Resend vs SendGrid vs SMTPfast: Which Email API to Use

The Email API Landscape

Here is how the three compare.

Pricing

SendGrid looks cheap at 50K+ but their deliverability on the starter plans is inconsistent, and their dashboard is showing its age.

Resend has excellent developer experience, and its paid tiers now include a broader set of features than early Resend did. The tradeoff is still price once you move past the Pro tier.

Developer Experience

Resend set the bar with their clean API and React Email integration. Minimal, well-documented, and their dashboard is beautiful.

SendGrid has a powerful API but the documentation is spread across multiple generations of their product. Setting up can feel overwhelming.

SMTPfast keeps the simplicity of Resend's API design and adds hosted signup forms. Contacts, broadcasts, suppressions, email logs and an SMTP relay come with every plan, and the plan limits are published in one place. One endpoint, one API key, no surprises.

Deliverability

All three use major infrastructure providers under the hood:

• SMTPfast: AWS SES
• Resend: AWS SES
• SendGrid: Own infrastructure

SES-based services benefit from Amazon's massive sender reputation. SendGrid's own infrastructure is proven but you share IP reputation with other senders on lower tiers.

Who Should Use What?

Use SMTPfast if: You want a simple API, SMTP relay, transparent pricing, live logs, and lightweight growth tools in the same product.

Use Resend if: You love React Email templates and are willing to pay a premium for the ecosystem.

Use SendGrid if: You need marketing email features (campaigns, templates, contact management) alongside transactional emails.

The Bottom Line

For pure transactional email sending, SMTPfast offers the best price-to-simplicity ratio. If you are just sending password resets, order confirmations, and notifications, you do not need the complexity of SendGrid or the premium of Resend.