Is day3 cheaper than Resend?

It depends on the mix. Resend is cheaper at the very bottom, because its free plan covers 3,000 transactional emails and 1,000 contacts and day3's free tier only sends to your own team. It's also cheaper if you mail a small list almost every day, because Resend's marketing plan charges by contact and not by send. Everywhere in between, day3 is cheaper, usually several times over, because marketing and transactional come out of one allowance instead of two subscriptions.

Why does Resend show two prices?

Because it sells two things. Transactional email, through the /emails API, is billed by how many you send. Marketing email, through broadcasts, is billed by how many contacts you store, with unlimited sends inside that tier. Broadcasts don't draw down the transactional allowance, so a team doing both pays two subscriptions.

How does day3 price the same work?

One number. Every email counts as one send, whether it's a password reset or a launch note, and the monthly plan is the cheapest tier that covers the total. Subscribers are free and unlimited, so growing the list never moves the bill on its own.

When is Resend the better buy?

When you're small enough to live on the free tier, when transactional is genuinely the whole job, or when you mail a modest list at very high frequency. A flat fee per contact beats a per-send price once the sends per contact get high enough, and the calculator will show you exactly where that line falls for your numbers.

Are these Resend's real prices?

Yes, read off Resend's own pricing page on 2026-09-18 and linked from this page so you can check. Where their pricing offers more than one way to cover a volume, the calculator charges the cheaper one, including pay-as-you-go overage when that beats moving up a plan.

Does the calculator include add-ons?

No. Dedicated IPs, extra domains and SSO are add-ons on Resend's side, and this compares base plans only. If you need a dedicated IP, add $30/mo to the Resend column.

Pricing calculator

Resend or day3? Move the sliders.

Resend bills transactional by the send and marketing by the contact, so a team doing both pays two subscriptions. day3 bills every email the same way, out of one. Here is what that actually costs.

Transactional emails

10,000

Resets, receipts, alerts. Sent a month.

Marketing contacts

5,000

People on the list you write to.

Campaigns

4 a month

Sends to the whole list each month.

That's 20,000 marketing emails and 10,000 transactional ones: 30,000 emails a month.

day3Cheaper

$14/mo

One plan, both jobs50k plan, 50,000 / mo

SubscribersUnlimited, always free

Marketing and transactional come out of the same allowance, on one bill.

Resend

$60/mo

Transactional$20 · Pro, 50,000 / mo

Marketing$40 · Pro marketing, 5,000 contacts

Two subscriptions: one billed by emails sent, one billed by contacts stored.

day3 is $46/mo cheaper (4.3× cheaper).

day3 puts both jobs in one bucket and never charges for a contact, so the list can grow without the bill following it.

Start free on day3

Resend's figures were read off their pricing page on 2026-09-18. Base plans only, no add-ons. day3's figures come straight from our own ladder.

Why the two bills look so different

Two buckets, or one

On Resend, broadcasts don't touch your transactional allowance, so the two jobs are two subscriptions. On day3 a send is a send: resets and newsletters draw down the same monthly number.

Contacts, or sends

Resend's marketing plan is priced by how many contacts you store, with unlimited sends inside the tier. day3 never charges for a contact. The list can be any size; only what you send moves the price.

Where that flips

A flat contact fee wins when you mail a small list constantly. A per-send price wins when the list is large and you write to it at a normal cadence. The calculator shows which side of that line you're on.

Six worked examples

The same arithmetic as the calculator, run on six shapes of team. Two of them go Resend's way.

Setup	Emails / mo	Resend	day3	Cheaper
A side project just starting out1,000 transactional, 500 contacts, 1 campaign a month	1,500	$0	$3	Resendby $3/mo
A SaaS with a small list, mailed monthly10,000 transactional, 2,500 contacts, 1 campaign a month	12,500	$60	$8	day3by $52/mo
A SaaS with a newsletter, mailed weekly10,000 transactional, 10,000 contacts, 4 campaigns a month	50,000	$100	$14	day3by $86/mo
A growing product, weekly updates50,000 transactional, 25,000 contacts, 4 campaigns a month	150,000	$200	$60	day3by $140/mo
A big list, mailed twice a month100,000 transactional, 100,000 contacts, 2 campaigns a month	300,000	$485	$115	day3by $370/mo
A small list, mailed nearly every day1,000 transactional, 5,000 contacts, 30 campaigns a month	151,000	$40	$60	Resendby $20/mo

When Resend is the better buy

When you're starting out. Resend's free plan carries 3,000 transactional emails a month, capped at 100 a day, plus 1,000 marketing contacts with unlimited broadcasts to them. day3's free tier only sends to your own team, so the first real email costs $1. If you fit inside Resend's free plan, stay there.

When you mail a small list constantly. Resend charges nothing per marketing send, so 5,000 contacts mailed daily costs the same $40 as 5,000 contacts mailed once. Per-send pricing can't beat a flat fee at that frequency, and day3 doesn't pretend otherwise.

When transactional is the whole job. If you have no list, no campaigns and no plans for either, you're buying one pipe from a company whose entire business is that pipe. day3's campaign half would be weight you never use, even where the number is lower.

And you can run both. Campaigns on day3, transactional wherever it is now, costs you a second DNS record and nothing else. The longer comparison goes through the rest of it.

How this is calculated

Resend's prices were read off their published price list on 2026-09-18. Prices change; check the source before you quote this anywhere that matters.
Where more than one Resend plan covers a volume, the cheapest is used, including pay-as-you-go overage when that beats moving up a tier. The comparison is deliberately run at Resend's best price, not their worst.
Marketing cost is priced on contacts stored, because that is how Resend bills it. A list you don't mail this month still costs its tier.
Base plans only. Dedicated IPs ($30/mo), extra domains ($20/mo) and SSO ($150/mo) are Resend add-ons and are not counted on either side.
day3's number is the cheapest tier on our published ladder that covers transactional plus marketing sends combined. The page reads it live, so it cannot go stale.

Questions

Is day3 cheaper than Resend?: It depends on the mix. Resend is cheaper at the very bottom, because its free plan covers 3,000 transactional emails and 1,000 contacts and day3's free tier only sends to your own team. It's also cheaper if you mail a small list almost every day, because Resend's marketing plan charges by contact and not by send. Everywhere in between, day3 is cheaper, usually several times over, because marketing and transactional come out of one allowance instead of two subscriptions.
Why does Resend show two prices?: Because it sells two things. Transactional email, through the /emails API, is billed by how many you send. Marketing email, through broadcasts, is billed by how many contacts you store, with unlimited sends inside that tier. Broadcasts don't draw down the transactional allowance, so a team doing both pays two subscriptions.
How does day3 price the same work?: One number. Every email counts as one send, whether it's a password reset or a launch note, and the monthly plan is the cheapest tier that covers the total. Subscribers are free and unlimited, so growing the list never moves the bill on its own.
When is Resend the better buy?: When you're small enough to live on the free tier, when transactional is genuinely the whole job, or when you mail a modest list at very high frequency. A flat fee per contact beats a per-send price once the sends per contact get high enough, and the calculator will show you exactly where that line falls for your numbers.
Are these Resend's real prices?: Yes, read off Resend's own pricing page on 2026-09-18 and linked from this page so you can check. Where their pricing offers more than one way to cover a volume, the calculator charges the cheaper one, including pay-as-you-go overage when that beats moving up a plan.
Does the calculator include add-ons?: No. Dedicated IPs, extra domains and SSO are add-ons on Resend's side, and this compares base plans only. If you need a dedicated IP, add $30/mo to the Resend column.

One domain. One allowance. One bill.

Get started day3 vs Resend, in full