{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "smtp-com",
 "name": "SMTP.com",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "smtp.com",
 "category": "IT & Productivity",
 "task": "Hosting & websites",
 "summary": "Reliable transactional and bulk email delivery via SMTP relay and API: high-deliverability sending for app notifications, receipts and campaigns, with real-time analytics and dedicated IPs — built for volume senders.",
 "best_for": "businesses and developers needing dependable high-deliverability transactional or bulk email via SMTP relay and API, with dedicated IPs at scale",
 "skip_if": "you send low volume and a free/cheap SMTP tier covers you, or you want a full marketing-email platform with templates and automation built in",
 "honest_knock": "It's a veteran, reliable relay, but two honest notes. Pricing is volume-tiered, so a shared IP on the cheapest plan is fine for low volume while serious senders need the dedicated-IP tiers (and the IP warm-up discipline that comes with them). And the value-add features — reputation and verification — are metered on top at ~20% of plan cost, so the real bill is higher than the base tier. It's infrastructure, not a marketing suite; you bring the campaigns.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$25",
  "entry_price_terms": "per month (50,000 emails, shared IP)",
  "from_price_usd_month": 25.0,
  "plans": [
   {
    "name": "Essential",
    "price": "$25",
    "includes": "50,000 emails, shared IP"
   },
   {
    "name": "Starter",
    "price": "$80",
    "includes": "100,000 emails, dedicated IP begins here"
   },
   {
    "name": "Growth",
    "price": "$300",
    "includes": "500,000 emails"
   },
   {
    "name": "Business",
    "price": "$500",
    "includes": "1,000,000 emails"
   },
   {
    "name": "High Volume Senders",
    "price": "no published price",
    "includes": "quote-only, minimum 250 million emails/month, dedicated platform, IP and MTA"
   }
  ],
  "plans_source": "summarised from pricing.notes; every plan name and amount appears verbatim in those notes",
  "notes": "(price re-verified 24 September 2026, unchanged since 5 September) Fixed-volume plans, all billed monthly: Essential $25 (50,000 emails, shared IP), Starter $80 (100,000, dedicated IP begins here), Growth $300 (500,000), Business $500 (1,000,000). Above that, High Volume Senders is quote-only and starts at a minimum of 250 million emails a month, with a dedicated platform instance, dedicated IP and MTA and no shared mail queue. Reputation Defender and Insight Engine are optional add-ons at 20% of plan cost each, available on all plans. No free tier or published trial. The terms (effective 28 July 2025 for new subscribers) add three things the pricing page leaves out: email above the plan's allowance is charged automatically as a usage fee at a rate the page does not publish, unused allowance does not carry over, and cancelling takes 30 days' notice by phone or by email to support@smtp.com. Payment by card or PayPal. The site is operated by J2 Global Canada, a Ziff Davis company.",
  "verified_at": "2026-09-24",
  "source_url": null,
  "schema_offer": null,
  "source_quotes": null,
  "recent_change": null,
  "price_history": {
   "status": "stable",
   "tracked_since": "2026-08-13",
   "last_read": "2026-11-03",
   "read_days": 20,
   "stable": {
    "since": "2026-08-13",
    "until": "2026-11-03",
    "reads": 20,
    "days": 82
   },
   "changes": [],
   "method": "Stable = every amount on the vendor's pricing page identical across >= 3 of our reads over >= 30 days. A change is listed only after we confirmed the new price on the page, with a verbatim quote. Differences in raw readings are never published on their own."
  }
 },
 "free_plan": false,
 "free_plan_evidence": null,
 "cost_traps": [
  {
   "id": "usage_metered",
   "label": "Usage-metered",
   "evidence": "And the value-add features — reputation and verification — are metered on top at ~20% of plan cost, so the real bill is higher than the base tier.",
   "verified_at": "2026-09-24",
   "source_url": null
  },
  {
   "id": "addons_extra",
   "label": "Key features are paid add-ons",
   "evidence": "Reputation Defender and Insight Engine are optional add-ons at 20% of plan cost each, available on all plans.",
   "verified_at": "2026-09-24",
   "source_url": null
  }
 ],
 "compare_with": {
  "name": "SendGrid or Postmark",
  "why": "close relay/API peers — Postmark leans transactional-fast, SendGrid broader; compare on IP options and deliverability at your volume"
 },
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/smtp-com.json",
  "review": "https://officesoftwaremarketplace.com/smtp-com-review.html",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/smtp-com/",
  "vendor_site": "https://smtp.com"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://pstk.smtp.com/aav1yxqg0i9h",
  "affiliate": true,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "not_yet",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": null,
  "growth": null
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "Being verified: free trial and refund terms are not yet matched to a verbatim line on the vendor's own pages. Not matched does not mean there is none.",
  "No computable price rules yet: cost at a given team size cannot be calculated for this product.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "verification": {
  "price": "read",
  "free_trial": "being_verified",
  "refund": "being_verified"
 },
 "status_page": null,
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "smtp-com:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "smtp-com:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "smtp-com:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "smtp-com:minimum_seats",
   "key": "minimum_seats",
   "question": "Is there a minimum number of seats or users on any plan?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": null,
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 }
}