Bird vs SendGrid
Bird vs SendGrid for transactional email
Bird operates the email sending infrastructure, manages IP reputation and builds its own delivery tools. Choose Bird when you want the team running your sending network to handle delivery feedback, with email, SMS and voice in one API.
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By the numbers
Bird network
About 40% of commercial emailStored message bodies
Up to 30 days, with storage enabledWho controls the sending stack?
SendGrid: IPs, warm-up and subusers
SendGrid provides shared and dedicated IP addresses and automated IP warm-up. Its warm-up throttles traffic through a new IP while other warm IPs handle overflow.
SendGrid’s subusers separate sending, statistics, permissions and credit limits. Its bulk validation API cleans existing address lists, a useful reason to keep an established SendGrid workflow.
“Twilio SendGrid doesn't offer dedicated IP address reputation monitoring as a service.” Twilio’s guide assigns monitoring and maintaining that reputation to the sender. Twilio also provides an Engagement Quality API and offers Expert Services for Pro and Premier accounts, including reputation help and custom warm-up plans.
Bird: infrastructure and reputation
Bird operates its sending infrastructure and develops MTA software, including PowerMTA, which Bird also licenses for self-hosted sending. Bird acquired SparkPost in 2021; its network carries about 40% of the world’s commercial email.
Bird manages its shared sending IPs, dedicated IPs and pools, with automatic warm-up and shared-pool overflow. Bird’s delivery technology adjusts traffic per mailbox provider, while its platform processes delivery feedback and acts on bounce and complaint signals. These are controls Bird operates within its sending stack.
Bird provides Inbox Insights for placement estimates and seed tests, Email analytics for your own sending results, and Competitive Insights for observed competitor campaigns. Bird’s email team can help assess your requirements.
How do Bird and SendGrid compare?
SendGrid’s bulk validation and subusers suit established list and tenant workflows. Bird combines sending, mailboxes and other channels in one API. These rows compare documented delivery and integration controls.
| Capability | Bird | SendGrid | Who wins? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transactional send API | Bird’s TypeScript SDK throws typed errors by default; .safe() returns data and error. | SendGrid’s Node SDK uses setApiKey and send, with promise rejection handled by catch. | |
| SMTP relay | Bird SMTP accepts port 465 with TLS or 587 and 2525 with STARTTLS, using an API key. | SendGrid SMTP uses smtp.sendgrid.net, username apikey and an API key as the password; TLS on port 587 is recommended. | |
| Email address validation | Bird email lookup checks one address per call, returning a verdict, confidence, address flags and suggested corrections. | SendGrid validation supports single-address checks and asynchronous bulk list validation. | |
| Idempotency on send | Bird retains completed responses for 3 hours; later retries are fresh requests. | SendGrid custom_args carries values into activity data. An echoed correlation value is not itself a send-idempotency guarantee. | |
| Stored content and activity retention | Bird stores message bodies for up to 30 days when content storage is enabled. | SendGrid’s Email Activity history add-on retains events for up to 30 days. Event history and stored message bodies are different records. | |
| Published pricing | Bird email plans and rates are read live in the table below. | SendGrid’s published plans are linked with the date the displayed amount was checked. | Not comparable |
| Dedicated IPs and pools | Bird dedicated IPs and pools include automatic warm-up with overflow through the shared pool. | SendGrid automated warm-up requires another warm IP to handle overflow; IP pools group dedicated addresses. | |
| Deliverability heritage | Bird acquired SparkPost in 2021. Its sending network carries about 40% of the world’s commercial email. | Twilio acquired SendGrid in 2019, adding its email API platform to Twilio. | |
| SPF, DKIM, DMARC and BIMI | Bird verifies DKIM, return-path and DMARC. BIMI is a separate DNS and logo configuration. | SendGrid domain authentication configures SPF and DKIM; DMARC and BIMI setup happens externally. | |
| Event webhooks and signing | Bird signs webhook deliveries using Standard Webhooks. | SendGrid signs Event Webhooks with ECDSA; OAuth verification is also available. | |
| Channels beyond email | Bird’s API covers email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice, Verify and Realtime. | SendGrid provides the Email API; Twilio also publishes messaging and voice APIs. | |
| Vendor and procurement | Review Bird’s published legal terms and policies against your existing agreement and procurement requirements. | Review Twilio’s terms of service against your existing agreement and procurement requirements. | |
| Mailboxes | Bird’s agent mailboxes provide addressable inboxes, threads, replies and sender rules managed through code. | SendGrid Inbound Parse sends parsed incoming content and attachments to your application’s URL. | |
| Agent tooling | Bird’s hosted MCP server at mcp.bird.com exposes 354 tools. The bird CLI sends and inspects email, manages domains, templates and webhooks, and gives agents JSON output and semantic exit codes. | Twilio’s CLI sends SendGrid email through email:send and configures defaults through email:set. Twilio Labs’ MCP proof of concept loads selected Twilio API services. |
How do you handle a send result?
SendGrid’s send promise rejects on an error. Bird throws typed errors by default; this example opts into .safe() so the application can branch on data and error.
SendGrid
import sgMail from "@sendgrid/mail";
sgMail.setApiKey(process.env.SENDGRID_API_KEY!);
try {
await sgMail.send({
to: "customer@example.com",
from: "onboarding@yourdomain.com",
subject: "Your March invoice",
html: "<p>Attached.</p>",
});
} catch (err) {
console.error(err);
}
Bird
import { BirdClient } from "@messagebird/sdk";
const bird = new BirdClient({ apiKey: process.env.BIRD_API_KEY! });
const { data, error } = await bird.email
.send({
from: { email: "onboarding@yourdomain.com", name: "Acme" },
to: ["customer@example.com"],
subject: "Your March invoice",
html: "<p>Attached.</p>",
})
.safe();
if (error) console.error(error.message);
else console.log(data.id);
What changes around the send call?
Can I move a SendGrid inbound workflow to Bird mailboxes?
How should I prevent duplicate sends during migration?
Published email plans
Bird’s full monthly ladder is shown below. Nearest-volume plans are labelled and are not quotes for Bird’s volume. Check billing terms, features and overages.
Pricing verdict: Not comparable. The verdict compares the lowest published monthly amount at each exact volume and currency; daily-only allowances, annual commitments, usage rates, starting prices and custom quotes are not compared.
| Bird tier | Emails per month | Bird | SendGrid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 1,000 | Nearest published volume Essentials: Starting $19.95/mo 50,000 emails Monthly billing; published volume range is 50,000 to 100,000 emails. Taxes and overages may apply. as published | |
| Startup | 50,000 | Matching volume Essentials: Starting $19.95/mo 50,000 emails Monthly billing; published volume range is 50,000 to 100,000 emails. Taxes and overages may apply. as published | |
| Startup | 100,000 | Matching volume Pro: Starting at $89.95/mo 100,000 emails Monthly billing; published volume range is 100,000 to 2,500,000 emails. Taxes and overages may apply. as published | |
| Growth | 100,000 | Matching volume Pro: Starting at $89.95/mo 100,000 emails Monthly billing; published volume range is 100,000 to 2,500,000 emails. Taxes and overages may apply. as published | |
| Growth | 250,000 | Nearest published volume Pro: Starting at $89.95/mo 100,000 emails Monthly billing; published volume range is 100,000 to 2,500,000 emails. Taxes and overages may apply. as published | |
| Growth | 500,000 | Nearest published volume Pro: Starting at $89.95/mo 100,000 emails Monthly billing; published volume range is 100,000 to 2,500,000 emails. Taxes and overages may apply. as published | |
| Growth | 1,000,000 | Nearest published volume Pro: Starting at $89.95/mo 100,000 emails Monthly billing; published volume range is 100,000 to 2,500,000 emails. Taxes and overages may apply. as published | |
| Growth | 2,500,000 | Nearest published volume Pro: Starting at $89.95/mo 100,000 emails Monthly billing; published volume range is 100,000 to 2,500,000 emails. Taxes and overages may apply. as published |
SendGrid: Published plans
50,000 emails
Monthly billing; published volume range is 50,000 to 100,000 emails. Taxes and overages may apply.
as published
100,000 emails
Monthly billing; published volume range is 100,000 to 2,500,000 emails. Taxes and overages may apply.
as published
How should you compare email costs?
What do the Bird and SendGrid price rows include?
Switching cost
What does a SendGrid migration involve?
Map each SendGrid personalization to a Bird send or batch entry, publish Bird’s domain-authentication records and import bounces, spam reports, global unsubscribes and unsubscribe-group suppressions. Map group semantics to Bird’s categories explicitly.
Rewrite webhook verification for Standard Webhooks and map the event names. Test in Bird’s mail sandbox before switching traffic, and plan a warm-up for new dedicated IPs. The migration guide covers the mappings and cutover order.
Put it into practice.
Continue with the documentation, guides and examples for this topic. Resources are in English.
Where to go next
Start with the migration guide to map the integration and test the cutover.
Talk to our email team
See how Bird fits your SendGrid workflow.
Test your sender, templates and delivery events before moving traffic from SendGrid. For a larger move, plan the cutover with an email specialist.
Create your account and test your integration. Your migration enquiry will include the provider you are comparing.