Use your own SMTP provider — or ours
Pingovo's SMTP email service lets you connect any SMTP relay — Gmail, SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, or a fully custom SMTP host — and use it to power your email campaigns.
SMTP Configuration
6+
major SMTP providers supported
AES-256
credential encryption
<5 min
average SMTP setup
100%
encrypted at rest
Works with all major SMTP providers
SMTP that fits your infrastructure
Connect any SMTP provider
Pingovo works with any SMTP relay service — paste in your host, port, and credentials and you're ready to send.
Multiple SMTP configs
Store multiple SMTP configurations and switch between them per campaign — ideal for separating transactional and marketing sends.
AES-256 password encryption
Your SMTP credentials are encrypted at rest using AES-256 encryption. We never store passwords in plain text.
Your SMTP credentials are always encrypted
Pingovo encrypts every SMTP password at rest using AES-256 encryption before storing it — the same standard used by banks. Your credentials are never logged, never readable in plain text, and decrypted only at send time in a secure in-memory context.
Which SMTP port should you use?
The SMTP port number is the setting people get wrong most often when connecting an SMTP server, and the symptom is always the same: the connection times out with no useful error. Almost every SMTP service expects one of four ports.
| Port | Encryption | Use it for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 587 | STARTTLS | The default for sending mail | The submission port, and what most SMTP providers expect. Start here. |
| 465 | Implicit TLS/SSL | Sending, where the provider prefers it | Deprecated years ago, then reinstated — widely supported again today. |
| 25 | Usually none | Server-to-server relay, not client sending | Blocked for outbound client mail by most ISPs and cloud hosts. |
| 2525 | STARTTLS | A fallback when 587 is blocked | Not an official standard, but accepted by many SMTP services. |
If you are unsure, use port 587 with STARTTLS — it is the correct default for practically every SMTP relay service. Port 25 is the one to avoid for this purpose: it exists for server-to-server delivery, and most hosting providers block outbound traffic on it to limit spam, which is why an SMTP configuration that looks correct can still fail silently.
Rather than leaving you to guess, Pingovo runs a live SMTP test against the server when you save a configuration — authenticating with the credentials you supplied and reporting the failure directly if the host, port or password is wrong, instead of waiting for a campaign to fail.
SMTP, IMAP and POP3 — which does what
These three get mixed up constantly, and settings pages rarely explain the difference. SMTP sends mail out. IMAP and POP3 both read mail that has already arrived, and the IMAP vs POP3 choice comes down to where the mail lives: IMAP leaves messages on the server and syncs folders and read state across every device, while POP3 downloads them to one machine and typically deletes the server copy. The standard IMAP port number is 993 over implicit TLS (143 unencrypted); POP3 uses 995 over TLS (110 unencrypted). For sending through Pingovo you only need the SMTP details — IMAP comes up separately, when you connect a mailbox for email warmup so replies can be read back.
SMTP server settings for the providers people connect most
Every SMTP service publishes the same four values — host, port, encryption, and what to use as the username. Below are the settings for the SMTP providers most often connected to Pingovo, so you can copy them straight into the configuration form. Providers do change these, so treat your provider's own documentation as the final word.
| Provider | SMTP host | Port | Username | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gmail / Google Workspace | smtp.gmail.com | 587 | Your full Gmail address | Needs an App Password — your normal account password is rejected once 2-step verification is on. |
| Outlook.com / Hotmail | smtp-mail.outlook.com | 587 | Your full Outlook address | STARTTLS only. An app password is required on accounts with two-step verification enabled. |
| Microsoft 365 | smtp.office365.com | 587 | The licensed mailbox address | SMTP AUTH is disabled per-mailbox by default on new tenants — an admin has to switch it on first. |
| Yahoo Mail | smtp.mail.yahoo.com | 465 | Your full Yahoo address | Implicit TLS on 465. App password required. |
| Zoho Mail | smtp.zoho.com | 587 | Your full Zoho address | Regional hosts differ (smtp.zoho.eu, smtp.zoho.in) — use the one for your data centre. |
| SendGrid | smtp.sendgrid.net | 587 | The literal word apikey | The password is the API key itself, not your account password. |
| Mailgun | smtp.mailgun.org | 587 | postmaster@your-domain | EU accounts use smtp.eu.mailgun.org — connecting to the wrong region fails authentication. |
| Amazon SES | email-smtp.<region>.amazonaws.com | 587 | SES SMTP username | SMTP credentials are generated separately from your AWS access keys, and the region is part of the host. |
| Postmark | smtp.postmarkapp.com | 587 | Your server API token | The same token goes in both the username and password fields. |
Two failures account for most of the SMTP connection tests that do not pass, and neither produces a helpful error on its own. The first is an app password: Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo all refuse your ordinary account password once two-step verification is on, and report it as a plain authentication failure. The second is Microsoft 365, where SMTP AUTH is switched off per-mailbox by default on newer tenants — the credentials are correct, the mailbox simply is not allowed to submit mail until an administrator enables it.
Choosing an SMTP service provider
"SMTP provider" covers two quite different things, and picking the wrong one is why a campaign that sent fine to ten colleagues stalls at a few hundred recipients. A mailbox provider — Gmail, Outlook, Zoho — gives you SMTP access as a side effect of hosting your mail, and caps what you may submit per day because sending bulk mail is not what the mailbox is for. A relay service — SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, Postmark — exists to accept volume, and prices itself by the message rather than by the seat.
Pingovo does not force the choice. You can send through Pingovo's own sending infrastructure, where the sending identity, DKIM key and IP selection are handled for you, or you can attach your own SMTP relay and keep delivery on infrastructure you already trust. Both routes produce the same campaign report, and you can run one configuration for transactional mail and another for marketing sends on the same account.
Your own SMTP relay makes sense when…
- You already pay for a relay and have reputation built on it
- Compliance requires mail to leave through a named provider
- You want transactional and marketing mail on separate senders
- You need the sending IP to stay one you control
Pingovo's own sending makes sense when…
- You would rather not run DKIM and SPF setup yourself
- You want a sending subdomain provisioned automatically
- You do not have a relay account and do not want another bill
- You want IP selection and warmup handled for you
Every SMTP sender carries a health score
A saved SMTP configuration is not just credentials — Pingovo scores it as a sender. Delivered, bounced and failed counts accumulate against that configuration and roll up into a health score from 0 to 100, labelled cold, warming, warm or hot, with the delivery and bounce rates and a day-by-day history behind it. That is what tells you a relay you added last week is still cold and should not be handed your largest list yet — the same reasoning behind inbox warmup, applied to the route rather than the mailbox.
Connect your SMTP in 4 steps
Add your SMTP credentials
Host, port, whether the connection is secure, and the username and password your provider issued — plus the from name and address you want recipients to see. The password is encrypted at rest, not stored as text.
- host + port
- AES-256-GCM at rest
Test it before you rely on it
Pingovo opens a real connection to your provider and authenticates. A pass marks the configuration verified and records when it was checked, so a credential that never worked cannot sit waiting for a campaign to discover it.
- live auth check
- marks verified
Pick it as the campaign sender
A verified configuration becomes a sender you can select on any campaign, badged SMTP so it is obvious which route the mail takes. Mark one as default and campaigns use it without being told each time.
- SMTP badge
- default sender
Send through your provider, track in Pingovo
The campaign builds its connection from that configuration and delivers through your provider. Opens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes are recorded exactly as they are for any other send, so the reporting does not change.
- your provider
- same reporting
Keep several senders, and pick one per campaign
A saved SMTP configuration is a sender, not a global setting. Store as many as you need — a relay for transactional mail, another for marketing, a third as a fallback — and choose which one a campaign goes out through at the moment you build it.
- One configuration can be marked default; campaigns use it unless told otherwise
- Each is verified independently, with the time of its last successful test recorded
- Each carries its own health score, so a new relay cannot quietly inherit a warm one’s record
- DKIM signing is configured per configuration, not once for the whole account
Your SMTP senders
smtp.postmarkapp.com
smtp.sendgrid.net
smtp.mailgun.org
Frequently asked questions
Pingovo supports Gmail, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Amazon SES, Zoho Mail, and any custom SMTP server. If it has a hostname, port, and credentials, you can connect it.
Your SMTP password is encrypted using AES-256 before being stored in Pingovo's database. It is never stored or logged in plain text. The password is only decrypted in a secure in-memory context at the moment of sending.
Yes. Store as many SMTP configs as you need and assign a different one to each campaign. This is ideal for separating your transactional email sender from your marketing campaigns, or rotating through multiple providers.
Pingovo supports ports 587 (STARTTLS, recommended), 465 (SSL), and 25. Port 587 with STARTTLS is the most widely supported and secure option for most providers.
Either. Pingovo has its own sending infrastructure — it provisions a sending subdomain, generates your DKIM key and picks the sending IP for you — so you can send without an SMTP account at all. If you would rather keep delivery on a relay you already use, attach it as an SMTP configuration and campaigns go out through your provider instead. The campaign report is identical either way.
Almost always one of three things. Your provider requires an app password rather than the account password (Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo all do once two-step verification is on). Or the mailbox is a Microsoft 365 account with SMTP AUTH still disabled — an administrator has to enable it per mailbox. Or the port is blocked: outbound port 25 is filtered by most hosts, so use 587 with STARTTLS.
A mailbox provider gives you SMTP as a side effect of hosting your mail and caps daily submissions, because bulk sending is not what the mailbox is for. A relay service — SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, Postmark — is built to accept volume and prices per message. If you are sending campaigns rather than a handful of messages, use a relay or Pingovo's own sending infrastructure.
Start for free
Connect your SMTP provider in under 5 minutes, then add credits or a plan to start sending.