by Postmark (ActiveCampaign)Transactional email APIs
Transactional email with inbound processing, message history up to 365 days and no card to start.
Inbound 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.
Postmark’s Pro and Platform plans parse incoming email for you and keep message history for up to a year, two things teams otherwise build on top of a sending API. Every paid plan sends without a daily cap, and the pricing page says no credit card is needed to start.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Transactional email APIs: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Postmark | Resend | Amazon SES | Mailgun |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 includedA SOC 2 Type II report and a pre-signed GDPR DPA on every plan, with 3,000 free emails a month and 50,000 for $20. | Worth the priceEmail at $0.10 per 1,000 with no monthly fee, inside AWS’s SOC, ISO 27001 and HIPAA-eligible scope, in the region you choose. | Compliance includedSOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 for Mailgun itself, US or EU sending from one account, and SAML SSO included at $90. |
| Overall score | 5.8 | 8.2Best | 7.8 | 7.5 |
| Free option | Free plan | Free plan | Free trial | Free plan |
| Card to start | No card needed | –Not measured | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Approval wait | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $15/mo | $20/mo | $0.10/1k emails | $15/mo |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Tiered | Usage-based | Tiered |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Free plan | 100/mo (testing) | 3,000/mo, 100 a day | No; AWS Free Tier credits for new accounts | 100 a day, 1 user |
| Price for 50,000 emails/mo | $66–$87 at listed overage rates | $20 (Pro) | $5 à la carte ($8 on Essentials), plus attachment data | $35 (Foundation) |
| Retention on the entry paid plan | 45 days (up to 365 on Pro) | 30 days | 30 days of message search in VDM (Essentials) | 1 day of logs (Basic) |
| SOC 2 report | Data center's, under NDA | Type II, self-serve download | AWS SOC 2, from AWS Artifact | Type II, plus ISO 27001 |
| EU option | No; US hosting | EU sending region; data stored in the US | Seven European AWS regions; data stays in the chosen region | US or EU sending region |
| SSO | Not listed | $150/mo add-on on Scale | IAM Identity Center, no extra charge | SAML on Scale ($90) |
| HIPAA BAA | Not mentioned | No | Yes, accepted in AWS Artifact | Not mentioned |
| 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, Resend is the cheapest way here to send 50,000 emails a month and the easiest to clear a security review with. Check the data-residency and HIPAA limits first. | From its public pages, SES is the least expensive way here to send at volume and carries AWS’s compliance scope, including a HIPAA BAA. Plan for the sandbox review and for setting up each region you use. | From its public pages, Mailgun is the most complete compliance package of the three, with an EU sending region and SSO on its $90 plan. On smaller plans, plan around short log retention. |
Evidence: Postmark: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Resend: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Amazon SES: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Mailgun: 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.
Review from public pages
Written from Postmark's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 15, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read Postmark's pricing and EU privacy pages on Oct 15, 2026; we did not sign up for this review. The pricing page says "No Credit Card Required" next to the sign-up button, and frames the free Developer plan as a test plan: 100 emails a month with no overages allowed.
Paid plans all start at 10,000 emails a month and differ mainly in what comes with them: inbound processing and longer retention start on Pro, unlimited domains and users on Platform. Unused emails do not roll over, and overage is added at the end of the billing cycle.
The EU privacy page is candid: Postmark itself has not undergone a SOC audit; its data center has, and that report is available after an NDA. Data is hosted near Chicago and on AWS, and Postmark says it has no plans for EU servers. The DPA is part of the Terms of Service.
The pricing page states that no credit card is required to sign up.
vs Mailgun: Resend and Mailgun do not say on their pricing pages whether a card is needed.
Pro and Platform include inbound processing, so replies and forwarded mail arrive parsed.
Retention can go up to 365 days on Pro and Platform.
vs Mailgun: Resend keeps 30 days on its self-serve plans; Mailgun keeps 30 days of logs on Scale.
Platform at $18 lists unlimited users and domains.
Postmark says it has not undergone a SOC audit; the SOC 2 Type 2 report it offers is its data center’s, after an NDA.
Workaround: If a customer review requires a vendor SOC 2 report, compare Resend or Mailgun.
Data is hosted in the US, and Postmark says it has no plans to add EU servers.
The Developer plan allows 100 emails a month with no overages.
Only the 10,000-email tier is priced on the page; above it you pay overage or ask sales for custom pricing.
Postmark prices by emails sent: each paid plan includes 10,000 a month and then charges per 1,000 — $1.80 on Basic ($15), $1.30 on Pro ($16.50), $1.20 on Platform ($18). By those listed rates, 50,000 emails a month comes to $87 on Basic, $68.50 on Pro or $66 on Platform; the page also invites high-volume senders to ask sales for custom pricing.
Inbound processing and retention beyond 45 days need Pro or higher; custom retention is an add-on from $5/mo and DMARC monitoring from $14/mo per domain. Dedicated IPs start at $50/mo per IP for senders above 300,000 a month. Unused emails do not roll over.
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.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Free plan | 100/mo (testing) |
| Price for 50,000 emails/mo | $66–$87 at listed overage rates |
| Retention on the entry paid plan | 45 days (up to 365 on Pro) |
| SOC 2 report | Data center's, under NDA |
| EU option | No; US hosting |
| SSO | Not listed |
| HIPAA BAA | Not mentioned |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 15, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Postmark yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 15, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Postmark yet.
Postmark lists 4 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Basic, costs $15/mo.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-15.
Source: postmarkapp.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
We read the pricing, security and docs pages of three transactional email APIs on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What each one sells, what 50,000 emails cost, and who should pick which.
