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Form sends emails for one-time passwords, both for administrator logins and for email verifications. This page describes considerations for choosing an email service provider, and lists a few email services to be considered for use with FormSG.
The email service offered by most email service providers is largely the same. They would usually differentiate themselves through the following:
Many email services offer integrations through SMTP, short for Simple Mail Transport Protocol. This is important, as it is what FormSG uses for the sending of one-time passwords for email logins. It is also used for verifying email addresses for form submissions.
When selecting an email service provider, ensure that they offer this. This would be often advertised as an "SMTP relay" or an "SMTP API", or with similar language.
If you are unsure, check their technical documentation with your engineer.
Given the similarity between email services, many of them will compete on price. Check the pricing page for each services to determine costs.
Many of these services also offer a free tier, allowing a user to send a certain number of emails per month without charge.
Many email service providers would require you to verify your email domain before they send emails using that email domain as the sender. This is part of DMARC, and is considered good practice to ensure that emails are legitimate and from reputable senders.
The process to verify a domain usually takes some effort and time. If your email domain is administered by someone else, significant coordination would also be needed to ensure that your chosen email service provider is recognised as a legitimate sender of emails from your email domain.
If you are planning to set up Form just for demonstration or a trial for now, and are less concerned about setting up verified email senders at this time, the verification process could delay the deployment of Form.
Some email service providers would grant a temporary email domain to allow users to immediately send emails and try their service. If you are looking to start trialling the use of Form and roll it out as soon as possible, and you do not mind which domain or email address is sending Form emails, look out for this feature.
A few service providers offer email alongside other communication services that may be useful. This includes SMS services (Twilio in particular), which FormSG could use to enable verification of phone numbers in form submissions through one-time passwords.
Users should consider if they would want to enroll in such a service so as to obtain integrations across multiple communication mediums through a single account.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of platforms that provide email services: