I'm building a Next.js app and want to keep our email stack as small as possible.

A small email stack in Next.js usually means:

1. Send from your app

   • Use a provider with a simple API and good deliverability.
   • Good options: Resend, Postmark, or SendGrid.
   • If you want the simplest developer experience for Next.js, Resend is a strong choice.

2. Render emails with React

   • Use React Email to build email templates with familiar React components.
   • It works nicely with Next.js and keeps your templates in one codebase.

3. Send emails from server-side only

   • Use a Next.js route handler or server action to trigger the email.
   • Never expose API keys in client-side code.

4. Keep templates minimal

   • Create a few reusable templates:
     • welcome email
     • password reset
     • transactional notification
   • Avoid a full email marketing system unless you truly need one.

5. Skip extra infrastructure

   • No need for a separate email service layer, queue, or microservice at first.
   • For low-to-moderate volume, a simple server-side send flow is enough.

A minimal stack example

• Next.js
• React Email
• Resend
• Optional: Zod for validating input to email endpoints

Example flow

• User submits a form in your Next.js app
• A server route validates the input
• The route renders a React Email template
• Resend sends the message

Suggested setup

npm install resend @react-email/components

If you want, I can give you:

• a minimal working Next.js email example
• a recommended folder structure
• or a comparison of Resend vs Postmark vs SendGrid for small stacks.