Transactional email APIs · Comparison
Postmark vs SendGrid
2 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | Postmark | SendGrid |
|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Saves engineering timeInbound email processing and up to 365 days of message history from $16.50 a month, so you do not build mail parsing or log storage yourself. | Compliance includedSAML SSO, a dedicated IP and EU data residency together on one self-serve plan at $89.95, with SOC 2 Type 2 across every plan. |
| Overall score | 5.8 | 6.0Best |
| Free option | Free plan | 60-day free trial |
| Card to start | No card needed | No card needed |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $15/mo | $19.95/mo |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Tiered |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices |
| Free plan | 100/mo (testing) | No; 60-day trial, 100 a day |
| Price for 50,000 emails/mo | $66–$87 at listed overage rates | $19.95 (Essentials) |
| Retention on the entry paid plan | 45 days (up to 365 on Pro) | 3 days of email activity (Essentials) |
| SOC 2 report | Data center's, under NDA | Type 2 (Twilio, all services), on request |
| EU option | No; US hosting | EU data residency on Pro, via EU subusers |
| SSO | Not listed | SAML on Pro ($89.95) |
| HIPAA BAA | Not mentioned | No; not on Twilio's HIPAA-eligible list |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Postmark is the pick when inbound email and long message history matter more than price at volume. Check whether your security reviews accept a data-center SOC report. | From its public pages, SendGrid fits teams that want EU data residency, SSO and a dedicated IP on one self-serve plan. Check the 3-day history on Essentials and ask for the overage rate first. |
Evidence: Postmark: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; SendGrid: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- PostmarkLowest priceBasic$15/mo10,000 emails/mo, then $1.80 per 1,000
- 45-day retention
- 5 custom domains
- Up to 4 users
- Unlimited emails per day
- SendGridEssentials$19.95/mo50,000 emails/mo ($34.95 for 100,000); overage rate not listed
- 2 event webhooks
- 1 teammate
- 3 days of email activity
- Activity history add-on (30 days)
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Postmark 2026-10-15, SendGrid 2026-10-15.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- SendGridSelf-serve sign-up, no card needed; the highest score of the 2 self-serve products here (6.0/10).
- If you want to try it without entering a card
- PostmarkFree plan, no card needed; scored 5.8/10.
- Lowest starter price
- Postmark$15/mo for the Basic plan.
- Highest overall score
- SendGrid6.0/10 (Good). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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