SendGrid — alternatives and comparison
Key idea:
SendGrid (Twilio since 2018) — transactional email API for SaaS: verification, password reset, receipts. 100 emails/day free; paid from $20/mo. Rivals: Postmark (best inbox placement, $15/mo), AWS SES (cheapest at $0.10/1000), Resend (API-first, developer-friendly), Mailgun (EU ISO 27001), Brevo (marketing + transactional combo). SendGrid has been OK historically but inbox placement dropped since 2022.
Below: details, example, related, FAQ.
Details
- Pricing: 100/day free, $19.95/mo Essentials (50k emails), $89 Pro
- Postmark $15/mo for 10k — "transactional-only" policy, best deliverability
- AWS SES — $0.10 per 1000 emails, but you handle bounces + DKIM yourself
- Resend — 2023 startup, clean dev UX, generous free tier (3k/mo)
- Deliverability to Gmail, best to worst: Postmark > Resend > AWS SES > SendGrid
Example
# Postmark — SendGrid Python alternative
import postmarker
client = postmarker.core.PostmarkClient(server_token='xxx')
client.emails.send(
From='noreply@example.com',
To='user@example.com',
Subject='Welcome',
HtmlBody='<h1>Hi</h1>'
)
# AWS SES via boto3
import boto3
ses = boto3.client('ses', region_name='us-east-1')
ses.send_email(
Source='noreply@example.com',
Destination={'ToAddresses': ['user@example.com']},
Message={'Subject': {'Data': 'Hi'}, 'Body': {'Text': {'Data': 'Hello'}}}
)Related
Frequently Asked Questions
Best for startups?
Resend (dev UX) or Postmark (inbox placement). SES — if you're already on AWS.
Is SendGrid still relevant?
For large enterprise with contractor relationships — yes. New projects — consider alternatives.
Combined marketing + transactional?
Brevo, Mailgun, Mailjet — support both. SendGrid used to run marketing campaigns but that's a separate product now.