# Email sending services privacy ratings

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

| Name | Grade | Jurisdiction | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Forward Email](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/forward-email/) | B (85/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | 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. |
| [Amazon SES](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/amazon-ses/) | D (54/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | Amazon Simple Email Service, an email API and SMTP relay on AWS for sending and receiving email, billed per message. |
| [SendGrid](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/sendgrid/) | D (52/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | Email API and SMTP relay from Twilio for transactional and marketing email, with open and click tracking, event webhooks and an activity feed. |
| [Mailgun](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/mailgun/) | D (50/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | 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. |
| [Resend](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/resend/) | D (46/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | Email API for developers with SMTP support, React Email templates, broadcasts and webhooks. |
| [Mailchimp Transactional](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/mailchimp-transactional/) | F (33/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | Transactional email API and SMTP relay from Mailchimp, formerly Mandrill, sold as an add-on to Mailchimp plans. |
| [Brevo](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/brevo/) | F (29/100) | France (Nine Eyes) | Marketing and transactional email platform, formerly Sendinblue, with an SMTP relay, email API, SMS and a CRM. Data is hosted in the EU. |
| [MailerSend](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/mailersend/) | F (27/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | Transactional email API and SMTP relay from the makers of MailerLite, with templates, inbound routing and SMS. |
| [Postmark](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/postmark/) | F (27/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | Email API and SMTP service from ActiveCampaign for transactional and broadcast email, with separate message streams and 45 days of message history by default. |
| [Postal](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/postal/) | Not graded (44% evidence) | Unknown | Open-source mail delivery platform for running your own SMTP relay and email API, with web-based management, webhooks and click and open tracking. |
| [Plunk](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/plunk/) | Not graded (50% evidence) | Unknown | Open-source email platform for transactional email, campaigns and automations, hosted in the EU or self-hosted with Docker. |
| [SMTP2GO](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/smtp2go/) | Not graded (58% evidence) | New Zealand (Five Eyes) | SMTP relay and email API for transactional and bulk email, with an EU data center in Amsterdam and optional email archiving. |
| [Loops](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/loops/) | Not graded (54% evidence) | United States (Five Eyes) | Email platform for software companies that combines marketing campaigns, automated sequences and a transactional email API. |
| [Mailjet](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/mailjet/) | Not graded (50% evidence) | France (Nine Eyes) | Email API, SMTP relay and marketing email platform from Sinch, with data hosted in the EU. |
| [Elastic Email](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/elastic-email/) | Not graded (46% evidence) | Canada (Five Eyes) | Email API, SMTP relay and marketing email platform for transactional and bulk email. |
| [SparkPost](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/sparkpost/) | Not graded (29% evidence) | Unknown | Email API and SMTP relay for transactional and bulk email, now part of Bird, with a separate EU-hosted service. |
| [Mailtrap](https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/mailtrap/) | Not graded (46% evidence) | United States (Five Eyes) | Email API and SMTP relay for transactional and bulk email, with an email testing sandbox and marketing campaigns. |

## Criteria

- **Open source** (weight 3): Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
- **No trackers or telemetry** (weight 3): Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
- **No ads or data sales** (weight 2): Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
- **Independent audit** (weight 2): Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
- **Transparency report** (weight 2): Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?
- **Tells users about requests** (weight 1): Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?
- **TLS configuration** (weight 2, automated): Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?
- **Security headers** (weight 1, automated): Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
- **Modern web standards** (weight 1, automated): Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?
- **Message content deleted after delivery** (weight 3): Is the content of sent mail deleted once it has been delivered?
- **Open and click tracking off by default** (weight 2): Are open tracking pixels and click tracking links off unless the sender turns them on?
- **Encrypted delivery can be enforced** (weight 2): Can outbound mail be kept from being delivered without TLS?
- **EU data location** (weight 1): Can message content and delivery logs be processed and stored only in the European Union?

Source: https://privacyratings.com/email-sending/