Although transactional email services aren’t the most interesting emails a client gets from you, they are among the first and have very high open rates, making them an often-overlooked opportunity in the sea of email marketing newsletters. Much higher than emails used for marketing. A shipment update, a welcome email, an order confirmation, or even a new device login are all chances to establish and improve connections with customers.
Perhaps a consumer who has placed an order with you is considering purchasing more of your goods. Perhaps they need a refresher on the product tour since they are checking in after a lengthy period and are changing their password. Every transactional email is an opportunity to deliver tailored offers and strengthen client trust.
Top Transactional Email Services
1. SendGrid
SendGrid is one of the best transactional email services if you want to handle both your marketing and transactional emails in one location. Since transactional emails form the foundation of SendGrid’s operations, it should come as no surprise that it dominates this market. Additionally, it compares rather well to certain other well-known brands.
For instance, SendGrid’s user-friendly email editor and deliverability analytics make it superior to Mailchimp (if you want further help, SendGrid even provides deliverability consultation). SendGrid provides deliverability analytics, category comparisons, an expert insights report, and more.
Furthermore, SendGrid offers all the functionalities since it is primarily a transactional email service, but Mailchimp Transactional Email lacks the usual Mailchimp user interface and data. Likewise, SendGrid’s API interfaces and support for many frameworks, including Java, PHP, Go, Python, and C#, set it apart from competing programs like Sendinblue.
Email templates from SendGrid are excellent for personalizing and branding communications. You may change the design, add your code, and even add your brand’s logo. However, compared to transactional emails, the majority of the email templates are more appropriate for marketing emails.
Their email testing, which allows you to test how your emails appear and function on various devices and do inbox rendering, particularly pleased me. Though this simplicity of use has a cost: if you’re searching for sophisticated automation and processes, SendGrid is probably not the best email marketing platform for you.
Only ticket assistance is included in the free plan. You also receive a chat assistance option as you go through the programs. But phone help is only available for the most costly subscriptions (Pro and Premium). SendGrid’s extensive analytics and email testing features make it very simple to make continuous improvements to your emails based on user input.
SendGrid is the choice if you want to handle all your transactional and email marketing tasks in one location without compromising the transactional side of things (if you don’t want to commit to both services right now, you may alternatively buy marketing and transactional email services individually).
Features:
- Customizable Templates.
- Real-Time Reporting.
- Single Email Verification.
- Syntax Check.
- Disposable Email Detection.
- Communication Management.
- Click Tracking.
- Chat/Messaging.
- Catch-all Server Detection.
- Reporting & Statistics and many more.
Price:
- Free plan available.
- Basic: $15/month.
- Essentials: $19.95/month.
- Pro: $89.95/month.
2. Mailchimp Transactional Email
The industry leader in email marketing, Mailchimp, created Mailchimp Transactional Email (previously Mandrill) as a premium add-on so that any Mailchimp user may send transactional emails directly from Mailchimp.
Therefore, there’s no need to utilize a separate app for transactional emails if you’re already using Mailchimp as your email marketing platform (if you aren’t currently using Mailchimp, I wouldn’t suggest it since you need to establish an account to utilize Mailchimp Transactional Email; unlike SendGrid, you can’t buy simply the latter).
Although Mailchimp provides extensive API documentation, which I found useful when navigating the system, you may still want assistance from your technical team to complete the setup process. Simply logging in and getting started is not straightforward. However, there is a great deal of space for rule-making and user journey optimization.
If the word “event” appears in the subject line of any email, for instance, you may set up a “Reminder” email sequence to be sent at regular intervals to encourage your subscribers to attend an event they have joined. If you don’t know how to code, the modifications section isn’t innovative. There are no drag-and-drop capabilities in the text email builder to add photos, a logo, or other branding elements to your emails.
Features:
- Campaign Tracking.
- Social Media Monitoring.
- Dashboard.
- Responsive Web Design.
- Behavioral Analytics.
- Geolocation.
- Unsubscribe Database.
- Pre-built Templates.
- Lead Segmentation.
- Visual Analytics and many more.
Price:
- Free plan available.
- Essential: $13/month.
- Standard: $20/month.
- Premium: $350/month.
3. Mailgun
You may send, monitor, and improve many transactional email and marketing campaign types using this one of the best transactional email services. They just unveiled a set of products that includes Mailgun Send, Mailgun Validate, and Mailgun Optimize (an email deliverability tool). Here, users concentrated on Mailgun Send, which enables SMTP or API methods with code examples and instructions to facilitate integration.
The user-friendly statistics dashboard is one of Mailgun Send’s best features. Additionally, the platform offers a drag-and-drop and/or HTML editor for users to build and save templates. The designs were adequate for basic purchase confirmation emails or other transactional alerts, but I felt they were a little too small for marketing efforts.
The ability to move between the US and EU regions, each with its own SMTP and API endpoints (available in subscription plans), is another helpful feature. Setting up Mailgun Send takes technical know-how. Mailtrap’s documents, however, were simpler for me to read and comprehend. For further comparisons between Mailgun and its rivals, see this blog article.
Features:
- Syntax Check.
- Spam Blocker.
- Single Email Verification.
- Domain Check.
- Routing.
- Email Campaign Management.
- Spam Detection.
- Disposable Email Detection.
- A/B Testing.
- Autoresponders and many more.
Price:
- Free plan available.
- Basic: $15/month.
- Foundation: $35/month.
- Scale: $90/month.
4. Brevo
With its Marketing Platform, Conversations, Sales Platform, and Transactional Email tools, Brevo (previously Sendinblue) is a CRM system. SMTP and API are examples of integration possibilities. The wizard itself has PHP and Postfix examples. Moreover, Brevo Transactional Email offers official SDKs for several frameworks and languages.
You may send emails using Brevo without adding or confirming the domain being sent. A free email account may be used. Users highly advise against it, however, since it will have a detrimental effect on your deliverability, particularly when using Google and Yahoo.
Consequently, if you decide to use Brevo for transactional email, be careful to add a sending domain and verify it using DMARC, SPF, and DKIM. Both the UI and the manuals are really easy to use. However, instead of being transactional as anticipated, certain settings are found in the profile menu. In the beginning, this may be a little puzzling.
Features:
- Activity Dashboard.
- Interaction Tracking.
- Real-Time Analytics.
- Real-Time Data.
- Message Personalization.
- Email Management.
- Campaign Planning.
- Email Distribution.
- Email Tracking.
- Alerts/Notifications and many more.
Price:
- Free plan available.
- Starter: $9/month.
- Business: $18/month.
5. Amazon SES
One of the most affordable choices for transactional email services is Amazon SES (Simple Email Services). It has a dedicated free tier and is especially useful for those who are currently using EC2 and AWS infrastructure.
Users are entitled to 3,000 so-called message charges for free over the first 12 months. These “charges” include Virtual Deliverability Manager and incoming and outgoing emails. Following the free trial, each 1,000 emails will cost $0.10 (other costs apply).
You still have to pay for any add-ons you buy and data transfer costs even during the free trial. In general, their price structure is rather complex. To find out the precise amount you would pay, users advise visiting Amazon’s SES price website.
SES provides email templates, suppression management, reputation metrics, rudimentary analytics, and a dedicated IP (at an extra cost). Although AWS is undoubtedly designed for technical teams seeking rudimentary email functions, it is dependable for transactional messaging.
Features:
- Email Monitoring.
- Template Management.
- Email Campaign Management.
- Campaign Management.
- List Management.
Price:
- $0: First 62,000 emails each month.
- $0.10: Every 1,000 emails after that.
6. Postmark
Transactional email is Postmark’s only area of expertise, and it does it well. It returns to the fundamentals and concentrates on sending emails. With a distinct message stream for transactional emails to guarantee timely arrival in the main inbox, Postmark stands out for its quick email delivery, which attempts to deliver all of your emails within 10 seconds after you hit send.
During testing, users were able to confirm that the email they sent was delivered seven or eight seconds after it was sent. The setup instructions were rather simple for users. All you have to do is choose your preferred language or framework and get setup instructions. They decided to use my website’s WordPress plugin for setup, and it took less than ten minutes.
Additionally, compared to the other applications on our list, their knowledge base appeared much more accessible. Furthermore, Postmark offers several helpful email templates for certain use situations, such as password reset and welcome emails.
Features:
- Spam Blocker.
- Data Recovery.
- Search/Filter.
- Response Management.
- Reporting/Analytics.
- Queue Management.
- Third-Party Integrations.
- Template Management.
- Routing.
- Real-Time Analytics and many more.
Price: Price starts from $10/month.
7. MailerSend
For developers and non-tech teams, MailerSend is a dream come true. Although its drag-and-drop email builder is quite user-friendly, developers who need HTML and a sophisticated text editor may also use it. You never have to start from scratch since there are several transactional email templates available.
The drag-and-drop email builder was my choice, and I discovered 30 templates, ranging from simple shipping alerts to intricate ones like order-on-hold. Adding and removing different content blocks (social links, images, etc.), altering the background, and changing sections all took less than 15 minutes when users tested the invoice receipt email template (assuming users had all the details and attachments on my desktop).
It might be daunting due to its abundance of features. However, MailerSend is among the greatest email design tools on our list if you get the hang of it. The whole setup procedure was also rather simple; when you complete the configuration, a chatbox with domain authentication instructions appears.
The fact that there was a guide accessible for many domain providers, such as GoDaddy, Wix, Namecheap, and others, meant that a user didn’t have to look for additional information outside of the app, which was quite beneficial to me. However, the free plan offers email help, while the pricier plans include chat support in case anything doesn’t work. No plan includes phone help.
Features:
- Click Tracking.
- Template Management.
- Subscription Management.
- Drag & Drop.
- Email Tracking.
- Activity Dashboard.
- Third-Party Integrations.
- Activity Tracking.
- Geolocation.
- Contact Database and many more.
Price:
- Free plan available.
- Starter: $28/month.
- Professional: $88/month.
8. Mailjet
We know this French firm quite well. Mostly for their newsletter editor, which we have thoroughly examined here. However, transactional emails are really where they first appeared. So, just what’s the matter? One of the less expensive newsletter software companies available is Mailjet, which charges $15 for 15,000 emails.
Along with transactional emails, you’ll also receive A/B testing, SMS marketing, a drag-and-drop email editor, and basic automation. They received one of the best scores in the best transactional email services list. Moreover, Mailjet hosts GDPR-compliant client data in EU nations.
Features:
- Email Tracking.
- Email Marketing.
- Activity Tracking.
- Email Management.
- Alerts/Notifications.
- Reporting & Statistics.
- Archiving & Retention.
- Data Import/Export.
- Routing.
- Social Media Integration and many more.
Price:
- Free plan available.
- Essential: $17/month.
- Premium: $27/month.
9. ZeptoMail
ZeptoMail has greater support than SendGrid. All of its plans, including the free one, provide round-the-clock email and phone support, which sets it apart from the competition in the transactional email service industry. It belongs to the Zoho software suite, which is renowned for being reasonably priced.
The email templates in ZeptoMail are another feature that people adore. There are many choices available, and customizing them is simple. A drag-and-drop builder similar to MailerSend exists; however, it isn’t as comprehensive. User experience with the app was somewhat better than SendGrid, people would say.
Although simple to set up, it is not as seamless as Postmark. To set up your SMTP or API, you may need some technical help at first (which is fantastic with their round-the-clock phone support!). However, the program is simple to use following this hiccup. To send your transactional emails, you may use more than one mail agent.
Features:
- Email Distribution.
- Reporting/Analytics.
- Click Tracking.
- Email Management.
- Event-Triggered Actions.
- Subscription Management.
- Template Management.
Price: Starts from $2.5, one-time payment.
Why You Need Transactional Email Services
In today’s digital landscape, transactional email services are essential for maintaining customer trust and engagement. These are the automated messages sent in response to a user’s specific action, such as order confirmations, password resets, or account updates.
While transactional emails are functional by nature, they offer much more than just a confirmation—they present a significant opportunity for businesses to enhance their communication with customers. One of the primary reasons you need transactional email services is reliability. These services ensure that your emails are delivered promptly and without fail.
Unlike promotional emails, which may end up in spam folders, transactional emails are more likely to reach your customers due to their time-sensitive nature and content. This boosts customer satisfaction and retention, as people expect to receive immediate confirmation and follow-up communication on actions like making a purchase or updating their profile.
Transactional email services also improve branding opportunities. While these emails are expected to be straightforward, they don’t have to be plain. With proper customization, businesses can use them as an extension of their brand, incorporating logos, personalized messages, and helpful information. This can significantly improve the user experience, providing clarity and reassurance.
Additionally, transactional emails can drive further engagement. Including helpful links, product recommendations, or promotions in these emails can help guide customers toward further interactions with your business. By investing in transactional email services, businesses can enhance both their operational efficiency and their customer relationships.
FAQ
Q: How do transactional emails operate?
A: Messages delivered in reaction to a user’s activity on a website or application are known as transactional emails. They are usually given to people one at a time and include information or material unique to that person. Emails requesting a password reset are one example.
Q: When is the best time to send transactional emails?
A: Transactional emails are often sent in response to a request or action from the contact and are usually about changes to subscriber accounts or transactions. Order confirmations, password reminders, product alerts, and account balance updates are a few examples.
Q: Is an address required for transactional emails?
A: Even though it’s not necessary to include the physical address and unsubscribe link in your transactional emails, it’s still advisable to be safer than sorry.
