What's the easiest way to add email to a SaaS I'm building?

The easiest way is usually:

1) Use an email API provider

Don’t build SMTP handling yourself. Use a service like:

• Resend
• SendGrid
• Postmark
• Mailgun
• Amazon SES (cheaper, but more setup)

For a new SaaS, Resend or Postmark are often the fastest to get working.

2) Start with 2 email types

You usually need:

• Transactional email: signup confirmation, password reset, alerts, receipts
• Product/marketing email: onboarding, newsletters, announcements

Keep them separate if possible.

3) Use a template system

Make your emails with simple HTML templates or provider templates.
Good options:

• React email templates
• MJML
• Built-in templates from the provider

4) Send emails from your backend

Typical flow:

• User signs up
• Backend calls email provider API
• Provider sends email
• You log success/failure

5) Set up deliverability correctly

This matters a lot:

• Add SPF
• Add DKIM
• Add DMARC
• Use a domain like mail.yourapp.com or notifications.yourapp.com

6) Add a queue for reliability

Don’t send directly inside a web request if you can avoid it.
Better:

• app writes an email job to a queue
• worker sends email
• retry on failure

Best “fastest path” for most SaaS

If you want the simplest setup:

• Resend for sending
• React Email for templates
• Postgres/Redis queue or a background job system
• Verify domain DNS records

If you want ultra-simple

For MVP, you can even:

• use provider templates
• call the API directly from your backend
• skip the queue at first
• add retries later

What I’d recommend

• New SaaS with low complexity: Resend + React Email
• Need great deliverability: Postmark
• Need cheapest at scale: Amazon SES

If you want, I can give you:

1. a recommended email stack for your tech stack, or
2. a copy-paste example for Node, Python, or Rails.