COMPARISON
MailKaka vs SendGrid
SendGrid (now part of Twilio) is built for teams that need marketing campaigns and transactional email in one large platform. If you only need reliable transactional sending -- plus a place for replies to land -- here's what's actually different if you're sending from India.
| MailKaka | SendGrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Sending region | Mumbai, India (AWS ap-south-1) | US-based (Twilio infrastructure) -- no India region |
| Free tier | 3,000 emails/month, no fixed daily cap, no expiry | 60-day trial only: 100 emails/day, then no free tier |
| Entry paid plan | Starts at ₹899/month (25,000 emails) | Starts at $19.95/month (~₹1,700+, before forex fees) |
| Billing currency | INR via Razorpay, GST invoicing | USD only |
| Replies | Land in a real shared team mailbox | Outbound only -- no inbound/reply mailbox |
| Product scope | Transactional email + reply inbox, purpose-built | Full marketing + transactional suite -- more surface area to configure for a pure transactional use case |
SendGrid figures reflect twilio.com/en-us/products/email-api/pricing as of September 2026 -- always confirm current details on their site before deciding, since pricing pages change.
WHY TEAMS SWITCH
Four things that actually matter.
No permanent free tier. SendGrid's free option is a 60-day trial capped at 100 emails/day -- after that, you're on a paid plan even for low-volume side projects. MailKaka's free tier (3,000 emails/month) doesn't expire.
No forex, no GST guesswork. SendGrid bills in USD. MailKaka bills in INR through Razorpay with GST-compliant invoicing.
Built for one job, not twelve. SendGrid bundles marketing campaigns, contact management, and transactional sending into one product. If you only need transactional email and a way to handle replies, that's a lot of surface area you won't use.
Replies don't disappear. SendGrid is a send-only API for transactional mail -- there's no built-in inbox for customer replies. Every MailKaka domain gets a real shared mailbox by default.
MIGRATING
Switching from SendGrid.
MailKaka's API follows Resend's request shape, not SendGrid's /v3/mail/send format, so this isn't a one-line swap -- you'll change the request body, not just the endpoint. The concepts map directly, though: sender identity, recipient arrays, HTML/text bodies, and attachments all carry over.
await fetch("https://www.mailkaka.in/api/emails", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
Authorization: `Bearer ${MAILKAKA_API_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
body: JSON.stringify({
from: "hello@yourdomain.in",
to: ["customer@example.com"],
subject: "Welcome aboard",
html: "<strong>It just works.</strong>",
}),
});Full API reference: docs.md migration prompt.
FAQ
Does MailKaka support marketing/bulk campaigns like SendGrid?
No -- MailKaka is focused on transactional email and reply handling. If you need broadcast marketing campaigns and contact segmentation, SendGrid's marketing product covers more ground there.
Can I keep using SendGrid for marketing and move transactional to MailKaka?
Yes -- many teams split providers this way: transactional through a purpose-built sender, marketing through a campaigns platform. There's no conflict running both.
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