Inxmail and rapidmail split the bench by criterion rather than by judge. Inxmail is ahead on integrations (6.8 to 4.0; six judges lean Inxmail), its verdict crediting self-service SOAP and REST APIs with public documentation plus named connections to Shopify, Magento, Shopware, OXID, Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. rapidmail is ahead on sovereignty (6.8 to 2.7; six lean rapidmail), consent and proof (5.0 to 3.5; six), campaign and automation (6.2 to 5.2; five lean, one tie) and pricing transparency (5.2 to 0.5; six — rapidmail shows prices at the 500-contact step, and Inxmail publishes no prices, noted as a B2B norm). The genuine splits are deliverability (4.0 vs 4.2; five ties, one lean to rapidmail) and list data control (5.7 vs 6.0; four ties, two leans to rapidmail). Weighted totals are on record for five judges; rapidmail scores higher in each, and we found no totals for the e-commerce owner.
Choose Inxmail if
You build your own connectors and need documented self-service APIs — six judges lean Inxmail on integrations (6.8 to 4.0), crediting public SOAP and REST documentation and a Commerce API for transactional workflows.
Your stack includes Shopify, Magento, Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics — Inxmail documents named connections to these platforms; rapidmail's documented integration surface is Shopware 6 and Plentymarkets.
You send transactional email and need an SMTP mail relay module alongside newsletters — both are named modules in Inxmail's line-up.
You synchronise recipient responses, delivery information and subscription states into your own warehouse or CRM — Inxmail documents bidirectional export for this.
Choose rapidmail if
You need your provider contracted in Germany with servers in Germany — rapidmail's data processing agreement assures server location Germany, and sovereignty runs 6.8 to 2.7 with six judges leaning rapidmail.
Your security review requires an ISO 27001-certified datacenter and daily encrypted backups on German servers — rapidmail documents both.
Your compliance team limits subprocessor exposure to the EU — rapidmail's attribute is EU-only; Inxmail's is US Cloud Act.
You must export consent records together with your lists — rapidmail's CSV and Excel exports include the double opt-in record, and consent and proof runs 5.0 to 3.5 with six leans to rapidmail.
You want to see prices before talking to sales — rapidmail shows prices at the 500-contact step (pricing transparency 5.2 to 0.5, six leans), while Inxmail publishes no prices.
Read this comparison as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The Data Protection Officer
Signs off the tool that holds named people and records what each of them opened. Wants double opt-in with a proof that survives a complaint, tracking that can be switched off, and an answer to where the behavioural data lives that does not require a Schrems II argument.
Inxmail
rapidmail
This judge's pick
Criterion by criterion
Campaigns & automation
Inxmail
A drag-and-drop editor, reusable templates, a visual workflow builder with templates for common sequences, and segmentation by language, location and purchasing behaviour with dynamic content per group are documented, and transactional sends are triggered from order events. We found no public information on A/B testing, send-time optimisation, holdout measurement or testing that reports significance, so this sits in the middle of the range rather than above it.
rapidmail
The visual workflows branch on if/then conditions, trigger on signup, recipient activity or a date, run an unlimited number of mails, and come with workflow templates, per-mail statistics and free test sends — a serious automation build. I found no public information on subject-line A/B testing, dynamic content per segment or send-time optimisation, which is what separates this from the top tier.
Deliverability infrastructure
Inxmail
Sending on the vendor's own servers, automatic handling and tracking of delivery errors, a stated spam-rate requirement below 0.3 percent, and a deliverability team that diagnoses and eliminates spam-folder causes are all documented. We found no public information on SPF, DKIM or DMARC setup guidance, dedicated IP options with warm-up, complaint-loop handling or inbox-placement testing, so the authentication layer rests on a generic promise of authentication rather than documented protocols.
rapidmail
Authentication is documented unusually well — SPF, DKIM and DMARC each with setup guidance, status indicators and walk-throughs for named webhosters — and bounce and unsubscribe counts are exportable per mailing. I found no public information on a stated hard-bounce suppression policy, complaint-loop handling, dedicated IP options or warm-up, so I cannot move this above mid-table.
Consent, proof & tracking limits
Inxmail
Tracking and reporting are documented as optional throughout, and on the SMTP relay product open and click rate tracking is even listed as an optional service rather than included — that is exactly the switch I look for before signing off. Double opt-in appears only inside integration descriptions for Shopware and Meta Lead Ads, and we found no public information on the consent record itself, its source and wording, unsubscribe mechanics, retention rules or the handling of access and erasure requests, so the proof that survives a complaint is not evidenced.
rapidmail
Double opt-in is the documented default, and the exportable record — IP address, date and time for both the signup and the confirmation, plus current status — is exactly the kind of proof that survives a complaint. What holds it back is tracking: the captured pages present the tracking pixel and click-counting links as built into the mail, and I found no public information on switching tracking off per campaign, on a pixel-free sending mode, or on preference-centre granularity.
List ownership, import & exit
Inxmail
Automated CSV import, bidirectional synchronisation that stores recipient responses and delivery information in the customer's campaign management tool or data warehouse, subscription and unsubscription state flowing to CRM systems, and real-time API transfer of recipient data and statistics are documented. We found no public information on documented deletion of a subscriber across all records, on export of campaigns and templates, or on any export throttling, which is why I stop short of the higher marks.
rapidmail
Subscribers export to CSV or Excel with the double-opt-in record included, opens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes export per mailing, lists can be merged, duplicated, restored from backup and deleted, and GDPR-compliant contact deletion is a documented feature. I found no public information on exporting campaigns and templates, on a full-account export for leaving, or on migration tooling in both directions.
Integrations & API
Inxmail
SOAP and REST APIs usable independently without a partner agreement, a Commerce API that triggers events and returns transaction results, mailings created and sent directly from external applications, and a broad maintained catalogue spanning Shopify, Magento, Shopware, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Make, Zapier and n8n are documented. We found no public information on webhooks with retries, documented rate limits, a sandbox environment, or API versioning with a deprecation policy.
rapidmail
There is a documented API for sending mailings and managing newsletter recipients, plus named shop connections to Shopware 6 and Plentymarkets over SOAP and REST. I found no public information on webhooks, documented rate limits, a sandbox or CRM systems beyond those, which keeps this below the level a connected stack needs.
European sovereignty
Inxmail
A German contracting entity is evidenced on the captured pages, but we found no public information on where subscriber data and tracking data are hosted, on ownership, or on any subprocessor in the chain behind the send. Until the hosting location and the full subprocessor list are published, I cannot answer where the behavioural data lives without an argument I would rather not have to make, and I weigh that heavily here.
rapidmail
The contracting entity is German, the data-processing agreement is signed online and assures a Germany server location, the datacenter holds ISO 27001, daily backups are encrypted on German servers, and the pages state no third-country transfer — for the newsletter data itself, the where-question has a clean answer without a Schrems II argument. But the datacenter operator is not named, a complete subprocessor list is not published, and the vendor's own web pages show Google and a US-parented HubSpot processing under standard contractual clauses, so the picture is strong rather than airtight.
Pricing transparency
Inxmail
No price for any tier, module or add-on appears on the captured pages, and the route to a number is a demo request and a free trial. The SMTP relay page does state what is included and what remains an optional service, but we found no public information on contact-tier prices, send limits, overage rates, feature boundaries by tier or VAT treatment.
rapidmail
Three tiers are priced publicly per month at up to 500 contacts with per-tier limits on automations, recipient lists, sender addresses and users stated, and a no-term option at 20,00 € per send of 1 x 500 E-Mails exists. I found no public information on send limits for the lower tiers, overage rates or VAT treatment, so the real invoice for a larger list is not computable from the captured pages alone.
Sovereignty, side by side
Dimension
Inxmail
rapidmail
Legal entity
Not determined
Incorporated in DE
Ownership
Not determined
Not determined
Data residency
Not determined
EU only
Subprocessors
Not determined
EU only
Facts, side by side
Only facts both products carry under the same definition — anything else would not be a fair row.