How Makers Build
Check my stackPlan my stack
Menu

Postmark vs SendGrid

Two sides of the transactional email decision: transactional API and transactional + marketing. When each fits, what it costs, who moves from one to the other, and what makers who chose it say.

PostmarkTransactional APIllms.txt
SendGridTransactional + marketingllms.txtIn Replit
Ask your AI about this, with this page as the source:ChatGPT ↗Claude ↗Perplexity ↗

Which fits you

Choose Postmark if
  • Your login codes and password resets must arrive within seconds

Use it whenLogin codes and password resets are arriving late or in spam with your current sender.

Trade-offStrict about transactional-only sending — marketing email goes through a separate stream — and the free developer plan is small.

Choose SendGrid if
  • One vendor for both jobs at large scale.

Use it whenYou want transactional and marketing sending under one account and one dashboard.

Trade-offHeavier than a small team needs.

At a glance

PostmarkSendGrid
Used by615 makers' products · 5 open-source projects1061 makers' products · 26 open-source projects
Cost at default usageemails 50k emails$55/mo Basic 50k$20/mo Essentials 50k
Moved to it on GitHubpull requests since Oct 20246 from SendGridfewer than 3
Downloads1M/wk−8% vs npm4.5M/wk−33% vs npm
PricingSmall free developer tier; paid plans by monthly emails. · paid from $15/mo60-day free trial (100 emails/day); paid plans by volume from $19.95/month. · paid from $19.95/mo
Free tierYesNo
Open sourceNoNo
Incidents, 90 daysfrom its status pageno public status feed50+

Cost as you grow

At 1k emails Postmark costs less ($15 vs $20); from about 25k emails SendGrid does ($20 vs $42); from about 250k emails Postmark does ($245 vs $249). They're different kinds of tool — transactional API and transactional + marketing — so the prices don't buy the same thing.

$0$200$1,000$2,000$5,0001k5k10k25k50k100k250k500k1M5M
SendGridPostmarkx: emails per month (email) · cheapest usable plan at each point, list prices · try your own numbers
The numbers, plan by plan
Emails per monthPostmarkSendGrid
1,000$15 Basic 10k$20 Essentials 50k
5,000$15 Basic 10k$20 Essentials 50k
10,000$15 Basic 10k$20 Essentials 50k
25,000$42 Basic 10k$20 Essentials 50k
50,000$55 Basic 50k$20 Essentials 50k
100,000$115 Basic 125k$35 Essentials 100k
250,000$245 Basic 300k$249 Pro 300k
500,000$455 Basic 700k$499 Pro 700k
1,000,000$775 Basic 1.5M$799 Pro 1.5M
5,000,000$7,765 Basic 700kover plan limits

From each vendor's pricing page: Postmark, SendGrid.

Who moves from one to the other

Public pull requests on GitHub since Oct 2024 whose title says "Postmark to SendGrid" or the reverse — real code changes, by developers in general rather than makers only.

SendGrid → Postmark6 PRs
All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗
Fewer than 3 pull requests move from Postmark to SendGrid.

What makers say

Makers on using it for transactional email, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.

On Postmark
We use Postmark not only for our emails, but also to power Ply's built-in dynamic email capabilities. It's reliable, well documented and most of all - comes with awesome human support.
Ply, the makerSep 2026 ↗
We use some integrations that nowadays have become basic for our business like Postmark (for transactional emails) or Sift (to detect users with not very good intentions).
LabsMobile, the makerDec 2021 ↗
Once you get familiar with Postmark's layouts and templates, the service is great for quickly creating email templates and sending them out using their simple API. The UI is simple and intuitive.
PodSnap.AI, the makerSep 2026 ↗
22 more on the Postmark page →
On SendGrid
…downside is that it’s much harder to implement than you might think! We’ve since moved to Sendgrid for delivery, which takes a lot of pain out of the process but it is expensive.…
Scirra Ltd, the makerSep 2021 ↗
Now for the tools, here on ADYOUNEED we use ClickUp pretty much for all the task management and sprints, Stripe for payment, Segment for tracking, and Sendgrid for emails.
ADYOUNEED, the makerOct 2021 ↗
…eetings, and docs Slack and Loom for internal communication Tawk.to for customer chatbots Sendgrid for mass email comms Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for social media What have been the…
Swift App, the makerSep 2022 ↗
31 more on the SendGrid page →

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.

Postmark
Most loved
  • Its reputation for transactional mail gives strong inbox deliverability. PHHNHN 2
  • The API is simple enough to use with plain curl, and templates and layouts speed up building emails. PHHNHN 2
  • Inbound email processing is built in, so apps can receive and parse replies. PHHNHN 2
Watch-outs
  • Opening up to broadcast mail and ActiveCampaign ownership worry some that its deliverability edge will erode. HNHN 2
  • There is no built-in idempotency, so preventing duplicate sends needs locks and metadata checks. HN
On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 22 reviews · mentioned most: reliable email delivery, fast performance, human support
SendGrid
Most loved
  • Client libraries for JavaScript and Python are easy to use, and the docs are clear. PHPH 2
  • One service covers onboarding, transactional and bulk marketing email at scale. PHPH 2Starter Story
  • It can act as a plain SMTP smarthost behind Postfix, with no API work needed. HNHN 2
Watch-outs
  • Deliverability is poor, and its internal reputation score can look great while Gmail and Microsoft reputation tanks. HNHN 2HN 3HN 4
  • Since the Twilio acquisition the free plan was retired and the product feels neglected. HNHN 2HN 3
  • Its network carries a lot of spam, and phishing emails that pose as SendGrid are common. HNHN 2HN 3HN 4
On Product Hunt: 4.7★, 21 reviews · mentioned most: easy integration, scalability, transactional emails

Who uses each

Postmark615 makers' products
AgiledAskReferralBlogBowlBluedotButtondownCentralCheckout PageDecodedHello InboxInvite.socialKnown AgentsLabsMobile+603 more
SendGrid1061 makers' products
ADYOUNEEDASOAssemblyBasedLabs.aiBricksBrokeeBrowserlessChat DataClearCheckbook Money ManagementClosing CreditsClosingDealzCognota+1049 more
Used by both — often one replacing the other, or each for a different part of the product
AgiledButtondownDecodedHello InboxLabsMobileLetterloopMailTockMentorCruisePlyPodSnap.AISaasRockSalesHandy

What makers pair each with

With Postmark
Frontend Framework
Payments
Hosting
Web Analytics
With SendGrid
Frontend Framework
Payments
Hosting
Web Analytics

Neither quite right?

See the whole transactional email decision →
ResendTransactional APIA modern developer API with email templates written as React components.vs Postmark →vs SendGrid →
MailgunTransactional APIHigh volume and inbound email parsing and routing.vs Postmark →vs SendGrid →
Amazon SESRaw infrastructureSending at high volume, where cost per email matters more than tooling.vs Postmark →vs SendGrid →