Best permanent free tiers
Limited to providers with a permanent free tier as of the last check. Trials excluded.
criteria
- Monthly send volume
- Daily caps
- Feature limitations
- 01
Sender
Marketing2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails/mo on a permanent free plan. Strongest free marketing tier in this set.
- 02
SendPulse
Transactional Marketing12,000 transactional SMTP emails/mo is unusually generous, though the free plan is hourly capped.
- 03
Mailjet
Transactional Marketing6,000/mo capped at 200/day. Permanent and useful for steady low-volume sends.
- 04
Loops
Marketing TransactionalUnlimited emails on the Free plan within a 1,000-contact ceiling. Different model: optimal when your contact list grows slowly but your volume is high.
- 05
Brevo
Transactional Marketing300/day permanent. Best for low daily volumes that do not spike on launch day.
- 06
Mailtrap
Transactional Testing4,000/mo permanent on the sending side, plus a free testing tier.
- 07
Resend
Transactional3,000/mo permanent on a single domain.
- 08
MailerSend
Transactional3,000/mo permanent.
- 09
Plunk
Self-hosted Marketing3,000/mo on hosted free plan, or self-host for unlimited.
- 10
Amazon SES
TransactionalNew accounts get up to $200 in AWS credits for six months. The old 62,000/mo-from-EC2 allowance is gone.
- 11
SMTP2GO
Transactional1,000/mo permanent, no daily cap.
All 11 compared
Every provider in this ranking against the priorities developers picking email infrastructure weigh. Free tier and entry price sit with each pick above.
| Provider | DX score | SDKs | Idempotency keys | Operating since | Event stream | Best published rate per 1,000 | Webhooks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sender | 6/10 | None | No | 2012 | Yes | Tiers not published in comparable form | Yes |
| SendPulse | 6/10 | None | No | Not published | Yes | Tiers not published in comparable form | Yes |
| Mailjet | 6/10 | node, python, go, ruby, php, java, dotnet | No | Not published | Yes | Tiers not published in comparable form | Yes |
| Loops | 9/10 | node, python, go, ruby, php | No | 2022 | Yes | Tiers not published in comparable form | Yes |
| Brevo | 7/10 | node, python, go, ruby, php, java, dotnet | No | 2012 | Yes | Tiers not published in comparable form | Yes |
| Mailtrap | 8/10 | node, python, go, ruby, php, elixir | No | 2014 | Yes | Tiers not published in comparable form | Yes |
| Resend | 8/10 | node, python, go, ruby, php, rust, java, elixir, cli | Yes | 2023 | Yes | $0.35 | Yes |
| MailerSend | 8/10 | node, python, go, ruby, php | No | 2020 | Yes | Tiers not published in comparable form | Yes |
| Plunk | 7/10 | node, python | No | Not published | Yes | Tiers not published in comparable form | Yes |
| Amazon SES | 4/10 | node, python, go, ruby, php, java, rust, dotnet | No | 2011 | Yes | $0.10 | No |
| SMTP2GO | 7/10 | node, python, go, ruby, php | No | 2006 | Yes | Tiers not published in comparable form | Yes |
If you are 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.
The order above is the general editorial ranking. Re-sorted against developer experience, SDK breadth, and idempotency keys, the shortlist for password resets, receipts, and magic links shipped from application code becomes Resend, Mailjet, and Loops. That differs from the headline order, which weighs all audiences together.