BLOGS
Easy and Cost-Effective Transactional Email APIs Compared (2025)
A comprehensive technical comparison of leading transactional email services including NotificationAPI, SendGrid, Resend, Amazon SES, Postmark, and Mailgun, focusing on developer experience, pricing, and features.
Motivation
The transactional email APIs have evolved significantly. Modern services like NotificationAPI and Resend now challenge incumbents by offering a great developer experience, while Amazon SES and SendGrid leverage their brand loyalty and integration ecosystem.
This comparison helps developers choose the right email service for their use case.
Evaluation Criteria
- Pricing & Free Tier
- Developer Experience
- Features
- Support Quality
Summary Table & TLDR
- Biggest free tier => NotificationAPI
- Cheapest long-term => AWS SES
- Multi-tenant / Enterprise => AWS SES or SendGrid
- For comprehensive notification systems (preferences, other channels, etc.) => NotificationAPI
| Provider | Free Tier | Cost (per 1k emails) | Developer Experience | Features | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NotificationAPI | ✅ 30,000 emails/month | $1 | ✅ Immediate approval | ✅ SMS, Push, In-app ✅ Batching ✅ User preferences ✅ Detailed logs ✅ US, CA, EU regions | ✅ 1-hr response |
| Resend | 3,000 emails/month | ❌ $2.5 | ✅ Immediate approval | ✅ High-level history | ✅ Tickets |
| Amazon SES | 3,000 emails/month (1 year) | ✅ $0.1 | ❌ Difficult Approval ❌ Complexity ✅ AWS ecosystem | ✅ AWS Regions ✅ Org & Accounts ✅ Infra as Code | ❌ Paid support plans |
| Postmark | ❌ 100 emails trial | $1.5 | ❌ Difficult approval | ✅ Detailed logs ✅ Global & EU regions | ✅ Tickets |
| SendGrid | 3,000 emails/month (2 months) | ❌ $2.5 | ❌ Difficult approval ✅ Integrations | ✅ Detailed logs ✅ Subaccounts ✅ Global & EU regions | ❌ Paid support plans |
| Mailgun | 3,000 emails/month | $1.5 | ✅ Immediate approval | ✅ US & EU regions | ✅ Tickets |
Cost Analysis
Free Tier Comparison
NotificationAPI offers the biggest free tier at 30,000 emails/month.
Pricing at Scale
Amazon SES offers the lowest cost at $0.10 per 1,000 emails, but it offers almost nothing else, not even logs.
Hidden Costs to Consider
- AWS SES Email Logs: AWS SES requires additional services (Database, SNS, SQS, Compute) to log and monitor email activity
- Dedicated IPs: Every service except NotificationAPI charges additional fees for dedicated IPs
- Support Plans: AWS and SendGrid charge significant fees for support
Developer Experience
The developer experience varies significantly across providers depending on what you care about:
For ease of use, NotificationAPI is the best choice since it’s quick to setup and has a lot of built-in features from logs, user preferences, and batching.
Resend is great if you only care about emails and already familiar with React Email.
Amazon SES is the best choice for developers comfortable with AWS, architecture, and IaC; however the complexity and the approval process make it a less attractive option.
Features Comparison
Notification System
NotificationAPI stands out by offering email, SMS, push notifications, and in-app messaging through a single platform, with built-in user preference management and notification orchestration.
Email-Specific Features
SendGrid provides the most comprehensive email platform with marketing automation, A/B testing, and advanced segmentation, making it suitable for both transactional and marketing emails.
Account Management
Both AWS SES and SendGrid offer the most comprehensive account management tools (subaccounts, organizations).
Regions
AWS SES offers the most regions globally, followed by NotificationAPI which offers US, CA, and EU regions.
Support Quality
NotificationAPI offers 1-hour response time guarantees during business hours (EST timezone) for all users, including free tier customers, with direct access to technical experts through chat, Slack, and video calls.
Postmark, Resend and Mailgun all offer ticket support at the base tier, and improved support for higher tiers.
Amazon SES and SendGrid only offer proper support with their separately priced support plans.
TLDR & Conclusion
Choose NotificationAPI if you are building a notification system (preferences, other channels, etc.). The unified platform reduces complexity and provides better developer experience.
If you are price sensitive and are planning to send millions of emails, go with AWS SES.
If you are an enterprise client and expect enterprise features and pricing, AWS SES and SendGrid are your best bets. Amazon SES is heavy on the technical side, providing control but requiring a lot of effort, while SendGrid costs a lot more but requires less technical effort.