How Vecta works

Vecta lets you send personalised email campaigns to a list of people, one-off announcements or something that repeats every week: using your own email account rather than a rented sending service.

It handles the parts that are easy to get wrong: not emailing someone who unsubscribed, not exceeding your provider's sending limits, putting a working unsubscribe link in every message, and telling you honestly what happened to each email.

Vecta suits founders, small agencies, freelancers and small teams sending newsletters, product updates, or personal outreach to a list they built themselves.

It is deliberately not built for buying lists or blasting strangers. The suppression and unsubscribe rules are strict by design, because the fastest way to destroy your domain's reputation is to email people who never asked.

SMTP is the standard protocol email servers use to send mail. "Bring your own SMTP" means Vecta sends through your existing mailbox (your Google Workspace account, your Hostinger mailbox, your Microsoft 365 account) instead of through a shared sending service.

What you get

• Your reputation is yours. You aren't sharing an IP pool with strangers whose spam can get you blocked.
• Replies land in your inbox. Mail comes from your real address, so conversations work normally.
• No per-email pricing. You're bound by your provider's limits, not a billing tier.
• Your contact data stays in your own workspace.

The trade-off

Ordinary mailboxes have modest sending limits, often a few hundred per day. Vecta respects those limits rather than pretending they don't exist. If you need to send tens of thousands per day, a dedicated sending service is the better tool.

A campaign combines three things you've already set up:

• a template: the subject and body, with personalisation variables
• a recipient list: who receives it
• an SMTP config, which mailbox it's sent from

Each time a campaign actually executes, it creates a run. A one-off campaign has exactly one run. A weekly campaign creates a new run every week.

Choose Repeat when creating a campaign, pick a first run time and an interval (hourly, daily, weekly or monthly). Vecta stores the next scheduled time and a background worker checks every few minutes for campaigns that have come due.

When one is due, it creates a fresh run, queues an email for every person currently on the list, and immediately schedules the next occurrence. You never re-trigger it by hand.

If the worker is unavailable for a while, Vecta skips forward to the next future occurrence rather than firing off a backlog of missed sends all at once.

A contact is a person in your workspace, identified by their email address. A list is a named group of contacts. The same person can be on many lists but exists only once.

This matters because status lives on the contact, not the list. If someone unsubscribes or their address bounces, they're excluded from every list at once. There's no way to accidentally reach them through a different list.

Saved vs one-off lists

Importing someone who's already there

Because each person exists once, importing a file with someone you already have doesn't create a copy. Normally their details stay as they were. Tick Update existing contacts during import and the filled cells in your file replace what's stored; blank cells change nothing.

A template holds a subject line and a body. Anywhere you write {{first_name}}, Vecta substitutes that contact's value when the email is sent.

You do not need to remember that syntax. Use Add property below the editor and choose a field such as First name, Company or a custom CSV column. Vecta inserts the right token at your cursor in either the subject or body.

Variables come from the columns you mapped when importing your CSV, plus {{email}} which always exists. If a contact has no value for a variable, it renders as empty, so write copy that still reads correctly when a field is blank.

Shared vs private

• Shared: everyone in your workspace can see and use it.
• Private, only you can see it, enforced at the database level, not just hidden in the UI.

Making an HTML template safe for inboxes

Browsers and email inboxes are not the same. When you choose HTML, Vecta converts simple stylesheet classes and CSS variables into inline styles before sending. It also gives a gradient a solid colour fallback, so the email stays readable in Outlook.

When you sign up, Vecta creates an organization (we call it a workspace in the UI) and makes you its owner. Every contact, list, template, SMTP config and campaign belongs to that workspace.

Workspaces are completely isolated from each other at the database level. Another workspace cannot read your data even if they know its ID: the isolation is enforced by the database, not by application code that might have a bug.

Owners can invite teammates from Team. The invitee gets a link containing a signed, expiring token. When they accept, they join your workspace as a member.

When an email that contains {{unsubscribe_link}} is sent, the variable is replaced with a link unique to that recipient. It carries a cryptographically signed token: it can't be guessed, and it can't be edited to unsubscribe somebody else.

Clicking it opens a confirmation page. Confirming adds them to your suppression list and marks the contact as unsubscribed.

Every email also carries a hidden unsubscribe signal that Gmail, Yahoo and Apple Mail turn into their own Unsubscribe button next to the sender's name. Pressing that button unsubscribes the person straight away, and it is the one case where no confirmation page is shown.

The suppression list holds addresses that must never be emailed again. Entries are added automatically when someone unsubscribes or their address hard-bounces, and you can add addresses manually.

It is checked twice: once when a campaign is queued, and again immediately before each individual email is handed to your mail server. Even a test send is checked.

Each SMTP config has three optional caps: per day, per minute and per second. Vecta counts what it has already sent through that config and stops when a cap is reached.

Work that exceeds a cap isn't dropped or failed: it stays queued and goes out on the next cycle, automatically.

Scheduled and recurring campaigns are picked up by a background worker that runs every few minutes, so a send may start a few minutes after the exact time you chose.

You can pause any campaign at any time: nothing more of it goes out, the emails already waiting are kept, and a recurring campaign stops creating new runs. Resume it and it carries on where it left off. Vecta also pauses a campaign by itself if too many of its emails bounce (the bounce brake).

When a campaign run finishes, everyone in the workspace gets an in-app notification and an email summarising how many messages were sent, with a link straight to that run's detail page.

Notifications fire exactly once per run, on the transition to finished: repeated background checks won't send duplicates.

Every email creates one record holding that recipient's outcome. Statistics are simply counts of those records. Nothing is estimated.

Opened, Clicked and Replied are counted separately from delivery: an email can be sent *and* opened *and* replied to, so recording one never overwrites another. Opens and clicks are only counted for campaigns where you switched tracking on; replies need IMAP details on your SMTP config.

Vecta can tell you how many people opened your email, clicked a link in it, and replied to it. Each is measured differently, and each comes with caveats worth knowing before you rely on it.

Opens: an invisible image

With tracking on, Vecta adds a 1×1 transparent image to the email. When the recipient's mail client loads that image from our server, we record an open.

Clicks: rewritten links

Links in a tracked email are rewritten to pass through Vecta, which records the click and immediately forwards to the real destination. A click is far more reliable than an open, because a human had to act.

Your unsubscribe link is deliberately never rewritten: opting out must work independently of tracking.

Replies: reading your inbox

A reply arrives in *your* mailbox and never touches Vecta, so the only way to count it is to look. If you add IMAP details to your SMTP config, Vecta periodically reads your inbox and matches incoming mail against the exact message it answers, using the email's own threading headers.

The trade-off

Tracking is opt-in per campaign and off by default, because it costs deliverability: it forces an HTML email containing a remote image and disguised links, all things spam filters weigh against you. Reply tracking has no such cost, since it adds nothing to the message.

1. 1

   A run is created

   Vecta records that this campaign is executing now, and reads the current members of the list.

2. 2

   One job per recipient is queued

   Anyone already suppressed is marked as skipped straight away, so the numbers still add up.

3. 3

   Rate limits are consulted

   Vecta works out how many it may send right now through that SMTP config.

4. 4

   Each message is checked again

   Immediately before sending, the suppression list is re-checked for that specific person.

5. 5

   The message is personalised and sent

   Variables are filled in, a unique unsubscribe link is generated, and the email goes to your mail server.

6. 6

   The outcome is recorded

   Sent, bounced, failed or suppressed: visible per contact on the run's detail page.

When no messages remain, the run is marked finished and notifications go out.

Vecta separates three kinds of failure, because they need opposite responses:

The Contacts page shows every person in your workspace, whichever list they are on. Search, filter, and click anyone to see every email they were sent and what they did with it. You can add or fix a person by hand without uploading a file.

Tags are short labels you stick on people (vip, conference-2026). A saved group remembers a set of filters, like "opened the last campaign but didn't reply", so you can find those people again in one click, or turn them into a list for your next campaign.

People land on the Do not email list when they unsubscribe, when their address bounces, or when you add them yourself. Every campaign skips them, whichever list they are on. You can add addresses by hand, import a list from a file, and lift a block when you have a good reason, which Vecta records.

Before you send, open a list and press Check this list. Vecta flags addresses that look like typos ("gmial.com"), throwaway inboxes, and domains that cannot receive mail, and lets you fix or remove them in a click. It cannot tell whether one particular mailbox exists, so a few bounces can still happen.

Mail providers get suspicious of a mailbox that suddenly sends hundreds of emails. Warm-up starts a new mailbox at 20 a day and raises the limit every day until it reaches your own daily limit on day 28. You can switch it off for a mailbox that already sends regularly.

On the Schedule step you can add up to two more mailboxes. The emails are split between them in proportion to each one's daily limit, and every person still gets exactly one email, from one mailbox.

The template editor shows a live spam check with a fix for each problem. Send me a test puts the real email, filled in with sample values, into your own inbox. On the Review step, Check before sending lists in plain words whether your domain is set up, whether the wording looks like spam, who will be skipped and why, and how long the send will take. It is advice only: you can always send.

Some bad addresses aren't refused at once: a notice comes back to your mailbox later. If your mailbox has IMAP details set up, Vecta reads those notices. A dead address goes on the do-not-email list. A full mailbox or a spam block is noted on the email but the person is not blocked, because the address itself may be fine.

Add up to nine follow-ups to a campaign. Each waits a number of days (or working days) after the person's previous email, then sends a template of your choice to everyone who hasn't replied. Anyone who replies, unsubscribes or bounces is taken out automatically; an out-of-office auto-reply only delays the next one. Follow-ups need reply tracking (IMAP) on the mailbox, because replies land in your inbox and that's the only way to know.

A campaign with follow-ups is a sequence. Each person moves through it on their own: their next email is due a set number of days after their last one, and they leave the moment they reply. The campaign's People list shows where everyone stands, and you can pause or take out one person without touching anyone else.

A campaign can send only on chosen days between two times, in a time zone you pick. A mailbox can have an hourly limit and a random gap between emails. Together they make a big campaign look like a person working through a list, which mail providers trust more.

If more than your limit (5% by default) of a campaign's emails bounce once 20 have gone, or 10 bounce in all, Vecta pauses the campaign and emails everyone in the workspace. The emails waiting are kept. Clean the list, then press Resume.

Under Settings, Sending rules, a cool-down keeps people from getting a new campaign within a set number of days of another one, and one campaign at a time keeps people from starting a new sequence while they are still in another. Skipped people get a note saying which campaign and when.

When it is switched on, a list's page can ask each address's mail server whether the mailbox is real, without sending anything. Addresses with no mailbox are then skipped. It uses a paid service, so it only runs when you press the button.

Tick Test two subject lines on the Schedule step. A small random group gets subject A, an equal group gets subject B, and after a few hours the rest of your list gets whichever was opened more. It needs open tracking on and at least 20 people.

Stop cancels the emails still waiting in a run and tells you how many already went. Duplicate copies a campaign into a fresh draft so you change only what's different. The Calendar shows a month of scheduled, repeating and sent campaigns and highlights days when two campaigns reach the same list.

A campaign's status is worked out from what is really waiting. Started but outside its sending hours, it says when it Starts. While emails go out it shows Sending with how many of how many. Between follow-ups it says Follow-ups to come. When nothing is left it is Finished, and you can Archive it to keep the list short. Tabs split Active, Drafts, Finished and Archived.

Give templates a folder ("Horizon outreach/French") and the Templates page groups them, with each template's sent count and reply rate. New template offers 23 ready emails for first touches, follow-ups and meetings. When a campaign's steps work, Save as sequence keeps them, and Use in a new campaign fills them all in next time. A signature saved on a mailbox ends every email from it.

The side menu groups the daily work: Outreach (Campaigns, Inbox, Templates), People (Contacts, Lists) and Sending (Mailboxes, Deliverability). New starts anything; Search (or ⌘K) jumps anywhere. Settings, Team, Trash, Help and Sign out are behind your name at the bottom.

Every campaign and every run shows a chart of emails sent, opened and clicked over time, plus the links that were clicked and by how many people. Download results (CSV) gives one row per person that opens in Excel or Google Sheets. Click tracking needs "Track opens and clicks" on when you create the campaign.

The Inbox collects everyone who answered a campaign. Open a reply to read all of it, give it a label like Interested or Not now, and write your answer underneath. Vecta sends it from the same mailbox, in the same thread, with your signature. To answer shows what still needs you. Vecta reads replies from your mailbox over IMAP, so the mailbox needs its reply-tracking details.

While a run is sending, its page shows a progress bar, how many are done and how many remain, and whether Vecta is sending right now, waiting for its next batch (a countdown), or paused because the mailbox has used today's limit. It stops updating by itself once the run is finished.

The dashboard's top shows how this week compares with last, small trend lines, a 14-day chart and your best time to send, learned from your own opens. Needs you cards appear only when something is wrong: a failing mailbox, replies waiting, a stuck or late campaign. A campaign merely waiting for tomorrow's limit is shown calmly, not as a problem. The owner also gets a Monday summary email, which can be turned off in Settings.

Connect Vecta to Atlas, your CRM, in Settings → Atlas. Every email sent, opened, clicked, replied to or bounced then appears on that person's timeline in Atlas, unsubscribes mark them Do not email there, and a reply can be turned into a lead (Atlas asks first). Going the other way, Lists → From Atlas builds a Vecta list from Atlas people without a CSV.

On New template, start from one of ten ready emails. Write {{first_name|there}} so a missing name becomes "there" instead of "Hi ,". Write {Hi|Hello|Hey} so each person gets one greeting and 500 emails don't read the same. Under the subject, a length meter and an inbox preview show how it looks on a phone, and preview text sets the grey line after it. The preview has phone and dark-mode views, every save is kept in History, and the Designer builds an email from blocks without any HTML.

A workspace has one Owner, any number of Admins (who manage the team, settings and connections) and Members (who send). Owners and admins can see the Activity log of who changed what and when. On your Profile you choose which emails you get, download your data, or delete your account. Press ? for keyboard shortcuts and ⌘ K for a menu that jumps anywhere.

A setup checklist on the dashboard walks you through five steps to a first campaign. If you'd like to look around first, Try with sample data fills Vecta with a demo list and a finished campaign. It sends nothing, and clears in one click. When your first campaign goes out there's a small celebration and a note on what to do next. Choose a light or dark theme at the bottom of the sidebar, or follow your computer.