Starter
For your first email program.
$16USD / month
$192 billed yearly.
20,000 emails / month
Choose Starter- 5 brands · 3 seats
- 5 custom sending domains
- 500 email verifications/month
- $1.50 / 1,000 extra emails
Nitrosend is the best Mailjet alternative for teams that run their email from AI. It has the top score of the eight reviewed here, 83.75 out of 100, and 9 out of 10 on working from your AI assistant, the heaviest of the seven tests. It keeps what Mailjet does well, your campaigns and your transactional email behind one login, and adds what Mailjet lacks. Your AI assistant, whether Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex, can sign up to it and send from it without anyone opening a dashboard. To send email from an AI agent with Nitrosend, add the MCP server at api.nitrosend.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex and sign in with OAuth: a transactional email goes out on the call, and a campaign or flow waits as a draft until someone approves it (MCP docs). It writes every email in your brand's colors, fonts and voice, and your receipts and newsletters go out on one plan and one bill. It costs $20 a month for 20,000 emails and $650 for a million emails on Scale including overage; Amazon SES, Bird and MailerSend cost less at that volume. Resend comes next at 77.5, then Bird (formerly SparkPost) at 76.
The ranking
Rank 1Nitrosend
83.75 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 5,000 emails, then 500 a month
- Entry plan
- $20 a month, 20,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant9 out of 10Official MCP server, account signup over the API and a ready-made sender, so an agent sends with no dashboard (docs).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan9 out of 10Receipts, campaigns and flows share one plan, one API and one allowance, on separate streams (pricing).
- Emails in your brand, no designer9 out of 10Brand Kit reads your site for logo, colors, fonts and voice, and every drafted email uses it (docs).
- Free plan7 out of 105,000 emails up front, then 500 every month, no card and no expiry (pricing).
- Price8.5 out of 10$20 a month for 20,000 emails on Starter and $650 for a million emails on Scale including overage, with unlimited contacts on every plan (pricing).
- Developer tools10 out of 10REST API with an OpenAPI spec, a typed TypeScript SDK, a CLI, an MCP server, signed event webhooks, idempotent sends and test sends (docs).
- Track record and support4 out of 10A young product from a small team. Dedicated IPs available as a provisioned add-on on Scale or Enterprise, a 99.9% SLA only on Enterprise (pricing).
Nitrosend
Ask your agent for the next campaign
Connect Nitrosend to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex, point Brand Kit at your site, and describe the email. Contacts are unlimited on every plan.
Free: 5,000 emails to start, then 500 a month. No credit card.
Start free
Rank 2Resend
77.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent, plus contacts for marketing
- Free plan
- 3,000 emails a month, 100 a day
- Entry plan
- $20 a month, 50,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant8 out of 10Hosted MCP server with OAuth, plus agent plugins and a CLI, but a person creates the account and verifies a domain (docs).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan7 out of 10Broadcasts and automations share the account and API, but marketing is a second plan priced by contacts (pricing).
- Emails in your brand, no designer6 out of 10An AI writer in the editor with URL and brand analysis listed, and React Email for coded templates (pricing).
- Free plan8 out of 103,000 emails a month, up to 100 a day, on a free plan that does not expire (pricing).
- Price9 out of 10$20 a month for 20,000 emails on Pro, the same as Nitrosend, but $650 for a million on Scale (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10Official SDKs, an SMTP relay, webhooks, inbound email, React Email and a CLI on every plan (pricing).
- Track record and support6 out of 10Newer than the incumbents, with SOC 2 Type II, dedicated IPs on Scale and a 99.99% SLA on Enterprise (pricing).
Rank 3Bird (formerly SparkPost)
76 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 1,000 emails a month, no expiry
- Entry plan
- $15 a month, 50,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant8 out of 10Hosted MCP server at mcp.bird.com with OAuth and a CLI, and an agent can sign itself up from the terminal, but it must read an emailed code, and it can only test-send until a sending domain is verified (signup, sandbox).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan7 out of 10Broadcasts and single sends draw on one email allowance and one bill, with no contact fee. Email automations are in early access, built in the dashboard, with a separate run allowance (automation).
- Emails in your brand, no designer4 out of 10Templates with versions and translations, and React Email rendering. You supply the design (product).
- Free plan6 out of 101,000 emails a month with no time limit and no card, capped at 50 a day (pricing).
- Price10 out of 10$15 a month for 20,000 emails on Startup, and $530 for a million on Growth (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10SDKs for Node, Python, PHP and Go, an SMTP relay, event webhooks, inbound relay webhooks, suppression and a sandbox (API).
- Track record and support7 out of 10SparkPost infrastructure since 2014, now sold as Bird. Dedicated IPs $24.95 each on Growth and above. No SLA on the pricing page (pricing).
Rank 4MailerSend
68.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 500 emails a month, card required
- Entry plan
- $7 a month, 5,000 emails (Hobby)
- Works from your AI assistant8 out of 10Hosted MCP server connected by OAuth that sends and schedules email, sets up domains and webhooks and reads email activity, once a person has signed up (docs).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan4 out of 10Bulk emailing through the same API, but no campaign builder, segments or automation flows (pricing).
- Emails in your brand, no designer6 out of 10Drag-and-drop, HTML and rich-text builders with ready-made templates, which you still set up in your brand (pricing).
- Free plan5 out of 10A Free plan of 500 emails a month with 100 API requests a day, and a card on file (pricing).
- Price8 out of 10$35 a month for 20,000 emails on Starter, which covers 50,000, and $600 for a million on Starter (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10Seven SDKs, an OpenAPI collection, SMTP relay, webhooks, inbound routing and testing features (pricing).
- Track record and support6 out of 10A 99.5% uptime SLA on its top plans, with dedicated IPs on Enterprise above 100,000 emails a week (pricing).
Rank 5Mailgun
67.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 100 emails a day
- Entry plan
- $15 a month, 10,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant6 out of 10Official MCP server for sends, analytics and validation, run locally with an API key. Mailgun offers no hosted version (docs).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan4 out of 10Mailing lists and a template builder on the sending API, but no campaign builder or automation flows (pricing).
- Emails in your brand, no designer5 out of 10An email template builder and templates API, but the brand design is yours to build (pricing).
- Free plan7 out of 10A free plan of 100 emails a day, one sending domain and one inbound route (pricing).
- Price8 out of 10$33 a month for 20,000 emails on Basic with overage, and $700 for a million on Scale (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10Official SDKs in six languages, SMTP relay, webhooks, inbound routes and a validation API (docs).
- Track record and support9 out of 10A long-running sending API, now part of Sinch, with dedicated IP pools, IP warm-up and an uptime SLA (pricing).
Rank 6Amazon SES
65.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- None. New AWS customers get up to $200 in credits
- Entry price
- $0.10 per 1,000 emails, or $0.16 on Essentials
- Works from your AI assistant7 out of 10AWS's own managed MCP server runs SES API calls, so an agent can send and read sending data, but it connects with IAM credentials a person sets up, and new accounts start in the SES sandbox (AWS).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan3 out of 10A sending service with contact lists and subscription management, but no campaign builder or automation flows (pricing).
- Emails in your brand, no designer2 out of 10Stored templates are HTML and text you write yourself. There is no visual editor and no brand setup (pricing).
- Free plan4 out of 10No standing free plan. New AWS customers get up to $200 in Free Tier credits that apply to SES (pricing).
- Price10 out of 10Metered at $0.16 per 1,000 on Essentials, so $3.20 for 20,000 emails and $160 for a million (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10AWS SDKs in every major language, SMTP, event publishing, inbound receiving and a mailbox simulator for tests (docs).
- Track record and support9 out of 10Running at Amazon scale since 2011, with managed dedicated IPs, Virtual Deliverability Manager and tenant isolation (pricing).
Rank 7Postmark
64.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 100 emails a month, no expiry
- Entry plan
- $15 a month, 10,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant6 out of 10Official MCP server with 24 tools, run locally with a server token a person creates first (Postmark).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan4 out of 10Broadcast streams send bulk mail from the same account, but there is no campaign builder or flows (docs).
- Emails in your brand, no designer5 out of 10A library of ready-made transactional templates, which you still edit into your own brand (Postmark).
- Free plan4 out of 10A free Developer plan of 100 emails a month that never expires, for testing (pricing).
- Price8 out of 10$29.50 a month for 20,000 emails on Pro with overage, and $775 on Basic for the 1.5 million step (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10Official libraries for Node.js and TypeScript, Python, Ruby, .NET, Java and PHP, SMTP, delivery and bounce webhooks, and inbound processing (docs).
- Track record and support9 out of 10A transactional specialist since 2010, with separate streams, managed dedicated IPs and 45-day retention (pricing).
Rank 8SendGrid
59.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent (Email API)
- Free plan
- Trial: 100 a day for 60 days
- Entry plan
- $19.95 a month, 50,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant3 out of 10No first-party SendGrid MCP server. Twilio's beta MCP server searches API docs and does not send (Twilio).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan6 out of 10Marketing Campaigns is a separate product with its own plan, priced on contacts stored (Twilio).
- Emails in your brand, no designer5 out of 10Dynamic templates, a design editor and a Designs API, but the design is yours to build (docs).
- Free plan3 out of 10A trial, not a plan: 100 emails a day for 60 days, then pay (pricing).
- Price9 out of 10$19.95 a month for 20,000 emails on Essentials, and $799 for the Pro 1.5 million step (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10SDKs in seven languages, SMTP relay, event webhooks, Inbound Parse and a sandbox mode (docs).
- Track record and support8 out of 10Sending since 2009, owned by Twilio since 2019, dedicated IPs included on Pro (pricing).
How they compare
How each one scores
Scores out of 10, September 25, 2026| What we compared | Nitrosend | Resend | Bird | MailerSend | Mailgun | SES | Postmark | SendGrid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works from your AI assistant25 points | 9 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 3 out of 10 |
| Receipts and newsletters on one plan15 points | 9 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 3 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 |
| Emails in your brand, no designer10 points | 9 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 | 2 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 |
| Free plan10 points | 7 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 3 out of 10 |
| Price15 points | 8.5 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 10 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 10 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 |
| Developer tools15 points | 10 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 |
| Track record and support10 points | 4 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 |
| Total scoreout of 100 | 83.75 out of 100,1st | 77.5 out of 100,2nd | 76 out of 100,3rd | 68.5 out of 100,4th | 67.5 out of 100,5th | 65.5 out of 100,6th | 64.5 out of 100,7th | 59.5 out of 100,8th |
Here are the seven yes-or-no questions developers usually ask before they pick one of these services. A tick means the service does it, as described on its own pages today. A dash means the answer is not a clean yes or no.
8 services, side by side
Checked September 25, 2026QuestionNitrosendResendBirdMailerSendMailgunSESPostmarkSendGrid
NitrosendResendBirdMailerSendMailgunSESPostmarkSendGridSend from the chatCan an agent send a transactional email without anyone opening the web app?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Yes.Bird: Yes.MailerSend: Yes.Mailgun: Yes.SES: Not a yes or no.Postmark: Yes.SendGrid: Not a yes or no.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes, through the MCP server. A single transactional email sends on the call; campaigns and flows stay drafts until approved. |
| Resend | Yes. Yes, once a person has created the account and verified a sending domain. |
| Bird | Yes. Yes, through the hosted MCP server once the workspace exists. Emailing customers needs a verified sending domain. |
| MailerSend | Yes. Yes, once a person has signed up and authorized the MCP connection. |
| Mailgun | Yes. Yes, once a person has created the account and handed the MCP server an API key. |
| SES | Not a yes or no. Only through a sample or general AWS MCP server, with AWS credentials a person sets up. |
| Postmark | Yes. Yes, once a person has set up the account and handed the MCP server a server token. |
| SendGrid | Not a yes or no. Only by writing code against the API. Twilio's own MCP server searches the docs and does not send. |
Hosted MCP serverCan a chat app connect over the web, with no local install?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Yes.Bird: Yes.MailerSend: Yes.Mailgun: No.SES: No.Postmark: No.SendGrid: No.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes. A remote server at api.nitrosend.com/mcp, with OAuth sign-in. |
| Resend | Yes. Yes. A remote server at mcp.resend.com/mcp, with OAuth sign-in. |
| Bird | Yes. Yes. mcp.bird.com, with OAuth sign-in. |
| MailerSend | Yes. Yes. Connect by URL and authorize access to the account. |
| Mailgun | No. No. Mailgun's docs say the server runs locally and no hosted version exists. |
| SES | No. No hosted SES MCP server. |
| Postmark | No. No. The official server runs locally through npx with an API token. |
| SendGrid | No. No. Every SendGrid server on the official MCP registry is community built, none hosted by Twilio. |
Sign up with no personCan an agent create the account and send a first email with no DNS work?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: No.Bird: Not a yes or no.MailerSend: No.Mailgun: No.SES: No.Postmark: No.SendGrid: No.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes. Signup is an API call, and each brand gets a ready sender on a Nitrosend subdomain. |
| Resend | No. No. Resend's own agent guide says a person must create the account. |
| Bird | Not a yes or no. An agent can sign itself up through the CLI or the API, but it must read the emailed sign-in code, and until a sending domain is verified it can send only to sandbox addresses and its own workspace members. |
| MailerSend | No. No. A person signs up, with a card even on Free, and verifies a domain. |
| Mailgun | No. No. A person signs up and verifies a sending domain first. |
| SES | No. No. A person opens the AWS account, verifies a domain and requests production access. |
| Postmark | No. No. A person signs up and confirms a sender signature or domain first. |
| SendGrid | No. No. A sender or a domain has to be verified before real sending. |
Campaigns and flows in the same planDo newsletters and automations come with the transactional plan?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Not a yes or no.Bird: Not a yes or no.MailerSend: No.Mailgun: No.SES: No.Postmark: Not a yes or no.SendGrid: No.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes, on every plan including Free. |
| Resend | Not a yes or no. Broadcasts and automations are in the same account, on a separate marketing plan. |
| Bird | Not a yes or no. Broadcasts share the email allowance. Email automations are in early access, with a separate run allowance. |
| MailerSend | No. No. Bulk emailing, but no campaign builder or flows. |
| Mailgun | No. No. Mailing lists and templates, but no campaign builder or flows. |
| SES | No. No. SES sends, and the campaigns and flows are yours to build. |
| Postmark | Not a yes or no. Broadcast streams handle bulk sends. There is no campaign builder or automation flows. |
| SendGrid | No. No. Marketing Campaigns is a separate plan, from $15 a month. |
Perpetual free planIs there a free plan that does not run out?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Yes.Bird: Yes.MailerSend: Yes.Mailgun: Yes.SES: No.Postmark: Yes.SendGrid: No.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes. 5,000 emails up front, then 500 a month. |
| Resend | Yes. Yes. 3,000 emails a month, 100 a day. |
| Bird | Yes. Yes. 1,000 emails a month, no time limit. |
| MailerSend | Yes. Yes. 500 emails a month. |
| Mailgun | Yes. Yes. 100 emails a day. |
| SES | No. No. Up to $200 in AWS credits for new customers. |
| Postmark | Yes. Yes. 100 emails a month on the Developer plan, with no expiry. |
| SendGrid | No. No. 100 emails a day for 60 days, then a paid plan. |
Brand learned from your siteDoes it pick up your logo, colors, fonts and voice without a designer?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Not a yes or no.Bird: No.MailerSend: No.Mailgun: No.SES: No.Postmark: No.SendGrid: No.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes. Brand Kit scans your site, and AI Memory keeps house style. |
| Resend | Not a yes or no. Its AI features list URL and brand analysis, which its docs do not describe yet. |
| Bird | No. No. Templates and React Email, and you supply the design. |
| MailerSend | No. No. Templates are built in its editors. |
| Mailgun | No. No. Templates are built in its builder or in HTML. |
| SES | No. No. Templates are HTML you write. |
| Postmark | No. No. A template library you edit into your own brand. |
| SendGrid | No. No. Templates and a design editor, but you supply the design. |
Inbound emailCan it receive and parse email sent to your domain?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Yes.Bird: Yes.MailerSend: Yes.Mailgun: Yes.SES: Yes.Postmark: Yes.SendGrid: Yes.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes. An agent inbox on your own domain posts incoming mail to your webhook. |
| Resend | Yes. Yes, on every plan. |
| Bird | Yes. Yes. Inbound domains and relay webhooks. |
| MailerSend | Yes. Yes, through inbound routing. |
| Mailgun | Yes. Yes, through inbound routes. |
| SES | Yes. Yes. SES receives mail through receipt rules and Mail Manager. |
| Postmark | Yes. Yes, with inbound processing on Pro and Platform. |
| SendGrid | Yes. Yes, with Inbound Parse. |
Yes answersOut of the questions that have a yes or no for that service7 of 7 yes for Nitrosend4 of 5 yes for Resend4 of 5 yes for Bird4 of 7 yes for MailerSend3 of 7 yes for Mailgun1 of 6 yes for SES3 of 6 yes for Postmark1 of 6 yes for SendGrid
At a glance
8 services, the same 7 tests, 100 points in all. In order: Nitrosend 83.75, Resend 77.5, Bird 76, MailerSend 68.5, Mailgun 67.5, SES 65.5, Postmark 64.5, SendGrid 59.5. Nitrosend has the best score on Works from your AI assistant, Receipts and newsletters on one plan, Emails in your brand, no designer and Developer tools. Every price and feature was read on each company's own pages on September 25, 2026.
When another service is the better pick
Nitrosend does not win every test. Read these before you choose it.
- Pick Resend if you only use Mailjet's transactional half. It scores 9 on developer tools, with official SDKs, an SMTP relay, inbound email and React Email on every plan. It also scores higher on free plan and on track record. If you need its SMTP relay, you can also keep Resend underneath Nitrosend with your own sending keys on a paid plan (providers).
- Pick Bird if the first $5 a month matters. It is $15 a month for 20,000 emails, against Nitrosend's $20, though $530 for a million against Nitrosend's $650. It hosts its own MCP server at mcp.bird.com with a browser sign-in.
- Pick Postmark if the only half you use is the receipts. It scores 9 on track record as a transactional specialist sending since 2010, with separate message streams, and dedicated IPs and 45-day message retention.
- Pick Mailgun if you parse inbound mail or validate addresses. It scores 9 on developer tools, with official SDKs in six languages, and an SMTP relay, inbound routes and a validation API. Mailgun and Mailjet share a parent company, Sinch. You can also keep Mailgun underneath Nitrosend with your own sending keys on a paid plan (providers).
- Pick Amazon SES if the lowest bill is all that matters. It is $3.20 for 20,000 emails and $160 for a million on the Essentials plan. The templates, suppression handling and reporting are yours to build.
- Pick a campaign tool if you only use Mailjet's newsletter half. None of those are ranked on this page, which scores sending services. The Brevo alternatives and MailerLite alternatives reviews cover that shortlist.
What each one costs in 2026
Every service ranked here charges by emails sent, except Amazon SES, which is metered at $0.10 per 1,000 a la carte or $0.16 per 1,000 on the Essentials plan that new accounts default to from July 21, 2026. Mailjet itself prices by emails sent too. On its pricing page, checked October 1, 2026, 20,000 emails a month on Premium, the only plan with automations, is $41.90: the 15,000-email tier at $29 plus $2.58 per 1,000 after, since Mailjet's docs allow overage on any paid plan. Premium is the fair comparison with Nitrosend's $20, which includes automated flows, so that is the Mailjet price to hold the others against.
What sending costs
List prices, USD, monthly, September 26, 2026| Service | 20,000 emails a month | 1,000,000 emails a month |
|---|---|---|
| Nitrosend (pricing page) | $20Starter, contacts unlimited | $650Scale, contacts unlimited, including overage |
| Resend (pricing page) | $20Pro, which covers 50,000 | $650Scale |
| Bird (pricing page) | $15Startup, which covers 50,000 | $530Growth |
| MailerSend (pricing page) | $35Starter, the first plan with 50 webhooks and 250 templates. Hobby with overage is $29.50 but has 1 webhook and 10 templates | $600Starter |
| Mailgun (pricing page) | $33Basic, 10,000 included and $1.80 per 1,000 after | $700Scale |
| SES (pricing page) | $3.20Lowest. Essentials, the default for a new account, or $2 a la carte. Charged per email | $160Lowest. Essentials, the default for a new account, or $100 a la carte. Charged per email |
| Postmark (pricing page) | $29.50Pro, 10,000 included and $1.30 per 1,000 after. Basic is $33 | $775Basic, the 1,500,000 plan. Pro is $852.50 |
| SendGrid (pricing page) | $19.95Essentials, which covers 50,000 | $799Pro, the 1,500,000 plan. The 700,000 plan is $499 |
At 20,000 emails a month, Nitrosend is $20. That is the same as Resend, and within a few dollars of Bird at $15 and SendGrid at $19.95. Postmark and Mailgun charge for every email past 10,000, which puts them at $29.50 and $33, and MailerSend is $35 on Starter.
At a million emails a month, Nitrosend is $650. Bird is $530, MailerSend $600, Resend $650, Mailgun $700, Postmark $775 and SendGrid $799. With Amazon SES the templates, unsubscribe handling and reporting are yours to build.
The bigger difference is what the $20 buys. Nitrosend's plan carries lists, segments, automated flows, brands, templates and deliverability on the same key as the transactional send, which is the hybrid shape Mailjet customers are used to. Every other service ranked here is mainly the sending half. If you would need a second product for campaigns, add the two bills together before you compare.
How we scored
Every service gets a score out of 10 on the same seven tests. Each test is worth a set number of points, 100 in all. Working from your AI assistant is worth the most, 25 points, because that is where email is heading: even Mailjet now ships an MCP server that connects Claude to your account. The test asks how far that connection goes, from reading your numbers to drafting, testing and sending. Price, developer tools and track record, where the older services are strongest, share 40 points, so a service that is better there gets full credit for it. Mailjet is not ranked on its own alternatives page.
Each test is a question with one answer per service, checked against the service's own pages on September 25, 2026. A 10 means it does the job fully on its normal plans. A 5 means it does part of it, or only on a higher plan or in a second product.
Works from your AI assistant, 25 points. Can an agent inside Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex go from nothing to a delivered transactional email, and then read back what happened to it, with no person opening the web app along the way? Scored on the first-party MCP server and what its tools cover, a CLI that works in a non-interactive runner, account and sender setup over the API, and listings in the chat apps people already work in. Scored on one written rule for every vendor: a first-party server the vendor runs and that can send counts fully; a third-party wrapper (Zapier, Composio, Kanopi, community servers) counts for less; a server that only drafts or reads counts for less than one that sends.
Receipts and newsletters on one plan, 15 points. Can receipts and password resets, and the newsletters and automated flows that follow them, go out from one account, on one bill, through one API, with the two streams kept apart?
Emails in your brand, no designer, 10 points. Does the product produce the receipt, reset and welcome emails in your brand's own logo, colors, fonts and voice, or does a developer have to write or buy the HTML template first?
Free plan, 10 points. How far can a developer get on the free plan before paying: the monthly volume, the daily ceiling, any one-off starter allowance, and whether the plan is perpetual or a trial that ends.
Price, 15 points. What does sending cost at 20,000 emails a month, where most teams start, and at 1,000,000, where a busy product ends up? Scored on list prices in US dollars, paid monthly, at the cheapest plan that covers the volume. Every ranking on this site uses the same fixed scale. At 20,000 emails, $20 or less scores 10, then $25 scores 9, $32 scores 8, $40 scores 7, $50 scores 6, $70 scores 5, $100 scores 4 and $140 scores 3. At 1,000,000, $500 or less scores 10, then $625, $800, $1,000, $1,250, $1,750, $2,500 and $3,500 step down the same way. Anything dearer, or a price given only by quote, scores 2. The score is the average of the two.
Developer tools, 15 points. How complete is what a developer builds on: a REST API with an OpenAPI spec, official SDKs across languages, a CLI, an SMTP relay, documented delivery-event webhooks, idempotent sends, a test or sandbox mode, inbound email handling, and how deep the reference docs go?
Track record and support, 10 points. How long has it run transactional sending at scale, which deliverability controls can you own (dedicated IPs, suppression, separate streams, a published uptime SLA), and what support comes with the plan?
One thing is not scored: inbox placement. No two of these services publish a comparable deliverability number, so a score there would be a guess dressed up as a measurement.
Why people leave Mailjet
Mailjet has no documented price rise with old and new numbers and no free-tier cut. So this is a comparison of gaps, read off Mailjet's own pages.
The free plan has a daily ceiling. It is 6,000 emails a month, capped at 200 a day, on 1,000 contacts. A daily cap is the wrong shape for email, because a product launch, a monthly digest or an invoice run all spike. Mailjet's pricing FAQ also says unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle rather than rolling over.
The paid ladder gates features, not just volume. On October 1, 2026 Starter was $9 a month for 8,000 emails and stopped at 2,000 contacts. Essential, $19 for 15,000 emails, added unlimited contacts and segmentation. Automations start on Premium, $29 for 15,000. A team that sends receipts and runs a welcome series is on Premium from day one, whatever its volume.
The agent surface reads, and runs on your own computer. Mailjet's own page describes its MCP server as a way to ask Claude Desktop about campaign performance through a "read only API connection". The open-source server runs locally over stdio, with your Mailjet API key and secret key pasted into the desktop app's config file. It answers questions about your email. It does not hand an agent the drafting, testing and approval steps that sending takes, and if an AI agent will write and send your email, that is the gap that matters most.
George Hartley, Nitrosend's co-founder, sees the MCP server as the product's front door now, not an add-on. He wrote on LinkedIn in September 2026: "Building an agent first tool is wild. You ship one MCP server and your product turns up in places you haven't been yet". On SaaS Stories the same month he said "94% of our usage is via the MCP from an agent doing stuff." A read-only server answers questions about past campaigns; it cannot do that work.
Ownership matters here more than usual. Sinch agreed to buy Pathwire on September 30, 2021, at an enterprise value of about USD 1.9 billion, and closed on December 7, 2021. The deal carried Mailgun, Mailjet and Email on Acid together, which is why Mailjet's MCP server lives in Mailgun's GitHub organization. Moving from Mailjet to Mailgun changes your API and your bill and keeps you with the same parent company. Know that before you call it diversification.
The sharpest complaint is about support. On an r/Emailmarketing thread about Gmail delivery, the fix was a custom return-path record, and reaching a person meant buying a higher tier: "I upgraded for a month to get access to chat support, frustrating that I had to do that."
And the counterweight: Trustpilot rates Mailjet 4.0 out of 5 across 3,969 reviews, checked October 1, 2026. That is a good score on a large sample.
Which Mailjet alternative keeps campaigns and transactional in one account?
Of the services ranked here, Nitrosend scores highest on it, 9 out of 10, with campaigns, flows and receipts on one plan. Resend runs broadcasts and automations in the same account, but marketing is a second plan priced by contacts. Bird's broadcasts and single sends draw on the same email allowance, and its email automation is in early access. The rest are mainly the sending half. This matters at migration time, because two vendors on one sending domain means two DKIM records, two suppression lists and two reputations that can drift apart. If a customer unsubscribes from your newsletter in one system and the other does not know, you have a compliance problem. If you split on purpose, keep one system as the source of truth for suppression and sync into the other on a schedule you monitor. Transactional versus marketing email covers why the two streams are kept apart.
Is there a free Mailjet alternative?
Several, with different shapes of limit. Nitrosend gives 5,000 emails to start, then 500 a month, with 100 / 500 / 5,000 recipients per rolling 24 hours on Probation / Standard / Trusted and full API, MCP and CLI access on the free plan. Resend is free to 3,000 emails a month, capped at 100 a day. Mailgun is free to 100 emails a day. Bird is free to 1,000 emails a month, capped at 50 a day. MailerSend's Free plan is 500 emails a month with a card on file. Compare the shape of the cap rather than the headline number, because a daily cap and a monthly cap behave very differently the week you launch something.
What happens to my templates when I leave Mailjet?
The HTML comes with you, the rest does not. Mailjet's template language writes variables as {{data:name}} and conditions as {% if %} blocks, and your application refers to each stored template by its TemplateID. Neither means anything to another provider, so any template with logic in it gets rebuilt rather than imported. Export the raw HTML for every template you send, list which of your application's endpoints reference which TemplateID, and rebuild the two or three that carry revenue first.
Templates written in MJML, the open-source markup Mailjet created, are the portable part, because MJML compiles to plain HTML anywhere. Two of its defaults travel with them. A social icon with no src of its own loads its image from www.mailjet.com, so your emails keep pulling images from Mailjet after you leave. And on a network with a share URL, MJML turns your profile link into a share link unless the network name ends in -noshare. Set your own icon src and add -noshare before you recompile. Automations and flows do not migrate on any platform ranked here.
How to move off Mailjet without losing deliverability
Swapping the API takes an afternoon. The reputation takes weeks.
- Export everything together. Take contacts, suppression lists and engagement history, not just the addresses. Engagement history is what lets you warm a domain on people who open.
- Check what you exported. The email blacklist checker tells you what you are carrying, and email bounce rate explains the number to watch.
- Authenticate the new sender. Keep both senders in one SPF record during the overlap. The email authentication page has the records.
- Move transactional first. It is lower volume and higher engagement, and it warms the domain on mail people open. The transactional email hub covers the streams.
- Ramp campaigns up. Do not switch in one send. How to warm up an email domain has the schedule, and run an inbox test before the first big one.
- Keep catching unsubscribes after the last Mailjet send. Every email already sent carries Mailjet's unsubscribe link, and the FTC says an opt-out must keep working for at least 30 days after you send, then be honored within 10 business days by whoever sends next. Leave Mailjet's unsub event webhook running for those 30 days, or export the unsubscribes again at the end, and mark those people unsubscribed in the new tool.
Mailjet alternatives FAQ
Nitrosend, with the top score in this review, 83.75 out of 100. It keeps campaigns and transactional email in one account, as Mailjet does, and adds an AI assistant that can run the account from the chat, from $20 a month for 20,000 emails. Pick Postmark if you only send receipts, and Resend if you want SDKs in many languages and an SMTP relay.
Sinch, which acquired it as part of the Pathwire deal that closed on December 7, 2021, at about USD 1.9 billion in enterprise value, alongside Mailgun and Email on Acid. Mailgun is the alternative many lists recommend, and moving between the two keeps you with the same parent company.
Nitrosend, with 9 out of 10 on working from your AI assistant, the test worth the most at 25 points. It is the only service ranked here where an agent in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex can create the account and send a first email with no DNS work, from a ready-made sender, through a hosted MCP server at api.nitrosend.com/mcp. Campaigns and flows it writes wait as drafts until someone approves them. Resend, Bird and MailerSend score 8 with hosted MCP servers of their own: Resend's AI onboarding guide says a person must create the account, an agent signing up to Bird has to read an emailed code and can only test-send until a sending domain is verified, and MailerSend's connects by OAuth only after a person has signed up. Mailjet's own MCP server runs on your own computer and reads your account rather than sending from it.
Add Nitrosend's MCP server, api.nitrosend.com/mcp, as a connector in Claude and sign in with OAuth in the browser; the same server works in ChatGPT, Cursor and Codex (setup). Then ask in the chat. A receipt or password reset goes out on the call, and a newsletter or flow waits as a draft until you approve it. Nobody has to set up DNS records before the first send.
At the dated prices quoted here, Amazon SES costs $3.20 for 20,000 emails and $160 for one million on Essentials, without the surrounding campaign product. Bird is $15 and $530 at those volumes. Nitrosend is $20 on Starter and $650 on Scale including overage, with campaigns and flows on the same plan. Compare both sending costs and the features required.
For campaigns, flows, contacts, templates, transactional sending and SMS, yes, in one account with unlimited contacts on every plan. Nitrosend has no general inbound-parsing API and does not offer an SMTP relay. If you use Mailjet's Parse API to feed an application, check that before you move.
Longer than the pricing pages suggest. The import is hours. Rebuilding automations, repointing every template ID your application references and warming the domain take weeks, and on a large list it becomes a multi-month project. Budget for the warm-up, not the import. What is MCP explains how an AI assistant can take over the repetitive parts.
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