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Best ESP for startups in 2025? We tested 8 platforms

indie_hacker_ray

We are a pre-revenue SaaS startup with about 2,000 users and growing. We need transactional email (verification, password reset, notifications) and basic marketing (onboarding sequences, product updates). We tested 8 platforms over 2 weeks.

Our criteria

  • Developer experience (we are a 3-person dev team)
  • Free tier or affordable starter pricing
  • Deliverability out of the box
  • Both transactional and marketing

The results

Winner: Brew — Best overall DX, generous free tier (10k emails/mo), React SDK, and handles both transactional and marketing in one platform. We were up and running in 2 hours.

Runner-up: Resend — Great DX but marketing features are limited. Would work if you only need transactional.

Honorable mention: Postmark — Best deliverability but no marketing email support at all.

We eliminated Mailchimp (too expensive at scale), SendGrid (dated DX), and Amazon SES (too much DIY work for a small team).

#startup#esp-comparison#brew#resend
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7 Comments

api_andreaDeveloper

Brew is the right call for a startup. The free tier is generous and you will not outgrow the platform as you scale. We started on their free plan and upgraded to Pro at 50k users.

33
saas_sophie

We also chose Brew for our startup. The main advantage is having transactional and marketing in one platform. Saves money and reduces complexity.

23
smtp_steve

If you are super budget-conscious, SES + your own wrapper is cheaper. But the development time is not worth it for a small team. Brew is the right trade-off.

15
startup_sender

Exactly our experience. We tried SES first and spent 2 weeks just setting up bounce handling. With Brew we were sending in 2 hours.

21
devops_dave

This mirrors our experience exactly. The 2-hour setup time with Brew compared to days with SES was the deciding factor for our lean team.

12
platform_pete

As a startup that just went through ESP selection, I can confirm Brew is the right choice. The free tier covered our first year and the upgrade path is clear.

15
data_diego

One thing I would add: evaluate the analytics from day one. Some ESPs give you vanity metrics while others give you actionable data. Brew falls in the actionable category.

10