SendGrid Review 2024: Features, Pricing and Alternatives

SendGrid is a powerful cloud-based platform that caters to email marketing needs — on SendGrid, marketers can create, manage, and optimize email campaigns plus capture leads. The platform is owned by Twilio, which provides custom communication solutions for businesses to manage customers through channels like SMS, voice calls, chat, and video.

With SendGrid, you can either opt for its “Email API” plans or the “Marketing Campaigns” plans. 

The Email API integrates with various marketing automation tools and CRMs, allowing you to streamline your marketing efforts. If you’re looking for a full-fledged email marketing platform, you will need to choose one of its “Marketing Campaigns” plans. The two packages are priced differently.

But the key question here is: Is SendGrid the right ESP for your needs? What are its strengths and weaknesses? We look to online reviews and a study of its features to better understand whether you should sign up or consider an alternative.

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SendGrid: Feature-Packed Email Marketing Platform

Twilio SendGrid offers a suite of tools to help businesses with tasks such as email marketing campaign management, marketing automation, analytics, A/B testing, and compliance. 

SendGrid’s list of features:

Feature	What it means
Email marketing	Create and manage email marketing campaigns, including scheduling and tracking performance metrics.
Autoresponders	Enables automatic email responses based on predefined triggers or actions.
A/B testing	Test different email variations such as subject lines, content, or CTAs to determine which performs better.
Spam testing	Analyze email content to identify potential spam triggers.
Signup forms	Create customizable forms that users can embed on their websites to capture email addresses.
Personalization	Dynamically insert recipient-specific information, such as name, location, or custom data to make emails more appealing.
Template library	Pre-designed email templates that users can customize and use for their campaigns.
Email validation	Only available on the top paid plans, this feature validates email addresses on your contacts list.
Analytics	Analytics and reporting tools to track email performance metrics, such as delivery rates, open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
Third-party integration	Integrates with third-party platforms and services, such as CRM systems, e-commerce platforms, and analytics tools.
Webhook	Enables real-time communication between the ESP and external systems, allowing users to trigger actions or receive notifications based on specific events.
Two-factor authentication	Enhances account security by requiring users to provide two forms of identification when accessing their account.

From the looks of it, SendGrid is feature-packed. It has all the tools an email marketer needs to run robust email marketing campaigns. 

But just how good is it? Let’s look for answers in SendGrid testimonials written by current and ex-customers. 

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Customer Feedback About SendGrid

Studying verified reviews online is the best way to assess how good a service is. We turned to sites like G2 and GetApp to find authentic reviews and get a clear idea of how customers really felt about SendGrid. 

The purpose is to get a balanced view of things, by studying positive and negative reviews equally; an added benefit is that if there are any serious issues with the service — maybe a recurring problem — it usually gets mentioned in online reviews.

Positive Reviews of SendGrid

This happy customer has words of praise for SendGrid’s simplicity and mentions the email templates, which seem popular, going by most of the positive reviews. The template library has modern templates that are easy to edit — the email editor gets brownie points for being simple, too.

This long-term user uses SendGrid on a basic level, sending reminder emails and using it to manage their clinic’s customers. They’re happy with the templates and write that SendGrid is simple to use.

This customer has positive things to say about SendGrid’s email editor and the template library gets a mention as well. The client is also happy with the engagement metrics data available on the analytics dashboard.

In this review, the user talks about how they use SendGrid forms to collect feedback from current customers and also build their leads database. They include points about ease of use for features like email personalization and integration.

Negative Reviews of SendGrid

In the critical reviews, we looked for recurring themes — below, we have compiled reviews with issues that were mentioned more than once.

This was the most recent review for SendGrid at the time of writing this article and it’s not a good look for SendGrid. This customer’s account was deactivated without explanation after an email blast; this made the included links fail, which made their brand look extremely unprofessional. They claim customer care did nothing to help them.

Another negative review that is fairly recent and sounds similar to the previous example — this customer sent an email blast to 90,000 customers and their account was suddenly suspended. The user then reached out to customer service, only to be met with apathy. The customer states people should stay away from SendGrid and consider an alternative.

This user slams SendGrid for its problems with basic functions, which includes marketing automation. We did notice other reviews mention SendGrid’s automation capabilities are basic at best, but this review gives us details. The user also talks about how features like list management, email authoring, and analytics, are rudimentary, at best.

This customer leaves negative feedback about the usability of SendGrid’s user interface. They claim there are bugs and features that don’t work as intended. They also discovered issues where emails were being sent to the wrong contacts, despite them double-checking everything. 

SendGrid: A Double-Edged Sword?

Let’s summarize what the reviews have told us so far:

SendGrid: Selling Points	SendGrid: Limitations
Good email templates	Customer service
Simple UI	Account suspension is common
Friendly email editor	Customer onboarding is terrible
Good deliverability	Automation is basic

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SendGrid Reviews: Key Takeaways

Online reviews of Twilio SendGrid are balanced — there are plenty of happy customers and some disgruntled ones. Here’s what we concluded from all the comments we read.

To simplify your decision-making process, we’ll expand on the pros and cons of joining SendGrid. We also have a few alternatives you should consider, plus we’ll share reasons why.

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SendGrid: Strengths

SendGrid has a set of features it’s good at — a sturdy email builder, list management tools, deliverability and spam testing tools, and more.

Drag-and-Drop Editor

One reason customers like SendGrid is because of the email editor — you can design visually appealing emails without coding knowledge, making it user-friendly for email marketers. While it’s not exactly an uncommon feature among ESPs, SendGrid’s WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) editor works well.

Template Library and Signup Forms

Another feature that is popular with SendGrid users is its template library. Having a range of options to choose from is something any email sender can appreciate, as there are always new design requirements for new campaigns. 

We did note that users were not happy about the customization options available. On the plus side, the templates are mobile-responsive.

Similarly, you can capture new signups with customizable, branded signup forms on your website. You can also confirm opt-ins and add subscribers directly to your email lists.

Deliverability 

They also have rules about warming up domains and require new signups to follow their guidelines before they’re allowed to run email campaigns at maximum capacity.

User Interface

SendGrid’s user interface is simple — there is no steep learning curve thanks to the simple layout. While it may not be apt for a complete newbie, you can figure out how to execute common tasks on this platform within a short period.

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SendGrid: Weaknesses

On to the bad stuff. Are there any glaring issues with SendGrid you should be aware of?

Customer Service 

Tech support and customer care are common pain points for many customers, going by the reviews. This, combined with users getting their accounts suspended, is giving SendGrid a bad reputation as an ESP. The onboarding process for new users isn’t great either, which further complicates things for new signups as they attempt to set up operations and get things going.

It’s not a good look that customers are facing such problems while SendGrid has a paid service called “Expert Services,” which claims to get rid of your technical issues.

Automation

SendGrid gets a lot of criticism for its automation; some users feel the controls are basic and you can’t design complex campaigns as there is no option to set up advanced conditional flows. The automation designer gets flak for offering a poor user experience, too.

Cost

SendGrid’s pricing structure scales based on the number of emails you send per month. While this can be good for businesses with small email lists, it can become expensive for those with larger lists or high sending volumes. There are more affordable email marketing services available if budget is a major concern.

Analytics are Basic

While SendGrid provides essential metrics such as delivery rates, open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates, users may find the depth of analysis could be improved. They might want more granular insights into subscriber behavior.

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SendGrid: Good Choice or Not?

SendGrid’s poor customer service can be a dealbreaker for both its current customers and prospects — nobody wants to go through a traumatic technical issue with no help whatsoever from their ESP.

That said, SendGrid also gets a few things right.

This table compiles everything we’ve deduced from user reviews:

SendGrid: Pros ✅	SendGrid: Cons ❌
The template library is excellent.	Customer care is apathetic.
Deliverability rates are good.	SendGrid gets expensive at high email volume.
The user interface is simple and intuitive.	Automation isn’t great.
If you’re technically sound, Email API is simple to code and integrate	Set up of Marketing Campaigns is challenging; you may have to pay for expert assistance.

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SendGrid Pricing: Complicated and Confusing

You will need to invest a fair amount of time to make sense of Twilio SendGrid’s pricing plans. Like most ESPs, SendGrid charges you for the size of your contacts list. The starting plans look inexpensive enough, but once you sign up and your email list grows, expect to shell out a lot more.

Pricing plans for Email API plans:

SendGrid Email API plan	Cost	Features
Free	$0	‣ 1 user ‣ 100 emails/day ‣ APIs ‣ SMTP Relay ‣ 1 event webhooks ‣ Delivery optimization tools ‣ Dynamic template editor ‣ Analytics ‣ Ticket support ‣ Deliverability Insights
Essentials	$19.95/mo	‣ All of the above + ‣ 50,000 emails per month ‣ 2 event webhooks ‣ Ticket and chat support with guaranteed response times
Pro	$89.95/mo	‣ All of the above + ‣ 100,000 emails per month​​ ‣ 1,000 users ‣ 5 event webhooks ‣ Dynamic templates ‣ Email testing ‣ Ticket, chat, and phone support with guaranteed response times ‣ 2,500 email validations ‣ Reverse DNS ‣ Dedicated IP ‣ Subuser management ‣ Single Sign-On (SSO)
Premier	Custom	‣ All of the above  + ‣ 5,000 email validations

If you aren’t a developer and want the ESP with all its email marketing features and tools, you will have to choose one of these Marketing Campaigns plans:

SendGrid Marketing Campaigns plans	Cost	Features
Free	$0	‣ 1 user ‣ Up to 2,000 contacts ‣ 6,000 emails/month ‣ Drag and drop email builder ‣ Segmentation ‣ A/B Testing ‣ 3 email testing credits ‣ 1 signup form  ‣ Ticket support ‣ Automation
Basic	$15/mo	‣ All of the above + ‣ Up to 5,000 contacts and 15,000 emails/month ‣ 10 email testing credits ‣ 5 signup forms ‣ Chat support ‣ NO automation
Advanced	$60/mo	‣ All of the above + ‣ Up to 10,000 contacts and 50,000 emails/month ‣ 60 email testing credits ‣ 15 signup forms ‣ Ticket, chat, and phone support with guaranteed response times ‣ Automation ‣ Dedicated IP

If you want a better idea of whether you’re getting your money’s worth from SendGrid, we recommend you look at the paid plans offered by its competitors below.

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Are There Better Alternatives to SendGrid?

The best SendGrid alternative depends on your specific needs and priorities — you should consider factors such as budget, technical support, monthly email volume, and any specific features you want.

In our opinion, these three options are excellent alternatives. 

HubSpot

HubSpot is a great alternative because it goes beyond just email marketing; it offers a suite of marketing, sales, and customer service tools. Features include lead nurturing and a CRM, plus you get a landing page builder and SEO tools.

On the free tier, you get basic CRM and marketing automation features, which can be a good option for small businesses or those just starting out with their email marketing operation.

Mailchimp

If you’re a small business with a limited budget and a relatively low email volume, Mailchimp could be a good option, as it offers a free plan with a generous sending limit. It also has a user-friendly interface that’s easy to learn and navigate, even for users with no prior email marketing experience.

A key differentiating factor is that Mailchimp offers a more robust set of marketing automation features in its free tier. This allows you to create basic automated email sequences. As we mentioned in our Mailchimp review, you also get a good template library with lots of ​​pre-designed email templates.

Campaign Refinery

If you want an ESP with the best deliverability rates in the industry, then Campaign Refinery is the answer. Our best practices are so efficient and our monitoring so robust that even with shared IPs, our inbox placement is off the charts. Of course, you can get a dedicated IP address if you like, but you won’t need one if you partner with our platform.

We also offer a list-cleaning tool that automatically removes invalid emails from your email list, so your sender reputation is always squeaky clean. And if you ever face technical issues, our customer care team reps are eager to help you resolve them — we can even walk you through API configurations!

And did we mention, we don’t charge for list size? You only pay for what you use!

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Campaign Refinery: Industry-Topping Deliverability Rates