Postmark is excellent with its outstanding email deliverability and high-quality service, but its high pricing might prompt you to look for renowned Postmark alternatives. Many email marketers are struggling to adjust their tight budgets to Postmark pricing, especially for the small to midsize business owners planning to send high-volume emails. If you are one of those, then you definitely need suggestions on the standard SMTPs that can serve you well.
In this blog, I will discuss three SMTP providers —Amazon SES, Mailgun, and SMTP2GO — as alternatives to Postmark. Continue reading to discover which SMTP provider is right for you.
Table of Contents
- Overview of Postmark Alternatives
- What is Postmark?
- 3 Postmark Alternatives
- Amazon SES
- Mailgun
- SMTP2GO
- Features: Amazon SES vs Mailgun vs SMTP2GO
- Pricing Chart for Amazon SES vs Mailgun vs SMTP2GO Pricing
- Wrap Up
- FAQ on Postmark Alternatives
Overview of Postmark Alternatives
Let’s take a glance at the details of other SMTPs.
| Facts | Amazon SES | Mailgun | SMTP2GO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best known for | Cheap pricing | Handling high-volume emails | Email deliverability |
| Free pricing plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | No | Yes | Yes (through free account) |
| Paid plans | Starting at $0.1 per 1K emails | Starting from $15/mo for up to 10K emails | Starting from $15/mo for up to 10K emails |
| Support | Email, chat, and phone support | Email and chat support | Ticket, chat, and phone support |
| G2 rating | 4.3⭐ | 4.2⭐ | 4.7⭐ |
Before we dive into the main discussion, let’s have a brief overview of Postmark for comparison purposes.
What is Postmark?
Postmark provides email service for sending both transactional and marketing emails. It’s very popular for their API, SMTP, and overall top-notch service. Especially for prioritizing high email deliverability.
So, if all is good, then why switch to other alternatives to Postmark?
As mentioned in the beginning, it’s very expensive! According to a Reddit review on Postmark replacement, many users are experiencing this high-cost issue and are seeking Postmark alternatives.
Postmark features
- SMTP and API
- Message streams
- Email delivery
- Transactional email
- Email template
- Inbound email
- Rebound
- Reports
- Email experts
- Support
Postmark pricing
Take a glance at Postmark pricing.
- Number of paid pricing plans: 3 paid pricing plans: Basic, Pro, and Platform. Each pricing plan comes with a set number of outgoing emails at a specific monthly cost. Starts from $15 and can lead up to $930 and more.
- Free plan: 1 free plan. Limited features and an email sending limit of only 100 emails per month. Designed mainly for developers to facilitate testing purposes.
3 Postmark Alternatives
Let’s dive into the main discussion. Learn about the three best Postmark alternatives:
Amazon SES
Check out Amazon SES as an alternative to Postmark:
What is Amazon SES?
Amazon SES stands for Amazon Simple Email Service. It’s a cloud-based email service provider that allows you to send both transactional and marketing emails. It can work with various programs and features that you need to speed things up, including content filtering, email authentication, and tools for verifying email delivery.
Why use Amazon SES?
Amazon SES is best for its cheap pricing. It offers SMTP at the most affordable price available in the market. So, if you want a super affordable SMTP provider, consider using Amazon SES SMTP as one of the Postmark alternatives.
Read: AWS Email Service: Configure, Types & Pricing
Key Amazon SES features
- SMTP
- API
- Analyze email deliverability
- Mail manager
- Integration
- Reputation dashboard
- Virtual deliverability manager
- Sender identity management and security, etc.
Amazon SES Pricing
Amazon SES pricing is the cheapest; it offers two types of pricing plans and also follows a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) approach.
The 2 types of plans are:
- Free tier: Costs $0 for the initial 3,000 emails sent every month (only for the first 12 months).
- Paid plan: Costs $0.1 for 1,000 emails ($0.0001 each email) after surpassing the 3,000 monthly limit.
Get a detailed idea of pricing combining MailBluster and Amazon SES:
MailBluster and Amazon SES Pricing: Underpriced Combo Ever!
Pros of Amazon SES
- Super affordable
- Ensure ease of use
- Very scalable
- Highly stable
- High deliverability
- Multiple integrations
- Email authentication
Cons of Amazon SES
- Difficult to set up
- Learning curve
- Amazon SES Sandbox limitation
Mailgun
Check out Mailgun as a Postmark alternative:
What is Mailgun?
Mailgun, also known as Sinch Mailgun, is an email service provider used for sending, receiving, and tracking emails. Mailgun primarily advertises itself as a transactional email delivery service, but it’s not limited to that, as it also allows sending marketing emails. Its powerful API and Mailgun SMTP service make it suited for both transactional and large-scale email marketing campaigns. It’s very similar to Postmark, with some slight differences, and it’s slightly less costly than Postmark.
Why use Mailgun?
Mailgun is best known for its API, SMTP relay, and email validation features. As it’s pretty similar to Postmark, so if you are looking for a much closer service to it, then try Mailgun as one of the Postmark alternatives.
Key Mailgun features
- Message streams
- SMTP relay
- Send email API
- Email validation
- Email validation API
- Mailing list
- Email list validation
- Basic email template builder
- Support
Mailgun Pricing
Mailgun offers four pricing plans, each with a specific number of emails and a specific monthly cost.
The 4 pricing plans are:
- Free: $0/month for 100 emails per day.
- Comes with minimal features and restrictions.
- Comes with minimal features and restrictions.
- Basic: $15/month for 10,000 emails.
- $1.80 per extra 1,000 emails.
- $1.80 per extra 1,000 emails.
- Foundation: $35/month for 50,000 emails.
- $1.30 per extra 1,000 emails.
- $1.30 per extra 1,000 emails.
- Scale: $90/month for 100,000 emails.
- $1.10 per extra 1,000 emails.
Pros of Mailgun
- Easy user interface
- Offers a free plan.
- Provides a reliable SMTP service.
- Suitable for email delivery and deliverability.
- Offers email validations feature to verify email lists.
- Provides advanced analytics: detailed analytics on email sending.
- Deliver scalability: capable of handling high volumes of email traffic.
- Offers extensive customization options for email functionality, including email templates.
Cons of Mailgun
- Limited email marketing features.
- Learning curve: technical complexity and setup.
- Support can be slow.
SMTP2GO
Check out SMTP2GO as a Postmark alternative:
What is SMTP2GO?
SMTP2GO is an email delivery service provider that allows the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to send, track, and manage emails on a large scale. It’s well known for sending and managing both transactional and marketing emails. It offers tools for monitoring email deliverability, tracking performance, and ensuring that your emails reach their intended recipients quickly.
Why use SMTP2GO?
Just like the name suggests, SMTP2GO is best known for its SMTP relay service. It’s very reliable for secure email delivery. SMTP2GO makes email management easy with its intuitive dashboard and robust SMTP relay, and is very popular for high deliverability. Furthermore, it is much less expensive than Postmark. So it’s a plus point for you if you have budget issues but want an SMTP service that ensures email deliverability; then SMTP2GO can be the best alternative to Postmark.
Key SMTP2GO features
- SMTP relay
- Powerful deliverability
- Integrations
- Automatic DKIM/SPF
- Reporting
- Support
SMTP2GO Pricing
SMTP2GO offers three pricing plans, each with a set number of emails at a specific monthly cost, similar to Postmark and Mailgun.
The 3 pricing plans are:
- Free plan: $0/month for 1000 emails per month.
- Allows sending 200 emails per day, and offers limited features.
- Starter plan: $15/month for 10,000 emails.
- $1.20 per extra 1,000 emails.
- Professional plan: $75/month for 100,000 emails.
- $0.85 per extra 1,000 emails.
- $0.85 per extra 1,000 emails.
Note: SMTP2GO offers a custom service called the Premier plan for sending 3,000,000+ emails.
Pros of SMTP2GO
- User-friendly interface.
- Ensures fast email delivery
- Provides high deliverability.
- Top-notch SMTP service.
- Affordable pricing structure.
- Offers a free plan.
- Reliable support
Cons of SMTP2GO
- Limited features
- Limitations in the free plan
Features: Amazon SES vs Mailgun vs SMTP2GO
Here is a feature comparison chart of Amazon SES, Mailgun, and SMTP2GO based on essential features significant to email senders. Take a glance at it to determine which one covers most of your requirements.
| Feature | Amazon SES | Mailgun | SMTP2GO |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMTP support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| API support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Deliverability | Good | Very good | High priority |
| Built-in email template editor | No, via code only | Yes | Yes, through programming |
| A/B testing | No | Yes | No |
| Analytics and reporting | Basic | Detailed | Clear |
| Inbound email | Yes | Yes | No |
| User interface | Minimal | Modern and user-friendly | User friendly |
Pricing Chart for Amazon SES vs Mailgun vs SMTP2GO Pricing
Let’s examine the pricing chart based on email sending volume with the suitable paid plans of:
Amazon SES: PAYG plan (excluding the first 12 months free costing)
Mailgun: Suitable monthly plan
SMTP2GO: Suitable monthly plan
| Email sending/month | Amazon SES | Mailgun | SMTP2GO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $1 (with PAYG plan) | $15 (with Basic plan) | $15 (with Basic plan) |
| 50,000 | $5 (with PAYG plan) | $35 (with Foundation plan) | $30 (with Starter plan) |
| 100,000 | $10 (with PAYG plan) | $75 (with Foundation plan) | $75 (with Professional plan) |
| 250,000 | $25 (with PAYG plan) | $215 (with Scale plan) | $170 (with Professional plan) |
| 500,000 | $50 (with PAYG plan) | $400 (with Scale plan) | $280 (with Professional plan) |
This pricing chart provides an understanding of the different volume email sending costs from these three Postmark alternatives. As seen, Amazon SES is the most affordable one. If you are looking for an extremely affordable option, consider Amazon SES. However, if you want a more standard option with a better user interface and don’t want to be limited by the AWS Sandbox, then consider Mailgun and SMTP2GO as alternatives to Postmark. Determine and select which of these two meets your needs more, especially in terms of features and pricing.
Get further ideas on pricing for these two SMTPs, combining with MailBluster:
- MailBluster and Postmark Pricing Combo: Taking a Close Look
- MailBluster & Mailgun Pricing Combo: 6 Calculative Examples
Wrap Up
All the Postmark alternatives that are discussed here are effective SMTP providers. This blog presents a detailed discussion regarding Amazon SES, Mailgun, and SMTP2GO services. Choose the right one that aligns with your needs and connect your SMTP with MailBluster to have a seamless emailing experience.
For SMTP connecting guidelines, read: How to Connect MailBluster with Postmark, Mailgun & SMTP2GO
FAQ on Postmark Alternatives
The main reason for seeking Postmark alternatives is due to its expensive pricing.
Mailgun and SMTP2GO provide a free plan, which is especially designed for developers for testing purposes. Mailgun also offers free trials, and Amazon SES has a free pricing plan that can be utilized for testing.
Some less pricey Postmark alternatives are Amazon SES, Mailgun, and SMTP2GO.
Both provide good service. Mailgun is quite similar to Postmark, except for some slight differences in features and pricing. However, Mailgun can be a less pricey option for you than Postmark.
Amazon SES is a cost-effective solution, particularly for businesses already utilizing AWS, whereas Postmark is often preferred for its user-friendly interface and emphasis on transactional emails. Also, it’s highly inexpensive than Postmark.
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