Node.js - Send Emails via SMTP with Nodemailer
This is a quick example of how to send an email in Node.js using the nodemailer email sending module.
For more info on nodemailer see https://nodemailer.com/.
Other versions available:
- .NET: .NET 6.0, 5.0, ASP.NET Core 3.1
Installing nodemailer from npm
With the npm CLI: npm install nodemailer
With the yarn CLI: yarn add nodemailer
Sending an HTML email in Node.js
This code sends a simple HTML email using the Ethereal free SMTP testing service, you can create a free test account in one click at https://ethereal.email/ and copy the username and password from below the title Nodemailer configuration. See instructions below for using different SMTP providers such as Gmail and Hotmail.
// create transporter object with smtp server details
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
host: 'smtp.ethereal.email',
port: 587,
auth: {
user: '[USERNAME]',
pass: '[PASSWORD]'
}
});
// send email
await transporter.sendMail({
from: '[email protected]',
to: '[email protected]',
subject: 'Test Email Subject',
html: '<h1>Example HTML Message Body</h1>'
});
Sending a plain text email in Node.js
This code sends the same email as above with a plain text body.
// create transporter object with smtp server details
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
host: 'smtp.ethereal.email',
port: 587,
auth: {
user: '[USERNAME]',
pass: '[PASSWORD]'
}
});
// send email
await transporter.sendMail({
from: '[email protected]',
to: '[email protected]',
subject: 'Test Email Subject',
text: 'Example Plain Text Message Body'
});
Changing SMTP Provider (e.g. Gmail, Hotmail, Office365)
To change the above code to use a different email provider simply update the host parameter passed to the nodemailer.createTransport() method, for example:
// gmail
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
host: 'smtp.gmail.com',
...
});
// hotmail
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
host: 'smtp.live.com',
...
});
// office 365
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
host: 'smtp.office365.com',
...
});
Wrapping it up in a sendEmail helper function
To encapsulate the email sending functionality and make it easy to send email from anywhere in your Node.js application you can create a sendEmail helper function like below. It connects to the SMTP server with options set in the config.json file.
For examples of how this email helper is used in a real project see Node + Mongo - Boilerplate API with Email Sign Up, Verification, Authentication & Forgot Password.
const nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
const config = require('config.json');
module.exports = sendEmail;
async function sendEmail({ from, to, subject, html }) {
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(config.smtpOptions);
await transporter.sendMail({ from, to, subject, html });
}
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