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Nodemailer vs Postmark: What are the differences?
Introduction
Nodemailer and Postmark are two popular email sending services that are widely used by developers. While both services provide similar functionality of sending emails, there are several key differences between Nodemailer and Postmark.
Email Sending Mechanism: Nodemailer is a library for Node.js that allows developers to send emails directly from their applications using various transports such as SMTP, Sendmail, and Amazon SES. On the other hand, Postmark is a cloud-based email service that provides a simple REST API for sending emails.
Deliverability and Reputation Management: Postmark is known for its excellent deliverability and reputation management. It has a robust infrastructure and maintains positive relationships with major ISPs, resulting in better inbox placement rates and fewer emails being marked as spam. Nodemailer, being a library, relies on the configuration and reputation management of the underlying transport being used.
Email Template Rendering: Nodemailer provides basic support for email template rendering, allowing developers to use various templating engines like EJS, Handlebars, and Pug. It requires developers to manually render the templates and compose the email content. Postmark, on the other hand, has built-in support for email templates that can be customized using a user-friendly template editor. It simplifies the process of creating and managing email templates.
Inbound Email Processing: Postmark supports inbound email processing, allowing developers to receive and process incoming emails via a webhook. This functionality can be used to build applications like customer support ticketing systems or mailing list management. Nodemailer does not have built-in support for inbound email processing and would require additional libraries or services to achieve similar functionality.
Analytics and Tracking: Postmark provides detailed analytics and tracking features, allowing developers to monitor the delivery status, open rates, click rates, and bounce rates of their emails. It provides insights into how recipients interact with the sent emails. Nodemailer does not provide built-in analytics and tracking features; developers would need to integrate with third-party services or build custom solutions for monitoring email engagement.
Pricing and Plans: Nodemailer is an open-source library and can be used for free without any limitations. However, it requires developers to set up and manage their own email sending infrastructure. Postmark, on the other hand, is a paid service with various pricing plans based on the number of emails sent per month. It offers a managed email infrastructure, reducing the operational overhead for developers.
In summary, Nodemailer is a library that allows developers to send emails from their applications using various transports, while Postmark is a cloud-based email service with a simple REST API. Postmark has better deliverability and reputation management, built-in support for email templates, inbound email processing, analytics and tracking, but it comes with a cost. Nodemailer provides more flexibility and control over the email sending process, but requires developers to manage their own email infrastructure.
While building our authentication system, we originally picked Mailgun. However, emails took minutes to arrive and some of them didn't get delivered - or got delivered to spam.
We started looking for a new provider, and settled on Postmark. We love that they track time-to-inbox, it makes me feel they really care about going above and beyond to provide a good service.
Pros of Nodemailer
Pros of Postmark
- Simple18
- Great analytics10
- Email, done right8
- Easy setup5
- Heroku Add-on5
- Can review sent messages2
- Very inexpensive1
- Exceptional support1
- Pay per message1
- Great support1
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Cons of Nodemailer
Cons of Postmark
- No 24x7 support1