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Custom SMTP

Send PollPe emails through your own mail server so survey invites, workflow notifications, and email reports arrive from your domain instead of [email protected]. Useful when you want branded sender addresses, control over deliverability, or to keep email traffic on infrastructure you already manage.

Custom SMTP is an Enterprise feature. On lower plans you'll see an Upgrade to enable SMTP email notifications prompt instead of the configuration form. Only users with the smtp_configuration permission (Owner or Admin) can edit it.

What custom SMTP changes​

Once configured, every PollPe email that would normally come from PollPe Notify is routed through your SMTP server. That includes:

If SMTP isn't configured, PollPe falls back to its default sender. You don't lose any functionality.

Configure your SMTP server​

  1. Open Account then Email SMTP in the left sidebar.
  2. Click Configure SMTP. The SMTP configuration dialog opens.
  3. Fill in the five fields:
FieldWhat it is
SMTP HostYour mail server's hostname, for example smtp.gmail.com or smtp.sendgrid.net. A valid hostname or IP is required.
SMTP PortThe port your provider exposes. Common values are 587 (TLS / STARTTLS), 465 (SSL), and 25 (unencrypted). Most modern providers use 587.
UsernameThe email address or username used to authenticate against the SMTP server.
PasswordThe SMTP password. For Gmail, generate an app password instead of using your account password. Minimum length is 6 characters.
Use secure connection (SSL / TLS)Tick this if your provider requires SSL or TLS encryption. Make sure the port matches: 465 for SSL, 587 for TLS.
  1. Click Save. PollPe verifies the connection by trying to connect to your server.

The verification step has a 5-minute timeout. If your server is slow or unreachable, you'll see "The server did not respond. Please check your SMTP configuration and try again." Double-check the host, port, and secure-connection setting and retry.

Once saved, the page shows your configured Host, Port, and Username as read-only stats. Open Configure SMTP again to edit or delete the configuration.

Add sender details​

After SMTP is configured, scroll down to the Sender details card to add the names and addresses your team will send from.

  1. Click Add sender.
  2. Enter:
    • Sender email - the address that appears in the From line. Must be on a domain your SMTP server is authorized to send for.
    • Sender name - the display name recipients see (3 to 50 characters).
  3. Click Create.

You can add multiple senders (for example [email protected] and [email protected]) and pick the right one when setting up a workflow notification. Edit or delete a sender any time from the actions column.

If you haven't configured SMTP yet, the sender list is hidden and replaced with a Configure SMTP server to add senders prompt.

Common providers​

PollPe works with any SMTP-compatible provider. Popular setups:

  • SendGrid - SMTP relay with a generated API key as the password. Good for high-volume sending.
  • AWS SES - cheap at scale, requires your sending domain to be verified inside SES first.
  • Postmark - high deliverability for transactional emails like notifications.
  • Gmail / Google Workspace SMTP - works for low volume, requires an app password (not your regular Gmail password) and that 2-step verification is enabled on the Google account.
  • Outlook / Microsoft 365 - works with the standard 587 / STARTTLS setup.

Check your provider's docs for the exact host and port.

Tips and gotchas​

  • Authorize the sender domain. SendGrid, SES, and Postmark all require you to verify the domain you're sending from. Otherwise your provider will accept the message but bounce it before delivery.
  • Use app passwords for Gmail. Regular Gmail passwords will fail with an auth error.
  • Match the port to the encryption. 587 with secure connection off (STARTTLS), 465 with secure connection on (SSL). Mismatched combos cause connect timeouts.
  • Delete to disable. Removing the SMTP configuration reverts every workflow to PollPe's default sender, no further edits needed.

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