Resend vs MailerSend
React Email-first sending versus a modern API with visual template tooling.
What matters for developers picking email infrastructure
The question here is which one a backend engineer would rather operate. That means SDK depth in the language already in use, whether a retry can safely be replayed, how much the event log tells you when a customer says the email never arrived, and whether the pricing curve stays sane as volume grows.
| Priority | Resend | MailerSend |
|---|---|---|
| DX score | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| SDKs | node, python, go, ruby, php, rust, java, elixir, cli | node, python, go, ruby, php |
| Idempotency keys | Yes | No |
| Operating since | 2023 | 2020 |
| Event stream | Yes | Yes |
| Best published rate per 1,000 | $0.35 | Tiers not published in comparable form |
| Webhooks | Yes | Yes |
| Deliverability | Acceptable, but the deliverability track record is shorter than Postmark or SendGrid. Independent inbox-placement studies vary. Dedicated IPs are available on higher tiers. | Good and steadily improving; reputation managed via dedicated IP options on paid plans. |
| Free tier | 3,000/mo permanent, capped at 100/day, one domain | 500/mo permanent |
For a developer-owned stack running password resets, receipts, and magic links shipped from application code, Resend takes SDK breadth and idempotency keys, while MailerSend takes operating track record. On free tier, Resend offers 3,000/mo permanent, capped at 100/day, one domain against 500/mo permanent from MailerSend. That ordering reflects this audience. Weigh the same table differently and the answer changes.
Side by side
| Feature | Resend | MailerSend |
|---|---|---|
| DX score | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| SDKs | node, python, go, ruby, php, rust, java, elixir, cli | node, python, go, ruby, php |
| Webhooks | Yes | Yes |
| Deliverability | Acceptable, but the deliverability track record is shorter than Postmark or SendGrid. Independent inbox-placement studies vary. Dedicated IPs are available on higher tiers. | Good and steadily improving; reputation managed via dedicated IP options on paid plans. |
| Free tier | 3,000/mo permanent, capped at 100/day, one domain | 500/mo permanent |
| Tagline | Email API tightly coupled to React Email. | Modern transactional API with a clean UI. |
| Starts at | $20/mo for 50,000 emails | $7/mo for 5,000 emails |
| Pricing model | tiered | tiered |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| Templates | react-email | rich |
| React Email | Yes | No |
| Inbound | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-tenant | No | Yes |
| Idempotency | Yes | No |
| Dedicated IP | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | Early-stage React or Next.js product teams sending under 50k/mo. | Teams that want both API and visual template editing. |
Resend
- ›Idiomatic SDKs across major languages
- ›React Email integration is the smoothest of any provider
- ›Idempotency keys supported
- ›Clean dashboard and event log
- ›Volume pricing is significantly higher than AWS SES at large volumes
- ›Founded 2023, so deliverability track record and incident history are still building
- ›No drag-and-drop template editor; non-React stacks get a thinner experience
- ›Free tier is capped at 100 sends a day, so a 3,000/mo allowance cannot absorb a launch spike
- ›January 2024 breach exposed email metadata, contacts, and encrypted API tokens for all users; message bodies were not reached
- ›Status page logged roughly ten incidents in the three weeks to 2026-08-01, mostly outside the sending path: dashboard, webhooks, domain verification, and automations
- ›Single-region historically; multi-region setup is newer
- ›Smaller support footprint than Twilio SendGrid or Sinch Mailgun
MailerSend
- ›Drag-and-drop templates plus API
- ›Inbound routing supported
- ›Sub-accounts for agencies
- ›Smaller SDK footprint than SendGrid
- ›Brand and ecosystem less recognized than older providers