8 SparkPost Alternatives For Better Email Delivery [2024]

SparkPost, owned by Message Bird, markets itself as a reliable enterprise-level email sender and delivery platform. While the tools provided are advanced and intuitive to power up your email marketing strategy, numerous users have noted problems regarding account management, delivery, and responsiveness.

As customer support is a priority, having a reliable and trustworthy tool is also essential to thriving. Today, we’ll see the best SparkPost alternatives businesses can use, including features, functionality, and pricing.

Looking for an alternative?

Save $$$ of your marketing budget by switching to Moosend today!

Start Free Trial

How We Selected The Following Tools

All of the tools in this list have been tested by our team to provide an unbiased description of their 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.

Best SparkPost Competitors In The Market

As customers are looking for services that are easier to admin, we found some of the best solutions you can try to get your strategy back on track.

Let’s take a look at them.

1. Moosend

Pricing: Paid plans start at $9/month, 30-day free trial (Sign up here)

Best for: Small Businesses, eCommerce, Startups, Enterprises

Unique feature: Flexible email API

Moosend is among the top SparkPost alternatives to create and deliver your marketing campaigns and transactional emails. You can benefit from the online form and landing page builders, high deliverability score, and compliance. Regarding email creation, the platform also offers a drag-n-drop builder with advanced elements to boost your conversion rate. Moreover, the available email newsletter templates will work as a blueprint to save valuable time and effort.

You can also create automated workflows to deliver messages when your subscriber needs them the most. Along with segmentation and personalization, Moosend’s marketing automation feature will enable you to improve the customer experience with content that resonates with your target audience.

An SMTP server solution is also available in every plan compared to other services that may offer it at an extra cost, like Mailchimp. Moosend’s functionality will allow you to deliver your campaign to your customers and streamline the customer journey. The reliable email API is also perfect for connecting your applications to the ESP’s infrastructure for better management.

Lastly, the service has great email deliverability with a score of 98%, as well as SPF and DKIM options on your sender account to protect it against spam, spoofing, and phishing. And since compliance and risk management are both crucial for businesses, Moosend is also GDPR, PCI, HIPAA, and ISO-27001 compliant, offering SSO & SAML and a responsive customer support team to help you succeed.

Moosend Best SparkPost Alternative Features

• Advanced email campaign editor
• SMTP relay server
• Marketing automation features
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• SSO & SAML authentication
• Customer support through email, phone, and live chat
• Integrations with CRM and eCommerce apps like Salesforce

Pricing

Moosend has a 30-day free trial and two paid plans. The Pro will equip you with all the email creation tools you need to empower your email marketing strategy, giving you access to the SMTP server to send you transactional campaigns. The pricing is also contact-based, starting at $9/month, and it can reach $160/month for 25K, $625 for 100k, and $2,896 for 500K contacts.

Also, the Enterprise plan starts at $1,216/month, equipping you with an account manager, SSO & SAML, priority support, email deliverability optimization, and more. If you are interested in this plan, you can contact sales.

Try Moosend

2. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

Pricing: Paid plans start at $25/month, limited free plan

Best for: Publishers, Agencies, eCommerce

Unique feature: Email testing capabilities

Brevo is another SparkPost alternative to deliver promotional and transactional email campaigns to your customers. This simple email service has an advanced editor to create your newsletters and make them more converting through the personalization feature.

Brevo’s SMTP server also allows users to send bulk emails. For better delivery and inbox placement, the relay server goes through a thorough validation process to ensure that it is free of spam accounts. While the solution is free, you have a daily sending limit of 300/emails per day, which isn’t ideal for a growing eCommerce business with complex needs.

Apart from transactional emails, Brevo offers a sales customer relationship management (CRM) tool to organize your email lists and data. In addition, the email service gives your online subscription forms to expand your subscriber base and segmentation features to group them based on similar interests.

Lastly, you can benefit from the email service provider’s SMS marketing features for better engagement across multiple platforms.

Brevo Best Email Service Features

• Drag-n-drop email editor
• SMS personalization features
• Advanced templating
• Social media ads
• Sales CRM system
• Bulk email sending

Pricing

Brevo gives you a limited free plan to try out its features; however, it comes with a sending limit of 300 campaigns/day, so if you want to lift it, you need to purchase a paid plan starting at $25/month.

If you like Brevo but want a more affordable tool with no sending limits, you may consider getting one of the available Brevo alternatives in the market.

Read our Brevo Analysis

3. SendGrid

Pricing: Paid plans start at $19.95/month, free plan

Best for: Developers, eCommerce

Unique feature: Developer-optimized SMTP relay

SendGrid is an email delivery service that allows you to send mass emails to subscribers using a reliable infrastructure and features. When creating your messages, the platform offers an easy-to-use email builder to customize the available email templates or create a newsletter from scratch using various elements.

Moreover, you can also benefit from the dynamic template editor to send more personalized content to your audience through real-time design editing, HTML rending, and conditional testing.

As a transactional email service, SendGrid will let you deliver your campaigns to your customers and optimize your email deliverability for the best possible inbox placement. The platform also has advanced delivery optimization tools, such as SPF records, custom DKIM and suppression management, to ensure the best possible deliverability.

Lastly, SendGrid enables you to send emails through a rest API by building your API calls.

SendGrid Best Email Service Features

• Dynamic Template Editor
• APIs, SMTP relay, and webhooks
• Insightful Analytics
• Email validation
• Dedicated IPs
• Deliverability metrics

Pricing

This SparkPost alternative has two pricing options, the Email API and the Marketing Campaign Plan. Also, both have a free option with an email-sending limit of 100 campaigns/day. The former starts at $19.95 and the latter at $15/month.

Also, the Email API plan will give you access to advanced features and support. There’s also a Pro and Premier option, both geared towards larger businesses.

Check SendGrid

4. Mailchimp

Pricing: Paid plans start at $20/month, Limited free plan, $20/25K emails (SMTP)

Best for: Agencies, Publishers, eCommerce

Unique feature: Powerful reporting capabilities

Mailchimp couldn’t be absent from our top Sparkpost competitor list. This popular email marketing software has enabled eCommerce store owners to create and deliver transactional emails to their customers. More specifically, it will let you craft newsletters and automated workflows, personalize your content and segment your subscriber base.

Moreover, this solution has a robust set of optimization tools to ensure that your messages will convert. If you want to send transactional campaigns, you can do it through Mandrill, a paid Mailchimp add-on that allows you to deliver transactional emails triggered by user actions, like confirmation emails, password changes, etc.

To use this additional marketing service, you must purchase a block with 25,000 emails. For reference, 1 to 20 blocks allow you to send 1 to 500k transactional emails monthly. Each one of them costs $20. So to send your campaigns, you need to get a Mailchimp plan and then purchase the number of blocks you need based on your needs.

Mailchimp Best Software Features

• Fast email campaign editor
• Multi-step automated workflows
• Campaign push notifications
• Landing page builder
• Integrations with apps like Salesforce and Shopify

Pricing

Mailchimp offers a limited free plan, with a sending limit of 2,500 emails/month (500/day). For more features, paid plans start at $20/month for 500 subscribers. To use Mandrill, you have to purchase credits, starting at $20 for 1 block/25k emails. You can find more on the dedicated pricing tab.

If you don’t want to purchase blocks but need features similar to Mailchimp’s, why not check out some of its popular competitors in the market?

Read our Mailchimp Analysis

5. Mailgun

Pricing: Paid plans start at $35/month, 90-day Free trial

Best for: Online marketers, Developers

Unique feature: Inbound email routing

Next in our best SparkPost alternatives list is Mailgun, an email delivery service that recently acquired Mailjet to offer developers and marketers all the email tools they need to thrive. While Mailjet will let you craft email templates featuring a drag-n-drop email builder, Mailgun will cover your transactional and bulk email needs with its rest Email API.

More specifically, you can use Mailgun’s SMTP relay service to send your marketing and transactional campaigns without the hassle of managing a server. To ensure that your sender’s reputation with recipients and internet service providers (ISPs) remains intact, the delivery service also has certain protocols, including SPF, DMARC, and DKIM records.

Lastly, Mailgun will give you access to various features to optimize your email sending. The Email Address Verification tool will also help reduce important negative metrics like your spam rate and complaints and improve your email deliverability.

Mailgun Best SMTP Server Features

• Email verification
• Inbox placement testing
• Suppression management
• Send Time Optimization
• Email APIs and webhooks

Pricing

Mailgun gives users a 90-day free trial for 5,000 email sends/month. For more, pricing starts at $35/month, giving you 50K emails and additional tools like inbound email routing and email address verification access.

Check Mailgun

6. Netcore

Pricing: Paid plans start at $25/month, limited free plan

Best for: Developers, eCommerce

Unique feature: 3-month history log

Netcore (formerly Pepipost) is another STMP server solution to Sparkpost that you can use to deliver transactional email campaigns to your audience. This email delivery platform comes with advanced tools to help you improve your email deliverability and inbox placement for a better customer experience.

More specifically, to help you optimize your strategy, Netcore will give you access to various email tracking tools and webhooks to collect data and streamline your operations. Apart from that, you can also use the Email API to connect the software to your applications and platforms. You can easily integrate it and have support from various frameworks and client libraries, including Node.js, Python, Java, C#, and more.

In addition, this SparkPost alternative will also give you Template APIs to minimize the payload size. You can reuse them as you please by referring to the ID of your template for a faster and smoother experience. Lastly, the service also supports custom metadata to keep track of your email messages for future evaluation.

Netcore Top Email Service Features

• Email tracking tools and webhooks
• Real-time reports
• Template APIs
• Subaccount Management
• GDPR compliant

Pricing

This competitor to SparkPost has a limited free plan for only 30,000 free campaigns for one month, which then changes to 100 campaigns per day. To have more, you need to get a paid subscription plan, starting at $25/month for up to 150K campaigns.

Check Netcore

7. Amazon SES

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go, free plan

Best for: eCommerce, Developers

Unique feature: Email authentication tools

Amazon SES is another SparkPost alternative you can get for your business. This email service solution is great for developers and eCommerce store owners who want a cloud-based platform that integrates with various applications to send marketing or transactional emails.

Moreover, you can use the software to deliver high-volume campaigns and improve inbox placement while staying compliant and spam-free. Amazon SES also equips you with sending reports to help you keep track of your efforts and various deliverability tools to ensure everything runs smoothly.

More on email delivery optimization, you can use the authentication option (SPF & DKIM) to avoid ending up in an email blacklist. Lastly, if you worry about your sender reputation, the software comes with an activity and reputation monitoring tool to help you improve your email deliverability effortlessly.

Amazon SES Transactional Service Features

• Timely notifications
• Activity and reputation monitoring
• Dedicated IP addresses
• Authentication options (SPF, DKIM)
• GDPR and ISO-certified options

Pricing

Amazon SES has a slightly different pricing model. For Amazon EC2-hosted apps, you have 62K free emails and pay $0.10 for every 1K messages sent after that.

For other email clients, you don’t have any free emails and pay $0.10 per 1K messages. To receive emails, you also have to pay $0.10 for every 1,000 ones. The first 1K emails you receive are free of charge.

Check Amazon SES

8. Postmark

Pricing: Paid plans start at $15/month, free trial, free developer plan

Best for: SaaS, Developers

Unique feature: Message streams

Postmark by ActiveCampain is an SMTP relay server solution to deliver promotional and transactional email campaigns to your audience, from newsletters and notifications to password resets and order confirmations.

Furthermore, this email delivery service offers parallel routing for newsletters through a separate infrastructure to ensure that your messages arrive fast. This feature, called Message Streams, will divide your messages based on their type, transactional or broadcast, and route them to the right sending IP to improve your time to inbox.

Lastly, you can benefit from the restful email APIs to connect the software to your applications and streamline your efforts.

Postmark Top Email Service Features

• Pre-made email templates
• Restful email APIs
• Powerful analytics
• Integrations with other apps

Pricing

Postmark has a free trial and a free developer plan with 100 test emails per month. To get more email sends, you have to purchase a paid plan starting at $15/month for 10,000 emails. You can also get dedicated IPs (available to customers sending 300K emails/month or more) for an additional $50 per month.

Check Postmark

Choosing The Right SparkPost Alternative

SparkPost may be a great tool, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t examine the available options to find something better suited to your needs. Whether you need a more affordable or a more advanced option, the market has a lot of different solutions to choose from.

If you are still looking for the best platform, why not check Moosend’s features and API capabilities?

All you have to do is register for an account and deliver your transactional campaigns with a reliable SMTP server.