Getting Started with mailtani

mailtani sends your marketing email through your own email provider (Resend, AWS SES or Mailtrap), so your domain and your sender reputation stay yours, and you pay the provider directly. This guide walks you through setup in the app, from signing up to your first send. It takes about 10 minutes, plus however long your DNS takes to update.

Every account starts on the Free plan: your first 100 emails are free, no card needed. See The Free plan and paid plans below.

Set up in the app

After you sign up, setup opens by itself and takes you through six screens. Each one has Back and Next, and everything you enter is saved as you go, so you can close the tab and pick up where you left off.

1. Welcome

The first screen has a 2-minute overview video and shows that you're starting free: your first 100 emails, no card needed. Click Start setup below the video.

2. Connect your email provider

mailtani sends through your provider's API, so it needs an API key from them. Resend is picked for you because it's the quickest to set up (about 5 minutes) and has a free plan of its own. Its steps open right on the screen: create an account at resend.com, create an API key with Full access, and paste it in. To use AWS SES or Mailtrap instead, click Use AWS SES or Mailtrap instead.

When the key is saved, click Next: Add Domain.

Step by step for each provider, with what to click in their dashboard: Provider Setup.

3. Add your domain

Enter the domain you'll send from, like yourdomain.com or a subdomain such as mail.yourdomain.com. mailtani registers it with your provider and creates the DNS records it needs. Click Next: Configure DNS.

4. Add the DNS records

The next screen lists the records to add at your domain registrar (Cloudflare, Namecheap, GoDaddy and others): the records that prove the domain is yours (DKIM and SPF) and a DMARC record. Copy each one into your registrar's DNS settings, then click Check Verification Status.

DNS changes can take a while to be picked up, and you don't have to wait for them. Click Continue, I'll verify later: we check your domain automatically and email you as soon as it's verified. You can also check its status on the Domains page.

Once the domain is verified, the screen says your DNS is fully configured. It may also offer Set Up Now for bounce and reply tracking: without it, mailtani can't see when an email bounces, is marked as spam or is opened. You can set it up now or later.

Where to add the records at your registrar: DNS Provider Setup.

5. Add the address you send from

Pick the name and address your emails come from, like [email protected]. Replies go back to that address. Click Next: Activate.

6. Send yourself a test, then start free

The last screen lets you send a test email to yourself (it doesn't count toward your free emails), shows what you can do next, and puts the Free plan next to Yearly. Click Keep it free to start sending on the Free plan, or Get access to all features to pick a plan now. Either way you land on your dashboard.

Don't want to finish setup in one go? Every setup screen after the first has Skip setup, explore the app at the top: you land on the dashboard on the Free plan, and Getting Started shows what's left to set up.

Stuck on a screen? Every setup screen has Need help? See the guide at the bottom, and the main pages (Campaigns, Contacts, Domains, each campaign builder, Explore all features) have See the guide under their title. It opens the right part of the Help Center in a new tab.

Once you're in the app, the Help button at the bottom right of every page is always there: Guide for this page opens the part of the Help Center about the screen you're on, and you'll also find All guides, API docs and Book a 15 min call. Help Center in the sidebar, under the main pages, opens every guide.

Getting Started in the app

Where to find it: Getting Started at the top of the sidebar, the panel in the bottom-right corner, and the card on the dashboard. All three show the same five steps and tick each one as you finish it. Each step has Show me how: it opens the right page, and a small panel walks you through it, outlining the next thing to click and ticking each step as you go. Once setup is done, the popular features (flows, segments, the inbox, the API) have Show me how too.

To see everything mailtani does, click Explore all features under Getting Started in the sidebar. It lists every feature with whether your plan includes it (Free or Paid) and whether you've used it yet, and each one has Try it and Show me how. Filter by Used, Not used yet or Not on my plan.

Add contacts

Import a CSV, add contacts one by one, or sync them from your app with the API. Contacts can carry custom fields (a plan, a signup date, a company) that you can use in your emails.

To import, go to Contacts and click Import CSV. The wizard has four steps: Upload your CSV (it needs an email, firstName and lastName column, plus any custom fields you've created), Preview the rows, Map Columns to mailtani's fields (and add everyone to lists or tags with Add to Lists and Add Tags), then Confirm. On the Free plan you can have up to 500 contacts.

Send your first email

A broadcast is one email to a list or a segment. Click New Campaign, then Create Broadcast; write it, pick who gets it, send a test to yourself, then send or schedule it. Opens, replies and bounces show up on the campaign's page. Step by step: Broadcasts.

What you can send

• Broadcasts: one email to a list or segment, sent once. Announcements, newsletters, offers.
• Sequences: a series of emails on a fixed schedule after someone joins. Every contact gets the same emails in the same order. Onboarding courses, nurture series.
• Flows: automations started by an event (someone signs up, buys, goes quiet), with waits and branches, so each contact gets the emails that fit them.

Rule of thumb: a one-time send is a broadcast; the same series for everyone is a sequence; anything that reacts to what a contact does is a flow.

The Free plan and paid plans

Every account starts on the Free plan: no card, no end date. You get 100 free emails in total (broadcasts, sequences, flows, one-off emails and inbox replies all count; test emails to yourself don't), with 1 project, 1 domain, 1 sending email and up to 500 contacts. Flows and the inbox are included.

Where to find it: the line at the top of every page shows how many free emails you have left and what a plan unlocks. Its Get access to all features button opens the plans window. You can also open it from Subscription in the sidebar. Once your free emails run out, the Getting Started panel in the corner shows 0 of 100 free emails left as its next step, with the same button.

A paid plan (Yearly or Lifetime, same features, no trial) adds unlimited emails, contacts, projects, domains and sending emails, plus API keys and MCP and signup forms. When you try something that needs a plan, the plans window opens and its first line says why. Yearly and Lifetime sit side by side, each with what it includes and its own button: Get access to all features for Yearly, Get Lifetime access for Lifetime. When your 100 free emails run out, Yearly is 10% off for 7 days.

On the Free plan, API Keys / MCP and Forms stay in the menu with a Paid badge, and their pages show a preview of what you get:

When your free emails run out, campaigns that are already running wait at their next email. Nothing is lost: they carry on as soon as you pick a plan.

What's Next

• Flows Guide: build event-triggered automations
• Variables & Personalization: use contact data in your emails
• API Integration Guide: connect your app (sync contacts, fire events)
• API Reference: complete API documentation