
Nodemailer
Send emails with Node.js
The Lens
Nodemailer is the standard library for sending emails from Node.js. It's been the standard for sending email in Node.js for over a decade.
Completely free under a permissive license. You get SMTP support, OAuth2 authentication, HTML and plain text emails, attachments, embedded images, DKIM signing, and connection pooling. It works with any SMTP server: Gmail, SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, your own Postfix server, whatever.
No paid tier, no hosted service. It's a library. You install it, configure your SMTP credentials, and send emails. Everyone building Node.js apps that send email: use Nodemailer as your transport layer. Pair it with an ESP (email service provider) for deliverability. If you're sending marketing emails or newsletters, use a dedicated platform instead.
The catch: Nodemailer sends emails. That's it. It doesn't manage email templates, track opens/clicks, handle unsubscribes, or give you analytics. For those, you need a service like Resend, SendGrid, or Mailgun on top. Also, sending emails reliably at scale (deliverability, reputation management, bounce handling) is a whole discipline that Nodemailer doesn't solve. It just sends.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
fully freeFully Free
Nodemailer is free and open source. The license is MIT-adjacent (custom permissive). No paid features, no premium tier.
Setup
npm install nodemailer, that's it. Configure with your SMTP server credentials. Zero external dependencies beyond Node.js.
What You Get for $0
- SMTP, sendmail, and direct transport
- OAuth2 authentication (Gmail, Outlook)
- HTML + plain text emails
- Attachments and embedded images
- DKIM signing
- Connection pooling
- Proxy support
- Address validation
The Math
Nodemailer: $0. You still need an SMTP provider:
- Gmail SMTP: free for 500 emails/day
- Amazon SES: $0.10 per 1,000 emails
- SendGrid free tier: 100 emails/day
- Resend free tier: 3,000 emails/month
The email transport is free. The delivery infrastructure has its own costs.
Verdict
The standard Node.js email library. Free forever. Your costs are in the SMTP provider, not the library.
Free library. Your email costs come from the SMTP provider (SES, SendGrid, Resend), not Nodemailer itself.
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