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SparkPost Email Integration


Callum MacGregor

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Posted

Since Invision in their infinite wisdom decided to remove support for SparkPost, this forced me (and many others) to use an alternative method to send emails. I, for one, found this to be a huge problem. The only real solution for me was SendGrid so I switched to it, I was immediately blocked for "spam" and after a talk with their support I got unblocked. Furthermore, the cheapest package on SendGrid is $20 per month for 40k emails. With SparkPost I got 100k FREE per month. Also my emails are edited by SendGrid, they change the links to point to their own servers, apparently this is because of "click tracking", but I have this option turned off -- this makes all my images not display correctly in the emails.

Anyway, I decided to make an application to add SparkPost support back in which I have released on the marketplace: 

 

Posted

I'm using Sparkpost quite successfully with the SMTP settings and @stoo2000's Mailbouncer app.  You don't need an add-in to make this work.  I tried SendGrid for all of a day before I switched back to Sparkpost.  It works just fine for me.

 

 

Posted
46 minutes ago, CheersnGears said:

I'm using Sparkpost quite successfully with the SMTP settings and @stoo2000's Mailbouncer app.  You don't need an add-in to make this work.  I tried SendGrid for all of a day before I switched back to Sparkpost.  It works just fine for me.

 

 

The problem with sending via SMTP directly is that your server IP gets leaked in the email headers. Even SendGrid do this via their REST API for some reason. Fortunately SparkPost do not so I'll stick with my app as I prefer not to expose my server IP as its a major security risk. Also SMTP sending is slow as hell. I prefer sending 2k mails per request rather than one.

Posted
Just now, SJ77 said:

I am not sure I understand. I currently use spark post to send emails. What will this do for me? what is the benefit?

You are currently sending via SMTP, rather than over REST API. There are, in my opinion two major drawbacks to using SMTP rather than SparkPost's REST API:

  • SMTP is up to 2000 times slower than sending via SparkPost's REST API. SMTP allows sending one email per request, whereas SparkPost recommend sending 2000 per request with their REST API.
  • Sending via SMTP will show the server IP from which you sent the message in the 'Recieved' email header, whereas with REST API your server IP is hidden. For people who are the target of DDoS attacks, this is a major problem as all it would take for an attacker to get your server IP would be to make an account and get a registration email - after which they can DDoS your server. This of course is quite specific to my needs but the concept applies to anybody in theory.
Posted

@Callum MacGregor Much appreciated. We send ~250k/mo and moving to sendgrid would go from ~60/mo -> $200/mo. And IPB was attributing our post slowness on large threads due to SMTP emails (one by one to thousands of users). A very unscientific test seemed like the issue was significantly better after installing this. 

Thanks again. 

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
On 7/19/2018 at 9:25 PM, SJ77 said:

I am not sure I understand. I currently use spark post to send emails. What will this do for me? what is the benefit?

sendgrid, sparkpost, amazon ses, mailgun, mandrill (part of mailchimp), etc. are all examples of "smtp relay services"; its to bypass the limitation set out by hosting providers for daily sending limits. A limit put in place to prevent spam. From an admin perspective using a smtp relay server (with or without API) also increases the deliverability to an users inbox instead of going straight to junk email. *edit* ah your question was about smtp vs. rest api? sorry :blush:

Posted
On 7/16/2018 at 3:18 PM, Callum MacGregor said:

With SparkPost I got 100k FREE per month

I love to have that together with your plugin, except quickly browsing around the site I only see mention of "Send 15,000 emails/month and get 30 days of support with our free developer account." And no other free packages. So how did you accomplish that?

Posted
8 minutes ago, rhyker2u said:

I love to have that together with your plugin, except quickly browsing around the site I only see mention of "Send 15,000 emails/month and get 30 days of support with our free developer account." And no other free packages. So how did you accomplish that?

It's a legacy program that some people have if they signed up before they changed the policy. It's no longer available for new members.

Posted
10 hours ago, rhyker2u said:

I love to have that together with your plugin, except quickly browsing around the site I only see mention of "Send 15,000 emails/month and get 30 days of support with our free developer account." And no other free packages. So how did you accomplish that?

I just asked them to increase my monthly allowance and they did

  • 5 months later...
  • 8 months later...
Posted
On 9/30/2019 at 7:43 PM, Morgin said:

@Callum MacGregor Any chance you'd be willing to update this to add Mailgun API support and/or Amazon SES email support?

@Mark Flagging you in case you guys had plans to add other e-mail delivery API's in an upcoming update so no duplication of work.

Honestly probably not, I tend to only develop things that I need then release them on the off-chance somebody has the same needs. If/when SparkPost stops working I will complete your requests 🙂 Sorry.

  • 2 months later...
Posted
On 9/30/2019 at 2:43 PM, Morgin said:

@Callum MacGregor Any chance you'd be willing to update this to add Mailgun API support and/or Amazon SES email support?

@Mark Flagging you in case you guys had plans to add other e-mail delivery API's in an upcoming update so no duplication of work.

I'm looking for Amazon SES as well since moving my sites away from sparkpost. 

 

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