 1000 emails
Amazon SES, 62,000 free emails but 0.12c /GB
As well as several others which charge more. (Please excuse my technical ignorance if any of these cant be used with Discourse)
As I understand email notifications cant be turned off. As I want to keep my site completely free, which free/low-cost option would you guys recommend?
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### Author:  [@Alec](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Alec)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2020, 12:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/comparing-mail-servers/163563/2 "2020-09-10T00:31:30Z")
Links to other Mail server prices
SendGrid After Trail - After 30 day trail, 100/day
> **[SendGrid Email API and Email Marketing Campaigns](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sendgrid)**
>
> SendGrid's trusted email API and marketing campaigns platform is now available through Twilio.com.
Sedinblue Unlimited users, and 300 emails a day
> **[Pricing Plans | Brevo](https://www.brevo.com/pricing/)**
>
> Discover Brevo's pricing plans for marketing, sales, and transactional emails. Brevo has the tools you need to grow your business.
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### Author:  [@Alec](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Alec)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2020, 12:32am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/comparing-mail-servers/163563/3 "2020-09-10T00:32:14Z")
Further links
Mailrelay 15,000 users and 75,000 emails/month (averages 2,500 a day)
> **[Pricing - Mailrelay](https://mailrelay.com/en/pricing/)**
>
> Discover the prices of mass mailing that allow you to send all the mailings that your company needs
Mailgun 3 months of 5000, emails then 80c per 1000 emails
> **[Flexible Email Delivery & API Pricing Plans - Transactional Email API Service...](http://www.mailgun.com/pricing/)**
>
> Choose a plan that fits your needs with our 4 email delivery solution options, bringing emails and verifications together under one API-driven engine.
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### Author:  [@Alec](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Alec)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2020, 12:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/comparing-mail-servers/163563/4 "2020-09-10T00:33:13Z")
Amazon SES, 62,000 free emails but 0.12c /GB
> **[Pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/)**
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### Author:  [@danb35](https://meta.discourse.org/u/danb35)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2020, 1:23am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/comparing-mail-servers/163563/5 "2020-09-10T01:23:02Z")
> [@Alec](#):
>
> As I understand email notifications cant be turned off.
I donāt believe itās possible to completely disable them, but nobody should be getting 60 messages/day unless you want it to be that way (in my case, my Discourse forum replaces an old Yahoo group that was primarily used as a mailing list, so I enabled mailing list mode by default for my users). āNormalā email notifications would send you an email if youāre mentioned, or if a reply is made to one of your posts, and you arenāt on the forum at the time. The normal notification settings will also send an email digest to users occasionally when they havenāt visited the forum in a while (the details are configurable).
So, if you donāt want to be sending a ton of emails, and your users arenāt expecting Discourse to operate like a mailing list, disable mailing list mode (search in the site settings for āmailingā), and make sure the other notification settings are sensible.
None of which actually answers your question, but might still be helpful nonetheless. But to your actual question, Iāve been happy with Mailgun. Most of the time, my usage is low enough that I donāt get a bill (they donāt bill for less than $1/month).
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### Author:  [@LSD2020](https://meta.discourse.org/u/LSD2020)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2020, 1:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/comparing-mail-servers/163563/6 "2020-09-10T01:29:57Z")
My vote is [https://mailinabox.email](https://mailinabox.email) Super easy to setup and you can scale without worries. Spin up a $5 DO droplet and check the blacklists. If itās a dirty IP destroy and try again. I tried sendgrid and less mail went through than the MIAB droplet. Weāve got a few K users signed up in the last month and are happy with the results. I donāt expect issues.