Choosing an Email Provider
This article explains the differences between a tenant's built-in email provider and a custom email provider.
- Custom Email Provider
- Built-in Email Provider
About the built-in email provider
Every new tenant has access to a basic email delivery service called the built-in email provider. There is nothing to install or configure.
The built-in email provider has the following limitations:
- It is only suitable for basic testing of email functionality. It is limited to delivering a maximum of 10 emails per minute. If this limit is exceeded, then the excess messages are silently discarded.
- No guarantees are offered with regard to reliability, so it should not be used in a Production environment.
- It cannot be used if customized emails are required. To customize email delivery templates, a 3rd party email provider must be provisioned. For more details, refer to Customize Email Templates.
These constraints mean that it should not be used in a Production environment.
The built-in provider is only suitable for scenarios with a low volume of messages to process and where reliability is not of major importance, such as a Development tenant.
About custom email providers
A tenant can be configured with a range of custom email providers. For the current list of supported providers, refer to Configure External SMTP Email Providers
These commercial services offer superior performance, reliability, and message traceability compared to the built-in provider. A custom email provider is strongly recommended for use in a Production environment.
It is usually necessary to take out a paid subscription with the business that provides the chosen service, though some may offer a Free tier.
