SendGrid Review: Features, Pricing, & Alternatives

SendGrid is a powerful tool for enhancing email marketing efficiency with its great features and user-friendly interface. It is best for businesses seeking reliable email delivery, but it falls short in customization options.

Dive into our review to discover all you need to know about SendGrid’s strengths and limitations.

SMB Guide’s Verdict for SendGrid

Overall, I give SendGrid a 7.4 out of 10. This score reflects its strong capabilities and wide appeal. SendGrid excels in campaign performance tracking and integration, so it’s a strong choice for businesses that need reliable email delivery and analytics.

The user interface is intuitive, further enhancing its appeal. However, pricing can become a concern as usage scales, and there are limitations in personalization and customer support that might not meet every business’s needs.

This balance of strengths and areas for improvement results in a solid but restrained overall rating.

Factor	Rating (out of 10)
Pricing & Plans	7
Marketing Automation Capabilities	8
Email Builder	7
Personalization & Customization	6
Campaign Performance Tracking	9
User Interface and User Experience	8
Integrations and Compatibility	8
Customer Support	6
SMB Guide Rating	7.4

In this review of SendGrid, I’ve followed SMB Guide’s detailed criteria for evaluating the email marketing platform.

Pricing & Plans

SendGrid offers three plans for marketers, ranging from free to $900/month, depending on the number of emails and contacts.

Once you hit 200,000 contacts or 1 million emails a month, you’ll be switched to a plan with customized pricing.

Free

This basic plan allows for up to 100 contacts and up to 6,000 emails per month.

Price

• $0 per month
• $0 per year

Features

• Design and code editors
• A/B testing and actionable insights
• 1 sign up form
• 1 teammate
• Segmentation
• 3 email testing credits
• Ticket support
• Automation

Who it’s for: Businesses on a budget just getting started.

Basic

This plan removes the limits of the free plan and adds some additional features. It does not include automation, which is a bit odd since it’s included on the free plan.

Price

• Starts at $15/month based on the number of contacts and emails per month.
• The annual price does not appear to have a discount.

Features

• Design and code editors
• A/B testing and actionable insights
• 5 sign up forms
• 1 teammate
• Segmentation
• 10 email testing credits
• Ticket and chat support

Who it’s for: Growing businesses that have surpassed the limits of the free plan.

Advanced

The top tier plan SendGrid offers, this plan offers additional features to grow your email marketing program.

Price

• Starts at $60/month based on the number of contacts and emails per month.
• The annual price does not appear to have a discount.

Features

• Design and code editors
• A/B testing and actionable insights
• 15 sign up forms
• 1,000 teammates
• Segmentation
• 60 email testing credits
• Guaranteed response times on ticket, chat, and phone support
• Automation
• Dedicated IP

Who it’s for: Growing businesses that need more than what the base paid plan has to offer.

Marketing Automation Capabilities

SendGrid offers decent marketing automation capabilities. Key features include:

• Automated Campaigns: SendGrid allows users to set up automated email campaigns based on specific triggers or user actions, such as welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, or re-engagement campaigns.
• Segmentation: Users can segment their audience based on various criteria, such as behavior, demographics, or engagement levels, to send targeted and personalized emails.
• Drip Campaigns: SendGrid supports drip campaigns, enabling businesses to send a series of automated emails over time to nurture leads and guide them through the customer journey.

I found everything easy to set up and use, but if you’re brand new to email marketing, it may take a bit of playing around to figure it out.

Email Builder

SendGrid’s email builder is a user-friendly tool designed to help marketers create visually appealing and effective emails without extensive coding knowledge.

Its intuitive drag-and-drop editor allows you to easily add and arrange elements like text, images, buttons, and more, making it easy to create emails.

Emails built with SendGrid’s editor are automatically optimized for different devices and screen sizes, ensuring a consistent and professional look across desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

It offers a variety of pre-designed templates that can be customized to fit your brand’s style and messaging, saving time and effort in the design process.

For those with coding skills, the email builder also supports HTML editing, providing flexibility for more advanced customizations and unique designs.

You can also incorporate dynamic content to personalize emails based on recipient data, enhancing engagement and relevance.

The builder includes preview and testing features, allowing users to see how their emails will look on different devices and email clients before sending them.

Personalization & Customization

SendGrid offers decent personalization and customization features to help you create tailored and engaging email experiences. 

SendGrid allows you to include dynamic content in your emails, which can change based on recipient data. You can personalize messages with specific details like the recipient’s name, location, or past purchase history to make the emails more relevant and engaging.

Personalization tokens allow you to insert personalized information directly into the email content. Data from your contact lists makes it easy to customize greetings, subject lines, and body text to better connect to your audience.

You can also create custom fields in your contact database to store unique information about your recipients. You can use the custom field data to tailor your email content to ensure that each message resonates with its intended audience.

SendGrid’s segmentation capabilities allow you to divide your audience into specific groups based on criteria like behavior, demographics, or engagement levels. This ensures each segment receives the content that is most relevant to them.

With A/B testing, you can experiment with different versions of your emails to see which performs better. This includes testing personalized elements to determine what resonates most.

SendGrid provides a range of customizable templates that you can adapt to fit your brand’s style and messaging. This flexibility lets you maintain brand consistency while personalizing content for different campaigns.

Campaign Performance Tracking

SendGrid provides real-time data on key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates. This immediate feedback allows you to assess your campaigns’ performance quickly.

Detailed engagement metrics help you understand how recipients are interacting with your emails. You can track which links are being clicked and how often, giving you insights into what content resonates with your audience.

SendGrid offers tools to monitor deliverability, helping you ensure that your emails reach the inbox. You can track delivery rates and identify any issues that might be affecting your email’s ability to land in the inbox.

You also get access to geolocation data, device and client statistics, split-testing results if you choose to run them, and custom reports so you can tailor your view of campaign results as needed.

User Interface and User Experience

The interface is clean and well-organized, making it easy to navigate. Users can quickly find the tools and features they need without feeling overwhelmed by clutter.

The dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of your email campaigns, including key metrics and performance indicators. This allows users to get a quick snapshot of their email marketing efforts at a glance.

SendGrid offers guided workflows for setting up campaigns, automation, and other features. These step-by-step guides help users navigate the platform and effectively utilize its capabilities.

Integrations and Compatibility

SendGrid offers many integrations and compatibility options that enhance its functionality and allow seamless connectivity with other tools and platforms.

It offers API integration, connections with CRM and marketing platforms, e-commerce platforms, content management systems, analytics and reporting tools, collaboration and productivity tools, and custom webhooks.

Customer Support

SendGrid provides extensive documentation, tutorials, and customer support to assist users in making the most of the platform. This support enhances the overall user experience by ensuring help is readily available.

The level of support available depends on the plan you subscribe to. Free plans are limited to ticket support. Lower-tier paid plans have tickets and chat.

The highest-tier paid plans have access to tickets, chat, and phone support with guaranteed response times. If you’re not on that highest plan, you may experience slower response times.

SendGrid — Unique Features

• Transactional Email Support: Offers robust tools for sending transactional emails, such as order confirmations and password resets, with high reliability and speed.
• SMTP Relay and API: It provides flexible integration options through SMTP relay and a comprehensive API, allowing businesses to seamlessly incorporate email capabilities into their applications.

What the Experts Say About SendGrid

SendGrid has the following reviews and ratings:

• GetApp rating: 4.2/5 (726 reviews)
• Capterra rating: 4.2/5 (726 reviews)
• TrustRadius rating: 7.3/10 (185 reviews)

My overall experience with SendGrid has been positive. I appreciate its reliability, detailed analytics, and user-friendly interface. My only concerns are with pricing scalability and occasional customer support challenges, but the platform consistently delivers effective and impactful email campaigns.

Dylan C., Software Developer – Verified Capterra review

SendGrid is a tool made for those looking for industrial strength e-mail marketing. If you have a small list and want a free tool where you have many templates and can drag and drop designs, MailChimp is the right tool. However, if you are sending millions of e-mails and want to use code and highly technical attributes with tens of thousands of users in your e-mail list you pretty much have to abandon MailChimp and SendGrid is the best tool in the space.

Eddie L., CEO – Verified Capterra review

SendGrid Alternatives

Unsure that SendGrid is the best option for your business? Check out these alternatives:

Mailchimp

SendGrid is great for businesses with technical expertise, offering strong email delivery and performance tracking, but it might lack advanced marketing tools.

Mailchimp, on the other hand, is user-friendly and packed with marketing features, making it ideal for small to medium-sized businesses looking for an all-in-one marketing platform.

Start your free trial of Mailchimp today

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is user-friendly and offers a wide range of marketing tools, including event management and social media integration. It’s ideal for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a comprehensive email marketing solution.

The platform provides straightforward pricing and reliable customer support, making it accessible to users of all experience levels.

Start your free trial of Constant Contact

Brevo

Brevo and SendGrid both offer robust email marketing solutions but cater to different needs. Brevo is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses seeking an all-in-one marketing platform with features like email automation, SMS marketing, and CRM capabilities.

It’s user-friendly and integrates well with other tools. SendGrid, on the other hand, excels in email delivery and analytics, making it suitable for businesses focused on high-volume email sending and requiring strong deliverability and performance metrics.

Sign up for Brevo for free today!

Other options: Best SendGrid alternatives

Getting Started with SendGrid

SendGrid offers a powerful suite of email marketing tools designed to simplify and enhance your communication strategies. With its user-friendly interface, robust personalization and customization options, and seamless integrations with popular platforms, SendGrid empowers businesses to create, manage, and track effective email campaigns effortlessly.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting, SendGrid’s comprehensive features and intuitive design make it an ideal choice for boosting engagement and driving success.

FAQs

Related reading:

• SendGrid vs. Mailchimp