Email Marketing · head to head
Attentive vs Sendy
Attentive
Email Marketing
Enterprise SMS and email marketing for retail brands, sold on quarterly minimum spend commitments
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Sendy
Email Marketing
Self-hosted newsletter app bought once for $69 that sends through your own Amazon SES account
- From
- $69/one-time
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Attentive minimum spend commitments are use it or lose it: if quarterly usage falls short, the shortfall is invoiced anyway, which makes Attentive expensive for any brand whose sending is seasonal rather than even.; Sendy free updates run only to the next major version, so the one-time purchase is really one purchase per major release and the long-term cost is not zero.
- They diverge on capability: Attentive covers SMS-first journeys, Sendy covers One-time licence.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Attentive and Sendy actually diverge.
Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Email Marketing).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Attentive
- SMS-first journeys
- Two-tap sign-up units
- TCPA compliance tooling
- Email channel
- Revenue attribution
- Concierge
- Identity resolution
- Negotiated order form rates
Only in Sendy
- One-time licence
- Amazon SES delivery
- Multiple brands
- Autoresponders
- Segmentation
- Bounce and complaint handling
- Reporting
- Client access
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Attentive
- A direct-to-consumer brand where SMS is the primary revenue channel and needs cart abandonment triggered within minutes of a sessionnot Sendy
- A retailer capturing in-store phone numbers at the till and needing TCPA-compliant consent records to go with themnot Sendy
- A consumer brand running SMS and email from one audience so subscribers are not messaged twice for the same promotionnot Sendy
- A high-volume merchant with predictable year-round send patterns that can commit to a quarterly minimum and negotiate rates down against itnot Sendy
Sendy
- A publisher with a large list sending frequently, where a hosted platform bills by subscriber count month after monthnot Attentive
- An agency managing newsletters for several clients who each get their own brand and login under one licencenot Attentive
- A business that must keep subscriber data on its own infrastructure for privacy or contractual reasonsnot Attentive
- A developer wiring signups from a custom application into a mailing list without paying platform API feesnot Attentive
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Attentive
- Minimum spend commitments are use it or lose it: if quarterly usage falls short, the shortfall is invoiced anyway, which makes Attentive expensive for any brand whose sending is seasonal rather than even.
- No rates are published anywhere, so a buyer cannot benchmark a quote before entering a sales process, and the effective per message cost is only visible once an order form is drafted.
- Contracts commonly run six to twelve months, so a brand that finds performance disappointing after two months still owes the balance of the term.
- Total cost combines a platform fee, per message SMS and MMS charges and carrier pass-through fees, and MMS at two to five cents per message means image-heavy campaigns cost several times what the SMS rate suggests.
- It is priced and built for established consumer brands, and the entry commitment puts it out of reach of small merchants that Postscript and similar tools serve on usage-based plans with no floor.
Sendy
- Free updates run only to the next major version, so the one-time purchase is really one purchase per major release and the long-term cost is not zero.
- Deliverability becomes entirely your problem: SES gives you a raw sending pipe and no warm-up guidance, reputation dashboards or deliverability consultants when a campaign starts landing in spam.
- Amazon SES requires production access approval and will suspend accounts on high bounce or complaint rates, which can take a list offline mid-campaign with little warning.
- The template editor and design tooling are basic next to Mailchimp or Klaviyo, so anything visually ambitious means hand-written HTML email.
- You own the server: PHP upgrades, database backups and patching are yours, and an unmaintained Sendy install holding a subscriber list is a data breach waiting to happen.
Pricing, plan by plan
Attentive
On request- Attentive$undefined/year
- No public rate card; rates are set in an individual order form
- Platform fee plus per message SMS and MMS charges
- Contracts commonly six to twelve months
Sendy
$69/one-time- Sendy licence$69/one-time
- One-time purchase, no subscription
- Free updates only up to the next major version
- Unlimited lists, subscribers and campaigns
- AI Assistant bundle$39/one-time
- Optional add-on, listed at a discount from $49
- AI writing assistance inside the campaign editor
- Installation service$79/one-time
- Optional one-off setup by the vendor
- For buyers who do not want to configure hosting and SES themselves
Which should you pick?
Choose Attentive if
- You need sms-first journeys.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want two-tap sign-up units.
Choose Sendy if
- You need one-time licence.
- You work on Web, Linux.
- You also want amazon ses delivery.
Questions people ask
- Is Attentive or Sendy better?
- Neither clearly leads. Attentive starts at On request and Sendy at $69/one-time, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Attentive or Sendy?
- Attentive starts at On request and Sendy at $69/one-time.
- Does Attentive or Sendy run on more platforms?
- Attentive runs on Web, iOS, Android. Sendy runs on Web, Linux.
- What is Attentive best used for?
- Attentive is most often used for a direct-to-consumer brand where sms is the primary revenue channel and needs cart abandonment triggered within minutes of a session, a retailer capturing in-store phone numbers at the till and needing tcpa-compliant consent records to go with them, a consumer brand running sms and email from one audience so subscribers are not messaged twice for the same promotion, a high-volume merchant with predictable year-round send patterns that can commit to a quarterly minimum and negotiate rates down against it. Of those, a direct-to-consumer brand where sms is the primary revenue channel and needs cart abandonment triggered within minutes of a session and a retailer capturing in-store phone numbers at the till and needing tcpa-compliant consent records to go with them are not what Sendy is typically brought in for.
- What can Attentive do that Sendy cannot?
- Attentive covers SMS-first journeys, Two-tap sign-up units, TCPA compliance tooling, Email channel. Sendy covers One-time licence, Amazon SES delivery, Multiple brands, Autoresponders.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Attentive: How much does Attentive cost?
It does not publish rates. Costs are a platform fee plus per message charges set in your order form, with minimum spend commitments commonly around 2,000 to 3,000 USD per quarter.
Sendy: What does it actually cost to send?
The licence is $69 once. Delivery is Amazon SES at roughly $1 per 10,000 emails, plus your own hosting, so a 50,000-contact weekly newsletter costs a few dollars a month to send.
Attentive: What happens if I do not use my minimum?
You are invoiced for the shortfall at the end of the quarter. Unused commitment is not carried forward.
Sendy: Are updates free forever?
No. Updates are free up to the next major version, for example within 7.x. Moving from 7.x to 8.x is a paid upgrade.
Attentive: How long is the contract?
Typically six to twelve months, billed monthly or quarterly.
Sendy: Do I need to know how to set up a server?
Standard PHP and MySQL hosting is enough and the vendor compares it to installing WordPress, but the SES side needs AWS configuration. An $79 installation service is offered if you would rather not.
Attentive: Does it do email as well as SMS?
Yes, with shared audiences and journeys, though the product was designed SMS-first and that remains its strength.
Sendy: What happens if Amazon suspends my SES account?
Your sending stops until you resolve it with AWS. There is no alternative delivery route built in, and this is the single biggest operational risk of the model.
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