When is Loops the better choice?

You want to test an email stack without entering a credit card. Your early product only needs up to 4,000 sends/month and 1,000 subscribed contacts. You want lifecycle, campaign, and transactional email managed in one tool with all features included on the free tier. You care more about contact-based scaling than a published per-email rate. You are a small product team that wants the same tool for marketing automation and system emails.

When is Resend the better choice?

You need an API-first email tool with REST, SMTP, official SDKs, and React Email support. You want built-in sending and receiving on the free plan, not just outbound campaigns. You need scheduled emails, batch sending, open tracking, link tracking, and webhook support out of the box. You prefer a clear paid starting point at $20/month instead of a custom pricing conversation. You expect to stay under 3,000 emails/month and 100/day for a while and want the developer workflow to matter more than contact-based marketing automation.

Loops vs Resend: Free Tier Comparison

Q: How much does Loops cost after the free tier?

Early Stage Plan - Custom / slider-based pricing. Loops moves from a capped free tier into a custom, slider-based Early Stage Plan priced around subscribed contacts, with transactional sending included and no team-seat charges. Resend starts with a published $20/month Pro plan, then scales through usage-based email overages at $0.90 per 1,000 extra emails, plus higher tiers at $90/month and custom Enterprise pricing. For small teams, Resend is easier to forecast if you mostly care about email volume. Loops is harder to price from the provided data, but its model may suit teams whose cost should follow contact growth instead of message volume.

Q: How much does Resend cost after the free tier?

Pro - $20 / mo. Loops moves from a capped free tier into a custom, slider-based Early Stage Plan priced around subscribed contacts, with transactional sending included and no team-seat charges. Resend starts with a published $20/month Pro plan, then scales through usage-based email overages at $0.90 per 1,000 extra emails, plus higher tiers at $90/month and custom Enterprise pricing. For small teams, Resend is easier to forecast if you mostly care about email volume. Loops is harder to price from the provided data, but its model may suit teams whose cost should follow contact growth instead of message volume.

Quick answer

Loops - Loops wins for most builders who want a free tier that can cover lifecycle marketing and transactional email with no card required, while Resend wins if you need a developer-first sending API with richer free tooling and can live within tighter caps.

How the free tiers compare

Loops and Resend both sit in the email-for-builders lane, but they solve different free-tier problems. Loops is the better fit if you want one place to run product emails, campaigns, and automated lifecycle messaging without immediately thinking about seats, setup fees, or feature gates. Its free tier is small on volume, but it includes all features and does not require a credit card. Resend is narrower and more API-centric: the free plan gives you sending and receiving, SDKs, SMTP, React Email, tracking, webhooks, and automation runs, but it is capped at 3,000 emails per month and 100 per day, and a card is required. Once you pay, Loops’ pricing is custom and contact-based, while Resend starts at $20/month and then adds usage-based email overages, so Resend is easier to price, but Loops may fit teams whose growth is driven by contacts rather than raw send volume.

Loops vs Resend free tier, side by side

	LoopsFTV 62	ResendFTV 30
Free sends / monthLoops caps sends monthly; Resend also imposes a daily cap.	Up to 4,000	3,000
Stored subscribed contactsLoops ties pricing and free usage to subscribed contacts.	Up to 1,000	Not stated
Daily send limitResend has both monthly and daily limits on Free.	Not stated	100 emails/day
Custom domainResend explicitly includes 1 custom domain on Free.	Not stated	1 domain
Automation runsResend includes automation runs on Free.	Not stated	10,000
SupportResend lists ticket support on Free.	Not stated	Ticket support
Credit card required to startLoops explicitly says no card is required; Resend’s card requirement is stated in the input.	No	Yes

After you outgrow the free tier

Loops moves from a capped free tier into a custom, slider-based Early Stage Plan priced around subscribed contacts, with transactional sending included and no team-seat charges. Resend starts with a published $20/month Pro plan, then scales through usage-based email overages at $0.90 per 1,000 extra emails, plus higher tiers at $90/month and custom Enterprise pricing. For small teams, Resend is easier to forecast if you mostly care about email volume. Loops is harder to price from the provided data, but its model may suit teams whose cost should follow contact growth instead of message volume.

Loops next stepEarly Stage Plan - Custom / slider-based pricingTiered

Resend next stepPro - $20 / moUsage-based

Cost at real usage

Usage	Loops	Resend
50,000 emails/moResend includes 50,000 emails/mo on Pro, then charges $0.90 per 1,000 extra emails.	contact sales / varies by usage	$20/mo (base Pro) + ~ $42 est. overage = ~ $62/mo
100,000 emails/moUsing the provided $0.90 per 1,000 extra emails after the 50,000-email Pro quota.	contact sales / varies by usage	$20/mo (base Pro) + ~ $45 est. overage = ~ $65/mo
1,000 subscribed contactsLoops’ free tier explicitly includes up to 1,000 stored subscribed contacts.	Within free tier	Free (if email volume stays under limits)
5,000 emails/moResend’s Free plan caps at 3,000 emails/mo, so this would require paid usage. The input does not provide a standalone add-on price for exactly 5,000, so the estimate assumes Pro.	contact sales / varies by usage	~$20/mo

Estimates, not quotes. Usage-based rates change - verify with the vendor's pricing page before committing.

When to pick each one

Pick Loops when…

You want to test an email stack without entering a credit card.
Your early product only needs up to 4,000 sends/month and 1,000 subscribed contacts.
You want lifecycle, campaign, and transactional email managed in one tool with all features included on the free tier.
You care more about contact-based scaling than a published per-email rate.
You are a small product team that wants the same tool for marketing automation and system emails.

Pick Resend when…

You need an API-first email tool with REST, SMTP, official SDKs, and React Email support.
You want built-in sending and receiving on the free plan, not just outbound campaigns.
You need scheduled emails, batch sending, open tracking, link tracking, and webhook support out of the box.
You prefer a clear paid starting point at $20/month instead of a custom pricing conversation.
You expect to stay under 3,000 emails/month and 100/day for a while and want the developer workflow to matter more than contact-based marketing automation.

Bottom line

For the most common builder use case, Loops is the better free-tier pick if you want to ship product emails, marketing automation, and transactional messaging without a card and without losing all features behind the paywall. Resend is the better choice if your team is developer-first and values API workflow, tracking, webhooks, and a published paid ladder. If your main concern is getting started cheaply and broadly, Loops wins. If your main concern is email infrastructure you can reason about in code, Resend is the cleaner fit.

Read the full listings: Loops and Resend. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more head-to-heads on /compare, or see the top-ranked free tiers on /top.