Elastic Email vs MailerSend
Elastic Email and MailerSend are both popular choices in the transactional email service space. Elastic Email has been around since 2010, giving it a 10-year head start over MailerSend (founded 2020). MailerSend is the more affordable option at $7/mo — that's $12 less per month than Elastic Email's $19/mo entry point. Both offer free plans to get started. Elastic Email stands out with marketing automation and landing pages, while MailerSend offers SMS marketing.
Quick Verdict
Elastic Email wins on deliverability, rating, integrations.
MailerSend wins on price.
Best for most users: Elastic Email (budget conscious startups).
Elastic Email
Budget-friendly email delivery with marketing features
Elastic Email is a budget-friendly email delivery platform founded in 2010 that offers both transactional email API and marketing email capabilities. Built entirely in-house down to the protocol level, it serves tens of thousands of companies sending over 100 million emails monthly, with API plans starting at just $19/month for 50,000 emails.
MailerSend
Developer-friendly transactional email by the MailerLite team
MailerSend is a transactional email service built by the team behind MailerLite, launched in 2020 with over a decade of email deliverability expertise. It offers a polished developer experience with a full API, SMTP relay, drag-and-drop template builder, and SMS capabilities, making it an ideal choice for SaaS and app developers who need reliable transactional email delivery without the complexity of AWS.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Elastic Email | MailerSend |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.4/5 | 4.2/5 |
| Starting Price | $19/mo | $7/mo |
| Free Plan | 100 emails/day (send to yourself only on free plan) | 500 emails/month (100/day max), 1 domain, 1 template |
| Founded | 2010 | 2020 |
| Email Templates | 100 | 90 |
| Integrations | 30 | 29 |
| Deliverability Rate | 95% | 86.8% |
| Marketing Automation | ✓ | ✕ |
| A/B Testing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Landing Pages | ✓ | ✕ |
| Segmentation | ✓ | ✕ |
| Drag & Drop Editor | ✓ | ✓ |
| SMS Marketing | ✕ | ✓ |
| Ecommerce Features | ✕ | ✕ |
| API Access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-Language | ✕ | ✕ |
| Web Push Notifications | ✕ | ✕ |
| Live Chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced Analytics | ✓ | ✓ |
Elastic Email: Pros & Cons
Pros
- +Very affordable pricing starting at $19/month for 50,000 emails via the API plan
- +Combines both transactional API and marketing email features in one platform
- +Custom-built infrastructure written from the protocol level up for optimized performance
- +Includes landing page editor, signup forms, and segmentation even on marketing plans
- +Unlimited contacts on API plans and up to 1M contacts on marketing plans
Cons
- −Free plan severely limited to 100 emails/day and sending only to yourself
- −Third-party deliverability tests show inconsistent results averaging around 59.5% inbox placement (EmailToolTester)
- −Customer support response times can be slow; dedicated support costs an extra $100/month
- −Template editor feels limited compared to competitors unless you code custom HTML
- −Automation trigger options are very limited compared to full-featured marketing platforms
MailerSend: Pros & Cons
Pros
- +Excellent developer experience with SDKs for Node.js, Python, Java, Laravel, PHP, Go, and Ruby
- +Strong deliverability averaging 86.8% inbox placement in EmailToolTester third-party tests (2nd best tested)
- +Intuitive drag-and-drop email builder with 90+ pre-built content blocks for quick template creation
- +Built by the MailerLite team with 10+ years of email deliverability expertise behind the platform
- +Includes SMS API for US and Canada on Starter plans and above at no extra base cost
Cons
- −Free plan reduced from 3,000 to just 500 emails/month in October 2025, with 100/day cap
- −No marketing automation or campaign features; purely transactional and lacks segmentation tools
- −Starter and Professional plans both start at $25/month for same 50,000 emails, confusing tier differentiation
- −Some users report sudden account suspensions for high bounce rates with no refunds offered
- −Pricing can become expensive at scale compared to Amazon SES or Elastic Email ($0.90 per 1,000 overage)
The Verdict
Elastic Email edges ahead with a 4.4/5 rating compared to MailerSend's 4.2/5. The gap comes mainly from deliverability (4.2 vs 3.2) and ease of use (4.2 vs 4.1). On deliverability, Elastic Email reports 95% compared to 86.8% for MailerSend — a meaningful difference if inbox placement is critical for your campaigns.
| Criterion | Weight | Elastic Email | MailerSend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | 30% | $19/mo | $7/mo |
| Deliverability | 25% | 95% | 86.8% |
| Rating | 25% | 4.4/5 | 4.2/5 |
| Integrations | 10% | 30 | 29 |
| Free Tier | 10% | Yes | Yes |
Weights determine how much each criterion counts toward the final score. See full methodology
Choose Elastic Email if…
- + You need marketing automation
- + You need built-in landing pages
- + You're a budget conscious startups
- + You're a small businesses needing transactional and marketing email
Choose MailerSend if…
- + You want lower starting costs ($7/mo)
- + You need SMS marketing
- + You're a developers building transactional email flows
- + You're a saas companies sending password resets and notifications