Meh. SparkPost is okay, but there are better options for cheaper, and they've become kinda sleazy.
Rating: 1 out of 10
IncentivizedUse Cases and Deployment Scope
We've connected SparkPost to our web products, so all online subscribers. Site admins, receive emails through SparkPost. It's been used for internal management messages (like database errors, user requests, etc.), but also as the primary way to communicate with the subscribers of our web products. It provided an easy integration experience within our existing web infrastructure (written in primarily Python). It was set up by our department, and we're largely the only ones who send messages through SparkPost, but the entire organization (and hundreds of subscribed users) receive the messages we send.
Pros
- Easy integration
- Good documentation
- (Used to have) great customer service
- (Used to have) great pricing options
Cons
- A horrifying about-face on pricing after guaranteeing a lifetime rate.
- A steep drop in customer care and customer service quality.
- Increased prices compared to competitors.
- Clumsy email templating system.
- Lack of integration with other messaging systems.
Likelihood to Recommend
Our early experiences with SparkPost were great; we were looking for a low-cost (or no-cost) solution to our email messaging needs, and SparkPost had the best low-cost option: 100,000 messages per month for free, guaranteed for life. Even though our team has experience with other APIs, we chose SparkPost because it felt like the best value. Our experience with it was great. Two years ago, they discontinued their free option but sent the existing users the following message:
"When you signed up, we promised that if we ever changed the terms of our 100K free plan, we would continue to honor the original plan for the life of the account. I would like to reaffirm this promise: while this plan is no longer available to new customers, you are grandfathered into this level of free sending volume."
The following year, apparently following a change in leadership, they decided to "deprecate" existing free plans, dropping us down from 100,000 messages per month to 500, the lowest of any email API service I'm aware of. No recognition of the broken promise, the reneged guarantee, just a 20% off coupon. This atrocious behavior that reeks of a new culture of squeezing as much money as possible out of its users and has coincided with a steady deterioration of functionality and customer service. At this point, I have no idea why anyone would pay more for a worse service that treats its users so poorly when you could use SendGrid or a similar competitor for a lower price and way more features.
"When you signed up, we promised that if we ever changed the terms of our 100K free plan, we would continue to honor the original plan for the life of the account. I would like to reaffirm this promise: while this plan is no longer available to new customers, you are grandfathered into this level of free sending volume."
The following year, apparently following a change in leadership, they decided to "deprecate" existing free plans, dropping us down from 100,000 messages per month to 500, the lowest of any email API service I'm aware of. No recognition of the broken promise, the reneged guarantee, just a 20% off coupon. This atrocious behavior that reeks of a new culture of squeezing as much money as possible out of its users and has coincided with a steady deterioration of functionality and customer service. At this point, I have no idea why anyone would pay more for a worse service that treats its users so poorly when you could use SendGrid or a similar competitor for a lower price and way more features.
Vetted Review
3 years of experience