Megan Harper
EmailJS was created to solve a recurring problem—developers wasting time setting up email functionality from scratch. Founder Sergey Khomushin built a seamless, serverless solution to simplify email integration across providers.
1. What inspired the creation of EmailJS, and how does it align with your mission to simplify email integration for developers?
Sergey Khomushin: The idea of EmailJS was born from a simple but constant action—in different projects and companies, we constantly had to create a solution for a contact form, send emails for authorization, recover passwords, and so on. This routine work eventually made us start thinking about some ready-made tool.
EmailJS was initially created as a simple internal tool. However, more and more functionality and flexibility were required: the ability to change templates without changing the code, have logs for debugging, use not only the SMTP protocol, and much more.
Over time, EmailJS has evolved from a simple developer tool into a service that allows developers to automate communications easily. We give teams the ability to integrate email functionality without unnecessary overhead, whether processing contact forms, sending emails to their clients, or receiving other notifications. Our goal remains the same: to make email integration as simple, flexible, and accessible as possible.
2. EmailJS enables developers to send emails directly from their code without requiring server-side integration. How does this approach enhance productivity and usability?
Sergey Khomushin: Let’s do it shorter and more personally. About these features: we are creating a single API for different mail providers, and developers no longer need to spend a lot of time understanding how this or that provider works. Study the documentation on their requirements, authentication, sending requests, and so on. Just connect the EmailJS service, and everything will be for any mail provider! To further simplify the work with our API, we have created an SDK for different programming languages, which makes integration with the EmailJS service very simple and fast.
After adding the functionality for unsubscribing from emails, we brought Personal mail services closer to Transactional, which is truly unique! Now, when sending emails through your custom SMTP, Gmail, Outlook and others, users no longer need to worry about their reputation or about the fact that their unwanted emails will be marked as spam since most people can simply unsubscribe from emails and no longer receive them.
Templates with dynamic variables allow our customers to automatically generate emails that are more personalized and enjoyable for the recipient. We recently added support for conditions, loops, and lists for variables.
3. With support for a wide variety of email services, from personal to transactional, how does EmailJS cater to different user needs?
Sergey Khomushin: This question has been partially answered earlier. But what I really consider the coolest and most underrated feature of the EmailJS service is the management and connection of several services! My experience in the IT field tells me that incredibly often, different companies have technical problems with their mail solution that appear unexpectedly. There are many reasons, and they are different, but in fact, their mail service simply does not work for several days. On which they spend human resources, as well as days on conversations with the support team, and so on. This is good if their business does not depend on it much, but even in this case, it is very unpleasant.
However, with EmailJS, you go to the dashboard and redirect all traffic to another mail provider. That’s it! Even if you have not previously configured another provider or changes are required in the code, it will not take more than an hour. Then, you can calmly and slowly look for the cause of the breakdown.
4. EmailJS emphasizes security with server-side authentication and client-side triggers. How does this build trust with developers?
Sergey Khomushin: This doesn’t really help build trust with developers. Their concern is more about preserving the privacy of their information. They are worried about whether we read their emails, whether we sell information on the side, and so on.
It doesn’t matter how many times we say: “no, absolutely not”. That all data is stored encrypted and that there is no need to save data at all if they want so. However, only time builds the trust. The company’s reputation is growing year by year. The absence of serious security breaches and the absence of leaks of private data is the best way to build developer trust in the service.
5. EmailJS offers a free plan supported by paid users. How has this model impacted your user base and community growth?
Sergey Khomushin: It is not an easy question, as it cannot be compared with another model. The Internet is full of debates about which model is better, premium or freemium. As we said before, our goal is to make the lives of developers easier, and we believe that those developers who cannot afford to buy a paid plan deserve it. However, such a model constantly requires maintaining a balance and sometimes making changes to the free plan so that the company remains profitable.
6. Can you share a success story where EmailJS helped a developer or team streamline their email processes?
Sergey Khomushin: Unfortunately, I can’t remember any interesting story. Sometimes, guys contact us and share their gratitude, but they don’t give examples of how exactly it helped them. You know, many free users think that it should be free, and there is nothing unique about it, and they can even be indignant. The paid users pay for it and therefore also don’t see anything surprising in a good service.
7. What industries or projects have benefited the most from EmailJS’s code-free email integration?
Sergey Khomushin: Absolutely everyone: developers of their pages for the sake of a hobby, startups, companies. Time is money, and this is not a hackneyed quote but a modern reality. Today, the cost of a developer is huge, and even a day spent on developing your minimal solution will not pay off the annual EmailJS plan. And if you add here constant support for performance? Updating the system with modern changes in mail requirements? This is a waste of time and human resources. This applies to any service that can provide a developer with a ready-made solution, not only the EmailJS service.
8. How does EmailJS balance advanced functionality with ease of use for developers of varying skill levels?
Sergey Khomushin: An experienced developer can handle any complex system, but a beginner can’t. That’s why we focus on beginners. Most of the time we spend developing features is spent on developing the user experience of the platform. We try to automate various processes as much as possible, and we don’t always allow users to configure advanced settings. In some cases, we completely abandon some advanced settings because we believe that it brings more confusion than real benefit to a couple of developers. Some users don’t like it, but we can’t satisfy everyone’s needs without creating a cumbersome and complex service.
9. What challenges have you faced while scaling EmailJS, and how did you overcome them?
Sergey Khomushin: Hehe, your question sounds like something from the past, but we always face difficulties. Changes in the IT industry happen very quickly. Email trends also change. Laws of different countries involved introduce new requirements for services on how to transfer or store data. The service stability issues, hacker attacks and so on. How do we solve them? We always try to keep our finger on the pulse, study the changes, and work hard. Don’t know what to do? Just work hard and try to do the job well.
10. Looking back, are there any decisions or strategies you would approach differently now?
Sergey Khomushin: This is a bit contrary to my personal credo: “Don’t think or worry about the past.” The past has already happened. It can’t be changed. When someone thinks about what would have happened if he had done it differently, it’s just a waste of time. “Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend,” Theophrastus said. We can only change the future, and that’s what we should focus on.
If we take real moments, then earlier, we focused only on web developers. Relatively recently, we realized that developers of any end application face the task of simply sending emails. We changed our business focus and expanded the market of the service, and this really should have been done much earlier.
11. What does success look like for you and EmailJS in the next 5–10 years?
Sergey Khomushin: If, in 10 years, EmailJS is still talked about, developers are still using it, and journalists are still interested, that will be a success. As for my personal definition of EmailJS success, I want it to become an industry standard—a global hub for emails with a single standard—on par with tools like TypeScript, ESLint, etc., and to participate in the development of a new mail protocol and replace the rather old SMTP.
12. What does a typical day in your life as a founder look like, and how do you stay inspired?
Sergey Khomushin: User growth as a measure of success is very inspiring. It means that we are doing something meaningful. As a father, the hardest thing for me is to find a balance between family and work. If you have a choice: watch a series, play with your kids, or look for new material on personal growth or business, don’t choose the first option; just forget about it as a founder.
Editor’s Note
Sergey Khomushin turned a common developer pain point into a powerful, easy-to-use tool. EmailJS removes complexity, automates workflows, and ensures secure, efficient email communication for teams of all sizes.
