New Feature: Restrict who can use the SMTP Relay

We've launched a new feature that allows you to restrict who can use the SMTP service by From Address. Under Settings --> Advanced --> From Addresses, you may designate which email addresses and domains can send through the relay.

By default, all email addresses and domains can send through the relay.

You only need to specify From Addresses if you wish to restrict the relay to use just by certain people. If you wish to restrict the use of the relay to an entire domain, you can use the wildcard notation *@domain.com as the From Address to represent all addresses for domain.com.

Note: Specifying From Address restrictions only apply to emails sent through the SMTP relay, and not through the transactional email API.

The JangoSMTP commercial you didn't see during the Super Bowl

Amongst the bevy of entertaining commercials that aired during the big game, here's one you didn't get to see -- the new JangoSMTP commercial. Did the NFL ban it for racy content?  No, it's just that we thought $3.5M could be better spent elsewhere, like adding features and making infrastructure improvements. Enjoy!

How Does JangoSMTP Compare to Amazon SES?

By now many of you have probably heard about Amazon's new Simple Email Service (SES). If you haven't heard, Amazon recently launced SES, a low-cost, very basic API-driven transactional email service. There are many people interested in learning more about how this compares to JangoSMTP, so we wanted to help you understand how both email services work.

How does JangoSMTP compare to Amazon SES and which is the right service for me?

If you are looking for a minimalist email service for the lowest price, then the Amazon SES may make sense for you.

JangoSMTP is more robust, in that it has both API and SMTP relay options, along with bounce and unsubscribe management, open and click tracking and advanced reporting (Google Analytics, logging, etc.).

Do you need more than a simple sending service? This is not a one size fits all industry, so consider the following in making your choice so that you get the right fit for your needs:

- Delivery assistance. How do you confirm your messages are getting through, and how do you get help if they are not?

- Development skills. Do you have the development resources available to build to an API? Do you need to build an automated solution to handle complaints and bounces as you receive them? (Amazon sends these back to the From Address used in the campaign, and you have to handle them locally.)

- Reporting. What do you want to see about how your mailings are doing? Do you only need a log of messages sent, or do you want to see if they’ve been opened, links clicked, etc.?

There is a lot of room in the high volume email industry, and you want to find the right fit so that your integration doesn’t leave you frustrated with your results.

Here's a quick comparison chart for reference:

Feature	JangoSMTP	Amazon SES
Open Tracking	Yes	No
Click Tracking	Yes	No
Automatic DKIM Signing	Yes	No
Google Analytics Integration	Yes	No
Log reporting	Yes	No
Real-Time Reporting	Yes	No
Automated Complaint/Bounce Handling	Yes	No
Customer/Delivery Support	Yes	No
API	Yes	Yes
SMTP Relay Server	Yes	No
Price Per 1,000	$0.97- $7.00	$0.10
Free Service	200 emails/month	2,000 emails/day