SendGrid specializes exclusively in email delivery with industry-leading deliverability rates (99.9%), while Twilio offers a broader communications platform spanning SMS, voice, WhatsApp, and email with more flexible multi-channel orchestration. SendGrid dominates email-only use cases, but Twilio wins for businesses needing integrated omnichannel messaging.
SendGrid vs Twilio — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Choose SendGrid if your primary need is high-volume email delivery with sophisticated marketing automation, advanced analytics, and you want the lowest email-specific costs at scale. Choose Twilio if you need a unified platform for SMS, voice, email, and WhatsApp messaging, prefer pay-as-you-go pricing flexibility, or plan to expand beyond email into multi-channel communications.
Email delivery and marketing automation platform owned by Twilio
Cloud communications platform for SMS, voice, email, chat, and video APIs
Structured comparison data for SendGrid vs Twilio with 168 attributes.
Cost for 1B Monthly SMS (enterprise volume)
SendGrid vs Twilio — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for SendGrid vs Twilio.
Can I send SMS and email from one API with SendGrid or Twilio?
No with SendGrid—it handles email only. Twilio supports SMS, email, voice, WhatsApp, and chat from a single unified API, making it ideal for omnichannel campaigns. If you need both SMS and email, Twilio eliminates the need to integrate multiple vendors.
Which is cheaper for high-volume email sending?
SendGrid is significantly cheaper at scale. For 1M emails/month, SendGrid costs ~$90 vs. Twilio's $7,500. However, if you need SMS alongside email, Twilio's combined pricing may be competitive. For email-only use cases, SendGrid's tiered plans win decisively.
Does SendGrid have better email deliverability than Twilio?
Yes. SendGrid's 99.9% deliverability rate outperforms Twilio's 98.5% by 1.4 percentage points. This translates to ~14 more emails successfully delivered per 1,000 sent. For mission-critical transactional email, SendGrid's edge matters; for bulk marketing, the difference is negligible.
Can I use Twilio for 2FA/authentication codes?
Yes, Twilio excels at this use case with SMS and voice authentication. SendGrid cannot send SMS, so it's unsuitable for 2FA unless paired with another SMS vendor. Twilio's unified API makes authentication across SMS and voice simpler.
SendGrid users hitting scale typically add Twilio for SMS/voice later. Conversely, Twilio users may migrate email to SendGrid if they need advanced email-specific marketing features. Both offer APIs, so switching specific channels is feasible, though rebuilds take engineering effort.