Email sending approaches in asp.net

Question

in my project have to suggest email sending approachs to my manager. As a part of design document.

Following are the approachs available. Kindly share ur views on pros and cons for these approaches

Approach 1: Use third party SMTP Pros: Readily available Cons:Costs

Approach 2: Host own SMTP on Windows Azure Pros: Cons:

Approach 3: Using Public email Account Pros: No additional cost or dependency. Cons: Requires more effort in terms of designing and implementation.

Answer 1

It all depends on the volume of the email being sent everyday. If you've large amount of emails (say ... 20000+) everyday, Approach 1 is ideal. Third party mail servers are designed to handle large flow of emails.

If you've small to medium size of email operations, I would suggest you to go for Windows Virtual Server hosting ...

Pros: It is cost effective ($15 to $20 per month), Great flexibility of coding and Full control of your environment.

If you've very small email operations (less than few hundred emails every day), try out shared hosting ... it will hardly cost a few bugs, but you will have good control of your applications.

Answer 2

Based on my experience the pros and cons are mostly depend on total usage with any available email option you provided as well as how comfortable you are using public email services. I have seen some partners wanted to use bundle the solution using Azure + Office 365 however others choose Azure + 3rd party Service provider.

If you are sending a few emails daily, a few hundred monthly, having public service good alternative comparative to have your own SMTP server doing this job. If you are considering to create a flood of emails, using your own SMTP will save you money but will cost you in maintenance. You can also use Office365 higher account and you may get something in middle.

Code wise you are going to add pretty much same amount of code in your Windows Azure application so I don't think that is any big concern, and forget about hosting SMTP server in Azure not a good option and not suggested.