Resend vs SendGrid: Modern DX vs Enterprise Scale

Overview

Resend and SendGrid represent different eras of email tooling. Resend is modern, developer-focused with React Email support. SendGrid is enterprise infrastructure proven at massive scale with marketing features included.

Key Differences

Developer Experience

Resend has the best developer experience in transactional email. Clean API, excellent documentation, React Email for JSX templates. Everything feels intentional and modern.

SendGrid has a comprehensive but dated API. The dashboard is cluttered. Documentation is extensive but navigation is confusing.

Platform Scope

SendGrid includes Marketing Campaigns with full campaign management. Enterprise features like SSO and custom contracts. One platform for all email needs.

Resend focuses purely on transactional. No marketing features. You need a separate tool for campaigns and sequences.

Scale

SendGrid powers email for Airbnb, Spotify, and Uber. Proven at massive scale with billions of messages.

Resend is newer but growing quickly. Handles significant volume but not the same track record at enterprise scale.

Code Comparison

Resend

import { Resend } from 'resend';

const resend = new Resend(process.env.RESEND_API_KEY);

await resend.emails.send({
  from: 'noreply@example.com',
  to: 'user@example.com',
  subject: 'Reset your password',
  react: PasswordResetEmail({ resetLink: '...' })
});

SendGrid

const sgMail = require('@sendgrid/mail');
sgMail.setApiKey(process.env.SENDGRID_API_KEY);

await sgMail.send({
  to: 'user@example.com',
  from: 'noreply@example.com',
  templateId: 'd-abc123',
  dynamicTemplateData: { resetLink: '...' }
});

When to Choose Resend

• Developer experience is the priority
• React Email and JSX templates are valuable
• You only need transactional email
• You prefer modern, clean tooling

When to Choose SendGrid

• You need marketing campaigns too
• Enterprise scale is required
• SSO and custom contracts matter
• Twilio ecosystem integration is valuable

Alternative: Sequenzy

For unified transactional + marketing with billing integrations, consider Sequenzy. Modern platform with Stripe, Polar, Creem, and Dodo support, without the complexity of SendGrid.

The Bottom Line

Choose Resend for the best developer experience on transactional email. Choose SendGrid for enterprise scale with marketing features included.