Email sending service privacy ratings

SMTP relays and email APIs for sending transactional and bulk email from apps and websites.

17 email sending services are rated against 13 public criteria, and 9 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Of the 14 with a known jurisdiction, 12 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 14 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.

Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown

Email sending services privacy ratings, sorted by pick and then by grade
Name	Grade	Score	Data	Jurisdiction	Open source	No trackers or telemetry	No ads or data sales	Independent audit	Transparency report	Tells users about requests	Message content deleted after delivery	Open and click tracking off by default	Encrypted delivery can be enforced	EU data location	TLS configuration	Security headers	Modern web standards
Forward Email Email service whose paid plans include outbound SMTP and an email API for sending from apps and websites with a custom domain. Message bodies are purged after delivery by default.	Grade B	85	100%	United States Five Eyes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Not tested yet
Amazon SES Amazon Simple Email Service, an email API and SMTP relay on AWS for sending and receiving email, billed per message.	Grade D	54	88%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not tested yet
SendGrid Email API and SMTP relay from Twilio for transactional and marketing email, with open and click tracking, event webhooks and an activity feed.	Grade D	52	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial	Partial	No	Not tested yet
Mailgun Email API and SMTP relay from Sinch for transactional and bulk email, with US and EU regions, event logs and optional open and click tracking.	Grade D	50	88%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Yes	Partial	Unknown	Unknown	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Resend Email API for developers with SMTP support, React Email templates, broadcasts and webhooks.	Grade D	46	88%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Yes	Partial	Unknown	Unknown	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Mailchimp Transactional Transactional email API and SMTP relay from Mailchimp, formerly Mandrill, sold as an add-on to Mailchimp plans.	Grade F	33	92%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Unknown	No	Yes	No	Not tested yet
Brevo Marketing and transactional email platform, formerly Sendinblue, with an SMTP relay, email API, SMS and a CRM. Data is hosted in the EU.	Grade F	29	71%	France Nine Eyes	No	No	Partial	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Partial	Partial	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
MailerSend Transactional email API and SMTP relay from the makers of MailerLite, with templates, inbound routing and SMS.	Grade F	27	71%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Partial	Partial	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No	Not tested yet
Postmark Email API and SMTP service from ActiveCampaign for transactional and broadcast email, with separate message streams and 45 days of message history by default.	Grade F	27	79%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Partial	Yes	Partial	No	Yes	No	Not tested yet
Postal Open-source mail delivery platform for running your own SMTP relay and email API, with web-based management, webhooks and click and open tracking.	Not graded	–	44%	–	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Not applicable	Not applicable	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable
Plunk Open-source email platform for transactional email, campaigns and automations, hosted in the EU or self-hosted with Docker.	Not graded	–	50%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Partial	No	Not tested yet
SMTP2GO SMTP relay and email API for transactional and bulk email, with an EU data center in Amsterdam and optional email archiving.	Not graded	–	58%	New Zealand Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No	Not tested yet
Loops Email platform for software companies that combines marketing campaigns, automated sequences and a transactional email API.	Not graded	–	54%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Mailjet Email API, SMTP relay and marketing email platform from Sinch, with data hosted in the EU.	Not graded	–	50%	France Nine Eyes	No	No	Unknown	Partial	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Elastic Email Email API, SMTP relay and marketing email platform for transactional and bulk email.	Not graded	–	46%	Canada Five Eyes	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Partial	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
SparkPost Email API and SMTP relay for transactional and bulk email, now part of Bird, with a separate EU-hosted service.	Not graded	–	29%	–	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Mailtrap Email API and SMTP relay for transactional and bulk email, with an email testing sandbox and marketing campaigns.	Not graded	–	46%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	No	Not tested yet

Questions

What is the most private option among email sending services?

No pick has been made yet. The table above is sorted by score, based on public evidence.

How are email sending services rated?

Each entry answers 13 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, transparency report, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, security headers, modern web standards, message content deleted after delivery, open and click tracking off by default, encrypted delivery can be enforced and EU data location. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.

Does jurisdiction matter?

Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.