SMTP blocked, what's the alternative?

Posted on March 24, 2025

My droplet Outbound SMTP cannot be used due to SMTP blocked. Without using SendGrid 1-click App, what alternative is there?

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alexdo

March 24, 2025

Heya, @jedid83

If the third-party mail provider offers authenticating and sending emails via API this can be workaround to sending emails via SMTP.

Hope that this helps!

KFSys

March 25, 2025

Heya,

You can try to contact DigitalOcean and ask them to open either port 465 or 587(one or the other). You’ll need to provide more info on the APP so that the Support know as much as possible before taking the decision.

https://www.digitalocean.com/support/

Hope that helps! - KFSys.

Bobby Iliev

July 2, 2025

Hey 👋

Yep, default SMTP ports like 25 are blocked by default on new accounts to prevent abuse. Even though you’re using authenticated Gmail SMTP, the block still applies.

https://docs.digitalocean.com/support/why-is-smtp-blocked/

Your best bet is to either:

Reach out to DigitalOcean support and ask if they can review your account and unblock it (they don’t always do it, but worth a try),
Or use a service like SendGrid, Mailgun, or Postmark, much better for deliverability anyway. They allow SMTP over API, which is a good workaround and better for performance too.

Some SMTP providers also support alternative ports like 2525, so you might want to check if Gmail does (last I checked, it doesn’t, but maybe worth double-checking).

Let me know how it goes!

- Bobby