Two transactional email providers, compared on price, features and ratings, so you can pick fast.
Updated October 2026
THE VERDICT
SendGrid wins on deliverability and developer experience. SparkPost wins on reviews.
SendGrid starts at $14.95 versus SparkPost's $20. Pick based on volume and team, and the scorecard below breaks down where each one leads.
Winner cells are tinted, green where SendGrid leads, violet where SparkPost does.
FAQ
SendGrid starts at $14.95 versus SparkPost's $20. Because pricing models differ by tier, the cheaper option depends on your monthly volume, so compare the pricing rows in the scorecard above.
Paid plans start with the Essentials tier at $19.95 per month, which covers up to 50,000 emails per month. Higher Essentials and Pro tiers scale by volume, up to millions of emails per month, and add features like dedicated IP addresses, subusers, and priority support. Premier is custom priced for very high volume senders, and separate Marketing Campaigns plans are priced by contacts.
On current Bird pricing, signup provides a test API key for evaluation rather than an ongoing free production allowance. SparkPost historically offered a free monthly volume for some accounts, but the published Bird email plans now start with the paid Starter tier. Teams needing a permanent free sending quota should confirm current terms directly with Bird.
Yes. Many teams route different message types through different providers or fail over between them. Courier lets you send through both behind a single API and switch providers without changing your code.
Why not both?
Use both behind one API.
Route SendGrid, SparkPost, or both, and switch providers without changing your code. Courier sits in front of every channel.
Pricing, plans and feature availability as of October 2026 and may change. Ratings are aggregated from public review platforms. SendGrid is a Twilio product; SparkPost is a Bird (MessageBird) product.