Transactional email

SendGrid vs Mailgun vs Postmark

SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark side by side: price, free tier, who each one fits and when to skip it.

Item	SendGrid	Mailgun	Postmark
What it does	Twilio's email API and marketing platform for sending at scale.	Email API for sending, receiving and tracking email.	Transactional email service built around fast delivery to the inbox.
Best for	Best for a SaaS that already uses Twilio for SMS or WhatsApp and wants email on the same account and support contract.	Best for a SaaS that also needs to receive email, like replies that turn into tickets or comments inside the app.	Best for a SaaS where a login code stuck in spam means a lost user, and fast, reliable delivery is worth paying a bit more.
Skip it if	Skip it if you are still validating the product: there is no permanent free plan, only a 60-day trial at 100 emails a day.	Skip it if you are just starting out: the free plan keeps logs for a single day and allows one domain.	Skip it if you are on a tight budget at volume: 50k emails cost more than double what Resend charges.
Setup	Needs a developer. An afternoon to send the first email, once the domain DNS records are in place.	Needs a developer. An afternoon to send; add a day if you also build email receiving.	Needs a developer. An afternoon of code, plus up to a day for account approval before real users get emails.
Price	From $19.95/month (Essentials)	From $15/month for 10k emails	From $15/month for 10k emails
What it costs in practice	A SaaS sending 30,000 transactional emails a month fits Essentials 50k: $19.95/month. At 100,000 it moves to $34.95. Rough estimate; newsletters are billed on top.	A SaaS sending 30,000 emails a month: Basic would be $15 + 20 × $1.80 = $51, so Foundation at $35/month for 50,000 is cheaper. Rough estimate.	A SaaS sending 30,000 emails a month on Basic: $15 for the first 10,000 + 20 × $1.80 = about $51/month. Rough estimate; at 50,000 the next tier is $55.
Free plan	No permanent free plan; a 60-day trial sends 100 emails a day.	100 emails a day, 1 sending domain and 1 day of logs.	100 emails a month to test, with no overage.
Free tier	60-day trial, 100/day	100/day	100/month
Price for 50k emails/month	$19.95/month (Essentials, 50k)	$35/month (Foundation, 50k)	$55/month (Basic, 50k tier)
Setup	REST API, SMTP and SDKs; dynamic templates	REST API, SMTP and SDKs; inbound routes	REST API, SMTP and SDKs; account review
Open source	No: no	No: no	No: no
Before you build	There is no free plan anymore. The trial sends 100 emails a day for 60 days; when it ends, every integration using your API keys stops sending until you upgrade. The old free plans were retired in 2025: sending was paused and accounts with more than 100 contacts had them deleted, with no way back after upgrading. A sign of how fast a free tier can go. Essentials keeps only 3 days of activity history and has no dedicated IP; 7 days and an included IP start at Pro, from $89.95/month. Downgrading Marketing Campaigns to the free plan deletes every contact in the account, so export first.	The sandbox domain only sends to up to 5 authorized recipients, who must click an invitation first. Real users get nothing until your own domain is set up. Log retention is 1 day on Free and Basic, 5 days on Foundation and 30 only on Scale ($90/month). The free plan caps sending at 100 emails a day, with 1 custom domain and 1 user. Basic includes 10,000 emails and charges from $1.80 per extra 1,000; each extra dedicated IP is $59/month.	Until a person approves the account, you can't email any address outside the domains you verified, and link tracking stays off. Plans include a monthly volume and charge for the extra: on Basic, each 1,000 emails past 10,000 costs $1.80, so a busy month raises the bill. A dedicated IP starts at $50/month and is only offered from the Pro plan up to senders of 300,000 or more emails a month. Message history is kept 45 days by default; longer retention (up to 365 days) needs the Pro plan or higher.
Price checked	Checked on Oct 28, 2026 · official pricing	Checked on Oct 28, 2026 · official pricing	Checked on Oct 28, 2026 · official pricing

Prices are read from each official pricing page on the date shown and can change. Always confirm before signing up.

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