How to send emails with NODE.JS: A step by step guide | By Soumadri Banerjee | February 2025

A step-by-step tutorial to send emails to Node.js with Nodemailer and an API by email

Email remains the backbone of the application of the application to the user. Whether you create a SaaS starter platform, an electronic commerce site or a community forum, the possibility of sending emails by program is crucial to create user experiences that your users will love.

Consider these common scenarios where emails are essential:

• Welcome new users with integration instructions
• Verification of user identities via confirmation links
• Alert users to account activity or security problems
• Provide order confirmations and shipping updates
• Sending password resetting
• Distribution of newsletters and marketing content

In this guide, I will guide you through a simple approach to add business quality messaging features to your NODE.JS.

Essentially, there are two main ways to send emails to NODE.JS: Use of a SMTP service with a library like the nodemailer, or by taking advantage of a API by e-mail – This lasts applications requiring high deliverability rates, advanced analyzes or large volume management, and offer robust solutions with many, many more features.

I will cover both. Let’s start!

First of all, make sure that Node.js is installed. If you haven’t installed it yet, you can download it from Nodejs.org.

Initialize a new project:

mkdir email-sender
cd email-sender
npm init -y

NODEMAILER is a popular NODE.JS library to send emails via SMTP. It is easy to configure and work with most email suppliers. Let’s go through the key steps to send an email using Nodemailer.

1. Install Nodemailer

First of all, install Nodemailer in your project:

npm install nodemailer

2. Import and configure the nodemailer

Start by importing nodemailer into your script:

const nodemailer = require("nodemailer");

Then create a carrierwhich is responsible for the management of delivery by e-mail. The carrier contains details on the SMTP service you use and the authentication identification information:

const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
service: "gmail", // You can replace this with another SMTP provider
auth: {
user: "your-email@gmail.com",
pass: "your-app-password", // Use an App Password for Gmail, not your main password
},
});

Note: Gmail blocks automated connections with simple passwords unless you act “less secure applications” or use a Password of the application (required if you have activated 2FA). For better safety and better reliability, Google recommends Oauth2Although this requires additional configuration.

3. Define messaging options

Now specify the details of the email – from whom it comes, the recipient, the subject and the content of the message:

const mailOptions = {
from: "your-email@gmail.com",
to: "recipient@example.com",
subject: "Hello from Node.js",
text: "This is a test email sent from Node.js using Nodemailer!",
};

4. Send the email

Finally, call transporter.sendMail() To send the email:

transporter.sendMail(mailOptions, (error, info) => {
if (error) {
console.error("Error sending email:", error);
} else {
console.log("Email sent:", info.response);
}
});

If everything is configured correctly, you should see a message of success in the terminal and the email must arrive in the recipient’s reception box.

Full code:

// send-email.js
const nodemailer = require("nodemailer");
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
service: "gmail",
auth: {
user: "your-email@gmail.com",
pass: "your-app-password",
},
});
const mailOptions = {
from: "your-email@gmail.com",
to: "recipient@example.com",
subject: "Hello from Node.js",
text: "This is a test email sent from Node.js using Nodemailer!",
};
transporter.sendMail(mailOptions, (error, info) => {
if (error) {
console.error("Error sending email:", error);
} else {
console.log("Email sent:", info.response);
}
});

What is missing?

Although the use of nodemailer with Gmail (or any SMTP service) is a quick way to send emails, it is delivered with certain limitations:

• Livability problems – E-mails sent via personal Gmail accounts are more likely to land in spam, especially for bulk messages.
• Shipping limits – Free Gmail accounts have a ceiling of 500 recipients per day, and the Google Workspace accounts have a limit of 2000 recipients.
• Safety restrictions – Gmail can block automated connections, requiring an application password or Oauth2 authentication to operate reliably.
• Of the address application – Gmail Force the authenticated email as the sender, so you cannot define a personalized “from leaving” address.

For the sending of more reliable and scalable emails, the use of a dedicated messaging API is often a better choice. Then we will see how to send emails with an e-mail API.

SMTP was built for a different era – when the emails were sent manually, non -programmatic on a large scale. If you have already had trouble with SMTP configurations, authentication errors or to be strangled without transparency, you know how frustrating it can be.

An e-mail API eliminates these headaches. Instead of fighting basic infrastructure, you get a clean, developer and specialist solution Just work.

For this article, we will use Notify, a quick, simple and reliable messaging API that allows you to send emails from your code without sweating.

Before you start, you will need a API key to notify. To do this, go to the Notify website, register or log into your review account and access Dashboard. From there, go to Identification information Section and copy your API key – We will use it in our script.

We can now carry out our code.

1. Install the SDK

First, install the SDK notify Node.js using your favorite package manager:

# npm
npm install notifycx
# yarn
yarn add notifycx
# pnpm
pnpm add notifycx

2. Configure and send an email

Now create a node.js script to send an email. First, import notify and configure your API key (replace NOTIFY_API_KEY With the API key that you recorded earlier):

import Notify from "notifycx";
import dotenv from "dotenv";
dotenv.config();
const notify = new Notify(process.env.NOTIFY_API_KEY);

Then define and send the email:

async function sendEmail() {
const response = await notify.sendEmail({
to: "john@example.com",
subject: "Hello world",
name: "John Doe",
message: "Your email content here",
});
console.log(response);
}
sendEmail();

Note: THE message The field supports both raw text and HTML, so you can include style, links or images if necessary.

3. Run the script

Save this file as send-email.jsThen run it with:

node send-email.js

That’s it. To verify that your email has been sent, head to the Analytical Section in the dashboard. There, you can follow the delivery and the status open.

Full code:

// send-email.js
import Notify from "notifycx";
import dotenv from "dotenv";
dotenv.config();
const notify = new Notify(process.env.NOTIFY_API_KEY);
async function sendEmail() {
const response = await notify.sendEmail({
to: "john@example.com",
subject: "Hello world",
name: "John Doe",
message: "Your email content here",
});
console.log(response);
}
sendEmail();

While SMTP works for the sending of basic emails, an e-mail API like Notify offers several advantages which make it a better choice for most applications:

• Simpler configuration – No need to configure SMTP parameters or manage authentication obstacles such as application or oauth passwords.
• Better deliverability – API -based shipment is optimized to reduce spam filtering and improve the placement of the reception box. If you cable SMTP by yourself, you will often be reported as spam.
• Effortless messaging models – HTML manual coding is an integrated Wysiwy model editor of Notify.
• Scalability – Manage higher email volumes without worrying about the rate limits or SMTP restrictions.
• Monitoring and analysis – SMTP is a black box. You don’t really know what’s going on after sending. With a service like Notify, you can always monitor the delivery state, the opening rates and other key measures directly from the dashboard.
• Flexible integration – a clean API and SDK means that you can send emails from any Tech Stack, with only a few lines of code.

For production applications, the use of an e-mail API is often more reliable and scalable than traditional sending based on SMTP. Although some e-mail APIs can be expensive, Notify offers a free level that includes 5,000 emails per month, By making a budgetary choice for this project on the side of the weekend, you intend to go, for startups that must hit the ground on the move, or if you are only testing.

In this article, we explored how to send emails with Node.js, covering both the more traditional SMTP approach with Nodemailer and the more modern method of using a messaging API.

Although SMTP is simple and works well for simple use cases, it comes with authentication challenges, rate limits and potential deliverability problems.

Using a API by e-mail Offers a more scalable and reliable alternative, eliminating the need for SMTP manual configuration while offering better monitoring and personalization options. Although there are many APIs available, if you are looking for a solution suitable for developers with integrated analyzes and an intuitive model editor, Notify is an excellent option, offering 5,000 emails per month for free.

In the end, the right choice depends on your needs – whether you need rapid SMTP integration or a robust electronic email solution for production applications.