Laravel mail driver

Make Mail::send(), notifications and queued mail in Laravel go through SendSend, with one small class and no package to install.

Laravel sends mail through a “transport”. Add a SendSend transport once and everything that already sends mail in your app uses it: Mail::to(), mailables, notifications, password resets and queued mail. For a one-off send from a controller instead, see Send email from Laravel. This guide needs Laravel 9 or newer.

1. Add your key and From address

Create a live API key in the dashboard with the emails:send scope, and use a From address on a domain you have verified. In .env:

MAIL_MAILER=sendsend
SENDSEND_API_KEY=ss_live_...
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS="hello@yourdomain.com"
MAIL_FROM_NAME="Your App"

2. Add the mailer

In config/mail.php, inside 'mailers':

'sendsend' => [
    'transport' => 'sendsend',
    'key' => env('SENDSEND_API_KEY'),
],

3. Add the transport

<?php

namespace AppMail;

use IlluminateSupportFacadesHttp;
use SymfonyComponentMailerExceptionTransportException;
use SymfonyComponentMailerSentMessage;
use SymfonyComponentMailerTransportAbstractTransport;
use SymfonyComponentMimeAddress;
use SymfonyComponentMimeMessageConverter;

class SendSendTransport extends AbstractTransport
{
    public function __construct(private string $key)
    {
        parent::__construct();
    }

    protected function doSend(SentMessage $message): void
    {
        $email = MessageConverter::toEmail($message->getOriginalMessage());
        $addresses = fn (array $list) => array_values(array_map(fn (Address $a) => $a->getAddress(), $list));
        $from = $email->getFrom()[0];
        $name = preg_replace('/["<>\r\n]/', '', $from->getName());

        $payload = array_filter([
            'from' => $name ? "{$name} <{$from->getAddress()}>" : $from->getAddress(),
            'to' => $addresses($email->getTo()),
            'cc' => $addresses($email->getCc()) ?: null,
            'bcc' => $addresses($email->getBcc()) ?: null,
            'reply_to' => $addresses($email->getReplyTo()) ?: null,
            'subject' => $email->getSubject(),
            'html' => $email->getHtmlBody(),
            'text' => $email->getTextBody(),
        ], fn ($value) => $value !== null && $value !== '');

        foreach ($email->getAttachments() as $part) {
            $headers = $part->getPreparedHeaders();
            $payload['attachments'][] = array_filter([
                'filename' => $headers->getHeaderParameter('Content-Disposition', 'filename') ?? 'attachment',
                'content' => base64_encode($part->getBody()),
                'content_type' => $part->getMediaType() . '/' . $part->getMediaSubtype(),
            ]);
        }

        $response = Http::withToken($this->key)
            ->withHeaders(['Idempotency-Key' => sha1($message->getMessageId())]) // a retry can never send twice
            ->acceptJson()
            ->post('https://api.sendsend.email/v1/emails', $payload);

        if ($response->failed()) {
            throw new TransportException('SendSend: ' . ($response->json('error.message') ?? $response->body()));
        }
    }

    public function __toString(): string
    {
        return 'sendsend';
    }
}

4. Register it

In app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php:

use App\Mail\SendSendTransport;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;

public function boot(): void
{
    Mail::extend('sendsend', fn (array $config) => new SendSendTransport($config['key']));
}

5. Try it

Mail::raw('It works.', fn ($m) => $m->to('you@example.com')->subject('Test from Laravel'));

Open the message in your dashboard to see it move from queued to delivered. After that, nothing else in your app changes:

Mail::to($user)->send(new WelcomeMail($user));

$user->notify(new InvoicePaid($invoice));

Mail::to($user)->queue(new ReceiptMail($order)); // queued mail is retried safely

Good to know

Attachments are sent too, up to 10 files and 10 MB in total.
Each message carries an idempotency key made from its Laravel message id, so a queue retry can never deliver the same email twice.
For delivery, bounce and complaint events in your app, add a webhook and verify its signature.
Test your setup safely with a ss_test_ key first. It simulates delivery and never sends.

Troubleshooting

Message	Cause
domain_not_verified	The From address’s domain is not verified in the project that owns the key.
account_not_approved	Live sending is waiting for account approval. A test key works meanwhile but never delivers.
unauthorized	The key is wrong or revoked. Clear cached config with php artisan config:clear after changing .env.
Mailer [sendsend] is not defined	The mailers entry in config/mail.php is missing, or the config is cached.
Unsupported mail transport	Mail::extend() was not reached. Check that it is in AppServiceProvider::boot().