Email existed way before the World Wide Web did and hence there is no surprise that there is a surplus amount of SMTP server contrivance in the market. The SMTP servers vary from corporate servers to command-line applications and cover all kinds of operating systems from being free to as pricey as possible.
Choosing the right SMTP service is very important especially for the email marketing services since they need to send bulk emails. Due to certain steps that are taken to control email trafficking, it is quite a difficulty to send bulk emails.
What is SMTP?
A communication protocol used for the transmission of electronic mail is called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP. In 1982 SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 and later in the year 2008, it was updated by RFC 5321. A protocol extension was added in that update called the Extended SMTP or Enhanced SMTP and this is the protocol that is being generally used today all over the world.
How to pick one?
Besides the number of servers available, market leaders like Microsoft Exchange Server, Sendmail, Exim, and Postfix are dominating the whole market. Although Microsoft Exchange runs only on Windows so users of this OS has no other options.
Now, lets come to the part of picking one. An email marketing service needs to choose the right SMTP server but how do you that? well, you have to keep a lot in mind.
- Complexity: While looking for a server you should make sure if you need all the extra features or if any small server can cover the important features you need. The features that you do not need may slow your server down so if you focus on what you need then it will save your time and maybe some money too.
- Support: The SMTP server is a complex topic and as the complexity keeps increasing you will be needing the help of an expert. Problems may arise if you go for not a well-known system. Before you choose one please do research and find out which of the systems experts support in your domain because even if you hire or pay the consulting firm for the work, you need local support.
- Pricing: The good thing is the majority of the well-known SMTP server are open source which means they are free. If we talk about Linux and Windows.
Linux servers like Sendmail are really complicated and therefore hard to understand. If you do not get help from an expert then you may end up with a crashed system. On the other hand, Windows server costs a lot however it is easier to configure and hence to set up.
The Operating systems are already chosen, so most of the time you cannot do anything about it but for email marketing, it is advisable to search the SMTP server and then look for the operating system that supports the said SMTP server. All you have to keep in mind is that support, configuration, and maintenance are the real-cost factors.
