10 Reliable Transactional Email Service Providers for 2017

This article was last updated on March 27, 2020

Transactional emails are an essential part of every email marketer’s arsenal. These are the type of emails that get triggered by a certain action made by the user such as account creation, password reset, notifications for profile activity, etc. Transactional emails are usually expected and this is why they generate high open rates.

Nowadays, there are a lot of transactional email service providers that can handle the sending and delivery of such emails in a timely manner. These services should have automated email response tools,  the ability to customize emails, administration tools for tracking and other services. Here is our selection of 10 reliable transactional email service providers.

1. Amazon SES (Simple Email Service)

A great cost-effective and reliable transactional email service, initially developed for Amazon’s own needs to communicate with their users. The platform is now available for everyone and used by famous brands such as HBO, Siemens, InVision and others. Here are the benefits you get:

• Affordable and cost-effective transactional email service, plus a free option.
• Technology protecting the sender reputation which ensures high deliverability.
• Configuration set for all emails you send.

2. Mandrill by MailChimp

Mandrill is a transactional email service offered by MailChimp as a paid add-on. This means you need to have a paid MailChimp account to use it. Mandrill is one of the most popular transactional email services known for speed and reliability. Unfortunately, there is no longer a free plan. Here are the features you get:

• Servers all over the world. This significantly increases the speed messages get sent.
• Support of multiple domains per account for no additional charge.
• Groups of dedicated IPs called pools. You choose from which group Mandrill should send from.
• Track spam with automatic feedback loops.
• Smooth transition to a new IP.

3. SendGrid

Used by famous brands such as Spotify, airbnb, Uber and more, SendGrid is known for its very high deliverability. More than 30 billion emails per month get sent via the platform. SendGrid is a service for both transactional emails and email marketing campaigns. Here is what else you get:

• Easy integration with the SendGrid email API.
• Great analytical tools to follow the important metrics such as opens, clicks, bounces.
• Drag and drop editor.
• 30-day free trial.

4. Pepipost

Pepipost is a service for transactional emails that provides two options for sending emails – SMTP relay and Web API. The provider doesn’t store your emails and uses email protocols like SSL & TLS encryption to protect your data.  You can integrate the provider with the apps and platforms you already use. Here is what else you get:

• 30,000 free emails every month.
• You get cashback on all emails opened.
• Live reports of when and how the APIs deliver your emails.
• 24/7 live chat support.
• Real-time notifications.

5. SendInBlue

With over 30 million emails sent daily and 50k companies using SendInBlue including BMW, Michelin, Spiegel and others, this platform is one of the most popular transaction email service providers. It covers:

• A powerful API to send, receive and track emails.
• Email and sms personalizations.
• Track the status of all emails you send.
• A dedicated IP to improve your sender reputation.
• Different plans according to your needs, including a free plan.
• Email template gallery and drag’n’drop editor.

6. MailGun

This transactional email service provider offers a cloud-based email service that is mainly purposed for developers. With an easy to use control panel, simple pricing and volume discounts, MailGun is an attractive option especially for coders. It is used by famous brands such as Github, heroku, Uservoice and others. Here are the key factors:

• You get 10,000 messages and 100 validations for free every month.
• The software automatically delivers your emails at the best time.
• Each domain is a separate sub-account.
• Account logs are kept for 30 days.
• Email personalization via recipient variables.

7. Mailjet

Built for both developers and marketers, this service makes it easy to send customized and personalized transactional emails at jet-speed. Besides being a transactional email service provider, Mailjet also offers email marketing, email automation, zone for developers and other services. Here are some of the features you get:

• Strong and scalable delivery infrastructure.
• Gallery of pre-designed transactional email templates.
• Split testing.
• Easy customization of templates with a drag-and-drop function.
• Analytical tools.

8. Postmark

Postmark is a transactional email service provider for web applications, focused exclusively on delivering transactional emails fast and reliably. The brand strives to maintain a high reputation as a transactional email service provider, so they manually review every new account. Check out some of the benefits you get:

• The first 25,000 emails are for free.
• Developer friendly infrastructure.
• Content history is kept for 45 days.
• Detailed tracking of deliveries, opens, and clicks.
• Responsive email templates.

9. Elastic Email

Elastic Email is a provider which offers designers, marketers and developers to manage all of their email marketing campaigns in one place. The brand maintains a fast global infrastructure for transactional emails. Here is what you get if you choose Elastic Email.

• 150,000 free emails per month.
• Pre-designed templates and drag-and-drop editor.
• Autoresponders and drip campaigns.
• Detailed analytics of delivery results.
• A/X testing – test the performance of different email campaigns with up to 4 variables.
• Flexible API.
• 24/7 global support.

10. SparkPost

Being relatively new, SparkPost is a service used by some major brands such as Pinterest and Zillow. The provider claims that they send 25% of the world’s non-spam emails. SparkPost provides you with a cloud-based platform that is reliable and scalable. Here are more benefits you receive:

• Free trial, Volume pricing and Add-on plans.
• Developer friendly service.
• 35+ real-time email metrics to help you follow the sending process, delivery, and customer engagement.
• Email templates that can be personalized +  email preview.
• Fast technical support.

Bottom line,

All of these transactional email service providers are reliable and used by big companies and brands. It’s up to you to choose which one of these will fit your needs the best. Do you have any other reliable transactional email service providers in mind that you’d like to mention in the Comments’ section below?