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Tell HN: SendGrid doesn't allow small business to its platform

1 points by WM6v ↗ HN
I tried signing up to SendGrid to use it for my product. I tried signing up with a VPN and it flagged my signup to suspicious. I tried again without a VPN and got into a limbo of waiting to get the account accepted. All with legit business details. Didn't get one email about it after months. I have been trying to contact their support or sales but they won't even allow contacting sales when expected email volume is < 100k.

"Only senders with a monthly email volume over 100,000 emails will be contacted by a sales representative. All other inquiries will be provided with answers to frequently asked questions, including information about our plans and pricing."

6 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 22.8 ms ] thread
WM6v
I understand it's a sensitive business for bad actors. My goal is to start a conversation on how I could reach them or what alternatives there exists.
gregjor
One popular competitor is MailGun. The major cloud platforms also offer bulk outgoing email service, i.e. AWS SES.
verdverm
Google Cloud is notably missing such a product as SES

Same for Azure: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/aws-prof...

gregjor
That’s because Google has a mail service already (GMail). So does Microsoft. You can send out from their servers through APIs or SMTP. Not exactly what SendGrid and Mailgun primarily get used for (bulk emailing) but similar enough for a lot of cases.

My point was that SendGrid has plenty of competition, and using the cloud provider email services can work for a lot of companies.

verdverm
I was specifically referring to

> The major cloud platforms also offer bulk outgoing email service, i.e. AWS SES.

AWS is the only one

gregjor
Contrary anecdotal evidence: I have moved four small companies to SendGrid without any problem. I have also received prompt support from them on accounts sending well under 100k/mo.

Hanlon’s Razor seems to apply here.