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21 Comments

Best Email SaaS for Transactional? Sendgrid out of style?

We've been using Sendgrid for the last few years, but we're starting a new project and I've heard rumblings of better products out there with improved deliverability among other perks.

I'd love to get some crowdsourced wisdom on what IndieHackers are using for new projects.

I'd prefer not to use Amazon SES directly - I like the managed solution of Sendgrid, but there UI has become increasingly difficult and I haven't re-evaluated for a while.

  1. 6

    I've really enjoyed Postmark in the past. They had problems scaling initially but now are rock solid. UI and API are easy to use. If I remember correctly, they're also good for staying off spam lists.

    1. 4

      Postmark.

      We have had a handful of issues with Sendgrid. Most recent one was we hit our monthly cap, went to upgrade, upgraded... and our account could still not send email. Couldn't get any help from support, had to migrate to Postmark.

      1. 1

        Wow, that's a pretty big failure on their part. I've used Sendgrid here and there but had no idea that sort of thing happened with them.

    2. 3

      Yup, was also going to recommend Postmark.

    3. 2

      Thanks! I think we have a winner!

  2. 6

    Check out Sidemail.io (I'm co-founder)

    We built it because we struggled with transactional emails, and wanted modern & simple solution.

    It works like this:

    • you customize your email design (upload logo, choose colors, font etc.)
    • then create templates directly in the browser (no code required), or use the pre-built ones
    • then send the template via simple HTTP API

    Done in 10 minutes. You can set up automations and send product updates from there as well.

    Here's a Sidemail customer describing why they switched from Sendgrid:

    We were using Sendgrid at the time, but I really liked your more "plug-and-play" type of service, since emails are important to us, but not at the core of our offering, so it makes little sense to focus too much on them.

  3. 5

    Give a chance to Postmark.

    Amazon SES is not a good choice if you are sending to iCloud.com and me.com users.

    1. 1

      Could you elaborate on that? We haven't had any issues with sending emails with SES to icloud and me.com users so far.

      1. 1

        Tested us-east-1 region and seems there is no issue with sending to icloud and me.com.

      2. 1

        Maybe it is directly related with a poor reputation of the IP pool. Currently using Amazon SES on Ireland location. But after your comment I will also test it with US location too.

  4. 3

    I used to use Sendgrid, but found that more and more emails sent with them were flagged as spam. Swapped to Postmark and have been very happy with them, and have seen great deliverability.

  5. 2

    Apart from the already mentioned services, there is also Sparkpost and customer.io.

  6. 2

    We've been running on Mailgun. No complaints this far (+ a very generous free plan)

  7. 1

    I use https://mailgun.com and enjoy the service. I've used Amazon SES in the past and for some reason it left me wanting.

  8. 1

    Mailjet
    great on cost, great api, and great template builder (both for txs and marketing emails)

    1. 1

      Yes , but sadly support is terrible😭.

      Also their ui is dated
      You can't see the transpiled emails when sending transactional emails or automations.

  9. 1

    I've been using Mailgun for some years now at Drinks&Co. Reliable, well documented, good support and quite complete dashboard with integrated analytics to keep an overview of several deliverability KPI. I'd recommend them.

  10. 1

    Try mailjet. I'm using it for www.smartstuddy.com. It has many perks and also quite cheap. The site is user friendly.

    Sendgrid seems to be too expensive at least for me though. They are just popular.

  11. 1

    I used sendgrid for one of my clients and half of their email was being rejected by gmail and microsoft.
    We wrote sendgrid and they said it's because we are on the shared plan and gave no solution so we moved to SES.

  12. 1

    I use Mailgun. So far, no complaints.

  13. 1

    UI has become increasingly difficult

    True. Twilio taking over SendGrid did bring more complexities to an otherwise simple solution.

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