Why Adopt

Postmark is purpose-built for transactional email—the emails your application sends directly to users. It’s not a newsletter platform; it’s the system that makes sure critical emails reach inboxes.

For SaaS products, this is non-negotiable. A forgotten password reset email that lands in spam costs you a customer.

What Sets It Apart

1. Developer-first - Built by developers who understand Rails and transactional email
2. Excellent deliverability - Actually gets emails into inboxes
3. Detailed tracking - Know exactly what happened to every email
4. Templates - HTML templates that work consistently
5. Webhooks - Know when emails bounce, open, or are marked as spam
6. Simple pricing - $10/month for 10,000 emails; straightforward

My Experience

Both FlowLink and JoyCork use Postmark for transactional emails:

• Password resets
• Order confirmations
• Invitation emails
• Account notifications

Deliverability is near 100%. I’ve never had a legitimate transactional email fail to reach a user.

The Integration

Rails integration is dead simple:

# config/environment.rb
ActionMailer::Base.smtp_settings = {
  :address => "smtp.postmarkapp.com",
  :port => 587,
  :authentication => :cram_md5,
  :user_name => ENV['POSTMARK_API_TOKEN'],
  :password => ENV['POSTMARK_API_TOKEN'],
  :enable_starttls_auto => true
}

# app/mailers/user_mailer.rb
class UserMailer < ApplicationMailer
  def password_reset(user)
    @user = user
    mail(to: user.email, subject: "Reset your password")
  end
end

Then deploy and trust that emails arrive.

Why Not Alternatives?

Service	Problem
SendGrid	More complex, enterprise-focused
AWS SES	Requires configuration, steeper learning curve
Mailgun	Good, but Postmark’s UX is superior

Honest Limitations

• Designed for transactional email, not bulk marketing
• No built-in A/B testing (not needed for transactional)
• API rate limits are high but finite

For transactional email in Rails applications, Postmark is the gold standard.

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