SMTP is the standard outbound email protocol. ActiveManage talks SMTP to any compliant server — your SMTP provider's relay, your own mail server, or a hosted transactional-mail service like SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, or Amazon SES.
Required settings
On the E-mail Account configuration, when Send Mode is SMTP:
- Host — the SMTP server's hostname.
- Port — typically 587 for STARTTLS, 465 for SSL, 25 for unencrypted (don't use 25 over the public internet).
- Username / Password — authentication credentials from your provider.
- Encryption — TLS (preferred), SSL, or none.
Common providers
- SendGrid: Host
smtp.sendgrid.net, port 587, TLS. Username is literallyapikey, password is your SendGrid API key. - Mailgun: Host
smtp.mailgun.org, port 587, TLS. Username and password from the Mailgun control panel. - Postmark: Host
smtp.postmarkapp.com, port 587, TLS. Username and password from Postmark. - Amazon SES: Host varies by region (
email-smtp.eu-west-1.amazonaws.cometc.), port 587, TLS. SES-specific SMTP credentials generated in the SES console. - Office 365: Host
smtp.office365.com, port 587, TLS. Your Office 365 mailbox credentials. Note: Microsoft is increasingly restricting SMTP AUTH — prefer Microsoft Graph if available. - Gmail (G Suite / Google Workspace): Host
smtp.gmail.com, port 587, TLS. Requires an app-specific password or OAuth. - Custom on-prem mail server: whatever your IT department gives you.
Picking a provider
Three criteria to weigh:
1. Deliverability
How likely are emails to actually arrive in inboxes (not spam folders)? Transactional-mail specialists (SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, AWS SES) have stronger deliverability than generic providers because they invest in IP reputation and sender best-practices.
2. Cost
Transactional-mail services charge per email. Typical pricing:
- First 100/day free (most providers).
- $10-20/month for 50k emails (entry tier).
- $50-100/month for 250k.
- $200+/month for 1M+.
3. Features
Beyond basic sending: open tracking, click tracking, bounce handling, webhook callbacks on delivery events, suppression lists, dedicated IPs, etc. The transactional specialists offer all of these; basic SMTP doesn't.
Testing
The platform has a Test Connection button on each E-mail Account. Always test before going live. The test sends a tiny message and reports:
- SMTP authentication success or failure (with reason).
- Delivery confirmation from the provider.
- Any error message returned by the SMTP server.
After saving, also send a real end-to-end test by triggering a real workflow that sends an email — check the recipient's inbox to verify everything looks right (subject, body, links, branding).
