Database Mail vs SQL Mail

This question came up a couple of times when working at client sites as well as in the e-mails from our readers so its time to put a blog post up on it. Sending an e-mail from a system for alerts or notifications is an important piece of many of the systems. SQL Mail used to be one of the available solutions prior to SQL Server 2005. There were lots of restrictions and limitations of SQL Mail because of which it never became a favorite among database developers/DBAs. MAPI profiles, third party SMTP connectors, extended stored procedures, Outlook installation are some of the implementation difficulties with SQL Mail not to mention performance issues with SQL Mail. The KB article 315886 addresses the common SQL Mail problems.