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 Shop Owner
Runs a shop where the newsletter is a revenue channel. Wants the shop connected properly — orders, carts, products flowing in, abandoned-cart and post-purchase flows out — and revenue attributed per campaign. Judges price against contribution, not against a competitor's tier.
Inxmail
rapidmail
This judge calls it a tie.
Criterion by criterion
Campaigns & automation
Inxmail
A drag-and-drop editor, visual workflow builder with templates for common sequences, segmentation by purchasing behaviour, and a dynamic-content add-on are documented, and the Shopify connection mentions automated workflows. We found no public information on A/B testing, journey branching, send-time optimisation or abandoned-cart flows specifically.
rapidmail
Automations are genuinely multi-step: sign-up, recipient-activity and date triggers, as many mailings per workflow as I like, if/then branching, a visual workflow view with templates, and free test sends before activation. But I found no public information on A/B testing, dynamic content or send-time optimisation, and nothing on event entry from a shop — no abandoned-cart or post-purchase journeys and no revenue attribution per campaign, which is what I'd actually buy this for.
Deliverability infrastructure
Inxmail
Automatic bounce handling, a deliverability team that consults when mail lands in spam, domain-authorization protection, and a stated requirement that the spam rate stay below 0.3 percent are on record. We found no public information on SPF, DKIM or DMARC setup guidance, dedicated IP options, warm-up or inbox-placement testing.
rapidmail
The authentication side is documented properly: DKIM and SPF (set as a CNAME to their record), DMARC with explained policy options, guides for five named webhosters, validation status indicators and a partner service to do the setup, plus account release only after a review of list quality. I found no public information on bounce suppression, complaint-loop handling, or dedicated-IP and warm-up options, so only the setup half of deliverability is documented.
Consent, proof & tracking limits
Inxmail
Double opt-in appears in the Shopware and Meta lead connections, consents are transferable to a leading system, and open- and click-rate tracking is an optional service rather than always on. We found no public information on what the consent record contains, one-click unsubscribe, unsubscribe handling across lists, or a preference centre.
rapidmail
Double opt-in is applied automatically, and the proof is real: IP address, date and time are stored for both the sign-up and the confirmation, saved automatically with their sign-up forms and included in the list export; every mailing carries an unsubscribe link by default and contact deletion is documented. I found no public information on switching the tracking pixel or tracking links off, which the captured privacy policy describes as present in the mails.
List ownership, import & exit
Inxmail
Recipient data, responses, delivery information and subscription states flow both ways via the documented REST/SOAP API, automated CSV exchange and bi-directional export automation, so engagement history lands in my own warehouse. We found no public information on documented deletion of a subscriber across all records, full-account export or export throttling.
rapidmail
The list leaves when I want it to: recipient lists export as CSV or Excel with sign-up status and the double-opt-in data included, per-mailing recipient activity — opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes — exports in a few clicks, and deletion, backup and restore of lists are documented. I found no public information on importing a list with attributes intact, or on exporting campaigns and templates, so a full exit is not a documented feature.
Integrations & API
Inxmail
Shopify, Magento, Shopware, OXID, Spryker, WEBSALE and Nosto are named alongside Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, plus a self-service SOAP/REST API, a Commerce API for transaction workflows, and partner frameworks covering hundreds of systems. We found no public information on webhooks, documented rate limits or a sandbox, which keeps this below the top band.
rapidmail
There are two real shop connections — a Shopware 6 plugin and Plentymarkets interfaces via SOAP and REST — plus a documented developer API for sending mailings and managing newsletter recipients. I found no public information on webhooks, documented rate limits or a sandbox, and none on CRM connectors or order and cart events flowing in, which is what my shop would actually need.
European sovereignty
Inxmail
Only the German company identity is on record; we found no public information on where subscriber data is hosted, the contracting entity's jurisdiction, data residency or any subprocessor list. For a buyer who weighs this heavily, that silence decides the score.
rapidmail
German legal entity in Freiburg, all data on servers in Germany in an ISO 27001 certified data centre, daily encrypted backups on German servers, a data-processing agreement to conclude online that assures the Germany server location, and an external data protection officer. Two things hold it back: the captured pages do not name the data-centre operator, and I found no complete subprocessor list for the sending chain.
Pricing transparency
Inxmail
No price figures appear on the captured pages: the SMTP relay page lists included and optional services without numbers, and the site steers to a demo request and a free trial. A shop owner cannot compute an invoice for any list size from public information.
rapidmail
Three tiers are public with the monthly period stated at up to 500 contacts — Essential 15,00 € / Monat, Performance 25,00 € / Monat, Unlimited 35,00 € / Monat — automation counts per tier are spelled out, and a pay-as-you-go Versand von 1 x 500 E-Mails costs 20,00 € / Gesamt. But only the 500-contact level is evidenced; I found no public information on send limits for the lower tiers, higher contact levels, overage rates or VAT treatment.
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.