Compare
Email API alternatives, compared honestly
Resend, SendGrid, Postmark, Mailgun, Amazon SES and Sendpository, on their own published numbers - free tiers, what they cost at volume, which can receive email, and who each one is genuinely the better choice for.
In short
Sendpository is a developer email API that sends and receives email on your own domain, with a permanent free plan (6,000 emails a month (up to 200 a day), free forever). Choose it over Resend, SendGrid, Postmark or Mailgun when you want receiving with sender verdicts and a free tier you can launch on; choose Amazon SES for the lowest per-email price at very high volume.The shortlist, in one line each
| Provider | Best for |
|---|---|
| Sendpository | Sending and receiving through one API, with a free tier you can launch on. |
| Resend | React Email templates and the largest developer community. |
| Postmark | The longest transactional-only delivery record. |
| SendGrid | Enterprise scale, marketing campaigns and support contracts. |
| Mailgun | Address validation, dedicated IPs and a broad platform. |
| Amazon SES | The lowest price per email at very high volume, on AWS. |
Free tiers at a glance
| Provider | Free tier (as published) | Receiving |
|---|---|---|
| Sendpository | 6,000 emails a month (up to 200 a day), free forever | Yes - with SPF, DKIM, DMARC verdicts |
| Resend | Free: 3,000 emails a month, capped at 100 a day, one domain. | Inbound email is available as a feature of the platform. |
| SendGrid | The permanent free plan was retired in 2025 in favour of a 60-day trial (100 emails a day). | Inbound Parse posts incoming mail to your webhook. |
| Postmark | Free developer plan: 100 emails a month, no expiry. | Inbound processing posts parsed messages to your webhook. |
| Mailgun | Free: 100 emails a day, one sending domain. | Inbound routes forward or post incoming mail. |
| Amazon SES | $0.10 per 1,000 emails sent, and $0.10 per 1,000 received plus charges per 256 KB chunk. | Receipt rules deliver to S3, SNS or Lambda, billed per message and per chunk. |
Competitor details are from their own pricing pages, checked 2026-09-23. Prices change - check their site before deciding.
What each one costs at 10,000 emails a month
The volume where free tiers run out and the bill becomes a real line item. These are each provider’s own published figures; Sendpository’s are on the pricing page, read from the live plans.
| Provider | At 10,000 a month | At 100,000 a month |
|---|---|---|
| Resend | $20 a month - their entry paid plan includes 50,000. | Above 50,000 their published tiers step up; check resend.com/pricing. |
| SendGrid | $19.95 a month - Essentials starts there and covers up to 100,000. | $19.95 a month, the stated ceiling of Essentials; above it, Pro plans apply. |
| Postmark | $15 a month - Basic includes 10,000. | Their published higher tiers price this below the Basic overage rate; check postmarkapp.com/pricing. |
| Mailgun | $15 a month - Basic includes 10,000. | Priced on their published higher tiers; check mailgun.com/pricing. |
| Amazon SES | $1 a month in sending charges, at $0.10 per 1,000 - plus whatever SNS, SQS, Lambda and storage you add around it. | $10 a month in sending charges, plus the AWS services you build on. |
Resend
Sendpository and Resend are both developer-first email APIs with a clean REST API and a TypeScript SDK. Choose Sendpository if you also need to receive email on your domain with sender-authentication verdicts; choose Resend for its React Email ecosystem.
Their published pricing. Free: 3,000 emails a month, capped at 100 a day, one domain. Paid plans start at $20 a month for 50,000 emails.
Pick Resend if: Teams already building templates with React Email, and anyone who wants the most-used developer email API with the largest community.
Pick Sendpository if: Apps that need to send and receive email through one API, and teams that want strict-DMARC-ready DKIM by default.
Full Sendpository vs Resend comparison · Migrating from Resend
SendGrid
SendGrid is a long-established, enterprise-scale email platform; Sendpository is a focused email API for developers. Choose Sendpository for a smaller API surface and built-in receiving; choose SendGrid if you need its marketing suite and enterprise contracts.
Their published pricing. The permanent free plan was retired in 2025 in favour of a 60-day trial (100 emails a day). Essentials starts at $19.95 a month for up to 100,000 emails.
Pick SendGrid if: Large organisations that want marketing campaigns, contact management and enterprise support contracts from the same vendor as their transactional email.
Pick Sendpository if: Developers who want one small API to learn, and receiving email on the same account without a separate setup.
Full Sendpository vs SendGrid comparison · Migrating from SendGrid
Postmark
Postmark is known for fast, reliable transactional delivery and a strict no-bulk policy; Sendpository offers the same transactional focus and adds receiving with sender verdicts. Choose Postmark for its long delivery track record; choose Sendpository to send and receive through one API.
Their published pricing. Free developer plan: 100 emails a month, no expiry. Basic is $15 a month for 10,000 emails, with overage at $1.80 per 1,000.
Pick Postmark if: Teams that want a provider with a very long transactional-only reputation and separate message streams for transactional and broadcast mail.
Pick Sendpository if: Apps that also need to receive email with sender verdicts, through the same API they send with.
Full Sendpository vs Postmark comparison · Migrating from Postmark
Mailgun
Mailgun is a mature email platform with sending, receiving and validation APIs; Sendpository is a smaller, simpler API covering sending and receiving. Choose Sendpository for less to configure; choose Mailgun for email validation and its broader feature set.
Their published pricing. Free: 100 emails a day, one sending domain. Basic starts at $15 a month for 10,000 emails.
Pick Mailgun if: Teams that also need email address validation, dedicated IPs and a wide set of platform features from one vendor.
Pick Sendpository if: Developers who want the sending and receiving they need without a large console to learn.
Full Sendpository vs Mailgun comparison · Migrating from Mailgun
Amazon SES
Amazon SES is the lowest-cost raw sending infrastructure at scale, but you assemble logs, webhooks, bounce handling and a dashboard yourself on top of AWS. Sendpository gives you those out of the box. Choose SES for very high volume on AWS; choose Sendpository to ship email this afternoon.
Their published pricing. $0.10 per 1,000 emails sent, and $0.10 per 1,000 received plus charges per 256 KB chunk. New AWS accounts get free-tier credits.
Pick Amazon SES if: High-volume senders already on AWS with engineers to build bounce handling, event pipelines and logging on SNS, SQS and CloudWatch.
Pick Sendpository if: Teams that want delivery logs, signed webhooks, suppression lists, receiving and a dashboard without wiring AWS services together.
Full Sendpository vs Amazon SES comparison · Migrating from Amazon SES
How to choose between them
Four questions settle it faster than any feature matrix. Do you need to receive email as well as send it, on your own domain? Is your monthly volume above or below the point where per-email pricing beats a flat plan - roughly a few hundred thousand? Do you want DKIM aligned to your own domain for strict DMARC, or is a shared signing domain fine? And will you be building bounce handling and event pipelines yourself, or do you want suppression and logs in the box?
If you are weighing an API against your existing SMTP relay rather than against another provider, SMTP vs email API is the comparison you actually want first.
Detailed comparisons
Resend vs SendGrid vs Postmark vs Sendpository
All four side by side, with the same email sent through each.
Sendpository vs Resend
Apps that need to send and receive email through one API, and teams that want strict-DMARC-ready DKIM by default.
Sendpository vs SendGrid
Developers who want one small API to learn, and receiving email on the same account without a separate setup.
Sendpository vs Postmark
Apps that also need to receive email with sender verdicts, through the same API they send with.
Sendpository vs Mailgun
Developers who want the sending and receiving they need without a large console to learn.
Sendpository vs Amazon SES
Teams that want delivery logs, signed webhooks, suppression lists, receiving and a dashboard without wiring AWS services together.
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