SendGrid alternatives matter more since Twilio retired SendGrid’s free Email API and Marketing Campaigns plans starting May 27, 2025. New accounts now get a 60-day free trial capped at 100 emails per day, then a paid plan. This guide compares 13 providers on verified October 2026 pricing, free tiers, dedicated IP access, log retention, and migration effort. Every price links to the vendor’s own page.
Table of Contents
Disclosure: Email Platform Review is affiliated with Emercury. We review Emercury against the same criteria as every other provider and list its limitations below. See the FTC’s guidance on material connections for why we state this.
Quick Verdict:
- High-volume affiliate marketers: Emercury, for delivery analyst support, List Hygiene, ECPM Reporting, and custom volume on its Scale plan.
- Like-for-like Email API swap: Mailgun, for a plan ladder that mirrors SendGrid’s and a dedicated IP on Scale.
- Transactional-only sending: Postmark, for separate transactional and broadcast streams.
- Lowest per-email cost: Amazon SES, at $0.10 per 1,000 emails on à la carte pricing.
- Modern developer workflow: Resend, with 3,000 free emails a month.
- Largest free allowance: Mailjet (6,000 a month) and Brevo (300 a day).
SendGrid Alternatives Compared
The best SendGrid alternatives differ most on sending type, free tier, and when a dedicated IP becomes available. The table below uses each vendor’s published pricing as of October 28, 2026.
| Provider | Best For | Sending Type | Free Tier | Paid Entry | Dedicated IP | Key Limitation |
| SendGrid (baseline) | Teams already on Twilio | API, SMTP, marketing | 60-day trial, 100/day (source) | $19.95/mo Essentials | Pro and Premier include 1 | No permanent free plan |
| Emercury | High-volume affiliate marketers | Marketing (ESP) | 2,000 contacts, 12,000 sends/mo (source) | $275/mo Grow (source) | Pro plan | High entry price; not a transactional API |
| Mailgun | Like-for-like API swap | API, SMTP | 100/day (source) | $15/mo Basic (10,000) | Included on Scale | 1-day logs on Free and Basic |
| Postmark | Transactional-only | API, SMTP, broadcast stream | 100/mo (source) | $15/mo Basic (10,000) | From $50/mo, 300,000+/mo | Small free tier |
| Amazon SES | Lowest cost at scale | API, SMTP | No SES free tier for new accounts (source) | $0.10 per 1,000 à la carte (source) | $24.95/IP/mo | No visual builder or human delivery team |
| Resend | Modern developer workflow | API, SMTP, broadcasts | 3,000/mo, 100/day (source) | $20/mo Pro (50,000) | $30/mo, Scale only | Dedicated IP needs Scale |
| MailerSend | Budget API with templates | API, SMTP | 500/mo (source) | $7/mo Hobby (5,000) | Enterprise only | 24-hour activity on Free and Hobby |
| Brevo | Marketing plus transactional on a budget | Marketing, API, SMTP | 300/day (source) | $9/mo Starter (5,000) (source) | $251/yr, Professional and up | Transactional credit prices not published |
| Mailtrap | Testing plus production sending | API, SMTP | 4,000/mo, 150/day (source) | $15/mo Basic (10,000) | Business and Enterprise | 3-day logs on Free |
| SMTP2GO | Simple SMTP relay | SMTP, API | 1,000/mo, 200/day (source) | $10/mo Starter (10,000) (source) | Included on Professional | Small free tier |
| Mailjet | Largest free monthly allowance | Marketing, API, SMTP | 6,000/mo, 200/day (source) | $19/mo Essential (15,000) | Premium or Custom, on request | Price conflict across Mailjet pages |
| Bird Email (SparkPost) | Wallet-based pricing | API, SMTP | 1,000/mo, 50/day (source) | $15 deposit, $0.40 per 1,000 | $24.95/IP/mo add-on | SparkPost integrations may need changes |
| Elastic Email | Low-cost 50,000 tier | API, SMTP | 3,000/mo, 100/day (source) | $19/mo Starter (50,000) | Private IP add-on | Short logs (3 to 7 days) |
| Zoho CPaaS (ZeptoMail) | Pay-as-you-go credits | API, SMTP | First 10,000-email credit free (source) | $2.50 per 10,000 emails (source) | Billed annually, price not listed | Transactional only, no bulk sending |
Pricing Errors Still Ranking for This Search
Several ranking pages still publish SendGrid and Amazon SES pricing that changed in 2025 and 2026. We checked each claim against the vendor’s own page on October 28, 2026.
| Claim Still Published | Current Status | Official Source |
| SendGrid offers 100 free emails per day, forever | Free plans retired starting May 27, 2025. New accounts get a 60-day trial at 100 emails per day. | Twilio changelog, Email API pricing |
| Amazon SES includes 3,000 free messages a month for 12 months | The SES free tier is no longer available to new customers as of July 21, 2026. New accounts start on the Essentials plan. AWS Free Tier credits of up to $200 can apply. | AWS Messaging Blog |
| Amazon SES costs $0.10 per 1,000, full stop | À la carte is still $0.10 per 1,000. The new Essentials plan is $0.16 per 1,000 for the first 10 million. | Amazon SES pricing |
| Postmark has no free tier, only a trial | Postmark lists a free Developer plan with 100 emails a month. | Postmark pricing |
| ZeptoMail is a standalone Zoho product | Zoho rebranded ZeptoMail as Zoho CPaaS on September 23, 2026. Existing credentials and billing carry over. | Zoho blog |
| Brevo’s mid-tier plan is called Business | Brevo’s mid-tier plan is listed as Standard. | Brevo pricing |
Published inbox placement percentages also disagree across ranking pages. One page reports Mailgun at 71.4% while another, citing that same tester among its sources, reports 91.4%. EPR does not publish placement percentages we have not measured. We compare deliverability controls instead: authentication support, dedicated IP access, warm-up help, and suppression handling.
Why Teams Are Leaving SendGrid
Teams leave SendGrid for four main reasons: the end of the free plan, the jump to paid tiers, dedicated IP gating, and short activity history on entry plans. Each reason points to a different alternative.
Did SendGrid Remove Its Free Plan?
Yes. Twilio began retiring free Email API and Marketing Campaigns plans on May 27, 2025, gave existing free users a 60-day transition, then paused sending on free accounts. Accounts with more than 100 contacts had those contacts deleted unless they upgraded or exported in time. Today, new users get a 60-day trial at 100 emails per day. After that, Essentials starts at $19.95 a month.
Affordable or Free Alternatives Now That the Free Tier Is Removed
The strongest free replacements are Mailjet, Mailtrap, Resend, and Brevo. Mailjet’s free plan covers 6,000 emails a month at 200 a day. Mailtrap allows 4,000 a month at 150 a day. Resend allows 3,000 a month at 100 a day. Brevo allows 300 a day with no expiry. Each matches or beats the old SendGrid allowance, and none expires after 60 days. See the full free-tier table further down.
Dedicated IPs Start at SendGrid Pro
SendGrid’s Essentials plan has no dedicated IP. Pro, starting at $89.95 a month, includes one. Senders on shared IPs share reputation with other customers. Several alternatives reach a dedicated IP at lower cost: Amazon SES charges $24.95 per IP per month, SMTP2GO includes one on its $75 Professional plan, and Mailgun includes one on its $90 Scale plan.
Short Activity History on Entry Plans
SendGrid keeps 3 days of searchable email activity on Essentials and 7 days on Pro. Longer history is a paid add-on. Postmark keeps 45 days by default, with up to 365 days on Pro and Platform. Resend keeps 30 days on every plan. If your support team investigates “I never got the email” tickets, retention matters as much as price.
What SendGrid Still Does Well
SendGrid still combines an Email API and Marketing Campaigns under one vendor and one support contract. Its Premier plan offers custom pricing for very high volume, with a note covering accounts at 100 million emails and above. If you are already past the trial, sending at volume, and not hitting deliverability problems, switching has a real cost. Leave for a specific reason, not a general one.
How We Evaluated These SendGrid Alternatives
We scored each provider on seven criteria that map to the reasons teams leave SendGrid. All figures come from vendor pricing pages, documentation, or official announcements fetched on October 28, 2026.
- Sending type. Transactional API, SMTP relay, marketing campaigns, or a mix. A transactional API does not replace SendGrid Marketing Campaigns, and the reverse is also true.
- Pricing transparency. Whether the vendor publishes prices at fixed volumes, and whether its own pages agree.
- Free tier. Monthly and daily caps, and whether the tier expires.
- Dedicated IP access. The plan and price at which a dedicated IP becomes available.
- Log and activity retention. How long you can search sent messages.
- Support model. Ticket only, chat, phone, or a named delivery contact.
- Migration effort. SMTP and API support, webhook coverage, and template portability.
We did not run inbox placement tests for this guide. Placement depends on your list, content, authentication, and sending history more than on the provider’s name. Treat any single placement percentage as one test, not a verdict.
The 13 Best SendGrid Alternatives Reviewed
Each review covers who the provider fits, verified pricing, strengths, and limitations. The order reflects the use case each provider serves best, not a single overall score.
1. Emercury: Best for High-Volume Affiliate Marketers
Emercury is an email marketing platform built for high-volume senders, with plans from $275 to $1,400 a month and custom volume on its top tier. It replaces SendGrid Marketing Campaigns, not the SendGrid Email API.
Pricing snapshot:Grow is $275 a month for up to 49,999 contacts and 500,000 sends.
Pro is $825 a month for up to 149,999 contacts and 1.5 million sends.
Scale starts at $1,400 a month with unlimited contacts, 2 million+ sends, and custom pricing and email volume.
The Forever Free plan covers 2,000 contacts and 12,000 sends a month.
Why it fits affiliate senders at 50 million emails a month: No provider on this list publishes a list price at 50 million sends a month, SendGrid included. At that scale, you negotiate a custom contract. Emercury’s Scale plan is built for that conversation. It lists custom volume, a dedicated delivery analyst, ECPM Reporting, an uptime SLA, two email audits a month, and prioritized support. ECPM Reporting tracks revenue per subscriber, a core metric for affiliate programs. Emercury’s affiliate solutions page also states the company is “not in the business of shutting down accounts” over affiliate offers. That statement does not remove your CAN-SPAM obligations.
Strengths:
- A delivery analyst on Pro and a dedicated delivery analyst on Scale, per the pricing page.
- A dedicated IP on Pro.
- List Hygiene built into import, which removes traps, bots, seeds, and complainers before you send.
- Content Scoring, which helps reduce spam likelihood before a campaign goes out.
- Journey Builder for visual automation, plus Smart Personalization and A/B testing.
- In-house human support with no chatbots, and features available across all tiers.
Limitations:
- The $275 entry price is far above SendGrid Essentials. Small senders pay for capacity they will not use.
- It is an ESP, not a transactional email API. Emercury sells transactional sending separately as Emercury SMTP Relay, and its free relay tier currently runs a waitlist.
- Smart Segments are capped at 1 on Grow, 5 on Pro, and 20 on Scale.
- Volume above 2 million monthly sends is quote-only, so you cannot compare 50-million pricing without a sales call.
EPR Verdict: Emercury fits affiliate and lead-gen programs that send tens of millions of campaign emails and need a named delivery analyst, list cleaning, and revenue-per-subscriber reporting. It does not fit a startup replacing SendGrid’s transactional API. Get a written Scale quote at your real monthly volume before comparing it with SES or a SendGrid Premier contract.
2. Mailgun: Best Like-for-Like Email API Swap
Mailgun is the closest structural match to the SendGrid Email API, with a free tier, a $15 entry plan, and a dedicated IP on its Scale plan.
Pricing snapshot:Free covers 100 emails a day.
Basic starts at $15 a month for 10,000 emails.
Foundation is $35 for 50,000.
Scale is $90 for 100,000 and includes a dedicated IP and dedicated IP pools.
Extra dedicated IPs cost $59 per IP per month.
Strengths: API and SMTP sending, overage rates that fall from $1.80 to $1.10 per 1,000 as you move up plans, and 30-day log retention on Scale.
Limitations: Logs last only 1 day on Free and Basic and 5 days on Foundation. Mailgun’s FAQ references a “Growth” plan that is not on its current plan cards, so confirm dedicated IP terms on Foundation before you buy.
EPR Verdict: Choose Mailgun when you want to swap SendGrid’s API for a similar API with similar pricing logic. Budget for Scale if you need searchable logs past five days.
3. Postmark: Best for Transactional-Only Sending
Postmark focuses on transactional email and separates it from broadcast email at the infrastructure level.
Pricing snapshot:The free Developer plan covers 100 emails a month.
At 10,000 emails, Basic is $15, Pro is $16.50, and Platform is $18.
Overage between 10,000 and 125,000 emails runs $1.80, $1.30, and $1.20 per 1,000 respectively.
Strengths: Transactional and Broadcast message streams run on separate sending infrastructure with separate IP pools. Retention is 45 days by default and up to 365 days on Pro and Platform. A DMARC monitoring add-on starts at $14 per domain per month.
Limitations: Dedicated IPs start at $50 per month and require Pro or higher plus 300,000+ emails a month. The 100-email free tier is for testing only.
EPR Verdict: Postmark suits password resets, receipts, and alerts where speed and log depth matter more than per-email cost. It is not a marketing campaign platform.
4. Amazon SES: Lowest Per-Email Cost at Scale
Amazon SES has the lowest published per-email price on this list, but it is infrastructure, not a managed email platform.
Pricing snapshot:À la carte outbound email costs $0.10 per 1,000.
The new plans charge per 1,000 by volume band: Essentials $0.16 (0 to 10 million), $0.14 (10 to 100 million), and $0.11 (above 100 million).
Pro adds a $105 monthly fee and Enterprise a $500 monthly fee.
Standard dedicated IPs are $24.95 per IP per month.
Strengths: Price control at high volume and native AWS integration. Since July 21, 2026, new accounts start on Essentials, which includes Virtual Deliverability Manager insights. Accounts can switch to à la carte pricing at any time.
Limitations: No visual email builder, no included delivery analyst, and you handle bounces, complaints, and warm-up in your own code. The SES free tier no longer applies to new customers.
EPR Verdict: SES fits engineering teams on AWS who can run their own deliverability operations. For 50 million emails a month, published rates come to roughly $5,000 on à la carte, before dedicated IPs and the engineering time to manage them.
5. Resend: Best for Modern Developer Workflows
Resend targets developers building with modern web frameworks, with a free tier that triples Postmark’s and a clean pricing ladder.
Pricing snapshot:Free covers 3,000 emails a month at 100 a day.
Pro is $20 a month for 50,000 emails.
Scale runs from $90 for 100,000 up to $1,150 for 2.5 million.
Overage is $0.90 per 1,000.
Resend’s pricing knowledge base lists Pro at $35 for 100,000.
Marketing broadcasts are priced separately by contact count, from $40 a month for 5,000 contacts.
Strengths: 30-day retention on every plan, including Free, per Resend’s quotas page. Up to 1,000 domains on Scale.
Limitations: A dedicated IP is a $30 monthly add-on available only on Scale, for senders above 3,000 emails a day.
EPR Verdict: Resend is the strongest pick for a developer replacing SendGrid on a new project. High-volume senders who need a dedicated IP early will pay Scale pricing sooner than on Mailgun or SMTP2GO.
6. MailerSend: Best Budget API With Templates
MailerSend offers the lowest paid entry price on this list for an Email API with a template builder.
Pricing snapshot:Free covers 500 emails a month at 100 a day.
Hobby is $7 a month for 5,000 emails.
Starter is from $35 for 50,000, and Professional is from $110 for 50,000 with longer retention.
MailerSend’s pricing page states that a $68 Starter subscription includes 100,000 emails.
Strengths: API and SMTP sending, templates, and a low monthly entry point for small apps.
Limitations: Free and Hobby keep only 24 hours of activity. Dedicated IPs are Enterprise only, for accounts sending 100,000+ emails a week. MailerSend’s own pages show conflicting USD prices for Starter and Professional, so confirm at checkout.
EPR Verdict: MailerSend fits small apps that outgrew SendGrid’s trial and want templates without Marketing Campaigns pricing.
7. Brevo: Best Free Daily Allowance for Marketing and Transactional
Brevo combines marketing campaigns and transactional email in one account, with a permanent free tier of 300 emails a day.
Pricing snapshot: Free allows 300 emails a day with no expiry. Starter is $9 a month for 5,000 emails. Standard is $18 a month. Professional starts at $499 a month for 150,000 emails. A dedicated IP costs $251 a year on Professional and Enterprise.
Strengths: All plans include transactional email features, so one account can replace both SendGrid products.
Limitations: Brevo does not publish separate transactional credit prices. The jump from Standard to Professional is steep, and dedicated IPs require Professional.
EPR Verdict: Brevo is the most practical replacement for a small team that used both SendGrid Marketing Campaigns and the Email API on the free plan.
8. Mailtrap: Best for Testing Plus Production Sending
Mailtrap pairs email testing with production sending, with the most detailed published volume ladder on this list.
Pricing snapshot: Free covers 4,000 emails a month at 150 a day. Basic is $15, $20, or $30 a month for 10,000, 50,000, or 100,000 emails. Business runs $85 to $450 for 100,000 to 750,000 emails. Enterprise is $750 for 1.5 million and $1,250 for 2.5 million.
Strengths: Published prices at every step, no daily cap on paid plans, and dedicated IPs with automatic warm-up on Business and Enterprise.
Limitations: Logs last 3 days on Free and 5 days on Basic. Dedicated IPs start at the $85 Business tier.
EPR Verdict: Mailtrap fits teams that want staging tests and production sending in one vendor, with predictable pricing up to 2.5 million emails.
9. SMTP2GO: Best Simple SMTP Relay for Small Teams
SMTP2GO is a straightforward SMTP relay and API with a dedicated IP included at 100,000 emails a month.
Pricing snapshot:Free covers 1,000 emails a month at 200 a day.
Starter is $10 a month for 10,000 emails.
Professional is $75 a month for 100,000 emails with a dedicated IP included.
Annual billing gives two months free.
Strengths: 30-day reporting on paid plans and the cheapest included dedicated IP among managed providers here.
Limitations: The free tier is small, and free accounts move to ticket-only support after 14 days. SMTP2GO’s enterprise tile shows conflicting figures, so confirm Premier pricing directly.
EPR Verdict: SMTP2GO fits small businesses and WordPress sites that need a reliable relay, not a developer platform.
10. Mailjet: Best Free Tier for Mixed Sending
Mailjet has the largest free monthly allowance on this list and covers both marketing and API sending.
Pricing snapshot:Free covers 6,000 emails a month at 200 a day with 1,000 contacts.
Essential is $19 a month and Premium is $29 a month, each for 15,000 emails.
Annual billing is 10% off.
Strengths: API and SMTP relay are included on every plan. Premium adds a dedicated IP on request for 100,000+ email plans.
Limitations: Dedicated IPs need Premium or Custom and pass a compliance review, with no published price. A Mailjet help article lists different plan prices than the live pricing page.
EPR Verdict: Mailjet is the best free option if your monthly volume is under 6,000 and spread across marketing and transactional mail.
11. Bird Email (Formerly SparkPost): Best Wallet-Based Pricing
Bird Email is the successor to SparkPost, priced through monthly deposits rather than fixed plans.
Pricing snapshot: Free covers 1,000 emails a month at 50 a day. Startup is a $15 deposit at $0.40 per 1,000. Growth is a $250 deposit, and Scale is a $1,000 deposit at $0.35 per 1,000. Dedicated IPs are a $24.95 monthly add-on, up to 5 on Growth and 10 on Scale.
Strengths: Low per-email rates and a high dedicated IP ceiling for multi-stream senders.
Limitations: Bird Email has its own API and SDKs, so existing SparkPost integrations may not work unchanged. The legacy SparkPost pricing page still shows older terms.
EPR Verdict: Bird fits senders who prefer prepaid usage and need several dedicated IPs. Confirm API compatibility before migrating old SparkPost code.
12. Elastic Email: Best Low-Cost 50,000-Email Tier
Elastic Email offers 50,000 API emails a month for $19, the lowest fixed price at that volume on this list.
Pricing snapshot: Free covers 3,000 emails a month at 100 a day. Starter is $19 a month and Pro is $49 a month, each for 50,000 emails.
Strengths: Strong value at 50,000 emails and a private IP add-on.
Limitations: Logs last 3 days on Free and Starter and 7 days on Pro. Prices above 50,000 sit behind a slider, and the private IP price mapping by plan is not clearly published.
EPR Verdict: Elastic Email fits cost-sensitive senders around 50,000 emails a month who do not need long log history.
13. Zoho CPaaS (Formerly ZeptoMail): Best Pay-As-You-Go Credits
Zoho CPaaS, previously ZeptoMail, sells transactional email through prepaid credits instead of monthly plans.
Pricing snapshot: One credit covers 10,000 emails, credits last six months, and the first credit is free. Zoho’s own comparison article prices a credit at $2.50, or $75 for 30 credits. Zoho announced the ZeptoMail rebrand on September 23, 2026.
Strengths: No monthly commitment, which suits irregular or seasonal volume.
Limitations: Zoho states that it does not allow bulk email sending, so it cannot replace SendGrid Marketing Campaigns. The USD price does not render on the official pricing page.
EPR Verdict: Zoho CPaaS fits low or irregular transactional volume where unused monthly plan credits would be wasted.
Features to Compare Beyond Price
Price per 1,000 emails is only one line on the invoice. Templates, automation, deliverability tools, team access, and support decide how much work the switch creates.
Templates and Email Design
SendGrid Marketing Campaigns includes design and code editors on every plan. Replacements differ widely here. Emercury includes a drag-and-drop email editor, Smart Personalization for conditional content, and A/B split campaigns. MailerSend’s comparison page lists three ways to build emails plus a template library. Amazon SES offers no visual builder, so your team builds and stores HTML in code. If marketers edit emails without developer help, rule out pure infrastructure options first.
Automation and Marketing Features
SendGrid gates automation: it is included on Marketing Campaigns Advanced, not Basic. Emercury includes Journey Builder for visual automation, event-based triggers, and Scheduled Automations for existing lists. Its Forever Free plan limits you to one automation and one autoresponder, while paid plans are unlimited. Transactional APIs such as Postmark, Resend, and Zoho CPaaS send what your app triggers. They do not replace a marketing automation builder.
AI Features
AI tools now appear on most marketing platforms, but they rarely decide a migration. Emercury includes an AI subject line generator, an AI email copywriter, and AI image generation. Treat AI features as a tiebreaker after pricing, deliverability controls, and support.
Deliverability Tools and Email Validation
Email validation credits and monitoring tools vary more than most buyers expect. SendGrid includes 2,500 validations on Pro and 5,000 on Premier, and none on Essentials. Amazon SES includes 2,500 API validations per account per region on Pro and 5,000 on Enterprise. Emercury includes 50,000 validations on Grow, 150,000 on Pro, and 200,000 on Scale, plus Content Scoring and a free DMARC Record Generator. Postmark sells DMARC monitoring from $14 per domain per month. MailerSend lists DMARC monitoring, blocklist monitoring, and email verification among its deliverability tools.
Team Access, Webhooks, and Integrations
Seat and webhook limits break workflows during migration. SendGrid Essentials allows one teammate and two event webhooks, while Pro allows 1,000 teammates and five webhooks. Emercury allows 5 users on Grow, 10 on Pro, and unlimited on Scale, and supports Incoming Webhooks to feed data from external platforms. Mailgun’s free plan allows one user. List every webhook event your app consumes before you compare plans.
Analytics and Reporting
Reporting depth matters most for senders who measure revenue, not just opens. Emercury keeps 6 months of reporting on Grow and unlimited retention on Pro, with geographic and device reporting on Pro and ECPM Reporting on Scale. Developer APIs focus on message logs instead: Postmark keeps 45 days by default, Resend 30 days, and Mailgun 1 to 30 days depending on plan, as covered above.
Support Model
Support access is a common reason teams leave SendGrid, where expert services and personalized support are available for purchase rather than included. Emercury includes ticket and chat on Grow, phone, chat, and a customer success manager on Pro, and prioritized support on Scale, all from an in-house team with no chatbots. SMTP2GO moves free accounts to ticket-only support after 14 days. Ask every vendor which channels your plan includes and what response time it guarantees.
SendGrid Alternatives Pricing at 100,000 Emails a Month
At 100,000 emails a month, published prices range from about $10 on Amazon SES to over $170 on Postmark Basic. The table below uses each vendor’s published plan or rate at that volume.
| Provider | Approx. Monthly Cost at 100,000 | How We Calculated It |
| Amazon SES | $10 (à la carte) or $16 (Essentials) | $0.10 or $0.16 per 1,000 (source) |
| Zoho CPaaS | $25 | 10 credits at $2.50 (source) |
| Mailtrap | $30 | Basic 100,000 tier (source) |
| Resend | $35 | Pro at 100,000 (source) |
| Bird Email | About $40 | $0.40 per 1,000 on Startup (source) |
| MailerSend | $68 | Starter, per pricing page FAQ (source) |
| SMTP2GO | $75 | Professional, dedicated IP included (source) |
| Mailgun | $90 | Scale, dedicated IP included (source) |
| Postmark | $126 to $177 | 10,000 base plus 90,000 overage, Platform to Basic (source) |
| SendGrid | Requires plan review | Essentials starts at $19.95; volume is set by a slider (source) |
| Brevo | Requires plan review | Volume pricing sits behind a calculator (source) |
| Mailjet | Requires plan review | Live page and help article disagree (source) |
| Elastic Email | Not publicly listed | Slider above 50,000 (source) |
| Emercury | Grow at $275 | Plan covers up to 500,000 sends (source) |
Costs the Entry Price Leaves Out
The entry price rarely includes a dedicated IP, longer logs, or a delivery contact. Dedicated IP terms vary the most.
| Provider | Dedicated IP Terms |
| SendGrid | 1 included on Pro and Premier; more as an add-on (source) |
| Emercury | Included on Pro (source) |
| Mailgun | Included on Scale; extra IPs $59/mo (source) |
| Postmark | From $50/mo; Pro or higher and 300,000+ emails/mo (source) |
| Amazon SES | $24.95/IP/mo standard; managed IPs $15/mo plus $0.08 per 1,000 (source) |
| Resend | $30/mo, Scale only, above 3,000 emails/day (source) |
| MailerSend | Enterprise only, 100,000+ emails/week (source) |
| Brevo | $251/yr on Professional and Enterprise (source) |
| Mailtrap | Included on Business and Enterprise (source) |
| SMTP2GO | Included on Professional (source) |
| Mailjet | Premium or Custom, on request, after compliance review (source) |
| Bird Email | $24.95/IP/mo add-on (source) |
| Elastic Email | Private IP add-on; plan mapping not confirmed (source) |
| Zoho CPaaS | Billed annually in US, EU, and IN data centers; price not listed (source) |
A dedicated IP only helps if you send enough to keep its reputation warm. Brevo and Mailjet recommend one from about 100,000 emails a month, and Postmark requires 300,000.
Free and Low-Cost SendGrid Alternatives
Mailjet, Mailtrap, Resend, and Elastic Email offer the largest permanent free allowances. None of them expires after 60 days the way SendGrid’s trial does.
| Provider | Monthly Free Cap | Daily Cap | Expires? |
| SendGrid | Not stated | 100 | Yes, after 60 days (source) |
| Mailjet | 6,000 | 200 | No (source) |
| Mailtrap | 4,000 | 150 | No (source) |
| Resend | 3,000 | 100 | No (source) |
| Elastic Email | 3,000 | 100 | No (source) |
| Brevo | Not stated | 300 | No (source) |
| Emercury (marketing) | 12,000 sends, 2,000 contacts | Not stated | No (source) |
| SMTP2GO | 1,000 | 200 | No (source) |
| Bird Email | 1,000 | 50 | No (source) |
| MailerSend | 500 | 100 | No (source) |
| Mailgun | Not stated | 100 | No (source) |
| Postmark | 100 | Not stated | No (source) |
| Zoho CPaaS | 10,000 (one credit) | Not stated | Signup credit lasts 1 month (source) |
| Amazon SES | None for new accounts | Not applicable | AWS credits up to $200 for six months (source) |
Free tiers suit side projects and testing. Do not run production password resets on a tier that hard-stops at a daily cap, because a traffic spike will silently block logins.
Best SendGrid Alternative by Use Case
The right replacement depends on which SendGrid product you used and how much you send. Match your situation to a row below.
| Your Situation | Best Fit | Why |
| Affiliate or lead-gen program at 50M+ sends a month | Emercury | Custom Scale volume, dedicated delivery analyst, ECPM Reporting |
| Straight Email API replacement | Mailgun | Similar plan ladder; dedicated IP on Scale |
| Receipts and password resets must arrive fast | Postmark | Separate transactional stream and infrastructure |
| Millions of emails on an AWS stack | Amazon SES | $0.10 per 1,000 à la carte |
| New app on a modern framework | Resend | 3,000 free a month, $20 Pro |
| Small team using SendGrid for both marketing and API | Brevo | Transactional included on all plans |
| Staging tests plus production sending | Mailtrap | Testing and sending in one vendor |
| WordPress or small business relay | SMTP2GO | $10 entry, dedicated IP on Professional |
| Irregular transactional volume | Zoho CPaaS | Six-month credits, no monthly plan |
SendGrid Alternatives for Developers
Developers replacing the SendGrid Email API should compare SDK coverage, webhook events, and log retention before price. Resend, Mailgun, and Postmark all support API and SMTP sending. Postmark keeps 45 days of history by default, Resend keeps 30 days on every plan, and Mailgun keeps 30 days only on Scale. If you debug delivery issues weekly, retention decides the choice faster than price.
Sending Large Numbers of Emails Above 2 Million a Month
Above 2 million emails a month, most providers on this list stop publishing prices. Mailtrap lists $1,250 for 2.5 million, and Resend lists $1,150 for 2.5 million. Emercury’s Scale plan moves to custom pricing and volume. SendGrid’s Premier plan is also custom.
At this scale, three factors outweigh list price:
- Dedicated IP pools. High volume is usually spread across several IPs. Ask how many IPs the quote includes, how failover works, and who warms them.
- Delivery staff. A named analyst who reads your bounce codes and complaint data can be worth more than a lower per-email rate.
- Bulk sender rules. Gmail requires senders of 5,000+ messages a day to authenticate with SPF and DKIM, publish DMARC, support one-click unsubscribe, and keep spam rates low, per Google’s sender guidelines.
SendGrid Alternatives for Cold Email
Cold outreach to people who never opted in is a separate category from transactional APIs and ESPs. Permission-based sending is the norm for ESPs and transactional APIs, so read each provider’s acceptable use policy before routing outreach through it. Dedicated cold email infrastructure tools exist for that use case, and they work differently from the providers reviewed here. Whatever you use, CAN-SPAM still requires accurate headers, a physical address, and a working opt-out.
Replacing SendGrid Marketing Campaigns
SendGrid Marketing Campaigns users need an ESP, not a transactional API. Marketing Campaigns Basic starts at $15 a month and Advanced at $60, with automation and dedicated IPs on Advanced only. Emercury, Brevo, and Mailjet replace the campaign side. Postmark, SES, Zoho CPaaS, and most developer APIs do not. Our comparison of SMTP relays and email service providers explains the split in more detail.
How to Migrate From SendGrid Without Losing Deliverability
A clean migration takes six steps and a period where both providers run side by side. A single-day cutover to new, cold IPs is the fastest way to trigger deferrals at Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft.
- Audit what SendGrid does for you. List API keys, sending domains, templates, event webhooks, inbound parse routes, and subusers. Export suppression lists, bounces, unsubscribes, and spam reports. Twilio’s changelog points free users to its contact export documentation for this reason.
- Authenticate the new provider. Publish SPF (RFC 7208) and DKIM (RFC 6376) records for the new provider, and keep your DMARC (RFC 7489) policy in place. Do not remove SendGrid’s records until cutover ends.
- Import suppressions first. Load every unsubscribe, hard bounce, and complaint before the first send. Mailing a suppressed address is a compliance risk under the CAN-SPAM Act and a reputation risk at Gmail and Yahoo.
- Warm up new IPs. Start with your most engaged recipients and raise volume gradually, following the new provider’s warm-up schedule. Shared IP plans need less warm-up than dedicated IPs because the pool already carries sending history.
- Run both providers in parallel. Route a growing share of traffic to the new provider and compare bounces, deferrals, and complaints by mailbox provider.
- Rebuild webhooks and cut over. Point event webhooks at your new endpoints, confirm one-click unsubscribe headers per RFC 8058, then move remaining traffic and retire SendGrid keys.
For a broader switching checklist, see our guide to switching email service providers.
Buyer Checklist Before You Switch
Confirm these items in writing before you sign with any SendGrid alternative.
- [ ] Which SendGrid product are you replacing: Email API, Marketing Campaigns, or both?
- [ ] Price at your real monthly volume, plus overage per 1,000.
- [ ] Plan and price at which a dedicated IP becomes available.
- [ ] Log and activity retention on the plan you will buy.
- [ ] Support channel and response time on that plan.
- [ ] Daily send caps on free or entry tiers.
- [ ] Webhook events that match your current SendGrid integration.
- [ ] Acceptable use policy for your content type, especially affiliate offers.
- [ ] Suppression list import process.
- [ ] Contract terms above 2 million emails a month, if you plan to grow.
Affiliate senders should also read our guide to the best email marketing platform for affiliate marketers and our breakdown of Amazon SES pricing before requesting quotes.
Compare Before You Commit: Email Platform Review tests and compares ESPs, SMTP relays, and transactional email tools against the same criteria. Use our independent reviews to shortlist two or three providers, then request quotes at your real volume.
Our Verdict on Switching From SendGrid
The best of these SendGrid alternatives depends on which SendGrid product you used and how much you send. Mailgun is the closest Email API swap. Postmark leads on transactional-only sending. Amazon SES has the lowest per-email cost for teams that run their own deliverability. Resend fits new developer projects, and Mailjet, Mailtrap, and Brevo cover free and low-volume needs. For affiliate programs at 50 million sends a month, Emercury’s Scale plan offers custom volume, a dedicated delivery analyst, and ECPM Reporting, at a price you must quote. Whatever you pick, verify pricing at your real volume and migrate in parallel, not in one cutover.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best SendGrid alternative?
No single provider wins every case. Mailgun is the closest replacement for the SendGrid Email API, with a $15 Basic plan and a dedicated IP on its $90 Scale plan. Postmark suits transactional-only mail. Amazon SES is cheapest per email. Emercury fits high-volume affiliate programs. Start from the SendGrid product you used: Email API, Marketing Campaigns, or both.
Did SendGrid remove its free plan?
Yes. Twilio began retiring SendGrid’s free Email API and Marketing Campaigns plans on May 27, 2025, with a 60-day transition for existing free users. New accounts now get a 60-day trial at 100 emails per day, with no credit card required. After the trial, sending continues only on a paid plan, starting at $19.95 a month for Essentials.
What are affordable or free alternatives to SendGrid?
Mailjet offers 6,000 free emails a month, Mailtrap 4,000, and Resend and Elastic Email 3,000 each. Brevo allows 300 a day with no expiry. On paid plans, MailerSend Hobby costs $7 for 5,000 emails and SMTP2GO Starter costs $10 for 10,000. Check daily caps, because several free tiers stop sending once you hit them.
What is the best alternative to SendGrid for sending large numbers of emails?
For tens of millions of emails a month, compare custom quotes rather than list prices. Amazon SES has the lowest published rate at $0.10 per 1,000, but you manage deliverability yourself. Emercury’s Scale plan adds custom volume, a dedicated delivery analyst, and ECPM Reporting. Ask every vendor how many dedicated IPs the quote includes and who manages warm-up.
Is Resend a good SendGrid alternative?
Resend is a strong replacement for developers sending transactional email from a modern web app. Its free tier covers 3,000 emails a month, Pro costs $20 for 50,000, and every plan keeps 30 days of logs. The main trade-off is dedicated IPs: they cost $30 a month and require the Scale plan.
Is Mailgun better than SendGrid?
Mailgun is not universally better, but it is the most direct swap for the SendGrid Email API. Both offer API and SMTP sending and tiered plans. Mailgun’s free tier allows 100 emails a day with no 60-day expiry, and its Scale plan includes a dedicated IP at $90 a month. Its logs on Free and Basic last only one day.
What is the cheapest SendGrid alternative at 100,000 emails a month?
Amazon SES is cheapest at about $10 a month on à la carte pricing, or $16 on the Essentials plan that new accounts start on. Zoho CPaaS costs about $25 through prepaid credits, and Mailtrap’s Basic plan costs $30. These figures exclude dedicated IPs, extra log retention, and paid support, which can change the total.
Which SendGrid alternatives include a dedicated IP?
SMTP2GO includes one on its $75 Professional plan, Mailgun on its $90 Scale plan, and Emercury on its Pro plan. Mailtrap includes dedicated IPs from its Business tier. Amazon SES and Bird Email sell them at $24.95 per IP per month. Resend, Postmark, and Brevo charge extra and restrict them to higher plans.
Will switching from SendGrid hurt my deliverability?
Switching causes a dip mainly when all traffic moves at once to cold IPs. Authenticate the new provider with SPF and DKIM, keep your DMARC policy, import every suppression first, and shift traffic gradually while both providers run. Watch deferrals and complaint rates by mailbox provider during the overlap, and slow down if they rise.
What should I export from SendGrid before switching?
Export your unsubscribes, hard bounces, spam reports, and blocks first, because mailing those addresses again risks complaints and compliance problems. Also record the API keys in use, sending domains, templates, event webhook endpoints, inbound parse routes, and subuser setup. If you used Marketing Campaigns, export contacts and segment definitions before your plan changes.
Can one provider handle both marketing and transactional email?
Yes. Brevo includes transactional email on all plans, Mailjet includes API and SMTP relay on every plan, and Resend prices marketing broadcasts separately from transactional sending. Postmark separates the two into transactional and broadcast streams on separate infrastructure. Many high-volume senders still split them so a campaign complaint spike cannot delay password resets.
Which SendGrid alternative is best for affiliate marketers?
Affiliate programs need a provider that accepts affiliate offers, cleans lists on import, and reports revenue per subscriber. Emercury fits that profile with List Hygiene, a delivery analyst on Pro, a dedicated delivery analyst and ECPM Reporting on Scale, and custom volume. Read each provider’s acceptable use policy before migrating affiliate traffic, because policies differ by vendor.
Is Amazon SES still free for new accounts?
No. As of July 21, 2026, the SES free tier of 3,000 message charges a month is no longer available to new customers. New accounts start on the Essentials plan at $0.16 per 1,000 emails for the first 10 million. AWS Free Tier credits of up to $200 in the first six months can offset that cost.
Do SendGrid alternatives support SMTP as well as an API?
Most do. Mailgun, Postmark, Amazon SES, Resend, MailerSend, Mailtrap, SMTP2GO, Mailjet, Bird Email, Elastic Email, and Zoho CPaaS support both. SMTP is the faster migration path for WordPress sites and legacy apps, because you only change host, port, and credentials. The API gives you richer features such as templates, tags, and batch sending.
Do I need a dedicated IP after leaving SendGrid?
Only if you send steady volume. A dedicated IP gives you sole control of its reputation, but it needs consistent traffic to stay warm. Below that level, a well-managed shared pool is usually the safer choice. Brevo and Mailjet recommend dedicated IPs from about 100,000 emails a month, and Postmark requires 300,000.
Should I stay on SendGrid instead of switching?
Stay if you are past the trial, sending at volume, and seeing no deliverability or support problems. SendGrid still pairs an Email API with Marketing Campaigns under one vendor, and Premier offers custom pricing at very high volume. Switch when a specific gap appears, such as cost at your volume, dedicated IP access, or short log retention.
How long does it take to migrate from SendGrid?
DNS setup and code changes can take a day. The full migration takes longer, because new dedicated IPs need gradual warm-up and you should run both providers in parallel until bounce and complaint rates match. Shared IP plans shorten the process. Keep SendGrid active and its DNS records in place until the new provider carries all traffic cleanly.
