Websites and automation

Which service should send your website's email?

Transactional email is the mail your website sends on its own: form notifications, booking confirmations, receipts. It should come from your own domain and land in the inbox. These five services do that job and differ in free allowance, what 10,000 emails a month costs, and how long they keep the evidence when something goes missing.

Checked against each vendor's own pages on October 14, 2026. Every cell links to its source. Prices and plans change often, so click through before you buy.

Resend

Resend

Free sends
3,000 emails / mo, max 100 a day, free forever (no trial)No time limit: FAQ says "No, but we provide a free-forever plan." The 100-a-day cap is the condition. Pro lists "No daily email limit".Resend pricing
Cost at 10,000 emails a month
Pro: $20 / mo for 50,000 emails / mo (covers 10,000)Free cannot reach 10,000 (3,000 a month, 100 a day). Billing is monthly only; FAQ says "No, we only provide monthly plans." Extra emails $0.90 per 1,000 if pay-as-you-go is enabled. Math: 10,000 is under the 50,000 Pro allowance, so $20 flat.Resend pricing
Dedicated IP
Scale plan only: $30 / mo add-on, for senders over 3,000 emails a dayNot offered on Free or Pro (comparison table shows dashes). Scale plan is $90 / mo, so the all-in cost is $120 / mo. Request via form.Resend pricing
Log retention
30 days on Free and ProScale is also 30 days; Enterprise is listed as Flexible.Resend pricing
Domain authentication
Yes: a verified domain is required; DMARC setup is documentedThe intro says a verified domain is mandatory to send. The DMARC guide says a verified domain means you already pass SPF and DKIM, and it gives the DMARC TXT record at _dmarc. Neither page spells out SPF/DKIM record steps, which sit in the add-a-domain guide.Resend domains introduction Resend DMARC guide
Our pick
The pick for a Next.js site: 3,000 free sends a month, clean domain setup, 30 days of logs.

Postmark

ActiveCampaign

Free sends
100 emails a month, no expiry, no overagesFree plan is capped at 100 emails a month. The FAQ says it does not expire, and the plan card says no overages are allowed. A $0 plan with no time limit and a named cap meets the row definition, so the verdict is yes, not partial.Postmark pricing
Cost at 10,000 emails a month
$15.00/mo on Basic, which starts at 10,000 emails/monthPro is $16.50/mo and Platform is $18.00/mo, both also starting at 10,000 emails/month. Extra emails cost $1.80, $1.30 and $1.20 per 1,000 respectively. The page says annual plans are not offered right now, so the monthly price is the only price shown.Postmark pricing
Dedicated IP
Pro plan and higher, starts at $50/month per IPVendor says its fully managed dedicated IPs are for customers sending 300,000 emails per month or more, so a 10,000-a-month sender would not normally qualify.Postmark pricing
Log retention
Basic: 45 days. Free: no number givenFree column says Full message retention with no duration. Pro and Platform show 45 days in the comparison table (custom retention as an add-on), and the feature list says customizable up to 365 days with a 45-day default.Postmark pricing
Domain authentication
DKIM needs a DNS record. SPF needs no edit. DMARC guide publishedThe DKIM article says you must add a DKIM record to your DNS, and mail is signed once DKIM is verified. The SPF article says Postmark mail passes SPF by default and adding Postmark to your SPF record is optional. The DMARC guide gives a p=none monitoring starter record. Neither pages we checked says authentication is required before the first send, so the verdict is partial.Postmark DKIM setup Postmark DMARC guide
Our pick
The one to pick when deliverability is the whole job. $15 covers 10,000 and the logs run 45 days.

SendGrid

Twilio

Free sends
Free trial only: 100 emails/day for 60 daysThe trial ends after 60 days; no ongoing free plan appears on the pricing page.Twilio SendGrid Email API pricing
Cost at 10,000 emails a month
Not publishedNo 10,000-email tier on the pricing page. Essentials is shown as starting at $19.95/mo, billed per month; the FAQ says Essentials fits 50,000 to 100,000 emails a month. No per-email rate is published.Twilio SendGrid Email API pricing
Dedicated IP
Pro and Premier include one dedicated IP; extra IPs $30 per IP per monthNot on the free trial or Essentials (shared IP groups). Support article limits adding to 1 new IP per month through the Console; more requires contacting support.SendGrid support: Dedicated IP Addresses Twilio SendGrid Email API pricing
Log retention
3 days of email activity history on the free trial and Essentials (first paid plan); 7 days on Pro and PremierThe pricing page table lists 3 days included for Free Trial and Essentials and 7 days of history for Pro and Premier.Twilio SendGrid Email API pricing
Domain authentication
Domain authentication is set up with SPF/DKIM DNS records; DMARC is documented (one example TXT record)The setup page tells you to set up domain authentication and says you can only send from the specified domain, but does not state sending is blocked until SPF and DKIM pass. DMARC appears as a TXT example, v=DMARC1; p=none;.Twilio SendGrid: Configure domain authentication
Our pick
No free tier anymore, and only 3 days of logs on the entry plan. Hard to recommend for a small site.

Mailgun

Sinch

Free sends
100 emails per day on the Free plan; no expiry statedThe cap is daily, not monthly. The pricing page does not say the Free plan expires.Mailgun pricing
Cost at 10,000 emails a month
Basic plan: $15/mo, 10,000 emails/mo included (monthly billing)Shown as 'Starting at'. Pricing page shows monthly prices only. Overage from $1.80 per 1,000 emails; plan and extra usage billed at the start of each month for the previous month.Mailgun pricing
Dedicated IP
Extra IP $59/IP/mo; one included on higher plansPlan table says access at 50k and included at 100K+ volumes. FAQ says one dedicated IP is included with Foundation 100k, Growth and Scale, which does not match the Foundation 50k tier ($35/mo, free first month) on the page. Free and Basic list no dedicated IP.Mailgun pricing
Log retention
1 day on Free and Basic plansFoundation lists 5 days and Scale lists 30 days.Mailgun pricing
Domain authentication
SPF and DKIM TXT records are marked Required in Mailgun's domain setup docs; DMARC is not documented on that pageThe doc marks SPF and DKIM (plus CNAME and MX) as required DNS records. It does not say verification is needed before any sending; it says verified domains are not subject to a sending limit of 300 emails per day, implying unverified domains are capped. DMARC does not appear on this page.Mailgun docs: verify a domain
Our pick
$15 for 10,000 is fair, but one day of log retention on Basic makes troubleshooting a guess.

Amazon SES

Amazon Web Services

Free sends
Partial: a free plan exists but it expires after 6 months; no emails-per-month allowance is publishedPricing page: new customers get up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits, used within 12 months of account creation, and a free plan lasting 6 months. It is time-limited, so it is not a permanent free tier. No monthly or daily email cap is stated on the page.Amazon SES pricing
Cost at 10,000 emails a month
About $1.60 a month on the Essentials plan ($0.16 per 1,000 emails); $1.00 on à la carte ($0.10 per 1,000)Math: 10,000 / 1,000 x $0.16 = $1.60 (Essentials, 0 to 10M a month, no fixed fee); 10 x $0.10 = $1.00 (à la carte). The page says new accounts start on the Essentials plan beginning July 21, 2026, which is before the Oct 14, 2026 record date, so Essentials is the default for a new account. Attachments are extra ($0.12 per GB). Pro adds $105 per month and Enterprise $500 per month fixed. The $1,250 footnote is for managed dedicated IPs, not the sending rate.Amazon SES pricing
Dedicated IP
Yes: Standard IP $24.95 per month per IP on any plan; Managed IP $15 per month per account plus $0.08 per 1,000 emails on Essentials, included on Pro and EnterprisePage footnote: Essentials customers pay $1,250 per month for the managed dedicated IP bundle (5 domains, 12 DIPs, 25 seed list tests); Pro includes 1 domain, 1 DIP, 5 seed list tests; Enterprise includes 5 domains, 12 DIPs, 25 seed list tests. The per-email fee of $0.08 per 1,000 applies at 0 to 10M emails a month. The $15 per account figure was not independently isolated in the managed-IP footnote, so re-check it against the live page.Amazon SES pricing
Log retention
Not publishedNeither the pricing page nor the metrics FAQ states how long sent-message events or logs are kept on the free or first paid plan. The only figure, 60 days, is how long SES collects open and click metrics after each send, which is not a log retention period. Pricing page mentions Mail Manager Archiving storage ($0.19 per GB per month) but that is a separate product.SES email sending metrics FAQs Amazon SES pricing
Domain authentication
DKIM required to verify a domain (three CNAMEs for Easy DKIM); SPF only for DMARC via a custom MAIL FROM domain, which is optional; DMARC documentedDomain identity creation includes DKIM configuration and verification completes when SES detects the DKIM records (up to 72 hours for DNS changes). SPF needs a custom MAIL FROM domain (optional). DMARC doc says a message passes if SPF or DKIM passes and recommends both, with a _dmarc TXT record example.Creating and verifying identities in SES Complying with DMARC in SES
Our pick
Cheapest by far at about $1.60 for 10,000, with log retention not published. For a team with a developer.

Deliverability comes from your setup

Any of these five can deliver if the domain is set up right. None of them will if it is not.

  1. 01Authenticate the domainSPF, DKIM and DMARC are three DNS records that prove the mail is yours. Gmail and Yahoo require SPF or DKIM from every sender and all three from bulk senders. Set up all three.
  2. 02Separate the streamsSend marketing mail from a different subdomain than transactional mail. A newsletter bounce storm should not take your receipts down with it.
  3. 03Keep the logsWhen a customer says they never got the confirmation, the log is the answer. Check how long each vendor keeps it on your plan.

At small-business volume the price difference is a few dollars a month. Pick on setup clarity and log retention, not on cents per thousand.

Spearworks AI

Mail from your site landing in spam?

I set up the sending service, the three DNS records and a test suite that proves each form email arrives. Fixed quote after a free look at your DNS.

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Nathan Spear · spearworksai.com

Spearworks Labs · All comparisons · Checked October 14, 2026. Not affiliated with any vendor listed.