I’m trying to figure out the right way to add email functionality to my Rails project. There seem to be multiple approaches and I’m not sure which one to pick.
Right now I’ve been looking at setting up email delivery through gems and configuring background job processing with Active Job, but I haven’t finished the background processing part yet because I’m questioning if this is even the right direction.
Some tutorials suggest just using a Heroku addon with minimal code changes. My app already has Devise configured so I don’t need emails for standard authentication flows.
I’m also planning to send bulk emails to all users for things like weekly newsletters and feature announcements. Would a transactional email service handle this type of mass mailing well?
Another thing I heard was to avoid triggering email sends from ActiveRecord callbacks and instead do it in controllers. Does this sound like good advice?
Any guidance on the best practices here would be really helpful. Thanks!
Hit this same problem last year with my SaaS app - learned some lessons the hard way. ActionMailer + Sidekiq for background jobs is the sweet spot for most Rails apps. Keep your email logic dead simple at first, you can optimize later. For bulk vs transactional, I just used the same service for both initially. Only split them when volume became a real problem. AWS SES was perfect - handles both types and integrates cleanly with Rails through the aws-ses gem. Cost difference didn’t matter until I hit around 50k emails monthly. You’re right about avoiding callbacks, but service objects beat controllers for email logic. Cleaner separation and way easier to test. Start with one solid service, get background jobs working right, then split services only when you actually need the specialized features.
Been there, done that. The gem plus background job plus multiple email service combo is a mess waiting to happen.
I ditched all that and moved email workflows outside Rails entirely. Webhooks or API calls trigger everything, and automation platforms do the work.
You’re smart to separate bulk from transactional emails, but skip managing multiple services. I use automated flows that route email types to different providers based on simple rules.
You’re dead right about controllers versus callbacks though. Callbacks are debugging hell.
I run everything through Latenode workflows now. Connects to any email service, handles background processing automatically, and builds complex routing rules without touching Rails code. So much cleaner than gem juggling.
hey, i totally feel u! using SendGrid or Mailgun is def the way to go for transactional stuff. MailChimp is great for those newsletters too. just keep em separate, trust me on that! sidekiq is a must for bg jobs, way more reliable. skip AR callbacks for sure!
You’re headed in the right direction with Active Job - just don’t overthink it. I’ve been running a Rails app handling both transactional and bulk emails for two years now. For transactional stuff, I went with Postmark using their gem. Rock solid delivery and plays nice with Rails. Setup’s easy and their support actually helps when things break. For bulk emails, transactional services get pricey quick for newsletters. I use ConvertKit for bulk and keep Postmark for transactional. Yeah, it’s two services to manage, but you’ll save serious money once you’re sending to thousands of people. You’re absolutely right about skipping ActiveRecord callbacks. Learned that lesson the hard way debugging delayed emails. Controllers let you control exactly when emails hit the queue, which matters big time for bulk sends where you need extra validation or rate limiting.