Backend and data
Send email from your app
Send confirmations, notifications and other emails from your app by connecting an email service, and understand which sign-in emails your app sends.
Lots of apps need to send email: a booking confirmation, a receipt, a reminder, or a note that someone replied. Your app sends these through an email service you connect, using your own account with a provider such as Resend. Buildliy writes the code that sends the emails, and your provider delivers them. Buildliy doesn't send your app's emails for it, so you'll need an account with one of these services.
Two kinds of email
| Kind | Examples | Who sends it |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-in emails | Confirm your email, reset your password, a sign-in link | Depends on how your app's sign-in works (see below) |
| App emails | Order confirmations, booking reminders, "you have a new message" | The email service you connect |
Send email with an email service
Ask in the chat
Describe the email you want and when it should go out.
Connect the service
If you haven't connected an email service yet, the AI shows a Connect card, such as Connect Resend. Click it and paste your API key from the provider's website. Buildliy checks the key works before saving it, keeps it encrypted, and saves it to your account so your other apps can use it too. If the service is already connected and on for this app, the AI uses it without asking.
Let the AI build it
Once the service is connected, the AI carries on and writes the code that sends the email from your app's server. Your key never reaches visitors' browsers.
Test it in the preview
Trigger the email in the preview, for example by making a test booking, and check your inbox. Emails sent from the preview are real emails.
When someone books a class, email them a confirmation with the class name, date and time. Use Resend.
You can also connect a service ahead of time on the Connectors page. A new connection is on for all your own apps. In an app shared with your team, switch it on for that app in Manage → Connectors.
Email services you can connect
| Service | Good for |
|---|---|
| Resend | Sign-up, receipt and notification emails |
| SendGrid | Transactional and marketing email at scale |
| Postmark | Transactional email built for reliable delivery |
| Mailgun | Sending, receiving and tracking email |
To add people to a mailing list or newsletter instead, connect a marketing tool such as Mailchimp, Brevo, Klaviyo, beehiiv or Omnisend. Your app adds subscribers, and you send campaigns from that tool. For a service that isn't in the Connectors list, see Connect any API.
Your sending address and your own domain
Email providers only send from addresses and domains you've proven you own. Until you do, your emails may not arrive.
- Resend. Until you verify a domain in your Resend account, your app's emails are only delivered to the email address you signed up to Resend with.
- SendGrid. Sends only from a sender address or domain you've verified in SendGrid.
- Postmark. Sends only from a sender signature or domain you've verified in Postmark.
- Mailgun. Asks for your verified sending domain when you connect it.
To send from your own domain, like hello@yourbusiness.com, verify that domain in your email provider's dashboard. The provider shows you a few records to add where your domain is managed. Then tell the AI which address to send from.
Send all app emails from hello@yourbusiness.com. The domain is verified in Resend.
Sign-in emails
Which sign-in emails your app sends depends on how people sign in:
- Built-in email and password sign-in (the default, also used with your own Neon project) doesn't send any emails. People aren't asked to confirm their email, and there's no password-reset email.
- Social login & password reset (beta, in Manage → Users) adds password-reset emails and sign-in links sent by email, once you've also asked the AI to update your sign-in pages to use it.
- Your own Supabase project sends its own sign-in emails. By default, new users have to click a confirmation link before they can sign in.
See User sign-in for details.
What it costs
Emails sent through a connected service are billed by that provider, under your own account and its plan. Building the email feature uses credits like any other build. See Credits and usage.
When the AI is about to add something that emails everyone on a list at once, such as all your users, it stops and asks you first, because sent emails can't be taken back. See Plans and approvals.
Related
Still stuck? Read the FAQ or contact us.
