Email Sending Libraries: Nodemailer vs SendGrid
Both packages help developers send emails from Node.js applications. Nodemailer is a free, open-source solution that works with various email services and your own email server. SendGrid is a commercial service with a more robust infrastructure, better for sending bulk emails and tracking delivery stats.
Download Trends
Stars | Issues | Version | UpdatedⓘLast publish date | CreatedⓘPackage creation date | SizeⓘMinified + Gzipped size | |
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17,025 | 3 | 7.0.2 | a month ago | 14 years ago | install size 54.2 KB | |
3,027 | 76 | 5.2.3 | 3 years ago | 13 years ago | install size 185.7 KB |
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Who's Using These Packages
nodemailer
Similar Packages
emailjs
A simple way to send emails using JavaScript directly from your browser. No server required - it connects to EmailJS service which handles the email sending.
Perfect for front-end developers who want to send emails without setting up a backend server. Very beginner-friendly with good documentation and easy setup.
Email Servicemailgun-js
Official SDK for Mailgun's email service. Lets you send emails, create mailing lists, and track email delivery through their API.
Great alternative to SendGrid with similar features but often cheaper pricing. Has a generous free tier and simple API that's easy to learn.
Email Serviceaws-sdk
Amazon's SDK that includes Amazon SES (Simple Email Service). Allows you to send emails through Amazon's reliable infrastructure.
Good choice if you're already using AWS services. Very reliable and scalable, with good pricing for high volume sending.
Email Servicepostmark
Email delivery service focused on transactional emails. Known for excellent delivery rates and detailed analytics.
Best choice for sending important transactional emails like password resets or order confirmations. Has great tools for tracking email delivery.
Email Serviceemail-templates
Package for generating nice-looking email templates. Works with any email service and includes preview features and template management.
Great companion to any email service. Makes it easy to create and manage good-looking email templates with less code.
Email ToolsDependencies Comparison
nodemailer
Dependencies
Dev Dependencies
Peer Dependencies
sendgrid
Dependencies
Dev Dependencies
Peer Dependencies
Nodemailer
Send emails from Node.js – easy as cake! 🍰✉️
See nodemailer.com for documentation and terms.
[!TIP] Check out EmailEngine – a self-hosted email gateway that allows making REST requests against IMAP and SMTP servers. EmailEngine also sends webhooks whenever something changes on the registered accounts.
Using the email accounts registered with EmailEngine, you can receive and send emails. EmailEngine supports OAuth2, delayed sends, opens and clicks tracking, bounce detection, etc. All on top of regular email accounts without an external MTA service.
Having an issue?
First review the docs
Documentation for Nodemailer can be found at nodemailer.com.
Nodemailer throws a SyntaxError for "..."
You are using an older Node.js version than v6.0. Upgrade Node.js to get support for the spread operator. Nodemailer supports all Node.js versions starting from Node.js@v6.0.0.
I'm having issues with Gmail
Gmail either works well, or it does not work at all. It is probably easier to switch to an alternative service instead of fixing issues with Gmail. If Gmail does not work for you, then don't use it. Read more about it here.
I get ETIMEDOUT errors
Check your firewall settings. Timeout usually occurs when you try to open a connection to a firewalled port either on the server or on your machine. Some ISPs also block email ports to prevent spamming.
Nodemailer works on one machine but not in another
It's either a firewall issue, or your SMTP server blocks authentication attempts from some servers.
I get TLS errors
- If you are running the code on your machine, check your antivirus settings. Antiviruses often mess around with email ports usage. Node.js might not recognize the MITM cert your antivirus is using.
- Latest Node versions allow only TLS versions 1.2 and higher. Some servers might still use TLS 1.1 or lower. Check Node.js docs on how to get correct TLS support for your app. You can change this with tls.minVersion option
- You might have the wrong value for the
secure
option. This should be set totrue
only for port 465. For every other port, it should befalse
. Setting it tofalse
does not mean that Nodemailer would not use TLS. Nodemailer would still try to upgrade the connection to use TLS if the server supports it. - Older Node versions do not fully support the certificate chain of the newest Let's Encrypt certificates. Either set tls.rejectUnauthorized to
false
to skip chain verification or upgrade your Node version
let configOptions = { host: "smtp.example.com", port: 587, tls: { rejectUnauthorized: true, minVersion: "TLSv1.2" } }
I have issues with DNS / hosts file
Node.js uses c-ares to resolve domain names, not the DNS library provided by the system, so if you have some custom DNS routing set up, it might be ignored. Nodemailer runs dns.resolve4() and dns.resolve6() to resolve hostname into an IP address. If both calls fail, then Nodemailer will fall back to dns.lookup(). If this does not work for you, you can hard code the IP address into the configuration like shown below. In that case, Nodemailer would not perform any DNS lookups.
let configOptions = { host: "1.2.3.4", port: 465, secure: true, tls: { // must provide server name, otherwise TLS certificate check will fail servername: "example.com" } }
I have an issue with TypeScript types
Nodemailer has official support for Node.js only. For anything related to TypeScript, you need to directly contact the authors of the type definitions.
I have a different problem
If you are having issues with Nodemailer, then the best way to find help would be Stack Overflow or revisit the docs.
License
Nodemailer is licensed under the MIT No Attribution license
The Nodemailer logo was designed by Sven Kristjansen.