What 2 teams replaced SendGrid with
2 teams replaced SendGrid. Most moved to Amazon SES (2). The typical team cut 90% of its bill. Each team's old bill, running cost and net saving.
Two companies on ReplaceMRR report replacing SendGrid, and both moved their sending to Amazon SES.
TargetBay, an e-commerce marketing platform that sends email at high volume for its customers, reports paying about $20,000 a month for SendGrid. After moving to SES it pays about $2,000 a month, a cut of about 90%. Zenn reports a SendGrid Pro bill of over $1,000 a month before its move to SES. Its source doesn't state what SES now costs.
Together the two companies report saving about $19,000 a month, most of it from TargetBay.
TargetBay's move went live in 2025 and Zenn's in 2026. Neither has reported going back to SendGrid.
For context, SendGrid lists its Email API Essentials plan from $19.95 a month and Pro from $89.95 a month, with Premier priced by sales. At these volumes the bill is set by the plan tier and sending volume, and SES charges per email sent, so the gap widens as volume grows. Both teams took on deliverability work, such as IP reputation and bounce handling, that SendGrid had handled for them.
Written from these stories, updated Nov 2026. Numbers as each team reported them. How this ledger works
- Website
- sendgrid.com
- List price
- Email API free trial: 100 emails a day for 60 days. Essentials from $19.95 a month; Pro from $89.95 a month, with dedicated IPs. Premier is custom-priced through sales. Prices rise with monthly email volume. Pricing page
What they replaced SendGrid with
Amazon SES2 teams · median $9,500/mo saved · cut 90% of the bill
| Team and what they built | Since | Old bill | Running cost | Net saved | Bill cut |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TargetBayAmazon SES · AWS TargetBay, which sends email at high volume for its e-commerce customers, moved delivery from SendGrid to Amazon SES with help from FactualMinds. | May 2025 | $20K/mo | $2,000/mo | $18K/mo | 90% |
| ZennAmazon SES with in-house bounce handling Zenn moved its email from a SendGrid Pro plan to Amazon SES, building its own handling for bounces and templates with help from a coding agent. | Sep 2026 | $1,000/mo | not disclosed | $1,000/mo | — |