Stack
Resend
A developer-focused email API for sending transactional and marketing email from an application.
What it actually does
Resend is an email sending API you call from your backend to deliver password resets, receipts, magic links, and other transactional messages. It ships an SDK for common languages and a React Email library for building templates as components.
Alongside the transactional API, Resend runs a separate marketing track for newsletters and broadcasts. That side is billed by contact count rather than email volume, so a team can run both product email and audience email under one account without a second vendor.
The two meters are independent: transactional plans are priced by monthly email volume, and marketing plans are priced by number of contacts. Crossing 1,000 marketing contacts moves you onto a paid marketing plan even if your transactional usage still fits the free tier.
Resend vs its main rivals
The tools people actually weigh against Resend: Amazon SES, Postmark, SendGrid. Same criteria for every column, including where Resend loses.
| Resend | AAmazon SES |  SendGrid | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pricing & access | ||||
| Free tier | Yes3,000/mo | NoNo | Yes100/mo | No60-day trial |
| Starting price | $20/mo | $0.10/1k | $15/mo | $19.95/mo |
Deliverability & sending | ||||
| Independent inbox-placement score | Strong | ~77% | ~83% (top) | ~61% |
| Separate transactional/marketing streams | YesYes | NoNo | YesYes | YesYes |
| React Email template library | YesYes | NoNo | NoNo | NoNo |
Scaling & limits | ||||
| Overage rate | $0.90/1k | $0.10/1k | $1.80/1k | $1.30/1k |
| Dedicated IP available | YesAdd-on | YesAdd-on | YesAdd-on | YesPro plan |
| Free-tier daily send cap | 100/day | n/a | n/a | 100/day |
Developer & API | ||||
| REST API | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Webhooks | Free | Free | Free | Free |
Team & enterprise | ||||
| SSO / SAML | YesEnterprise | YesAWS IAM | YesEnterprise | YesPro+ |
- SDK plus a React Email template library; basic transactional sending typically works within an hour
- Free tier of 3,000 emails/mo is permanent, not a trial
- Overage is a predictable $0.90 per 1,000 rather than a hard cutoff
- Marketing is a separate meter, so a list past 1,000 contacts adds a $40/mo plan on top of transactional
- 100 emails/day cap on the free tier breaks any launch-day spike
- Per-email cost is far higher than Amazon SES once volume grows
Pay less for it
5 ways found3,000 emails/mo (100/day) stays free forever, enough for an MVP's auth and receipt email.
The marketing meter is free to 1,000 contacts; prune inactive contacts to avoid the $40/mo jump.
At high transactional volume, SES at ~$0.10 per 1,000 is roughly 9x cheaper per email if you can run your own bounce handling.
Resend does not publish an annual prepay discount, so there is no yearly-billing lever here.
Amazon SES — Roughly 9x cheaper per email for pure transactional sending if you can handle AWS setup, bounce processing, and building your own analytics.
StackTracker tracks what you actually pay for Resend and every other tool, flags overpayment, and shows the dollars you would save by switching.
Is it the right tool for you
- You want transactional email working today with no email infrastructure knowledge
- You build templates in React and want them as components
- Your marketing list is small (under 1,000 contacts) or nonexistent
- You send six figures of email per month and want the lowest per-email cost → use Amazon SES
- A dropped password reset would cost you a customer and inbox placement is paramount → use Postmark
Track what Resend and the rest of your stack cost
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Prices and limits last verified 2026-07-20.