The
Focused Alternative
to Bird
Bird, formerly MessageBird and now home of SparkPost, is an omnichannel platform: email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice and AI agents behind one API. AhaSend does exactly one thing: transactional email, priced pay-as-you-go, hosted and run in Europe. If email is the only channel you need, you don't need a platform.
Pricing you can read, at any volume
Pay only for what you send, with our pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model — self-serve at every volume, no "talk to sales" wall.
Thoughtfully crafted for sending transactional emails at any scale
Compare our prices
How much does sending 10,000 emails cost?
AhaSend
Bird
How AhaSend
compares to Bird
Bird — formerly MessageBird and SparkPost — is certified and capable, and much of this table is a tie. AhaSend's edges are operational: customizable retention with S3 archiving, unlimited webhooks, free dedicated IPs, automatic DKIM rotation, DNS Whitelabeling and a lower price at 25k.
Pricing
Email Capabilities
Integrations and APIs
Data Retention
(customizable)
(customizable)
Analytics
Domain Management
Scaling
(for senders with 300k+ emails per month)
Security
(optional)
(optional)
(optional)
(included in all plans)
Compliance
| AhaSend | Bird | |
|---|---|---|
Pricing | ||
| Free Plan | 1000 emails / month | 1,000 emails / month |
| PAYG Pricing | ||
| Pricing for 25,000 emails | $15 | |
Email Capabilities | ||
| Supports marketing emails | ||
| Optimized for fast transactional email delivery | ||
| Email API | ||
| SMTP relay | ||
| Suppression management | ||
Integrations and APIs | ||
| Webhooks | Unlimited webhooks | Yes 10 endpoints on Growth |
| Inbound Routing | Unlimited routes | Yes |
| CLI app | ||
| Management API | ||
| Scoped API Keys | yes | Yes |
Data Retention | ||
| Log retention | 1 to 30 days (customizable) | 30 days |
| Message retention | 0 to 30 days (customizable) | 30 days |
| Message and log retention on your S3 buckets | ||
Analytics | ||
| Link and Open Tracking | ||
| Deliverability Analytics | ||
| DSN Reports | Available on Max plan | Yes |
Domain Management | ||
| Domain Authentication | ||
| Automated DNS setup | ||
| DNS Whitelabel | ||
| Custom subdomains | ||
| Sending Domains | 3 (Free) · Unlimited (Paid) | 1 (Free), up to 10 (Startup), up to 1000 (Growth) |
Scaling | ||
| Multi-user access | ||
| Sub accounts (per-tenant isolation) | ||
| Dedicated IPs | Free (for senders with 300k+ emails per month) | $24.95/mo each (Growth only, up to 5) |
| Dedicated IP pools | Included with Max Plan | Yes |
| Bring Your Own IP | ||
| Deliverability Consultation | Included with Max Plan | - |
Security | ||
| TempMail protection | Yes (optional) | Yes |
| Typo protection | Yes (optional) | Yes |
| Toxic recipient protection | Yes (optional) | Yes |
| Reputation Shield | ||
| Two-Factor Authentication | ||
| Single Sign-On | Available from /mo plan (Max) | Available on Enterprise plan |
| Automatic DKIM Key Rotation | ||
| IP Allow List | Yes (included in all plans) | Yes |
Compliance | ||
| European hosting & ownership | ||
| GDPR DPA | Yes (signable) | Yes |
| ISO 27001 | ||
Integrate in minutes
Our APIs come with OpenAPI specs for easy and fast integration
curl --request POST \
--url https://api.ahasend.com/v2/accounts/{account_id}/messages \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Idempotency-Key: UNIQUE-KEY' \
--data '{
"from": {
"email": "[email protected]",
"name": "Example Corp"
},
"recipients": [
{
"email": "[email protected]",
"name": "John Doe"
}
],
"subject": "Welcome to Example Corp",
"html_content": "<h1>Welcome {{first_name}}!</h1>",
"text_content": "Welcome {{first_name}}!",
"substitutions": {
"first_name": "John"
}
}'Need help getting started? Check out our documentation or contact our support team
Focused by Design
One Product, All of Our Attention
Bird spans email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice and AI agents. AhaSend is transactional email only — the roadmap, the infrastructure and the person answering your support ticket all work on the one thing you're buying.
- Specialist focus instead of an omnichannel portfolio
- Support that thinks about email all day
- No platform onboarding just to send your first message
Transparent Pricing
Pricing You Can Read
AhaSend's pricing is public and pay-as-you-go, from your first email to millions a month. Volume discounts apply automatically, and you never have to talk to sales to scale up — the price is the price, whatever your volume.
- Public, transparent pricing at every tier
- Automatic volume discounts as you grow
Boring on Purpose
A Dependency You Can Forget About
AhaSend has one name, one product and one pricing page, and we intend to keep it that way. Transactional email isn't a stepping stone to a bigger platform for us — it's the whole company, so the integration you build today keeps working tomorrow.
- A single, focused product
- The API you integrate today is the one you keep
- Delightfully boring, on purpose
European by Default
European, End to End
AhaSend is Amsterdam-registered, European-owned and runs entirely on EU infrastructure. There's no region selector because there's no non-EU region — your data stays in Europe, and you can sign a GDPR DPA to put that in writing.
- European ownership and operations
- All data processed and stored in the EU
Data on Your Terms
Retention You Control
AhaSend lets you set message and log retention anywhere from 0 to 30 days and archive to your own S3-compatible storage. Keep data as long as you need for debugging, or minimize it to meet your compliance rules — it's a setting you control.
- Customizable 0–30 day message and log retention
- S3-compatible archiving for logs and messages
- Keep only what your policies require
Deliverability Built In
The Infrastructure Is Included
Dedicated IPs are free for high-volume senders, you can bring your own IP, DNS is configured automatically, and DKIM keys rotate on their own. The infrastructure that protects your sender reputation is part of the product, not a separate line item.
- Free dedicated IPs at scale, plus bring-your-own-IP
- Automatic DNS setup and DKIM key rotation
- Unlimited signed webhooks and inbound routes
Focused by Design
One Product, All of Our Attention
Bird spans email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice and AI agents. AhaSend is transactional email only — the roadmap, the infrastructure and the person answering your support ticket all work on the one thing you're buying.
- Specialist focus instead of an omnichannel portfolio
- Support that thinks about email all day
- No platform onboarding just to send your first message
Transparent Pricing
Pricing You Can Read
AhaSend's pricing is public and pay-as-you-go, from your first email to millions a month. Volume discounts apply automatically, and you never have to talk to sales to scale up — the price is the price, whatever your volume.
- Public, transparent pricing at every tier
- Automatic volume discounts as you grow
Boring on Purpose
A Dependency You Can Forget About
AhaSend has one name, one product and one pricing page, and we intend to keep it that way. Transactional email isn't a stepping stone to a bigger platform for us — it's the whole company, so the integration you build today keeps working tomorrow.
- A single, focused product
- The API you integrate today is the one you keep
- Delightfully boring, on purpose
European by Default
European, End to End
AhaSend is Amsterdam-registered, European-owned and runs entirely on EU infrastructure. There's no region selector because there's no non-EU region — your data stays in Europe, and you can sign a GDPR DPA to put that in writing.
- European ownership and operations
- All data processed and stored in the EU
Data on Your Terms
Retention You Control
AhaSend lets you set message and log retention anywhere from 0 to 30 days and archive to your own S3-compatible storage. Keep data as long as you need for debugging, or minimize it to meet your compliance rules — it's a setting you control.
- Customizable 0–30 day message and log retention
- S3-compatible archiving for logs and messages
- Keep only what your policies require
Deliverability Built In
The Infrastructure Is Included
Dedicated IPs are free for high-volume senders, you can bring your own IP, DNS is configured automatically, and DKIM keys rotate on their own. The infrastructure that protects your sender reputation is part of the product, not a separate line item.
- Free dedicated IPs at scale, plus bring-your-own-IP
- Automatic DNS setup and DKIM key rotation
- Unlimited signed webhooks and inbound routes