I was helping a friend audit their SaaS stack last month when we got to email. Their setup: Elastic Email for transactional sends ($19/month), Google Workspace for team email ($7/user/month for 4 people), plus some forgotten SendGrid credits from a hackathon. Total email spend: around $380/year. For a product sending maybe 8,000 transactional emails monthly.

That's when I realized we'd never actually written up this comparison. Elastic Email is one of the cheapest transactional senders out there — genuinely. But "cheap transactional sending" and "cheap email overall" aren't the same thing when you still need inboxes. If you're exploring the full landscape, check out our Google Workspace alternatives roundup first.

Quick Verdict

TL;DR: Elastic Email wins on pure per-email cost at high volumes and has a legitimate free tier. JustEmails wins if you need transactional sending plus mailbox hosting on the same platform — one vendor, one bill, one DNS config. For teams sending under 50,000 transactional emails/month who also need business email on their domains, JustEmails' $49/year flat (plus usage tiers) usually costs less than Elastic Email plus a separate inbox provider. For high-volume senders who already have email hosting sorted, Elastic Email's pricing is hard to beat.

Feature Comparison

Feature	JustEmails	Elastic Email
Transactional email API	Yes — REST API, webhooks	Yes — SMTP relay, HTTP API
Marketing automation	No	Yes (on marketing plans)
Free tier	No (7-day trial only)	Yes — 3,000 emails/month
Hosted mailboxes (receive email)	Yes — unlimited IMAP/SMTP	No
Custom domain sending	Yes	Yes
Starting price	$49/year flat	Free, or $19/month (Starter)
Pricing model	Annual flat + usage tiers	Monthly + volume-based
Email templates	No (bring your own)	Yes — visual builder
Private/dedicated IP	Not offered	$40-50/month add-on
SPF/DKIM/DMARC	Auto-configured	Supported, manual setup
Inbound email processing	Yes (full mailboxes)	Pro plan only (webhook-based)

The difference is structural. Elastic Email is a sending platform — and a good one. JustEmails is an email hosting platform with a transactional API bolted on. You're comparing a pizza restaurant to a grocery store. Both sell food. Different purchase.

(And yes, I'm aware that "we bolted on an API" isn't the most flattering self-description. But it's accurate.)

Where Elastic Email Wins

I'm not going to pretend Elastic Email doesn't have legitimate advantages. They've been doing this since 2010. Here's where they're genuinely better.

Actually Free at Low Volume

Elastic Email's free tier gives you 3,000 emails/month. That's not a trial — it's permanent. For a side project that sends 50 password resets a month, free is free.

JustEmails has no free tier. We offer a 7-day trial, then it's $49/year. For hobby projects where email is an afterthought, that's $49/year more than Elastic Email charges.

And look, I get it. When you're validating an idea, every dollar matters. Elastic Email plus Gmail forwarding can get you surprisingly far for $0.

Lower Per-Email Cost at Scale

Let's do real math. Elastic Email's Starter plan at 50,000 emails/month runs $19/month — that's $228/year for 50K monthly capacity.

JustEmails at 50,000 emails/month: $49/year base (includes 1,000/month) plus four additional 10,000-email tiers at $25/year each. That's $49 + $100 = $149/year. Wait, actually JustEmails is cheaper here.

Let me redo this at 100,000 emails/month. Elastic Email: $29/month = $348/year. JustEmails: $49 + (9 tiers × $25) = $274/year. Still cheaper.

Okay, at 1,000,000 emails/month. Elastic Email Starter: $269/month = $3,228/year. JustEmails: $49 + (99 tiers × $25) = $2,524/year.

Huh. I expected Elastic Email to win on pure volume pricing. I actually had to redo the math twice because I didn't believe it. JustEmails' annual tier model stays competitive even at serious scale. The break-even point is somewhere north of 1M emails/month, and at that volume you're probably negotiating custom contracts anyway.

Should've done this comparison before writing the intro. Live and learn.

Where Elastic Email does win: if you want private IPs for deliverability control ($40-50/month) or need the higher-touch Pro features. JustEmails doesn't offer dedicated IPs — you're on shared infrastructure.

Marketing Features Built In

Elastic Email started as an email marketing platform and added transactional capabilities. Their marketing plans include automations, contact segmentation, a drag-and-drop campaign builder.

JustEmails is transactional-only. No drip campaigns. No audience segments. No "send this email when user hasn't logged in for 7 days" triggers. Honestly, we probably should build that eventually. But right now? If your product needs lifecycle marketing, you'd pair JustEmails with a separate marketing tool. Elastic Email bundles both.

For products where onboarding emails and re-engagement campaigns are core to retention, having everything in one dashboard is genuinely convenient.

Where JustEmails Wins

Here's what we built that Elastic Email doesn't have — and can't have, because it's not their business model.

Sending Plus Receiving — Same Platform

This is the whole point. JustEmails gives you full mailbox hosting. IMAP. SMTP. POP3 if you're into that for some reason. Real inboxes that receive email.

Elastic Email sends email. That's it. They do have "inbound email processing" on Pro plans, but that's webhook-based — you receive the email as a POST request to your server, not into a mailbox you can check in Outlook or Apple Mail.

So if you're using Elastic Email for transactional sends, you still need another provider for support@yourdomain.com. That's usually Google Workspace ($7/user/month minimum) or Zoho Mail ($12/user/year entry) or something similar.

Real scenario: agency with 3 team members, one product domain. Elastic Email Starter ($19/month) plus Google Workspace ($7 × 3 = $21/month) = $40/month = $480/year. JustEmails: $49/year + ($2 × 2 additional team members × 12 months) = $97/year. The gap is almost 5x. We detailed the true cost of Google Workspace for growing teams — the per-user model compounds fast.

For anyone already running Google Workspace and just adding transactional sends, Elastic Email makes sense. For someone starting fresh or reconsidering their whole email stack, combining the providers matters.

One DNS Config

Here's something that doesn't show up in pricing comparisons: debugging SPF records at midnight. Ask me how I know.

When you use Elastic Email for transactional plus Google Workspace for team email, you have two sets of DKIM keys, two SPF includes, two vendors' documentation to reconcile. Your SPF record starts looking like this:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:_spf.elasticemail.com ~all

Fine, until you add Intercom, HubSpot, your help desk, your survey tool — and suddenly you're over the 10-lookup limit. We covered how to implement DMARC p=reject safely — but fixing DNS issues is easier when you only have one vendor to debug.

JustEmails handles both transactional and mailbox email on the same infrastructure. One SPF include. One DKIM key. One DNS configuration to maintain. When deliverability issues happen — and they will, this is email we're talking about — you're not triangulating between two vendors' support teams. That alone is worth something.

Predictable Annual Pricing

JustEmails is $49/year. Add storage at $100/year per 100 GB block. Add transactional capacity at $25/year per 10,000-email tier. Add team members at $2/month each.

You know your annual email cost in January. No "you crossed a tier boundary mid-month" surprises. No monthly invoices that fluctuate with your traffic patterns.

Elastic Email's monthly billing is fine if you have steady volume. It's less fine when your product launches, gets press coverage, and suddenly sends 200K password resets in a week. You're paying for that spike at a monthly rate, not averaged across the year.

For teams watching burn rate — which, let's be honest, is most of us — the annual model is easier to budget. Boring? Sure. But "boring and predictable" is underrated when you're trying to close your books.

Pricing Breakdown

Real numbers as of July 2026.

JustEmails:

All-In Plan: $49/year — unlimited domains, unlimited mailboxes, 10 GB storage, 1,000 transactional emails/month via API
Transactional add-on: +$25/year per 10,000-email/month tier (stackable)
Storage add-on: +100 GB for $100/year (stackable)
Team members: $2/member/month (owner free)

Elastic Email (Email API plans):

Free: 3,000 emails/month, 1,000 contacts
Starter: $19/month for 50K emails, scales up ($29/month for 100K, $269/month for 1M)
Pro: $49/month for 50K emails, adds webhooks, inbound processing, sub-accounts
Private IP: +$40-50/month
No mailbox hosting on any plan

Total cost example — 10,000 transactional emails/month + team email for 3 people:

Setup	Annual Cost
Elastic Email Starter + Google Workspace (3 users)	$228 + $252 = $480/year
Elastic Email Starter + Zoho Mail (3 users)	$228 + $36 = $264/year
JustEmails All-In + 1 extra tier + 2 team members	$49 + $25 + $48 = $122/year

The gap narrows if you're on Elastic Email's free tier. But once you're paying Elastic Email anything, you're probably better off consolidating to JustEmails unless you specifically need their marketing features.

I'm biased, obviously. But the math is the math.

Who Should Pick What

Choose JustEmails if:

You need transactional sending and team mailboxes on the same domains
You're tired of paying Google Workspace per-user pricing for basic email (we've covered the true cost of Google Workspace elsewhere)
Predictable annual pricing matters more than monthly flexibility
You want one DNS config instead of two
Marketing automation isn't on your roadmap yet

Choose Elastic Email if:

You already have mailbox hosting and just need a sending API
Their free tier covers your transactional volume
You need marketing automation features (drip campaigns, segmentation)
Private IPs for deliverability are a requirement
You prefer month-to-month billing with no annual commitment

Either works if:

You're a developer sending password resets for a side project
Volume is under 3,000 emails/month (Elastic's free tier handles this)
You're still figuring out your stack and might change later

The Honest Take

Elastic Email has been around forever (well, since 2010) and they've earned their reputation for cheap, reliable transactional sending. If you already have Google Workspace or Zoho and you're adding a transactional API, Elastic Email at $19/month is a reasonable choice. Plenty of products run on their infrastructure without issues.

But "cheap transactional API" is only half the email problem. The other half — receiving email, team inboxes, unified DNS — still needs solving. And when you add up Elastic Email plus Google Workspace plus the time you spend managing two vendors, the "cheap" option often isn't.

JustEmails exists because we got tired of that math. $49/year flat for unlimited domains and mailboxes, plus a transactional API that handles the sends you actually need. One platform. One bill. One less vendor to manage.

If you're comparing transactional APIs in isolation, Elastic Email competes well. If you're comparing total email costs, JustEmails usually wins — especially for small teams, agencies, and anyone managing multiple domains.

For more context on email hosting economics, see our flat-fee vs per-mailbox pricing breakdown or the 2026 business email pricing survey. If you're weighing transactional options, our SMTP vs API for transactional email guide covers when each makes sense. And if you're building on Velocity Digital Labs products, check out JustAnalytics for privacy-first web analytics or ClickzProtect for ad fraud prevention.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Elastic Email good for transactional email or just marketing?

Elastic Email handles both. Their Email API plans are specifically for transactional use — SMTP relay, HTTP API, delivery tracking. The marketing plans add contact management, automations, and campaign tools. For pure transactional (password resets, receipts), their API plans work fine. The catch: no mailbox hosting. You can send from your domain but can't receive replies into an inbox without another provider.

What's the actual per-email cost comparison between JustEmails and Elastic Email?

At low volumes (under 3,000 emails/month), Elastic Email's free tier wins — it's free. JustEmails is $49/year regardless. At 10,000 emails/month, Elastic Email's Starter plan runs $19/month ($228/year). JustEmails with one extra tier is $74/year. At 50,000 emails/month, Elastic Email is $19/month ($228/year), JustEmails is $174/year (base plus four 10K tiers). JustEmails stays cheaper until you're sending 100K+ monthly.

Does JustEmails have a free tier like Elastic Email?

No. JustEmails offers a 7-day free trial (card required to prevent abuse), then $49/year flat. There's no permanent free plan. If you need free forever and don't mind the volume limits, Elastic Email's free tier or Amazon SES pay-as-you-go might fit better. But neither includes mailbox hosting — you'd still need Google Workspace or similar for team email.

Can I use Elastic Email as my only email provider?

Only for sending. Elastic Email doesn't host mailboxes. You can't receive email into support@yourdomain.com or check your inbox via IMAP. For most businesses, you'd still need Google Workspace, Zoho, or another host for team email — meaning two vendors, two DNS configs, two bills. JustEmails bundles sending API and receiving mailboxes on the same platform.

Try JustEmails

Unlimited custom domain email hosting for $49/year flat — unlimited domains, unlimited mailboxes, 10 GB storage, full IMAP/SMTP. Built for agencies, freelancers, and anyone managing email across more than one domain.

Start your 7-day free trial → · How it compares

JustEmails API vs Elastic Email: 2026 Transactional Email Comparison