SendGrid vs Postalserver
Self-hosted for $4/mo on hetzner CAX11, versus $19-$90/user/mo on SendGrid.
Side-by-side
| SendGrid | Postalserver (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $19-$90/user/mo | $4.13/mo flat (any team size) |
| Hosting | SendGrid's servers | Your VPS (hetzner CAX11) |
| Data ownership | SendGrid controls the data | Your disk, your encryption |
| Source code | Closed | Open (MIT) |
| Customization | API + integrations only | Full source access; modify freely |
| Maintenance burden | Zero | Backups + updates (manual) |
| Health score (ossreplace) | — | 70 / 100 |
Why teams leave SendGrid
- Per-email + per-feature pricing combinations
- Sender authentication limits on free/lower tiers
- Email validation + dedicated IPs as add-ons
- Pricing gets messy at high volume
Postalserver answers this by: Postal and Cuttlefish give a SendGrid-equivalent transactional API; you pay only for the SMTP relay (SES, etc.).
The cost math
Assumes 5-person team using SendGrid at the midpoint price ($54.5/user/mo).
| Period | SendGrid | Postalserver on hetzner | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $272.5 | $4.13 | $268.37 |
| Yearly | $3270 | $49.56 | $3220.44 |
| 3 years | $9,810 | $149 | $9,661 |
Deploy Postalserver now
One-click deploys at the cheapest provider for this workload:
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Common questions
Is Postalserver a good alternative to SendGrid?
Postalserver is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to SendGrid with an ossreplace health score of 70/100 — a composite of project activity, maturity, community, security, and adoption. It runs on your own hetzner VPS from $4.13/mo with full source access under the MIT license, versus SendGrid's $19–90/user/mo hosted plans.
How much cheaper is Postalserver than SendGrid?
A 5-person team pays about $272.5/mo on SendGrid. Self-hosting Postalserver on hetzner CAX11 costs a flat $4.13/mo regardless of team size — roughly $9,661 less over three years (98% lower).
Is Postalserver hard to self-host?
Postalserver self-hosts on your own VPS. You handle the install, backups, and updates yourself in exchange for full data ownership and no per-seat fees.
Do you keep control of your data with Postalserver vs SendGrid?
Yes. Because Postalserver runs on your own server, the data lives on your disk under your encryption. With SendGrid, SendGrid controls the hosting, storage, and access.