Have been using Sendgrid account as SMPT server for vertical market stand-alone file successfully for many years.
Sendgrid changed to API calls and doesn't offer as far as I understood SMTP services anymore.
My question: Does anyone know or uses an alternative affordable SMTP server like Sendgrid used to be for low count of emails to be sent out within FMP?
What really made the deal with Sendgrid was that sending out emails even with same credentials but different IP addresses never have been flagged as SPAM (at least not for the low volumes we used to send) whereas gmail for example or others refused or indicated compromising of outgoing account and stopped to send ...
thanks // I got an email from them to switch to API and SMTP fails to work:
" Secure Your SendGrid Account With API Keys and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Twilio SendGrid will soon begin enforcing API Key authentication for all API requests and SMTP configuration, as well as requiring Two-Factor Authentication upon login. We have begun reaching out to customers to upgrade to API Keys where applicable, and to enable 2FA on their SendGrid accounts using SMS or Authy.
That is likely about authentication for the SMTP call. Actual implementation may be slightly different. In Mandrill, we use the API key as the password. That protects your password and allows the provider to suspend an API call if there is suspicious activity, without break ALL mail.
We have separate API keys for various uses. A few months ago, someone in another country started sending a ton of SPAM using that key. Kill the key, replace it with a new one, problem solved, without killing our Sales Reps communication with clients.
You can still get direct SMTP server access with Mailjet - I use them for API based sending, but they also allow you to send via SMTP.
Although - I must add, why not just switch over to and API based sending method? I've alsways found the Send Mail (via SMTP) script step a bit flakey - it tends to be very specific about auth methods, and this has caused issues for me in the past. With an API based approach, you get a lot more options, like being able to send HTML, and leveraging templates, amongst other things.
I can provide an example file with the API config for Mailjet sending already built, if you like?
The message he got isn't even about a RESTful API call. It was only about not using your actual password. The equivalent is a Gmail App Password. SendGrid, MailChimp, and most transactional mail calls them API keys.
Though I completely understand the confusion. It's an email about API keys with almost no context.
SendGrid still offers both features. Also, some API call based transaction email doesn't allow you to easily get the mail into the original user's sent mail. I think most do, but I have run into a few that don't work.