9 Best SendGrid Alternatives In 2026 [Pros & Cons]

Twilio SendGrid is a popular SMTP relay service that lets businesses send transactional emails to customers.

However, the email delivery service has its drawbacks. The steep pricing structure, the lack of advanced features in entry-level plans, and unresponsive customer support are among the issues users encounter with the tool. So, if you’ve experienced similar issues and felt the need to examine your options, you’ve come to the right place.

Today, we’ll analyze some of the best SendGrid alternatives, focusing on their features, pros and cons, and pricing, to help you find a transactional email service that better suits your needs.

Disclaimer: The information below is accurate as of March 2026.

How to Choose the Right Alternative to SendGrid

To find the best alternative, you should first identify your pain points. Slow customer support can delay operations, while limited automation will prevent you from scaling, especially if it’s available only on higher-tier plans.

Despite SendGrid’s pricing starting at $19,95/month for 50K emails, crucial deliverability features are gated behind more expensive plans.

Before you change your software, you should consider the following criteria:

• Email volume: Determine how many emails you send each month and how your alternative scales with your needs.
• Deliverability: Opt for a service known for high deliverability rates to avoid sending sensitive messages to the spam folder.
• Advanced features: Ensure your options include features like A/B testing and advanced email analytics to monitor performance.
• Integration capabilities: Check whether the platform integrates with your existing tools and workflows to ensure a smooth migration.
• Scalable pricing: Choose a tool with a pricing plan that fits your budget to avoid having to change the software over the long term.
• Customer support: Assess its responsiveness by checking other user reviews on G2 or Capterra.

Let’s review the best options we compiled to address SendGrid’s drawbacks.

Best SendGrid Competitors by Use Case

• Moosend – Best for unlimited emails, high deliverability, and advanced automation.
• Brevo – Best for simple transactional email and SMS functionality.
• SMTP2GO – Best for reliable delivery and detailed reporting on email sends.
• SMTP.com – Best for high-volume transactional email senders.
• Mailchimp – Best for Mailchimp users who want transactional emails.
• Amazon SES – Best for scalability and integration with AWS services.
• Mailgun – Best for powerful APIs for sending, receiving, and tracking emails.
• Mailtrap – Best for testing and debugging email sending.
• Postmark – Best for great delivery rates and transactional email tracking.

Top SendGrid Alternatives: Comparison Table

Below, you will find more information about the email marketing automation and SMTP server alternatives we compiled, including their key features and pricing.

Now let’s see them in more detail.

1. Moosend

Pricing: $9/mo. for unlimited emails, 30-day free trial (Sign up here)

Best for: eCommerce, Startups, SMBs, Enterprises

Best feature: Reliable and flexible email API

Moosend is a powerful, cost-effective alternative to SendGrid, offering a range of tools for your promotional and transactional needs. The platform offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop newsletter editor with advanced features, including dynamic content blocks and an AI writer to help you generate email copy for different occasions.

It also offers responsive templates to simplify the email design and save time. One of its best features is its high email deliverability (98%) and commitment to reducing bounce email and unsubscribe rates.

In addition to marketing campaigns, Moosend includes an SMTP server solution to let you send transactional emails. Whether it is password reset messages or order confirmation emails, this software lets you send them effortlessly and reliably.

Among other things, the flexible API lets you manage your lists and campaigns directly within your software. Also, the API documentation is very comprehensive, making it easier to connect your apps directly to Moosend’s infrastructure.

You can benefit from powerful real-time reporting and analytics to monitor performance and track your open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates. And if you don’t see the results you desire, you can use the A/B testing feature to find the winning email variations and optimize your strategy.

Best features

• First-class infrastructure and dedicated IP addresses
• Easy-to-use drag-and-drop email builder
• Email marketing automation and pre-made recipes
• Custom reporting and analytics
• A/B testing and spam testing tools
• API integrations with CRM tools, eCommerce, WordPress, etc.

Pros

• More affordable – no need to purchase two separate plans to be able to send both transactional and marketing emails
• User-friendly automated workflows and powerful segmentation options
• Responsive 24/5 customer support through email, live chat, phone (Enterprise)

Cons

• Not as many native integrations as SendGrid
• No SMS marketing options
• No free plan, but there’s a 30-day free trial including all core features

Pricing

Moosend’s paid plans begin at $9/month for up to 500 subscribers, unlimited emails, and immediate access to the SMTP server to send transactional emails, craft reports, and deliver personalized customer experiences.

You can also sign up for the 30-day free trial to see where Moosend excels and what makes it a robust SendGrid competitor.

Try Moosend

2. Brevo

Pricing: $9/mo. for 5K emails, limited free plan

Best for: Publishers, Agencies, eCommerce

Best feature: Email tracking and analysis

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is a simple email service solution to create newsletters, transactional emails, and SMS campaigns for your customers. This solution also offers an email editor to craft your messages and automate them through the workflow editor.

When it comes to SMTP, Brevo provides core API features and advanced templating to build dynamic campaigns. If you use the free plan, there’s, unfortunately, a daily sending limit. To lift it, you need to upgrade to a premium plan. Moreover, a dedicated IP address is available, but only with the Professional and Enterprise plans ($251/year).

Brevo also offers contact management tools, including customizable newsletter signup forms, a sales CRM, and email segmentation to group your audience. On top of that, you’ll get a workflow builder to set up automated sequences.

This SendGrid alternative also offers a range of SMS marketing features to help you scale your marketing efforts. While this solution is a great alternative, it may not be ideal for small businesses on a budget, as it can get more expensive than other Brevo competitors.

Best features

• Mobile-friendly email designer
• Email & SMS personalization
• Customizable signup forms
• Social media ads
• Contact management system
• Reporting and analytics

Pros

• SMS marketing options and WhatsApp campaigns
• Ease of importing contact lists
• Segments are easy to understand and set up

Cons

• Very limited free plan with a daily sending limit
• Not very advanced reporting and analytics
• No built-in email verification service

Pricing

Paid subscription plans start at $9/month with a monthly email volume of 5K campaigns (marketing and transactional).

The platform also includes a limited free plan to test out its features. However, you can only send 300 emails per day.

Read full Brevo review

3. SMTP2GO

Pricing: $15/mo. for 10K emails, free plan

Best for: SMBs, eCommerce

Best feature: Email testing tools

SMTP2GO is another great alternative to SendGrid, particularly for businesses seeking a reliable, straightforward SMTP relay solution for transactional emails. This option has an excellent delivery infrastructure to ensure your emails reach the inbox without getting caught by spam filters.

Moreover, you can benefit from the detailed reporting and real-time analytics tool. While they aren’t as advanced as SendGrid’s, you can monitor your email performance and use the insights to improve engagement metrics and enhance the customer experience.

SMTP2GO supports various integrations with popular third-party applications, including a WordPress plugin that lets you send outgoing emails through the platform’s servers.

With its user-friendly dashboard and advanced functionality, this option will help you simplify email campaign management and provide all the tools to deliver your messages and minimize bounces, despite being a less popular competitor.

Best features

• TLS/SSL Secured
• Bounce/spam tracking
• SMS messaging
• Dedicated IP address
• Automatic DKIM/SPF
• Email testing tools

Pros

• High deliverability rates
• Intuitive user interface
• Responsive customer support and additional resources

Cons

• Limited advanced marketing features compared to others
• Only 30 days of email reporting on all plans
• Pricing plans can be expensive (email-based)

Pricing

Paid plans start at $10/month with the Starter plan for 10K emails and certain limitations. For a dedicated IP address and email testing tools, you need the Professional starting at $75/month (100K emails).

A free plan is available, but for 1K emails/month, 5 days of reporting, and ticket support only.

4. SMTP.com

Pricing: $25/month for 50,000 emails

Best for: Developers, high-volume transactional senders

Best feature: Industry-focused deliverability tools and deliverability support

SMTP.com is a premium transactional email and SMTP relay provider built for teams that need reliable inboxing at scale. As a SendGrid alternative, the platform focuses on deliverability, IP reputation management, and predictable large-volume sending, making it a solid choice for companies that rely on transactional messaging.

The platform offers both an Email API and SMTP relay, with reporting and monitoring designed to spot delivery issues early and protect sender reputation. Features such as Reputation Defender, dedicated IP allocation, feedback loop handling, and expert deliverability support will help you maintain high inbox placement rates as your volume grows.

SMTP.com also supports integrations and webhooks so developer teams can easily register events and logs into their stack.

Best features

• Transactional email service with detailed reporting and analytics
• Bulk and single email verification
• DMARC analytics and IP blocklist monitoring
• Spam trap detection
• Easy SMTP and API integration

Pros

• Emphasis on deliverability and IP reputation management
• Easy and straightforward setup process

Cons

• Subscription auto-renewal
• Poor customer service

Pricing

The platform’s plans start with the Essential plan at $25/month for 50,000 emails. Custom quotes for high-volume senders are available, with a minimum of 250 million emails/month.

5. Mailchimp

Pricing: $20/block for 25K emails, limited free plan (500 test emails)

Best for: Agencies, Publishers, eCommerce

Best feature: Automatic SPAM loop registration

Next, we have Mailchimp, a popular SendGrid alternative for eCommerce businesses and publishers. This email marketing platform offers an SMTP server solution, Mailchimp Transactional Email (formerly Mandrill), for sending and managing inbound emails.

As an ESP, Mailchimp gives you access to an email builder and a visual workflow editor. This software is also known for its advanced multi-step sequences that let you deliver more targeted emails to your recipients based on their actions and funnel stage.

Moreover, you can use form and landing page builders to increase lead generation, then segment your new subscribers using email criteria, such as demographics.

You should know that Mailchimp’s marketing platform and transactional API have different pricing structures. To send transactional emails, you need to purchase block credits starting at $20/block for 25K emails, unlike other Mailchimp alternatives that include transactional emails in their paid plans.

Best features

• Email marketing campaign editor
• Visual workflow builder
• Campaign push notifications
• Landing page builder
• Optional dedicated IP address ($29.95/month)

Pros

• Beginner-friendly, no-code setup
• Built-in marketing CRM and audience segmentation
• Advanced automation capabilities and trustworthy analytics

Cons

• Transactional email requires a separate paid add-on (Mandrill)
• Limited hands-on control over IP reputation
• Not suited for purely technical teams
• Can be a lot pricier than its competitors at scale

Pricing

Paid plans start at $20/month and include the platform’s marketing features. For transactional emails, you’ll need Mailchimp Transactional, which is available as an add-on for legacy, Standard, and Premium plans.

Transactional pricing starts at $20 per block, with each block including 25,000 emails. New users can also send up to 500 free test emails to their own verified domain.

Read full Mailchimp review

6. Amazon SES

Pricing: $0.10/1000 emails, free plan

Best for: eCommerce, Developers

Best feature: Activity and sender reputation monitoring

Amazon SES is a simple solution that gives developers the tools they need to send emails from different applications. While this SendGrid competitor isn’t like the email service providers mentioned above, you can use it to deliver transactional emails, marketing campaigns, and bulk emails to your audience.

To help you ace your email delivery, this solution supports multiple authentication options, including Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). This way, you can ensure your deliverability remains intact and avoid being flagged as spam or ending up on an email blocklist.

In addition, Amazon SES offers activity and reputation monitoring, essential for tracking your performance. You can easily track your open rates and click-through rates to see how effective your efforts are.

Amazon SES is a developer-oriented service that can be integrated into any standalone application. While you don’t get a fancy user interface or out-of-the-box features, the service is affordable (depending on usage).

Best features

• Dedicated IP addresses
• Activity and reputation monitoring
• Sender identity management
• Sending statistics
• Mailbox simulator

Pros

• Affordability
• Customizable emails

Cons

• Requires a lot of manual setup
• No deliverability insights
• No customer support

Pricing

Amazon SES has a very particular pricing structure. If you send from Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)- hosted apps, you get 62K free emails, and you pay $0.10 per 1K messages sent after that.

If you send emails from another email client, then you have no free emails and pay $0.10 per 1K messages. To receive emails, you also pay nothing for the first 1,000 emails and $0.10 for every 1K emails you get after that.

7. Mailgun

Pricing: $15/mo. for 10K emails, limited free plan

Best for: Online marketers, Creators

Best feature: Suppression management

Among the top SendGrid alternatives is Mailgun, an email delivery platform geared towards developers who want to send flawless transactional campaigns at scale.

The platform offers a full suite of deliverability features, including pre-send testing and email verification, and includes a send-time optimization feature to enhance delivery.

Users can manage and track the performance of their transactional emails, either via the SMTP relay or the RESTful API. For marketing campaigns, you’ll need to purchase Mailjet (another product in the Sinch family) to craft emails with its drag-and-drop email builder. You can also segment your audience effortlessly and use data to amp conversions.

Finally, Mailgun gives you access to suppression management, so you can stay in control of your email marketing and remain compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act.

Best features

• Inbound email routing
• Email address verification
• Suppression management
• Send API, SMTP Relay, and webhooks
• Marketing campaigns through Mailjet (different platform)

Pros

• Developer-first APIs and SMTP relay make integration effortless
• Free tier for light use and testing
• Good deliverability performance in independent tests

Cons

• Can be overwhelming for non-technical users
• Advanced deliverability features are hidden behind paywalls

Pricing

To get started, Mailgun has a free plan that lets you send 100 emails per day. Paid plans start at $15/month for 10,000 emails/month. For full access to RESTful email APIs and SMTP relays, you need the Foundation plan, starting at $35/month, which includes 50,000 monthly emails.

There is also a 30-day free trial for users who want unlimited access to higher-tier features, such as enhanced account security and longer log retention periods.

8. Mailtrap

Pricing: $15/mo. for 10K emails, free plan

Best for: Developers, Product teams

Best feature: High email deliverability

Mailtrap is a modern email platform built for developers and product teams that send emails at scale with a focus on high email deliverability.

As a SendGrid alternative, Mailtrap offers a flexible Email API and SMTP service with high inboxing rates and fast email delivery. Unlike SendGrid, which requires separate plans for marketing and transactional emails, Mailtrap offers both in a single plan, making it a more cost-effective email solution. It provides separate sending streams for transactional and bulk emails, ensuring optimal deliverability for both.

What truly sets Mailtrap apart is its industry-leading analytics, which provide deep, actionable insights into your email performance.

Developers also benefit from quick integration via ready-to-use code snippets and SDKs for major programming languages, including Python, Ruby, PHP, Node.js, Elixir, C#, and Go. Mailtrap provides detailed API documentation and seamless migration support from SendGrid.

Best features

• High email deliverability and fast delivery
• Detailed analytics
• Flexible and developer-centric Email API and SMTP service
• 24/7 expert technical support (on more expensive plans)
• Scalable and transparent pricing

Pros

• Strong focus on deliverability and performance analytics
• Great for transactional emails for SaaS, marketplaces, and digital products
• Support from engineers and deliverability experts

Cons

• Lacks advanced, multi-step marketing automation features
• More technically oriented, thus a better fit for users with development knowledge

Pricing

Mailtrap’s paid plans start at $15/month for 10,000 emails. More expensive plans unlock more emails per month, provide a dedicated IP, and increase the duration of email logs.

You can also try Mailtrap’s free plan, which lets you send up to 4,000 emails per month, with a daily limit of 150.

9. Postmark

Pricing: $15/mo. for 10K emails, limited free plan

Best for: Developers, SaaS

Unique feature: Message Streams

Another premium SMTP relay server you can consider is Postmark by ActiveCampaign. This SendGrid alternative allows you to craft and deliver transactional email campaigns to your audience. The tool also comes with pre-made email templates to help you build an effective email program.

When it comes to sending, Postmark promises fast and reliable email delivery to popular clients like Outlook and Gmail. According to user reviews, customer support is also very responsive and helpful.

Apart from that, the service offers a feature called Message Streams, which prevents your transactional and bulk emails, as well as promotional messages, from mixing, ensuring better traffic management and higher deliverability.

Lastly, Postmark offers great REST APIs to help you integrate your applications and streamline your marketing efforts.

Best features

• System & service availability API
• Powerful analytics
• Full message retention (45 days)
• Email expert assistance
• Spam score checking

Pros

• Responsive customer support
• Comprehensive documentation
• Message Stream will keep everything organized

Cons

• Can be expensive
• No list management
• No marketing automation features

Pricing

Paid plans start at $15/month for 10K emails. Dedicated IPs are available (to customers sending more than 300K emails) as an optional add-on that you can get for an extra $50/month/IP.

The service also offers a free developer plan, but it’s limited to 100 test emails per month.

How We Selected The Tools

All of the tools in this list have been tested by our team to provide an unbiased description of its features and capabilities.

We spent hours setting up new accounts and trying each software to provide an accurate experience and show users exactly what they will come across when they sign up. Find more information about our software selection methodology on how we choose tools to feature on the Moosend Blog.

Additional Resources

If you’re looking for more resources to make an informed decision, check the following posts we compiled:

• SMTP Server Solutions For Marketers & Developers
• Best Email Marketing Services Reviewed
• Best Mailchimp Alternatives

Choose the Best SendGrid Alternative

Finding the right email tool to create and deliver your email messages is essential for a successful email marketing strategy.

While SendGrid has a reputation for being a reliable service, you can always find more scalable solutions that combine marketing campaigns and transactional emails, avoiding the need to purchase additional tools and the integration incompatibility that can arise.

The market offers numerous options. If you want a solution that combines marketing and transactional emails, is more affordable, and has high deliverability, why not give Moosend’s email tools and API a chance?

All you need to deliver your transactional email campaigns is to sign up for a paid subscription plan.

FAQs

Below you’ll find some helpful answers to common questions.

1. Why should I consider a SendGrid alternative?

You should consider a competitor to SendGrid if you’re experiencing slow customer support or need more features at a lower price tag. Exploring other options will ensure you find a solution that aligns with your specific email marketing needs and budget.

2. Are there any free alternatives to SendGrid?

Yes, several alternatives offer free plans. Mailchimp and Mailtrap, for example, have free plans, but they are very limited. Instead, you can sign up for any free trials to test the tools and their advanced functionality. This way, you’ll have a clear picture of the new software and its true capabilities.

3. What should I check in a service’s API when switching from SendGrid?

When evaluating an alternative’s API, assess how well documented and user-friendly it is. Also, aim for APIs that are straightforward to integrate and offer extensive functionality without requiring extensive coding knowledge.

4. How important is deliverability when choosing a SendGrid competitor?

Email deliverability is one of the most critical factors since it directly impacts the success of your email campaigns. Look for transactional email service providers that offer strong delivery rates, like Moosend or Amazon SES, and spam testing tools to help manage and improve your performance.