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Resend alternatives

Best Resend alternatives

Looking for a Resend alternative? Compare the top transactional email platforms for developers.

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Resend is a popular developer-focused email service, but it may not cover every need. Whether you require EU data hosting, advanced observability, or predictable pricing at scale, here are the best alternatives to consider.

Common reasons

Why developers look for Resend alternatives

  • Slow API send latency that adds up at scale
  • No unified observability: logs in one place, webhook events in another, with no single view of the full email flow
  • Only 3-day log retention, making it hard to investigate delivery issues after the initial window
  • No EU data hosting option for GDPR-sensitive applications
  • Costs compound quickly as you scale, with automatic pay-as-you-go charges beyond plan limits
  • VC-backed pricing with a history of significant increases (the 200k emails/mo tier doubled from $80 to $160 in October 2024)
Evaluation criteria

What to look for in an alternative

Key criteria to evaluate when choosing a Resend replacement.

  • SDK quality: type safety, retry logic, language support
  • API coverage beyond just sending emails
  • Data hosting location and GDPR compliance
  • Deep-stack observability: API logs, send latency metrics, per-email event timelines, email flow tracking, and webhook delivery monitoring
  • Transparent pricing at your expected volume
Alternatives

Best Resend alternatives in 2026

A curated list of transactional email platforms ranked by developer experience.

1. Nuntly

Recommended

Developer-first transactional email platform with fast API send latency, deep-stack observability, EU data hosting, and predictable pricing. Bootstrap company. Free plan included.

Strengths

  • Fast API send latency optimized for high-throughput applications
  • Deep-stack observability: unified view of API logs, email flow, send latency, delivery events, and webhooks
  • EU data hosting and GDPR compliance by default on all plans
  • Type-safe TypeScript and Java SDKs with built-in retry logic and idempotent requests
  • Predictable pricing from a bootstrap company, published up to 1.5M emails/mo
Best for: Teams that need fast API latency, deep observability, EU data hosting, and predictable pricing for transactional email.
Pricing: Free (3,000 emails/mo), Starter from €10/mo, Scale from €68/mo
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2. SendGrid (Twilio)

Mature email platform founded in 2009 and acquired by Twilio in 2019. Supports both transactional and marketing email, but carries legacy API patterns and expensive pricing at scale.

Strengths

  • Combined transactional and marketing email in one platform
  • SMTP relay for gradual migration
  • Large IP pool and established sender reputation
  • Template engine with visual editor
Best for: Teams that need both transactional and marketing email under one provider and can accept legacy API patterns.
Pricing: 60-day trial (100/day), Essentials from $19.95/mo, Pro from $89.95/mo

3. Postmark

Transactional-focused email service founded in 2009 and acquired by ActiveCampaign in 2020. Known for delivery speed, but one of the most expensive providers at scale with slow onboarding and no EU hosting.

Strengths

  • Strong reputation for transactional delivery
  • Inbound email processing
  • Detailed delivery analytics
Best for: Teams that need both transactional sending and inbound email processing and can accept expensive pricing at scale.
Pricing: Free (100 emails/mo), Basic from $15/mo, Pro from $16.50/mo, Platform from $18/mo

4. Mailgun (Sinch)

Established email service founded in 2010 and acquired by Sinch in 2021. Offers routing rules, email validation, and SMTP/API integration, but with form-encoded API patterns and expensive pricing at scale.

Strengths

  • Advanced routing and filtering rules
  • Built-in email validation service
  • EU region available as an option
  • SMTP and API support
Best for: Teams that need email validation, inbound routing rules, or integration with other Sinch services and can accept form-encoded API patterns.
Pricing: Free (3,000 emails/mo), Foundation from $35/mo, Scale from $215/mo

5. Amazon SES

Low-level email sending service from AWS. Very cheap at high volume but requires you to build everything else yourself: tracking, analytics, webhooks, and bounce handling.

Strengths

  • Lowest cost per email at very high volumes
  • Deep AWS ecosystem integration
  • Full control over sending infrastructure
  • Pay-per-use pricing with no monthly minimums
Best for: Teams with dedicated DevOps resources who want maximum control and minimal per-email cost.
Pricing: $0.10 per 1,000 emails (no free tier outside AWS Free Tier)

6. Mailchimp Transactional (Mandrill)

Transactional email add-on for Mailchimp. Requires a Mailchimp account. Good for teams already using Mailchimp for marketing.

Strengths

  • Tight integration with Mailchimp marketing tools
  • Template system shared with Mailchimp
  • Established delivery infrastructure
Best for: Teams already using Mailchimp for marketing who want to add transactional email.
Pricing: Requires Mailchimp plan. Transactional blocks from $20 per 25,000 emails

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about choosing an email platform.

More alternatives

SendGrid alternatives

Looking for a SendGrid alternative? Compare modern transactional email platforms with fast API latency, deep observability, and predictable pricing.

Postmark alternatives

Looking for a Postmark alternative? Compare transactional email platforms with fast API latency, deep observability, and predictable pricing.

Nuntly vs Resend

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