Sending API, SMTP & developer experience
How this is scored
How an application sends mail: a REST API and an SMTP relay with their limits stated, official SDKs and drivers for named languages and frameworks (PHP and Laravel, Node, Python, Ruby and Rails, Java, Go, .NET), stored templates with variables and versions, batch sending, attachments, idempotency keys, scheduled sending, a test or sandbox mode that does not deliver, inbound email parsed into a webhook, and the quality of the API reference and guides.
0 — Not a sending service; an application cannot send email through it by API or SMTP.
3 — An API or SMTP credentials to send a message; SDKs, templates, limits and a test mode are basic or not described.
5 — A documented REST API and SMTP relay, official SDKs for several named languages, stored templates with variables, attachments and batch sending, rate limits stated, a sandbox or test mode, and quick-start guides for named frameworks.
8 — An API reference with every endpoint and error code, idempotency keys, scheduled sending, template versions and a template language documented, inbound email parsed to a webhook, an OpenAPI specification or official CLI, framework drivers maintained by the vendor, and a migration guide from named competitors.
10 — An API a team builds its product on: versioning and deprecation policy published, backward compatibility stated, full parity between API and SMTP features, local or staging test tooling that mirrors production, and every limit, timeout and retry behaviour documented.
The Skeptic
Sending works by REST API or SMTP relay on ports 25, 465, 587 and 2525 with TLS or SSL, official libraries for PHP, Ruby, Python, C#, Java and Node.js, an endpoint-level API reference for all APIs, a templating language with variables, loops and conditionals, and inbound mail parsed by the Parse API and routed to a callback URL. Scheduling is mentioned in a single line. We found no public information on a sandbox or test mode, idempotency keys, batch sending, or per-account rate limits — the 15 million emails per hour figure is an infrastructure capacity claim, not a customer limit. 1 3 5 11 12 20