Email Marketing · head to head
Sailthru vs SendGrid
Sailthru
Email Marketing
Retail and publisher email personalisation, now one product inside the Marigold portfolio
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
SendGrid
Email Marketing
Email at scale, proven deliverability, and so much more
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only SendGrid has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Sailthru the product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.; SendGrid free plan caps at 100 emails per day and expires after 60 days, per twilio.com/en-us/products/email-api/pricing (Aug 2026), after which sending requires a paid plan
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Sailthru and SendGrid actually diverge.
Identical on both: 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 Sailthru
- Interest profiles
- Personalisation engine
- Prediction Manager
- Site personalisation
- Zephyr templating
- Lifecycle optimiser
Only in SendGrid
Nothing recorded that Sailthru does not also cover.
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Sailthru
- A publisher sending a personalised daily newsletter assembled per reader from a content cataloguenot SendGrid
- A retailer that wants email and on-site recommendations driven by the same affinity modelnot SendGrid
- High-cadence sending where per-recipient content assembly matters more than journey branchingnot SendGrid
- Teams that want churn and lifetime value scores available as native campaign conditions rather than imported fieldsnot SendGrid
SendGrid
- Marketing email campaigns and transactional email deliverynot Sailthru
- Password reset and account confirmation emailsnot Sailthru
- Newsletter distribution and subscriber engagementnot Sailthru
- Automated email notifications for SaaS applicationsnot Sailthru
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Sailthru
- The product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.
- Pricing counts stored profiles, so retained inactive readers keep costing money long after they stopped opening anything.
- On-site personalisation requires a developer to implement the JavaScript and maintain the content feed, which puts the highest-value feature behind engineering time.
- Zephyr is a proprietary templating language, so template maintenance skills are scarce compared with the Liquid syntax used by most competitors.
- It is built for high-cadence content and retail sending, and B2B lifecycle programmes with long sales cycles sit poorly on the model.
SendGrid
- Free plan caps at 100 emails per day and expires after 60 days, per twilio.com/en-us/products/email-api/pricing (Aug 2026), after which sending requires a paid plan
- Dedicated IP addresses are only included from the Pro plan at $89.95 per month; Essentials at $19.95 per month lacks a dedicated IP, per Twilio's own pricing page
Pricing, plan by plan
Sailthru
On request- Sailthru$undefined/year
- Priced on stored profiles and send volume
- Site personalisation and prediction features licensed by module
- Annual contract through Marigold
SendGrid
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the SendGrid review.
Which should you pick?
Choose Sailthru if
- You need interest profiles.
- You work on Web, REST API.
- You also want personalisation engine.
Questions people ask
- Is Sailthru or SendGrid better?
- Neither clearly leads. Sailthru starts at On request and SendGrid at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Sailthru or SendGrid?
- SendGrid has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Sailthru and Free for SendGrid.
- Does Sailthru or SendGrid run on more platforms?
- Sailthru runs on Web, REST API. SendGrid runs on Web.
- Can I use SendGrid for free?
- Yes. SendGrid has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Sailthru starts at On request.
- What is Sailthru best used for?
- Sailthru is most often used for a publisher sending a personalised daily newsletter assembled per reader from a content catalogue, a retailer that wants email and on-site recommendations driven by the same affinity model, high-cadence sending where per-recipient content assembly matters more than journey branching, teams that want churn and lifetime value scores available as native campaign conditions rather than imported fields. Of those, a publisher sending a personalised daily newsletter assembled per reader from a content catalogue and a retailer that wants email and on-site recommendations driven by the same affinity model are not what SendGrid is typically brought in for.
- What can Sailthru do that SendGrid cannot?
- Sailthru covers Interest profiles, Personalisation engine, Prediction Manager, Site personalisation.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Sailthru: Who owns Sailthru now?
Marigold, formerly CM Group, which also owns Campaign Monitor, Emma, Selligent, Liveclicker and Cheetah Digital.
SendGrid: How much does SendGrid cost?
SendGrid email API pricing is usage-based. Twilio SendGrid offers a free tier for new users and scales with email volume. Customers should check the Twilio SendGrid pricing page for current rates and plan options.
SourceSailthru: Does that affect the roadmap?
It can. Overlapping products in one portfolio compete for investment, so ask which platform is the strategic one for your segment before signing multi-year.
SendGrid: Is there a free tier for SendGrid?
Yes, SendGrid offers a free tier for new users to get started with email API delivery. The free plan includes limited monthly emails and is suitable for getting started with transactional email.
SourceSailthru: Is it worth it just for newsletters?
For personalised daily newsletters at publisher scale it remains one of the strongest options. For simple broadcast sending it is heavily over-specified.
SendGrid: What support is included with SendGrid?
SendGrid includes technical documentation and email support for users. Customers can access the help center, API documentation, and send emails to support for assistance with integration and troubleshooting.
SourceRelated pages
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