Custom Email & SMTP

Send ProductBridge emails from your own domain so notifications, assignments, and changelog announcements reach your customers from your brand — not from ProductBridge's shared sender.

Two Ways to Brand Your Outbound Email

By default, ProductBridge sends emails through our shared system mailer. To send from your own domain, you have two options:

Option	When to Use
Custom Sending Domain	Easiest setup — register a subdomain and verify it via DNS. Recommended for most teams.
Custom SMTP	Use your own SMTP server (Gmail Workspace, AWS SES, Postmark, etc.). Choose this if you need full control over the sending infrastructure or have an internal policy requiring it.

You can configure either — or both. If both are configured, ProductBridge prefers your custom SMTP and falls back to the system mailer when needed.

Some email flows have stricter requirements. Assignment emails and roadmap status change emails skip silently if custom SMTP isn't configured. Changelog announcements always send via the system mailer if needed.

Custom Sending Domain

Use this option to send emails from a subdomain you own (e.g., notifications.yourdomain.com) without running your own SMTP server. You register the subdomain in ProductBridge, add a few DNS records, and we handle delivery.

Set Up Your Sending Domain

Open Email Domain settings

Go to Brand Settings → Email Domain and click Add Domain.

Enter a subdomain

The domain must be a subdomain with at least three parts — for example:

✅ notifications.yourproduct.com
✅ mail.yourproduct.com
❌ yourproduct.com (apex domain — not allowed)

Using a subdomain keeps ProductBridge sends isolated from your primary email infrastructure.

Add the DNS records

After registration, ProductBridge displays the DNS records to add to your DNS provider. These typically include records for authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and mail routing.

Add each record exactly as shown — name, type, and value are all case-sensitive.

Verify

Once your records are in place, return to Brand Settings → Email Domain and click Verify. ProductBridge checks each record and updates the verification status.

DNS propagation can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. If verification fails, double-check the record name and value (some DNS providers truncate long values).

Configure your sender

Once verified, set:

Sender name — the display name customers see (e.g., "Acme Product Team")
Sender email — the address emails come from (must be on your verified subdomain)
Reply-to email (optional) — a different address for replies (can be on any domain)

Verification Status

Status	Meaning
Pending	Domain registered, DNS records not yet detected
Verified	All records confirmed — domain is sending
Failed	One or more records missing or incorrect

You can re-check status from the Email Domain settings at any time.

Delete a Domain

To remove a sending domain, click Delete Domain in the Email Domain settings. You'll be asked to confirm. After deletion, the domain is unregistered from our sending infrastructure and your outbound email reverts to the system mailer (unless you also have Custom SMTP configured).

Custom SMTP

Use this option to route ProductBridge emails through your own SMTP server. Choose this if you already have a mail infrastructure (Google Workspace, Amazon SES, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun) and want everything to flow through it.

Set Up Custom SMTP

Open SMTP settings

Go to Brand Settings → SMTP and toggle Enable Custom SMTP.

Enter your SMTP credentials

Provide:

Sender email — the address messages are sent from (e.g., feedback@yourproduct.com)
Sender name — the display name shown in the inbox (e.g., "Acme Product Team")
Host — your SMTP server hostname (e.g., smtp.gmail.com, email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com, smtp.postmarkapp.com)
Port — typically 587 (TLS) or 465 (SSL)
Username — your SMTP login
Password — your SMTP password or app-specific token

Your password is encrypted at rest and only decrypted at send time. We never log or display it after you save.

Test the connection

Click Test Connection. ProductBridge attempts a real SMTP handshake using the credentials you provided.

On success, the status changes to Verified. On failure, you'll get a specific error (auth failed, host unreachable, TLS handshake failed, etc.) so you can fix it.

Done

Once verified, every outgoing email from ProductBridge routes through your SMTP server.

Status

Status	Meaning
Not Tested	Credentials saved but the connection test hasn't run yet
Verified	Test connection succeeded — SMTP is in use for every outbound email
Error	Last test failed — emails fall back to the system mailer until fixed

You can re-test or update credentials at any time. Changing credentials resets the status to Not Tested until you re-run the test.

How Delivery Works

When both options are configured, ProductBridge sends emails using a two-tier strategy:

Your custom SMTP — tried first when status is Verified
System SMTP fallback — used if custom SMTP isn't configured or fails

A misconfigured Custom Sending Domain or SMTP won't block delivery — it just falls back to the system mailer until you fix it.

Which Emails Are Affected?

When your custom configuration is active, all outbound emails from ProductBridge route through it:

Changelog subscriber announcements
Post assignment notifications
Roadmap status change emails
Team member invitations
Subscription confirmation emails
Any other transactional message

Common Provider Setups (Custom SMTP)

Host: smtp.gmail.com
Port: 587
Username: the full email address (e.g., feedback@yourproduct.com)
Password: an App Password generated for your Google Account — your normal Google password will not work

You must enable 2-Step Verification on the Google Account to create App Passwords.

Troubleshooting

DNS propagation typically takes minutes but can take hours — wait and re-check
Confirm every record name and value matches exactly (case-sensitive)
Some DNS providers truncate long TXT values — make sure the full value is saved
Make sure you registered a subdomain (e.g., notifications.yourdomain.com), not an apex domain

Double-check the username and password — try logging into your provider's webmail or sending from another tool with the same credentials
For Gmail, you must generate an App Password under your Google Account security settings — your normal password won't work
For Amazon SES, use the SMTP credentials from the SES console, not your AWS IAM access keys
For SendGrid, the username is the literal string apikey (not your account email)

Verify the hostname is correct and reachable from the public internet
Check that the port is allowed by your provider — 587 (TLS) is most common; 465 (SSL) and 25 (plain) are alternatives
Some networks block outbound SMTP — try a different port or confirm with your provider

Check the recipient's spam folder
Confirm your sending domain has proper SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records — most major providers reject mail without them
Look at your SMTP provider's delivery logs for bounces or rejections
Make sure your sender email is verified with your provider (especially for SES and similar)

This usually means custom SMTP is in Not Tested or Error status, so ProductBridge is falling back to the system mailer. Click Test Connection again
Confirm the Sender email field matches a verified sender on your SMTP provider — providers reject mail with mismatched From addresses

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