# Postmark

> Transactional email API and SMTP, with broadcasts on a separate stream

Postmark is an email delivery service from ActiveCampaign for sending app email such as password resets, receipts and welcome messages through an API or SMTP. It keeps transactional and bulk email on separate message streams, turns inbound email into JSON for your app, and stores 45 days of message history by default. A free developer plan of 100 emails a month never expires.

- **Category:** Email Sending Services
- **Made by:** ActiveCampaign, LLC
- **Website:** https://postmarkapp.com
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026

## Pricing

Postmark has a free plan. Paid plans start at $15 per month for 10,000 emails.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Free developer plan: 100 emails a month with no expiry and no overages, for testing an integration or a small side project. No credit card needed.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | 100 emails a month, never expires; extra emails cannot be bought on this plan. |
| Basic | $15 per month for 10,000 emails | 5 sending domains, 4 users, 45 days of history, no inbound email. Extra emails $1.80 per 1,000; $55 a month at 50,000 emails. |
| Pro | $16.50 per month for 10,000 emails | 10 domains, 6 users, inbound email, retention up to 365 days. Extra emails $1.30 per 1,000; $60.50 a month at 50,000 emails. |
| Platform | $18 per month for 10,000 emails | Unlimited domains, servers, streams and users, with inbound email. Extra emails $1.20 per 1,000; $66 a month at 50,000 emails. |
| High volume | Custom | Custom pricing for large senders, arranged through sales. |

Read from https://postmarkapp.com/pricing on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Postmark before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **$75 credit for bootstrapped companies** (Startups): Companies that have launched, are charging for their product and have taken no outside investment can ask support for $75 of account credit. Source: https://postmarkapp.com/pricing

## Key features

- **Email API and SMTP:** Send through a REST API with official SDKs or through SMTP, with batch sending, a sandbox mode and migration guides from other providers.
- **Message streams:** Transactional and bulk or broadcast email run on separate sending infrastructure, so marketing sends do not affect password resets and receipts.
- **Inbound email processing:** Pro and Platform turn incoming email into a JSON object and post it to a webhook URL your app handles.
- **Templates:** Responsive templates for welcome emails, password resets and receipts, with a template editor and import tool.
- **Message history and analytics:** 45 days of full message content by default, adjustable from 7 to 365 days, with bounce details, open and link tracking and a stats API.
- **DMARC monitoring:** DMARC Digests reports show authentication problems and who is sending with your domain, sold as an add-on from $14 a month per domain.

## Good for

- Software teams whose password resets and receipts must arrive fast
- Apps that need to receive and parse incoming email
- Bootstrapped founders, who can ask for $75 of credit

## Worth knowing

- There is no tier between the free 100 emails a month and the 10,000-email paid plans.
- Billing is monthly only; the FAQ says annual plans are not offered yet.
- Basic has no inbound email processing and caps users at 4 and sending domains at 5.
- Dedicated IPs start at $50 a month per IP, need Pro or higher and 300,000 emails a month or more.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Postmark keeps app email like password resets and receipts on its own stream, apart from bulk sends, and keeps 45 days of full message history by default. It's the dearest here at 50,000 emails, though: $55 a month on Basic, monthly only. And the free plan is 100 emails a month, which is only good for testing.

- **Value for money: D.** Graded on 50,000 emails a month: $55 on Basic or $60.50 on Pro, billed monthly only. That's the dearest in this category at that volume, roughly twice the middle. Bootstrapped companies can ask for $75 of credit, which helps a bit.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** A free developer plan that never expires and needs no card, but it's 100 emails a month with no way to buy more. That's for testing an integration, not running an app.
- **Features: B.** API and SMTP with SDKs, separate streams for app and bulk email, inbound email turned into JSON, templates, 45 days of message history and DMARC reports as an add-on. It covers the whole job; inbound needs Pro.
- **Ease of use: C.** Judged on how fast a developer sends a first email: official SDKs, a sandbox mode, ready-made templates for resets and receipts, and migration guides. You'll still verify a domain first. No rating on record.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, with an API and SMTP, plus Zapier, WordPress, Stripe, Slack, Supabase, Bubble, Netlify and Datadog. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Postmark's own pages on 18 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among email sending services

- Postmark's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 1 of the 11 other email sending services we grade, and level with 1.
- It stands best on features (B, above 2 of 11) and worst on value for money (D, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $15 a month, against a middle price of $15 for the category: 2 of the 10 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/email-sending

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Postmark you would be making mail servers with a good name among inbox providers. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 9 of the 11 other email sending services grade higher. It costs $180 a year.

- You could not: Mail servers with a good name among inbox providers.
- You could not: Reading the reports inbox providers send about your domain.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Zapier, WordPress and Stripe among them, and has an API.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

Zapier, WordPress, Stripe, Slack, Supabase, Bubble, Netlify, Datadog

**Tags:** Transactional email, Public API, DMARC

## Alternatives

- [Twilio SendGrid](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sendgrid): Twilio's email API and SMTP service, priced by monthly email volume. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/postmark-vs-sendgrid)
- [Mailgun](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailgun): Email API and SMTP relay for developers, with list validation. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mailgun-vs-postmark)
- [Resend](https://toolgpa.com/tools/resend): Developer email API with React Email templates and a free tier. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/postmark-vs-resend)
- [Amazon SES](https://toolgpa.com/tools/amazon-ses): AWS email sending and receiving, paid per 1,000 emails. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/amazon-ses-vs-postmark)
- [MailerSend](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailersend): Transactional email and SMS API from the team behind MailerLite. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mailersend-vs-postmark)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026:

- https://postmarkapp.com/pricing
- https://postmarkapp.com/integrations

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/postmark
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).