| Product | Helo |
| Website | helohq.com |
| Category | Email API / Transactional Email |
| Pricing | $5/mo base + $0.00035/email (all features included) |
| Protocols | REST API + SMTP |
| Free Tier | 1,000 test emails |
What Is Helo?
Helo is an email API built by a team of former Postmark engineers. The pitch is straightforward: a fast, reliable email delivery service with usage-based pricing and no feature gates. One plan, everything included, $5 per month base plus $0.00035 per email sent.
The founding story matters here. The team spent years at Postmark, which is widely regarded as one of the best transactional email services. They left to build something independent — no investors, no board meetings, no growth-at-all-costs playbook. Just email infrastructure done well.
Key Features
REST API and SMTP
Both protocols supported, with SDKs in popular languages. If you’re migrating from another email service, you can start with SMTP (minimal code changes) and move to the REST API later for more control. The API is documented and self-descriptive.
Separate Transactional and Broadcast Infrastructure
Password resets and receipts run on separate infrastructure from newsletters and marketing emails. This separation matters for deliverability: a promotional campaign that generates spam complaints doesn’t affect your transactional email’s inbox placement. Most competitors mix these or charge extra for separation.
Multi-Tenant Sending
Built for platforms that send on behalf of their customers. Each tenant gets their own domain, credentials, stats, and unsubscribe handling. If a bad sender on your platform starts generating complaints, Helo contains the damage to that tenant before it affects everyone else’s deliverability.
Detailed Analytics
Per-email tracking for opens, clicks, bounces, and complaints. The analytics are real-time and accessible through both the dashboard and API. No waiting for daily batches.
Unlimited Webhooks
Event-driven webhooks for deliveries, bounces, opens, clicks, spam complaints, and unsubscribes. Unlimited webhooks per account — no per-webhook pricing.
Pricing Model
Helo has exactly one pricing page and one plan:
- $5/month base fee
- $0.00035 per email (that’s $0.35 per thousand)
- All features included at every volume
- No overage penalties
- 1,000 free emails for testing
At 10,000 emails per month, your bill is $8.50. At 100,000, it’s $40. At a million, $355. Compare that to competitors who charge $25–$100+ for 100,000 emails with feature restrictions at lower tiers.
Who Is This For?
Developers and SaaS teams that need reliable email delivery without the pricing complexity. Particularly relevant for:
- Early-stage startups that want production-grade email from day one without committing to expensive plans
- Platforms and marketplaces that send on behalf of their users (the multi-tenant support is built for this)
- Teams migrating from Postmark, SendGrid, or Mailgun who want simpler pricing without sacrificing deliverability
Pros
- One plan, all features, no tiers
- Usage-based pricing ($0.35/thousand) is very competitive
- Separate transactional/broadcast infrastructure
- Multi-tenant support built in
- Team has deep Postmark experience
- No investors means no growth pressure
- Unlimited webhooks included
Cons
- New service — track record is the team’s, not the product’s
- Smaller ecosystem than established players (fewer integrations)
- No dedicated IP option mentioned
- Limited marketing automation features
- Dashboard is functional but sparse
Verdict
Helo is a bet on the team, not the brand. Former Postmark engineers building an email API from scratch, without investors, with a pricing model that deliberately avoids the complexity their competitors use to extract revenue. The technical choices are sound: separate infrastructure for transactional and marketing email, built-in multi-tenant support, and usage-based pricing that doesn’t punish growth.
For teams sending 10,000–500,000 emails per month, Helo’s pricing is significantly cheaper than SendGrid, Postmark, or Mailgun. The trade-off is that it’s new — you’re trusting the team’s reputation rather than years of uptime data. The 1,000 free test emails make it easy to evaluate before committing.
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