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Compare platforms that send receipts and campaigns from one account: how they separate the two streams, how they price them, and what each covers.
Brew publishes this comparison. We reviewed the linked product documentation on September 28, 2026; this is a documentation comparison, not a claim of hands-on testing of every platform. Check current plan limits on the vendor's pricing page.
A customer writes to support that a password reset never arrived. Someone checks the logs at the transactional provider, then searches the newsletter tool. There the same person has a separate contact record with its own history.
Running receipts through one vendor and newsletters through another is common, and it works. It also means two sets of templates, two contact databases and two places to check every time this happens.
Sharing one account is fine, but receipts and promotions should not share a sending reputation. Mailbox providers treat a password reset and a promotion differently, and US law treats them differently too. The platforms below all combine both kinds of email. They differ in how they keep the two apart.
We read each vendor's own pages on September 28, 2026 and compared:
| Platform | How the streams are separated | Marketing automation | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brew | Each sending domain has a purpose: marketing or transactional | Yes | Credits and sends per plan; Free, Growth $99/mo, Pro $249/mo |
| Loops | Separate transactional API and campaigns in one account | Yes (workflows) | Subscribed contacts; transactional included |
| Brevo | Transactional API/SMTP next to marketing campaigns | Yes | Free 300 emails/day; paid plans by volume |
| Resend | Separate transactional and marketing plans | Yes (Automations, since April 2026) | Transactional by sends; marketing by contacts |
| Postmark | Message Streams: separate infrastructure for transactional and broadcast | No | By sends; Basic from $15/mo for 10,000 emails |
| Customer.io | Transactional API alongside campaigns and broadcasts | Yes | By profiles and emails |
| Sequenzy | REST API and SMTP relay next to campaigns and sequences | Yes | Per email; unlimited contacts |
In Brew, a transactional email is an automation with a trigger, and the sending domain's purpose sets how Brew handles it. A domain with a transactional sending purpose drops the unsubscribe requirement and still reaches contacts who unsubscribed from marketing. A marketing-purpose domain keeps the one-click unsubscribe headers. Transactional emails walks through the model and the legal test.
Your backend fires the trigger per event:
POST /v1/automations/triggers/{triggerEventId}/fire
{ "payload": { "email": "ada@example.com", "order_id": "1234" } }
In the same account, Brew designs and sends campaigns, newsletters and lifecycle automations, all generated from your brand. Receipts and launches come from one design system even though they go out on different domains.
Brew is email only, and pricing is per plan in AI credits and sends. Growth includes 50,000 sends a month. Live sends need a verified domain you own.
Loops puts transactional email, campaigns and workflows in one account aimed at SaaS teams. Transactional sending is included on paid plans. Transactional recipients do not count toward your contact total unless you also send them marketing. The free plan's 4,000 sends a month cover both kinds combined.
It fits SaaS teams that want one simple bill based on subscribed contacts.
Brevo includes transactional features on every plan: REST API, SMTP and webhooks. According to its help center, the Free plan allows 300 sends a day, and up to 2,000 unique contacts can enter active automations. Brevo also has SMS, WhatsApp and a CRM.
It fits teams that want marketing, transactional and other channels from one vendor at a low entry price.
Resend keeps the two sides on separate plans. Transactional is free up to 3,000 emails a month (100 a day), then Pro starts at $20 a month for 50,000 emails. Marketing is free up to 1,000 contacts, then $40 to $650 a month for 5,000 to 150,000 contacts, with no cap on emails sent. Broadcasts cover campaigns, and Automations cover triggered sequences.
It fits developer teams who write templates in React Email and want both streams behind one API.
Postmark separates transactional and broadcast mail into Message Streams, which it describes as parallel but completely separate sending infrastructure. Basic starts at $15 a month for 10,000 emails. Postmark offers no marketing automation or sequences, so a welcome series needs another tool or your own code.
It fits teams that care most about transactional delivery and send occasional broadcasts.
Customer.io sends transactional messages through its API alongside campaigns and broadcasts. Its MCP documentation lists transactional messages among the resources an agent can manage. The platform also covers SMS, push and in-app. It fits teams with a product-data model and several channels.
Sequenzy sends transactional email through a REST API or SMTP relay and runs campaigns and sequences in the same account. It also relays Supabase Auth email. Pricing is per email with unlimited contacts, starting with 2,500 free emails a month.
mail.example.com for campaigns and notify.example.com for receipts.Yes, if the message is transactional, such as a password reset or a receipt. In Brew, transactional-purpose domains reach unsubscribed contacts for this reason. For mixed content, apply the primary-purpose test described in the transactional guide. A brief promotional footer does not automatically decide the classification.
The risk comes from a shared sending identity. Separate the sending identities and check whether the platform supports separate IPs at your volume. A new subdomain alone does not guarantee independent reputation.
That depends on your ratio of contacts to sends. A product with many signups but few marketing emails may pay less on contact-based marketing pricing. A small list that gets frequent email may pay less per send. Model both on each pricing page.
Usually yes, to fire events from your backend. Brew, Loops, Resend and Sequenzy all document an API call per event. Brew can also start automations from integrations such as Stripe and Shopify without code.
To see the domain split in practice, add a transactional-purpose domain in Brew next to your marketing domain and send a test receipt through a published automation.
