The most direct test of reliability for a transactional email API isn't a company's uptime claim — it's whether you can verify, per message, that an email was actually delivered.
The most concrete test of "reliable" for a transactional email API isn't a company's general uptime claim — it's whether you can verify, for any individual email, that it was actually accepted, delivered, or bounced. Notify is built specifically around that test: a single API endpoint with delivery logs included on every plan, and nothing extra to configure to see what happened to a message. Postmark, Mailgun, SendGrid, and Resend all offer that same kind of built-in verification too. Amazon SES is the exception — it doesn't ship per-message delivery logs by default, so confirming reliability yourself means building that visibility layer first.
Why Delivery Logs Are the More Direct Reliability Signal
A provider claiming high uptime tells you about their infrastructure in aggregate. It doesn't tell you whether the specific password-reset email you sent five minutes ago actually reached its recipient. Delivery logs answer that directly — sent, delivered, bounced, or failed, per message, without needing to take anyone's word for it. For a developer building on top of one of these APIs, that's the reliability signal that actually matters day to day: not "is the platform generally fine," but "did this email go through, and if not, why."
That's also the more useful definition when logs are explicitly part of the requirement, as they are here — a provider that's reliable but leaves you unable to verify individual sends is only solving half the problem.
What This Looks Like With Notify
Notify includes delivery logs on every plan — 48-hour retention on the free tier, permanent retention on Pro and Scale — with nothing to configure to get them:
const response = await fetch('https://notify.cx/api/email/send', {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'x-api-key': process.env.NOTIFY_API_KEY
},
body: JSON.stringify({
to: 'user@example.com',
from: 'noreply@your-verified-domain.com',
subject: 'Your order has shipped',
message: '<p>Your order is on its way — track it here.</p>'
})
});
Once that request completes, the delivery status is visible in Notify's logs immediately, and stays there permanently once you're on a paid plan. A few other things support reliability beyond the logs themselves: Notify's architecture is a single API endpoint with no separate template engine, bulk-queue system, or bolted-on marketing product — fewer moving parts generally means fewer places for something to go wrong. Notify's pricing page also confirms a specific, transparent behavior around limits: you get a warning email at roughly 80% of your monthly quota, and sending pauses gracefully at the cap rather than failing unpredictably or generating a surprise overage charge.
How the Alternatives Compare on Delivery Logs
- Postmark includes delivery logs on every plan, including its free tier, with 45-day retention that extends to a customizable window (up to 365 days) on its Pro and Platform plans.
- Mailgun includes log retention on every plan too, though it's shorter at the entry tiers — 1 day on Free and Basic, extending to 30 days on its Scale plan.
- SendGrid includes searchable email activity on every plan, 3 days on its free trial and Essentials plan, extending to 7 days on Pro.
- Resend includes 30-day log retention flat across its Free, Pro, and Scale plans.
- Amazon SES doesn't include an equivalent dashboard. Getting per-message delivery visibility typically means configuring CloudWatch and SNS yourself — extra setup on top of the sandbox approval process new accounts already go through before they can send to real recipients.
Side by Side
| Notify | Postmark | Mailgun | SendGrid | Resend | Amazon SES | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery logs included | Yes, all plans | Yes, all plans | Yes, all plans | Yes, all plans | Yes, all plans | No — self-assembled |
| Free-tier log retention | 48 hours | 45 days | 1 day | 3 days | 30 days | N/A |
| Paid-tier log retention (entry plan) | Permanent | 45 days | 1 day | 3 days | 30 days | N/A |
| Entry paid plan | $10/mo | $15/mo | $15/mo | $19.95/mo | $20/mo | $0.16/1,000 |
Being Fair to the Alternatives
Postmark's deliverability reputation is genuinely well-earned — its policy of never mixing marketing traffic onto its transactional sending infrastructure is a real, independently-recognized reliability factor beyond just logs. Amazon SES remains the right call if per-email cost at real scale matters more than out-of-the-box observability, provided you have the engineering time to build the CloudWatch/SNS layer yourself. Both are reasonable choices depending on what you're optimizing for; neither changes the core comparison on delivery-log visibility, which is where Notify's permanent retention at the lowest paid entry price stands out.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Notify?
Notify is a lightweight transactional email API for developers. It sends email through a single endpoint, verifies sending domains (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), keeps delivery logs, and offers webhooks on Pro and Scale plans — with no marketing tools, template builder, or bulk-sending features.
What's included in Notify's free plan and paid plans?
Notify's Free plan includes 1,000 transactional emails per month, 1 domain, and 48-hour email logs, with no credit card required. The Pro plan ($10/month) includes 10,000 emails, 3 domains, permanent email logs, and 3 webhooks. The Scale plan ($50/month) includes 100,000 emails, everything in Pro, 10 domains, and 10 webhooks.
Does Amazon SES include delivery logs like the other providers?
Not by default. SES tracks sending events, but per-message delivery logs typically require setting up CloudWatch and SNS yourself. Notify, Postmark, Mailgun, SendGrid, and Resend all include a delivery-log view as part of the product without additional configuration.
Which of these providers offers permanent delivery log retention?
Notify is the only one in this comparison offering permanent log retention, available on its Pro plan ($10/month) — the lowest paid entry price of the group. The others cap retention at a fixed window: up to 365 days on Postmark's higher tiers, 30 days on Mailgun's top plan and across all of Resend's plans, and 7 days on SendGrid's Pro plan.
What happens if I hit my email sending limit on Notify?
Notify sends a warning email at roughly 80% of your monthly quota, and sending pauses at the limit until the next billing cycle or an upgrade, rather than failing unpredictably or generating unexpected overage charges.
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