Last year I talked to the CTO of a Polish fintech. They’d been using SendGrid for three years, everything working great. Then came the GDPR audit, and the lawyer asked a simple question: “Where exactly is your customer data being processed?”

The answer? “Mostly in EU, but… sometimes it might be in the USA, depends on server load.” The lawyer nodded and said: “This needs to change.”

That’s how most European companies end up talking to us.

Why is everyone suddenly looking for SendGrid alternatives?

Honestly? It’s not that SendGrid is bad. It’s a solid platform. The problem lies elsewhere.

Schrems II changed everything

In 2020, the EU Court of Justice ruled that the USA doesn’t provide adequate protection for personal data. Privacy Shield — the agreement allowing free data transfer between EU and USA — went in the trash.

What does this mean in practice? If you use an American email provider and store Europeans’ personal data there, you’re on thin legal ice.

CLOUD Act — American law, European problem

There’s something worse. The US CLOUD Act from 2018 allows American authorities to request data from US companies, even if that data sits on a server in Frankfurt.

Twilio (owner of SendGrid), Amazon, Microsoft — they’re all subject to CLOUD Act. Period.

Honest comparison — who’s who

I won’t pretend I’m objective — I’m writing this on the MailingAPI blog after all. But I’ll give you honest facts so you can decide for yourself.

Feature SendGrid Mailgun Amazon SES MailingAPI
Company Twilio (USA) Sinch (USA/SE) Amazon (USA) Poland
EU Servers ✓ optional ✓ optional ✓ Frankfurt ✓ EU only
CLOUD Act subject to subject to subject to not subject
Price/1000 ~$0.80 ~$0.80 ~$0.10 €0.50

SendGrid — the industry veteran

SendGrid is like the Volvo of email APIs. Reliable, proven, a bit pricey. Great if you need advanced marketing features.

The problem? Twilio is an American public company. Even if you choose the EU region, their legal headquarters is in San Francisco. If US authorities come knocking — the data goes.

Use SendGrid if: you’re already in the Twilio ecosystem and compliance isn’t your priority.

Mailgun — developer-friendly, but…

Mailgun has a really nice API. Sinch (the owner) is theoretically a Swedish company, but practically — they have significant US operations and are subject to CLOUD Act through their American entities.

Plus? Flexible pricing. Minus? Support can take weeks to respond.

Use Mailgun if: you value a flexible API and don’t have sensitive data.

Amazon SES — cheapest, if you have DevOps

Amazon SES beats everyone on price. $0.10 per 1000 emails is a fraction of what you pay elsewhere.

But — because there’s always a but — SES requires you to configure everything yourself. No dashboard out of the box. No human support (documentation only). And of course — subject to CLOUD Act.

Use SES if: you have a dedicated DevOps team, send millions of emails, and price is everything.

MailingAPI — us

Sure, I’m writing this on our blog, so take it with a grain of salt. But the facts are:

  • Polish company, EU jurisdiction, data never leaves EU
  • CLOUD Act doesn’t apply to us
  • Support in English and local languages
  • Servers in Poland = lowest latency in EU (~50ms)

Downside? We don’t have an integration ecosystem like SendGrid (yet). The platform is younger.

A real migration story

One of our clients — an e-commerce store with 50,000 transactional emails monthly — came to us after a GDPR audit.

Their lawyer said it plainly: “Either you change providers, or we write a 40-page TIA (Transfer Impact Assessment) and pray it passes.”

They chose migration. It took 2 days:

  • Day 1: API key change, tests on dev environment
  • Day 2: Deploy to production, monitoring

Latency dropped from ~150ms to ~50ms. Cost similar. Lawyer happy.

How to choose? A practical cheat sheet

Choose SendGrid if:

  • You already use Twilio
  • You need advanced email marketing
  • Your lawyer sleeps well with a TIA

Choose Amazon SES if:

  • You’re on AWS
  • You have your own DevOps team
  • You send millions of emails and price > everything

Choose MailingAPI if:

  • GDPR compliance is a priority
  • You want simplicity over complex features
  • You appreciate local support
  • You prefer a company you can actually call

Final thoughts

I’m not trying to convince you that SendGrid or Amazon SES are bad products. They’re excellent tools. But if you run a company in Europe and process personal data — the legal question makes a difference.

Want to see for yourself? Create a free account — 1,000 emails per month free, no credit card. See if it’s right for you.