Netcore Email API (formerly Pepipost) is aimed at developers and enterprises, not typical WordPress operators. Netcore has retired its public Email API pricing page: the tier table that used to sit at /email/pricing and /emailapi/pricing/ now returns 404, and the “Pricing” link on the Email API product page routes to a Customer Engagement Platform page whose tiers are all “Book Demo.” Paid tiers are effectively sales-gated. A perpetual free tier (100 emails/day, approximately 3,000/month) exists for testing and low-volume use.
The platform handles both transactional and marketing email at scale. Its differentiator is infrastructure breadth (US, EU, and Indian data residency) and volume: the service processes large email volumes for enterprise customers. For a typical WordPress site sending hundreds or low thousands of emails per month, Netcore is overspecced and overpriced.
SMTP settings
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Host | smtp.pepipost.com |
| Port | 587 (recommended), 25, or 2525 |
| Encryption | TLS |
| Authentication | API key |
The smtp.pepipost.com hostname persists from the Pepipost era. Authentication uses an API key generated in the Netcore dashboard.
Pricing
Netcore no longer publishes an Email API pricing table. The dedicated pricing pages that used to live at /email/pricing and /emailapi/pricing/ return 404. The “Pricing” button on the Email API product page routes to /plan-and-pricing/, which is the Customer Engagement Platform pricing page: three tiers (Starter, Growth, Enterprise), all “Book Demo,” no dollar figures.
The free tier is still documented in Netcore’s own support portal:
| Plan | Price | Volume |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | $0 | 100 emails/day (~3,000/mo) |
| Trial | Free (first 30 days) | 1,000 emails/day (~30,000 total) |
For paid pricing, third-party aggregators (G2, Capterra) continue to report tier names Basic $349/mo, Scale $549/mo, Growth $899/mo. These are almost certainly stale scrape data from before Netcore removed the public pricing table – Netcore’s current visible tier names on /plan-and-pricing/ are Starter/Growth/Enterprise, not Basic/Scale/Growth. Take the aggregator numbers as a rough historical anchor rather than a current quote.
The free tier at 100 emails/day is adequate for a small WordPress site’s A transactional email is the automated message a WordPress site sends in response to a single user action – a password reset, an order confirmation, a form receipt – addressed to the user who triggered it. Read full reference →. For comparison: SMTP2GO offers 1,000/month (200/day) free with no restrictions, and Brevo offers 300/day free. Netcore’s free tier is smaller than either.
Beyond the free tier, the only reliable way to price Netcore Email API right now is to book a sales call.
Free tier
Two overlapping free entry points, both documented in Netcore’s support portal. The perpetual free tier gives 100 emails/day (approximately 3,000/month) via the same SMTP endpoint (smtp.pepipost.com) and API surface that paid tiers use. A separate 30-day trial adds up to 30,000 emails from a verified domain on top – useful for a proof-of-concept sizing exercise but time-limited by construction.
The perpetual tier is the one to plan around. It exposes the API, SMTP, webhooks, and email validation on Netcore’s shared infrastructure. Dedicated IP is a higher-tier feature. Log retention on the free tier is not clearly documented and appears to inherit whatever the default is under Netcore’s Customer Engagement Platform. Because Netcore has retired the public Email API pricing page, the exact free-vs-paid feature boundary lives in the dashboard rather than on a pricing card.
The catch is smaller than the marketing implies. 100/day is smaller than SMTP2GO’s permanent 200/day and half of Mailgun’s permanent 100/day-with-monthly-total headroom (Mailgun’s is also 100/day but with the same math). Where Netcore’s free tier sits usefully is as a companion to the 30-day trial: use the trial to load-test the integration at 1,000/day, then downshift to the perpetual 100/day for a low-volume production site.
The tier fits a small WordPress site testing Netcore before contacting sales, or a low-traffic site running under 100/day that specifically needs Indian or EU data residency. It does not fit any site that expected a meaningful free-tier volume; the perpetual 100/day is the smallest permanent allowance in this comparison.
WordPress integration
FluentSMTP – FluentSMTP includes a native Pepipost/Netcore integration. Enter your API key, select Pepipost as the mailer, done.
Generic SMTP – Any mailer plugin (WP Mail SMTP, Post SMTP) can connect to smtp.pepipost.com using the SMTP settings above.
A dedicated Netcore WordPress plugin existed (Pepipost plugin) but appears to be no longer actively maintained. Use FluentSMTP or generic SMTP instead.
Assessment
Netcore Email API is a capable, enterprise-grade email infrastructure service with strong deliverability credentials. For the narrow use case of very high-volume WordPress email (roughly a million messages a month and up), it offers cloud-native infrastructure with Indian, EU, and US data residency options.
For WordPress sites at typical transactional volumes:
- Under 1,000/month: SMTP2GO free tier covers this with zero cost and zero complexity.
- 1,000-10,000/month: SMTP2GO Starter ($10/mo), Postmark ($15/mo), or Brevo (free for 300/day) serve this range with simpler setup and better WordPress ecosystem support.
- 10,000-500,000/month: Mailgun or Amazon SES are more commonly used in the WordPress ecosystem at this scale, and both publish per-email pricing you can budget against without a sales call.
- 500,000+/month: Netcore becomes worth a sales conversation alongside Amazon SES and Mailgun Scale plans, especially when Indian or EU data residency matters.
The platform’s developer-focused interface and enterprise pricing make it a poor fit for most WordPress operators. The free tier (100/day) is functional but outmatched by competitors. Netcore earns consideration only when volume and infrastructure requirements push beyond what the WordPress-focused relay market typically serves.
For the broader setup that places Netcore Email API inside the WordPress email stack, see the WordPress email setup guide.
SMTP settings from third-party documentation review. Netcore’s dedicated Email API pricing page has been retired (404); the Email API product page’s Pricing link now routes to the Customer Engagement Platform’s Book-Demo tiers. Any paid-tier figures referenced here (from G2 and Capterra aggregator listings) are almost certainly stale scrape data and are shown as historical anchors only. Free tier and trial details confirmed against Netcore’s own support portal.