# Sending Servers for a Plan: Shared Pool or Bring-Your-Own > Every plan in AcelleMail answers one question before a customer on it can send a single email: whose sending server moves the message? You — the admin — decide that on the plan's Sending Servers tab. There are exactly two answers, and a customer on a given plan only ever sees one of them in their UI. This guide walks both options end-to-end with screenshots from the admin and the customer side, so you can pick the right mode for each plan you sell and know exactly what your customer will see after they subscribe. - Canonical URL: https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/sending-server-for-plan - Author: Martin Keller, SaaS & Business Editor - Category: SaaS & Multi-tenant — White-label, subscription plans, billing, tenant management, branding - Content type: guide · Difficulty: beginner - Tags: Amazon SES, Sendgrid, Mailgun, Smtp, White Label, Multi Tenant, Subscription Billing, Pricing Plans, Acellemail - Published: 2026-07-04 · Last updated: 2026-08-15 - Reading time: 9 min - Publisher: AcelleMail Knowledge Base, https://acellesend.com/kb --- ## What this is for Every plan in AcelleMail has to answer one question before a customer on it can send a single email: **whose sending server moves the message?** You — the admin — decide that on the plan's **Sending Servers** tab. There are exactly two answers, and a customer on a given plan only ever sees one of them in their UI. This guide walks both options end-to-end, so you can pick the right one for each plan you sell and know what your customer will see after they subscribe. ## The two delivery modes | | **System's Sending Servers** | **Own Sending Servers** | |---|---|---| | Who provides the SMTP / API credentials? | You (the admin) | The customer | | Where customers add servers? | They don't — invisible to them | Their own **Sending → Sending servers** menu | | Best for | Beginner / managed plans, free tier, no-tech-setup buyers | Power users, agencies, bring-your-own-IP plans | | Server pool | One shared pool across every customer on the plan | Each customer has their own pool, isolated from other customers | | Quota of servers per customer | N/A (always the system pool) | Capped by the **Maximum Sending Servers** quota you set on the plan | Both modes coexist on the same install — you can have a Free plan in System mode and a Pro plan in Own mode, side by side. The mode is a per-plan setting, not a global setting. ## Where to configure this 1. Sign in to the admin area at `/admin/login`. 2. Open **Plans** in the left nav. 3. Pick the plan you want to configure, then open the **Sending Servers** sub-tab in the plan's sidebar. ![Admin Plans index — the list of subscription plans you can edit, each with a status, price, sending-credit cap, and Edit action](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/sending-server-for-plan/01-admin-plans-index.png) The **Sending Servers** tab is the only place where the delivery mode toggle lives. The mode you pick here writes the `HAS_OWN_SENDING_SERVER` entitlement under the hood — every customer subscription against this plan inherits it the moment you click **Save Changes**. --- ## Method 1 — System's Sending Servers (the "no setup" path for customers) Pick this when you want your customers to just hit **Send** and have AcelleMail handle delivery. They never see an SMTP host, never paste an API key, never know what an MTA is. ### How it works You attach one or more **admin-owned** sending servers to the plan. Every customer subscribed to the plan shares that pool. You control the credentials, the IP reputation, and the warm-up — they only see "campaign sent." ### Walkthrough On the plan's **Sending Servers** tab, select the **System's Sending Servers** card (it's the default on every newly created plan) and click **Save Changes**. ![Sending Servers tab on the Starter plan — System's Sending Servers card selected, with a System Sending Servers panel showing one attached server (Local Sendmail) marked Primary at 100% traffic, plus a + Add Server button on the right](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/sending-server-for-plan/02-plan-sending-servers-system-mode.png) Once saved, the **System Sending Servers** panel appears underneath. It lists every server already attached to the plan with its name, type, primary flag, and the share of traffic it gets. To attach a new one, click **+ Add Server**: ![Add Sending Server popup over the Sending Servers tab — a Select Server dropdown lets the admin pick from the pool of system-owned, active sending servers that aren't already attached to this plan. The popup notes: "The first server added will be set as primary."](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/sending-server-for-plan/04-add-system-server-popup.png) A few rules to know: - **Only system (admin-owned) servers are pickable.** Customer-owned servers don't appear because a plan is shared — you can't bind one customer's private SMTP to other people on the same plan. - **The first server you attach becomes Primary** automatically. Add a second to enable load-balancing across both. - **Two or more servers → a "Load balance" button appears** next to **+ Add Server**. That's where you set the per-server **traffic %** so you can split sends 70/30, 50/50, or any ratio you like. - **Customers see nothing.** Their **Sending → Sending servers** menu is hidden by the `has_own_sending_server` entitlement gate — they can't add a server, can't see your credentials, and don't need to. ### When to pick this mode - Free tier — you want zero-friction signup, send-the-first-email-in-30-seconds. - "Managed" tiers where deliverability is your value-add. - Any plan where the customer would not realistically own SMTP credentials (e.g. small business / non-technical). --- ## Method 2 — Own Sending Servers (customer brings their own) Pick this when your customer is technical, has their own IPs / domains / vendor accounts, and wants AcelleMail as a pure sending engine on top of *their* infrastructure. ### How it works You enable Own mode on the plan and toggle which **providers** they're allowed to use (Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, raw SMTP, etc.). You also cap **how many** servers any one customer can add. The customer then sees a **Sending servers** menu in their own UI and adds the credentials themselves — you never see them. ### Walkthrough On the plan's **Sending Servers** tab, select the **Own Sending Servers** card. The form expands to show two new sections: ![Sending Servers tab on the Growth plan — Own Sending Servers card selected. An Allowed Providers grid shows 9 toggles all enabled (Amazon SES, Elastic Email, Generic SMTP, SendGrid, SparkPost, Sendmail, Mailgun, Blastengine, Gmail OAuth). Below, a Maximum Sending Servers field shows 5 with an Unlimited toggle next to it.](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/sending-server-for-plan/03-plan-sending-servers-own-mode.png) **Allowed Providers.** Each toggle here corresponds to one server type the customer can add — Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Elastic Email, SparkPost, Blastengine, Generic SMTP, Sendmail (local MTA), and Gmail (OAuth). Turn off the ones you don't want them touching. A common pattern: enable only **Amazon SES** and **SMTP** on a starter "Own" plan, then unlock the rest on a higher tier. **Maximum Sending Servers.** A hard cap on how many servers each customer can add. Set an integer (e.g. `5`) or flip the **Unlimited** switch. This is the `MAX_SENDING_SERVERS` quota — leave it at a low number on entry-level Own plans, raise it for agency tiers. Click **Save Changes** when both sections look right. The customer subscription doesn't change until they reload — but the next time they hit their dashboard, the new menu is there. ### What your customer sees after subscribing They sign in to the customer side at `/login` and a new **Sending servers** entry shows up under the **Sending** menu in their sidebar. The page is headed **Sending Servers — Manage SMTP and API servers that power your email delivery**, with a sidebar that surfaces their vendor mix, combined throughput, warmup status, and a 3-step setup checklist: ![Customer-side Sending Servers index — one row in the table for the customer's own SMTP server (Awesome Solutions SMTP 1) with sending-limit, status Active, created date. Right sidebar shows a donut chart of vendor mix (1 SMTP server, 1 vendor), a combined-throughput card (5,000/hour), warmup status, available services, and a Setup checklist with Pick a service / Connect credentials / Send a test.](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/sending-server-for-plan/05-customer-sending-servers-index.png) They click **+ Add server** in the top-right. AcelleMail opens **Choose a server type** — a tiled grid of every provider you allowed on the plan, grouped under **Built-in providers**. If you only enabled SES + SMTP on this plan, only those tiles show up: ![Choose a server type page — Connect your sending pipeline hero with a 3-step ribbon (Pick a provider → Connect credentials → Send a test). Below, a Built-in providers grid with one tile per allowed type: Amazon Web Service API, Amazon Web Service SMTP, SMTP, Sendmail (UNIX), Mailgun API, Mailgun SMTP, SendGrid API, SendGrid SMTP, ElasticEmail API, ElasticEmail SMTP, SparkPost API, SparkPost SMTP, Blastengine API, Blastengine SMTP, Gmail (Google OAuth).](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/sending-server-for-plan/06-customer-server-type-picker.png) They click a tile (say, **SMTP**) and land on the connection form. For SMTP they paste host, port, encryption, username and password — for API providers (SES, SendGrid, etc.) they paste an API key. Then **+ Add server**: ![Connect sending server form for SMTP — breadcrumb reads "Sending Servers / Select type / SMTP". A Connection settings panel collects SMTP host, SMTP port (default 587), Encryption (TLS), SMTP username and SMTP password, with a teal + Add server button at the bottom.](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/sending-server-for-plan/07-customer-create-form.png) That server is **theirs** — bound to their customer record. Other customers on the same plan don't see it and can't use it. The credentials are stored in AcelleMail's `sending_servers.config` JSON column scoped by `customer_id`. ### When to pick this mode - Customers who already pay for their own SES / SendGrid / Mailgun account and don't want to re-pay for sending volume on your side. - Agencies sending on behalf of clients — each client account gets its own vendor credentials. - Compliance / data-residency situations where the customer must be the legal sender. - Any plan where deliverability is *the customer's* responsibility, not yours. --- ## Common questions **Can I mix both modes on the same plan?** No. The two cards are mutually exclusive — saving one disables the other. If you want a plan where the customer can *fall back* to your servers when they have none, that's a feature request, not a setting today. **What happens to customers already subscribed to a plan when I change its mode?** The mode flips for every existing subscription on the next page load. Customers on a now-System plan will lose the **Sending servers** menu (their saved servers stay in the DB but become inaccessible). Customers on a now-Own plan get the menu and start at zero servers. Switch modes with care on plans that already have paying subscribers — usually safer to clone the plan and migrate customers across. **Why is the "Add Server" dropdown empty for me?** The popup only lists **system-owned, active** sending servers that aren't already attached to this plan. If you only have one system server and it's already attached, the dropdown is empty. Add a new system server first at **Admin → Sending → Sending servers → + New server**, then come back to the plan and attach it. **Customer says they don't see the Sending servers menu — why?** Three possibilities: 1. Their plan is in System mode. That's by design — switch the plan to Own mode if you want them to see it. 2. Their plan is in Own mode but **every provider toggle is off** — there's nothing they can add, so the menu hides itself. 3. Their `MAX_SENDING_SERVERS` quota is set to 0. Bump it (or flip Unlimited) and they'll see the menu again. **Can I set "Use my system servers AND let them add their own"?** Not as a single mode. The two cards are mutually exclusive. In practice almost nobody needs the hybrid — pick the mode that matches the buyer profile of the plan and stick with it. --- ## Related articles - [Building Your Email Marketing SaaS](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/building-your-email-marketing-saas): The technology side of an AcelleMail SaaS is solved. The hard part is the business: who you sell to, how you price, how you reach them, and how you keep them. This guide is the GTM + pricing playbook — opinionated, market-tested patterns for launching an email-marketing SaaS on the AcelleMail stack. - [Setting Up AcelleMail as a SaaS Platform](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/setting-up-acellemail-as-a-saas-platform): AcelleMail can be operated as a multi-tenant SaaS where each customer signs up, picks a plan, pays via Stripe, and gets an isolated workspace (lists, campaigns, automations, sending quotas). This guide walks the end-to-end setup: Extended License, Stripe (the only first-class subscription gateway today), plan design, customer onboarding flow, tenant isolation, and the operational realities of running this as a business. - [White-Label Customization Guide for AcelleMail](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/white-label-customization-guide): AcelleMail's Extended License allows full re-branding — every "AcelleMail" reference can be replaced with your brand name, every screen recoloured, every customer email sent from your domain. This guide walks every customisation point: branding settings, custom CSS, custom domain + TLS, transactional email templates, and the upgrade-safe pattern for layout/Blade overrides. - [Subscription Plan Design Strategy](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/subscription-plan-design-strategy): The plans you offer drive your revenue more than any other product decision. Too many plans confuse buyers; too few leave revenue on the table. This guide walks the three-tier model (Starter / Growth / Pro) that 80% of email-marketing SaaS products use, the feature-gating principles that maximize upgrade conversions without frustrating low-tier users, the annual-billing discount math, and the free-trial vs freemium decision. - [How to create a subscription plan for your customers](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/creating-subscription-plans-for-your-customers): Package what your customers get and pay for. Create a subscription plan in the admin panel — set its price, credits, quotas, and features — and make it available to customers at signup.