Resend vs SendGrid for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Resend Overview

Resend was built by the team behind React Email, and it shows. The API is clean, the documentation is clear, and sending your first email takes about five minutes. If you've ever fought with SMTP configuration, bounce handling, and deliverability issues, Resend makes all of that disappear behind a simple REST API.

The React Email integration is what sets Resend apart. You build email templates as React components with full TypeScript support, hot reload during development, and a preview server to see your emails before sending. No more editing HTML tables with inline styles. You write JSX, and React Email compiles it to email-compatible HTML. For a React developer, this is a massive workflow improvement.

Deliverability is excellent. Emails land in inboxes, not spam folders. The analytics dashboard shows opens, clicks, and bounces. Domain verification is guided and straightforward. I set up Resend for a project and had verified sending working in under 10 minutes.

SendGrid Overview

SendGrid is the veteran email platform, now owned by Twilio. It handles both transactional and marketing email, which means you can send password reset emails and newsletter campaigns from the same platform. The scale is proven. SendGrid delivers billions of emails monthly for companies of all sizes.

The feature set is comprehensive. Email templates with a visual editor, contact management, scheduled sending, A/B testing for subject lines, and detailed analytics. If you need a single platform that handles every type of email your business might send, SendGrid covers it.

SendGrid has been around long enough that every framework and language has a working integration. The free tier gives you 100 emails per day, which is identical to Resend. For solo developers who need both transactional and marketing capabilities, SendGrid avoids the need for two separate services.

Key Differences

Developer experience is night and day. Resend's API is modern and minimal. You import the SDK, call resend.emails.send(), and you're done. SendGrid's API works but feels dated. The Node.js SDK requires more configuration, the error messages are less helpful, and the dashboard is cluttered with features you probably don't need.

Email template workflow. Resend uses React Email where you build templates as React components with JSX. SendGrid has a drag-and-drop template editor in the browser and dynamic templates with Handlebars syntax. For a developer, writing templates in React with hot reload is significantly more productive than using a browser-based editor or Handlebars.

Marketing email. SendGrid includes marketing campaign features: contact lists, segmentation, automation flows, and scheduling. Resend is transactional only. If you need to send newsletters or promotional emails, SendGrid handles both in one platform. With Resend, you'd need a separate marketing email tool like Buttondown or ConvertKit.

Deliverability reputation. This one is nuanced. SendGrid has had reported deliverability issues in recent years, partly because their massive user base includes some lower-quality senders that can affect shared IP reputation. Resend is newer with a smaller, more curated user base, which tends to mean better deliverability on shared IPs.

Pricing at scale. Resend costs $20/month for 50,000 emails. SendGrid costs $19.95/month for 50,000 emails. Nearly identical. The real cost difference is your time. Resend's simpler API and React Email templates save development hours.

When to Choose Resend

• You want the simplest, most modern email API available
• You're a React developer who'd benefit from React Email templates
• You only need transactional email (welcome, password reset, notifications)
• Developer experience and clean documentation matter to you
• You want to set up email sending in under 10 minutes

When to Choose SendGrid

• You need both transactional and marketing email in one platform
• You want a visual template editor for non-developers to use
• You need contact management and email list segmentation
• You're sending at high volume where SendGrid's proven infrastructure matters
• You need A/B testing for email campaigns

The Verdict

For solo developers who need transactional email, pick Resend. The developer experience is the best in the industry, React Email templates are a genuine productivity boost, and the setup time is measured in minutes. You'll send password resets, welcome emails, and notifications without thinking about email infrastructure.

If you also need marketing email (newsletters, campaigns, drip sequences), SendGrid makes sense as a single platform. Running two separate services adds complexity.

My honest take: most solo developers only need transactional email at the start. Use Resend for that. If you later need marketing email, add a dedicated tool like Buttondown or ConvertKit that does marketing email better than SendGrid anyway. Specialization beats all-in-one platforms, especially when you're building alone and want each tool to just work.