Netcore alternatives when you want a price you can read
Netcore does not publish a price for email. Its pricing page, at the email API address, now shows two plans of a multi-channel marketing platform: Growth, with a "Get Custom Quote" button, and Enterprise, priced "based on MTUs and feature configuration". That is a legitimate way to sell a platform, but it leaves a team that only needs a sending API unable to budget without a sales call. If that is you, Amazon SES, SparkPost, Mailgun, SMTP2GO and Resend publish rate cards, and Brevo is the one to look at if what you want is the multi-channel breadth. The costs below run from 100,000 to 1,000,000 emails a month.
What Netcore's page does and does not say
It says that all messaging channels are included in every plan, that Growth adds journey orchestration with A/B testing and frequency capping, behavioral analytics and chat support, and that capability packs for AI agents, predictive intelligence and advanced analytics are sold on top. Enterprise adds predictive intelligence, a Journey Path Optimizer, content and audience agents, role-based access, a dedicated growth engineer and quarterly business reviews. It also says "30% of our platform fee is tied to your business KPIs" and that every pack includes a 30-day free trial.
It does not say what a million emails costs, whether sending over API or SMTP is priced separately from the platform, what an MTU is, or what happens when the KPI-linked part of the fee is not met. None of that is a criticism of the product, which I have not tested. It means the buying process starts with questions.
Questions to put to Netcore before you compare
- The billing unit. Enterprise is priced on MTUs, a term the pricing page does not define. Ask for the definition in writing, because a sender with few users and a high volume of transactional mail is billed very differently on a per-user unit than on a per-email one.
- The KPI-linked fee. If 30% of the platform fee depends on business KPIs, you need to know which KPIs, who measures them, over what period, and what the fee becomes when they are missed.
- Transactional sending. Confirm that API and SMTP sending is part of the Growth quote and not an add-on, and whether a dedicated IP is included.
- Add-ons you will need. The feature list marks the interactive email editor, Liquid tags and several other items as add-ons or pack-only, so a quote that sounds complete may not be.
- The exit. Ask about contract length, notice period and how contact and event data export, since the page mentions SFTP and API uploads and webhooks but not export terms.
Cost at 100,000, 500,000 and 1,000,000 emails
| Provider | 100,000 | 500,000 | 1,000,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netcore | Quote only | Quote only | Quote only |
| Amazon SES | $16 | $80 | $160 |
| SparkPost (Growth) | $80 | $295 | $530 |
| SMTP2GO (Professional plus overage) | $75 | $415 | $840 |
| Mailgun (Scale plus overage) | $90 | $530 | $1,080 |
| Resend (Scale plus overage) | $90 | $450 | $900 |
| Brevo | Set by volume slider | From $499 (Professional) | From $499 (Professional) |
The sums: Amazon SES charges $0.16 per 1,000 emails. SparkPost's volume table lists $80 at 100K, $295 at 500K and $530 at 1M on Growth. SMTP2GO's Professional plan is $75 for 100,000 and $0.85 per extra thousand, so 500,000 is 75 + 400 × $0.85 = $415 and 1,000,000 is 75 + 900 × $0.85 = $840. Mailgun's Scale plan is $90 for 100,000 and lists overage from $1.10 per thousand, so those two figures use the lowest rate it shows. Resend's Scale plan is $90 for 100,000 and $0.90 per extra thousand. Brevo's Professional plan starts at $499 a month and covers 150,000 to 10 million sends, and below 150,000 the price follows the slider on its pricing page.
Past a few hundred thousand emails, overage-based plans (Mailgun, Resend and SMTP2GO) stop being competitive with SparkPost's tiered volume table or SES. A published Netcore quote could still beat any of them if it bundles features you would otherwise buy separately, but that is something only the quote can show.
Picking an alternative by what you were buying from Netcore
You were buying sending only. Amazon SES is the cheapest by far and the most work, because logs, dashboards and suppression management are yours. SparkPost is the better-equipped option at the same scale: its pricing page lists 30-day retention, webhooks and a 20 MB message limit on every plan, with dedicated IPs at $24.95 a month each on Growth. Both have their own pages in the SES and SparkPost pricing guides.
You were buying sending plus an inbound or SMTP relay. Mailgun and SMTP2GO cover that ground. SMTP2GO's Professional plan is $75 for 100,000 emails and adds a dedicated IP, 30 days of reporting and phone support. SMTP2GO pricing explains the Starter-to-Professional crossover.
You were buying a lean developer API. Resend is built for that, with a free plan of 3,000 emails a month and a $20 Pro plan for 50,000, though it stops being cheap beyond 100,000.
You were buying multi-channel journeys. Here the comparison is with Brevo, which lists marketing automation, transactional email, web and mobile push and WhatsApp campaigns on one platform, with a free plan of 300 emails a day. It will not match Netcore's AI packs or analytics depth, and its cost at your volume has to be read off its slider.
Moving off Netcore
Separate the journeys from the sending
Netcore's plans include journey orchestration, frequency capping and send-time optimization. Those are platform features, not API features. A sending provider such as SES or SparkPost will deliver the messages, but whatever decides who gets which message and when must move into your application or into a lifecycle tool. Inventory your live journeys before you pick a destination.
Templates built with Liquid tags or the interactive editor
The feature list shows Liquid tags and the interactive email editor as add-ons. If your templates depend on them, expect to rewrite personalization syntax and re-test interactive blocks, because no other provider on this page uses the same template language.
Data and events
Netcore lists SFTP and API uploads and webhooks. Export user attributes, suppression lists and any event history you need for reporting before the contract ends. Plan for the new provider's webhook payloads to differ and map delivery, bounce and complaint events one by one.
Authentication
Add the new provider's SPF and DKIM records on a fresh subdomain and run both routes in parallel for a billing cycle. If Netcore currently hosts a dedicated IP for you, assume the new route needs warm-up.
Related pages
Pair this with the SparkPost alternatives page, SparkPost vs SendGrid and the high-volume sending guide.
FAQ
Does Netcore publish email prices?
Not on the page we read. Growth shows "Get Custom Quote" and Enterprise says custom pricing based on MTUs and feature configuration.
Is there a Netcore free plan?
The page lists no free plan. It says every pack includes a 30-day free trial.
What is the cheapest alternative with a published price?
Amazon SES at $0.16 per 1,000 emails: $16 for 100,000 and $160 for 1,000,000. It leaves dashboards and suppression handling to you.