SendGrid · Managed platform
Last updated · Written by Temps, one of the products compared. Sources and method
Temps vs SendGrid
Send through your own provider, not a middleman.
Monthly cost at a glance
The short answer
Is Temps better than SendGrid? It depends on what you need. Here is what each one is, and what SendGrid has that Temps doesn't.
- SendGrid
- SendGrid is a managed sending service at $19.95/month for Essentials and $89.95/month for Pro, with a vendor accountable for deliverability.
- Temps
- Temps sends transactional mail through a provider you connect (Amazon SES, Scaleway or any SMTP relay), adding domain setup, bounce and complaint suppression on SES and opt-in open and click tracking inside the platform at no extra platform cost. Deliverability is inherited from whichever provider you pick.
- What SendGrid has that Temps doesn't
- Dedicated IPs, IP warming, reputation management, managed bounce and complaint handling, and marketing campaigns. Temps is transactional only.
Scored, dimension by dimension
Platform cost
TempsTemps
$0 — included, your provider's rate applies
SendGrid
$19.95/mo Essentials, $89.95/mo Pro
Deliverability management
SendGridTemps
Inherited from your SMTP provider
SendGrid
Dedicated IPs, warming, reputation team
Bounce and complaint handling
SendGridTemps
Suppression list (bounces and complaints on SES)
SendGrid
Managed suppression lists
Marketing campaigns
SendGridTemps
Transactional only
SendGrid
Transactional plus marketing
Vendor lock-in
TempsTemps
Swap SMTP providers at any time
SendGrid
Templates and lists live in SendGrid
| Dimension | Temps | SendGrid | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform cost | $0 — included, your provider's rate applies | $19.95/mo Essentials, $89.95/mo Pro | Temps |
| Deliverability management | Inherited from your SMTP provider | Dedicated IPs, warming, reputation team | SendGrid |
| Bounce and complaint handling | Suppression list (bounces and complaints on SES) | Managed suppression lists | SendGrid |
| Marketing campaigns | Transactional only | Transactional plus marketing | SendGrid |
| Vendor lock-in | Swap SMTP providers at any time | Templates and lists live in SendGrid | Temps |
Why teams switch from SendGrid
SendGrid sells deliverability, and it is genuinely good at it — dedicated IPs, reputation management and the compliance work behind them. Temps does not replace that. It gives you transactional email as part of the platform, sending through Amazon SES, Scaleway or any SMTP relay, so you pay the provider rather than a layer on top.
- No permanent free tier to age out of
- SendGrid retired its free plans in 2025; what remains is a 60-day trial at 100 emails a day, after which Essentials starts at $19.95/month. Temps' email sending is included with the platform.
- Bring your own sending provider
- Send through Amazon SES, Scaleway or any SMTP relay, such as Cloudflare Email Service, Mailgun or Postmark. SES in particular is much cheaper per email than a managed sending API, and you keep the relationship with the provider.
- Email beside the app that sends it
- Temps deploys the application, tracks its errors and sends its transactional mail, so a failed password reset and the deploy that broke it are in the same place.
- No overage arithmetic
- SendGrid bills overages per email — $0.0013 on the 50K Essentials plan, $0.0009 on the 100K plan. Sending through your own provider means one bill at their rate.
Feature comparison
What each platform includes out of the box, and what needs a separate subscription.
Transactional email
Temps
YesAmazon SES, Scaleway or any SMTP relaySendGrid
YesManaged sending APIDeliverability engineering
Temps
NoSendGrid
YesThe actual product — reputation, warming, complianceDedicated IPs
Temps
NoSendGrid
YesIncluded from the Pro planEmail templates and editor
Temps
NoSendGrid
YesMarketing campaigns
Temps
NoSendGrid
YesSeparate product lineBounce and complaint handling
Temps
YesSuppression list; automatic on SESSendGrid
YesManaged for youOpen and click tracking
Temps
YesOpt-in per domainSendGrid
YesDeployments
Temps
YesGit-push PaaSSendGrid
NoNot a deployment platformError tracking
Temps
YesSentry-compatible DSNSendGrid
NoAnalytics and session replay
Temps
YesSendGrid
NoUptime monitoring
Temps
YesSendGrid
NoPermanent free tier
Temps
YesSelf-hostedSendGrid
No60-day trial, 100 emails/dayOpen source
Temps
YesMIT / Apache 2.0SendGrid
No
What it actually costs
For a low-volume app sending password resets and magic links, SendGrid's $19.95/month buys deliverability you would otherwise engineer yourself. At high volume it remains a reasonable deal, because reputation management is real work. The saving from Temps comes from sending through a provider like SES at cost, not from replacing what SendGrid actually does.
| Scenario | Temps | SendGrid |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 self-hosted | 60-day trial — 100 emails/day |
| Entry paid | $0 (included) | Essentials from $19.95/mo — 50K or 100K emails |
| Higher volume | $0 (included) | Pro from $89.95/mo — up to 2.5M emails, dedicated IPs |
| Overages | Your provider's rate | Essentials $0.0013/email (50K) or $0.0009 (100K); Pro $0.0011–$0.0005 |
| Infrastructure | Free on your own VPS | $0 — hosted for you |
SendGrid prices as of October 2026, from its published pricing page. Temps prices from /pricing.
Which one should you choose?
Choose Temps if you…
- You send low-volume transactional email — password resets, magic links, receipts
- You already have an SES, Scaleway or SMTP relay account and want to send at their rates
- You want email included with the platform rather than as another subscription
- You do not want a 60-day trial that turns into a bill
- You want the sending app, its errors and its email in one system
What SendGrid does better than Temps
- Deliverability is business-critical and you want someone accountable for it
- You need dedicated IPs, IP warming and reputation management
- You send marketing campaigns, not just transactional mail
- You want managed bounce, complaint and suppression handling
- You send at volume where a deliverability problem costs more than $89.95/month
Migrating from SendGrid
Medium difficulty
Connect a provider in Temps (Amazon SES, Scaleway or any SMTP relay) and send with one authenticated request. The code change is small. The part that is not small is deliverability: moving off SendGrid means you inherit SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup, bounce handling and sender reputation. Warm up gradually and watch your bounce rate; this is the reason to stay on SendGrid if email matters commercially.
Frequently asked questions
Does SendGrid have a free plan?
No. SendGrid retired its free plans starting May 27, 2025 and now offers a 60-day free trial at 100 emails per day. After the trial, Essentials starts at $19.95/month for 50,000 emails.
How much does SendGrid cost?
Essentials starts at $19.95/month for 50,000 or 100,000 emails, and Pro starts at $89.95/month for volumes up to 2.5 million with dedicated IPs. Overages are $0.0013 per email on the 50K plan and $0.0009 on the 100K plan. Premier is custom-priced for 5 million or more.
Can Temps replace SendGrid?
For sending transactional email, yes: Temps sends through Amazon SES, Scaleway or any SMTP relay, with bounce and complaint suppression on SES and opt-in open and click tracking. For deliverability engineering, dedicated IPs, marketing campaigns and managed reputation, no. Those are SendGrid's product.
Further reading
Transactional Email via SES, Scaleway or SMTP
Connect a provider, verify a sending domain and send from your app with one request.
Email provider API
Create, update and rotate the credentials of SES, Scaleway and SMTP providers.
How to Send Transactional Email Without SendGrid
DNS authentication, SES versus an SMTP relay, and warming up a new sender.
Self-hosted email open and click tracking
How open and click tracking works when the tracking domain is yours.
How we researched this comparison
SendGrid trial terms, Essentials and Pro pricing, volumes and overage rates read from Twilio SendGrid's public Email API pricing page. Temps capabilities from this repository. No benchmarks were run.
Disclosure: Temps publishes this page and is one of the products being compared. Reviewed by David Viejo, founder of Temps.
Ready to switch from SendGrid?
Self-host Temps for free, or run it with a Premium licence. Temps Cloud, a hosted control plane for your own servers, is $29/month in an invite-only beta, with your servers billed separately.