MCP-native for Cursor, Claude Code, and Windsurf
Posthawk
Compare

Posthawk vs Resend
side by side

Resend nailed the developer experience for transactional email and gave React Email a home. Posthawk is the next step: same DX, but you can self-host the whole stack, add a tagged contact list, run broadcasts and visual workflow automations, and let AI agents speak to your account through MCP.

Self-Hostable
Full Control
No Per-Email Fees
Features

Feature comparison

FeaturePosthawkResend
Platform
Self-hostable (Docker)
Multi-region sending
Cloud: US-east + EU-north (per-domain) · Self-host: any SES region
4 regions (account-wide)
EU data residency
Routed via EU but data stored in US
Multi-workspace + roles
Teams
Free tier emails / month (cloud)
3,000
3,000
Sending
Transactional REST API
Batch send (up to 1,000 / call)
Scheduled sending
scheduledFor + cancel + reschedule + audit log
scheduledAt field
Broadcast campaigns
Race-safe cancel mid-flight + send-time unsubscribe re-check
Broadcasts (basic)
SMTP relay (port 587)
Visual workflow automations
Drag-drop builder · HTTP calls, routers, waits, ops monitors · Scale on cloud, unlocked self-hosted
Basic
Marketing & Audience
Contacts management
Tag-based segmentation
Audiences
Newsletter product (signup page + archive)
Hosted /n/[slug] page + embeddable widget + public archive
Double opt-in confirmation
CSV bulk import
Cascading unsubscribe
Newsletter ↔ contacts kept in sync
Per-audience suppression
Abuse protection (honeypot, throttling, MX/disposable checks)
Basic
Templates
React Email (native)
Templates with dynamic variables
Required-variable enforcement
Live preview before send
Deliverability
SPF + DKIM + DMARC auto-config
BYODKIM (your own DKIM keys)
Limited
Cloudflare Domain Connect
One-click setup for Cloudflare-managed domains
Per-workspace reputation isolation
Dedicated SES VDM tenant per workspace · cloud only
Shared pool
Soft-bounce auto-suppression
3 consecutive → suppressed (counter resets on delivery)
Basic
Inbound email parsing
Per-domain webhook routing
Developer Experience
TypeScript SDK
posthawk on npm
resend
Python SDK
posthawk on PyPI
resend
MCP server (Model Context Protocol)
18 tools, OAuth 2.1 + PKCE, Streamable HTTP
Limited tool set
AI assistant (in dashboard)
Subject suggestions, content gen, schedule parsing · cloud Pro+
Support chat
Webhook signature verification
HMAC-SHA256
Svix-style HMAC
Sandbox / test environment
CLI tool
Security & Compliance
Encryption at rest
AES-256 (Postgres disk)
AES-256
TLS in transit
TLS 1.2+
TLS 1.2+
API keys
Bcrypt-hashed, scoped, instantly revocable
Scoped, revocable
2FA / TOTP
Audit logs
Append-only on broadcasts/scheduled · Scale on cloud, unlocked self-hosted
Limited
Pricing & Value
Self-hosted: AWS SES passthrough
$0.10 per 1,000 — paid directly to AWS
Not available
Cloud: Pro plan (50,000 emails/month)
$20 / month
$20 / month
Cloud: pay-as-you-go overage (Pro+)
$0.60 per 1,000 over plan
$1.00+ per 1,000
Pricing

Cost comparison

Every tier of Posthawk on the left, every tier of Resend on the right. Cloud plans run on infrastructure I manage; Self-Hosted runs on yours and pays AWS SES directly with no Posthawk markup.

Posthawk4 tiers
Free
$0
3,000 emails / month
100/day cap · 1 domain · 2 API keys · 2 team members
ProMost popular
$20 / month
50,000 emails / month
Unlimited daily · 10 domains · $0.60 / 1,000 overage · AI assistant
Scale
$49 / month
100,000 emails / month
100 domains · 50 team members · workflow automations · audit logs · $0.60 / 1,000 overage
Self-Hosted
Free forever
No limits
Pay AWS SES directly at ~$0.10 / 1,000 — no Posthawk markup
Resend4 tiers
Free$0
3,000 / month
100/day cap · 1 domain
Pro$20 / month
50,000 emails / month
Custom domains · audiences · broadcasts
Scale$90 / month
100,000 emails / month
Higher rate limits · priority support
ScaleCustom
500K+ / month
Dedicated IPs · custom contracts
Advantages

Why switch to Posthawk

Self-hostable (Resend cannot be)

Resend is cloud-only. Posthawk ships as Docker images on GHCR — `docker compose up` and you have the same dashboard, API, MCP server, and SMTP relay running on your own infra, with no usage limits.

A complete newsletter product, not just transactional

Posthawk includes hosted subscribe pages at posthawk.dev/n/yourname, an embeddable signup widget, double opt-in, public archive, and abuse protection (honeypot, MX checks, throttling). Resend has audiences and broadcasts but no signup pages, no archive, no embeddable widget.

Visual workflow automations on Scale

Posthawk has a drag-drop workflow builder for ops monitors, webhook handlers, scheduled cron jobs, and contact journeys. HTTP calls, routers, waits, notifications, sends — all on one canvas. Resend has no workflow builder.

A deeper MCP server

Both products ship a Model Context Protocol server, but Posthawk's exposes 18 tools across emails, scheduled sends, contacts, domains, templates, and webhooks — with OAuth 2.1 + PKCE and dynamic client registration so any MCP-compatible client can authenticate without a static API key.

Cheaper on cloud, free on self-host

Resend Pro is $20/month for 50K emails. Posthawk Pro is $20/month for the same 50K with $0.60/1k overage (vs Resend's $1.00+/1k). Or self-host Posthawk and pay AWS SES directly at $0.10/1k with no Posthawk markup at all.

Ready to switch from Resend?

Follow the step-by-step migration guide to move from Resend to Posthawk with minimal downtime.

Migration Guide

Try Posthawk today

Start sending emails in minutes. Free to self-host, no credit card required for cloud.

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