# Third-party email delivery
URL: https://openship.io/docs/guides/email-webmail/relays.md

Route your mail server's outbound mail through an external SMTP relay.

An SMTP relay is just a middleman that takes the mail your server wants to send and actually delivers it to the
world — instead of your own machine talking straight to Gmail or Outlook.

Relaying is worth setting up because deliverability comes down to IP reputation: a brand-new server IP has none,
so inbox providers are quick to bounce or spam-folder anything it sends. Routing outbound mail through an
established relay provider means it leaves from IPs receiving servers already trust. It also sidesteps port 25,
which most cloud providers block outbound by default — relays send over port 587 instead, so there's no
service-limit exemption to request.

Openship's mail relay handles it natively — go to **Emails → Sending → "Relay via Amazon SES (or any SMTP
relay)"** and choose provider **Custom** for any relay that doesn't have a preset. The same host, port, and
credential fields also work under **Settings → Email**, if you'd rather relay Openship's own notification emails
through the same provider.

Whichever provider you pick, it'll ask you for roughly the same things:

- **DNS records** (SPF, DKIM, sometimes DMARC) added at your domain's DNS provider, so receiving servers can
  verify mail claiming to be from your domain actually came from the relay you authorized.
- **Sender registration or verification** — most relays refuse to send on behalf of a From address they don't
  recognize, so you register or verify each sender (or your whole domain) before mail flows.
- **SMTP credentials** — a username and password (or API key used as one) scoped to sending mail.
- **Host and port** to plug into Openship's relay form — almost always port `587`.

Oracle Cloud (OCI) Email Delivery is documented next: [OCI Email Delivery](/docs/guides/email-webmail/relay-oci).

## Other providers

OCI is just one option — AWS SES, Resend, Mailgun, SendGrid, and similar providers all follow the same shape:
DNS authentication (SPF/DKIM), sender or domain verification, SMTP credentials, and a host/port you plug into the
same **Emails → Sending** form. If you've set one of these up with Openship, a PR adding a page here for your
provider is welcome.