Plainsend Start for $1

Quickstart

From a new account to your first real send, in about 15 minutes if you can sign in to your DNS host. The console's Set up page is this checklist: it opens when you first sign in, ticks each step when it is really done (not when you click), and says what is still blocking email to your customers. Every step has two versions: in the console if you'd rather click, and with your agent if you'd rather ask. Mix them as you like: they use the same API, and plainsend setup or the MCP tool setup_status shows the same checklist.

Three things only a person can do: pay, sign in to your DNS host (or send a link to whoever can), and approve the first real send.

1. Sign up and send a test to yourself

In the console

Create an account and name your workspace. It starts in a sandbox: email goes only to you and your team, nobody else. On Set up, press Send me a test: a ready-made hello lands in your inbox in under a minute.

With your agent

Sign in from a terminal, then send the test:

plainsend login
plainsend send --test

Or connect the MCP server (see agents) and ask:

Call setup_status and tell me the next step.

2. Your business details

In the console

Set up → Your business details: your postal address, sender name and where replies go. The law requires a postal address in marketing email, so Plainsend sends nothing to customers until you add it.

With your agent

plainsend setup details --postal-address "1 Harbour St, Sydney NSW 2000" --reply-to you@yourcompany.com
Set our brand's postal address to <address> and its reply-to to <email> with brand_put.

3. Pick a plan

In the console

Settings → Billing: Solo is $12 a year, Starter $29 a month. Paying is an owner's job: agents can read your plan and usage, never buy.

With your agent

plainsend billing
plainsend billing checkout solo
Check our plan with billing_status and tell me what I need to buy.

4. Verify your sending domain

In the console

Set up → Sending domain. Use a subdomain such as mail.yourcompany.com. With many DNS hosts Plainsend adds the records after you sign in there (Domain Connect); on Cloudflare it can add them with a token. Elsewhere, copy them, or send the setup link to whoever runs your DNS. The page checks each record live and says what's wrong in plain words. Once you have paid and the domain is verified, your workspace leaves the sandbox: then change your From address to the new domain.

With your agent

An owner adds the domain (agent keys can't), then the agent tracks it:

plainsend domain add mail.yourcompany.com
plainsend domain share mail.yourcompany.com
Check domain_status for mail.yourcompany.com and tell me which records are still missing.

5. Bring your contacts

In the console

Sources → Add a source: upload a CSV or Excel file, add a form on your website (or send contacts from your app through the API), connect HubSpot or Salesforce (Growth plan and up), or fill in a Databricks connection (Enterprise). A file import shows each column, a suggested use and a dry run before anything is written. Plainsend never guesses consent: you confirm a consent column, or say how people agreed.

With your agent

plainsend sources add csv contacts.csv
Upload contacts.csv with source_upload, show me the dry run with source_upload_plan,
ask me how people agreed to hear from us, then import it with source_upload_import.

6. Pick a starter journey

In the console

Content → Gallery has five packs: clinic starter, win-back, monthly newsletter, tax time, and software trial to paid. Each one checks your account first (which properties and events it needs) and previews every email in your brand. It installs as drafts: nothing sends until you approve it.

With your agent

Search the gallery, check the best fit against my account with gallery_show,
and install it as drafts. Then simulate the journey for a test contact.

7. Approve your first real send

In the console

Open Needs you (or the last step of Set up). The request shows who will get it, who won't and why, and each email. Approve each part, or all of it. A new domain warms up: a daily cap that rises over about three weeks, most engaged contacts first. Your first email to a customer from your own domain finishes Set up.

With your agent

Request activation for the journey and give me the approval link.
Then watch approval_status and report_health and tell me how the first sends went.

Reference