4

No, I'm not a spammer! I do volunteer work for a non-profit social services agency. They send out daily email with several hundred recipients on each message. Their web hosting company has been flagging the email as spam due to the volume. So I'm looking for an email hosting provider that won't do that. (I can separate out the web hosting function; we just need mail hosting right now.)

They can't use something like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or Vertical Response because some of the mail is just inbound emails they aggregate and send out, and they don't want the overhead of "rebuilding" it in a "newsletter" service.

I think that Google Apps for Business might be a good solution, but the pricing is just too high for this under-funded non-profit. I've applied for the non-profit discount but haven't heard back yet.

Is there mail hosting service that might fit their needs?

Improve this question
3
  • There are important details missing here. How many actual e-mail accounts do you need? Are all the hundreds of people involved actual "staff" requiring at-yourdomain accounts, or just recipients with their own addresses? (Non-profs don't tend to be this large, so checking.) As @jcl1178 points out there's a conflict between desire and reality here. Mail hosts generally don't want you sending bulk mail other than as a–usually separate–service they provide, but depending upon your situation there might be another option.
    – Su'
    Nov 22, 2012 at 10:46
  • How many recipients on the list?
    – Anagio
    Nov 28, 2012 at 3:02
  • 1
    All hosting providers any more pretty much either limit the number per hour or the number of identical emails that can be sent. They don't want their server operation flagged for spamming and will demand that you use an ESP (Email Service Provider). Non-Profit != Good Guys. They've all heard it before.
    – Fiasco Labs
    Oct 14, 2014 at 0:41

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
2

I just started sending emails though Amazon Simple Email Service and it is working great. It is more a MailChimp competitor but is probably worth considering trying to use it in your flow.

Improve this answer
1
  • Start slow and send out non-spam emails to train in for trust. Works well for non-profit type lists.
    – Fiasco Labs
    Oct 14, 2014 at 0:37
1

Google Apps for Business isn't really a good fit for what you describe -- it's just GMail with your domain name. In fact, nothing is really a good fit for sending any one email with "several hundred recipients on each message." No matter which SMTP server you use to send it, it will create an envelope with significant spam characteristics and mail sent through hosted SMTP services are just as likely to be flagged as spam as mail sent through a local SMTP server with the added bonus of the likelihood of being suspended by the host if you get flagged as a spammer.

You really need to convince the non-profit that they need to change their behavior with regards to email. Either bite the bullet and recreate the messages for a newsletter service or bite the bullet and recreate the message within a bulk mailing program like Infacta Group Mail or similar mail program that creates a separate message per recipient and breaks up that recipient block.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    If you read the TOS for Google Apps for Business, they specifically restrict Bulk Mailing. There is a limit on how many identical emails can be sent and they do check.
    – Fiasco Labs
    Oct 14, 2014 at 0:38
0

SendGrid has SMTP integration so your client would be able to send directly though their email client.

Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.