The Best Transactional Email Service Providers for WordPress

No spam, no junk, no bounces! These are the best transactional email service providers for WordPress users. Send fast and reliable transactional emails with these best-in-class plugins and Uncanny Automator.

Have your WordPress emails been landing in your customers’ spam folder? Maybe some of your customers never even received their order confirmation email to begin with. Or, perhaps, you’ve just discovered that the reason your shoppers haven’t been leaving you rave reviews is because your follow-up emails have disappeared into the vastness of cyberspace.

If any of that sounds (frustratingly) familiar, then you’ve landed on the right page!

In this article, we’ll go over some of the reasons why your transactional emails might not be reaching their final destination. Next, we’ll cover the best transactional email service providers that ensure deliverability and even show you how Uncanny Automator can improve your email open rates and even boost conversions!

Let’s get to it!

What Are Transactional Emails?

Before we delve into the details, let’s start with some definitions.

Transactional emails are the emails that are triggered by a specific action or event on your website. They are an essential medium of communication for any successful WordPress business.

WordPress site owners and developers will recognize common transactional emails such as new order emails, processing order emails and password reset emails amongst others.

Unlike promotional emails and email marketing campaigns, which are sent to a large group of subscribers, transactional emails are highly targeted and personalized. They are crucial for providing customers with important information and updates about their orders/accounts. Additionally, they help you and your customers maintain a record and build trust and loyalty for your brand.

For WordPress site owners and developers, it is important to have a reliable system in place for sending transactional emails. In the next section, we’ll talk about why that’s the case and how your transactional emails can help you improve your bottom line.

The Importance of Transactional Emails for WordPress

Transactional emails are not just a formality for WordPress businesses. They play a crucial role in the overall customer experience and can directly impact your bottom line. Here are some reasons why transactional emails are important for every WordPress business.

1. Provide Information to Customers

As mentioned earlier, transactional emails are triggered by specific actions or events, such as a purchase confirmation or shipping update. These emails provide customers with important information about their orders, such as order details and tracking numbers. This helps to keep customers informed and reduces the number of inquiries and complaints about their orders.

2. Create a Record

Transactional emails serve as a record for you and your customers to refer back to in case of any discrepancies, miscommunications or mishaps. These emails play a crucial role in maintaining a clear and reliable channel of communication between you and your customers, ensuring that both parties can easily access vital information whenever required.

3. Build Trust and Loyalty

Transactional emails are highly targeted and personalized, making them a great opportunity to build trust and loyalty with your customers. By providing them with timely and relevant information, you are showing that you value their business and are committed to providing a positive customer experience. This can lead to repeat purchases and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

In addition, these emails also provide an opportunity to reinforce your brand identity. By ensuring that your transactional emails are consistent with your brand’s look and feel, you can create a cohesive and memorable brand experience for your customers. This can help to increase brand recognition and loyalty, leading to higher customer retention rates.

4. Upsell and Cross-sell Opportunities

WooCommerce businesses can also use transactional emails as a marketing tool to upsell and cross-sell products to customers. For example, a shipping notification email can include a section showcasing related products or a discount code for their next purchase. This can help to increase sales and customer lifetime value.

Furthermore, you can use these emails to promote other aspects of your business, such as your loyalty program or upcoming sales events. By integrating marketing messages into your transactional emails, you can leverage these communications to drive additional revenue and engagement from your customers.

5. Reduce Customer Support Tickets

Savvy WordPress business owners can use transactional emails to provide customers with additional information about their products, services and support. Including information such as return policies, sales terms, customer support contact details, and more can not only enhance the customer experience but also reduces the burden on your customer service team.

Why Aren’t My Transactional Emails Reaching My Customers?

That’s the million dollar EBITDA question, isn’t it?

In all likelihood, if you aren’t already using a dedicated email plugin, the reason that your transactional emails have been circling the cyberspace equivalent of a blackhole is simple: rate-limiting.

Your WordPress web host is focused on “housing” your website. You wouldn’t want your real estate agent delivering your mail, now would you? Even the very best WordPress website hosting services such as WPEngine and DreamHost, will limit the number, size and frequency of emails you can send.

That’s why you need a dedicated email plugin to ensure deliverability in a timely manner. In the next section, we’ll introduce you to the very best email service providers for WordPress so that your emails never end up in the spam folder.

Top 6 Transactional Email Service Providers for WordPress

Now that we know why it’s so important to have a dedicated transactional email service provider, let’s take a look at the top options for WordPress users.

1. SendLayer

If you’re looking for a no-hassle, out-of-the-box email service provider, you won’t find a better option than SendLayer. The team over at Awesome Motive (the same small business developers behind familiar WordPress names such as WPForms, OptinMonster and RafflePress) built this powerful email service provider with growing businesses in mind.

Promising high deliverability with low maintenance, SendLayer comes equipped with all of the tools you’ll need to get your mail where it needs to go. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, SendLayer provides the resources and support needed to boost your email communications and deliver impactful, targeted messages to your subscribers.

Why Choose SendLayer?

In the simplest terms? Because it’s awesome! Both experienced WordPress developers and site owners will appreciate that SendLayer takes care of the technical side of email deliverability. From an SMTP or API relay at its core to GDPR compliance and impeccable security, SendLayer handles the physics of cyberspace so you can spend more time writing your emails and interacting with your customers.

Email marketers, in particular, will appreciate SendLayer’s email analytics, open and click tracking, mailing lists and detailed logs features.

Pricing

As we mentioned earlier, SendLayer is the best option for growing businesses. SendLayer plans start at just $5/month for 1,000 emails and all of the features that you’ll need to guarantee deliverability.

Large enterprises and site developers can even create custom, premium plans with SendLayer’s Scale tier.

2. Brevo formerly Sendinblue

Brevo started out as a newsletter and transactional email platform. However, in the years since its inception, it has grown into a popular email marketing and automation platform that even offers SMS services. As a user-friendly platform with a dedicated WordPress plugin, Brevo is suitable for both beginners and advanced users alike.

Why Choose Brevo?

There are tons of reasons to choose Brevo, but here are just a few: email analytics (open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates), customizable email templates, drag-and-drop builder and A/B testing.

Brevo is a great choice for WordPress businesses that want a reliable transactional email platform as well as a comprehensive email marketing solution. Its user-friendly interface, advanced features, and competitive pricing make it a popular choice among businesses of all sizes.

Moreover, its dedicated WordPress plugin makes it easy to integrate with your website, allowing you to start sending transactional emails quickly and easily.

Pricing

Send up to 300 emails/day with Brevo’s FREE forever plan. Alternatively, you can send up to 20,000 emails/month for just $27/month with no daily limit so you can handle the Black Friday rush.

Check out Brevo’s full pricing schedule.

3. Mailgun

Mailgun is a popular transactional email service provider that is most popular amongst WordPress developers. As one of the more versatile email service providers, Mailgun is highly-scalable for growing businesses and consistently maintains some of the best deliverability rates.

As a developer-friendly platform, Mailgun has tons of advanced features and tools for managing transactional emails. A dedicated WordPress plugin also means that Mailgun is accessible for WordPress site owners who want to take greater control of their channels of communication.

Why Choose Mailgun?

Mailgun is a great choice for businesses that need a robust and reliable transactional email service. Its high deliverability rates and developer-focused features make it a no-brainer for advanced WordPress users.

Developers, in particular, will appreciate that Mailgun builds everything from the API floor up, while businesses will appreciate features such as inbound routing and advanced analytics.

Pricing

Mailgun offers a FREE one-month trial. For $0, you’ll get access to 24/7 support and 5,000 emails (plus $1/1,000 emails after that).

Check out Mailgun’s full pricing schedule here.

4. SendGrid by Twilio

If a full-suite of transactional communications is what you’re after, then look no further than SendGrid. As a subsidiary of Twilio, the popular API-based SMS platform, SendGrid is among the more powerful transactional email service providers. Of course, SendGrid offers high deliverability rates for your transactional emails but you’ll have the ability to expand your communication channels to include text, WhatsApp and even video.

Why Choose SendGrid?

For WordPress site owners and developers who need more than just transactional emails, it’s hard to pick a better-suited email service provider than SendGrid. SendGrid has all of the standard features, such as deliverability optimization and email validation, that you’d want in an email service provider. But it’s the ability to open to new channels of communication with your customers that really sets SendGrid apart.

Pricing

SendGrid offers two tiers of pricing for its email API plans; one for developers and another one for marketers. Both offer generous FREE forever plans but big WordPress businesses can get started at just $19.95/month for 50,000 emails!

Check out SendGrid’s full pricing schedule.

5. Amazon SES

With Amazon SES, the name says it all—simple email service. Amazon SES is the no-nonsense, all business email service provider on this list. It’s easily the most scalable, absolutely reliable and powerful enough for developers and WordPress site owners alike. With flexible deployment options (including the ability to bring your own IP address) and a mailbox simulator, you can detect potential deliverability issues before they arise.

Why Choose Amazon SES?

With rare exceptions, Amazon SES will be the most economical option for WordPress users and developers. Because you only pay as you go with Amazon SES, you can rest assured that your email deliverability costs will not run ahead of your revenues. Additionally, Amazon SES offers dedicated, shared, or even personalized IP addresses to suit your specific needs.

Marketers without programming experience will also love user-friendly features such as a reputation dashboard and mailbox simulator.

Pricing

Unlike other options on this list, Amazon SES doesn’t have a fixed pricing schedule. This is for your convenience, to maximize economy and guarantee affordability.

You can check out Amazon SES’ pricing guidelines here. After that, be sure to check out the Amazon SES pricing calculator to get an estimate of what your costs might be.

6. Mailjet

Mailjet is a scalable, boutique email service provider that empowers WordPress businesses to deliver important and impactful emails to their customers with ease. With a robust set of features, including customizable templates, marketing automation, and in-depth analytics, Mailjet helps you engage your audience and boost your email deliverability.

Whether you’re a small startup or a large enterprise, Mailjet’s versatile and user-friendly solutions are designed to meet your email communications needs.

Why Choose Mailjet?

Mailjet is a great choice for WordPress businesses that need a comprehensive, customizable transactional email solution in addition to an email marketing platform. Its user-friendly interface, advanced features, and competitive pricing make it a popular choice among businesses of all sizes.

Moreover, with a dedicated WordPress plugin, you’ll be able to integrate Mailjet with your website with ease.

Pricing

Just because Mailjet is more of a boutique option, doesn’t mean that it is an expensive one. Quite the contrary. Mailjet’s FREE forever plan gives you 6,000 emails/month (200/day) and an unlimited number of contacts.

The “pay as you grow” model then starts at a mere $15/month with 15,000 emails and no daily sending limit so your Boxing Day Sale transaction emails won’t cap out. Alternatively, you can grow your business with a custom plan, tailored to your exact needs.

Check out Mailjet’s full pricing schedule or request a quote for your bespoke needs here.

My Transactional Emails Still Aren’t Reaching My Customers

If you’ve gotten a dedicated email service provider and your emails still are not getting to your customers’ inbox, don’t panic. There are any number of (simple) reasons why your transactional emails might still be landing in the junk box.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the simplest (but most often overlooked) reasons why your emails aren’t reaching their target, even after you’ve gotten a dedicated email service provider.

1. Invalid Email Addresses

   When customers provide incorrect or invalid email addresses, your emails will fail to reach them. To tackle this issue, you can incorporate email validation during the registration and/or checkout process and encourage customers to verify their email addresses.

2. Email Settings

   From your WordPress Admin account, ensure that you have the right settings for your transactional emails. If you’re using an ecommerce platform like WooCommerce, simply navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Emails from your WordPress Admin Sidebar and click Manage next to each type of email.

3. Content

   Review the content of your emails to ensure they don’t violate the email content guidelines of your host, CRM, or email service provider. Including too many links or suspicious links (i.e., links that are not associated with your domain) and large files like JS files may also cause your email service provider to flag the content.

4. Compliance

   Ensure that you comply with email marketing regulations such as the CAN-SPAM Act and GDPR, depending on your target audience. Most CRMs and email service providers make this easy to do, so you shouldn’t have to get a law degree to resolve this issue.

5. Low Sender Reputation

   Your sender reputation plays a crucial role in email deliverability. To improve your sender reputation: remove invalid and/or inactive email addresses from your list and use double opt-in to confirm email subscriptions.

6. Email Domain

   Your email’s domain (i.e., the part of the email address that comes after “@”) should match your website’s domain. For example, if your website is “www.website.com” then the email address from which you send your website’s emails should have the same domain, “@website.com”. Mismatched website and email domains are likely to get the attention of your email service provider and land your mail in the spam folder.

7. Sender and Receiver Emails

   Your sender and receiver emails should not be the same. For example, if you send your website’s emails from “johndoe@website.com”, you should not also receive emails with this address. Most websites receive emails through their “support” handle unless they are going to a specific individual within the organization.

Run Your Email Campaigns with Uncanny Automator

Now that you have a dedicated email service provider, you can send out important email blasts to all of your contacts with absolute confidence. However, managing those emails at scale and getting them to fit into your existing website infrastructure and workflows is the next challenge you’ll face.

This is where a plugin like Uncanny Automator steps in.

Uncanny Automator is the #1 automation and integration plugin for WordPress users and developers. With a simple click-and-select interface, you can create combinations of triggers and actions to automate repetitive tasks and connect all of your apps and plugins.

When it comes to sending transactional WordPress emails, Automator offers unprecedented levels of flexibility. With powerful features such as user loops (i.e., the ability to perform actions on users in bulk) and 150 integrations, there is no limit to the number of ways you can reach out to your customers.

In the Automator recipe pictured above, for example, we’re able to generate and email unique WooCommerce coupon codes to all of our WordPress users. We can further segment our contacts based on their LearnDash course completion, offering exclusive discounts to each subset of users.

Get the help you need to manage your transactional WordPress emails. Try Uncanny Automator, risk-free for 14-days.

Conclusion

As promised: no spam, no junk, no bounces! Just reliable transactional emails for WordPress. Whichever email service provider you choose—unless you decide to get a carrier pigeon— remember to grab your Automator license to help navigate cyberspace and land your emails safely into your customers’ inboxes.

We hope we covered everything. In the off-chance that you have any more transactional email questions or want to know more about how Uncanny Automator can help you manage your emails at scale, drop us a line in the comments section below.

Until then, happy emailing and automating!