--- title: "Best Elastic Email Alternatives in 2026: Budget Senders Compared" description: "The best Elastic Email alternatives of 2026 compared: Reloop, Amazon SES, ZeptoMail, Brevo, Mailjet, MailerSend and Mailgun on price at 50k and 100k emails, webhooks, inbound, dedicated IPs and self-hosting." canonical: "https://reloop.sh/blog/best-elastic-email-alternatives" last-updated: "2026-10-25" --- # Best Elastic Email Alternatives in 2026: Budget Senders Compared > For the site documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). Docs index: [llms-docs.txt](/llms-docs.txt). Marketing corpus: [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt). Docs corpus: [llms-full-docs.txt](/llms-full-docs.txt). Product skill: [skill.md](/skill.md). Prefer markdown URLs (append `.md`) when available. > The best Elastic Email alternatives of 2026 compared: Reloop, Amazon SES, ZeptoMail, Brevo, Mailjet, MailerSend and Mailgun on price at 50k and 100k emails, webhooks, inbound, dedicated IPs and self-hosting. Source: https://reloop.sh/blog/best-elastic-email-alternatives Published: 2026-10-25 **The short version:** people choose Elastic Email to keep costs down, so the alternatives worth looking at are the ones that stay cheap. **Reloop** is $10 for 50,000 emails with webhooks, inbound mailboxes and campaigns on every plan, and $20 for 100,000 with a dedicated IP. **Amazon SES** and **ZeptoMail** are cheaper per email if you only need a sending pipe and are happy to build the rest. We build Reloop, so weigh our entry accordingly. Every price below comes from the provider's own pricing page, and each section says where that provider beats us. --- ## Why teams look for an Elastic Email alternative Elastic Email is one of the longest-running budget providers, and its free API tier (3,000 a month, 100 a day) is one of the more generous ones. The usual reasons people move: - **Key features sit on the $49 Pro plan.** Webhooks and inbound processing aren't on Free or the $19 Starter plan ([Email API pricing](https://elasticemail.com/email-api-pricing)). - **Short log retention.** Logs are kept for 3 days on Free and Starter, 7 days on Pro. - **The dedicated IP is an add-on.** $40 a month on Starter, $50 on Pro. - **Two separate products.** The Email API and the Email Marketing app are priced and managed separately. If you send millions of emails a month and only need sending, Elastic Email's volume slider may still be your cheapest option. Price it against the alternatives below at your real volume. --- ## Top picks at a glance | Category | Pick | Why | |---|---|---| | **Best overall** | Reloop | $10 for 50k with webhooks, inbound and campaigns, open source | | **Cheapest raw pipe** | Amazon SES | $0.10 per 1,000, if you build the rest | | **Cheapest hosted transactional** | ZeptoMail | Prepaid credits, about $12.50 for 50k | | **Best marketing suite** | Brevo | Email, SMS, WhatsApp, CRM, visual builder | | **Best for visual email design** | Mailjet | Strong drag-and-drop editor, 6,000 free a month | | **Best no-code transactional** | MailerSend | Builder, verification, split testing | | **Best developer veteran** | Mailgun | Inbound routes, validation, mature API | --- ## The comparison table | | Elastic Email | Reloop | Amazon SES | ZeptoMail | Brevo | Mailjet | MailerSend | Mailgun | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | **Free tier** | 3,000 / mo (100 / day) | 6,000 / mo (200 / day) | $200 AWS credits, 6 months | First credit (10,000) | 300 / day | 6,000 / mo | 500 / mo | 100 / day, trial | | **~50k / mo** | $19 / $49 | **$10** | ~$5 | ~$12.50 in credits | Slider | $40 / $59 | $35 | $35 | | **~100k / mo** | Slider | **$20** | ~$10 | ~$25 in credits | Slider | $112 | $68 | $90 | | **Webhooks** | Pro ($49) | Every plan | Via SNS / EventBridge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | **Inbound** | Pro ($49) | Mailboxes, API, MCP, IMAP | Receipt rules to S3 / Lambda | No | Webhook | Parse API | Forwarded | Routes | | **Marketing** | Separate plans | Same product | No | Not allowed | Yes | Yes | In MailerLite | Limited | | **Dedicated IP** | $40–50 add-on | Included on Growth ($20) | $24.95 / mo | Paid add-on | Higher tiers | Premium | Add-on | Paid add-on | | **Open source** | No | Yes (Apache 2.0) | No | No | No | No | No | No | Sources: [elasticemail.com/email-api-pricing](https://elasticemail.com/email-api-pricing), [reloop.sh/pricing](/pricing), [aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/), [zoho.com/zeptomail/pricing](https://www.zoho.com/zeptomail/pricing.html), [brevo.com/pricing](https://www.brevo.com/pricing/), [mailjet.com/pricing](https://www.mailjet.com/pricing/), [mailersend.com/pricing](https://www.mailersend.com/pricing), [mailgun.com/pricing](https://www.mailgun.com/pricing/). SES figures are sending only, before data transfer. ZeptoMail's figures use the widely listed $2.50 per credit, which varies by region. --- ## 1. Reloop: best overall Elastic Email alternative Reloop is open-source email infrastructure: a transactional API, SMTP relay, contacts, campaigns, event-triggered automations, inbound mailboxes and webhooks in one product. **Pricing:** Free is 6,000 emails a month (200 a day), double Elastic Email's free API plan. Pro is $10 for 50,000. Growth is $20 for 100,000 and includes a dedicated IP. Extra mail costs $0.50 per 1,000, so 250,000 emails is $95. Self-hosting is free under Apache 2.0. If your volume is uneven, pay-as-you-go credits cost $0.50 per 1,000 and last 6 months. **Strengths** - **Everything on every plan.** Webhooks and inbound mail are on Free; on Elastic Email they need the $49 Pro plan. - **A dedicated IP for $20 all-in**, against $59 or $99 on Elastic Email once you add the IP. - **Inbound as real mailboxes**, readable over the API, the [MCP server](/docs/integrations/ai-tools/mcp-server) or IMAP. Hosted plans include 3, 5 or 10 inboxes. - Transactional mail, campaigns and automations share one product and one suppression list. - Runs on Hetzner with EU data centers, or on your own server. **Weaknesses** - No drag-and-drop newsletter designer. Templates are code or HTML. - At millions of emails a month, Elastic Email's slider or SES may cost less per email than our $0.50 per 1,000 overage. Self-hosting removes the per-email fee. **Best for:** teams that want low prices without paying extra for webhooks, inbound or a dedicated IP. Full breakdown: [Reloop vs Elastic Email](/blog/reloop-vs-elastic-email). --- ## 2. Amazon SES: cheapest raw pipe [Amazon SES](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/) is AWS's sending service. It's the lowest list price here and a building block rather than a product. **Pricing:** $0.10 per 1,000 emails, plus $0.12 per GB of attachments. Dedicated IPs are $24.95 a month. New AWS accounts get up to $200 in credits for six months. **Strengths** - Lowest price per email by a wide margin. - Deep AWS integration and very high scale. **Weaknesses** - New accounts start in a sandbox and need production access approval. - No dashboard for logs, templates or campaigns. Bounce and complaint handling is yours to build through SNS. - Inbound is receipt rules into S3 or Lambda, not a mailbox. **Best for:** AWS teams with engineering time to build the tooling. Full comparison: [Reloop vs Amazon SES](/blog/reloop-vs-aws-ses) or our [SES alternatives page](/alternatives/aws-ses). --- ## 3. ZeptoMail: cheapest hosted transactional [ZeptoMail](https://www.zoho.com/zeptomail/) by Zoho, now part of Zoho CPaaS, sells transactional email on prepaid credits. **Pricing:** one credit sends 10,000 emails, the first credit is free, and credits expire after 6 months. The per-credit price is widely listed at $2.50 and varies by region, which works out to about $12.50 for 50,000 and $25 for 100,000. **Strengths** - Very cheap for pure transactional mail, with no monthly fee. - Webhooks, a suppression list and SMTP (`smtp.zeptomail.com`). - SMS, WhatsApp and voice through Zoho CPaaS. **Weaknesses** - **Transactional only.** Marketing mail isn't allowed, so it can't replace Elastic Email's marketing side. - No inbound mail and no automations. - Credits expire after 6 months. **Best for:** teams that only send transactional mail and want the lowest hosted price. Full comparison: [Reloop vs ZeptoMail](/blog/reloop-vs-zeptomail). --- ## 4. Brevo: best marketing suite [Brevo](https://www.brevo.com/) is a Paris-based marketing suite with email, SMS, WhatsApp, live chat and a CRM. **Pricing:** free for 300 emails a day. Starter from $9 for 5,000 emails; Standard, with automations, from $18. Larger volumes are on a slider. **Strengths** - One tool for every marketing channel, with a builder marketers like. - Priced by emails sent, like Elastic Email. **Weaknesses** - Automations start on Standard. - Dedicated IPs only on higher tiers. - Gets expensive at volume compared with developer-focused APIs. **Best for:** marketing-led teams replacing Elastic Email's marketing app. Full comparison: [Reloop vs Brevo](/blog/reloop-vs-brevo). --- ## 5. Mailjet: best for visual email design [Mailjet](https://www.mailjet.com/) does marketing and transactional mail with a strong drag-and-drop editor. **Pricing:** free for 6,000 emails a month (200 a day). At 50,000 it's $40 on Essential or $59 on Premium; 100,000 on Premium is $112. **Strengths** - Tied with Reloop for the biggest free tier in this list. - A polished editor, forms and subaccounts. **Weaknesses** - More expensive than Elastic Email at 50k. - Automations and the dedicated IP need Premium. **Best for:** small senders who want a bigger free tier and a better editor. Full comparison: [Reloop vs Mailjet](/blog/reloop-vs-mailjet). --- ## 6. MailerSend: best no-code transactional [MailerSend](https://www.mailersend.com/) is a transactional API from the MailerLite team. **Pricing:** Free is 500 emails a month. Starter is $35 for 50,000 and $68 for 100,000, with $1.30 per extra 1,000. Annual billing takes 10% off. **Strengths** - Drag-and-drop builder, email verification and split testing. - SMS in the US and Canada. **Weaknesses** - Pricier than Elastic Email at 50k. - Marketing campaigns live in MailerLite, a separate product. **Best for:** product teams where non-developers edit templates. Full comparison: [Reloop vs MailerSend](/blog/reloop-vs-mailersend). --- ## 7. Mailgun: best developer veteran [Mailgun](https://www.mailgun.com/) is a long-running developer API with inbound routes and email validation. **Pricing:** a 100-a-day trial. Basic is $15 for 10,000; Foundation is $35 for 50,000, with overage from $1.30 per 1,000. **Strengths** - Mature REST and SMTP sending, templates and webhooks. - Inbound routes and email validation. **Weaknesses** - No permanent free tier, and pricier than Elastic Email. - Limited marketing features. **Best for:** developer teams that need routing and validation. Full comparison: [Reloop vs Mailgun](/blog/reloop-vs-mailgun) or our [Mailgun alternatives page](/alternatives/mailgun). --- ## How to choose - **"We want low prices without paying extra for webhooks or inbound."** Reloop. - **"We only send transactional mail and want the absolute lowest hosted price."** ZeptoMail. - **"We're on AWS and have engineers to spare."** Amazon SES. - **"Our marketers need a visual designer."** Brevo or Mailjet. - **"We send millions a month and only need sending."** Price Elastic Email's slider, SES and a self-hosted Reloop at your real volume. --- ## Switching from Elastic Email 1. **Export your suppression list** (bounces and unsubscribes) and import it into the new provider. 2. **Verify your domain.** Merge the new SPF include into your existing record and add the new DKIM record. See our [SPF, DKIM and DMARC guide](/blog/spf-dkim-dmarc-setup-guide). 3. **Rebuild templates.** Elastic Email's `{firstname}` merge fields become the new syntax; on Reloop that's `{{{firstname}}}`. 4. **Swap the client**, or change the SMTP host and credentials. On Reloop: `smtp.reloop.sh`, port 587 with STARTTLS, and your API key as both username and password. 5. **Move webhooks** and ramp traffic over one to two weeks. --- ## FAQ For a raw pipe, Amazon SES at $0.10 per 1,000. For a hosted transactional service, ZeptoMail at about $2.50 per 10,000. For a full platform with webhooks, inbound and campaigns, Reloop at $10 for 50,000. Yes. Reloop is open source under Apache 2.0. Use it hosted or run it on your own server with no per-email fee. Reloop includes webhooks and inbound mail on every plan, including Free. On Elastic Email both need the $49 Pro plan. Reloop's free tier is double: 6,000 emails a month with a 200-a-day cap. Mailjet also gives 6,000 a month.