Email Providers

Email providers are the test mailboxes InboxIssue uses to receive and analyze your emails.

How It Works

1. InboxIssue maintains test accounts at major email providers
2. You send emails to these test addresses
3. InboxIssue monitors the mailboxes for incoming messages
4. Results are analyzed and reported

Provider Categories

InboxIssue organizes email providers into three categories. When using the API, use the provider_types parameter with these values:

Consumer Providers (consumer)

Popular free email services used by most recipients:

Business Providers (business)

Enterprise email services with corporate filtering policies:

Protected Providers (protected)

Mailboxes protected by commercial spam filtering gateways:

Provider Health

InboxIssue monitors provider health continuously:

Custom Email Providers

Enterprise plans can add custom email providers for testing:

Workspace Email Providers

For Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 domains:

1. Go to Settings > Email Providers
2. Click Add Provider
3. Authenticate via OAuth
4. Configure monitoring settings

Requirements

• OAuth authentication (Google or Microsoft)
• Read access to the mailbox
• Dedicated test mailbox recommended

Provider Selection

When creating tests via the API, use the provider_types parameter:

Select All Providers

Omit provider_types or include all three values:

{
  "spam_test": {
    "provider_types": ["consumer", "business", "protected"]
  }
}

Select by Type

Choose specific categories:

{
  "spam_test": {
    "provider_types": ["consumer"]
  }
}

Best Practices

1. Test All Categories

Different provider types have different filtering:

• consumer: Aggressive spam filtering based on engagement and reputation
• business: Policy-based filtering with stricter authentication requirements
• protected: Commercial spam filter gateways with strict security policies

2. Monitor Provider Health

Check the dashboard for provider status before running important tests.

3. Use Consistent Providers

For trend analysis, test the same providers over time.

Provider Limits

Related

• Spam Tests - Using providers in tests
• Subscription Plans - Plan features