I've been spending hours trying to figure out the best transactional email providers, but I'm really overwhelmed. Most options seem geared towards larger businesses with plans starting at $25-$30 a month. Paying that much for 50,000 emails doesn't make sense for me since my typical volume is below 5,000 emails monthly. I know AWS is an option, but their strict reputation metrics and complicated setup have been really frustrating. Can anyone share what you use for your hobby projects or small businesses where the email volume is pretty low?
5 Answers
I've had a good experience with Mailpace as well. It's user-friendly and serves my needs for a small business just fine.
Postmark works great for sending transactional emails. They're reliable and have decent pricing! I wish they had a cheaper plan for smaller projects since my total email count is under 2,000 per month.
Honestly, I think Amazon SES isn't as complicated as many say. It's the cheapest option—you only pay for what you use! What tech stack are you working with?
I've been using Resend.com and it's been perfect for my needs! Their free tier allows up to 3,000 emails a month, which is more than enough for me.
I run a tiny VPS with Docker and use poste.io as my mail server. It's a bit of work to ensure a clean mail server, but once it's set up right, it costs only about 4€ a month, and you have total control over it! Just make sure you handle your IP reputation well.
I totally agree! Postmark is awesome but a lower tier would be nice for small-scale users.