19 june 2024, 12:41
807
Transactional emails form the backbone of any online business's communication. These emails, triggered by user actions, deliver important information and drive customer engagement. For any type of message you send, be it welcoming messages, order confirmations, password resets, or other alerts, having a reliable and easy-to-manage email delivery platform is crucial to getting your emails successfully delivered.
Yet, choosing the right solution from numerous options might be tricky since each has its unique differentiators. To save you time, we’ve analyzed over 100 available transactional email automation tools and picked the top 10 to consider in 2024.
1. Postmark
Postmark is now a part of ActiveCampaign, focuses on providing high-speed delivery powered by its shared IP pools. It boasts excellent deliverability rates and has a user-friendly interface.
👍 Like For:
- Outstanding email delivery rates
- Ability to separate different types of emails into separate streams
- Great combination of features for email management and analytics
- Wide range of ready-to-use software libraries
- Inbound email management
👎 Dislike For:
- High costs
- Selective about industries it works with
👌 Best For:
Enterprises focused on email lists management, looking for the best deliverability scores and not constrained by budget.
💸 Pricing:
100 emails per month for free; prices range from $0.51 to $1.50 per 1000 emails.
2. UniOne
UniOne is an API-first, user-centric email delivery platform with a proven record of positive customer reviews. Its features satisfy the needs of companies in various industries, from SaaS startups to fintech and e-commerce enterprises.
👍 Like For:
- Quick and easy onboarding process
- Detailed email tracking and reporting
- Friendly 24/7 support
- Cost-effective pricing with a free trial
- White-labeling option
👎 Dislike For:
- Limited integrations compared to competitors
- Basic set of features lacking ready-to-use A/B testing or opt-in scenarios
👌 Best For:
Small to medium-sized businesses looking for an effortless start in email delivery without breaking the bank.
💸 Pricing:
Four-month free trial with 6,000 monthly email credits; prices range from $0.28 to $0.66 per 1000 emails.
3. SendGrid
SendGrid is one of the leading email service providers, known for its scalability and proven performance with large sending volumes.
👍 Like For:
- Extensive email creation support
- Robust analytics with helpful optional add-ons
- Scalability and reliability for large volumes
- Email marketing features
- Premium support for improving email performance available at an extra cost
👎 Dislike For:
- High cost for advanced features
- Complex onboarding process and poor customer support on free and basic plans
👌 Best For:
Enterprises and high-volume senders needing advanced features and scalability.
💸 Pricing:
Free for 100 daily emails; API plans range from $0.35 to $0.89 per 1000 emails.
4. Mailgun
Mailgun provides a developer-focused approach to transactional emails, offering powerful APIs and flexible integration options.
👍 Like For:
- Comprehensive API documentation with numerous libraries for different programming languages
- Proven deliverability and performance
- Detailed logs and analytics
- Expert consulting for enterprises
- Email parsing feature
👎 Dislike For:
- Hard-to-reach customer support
- High prices
👌 Best For:
Developers and tech-savvy businesses requiring deep customization.
💸 Pricing:
Up to 2,500,000 free emails for the first month with an instant subscription, or 100 emails per day for free with one sending domain; basic plans range from $0.50 to $1.50 per 1000 emails.
5. Elastic Email
Elastic Email is a Polish ESP offering email API, SMTP relay, and email marketing features. Supported by a friendly team, this software delivers billions of emails monthly.
👍 Like For:
- Responsive support
- Friendly onboarding process
- Email marketing features
- Incoming emails management
- Affordable pricing for basic functionality
👎 Dislike For:
- Some users report low deliverability with shared IP pools
- Many crucial features are included in expensive “Pro” plans only
- Free trial allows sending emails only to the account's own email address
👌 Best For:
Solopreneurs and startups looking for an easy-to-set-up email solution.
💸 Pricing:
SMTP/API usage costs between $0.12 and $0.98 per 1000 emails, with separate pricing for additional email marketing features.
6. Mailchimp Transactional
Mailchimp Transactional (formerly Mandrill) is Mailchimp’s extension for sending data-driven transactional emails with a time-tested solution.
👍 Like For:
- Easy management from the Mailchimp account
- Comprehensive API functionality
- High deliverability testified by millions of users
- Catchy email templates
- User-friendly interface
👎 Dislike For:
- Only available to Mailchimp users, requiring a paid email marketing plan
- Higher cost compared to most other services on the list
👌 Best For:
Mailchimp users sending at least 25,000 emails monthly and looking for transactional email management from the same provider.
💸 Pricing:
The lowest possible price for 1000 emails is $0.40, and the highest is $2 (for $20 you get 25,000 emails). Add at least $20 for your pre-existing email marketing plan.
7. Resend
Resend positions itself as an email tool for developers, gaining popularity after its success on Product Hunt in 2023.
👍 Like For:
- Variety of SDKs for many programming languages
- Friendly and responsive online community of software developers
- Test mode for experiments
- High deliverability rates
- Competitive prices
👎 Dislike For:
- Lacking ready-to-use email templates or drag-n-drop builder
- Limited data retention period for standard plans
👌 Best For:
Tech-savvy teams without a need for long-term email data retention.
💸 Pricing:
100 emails per day for free with one sending domain; basic plans range from $0.24 to $0.40 per 1000 emails.
8. Brevo
Brevo (former Sendinblue) offers a comprehensive suite of communication tools, including transactional emails, all in one place. You get a features-rich sales platform powered with emails, WhatsApp, and old good SMS.
👍 Like For:
- Comprehensive 360-degree approach
- Outstanding personalization and customization features
- Guaranteed 99% email delivery rates via API
- Guides, libraries, SDKs, and ready-to-use CMS integrations for quick and seamless implementation
- Extended log retention and history tracking
👎 Dislike For:
- Feature-rich plans are expensive
- Account blocking without clear explanations or support access
👌 Best For:
Businesses looking for an omnichannel solution to communicate with customers in diverse ways.
💸 Pricing:
Free for 300 emails per day; additional emails cost $0.55 to $0.75 per 1000.
9. Mailtrap
Mailtrap was initially designed for development teams to safely test email integration and verify email performance. Today, it’s an email delivery platform trusted by 150,000+ active users.
👍 Like For:
- Excellent testing and debugging features
- Spam checker and HTML validator
- 24/7 live assistance
- Additional analytics for Outlook, Google Workspace, and Office 365
- Over 20 ready-to-use integrations
👎 Dislike For:
- Limited email-sending functionality as it’s relatively new
- Short data retention period at lower plans
👌 Best For:
Software developers who need a multifunctional email testing environment.
💸 Pricing:
1000 emails per month for free; paid options range from $0.50 to $1.50 per 1000 emails depending on sending volumes and included features.
10. Bird
Bird (also known as MessageBird, formerly Sparkpost) is one of the largest cloud based mail transfer agents, processing over 4 trillion emails annually. It’s a highly reliable solution for ambitious developers.
👍 Like For:
- Extra communication channels like SMS and WhatsApp
- Monitoring tools for inbox placement
- Adaptive algorithms for real-time email traffic adjustment
- Impressive sending speed of 500 million emails per hour
- Ensured scalability
👎 Dislike For:
- Tricky initial setup
- Complicated pricing structure based on the number of contacts, which is more suited for marketing communications than for sending many transactional messages to different recipients
👌 Best For:
Large enterprises willing to build their omnichannel infrastructure with a proven provider.
💸 Pricing:
Based on the number of contacts you send to, from $0.88 to $1.50 per 1000 emails.
Conclusion
Choosing a reliable partner for transactional email delivery can be challenging. While almost any service can suffice for sending a few emails without guaranteed delivery, serious businesses require a specialized email service provider. Fortunately, 2024 offers various options to fit different requirements and budgets. We hope this roundup helps you find the best solution for distributing critical emails to your audience.
And if you’re thinking of how to make your transactional emails more engaging, we suggest you to try some gamification mechanics. To get inspired, you can read a comprehensive article about gamification in mobile apps.
