We’re really excited to announce Postmark, our next product, which has been an idea for a long time at Wildbit, but just coming to fruition now. Postmark is an email delivery service for web applications. As with Beanstalk and Newsberry, we aimed at solving our own problems first. Read on to learn more.
So, what is Postmark?
Postmark helps web apps deliver email effectively, while giving you the tools to monitor and track delivery. It’s specifically focused on transactional email, so messages like welcome emails, invoices, comment notifications or any other emails that are triggered by an action from your site. Through our existing knowledge of managing large volume email in Newsberry, Postmark provides a more reliable solution to make sure your emails are received. If there are issues with delivery, Postmark gives you the tools to correct the problems and improve.
The service works entirely through a robust API (xml and json), which you can use to replace your existing SMTP code. From the start, we’ll have code samples for many languages (Rails, .NET, etc) to make integration as easy as possible. We’re also looking for help from our readers, so if you have experience with PHP, Java, ColdFusion or want to write plugins for other apps, please email us.
Why is this better than a local mail server?
If you’ve ever built or launched a web application, you know that setting up an SMTP server is pretty easy. The basic steps can have you up in running in minutes. What you may not know, is that doing it correctly is complex. For instance:
- Setting up authentication like SPF and DomainKeys
- The importance of Reverse DNS
- Managing connection and message rules for each ISP
- Applying for ISP whitelisting and feedback loops
- Accreditation with ISIPP and ReturnPath
- Tracking bounces and spam complaints
- Understanding volume over time
The list is longer, but hopefully you get the point. With Postmark, we bring these benefits directly to your application so those important emails get to your customers or members. If delivery problems arise, you’ll know right away.
When will it be ready?
We’re in the final stages of launching our private beta. The beta will be available to a small group, then opened up more as we learn and tune the product. If you are interested, please sign up for the beta.
12 Comments
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I’m pretty excited about postmark! It’s been a pain managing e-mail from my app. If it’s as useful as Beanstalk (haven’t tried newsberry yet), it’s gonna rock. Y’all mentioned PHP, Java, ColdFusion… what about Rails?
Anthony Morales — October 21, 2009, 3:05 pm
Thanks! We’ll have as many code examples as possible from the start. The easiest ones for us are Rails and .NET, which we will create in house. We’re looking for some community help for the others.
Chris Nagele — October 21, 2009, 3:06 pm
Interesting. Look forward to learning more. Certainly have a couple of projects with notable email needs that a solution like this may have or will come in handy for.
Seth Giammanco — October 21, 2009, 5:04 pm
whooop whooooop!
infu — October 22, 2009, 11:35 am
Are y’all working on a pure Python plugin? This seems like it would be a really good fit to a Google App Engine app.
Adam Phillabaum — October 27, 2009, 7:08 pm
Any idea what the pricing structure would look like? If you can’t publish that yet, could someone contact me to discuss it?
John Sheehan — October 27, 2009, 9:04 pm
@adam Someone volunteered to create a Python plugin. We hope to have it soon after launch.
@John Feel free to email me at info@wildbit.com.
Chris Nagele — October 27, 2009, 9:40 pm
Will there be open/click/bounce tracking? Those are still of interest for transaction emails.
Jeremy — November 17, 2009, 4:13 pm
awesome! i’ve just been debating this issue with a new project. can’t wait to try this.
joe — December 3, 2009, 12:59 pm
great idea! we were actually debating about creating the same web service some months ago. hopefully the pricing structure is favorable to make it compelling for developers not to build their own.
pat cheung — January 22, 2010, 3:29 pm
How does this differ from jangosmtp (exactly this, google it, I suspect their SEO is better than the service ;-) or the many other newsletter / API email services out there?
I’ve been researching exactly this for a client for sometime…
Henry Hughes — January 25, 2010, 5:37 pm
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