# Choose and connect an email provider

> Pick an email provider, connect it with the Guided Setup wizard, set up webhooks, and split broadcasts from transactional email across two servers.

Source: https://sendbroadcast.net/university/getting-started/connect-email-provider

Broadcast hands every email to a provider that you choose. In this lesson you pick one, connect it, and set it up so bounces and complaints come back to Broadcast. You also learn why two email servers are better than one.

## Pick a provider

Broadcast integrates with Amazon SES, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun, Resend, SMTP.com and Inboxroad, and sends over plain SMTP to anything else. The short version of the choice:

- **Amazon SES** is the cheapest at volume and the most work to set up.
- **Postmark** is the easiest to get right, and strict about what you may send through it.
- **SendGrid** and **Mailgun** sit in between.

If you already have a provider you are happy with, keep it. Your reputation lives in that account. The [provider guide](/how-to/choose-an-email-provider) and the [providers overview](/email-providers) go deeper.

Before you connect, verify your sending domain at the provider and publish the DNS records it gives you. Lesson 4 covered those records.

Warning

A new Amazon SES account starts in the **sandbox**: it sends only to verified addresses, at most 200 messages in 24 hours. Request production access before you send to a real list. The [SES sandbox guide](https://sendbroadcast.net/how-to/get-out-of-the-ses-sandbox) shows what to write.

## Connect with Guided Setup

Guided Setup is the recommended route for Postmark, Amazon SES, SendGrid and Mailgun. It configures the domains, senders and webhooks for you.

1. Open **Settings → Email Servers** and click **Add email server**.
2. Choose **Guided Setup**.
3. Select your provider.
4. Paste the credentials it asks for.
5. Follow the steps to the end.

![The Add Email Server dialog with Guided Setup, Manual Setup and Test Server options](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/setup/email-server-chooser-633a8f3e.png)

Choose Guided Setup. The other two options appear later in this lesson.

Each provider wants a specific credential. Postmark needs the **Account** API token from **Account → API Tokens**, not a server token, because the wizard must discover your servers and domains. Amazon SES needs an access key ID, a secret key and the **Region** your SES identities live in. Credentials from one region do not see identities in another. Mailgun asks for your API key and the region, US or EU.

![Step 1 of 3 of the Postmark guided setup, asking for an Account API Token](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/esp-integrations/postmark-connect-d2ba0592.png)

Postmark asks for the Account API token. The three steps are Connect, Verify and Webhooks.

The wizard also sets up delivery over the provider's API instead of SMTP. API delivery is faster and gives clearer error messages.

## Manual Setup for other providers

For Resend, SMTP.com, Inboxroad or a custom SMTP server, choose **Manual Setup** and enter the SMTP host, port, username and password. Then set up webhooks at the provider by hand. The webhook URL for each server is on its detail page under **Settings → Email Servers**. [ESP integrations](/docs/esp-integrations) has the steps for each provider.

## Why webhooks are not optional

Broadcast tracks opens and clicks itself. It cannot see what happens after the provider takes the email. Only the provider knows that a message was delivered, bounced, or marked as spam, and it reports this through webhooks.

1. **Broadcast hands over the email**
2. **The provider delivers it** Or the email bounces
3. **A reader may report spam**

↩ The provider reports each result to Broadcast through webhooks

Webhooks close the loop. Without them, Broadcast cannot see the last two steps.

With webhooks in place, Broadcast acts on each bounce and complaint. It deactivates the subscriber and adds the address to the channel's suppression list, so you never mail them again. Without webhooks, you keep mailing dead addresses and people who complained, and your reputation drops. The wizards set webhooks up for you. With Manual Setup, set them up yourself.

## Try it safely with the test server

Want to see a send before you trust real people with it? **Add email server** also offers a **Test Server**. It needs your license key. It captures every email in a private test inbox and never delivers it, not even to you. Open the server and click **View Test Inbox** to read what you sent. Captured mail is kept for 7 days.

When a real server becomes active in the channel, Broadcast switches the test server off, so real subscribers' mail never lands in the test inbox.

## Use two servers, not one

Each email server has its own hourly limit and, at the provider, its own reputation. A newsletter gets more unsubscribes and complaints than a password reset. If both share a server, a large broadcast uses the room that your login codes need, and complaints about the newsletter follow your receipts.

The docs recommend this split:

1. On the first server, under **Email Types**, tick only **Broadcasts**.
2. Add a second server. Under **Email Types**, tick **Transactional emails** and **Automated sequences**.
3. Give each server its own **emails per hour** value, set to the provider's real quota.

### Server 1

- Broadcasts

### Server 2

- Transactional emails
- Automated sequences

The split the docs recommend. Each server has its own limit and its own reputation.

At the provider, put the two servers on separate streams or sub-accounts when it supports them, such as a separate Postmark server or message stream. See [Email server rate limits](/docs/email-server-rate-limits).

## What you learned

- Broadcast sends through Amazon SES, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun, Resend, SMTP.com, Inboxroad or any SMTP server.
- Guided Setup configures domains, senders and webhooks for the four providers it supports.
- Webhooks bring back deliveries, bounces and complaints, and turn on auto-suppression.
- Two servers keep broadcasts from using the limit and reputation of transactional mail.

## Quiz
1. Which providers have a Guided Setup wizard in Broadcast?
   - Postmark, Amazon SES, SendGrid and Mailgun (correct)
   - Every provider, including plain SMTP relays
   - Resend, SMTP.com and Inboxroad
   Guided Setup is available for Postmark, AWS SES, SendGrid and Mailgun. Other providers use Manual Setup.
2. Why does the docs recommend two email servers?
   - Broadcast needs two servers to load balance at all
   - A provider only accepts one email type per account
   - So a broadcast cannot use the limit or the reputation that login codes and receipts need (correct)
   A newsletter uses its server's hourly limit and gets more complaints. A separate server keeps transactional mail and sequences safe from both.
3. What do you lose if you skip ESP webhooks?
   - Open tracking
   - The ability to send broadcasts
   - Click tracking
   - Delivery, bounce and complaint events, and auto-suppression (correct)
   Broadcast tracks opens and clicks itself, but it learns about deliveries, bounces and complaints only from provider webhooks.