Getting started with SimpleFlare
SimpleFlare sends the email your product depends on and catches every reply in a shared inbox, for each business you run, from one login. This guide takes you from an empty account to sending and answering, in the order that unlocks the most as you go. The first two steps are required; the rest you can add whenever you're ready.
How SimpleFlare fits together
Three things live under one account. You send transactional email through an API or template, you receive the replies and any support mail in a shared inbox, and you can drop a live chat bubble on your site that feeds the same inbox. Each brand you run is a separate business, kept apart but managed together.
Your productFires a send: reset, receipt, alert
→
SimpleFlareSends it, tracks it, catches the reply
→
Your teamAnswers from a shared inbox & chat
Answering a customer is always free - you only pay for the base plan and the outbound email you send above your plan's included block. See pricing for the details.
Create your first business Required
A business (we also call it a project) is one brand: its own domain, from-name, sending, inbox and chat widget. Start with one; you can add more later and switch between them from the same login.
- In the console, open Projects and click New business.
- Give it a name and the domain you'll send from (for example
acme.com).
- Set the From address and From name your customers will see (for example
[email protected], "Acme").
- Pick a brand accent colour and, optionally, a logo - templates and the chat widget use them.
Tip: use a real, monitored From address, not a no-reply@ - replies are the point, and mailbox providers trust a genuine address more.
Verify your sending domain Required
Before mailbox providers will trust email from your domain, you prove you own it by adding a few DNS records. This is what keeps your mail out of spam. SimpleFlare generates the exact records for you.
- Open the business's Sending domain page. SimpleFlare shows the records to add: three DKIM entries, a MAIL FROM record, and a DMARC record.
- Add them at your DNS host (or, if your domain is on Cloudflare and connected, SimpleFlare can write them for you automatically).
- Wait for the status to turn Verified - usually minutes, sometimes up to an hour while DNS propagates.
Why it matters: DKIM signs your mail, SPF authorises the sender, and DMARC ties them together. With all three green, your password resets and receipts land in the inbox, not the spam folder.
Send your first email
With a verified domain you can send. Every business has its own API key; one call sends a message, either from a template you store in SimpleFlare or from your own HTML.
- On the business's API page, copy its send key.
- Make one request to the send endpoint with the recipient and a template or HTML body.
- Watch it appear under Deliverability with its delivery, open and click status.
curl
-X POST https://simpleflare.app/api/email/send \
-H "X-Project-Key: sk_your_key" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"template":"welcome","to":"
[email protected]","vars":{"name":"Ann"}}'
Learn more: the full API - templates, HTML, variables, CC/BCC, headers and every response code - is in the developer docs.
Catch the replies
When someone replies to your email, or writes to your support address, it should land in your team's inbox, not a personal mailbox. There are two ways to set that up - pick the one that matches how you work today.
Route a support address
Point an address like [email protected] at SimpleFlare and every message to it opens as a conversation in the inbox. Best if you want SimpleFlare to be the home for support.
Learn more: Use SimpleFlare for support email, keep everything else on Google or Microsoft.
Connect an existing mailbox
Already run support out of a Gmail, iCloud or IMAP mailbox? Connect it and SimpleFlare syncs it into the shared inbox while your native mail app keeps working.
Learn more: Connect your existing mailbox.
Either way: the inbox is shared - your team gets threading, assignment, tags, notes, snooze and saved replies, and it works the same on phone and desktop.
Add live chat Optional
Drop a chat bubble on your site and visitor messages land in the very same inbox, so you answer chat and email in one place. Setup is a single line.
- On the business's Widget page, copy your public widget snippet and paste it before
</body> on your site.
- Theme it - accent colour, greeting, launcher icon, office hours - from the same page.
<script src="https://simpleflare.app/widget/embed" data-key="pk_your_public_key" async></script>
Two keys: the widget uses a public key (pk_), safe to put on a page. Your send key (sk_) is secret and stays on your server.
Invite your team
Support is a team sport. Invite colleagues, give them the right level of access, and they share the same inbox and see each other's status.
- Open Teammates and enter a colleague's email.
- Choose a role: an Agent works the inbox (reply, assign, note) but can't touch billing or settings; an Owner has full access. You can also limit an agent to specific businesses.
- They get an invite by email and join with their own login.
Roles: need something in between? Create a custom role with exactly the permissions you want on the Roles page.
Level up Optional
Once the basics run, these earn their keep:
- AI replies - draft answers from your own help content, billed per resolved conversation. Included on Scale, an add-on on other plans.
- Deliverability tools - open, click and bounce tracking, plus an automatic suppression list so a bad address never drags down the rest of your mail.
- Saved replies & shortcuts - macros for the answers you send often, and keyboard shortcuts to fly through the queue.
- More businesses - add every brand you run and manage them all from one login, with seats shared across them.