Top Recommendations Bulk Email Service API

Winner: Mailgun

Runner-up: SendGrid

SendGrid and Mailgun are our top recommended bulk email services. Mailchimp offers the solution of automation 360 for setting up trigger chains of emails. Mailgun, AWS SES, SendGrid, SparkPost, and Mailchimp offer a free plan. Mailgun and SendGrid will allow a good number of emails to be sent per month for free. SparkPost and SendGrid have affordable pricing plans.

Comparing Email Service APIs

Email remains one of the most effective and direct forms of communication for businesses to interact with customers. Using an email marketing API is very important when sending emails to your customers. 

There are plenty of email marketing service providers like SendGrid, Mailgun, AWS SES, SparkPost, PostMark, MailChimp, etc., through which you can send bulk emails to large groups of contacts without worrying about email deliverability issues.

Table of Contents

In this article, we will cover the following topics.

1. What is an Email API?
2. The Key Benefits of Any Email APIs.
3. Challenges With Bulk Email Services.
4. Features of Bulk Email Services.
5. What to look for in a Bulk Email Service?
6. Comparison Table of Top Bulk Email Services in 2023.
7. Popular Bulk Emails Services in 2023.
8. 2023 Top Bulk Email Services API Review Explored.

What is an Email API?

An email API (application programming interface) allows email service companies to access email services such as generating and sending transactional emails, managing email templates and lists, analyzing email marketing metrics, setting up domain authentication, and more.

Emails have become an indispensable tool for business communication in the present day and age. Regardless of the size, almost all firms use them for business communication and exchanging messages. While emails serve as a reliable means for sharing detailed information, manual sending of emails can take time and effort. This is precisely where an email API comes to the fore.

We here at FuelingPHP use Email APIs every day.

Some for email marketing and some for bulk emails.

The difference between an email marketing API and a transactional email is that your transactional emails are generally some kind of application notification whereas the marketing service is used to send promotional content. This means that I want to make sure my transactional emails get to the users or else I risk a poor customer experience.

An email marketing promotion, on the other hand, isn’t expected from the user. While not preferred, it won’t hurt the customer experience if they don’t get opened.

This means we separate our email marketing API from our transactional email service at FuelingPHP

Many developers love working with email marketing APIs because they integrate well within the common software. You can create & manage contacts, lists, campaigns, and more. You can also use it to send out emails as well. Using an API can help automate your marketing processes so that you can focus more on your core business.

Sending emails daily is essential for a company for several reasons. From running an email marketing campaign to exchanging vital business-related information, emails serve as a tool for executing several tasks.

The manual way of sending emails, which has been the usual way of exchanging emails until a few years ago, is monotonous and time-consuming. Things get even trickier when there are higher volumes of emails. This is precisely where email APIs simplify matters for professionals. 

Sample actions you should expect from an email marketing API

• Send HTML-templated emails
• Create and manage contacts
• Create and manage lists
• Create time-sensitive campaigns
• Get lists of contacts and active campaigns

Using an Email API, you can create and send templates customized to an individual user based on their name, purchase, or other actions.

Benefits of using an Email Marketing API

• You can get email analytics to track metrics and assess your email campaigns.
• You can create webhooks that send email event data to a CRM.
• Operate at scale.

The Key Benefits of Any Email APIs

Using email APIs can save a lot of time for development teams by just providing one simple API to integrate with every provider. They offer a range of values for teams of any size:

The following are some key benefits of using Email APIs.

• Ease-of-use
• Fast implementation
• Enable two-way communication
• Cost Savings at scale
• Service Reliability
• High Deliverability
• Email list management (e.g. unsubscribe requests)
• Reports and Analytics Dashboards
• Deep personalization (contextual APIs)
• Embeddable email functionality for applications (contextual APIs)
• Enterprise-grade security

Besides time savings and reliability improvements, email APIs can also help build faster user-facing product enhancements, such as analytics, near-perfect email deliverability, and personalization.

Analytics.

Analytics is essential for any meaningful assessment of your email campaigns. The email API providers allow you to track important metrics such as the number of successful messages delivered, how many messages were rejected by an ISP, why the messages were not being delivered, how many recipients opened the message, or how many call-to-action links were clicked.

Deliverability.

The deliverability, or the success with which your email messages reach their intended recipients at the intended time, depends on dozens of technical factors and contingencies. The web email API providers ensure maximum deliverability and can run their mail servers with expert supervision 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. 

They are responsible for mitigating any interruptions caused by Internet outages, natural disasters, distributed denial of service attacks, and various other network problems that could impact the delivery of your messages. Their service guarantees that you won’t lose any business because your servers were unable to respond or improperly configured.

Challenges With Bulk Email Services

While sending bulk emails, the biggest challenge is to avoid getting flagged as spam. The other challenges could be getting higher open rates for emails, sending personalized emails, and optimizing email for different devices & email clients. Bulk email services provide features and functionalities to overcome all these challenges.

Features of Bulk Email Services

Bulk email services provide ease of use. It provides an intuitive editor to make email creation easier. It performs anti-spam analysis and can automate the actions and segments of the database. Most email marketing services offer email templates, social-media integrations, and email scheduling. It provides templates and expert support.

What to look for in a Bulk Email Service?

In an ideal world, sending bulk emails would be an easy thing to do. But a few things could be improved with sending bulk emails.

First, it can be costly if you are using a regular email marketing platform. Secondly, you also need to make sure that your domain does not get blacklisted. When you send so many emails from a standard domain, it sometimes begins to trigger spam filters. Eventually, this will flag your company’s domain to the point where hardly any of your customers receive your email. 

Some key features you want to look for in your tool of choice are:

• Price
• Security and reliability
• Email tracking
• List management
• Email design
• Contact Management
• Analytics
• Automation
• Integrations
• High Delivery Rate (and Reputation)
• Templates

Now let’s explore the top bulk email providers in 2023 that offer some or all of these key features,

Popular Bulk Email Services in 2023

The following are some top bulk email providers in 2023.

• SendGrid Email API.
• MailGun Email API.
• AWS SES Email API.
• SparkPost Email API.
• PostMark Email API.
• Mailchimp Email API.

Using the SendGrid Email API.

SendGrid( also called Twilio SendGrid) is a reliable and cloud-based email delivery service. It is not just a service for sending emails but offers a complete email marketing suite with analytical tools to monitor email marketing campaigns. Among other features, it also provides the ability to use dedicated IPs. 

Sending an email using a SendGrid cloud-based SMTP server has numerous benefits for growing businesses, saving time, and streamlining costs. It manages to send transactional and marketing emails and handle the heavy lifting of sending and receiving emails. You can run Email marketing campaigns with SendGrid, which supports 10,000 requests per second.

SendGrid is good for email marketing because it allows us quickly and easily engage with our audience. We can send emails to multiple people using SendGrid. Large companies such as Uber, Spotify, and eBay use SendGrid’s email marketing API. Its most significant advantages are the high delivery rate and analytics dashboards.  

What is SendGrid Used For?

SendGrid is a transactional email service to help developers send emails through APIs, applications and tools in bulk and directly to users. Developers use SendGrid instead of their own web server because they have built their IP and trustworthiness with the email providers.

Pricing:

• Free plan: $0 for 40K emails per month.
• Essentials plan: $29.95 for 100K emails per month.
• Pro plan: $249 for 300K emails, $449 for 700K emails, and $749 for 1500K emails per month.

Features:

• Predefined templates.
• Robust Reporting.
• Mailing List Management.
• Dedicated IPs.

Digging Deeper into SendGrid Email API.

Want to learn more about SendGrid? This is one of several articles where we’ve explored this email service in detail. Check out the following articles to go deeper and learn more about what is SendGrid and how to use it. We’ve written extensively about SendGrid in the past. Click here to read all of our SendGrid reviews, guides, tutorials and more.

• Deep Dive into SendGrid Email Service
• Send Email Using Sendgrid with PHP Examples
• How to Setup & Use Sendgrid IP Pools: 2 Min Tutorial w/ Examples
• 11 Top SendGrid Transactional Emails Questions Answered in 2022

Using the MailGun Email API.

Mailgun is an email service that allows us to use the SMTP protocol or API to send emails. It also provides us with reports to track the number of emails sent and also allows us to check addresses for typos or spam problems. It has an email validation service that provides accurate validation results on the market.

Mailgun is one of the most helpful email APIs that developers use. We can easily send transactional or bulk emails using Mailgun’s SMTP and HTTP API in PHP. Mailgun gives you the options to choose how you want to send your emails through API or through SMTP.

Analytics for Better Performance

Mailgun also allows you to create eye-catching emails in minutes. You can create a personalized email targeted at a specific audience. And the Email analytics, based on performance data of your sent emails, lets you know the best time to send your messages.

In Mailgun, you can have the option to choose how you want to send your emails using Mailgun’s API (A popular method of sending emails which can integrate with languages like Python, PHP, Ruby, and more.) or using the SMTP method (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, which is an easy way to transfer your emails.)

To use Mailgun API, first, we need to create a free Mailgun account. After successful registration, we will get 5000 free emails to send. 

Visit the link to learn more about how to create a Mailgun account.

What is MailGun Used for?

We use MailGun as a transactional service to send emails through our APIS, web applications, and scripts. You can use it to send emails in bulk or on-demand. It is recommended to use a service like Mailgun vs your web service for sending emails as it has IPs that has built trust in email clients. It also has full-featured APIs.

Pricing:

• Free plan: $0 for 5K emails per month.
• Foundation: $35 for 50K emails per month.
• Growth: $80 for 100K emails per month.
• Scale: $90 for 100K emails per month.

Features:

• Easy SMTP integration and flexible HTTP API.
• Personalize and schedule emails.
• Powerful Email APIs.
• Email builder.
• Automatic Email Parsing.
• Improved Email Deliverability.
• Email analytics.

Digging Deeper With MailGun

This article is part of our series digging into MailGun. Check out the full list of articles below to level up your knowledge and ability in MailGun.

• What is MailGun Used For
• How to Send Email Using Mailgun

Using the AWS Simple Email Service – SES Email API.

Amazon SES is a cloud-based email service provider that can integrate into any application for sending emails. With Amazon Simple Email Service, you can send transactional emails, marketing messages, or any other type of high-quality content to your customers, and you pay only for what you use. 

It also provides a variety of deployments, including dedicated, shared, or owned IP addresses. And also, reports on sender statistics and a deliverability dashboard help businesses make every email count.

Want to dig deeper into AWS SES? Click here to read our review, tutorial and tips on the email service

One of the best features of Amazon SES is its low cost. The AWS SES service is chosen and used by companies such as Netflix, Reddit, and Duolingo.

Direct Integration into AWS Services

Another important feature is the integration, through the console itself, API, or SMTP, it is possible to configure the sending of emails. In addition, Amazon SES not only allows sending of emails but also receiving them.

With AWS SES, a user gets to send 5 emails per second. This number can go up to 50000 emails per day. However, the numbers can further go up if the users happen to maintain an excellent email-sending reputation.

Pricing:

• Outbound email from EC2: $0.10 for 1000 emails when sending above 62K emails per month.

Features:

• Build customized email marketing campaigns
• Content filtering
• Dedicated IP addresses
• Integrate easily with other applications

Using the SparkPost Email API.

Sparkpost is a cloud-based email service provider. It offers reliable, scalable, and best email delivery solutions for businesses of all sizes. The company’s core product is its cloud-based SMTP service that enables companies to send bulk emails with deliverability rates comparable to those of the most popular consumer mail clients. 

The SparkPost email service offers an API platform, allowing developers to build custom applications for sending and tracking emails.

It is the world’s largest and most reliable email sender, delivering nearly 40% of all commercial emails, that’s over 6 trillion sends annually. It has the world’s most significant email data footprint to help enterprise-level brands make data-driven decisions to improve their email performance.

What is SparkPost used for?

The SparkPost is an email delivery platform that is used to help businesses of all sizes predict and monitor ISP responses, email bounce rates and spam traps in real-time. The inbox tracker allows marketers to create and send emails using multiple methods, including subject line prediction, blacklist monitoring and brand impersonation protection.

Pricing:

• Test: $0 for 5K emails per month.
• Starter: $20 for 50K emails and $30 for 100K emails per month.
• Premier: $150 for 250K emails, $290 for 500K emails, and $525 for 1M emails per month.

Features:

• Email Analytics & Performance Data.
• Email Deliverability.
• Reliability & Security.
• Email Templates.
• Email API & Integrations.
• Real-Time Alerts.

Using the PostMark Email API.

There are several email delivery providers, but PostMark is what people like the most because it is very easy to use.

Postmark is a SaaS email service provider that can help you deliver your application emails. It offers SMTP services, an email API, and other transactional email services to businesses of all sizes.

Postmark’s SMTP service provider focuses on improving your deliverability rates. With an email API, detailed analytics, pre-made templates, and much more, the Postmark email service can appeal to businesses of all sizes.

The Best Delivery Reputation in the Industry

Postmark maintains the best delivery reputation in the industry by routing transactional and promotional messages through parallel but separate sending infrastructure. It also protects the deliverability of your crucial transactional emails and ensures they arrive lightning-fast.

The Promotional and transactional emails never get mixed when using the PostMark email service. Because its API and SMTP service help you easily send your emails, whether that’s a password reset emails, notifications, newsletters, or anything in between. 

What is PostMark used for?

Postmark is used for sending transactional emails. You can use its API or SMTP option to send your emails to your customers. With the Postmark API, you can create a system that can send transactions automatically or on demand.

Pricing:

• $15 for 10K emails per month.
• $55 for 55K emails per month.
• $115 for 125K emails per month.
• $224 for 300k emails per month.
• $455 for 700K emails per month.
• $775 for 1500K emails per month.

Features:

• It is easy to set up
• Deliver, and parse transactional emails at scale.
• It comes with ready-to-use responsive email templates.
• It provides troubleshooting and analytics tools.
• Transactional Mail Service

Using the Mailchimp Email API.

Ben Chestnut and Mark Armstrong founded the Mailchimp email service in 2001. Mailchimp is one of the world’s most popular email marketing solutions, with more than 14 million users, and they deliver 1 billion emails daily. While most of Mailchimp’s customers are small businesses, some medium-sized businesses use its Premium Plan.

Best for an all-in-one integrated email delivery branding solution. Mailchimp is a powerful marketing API service that provides you with intelligent marketing tools. It works with your favorite apps and web services and helps you do more with your email marketing. You can also find tools to discover new ways for email marketing.

The Quintessential Leader in Email Marketing

MailChimp allows you to create and send emails and offers other features since it is a more comprehensive email marketing tool. Some examples are the ability to manage and import contact lists, send emails for abandoned carts, use a drag & drop editor, and schedule emails.

With MailChimp email service, you will be in good company. When you build integrations with Mailchimp, you create tools for a trusted and reliable platform that powers your marketing, e-commerce, and more for millions of small businesses.

What is MailChimp used for?

Mailchimp is used for getting leads into your email database and then sending a mass message to many people at the same time via email and social media. Mailchimp offers its solutions to customers according to the principle of Software as a Service (Saas). Customers need no additional software on their computer or server but can use a browser-based user interface to access the tool.

Pricing:

• Free: $0 for 2500 emails per month.
• Essentials: $13 for 5K emails per month.
• Standard: $20 for 6K emails per month.
• Premium: $350 for 150K emails per month.

Features:

• Drag and Drop Custom Email Builder.
• Email Automation.
• Store content like images to use later in the campaign.
• Send transactional emails.
• Real-time analytics.
• Integrations.

2023 Top Bulk Email Services API Review Explored

Using a reliable bulk email API service provider can boost the effects of your marketing strategy and help you achieve your targets. However, finding a suitable sender that makes bulk email blasts hassle-free and cost-effective can also be challenging. Each one offers a unique set of features and pricing. Review the list above and consider your business-specific needs. 

You can reach your market massively with the tool most catered to your needs. Sending emails to multiple recipients without losing the personal touch has never been easier, thanks to these amazing email API providers.

Reliability and Deliverability are the keys

As long as the bulk email service you choose is reliable and has good deliverability, you will see a lot of improvements in your email marketing strategy and achieve your marketing goals.

This article briefly compares the top bulk email API providers in 2023. In addition, It also explains what an email API is, its key benefits, and what to look for in a bulk email service.

Discover the challenges with bulk email services and the features offered by bulk email providers to overcome those challenges. We hope you find this article helpful.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the article. Stay tuned for more at FuelingPHP

Dig Deeper with Our Email in PHP Examples and Guides

• Using an Email Marketing API
• Comparing Transactional Email Services
• How to Send Email with PHP
• Send Email Using Sendgrid in PHP
• Looking into the MailGun Service
• Send Emails using AWS SES
• MailChimp Email API Service
• Using ActiveCampaign Email Marketing Service