SMTP is the simplest way of sending out email to your clients/subscribers and followers. This protocol has been around for ages and although Magento has some basic SMTP settings in place, it's doesn't give you the full control of your mailing schedule, customization, security and authentication. In many cases it will require additional coding skills. 

That's why there are tons of great solutions that provide superb SMTP email services. With this wide selection it can be pretty hard to pick the right solution, especially given that some of these are geared towards more tech-savvy Magento users. In this article we'll review some of the most popular and reliable Magento SMTP products that are compatible with most of the popular email clients, like Gmail. 

SMTP Pro Email

This is one of the most popular and complete SMTP email solutions for Magento: it has a great track record and has been out for over 5 years. This says a lot about the quality. But the most amazing thing about this product is that it has been developer by a single person - Ashley Schroder, an experienced software engineer from New Zealand. 

The best part is that it's open-source, with 20 GitHub contributors. This means that you can modify it however you like, or hire someone to do that for you. So what else is so good about this extension? Of course, the fact that it's free. This is very crucial for small Magento businesses that need to be able to save every penny. Some other great features include: 

Debug logging

This is a great feature for developers that want to be able to track their SMTP performance and spend less time managing the configuration

Compatible with Amazon Simple Email Service, dotmailer, SendGrid and SMTP2GO, mailUp, Google Apps, custom SMTP servers

Since this is an open-source solutions - it's all up to you to make it work with your particular solution. Sometimes, the extension's creator also provides additional tips - like how you can integrate it with MailChimp.

Great variety of authentication and security options

Security options include SSL and TLS. On top of that you have 4 authentication methods, including CRAM-MD5.

Compatibility self testing

This features allows you to automatically verify that all of your settings are correct. It also works with Magento newsletters.

SMTP Configuration

This solution is a bit less complex, but at the same time offers the minimal features and options in order to be included in this list. But the most important aspect of this product is simplicity and ease of use. Some of the other features that it supports is SSL authentication and custom SMTP servers. There isn't much more about it and that's the beauty of this extension. 

SMTP Email

It is a paid extension, so naturally it has some additional features, which were not covered by the previous extensions. Its core functionality is very similar to the first extension on the list. With some additional options that you might find really handy:

Any email service

The creators of this extension claim that it's compatible with any email service out there. Given its popularity, we assume that it's the case. It's pretty hard to test something like this, so we'll go with the social proof that we have.

Multiple store configuration

This extension supports more than 1 store that you might have running on your Magento install. A feature that is not present in previously described extensions. 

Blacklist 

There's an option of stopping emails going to specific addresses. Just add them to a blacklist and none of your emails will ever go to that address. 

Email logging

Save all of your outgoing emails for recording, accounting and any other purposes. 

Sunovisio SMTP Pro Extension

This is another paid extension that has a great selection of features. It has a very reasonable price, given the range of features that it includes. A good alternative to the more expensive solutions. Some of the features that make it stand out:

Configuration

The available documentation and the interface allow you to easily set up and test this particular Magento SMTP solution.

Flexible SMTP options

This extension allows you to setup different SMTP setting for different emails that are from the same domain.

Lucentia SMTP Email Marketing

If you're familiar with any of the dedicated email marketing platforms, like MailChimp or GetResponse, you'll be very comfortable with using this extension. This solution is the most expensive one on the list, but at the same time it provides a full fledged email marketing experience - all managed directly from your Magento admin panel. It allows you to build complex Magento SMTP marketing campaigns with a ton of great features:

A/B Testing

This feature allows you to properly test the content of your SMTP emails for maximum performance.

Coupons

This feature allows you to generate specialized coupons sent with every email.

Multi-Layered Autoresponders

You can setup these, depending on specific actions, your clients perform with your emails.

Analysis

This product allows you to setup specific goals for your email and track their performance.

SMTP Mail Configuration

Another simple and affordable SMTP email solution that has all of the basic features, like authentication options and automatic configuration testing that can help you find out, if there are any conflicts/issues with your email setup. The interface and the setup are very simple, so it's perfect for store managers without any tech background. 

There are plenty of other great SMTP Magento solutions out there, but we tried to highlight the most prominent, popular and reliable products out there. If you have another great SMTP extension that you want to share - feel free to do that in the comments below!