SendGrid
Shares rank 3 of 5 email APIs by recommenders
Email sending service that people use to handle app email delivery for them, with a free tier for small volumes. Critics often report account blocks, blacklisting, slow support and spam sent through the platform.
Email sending service that people use to handle app email delivery for them, with a free tier for small volumes. Critics often report account blocks, blacklisting, slow support and spam sent through the platform.
36 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 28
- approval share
- 22%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 10 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Handles email sending for developers
“Most of that can be mitigated, or at least centrally managed, using an ESP like Mailgun or Sendgrid.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Email is tough: Major European Payment Processor's Emails aren't RFC-Compliant” “sendgrid, sns, etc are doing the hard work for me”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “I don't want to read what you didn't write”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Spam and phishing sent through platform
“I also used to receive massive amounts of spam from Azure and Sendgrid but this eventually stopped.”
Comment from 16 Apr 2026 in “FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account” “Have been reporting them as phishing in our GSuite account, but they just keep coming.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Why is SendGrid emailing me about supporting ICE?” “I can't think of one email I received from sendgrid I would consider legitimate.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Why is SendGrid emailing me about supporting ICE?” - Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Why is SendGrid emailing me about supporting ICE?”
- Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Why is SendGrid emailing me about supporting ICE?”
Account blocks and broken reputation scoring
“When they then acquired sendgrid, to add insult to injury I eventually found out that I was blacklisted”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “We're making Bunny DNS free: because a faster internet won't build itself” “Multiple account blocks with no warning, no questions, over weekends when no one sees it.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: What email API providers to use for pet project?” “Sendgrid's internal scoring is completely broken, and they don't care.”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “We have a 99% email reputation. Gmail disagrees” Slow support and billing problems
“SendGrid took weeks to reply to my customer service messages about resolving this”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Why is SendGrid emailing me about supporting ICE?” “closed my SendGrid account ....continued to send me monthly invoices”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Why is SendGrid emailing me about supporting ICE?” Weak login and 2FA options
“their Sendgrid account, which has hundreds of subtenants that each have custom domains configured, still can only be logged into via Heroku”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Agents can now create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy” “SendGrid, which is owned by Twilio, only supports 2FA based on SMS or the Authy App”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Why is SendGrid emailing me about supporting ICE?”
Other email APIs people recommend
The four most recommended other email APIs, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 5 email APIs, rankedWhat people said
37 of the 39 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Most have sufficient free tier for one or few users.”
“This has worked fine for years”
“sendgrid, sns, etc are doing the hard work for me”
“Twilio/Sendgrid used to be fantastic. And now it's a massive sinkhole of your time, money, and sanity.”
“SendGrid owned by Twilio did it to me in 2023”
“The way they easily could, if they cared.”
“When they then acquired sendgrid, to add insult to injury I eventually found out that I was blacklisted”
“Multiple account blocks with no warning, no questions, over weekends when no one sees it.”
“their Sendgrid account, which has hundreds of subtenants that each have custom domains configured, still can only be logged into via Heroku”
“the horror that is Sendgrid”
“Sendgrid is such an enshittified product”
“I also used to receive massive amounts of spam from Azure and Sendgrid but this eventually stopped.”
“they claim its not their data”
“SendGrid has always had poor deliverability.”
“Why that would matter ? That's about as valuabe as Trump's peace prize”
“Sendgrid's internal scoring is completely broken, and they don't care.”
“their email reputation metric is a poor proxy”
“sent through a spam service (SendGrid)”
“changed their API with breaking changes”
“sendgrid, who changed their API with breaking changes”
“The other newsletter mail services (mailgun/sendgrid/etc.) are just as bad for this.”
“Most of that can be mitigated, or at least centrally managed, using an ESP like Mailgun or Sendgrid.”
“I don't have problems with permissions in any of those things you listed.”
“they dump you onto IP addresses where they're also playing wack-a-mole with spammers”
“I don't need ti reply from a throwaway frequently so it's sufficient for now.”
“I'm more troubled by the fact these emails are hitting my sendgrid only email address.”
“Sendgrid , Twilio and other saas messaging carriers need to do a better job with integrity.”
“SendGrid phishing emails are some of the best phishing emails”
“closed my SendGrid account ....continued to send me monthly invoices”
“any of those are just enabling spam at the end of the day”
“I can't think of one email I received from sendgrid I would consider legitimate.”
“SendGrid, which is owned by Twilio, only supports 2FA based on SMS or the Authy App”
“SendGrid took weeks to reply to my customer service messages about resolving this”
“That's some devious shit.”
“Have been reporting them as phishing in our GSuite account, but they just keep coming.”
“Or an email provider like SendGrid? Also no.”
“SendGrid, another Twilio property, uses (micro)services to great effect.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.