Mailjet
Free plan: Mailjet vs Mailrelay
Mailjet is a French email marketing and transactional email platform, founded in 2010 and owned by the Swedish group Sinch since 2021.
It is a well-known tool among developers and agencies. Its strengths are its API for sending emails from a website or an app and team editing of campaigns.
But its free plan has limits that you should be aware of. Let’s look at what it offers, how much it costs in 2026 and when another option suits you better, such as Mailrelay, which lets you send 80,000 emails a month without paying.
What is Mailjet and what is it for?
It was founded in Paris by Wilfried Durand and Julien Tartarin. In 2019 it joined Mailgun, another email sending company, under the Pathwire group.
In December 2021, the Swedish communications company Sinch bought Pathwire for 1.9 billion dollars. Since then, the tool has been branded as Sinch Mailjet.
It is used for two things.
On the one hand, for email marketing: designing a newsletter, sending it to your list and measuring the results.
On the other, for sending transactional emails, such as order confirmations or password notifications, through its API or via SMTP.
What is the difference between Mailjet and Mailgun?
Both belong to Sinch, but they target different audiences. Mailgun is designed for developers: it is a sending API with no visual editor for campaigns.
Mailjet combines both. It has an API and SMTP for transactional emails, as well as a drag-and-drop editor so the marketing team can create its newsletters without coding.
From Mailgun it inherits, for example, list validation, which detects addresses that don’t exist before you send.
How do transactional emails work in Mailjet?
A transactional email is one that is sent automatically when someone does something on your website: a purchase, a sign-up or a password reset request. It is sent to a single person and has to arrive within seconds.
With Mailjet you can send them in two ways. The first is to connect your website or store to its SMTP server, which usually just requires setting up a username and password. The second is to use its API, which gives you more control and lets you create templates with variables.
It is a good idea to keep these emails separate from your marketing campaigns. If a newsletter gets a lot of spam complaints, you don’t want that to damage your sender reputation or affect your invoices or order confirmations.
What features does Mailjet have?
The platform brings together the basics for sending campaigns and automated emails. These are its main functions:
- Drag-and-drop editor with real-time collaborative editing and comments.
- API and SMTP for transactional emails, with good documentation for developers.
- Contact segmentation, from the Essential plan upwards.
- Automations, A/B tests and landing pages, only on the Premium plan.
- Previews in dozens of email clients and list validation on the higher plans.
- Subaccounts and permissions, useful for agencies that manage several brands.
One of its advantages is that it charges by emails sent, not by contacts. On the Essential and Premium plans you can store as many contacts as you like.
How much does Mailjet cost in 2026?
It has one free plan and four paid plans. The price depends on how many emails you send per month.
These are the starting prices as of September 2026, in dollars and excluding taxes:
| Plan | Price from | Emails per month | What it includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 6,000 (max. 200 per day) | 1,000 contacts, with its logo |
| Starter | $9/month | 8.000 | 2,000 contacts, no daily limit |
| Essential | $19/month | 15.000 | Unlimited contacts, segmentation and no logo |
| Premium | $29/month | 15.000 | Automations, A/B tests, landing pages and priority support |
| Custom | Tailored | Large volumes | Technical account manager |
If you pay annually, you save 10%. A dedicated IP is only available on the Premium plan and from 100,000 emails a month.
Note one detail: Essential and Premium include the same number of emails. The 10-dollar difference lies in the automations and landing pages.
Is Mailjet free?
Yes, it has a permanent free plan. It lets you send 6,000 emails a month, with a maximum of 200 a day, to a list of up to 1,000 contacts.
That daily limit is the main problem. With 1,000 contacts, you need five days to send them a single newsletter. And the free plan doesn’t include segmentation, automations or landing pages.
In addition, your emails carry its logo. And personal support is only available during the first month; after that, you rely on the documentation and the automated assistant.
As you can see, it is good for trying out the tool or for sending a small number of transactional emails. With Mailrelay, on the other hand, you can send up to 80,000 emails a month to 20,000 contacts without paying.
Are 200 emails a day not enough for you?
With Mailrelay, you can send up to 80,000 emails a month to 20,000 contacts for free, with automations included and no logos in your emails.
Is Mailjet GDPR compliant?
Yes. Mailjet is a European company and hosts its data on servers in the European Union. It is one of its selling points compared with US tools such as Mailchimp.
Even so, GDPR compliance also depends on you. You need your contacts’ consent, ideally with double opt-in, and a visible unsubscribe link in every campaign.
Mailjet and WordPress
Mailjet has an official plugin for WordPress. It lets you add subscription forms to your website and send the site’s emails from it through its SMTP.
For other integrations, such as online stores or a CRM, it relies mainly on Zapier. EmailToolTester estimates that it has around 100 integrations, far fewer than Mailchimp.
If you work with WordPress, Mailrelay also has its own plugin, as well as a REST API and integrations with WooCommerce and Make.
Mailjet pros and cons
Mailjet is a solid tool, especially for technical teams. But it has limits that you should be aware of before choosing it.
Advantages:
- It charges by emails sent, with unlimited contacts from the Essential plan upwards.
- Very complete API and SMTP for transactional emails.
- Real-time collaborative editing, useful for agencies and teams.
- Data hosted in the European Union.
Disadvantages:
- The free plan only allows 200 emails a day.
- Automations, A/B tests and landing pages require the Premium plan.
- Personal support on the free plan lasts one month, and chat is only available on Premium.
- Few native integrations with online stores.
Mailjet: user reviews
User reviews highlight its pricing by emails sent and its API.
The review site EmailToolTester gives it 3.8 out of 5, and TechRadar 4 out of 5.
The criticisms come up again and again on two points. The first is automations: EmailToolTester considers them basic and hard to set up when they depend on user behavior.
The second is support.
Live chat is only available on the Premium plan, during European business hours. And on the lower plans, help comes mainly by email, with replies in around 24 hours.
How is Mailjet different from Mailrelay?
Both charge by emails sent and both offer transactional emails. The difference lies in what you get without paying and in the support.
| Mailjet | Mailrelay | |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts on the free plan | 1.000 | 20.000 |
| Free emails | 6,000 per month (200 per day) | 80,000 per month |
| Provider’s logo in your emails | Yes, on the free plan | No, not on any plan |
| Automations and A/B tests | Only on Premium | Included in the free account |
| Support | One month on the free plan; chat only on Premium | Chat, ticket and phone on all plans |
| Transactional emails | API and SMTP on all plans | SMTP and API (30 days free on the free account) |
Imagine you have 3,000 contacts and send a newsletter once a week: around 12,000 emails a month.
With Mailjet, neither the free plan nor Starter will do, so you need Essential, at 19 dollars a month. And if you want automations, Premium, at 29.
With Mailrelay you can do it with the free account, automations included.
When to choose Mailjet and when to choose Mailrelay?
Mailjet is a good fit if your priority is transactional emails and your technical team wants a good API. Also if you are an agency that needs subaccounts and team editing.
Mailrelay suits you if you want to send newsletters frequently without paying, up to 80,000 emails a month.
Or if you value being able to call and speak to a person who will help you in Spanish, whatever plan you have.
You can compare the rates on the Mailrelay pricing page.
Other Mailjet alternatives
What tools are similar to Mailjet? It depends on what you use it for.
For transactional emails, the best-known alternative is SendGrid, although it no longer has a free plan. For email marketing, you can look at Brevo, which also charges by emails sent, or MailerLite, which is simpler.
Mailchimp is still the best known, and Acumbamail is a Spanish option. You’ll find a comparison of free plans in our guide to Mailchimp alternatives.
If you already use it and want to switch, export your contacts as a CSV and import them into Mailrelay.
Move your unsubscribes to your suppression list and authenticate your domain to meet the Gmail and Yahoo requirements.
How Mailrelay helps you
Mailrelay is the Mailjet alternative for anyone who needs volume without paying.
The free account includes up to 80,000 emails a month and 20,000 contacts, with no ads in your emails.
All plans, including the free one, include an AI editor, email and SMS automations, segmentation, landing pages, A/B tests and automatic list cleaning.
And we take care of your deliverability with our own IP ranges.
Human support by chat, ticket or phone is always available, in Spanish.
Switch from Mailjet to Mailrelay hassle-free
Import your contacts in minutes and keep sending for free. If you have a question, we’ll help you in Spanish by chat, ticket or phone.
Frequently asked questions about Mailjet
What is Mailjet and what is it for? It is a French platform for sending email marketing campaigns and transactional emails via API or SMTP. It has belonged to the Swedish group Sinch since 2021.
Is Mailjet free? It has a free plan with 6,000 emails a month, a maximum of 200 a day and 1,000 contacts. Your emails carry its logo.
How much does Mailjet cost? The Starter plan starts at 9 dollars a month, Essential at 19 and Premium, with automations, at 29. The price goes up with the number of emails you send.
Is Mailjet the same as Mailgun? No. Both belong to Sinch, but Mailgun is an API for developers, while Mailjet combines an API with an editor for marketing campaigns.
Is Mailjet available in Spanish? Yes. The website and the platform are available in Spanish. Support chat is only offered on the Premium plan.
What tools are similar to Mailjet? For transactional emails, SendGrid or Mailgun. For email marketing, Mailrelay, Brevo, MailerLite or Mailchimp. If you are looking for a generous free plan, Mailrelay lets you send 80,000 emails a month.