The SNDR alternative to SendGrid.

SendGrid is the incumbent for a reason — it scales to enormous volumes and integrates with everything. The trade-off is that the developer surface has grown thick over the years: v3 API, Mail Helper Class, dynamic templates, Marketing Campaigns, multiple SDKs in various states of maintenance. SNDR is built for teams that want one consistent typed API, a retry story they can audit, and pricing they can change tiers on without a quote. If you’re hitting the friction of SendGrid’s breadth without needing it, this page is for you.

Drawn from public documentation and pricing as of build time. We try to keep this fair — file an issue if anything is wrong.

1. 1

   Install the SDK

   Add @rkiza/sndr alongside @sendgrid/mail. You can run them side by side during the cutover.

   pnpm add @rkiza/sndr

2. 2

   Replace the send call

   SendGrid’s Mail Helper maps cleanly to the SNDR Send input. The single biggest delta: no setApiKey() global — the key lives on the client instance.

   // before
   import sgMail from '@sendgrid/mail';
   sgMail.setApiKey(process.env.SENDGRID_API_KEY!);
   await sgMail.send({ to: 'a@b.com', from: 'me@you.com', subject: 'hi', html: '<p>hi</p>' });
   
   // after
   import { Sndr } from '@rkiza/sndr';
   const sndr = new Sndr(process.env.SNDR_API_KEY!);
   await sndr.emails.send({ to: 'a@b.com', from: 'me@you.com', subject: 'hi', html: '<p>hi</p>' });

3. 3

   Migrate webhook handlers

   SendGrid’s Event Webhook posts an array of events; SNDR posts one event per request with an HMAC signature. Verify with the helper, then switch your handler over.

   import { verifyWebhookSignature } from '@rkiza/sndr';
   
   app.post('/webhooks/sndr', express.raw({ type: 'application/json' }), (req, res) => {
     const ok = verifyWebhookSignature(
       req.body,
       req.header('x-sndr-signature') ?? '',
       process.env.SNDR_WEBHOOK_SECRET!,
     );
     if (!ok) return res.status(400).send('bad signature');
     const event = JSON.parse(req.body.toString('utf8'));
     // handle event.type: email.delivered | email.bounced | ...
     res.status(200).send('ok');
   });

4. 4

   Re-add SPF/DKIM/DMARC

   SNDR generates fresh DKIM keypairs per domain. SPF and DMARC records are reusable across providers — you can have both in the SPF "include:" list during cutover.

5. 5

   Turn down SendGrid traffic gradually

   Roll a percentage of sends to SNDR via a feature flag. Watch the per-recipient-domain inbox rate climb in the dashboard. Cut over completely when the curves match (usually within a week).