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Pharos vs Postmark
Postmark is built for application email of both kinds: transactional and broadcast mail travel on separate streams and IPs, it receives and parses inbound email, and it maintains official libraries in six languages. Pharos sends transactional email only, signs its webhooks, keeps 120 days of events on every plan against Postmark’s 45-day default, and costs less at each of the four volumes priced below.
Prices and features checked 17 September 2026.
The short answer.
Pick Postmark if you need inbound email, broadcast mail on its own stream next to transactional sending, an official SDK, message content kept for up to a year, or a data processing addendum.
Pick Pharos if you send only transactional email and want signed webhooks, 120 days of events without an add-on, and every feature on every plan, including a free plan of 3,000 emails a month.
What decides most cases is whether you use Postmark’s inbound processing or broadcast streams. If you use neither, the comparison comes down to webhooks, retention and the bill: $29 against $55 at 50,000 emails a month, and $199 against $455 at 500,000.
Side by side.
Transactional sending only. Where a row says "not offered", that is the plain answer, not a gap in the research.
| Postmark | Pharos | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Basic, Pro and Platform plans, each priced at the same volume tiers. Extra emails are billed per 1,000 at the end of the cycle, on the next invoice. Received emails count toward the volume. Monthly only. | Monthly plans by volume up to 500,000. On a paid plan, going over moves you to the next plan for that month, with an email telling you. Monthly only. |
| Free tier | 100 emails a month, no overage, no card, no expiry | 3,000 emails a month, 100 a day, every feature, no card, no expiry |
| Feature gating | Inbound email on Free, Pro and Platform, not Basic. Sending domains 5, 10 or unlimited and users 4, 6 or unlimited by paid plan. Dedicated IPs and custom retention from Pro. | None. Every feature is on every plan, including free. |
| REST API | Yes. Batches of up to 500 messages, and a Bulk API for broadcast sends, subject to approval. | Yes, with idempotency keys |
| SMTP relay | Yes, on ports 25, 2525 and 587 with STARTTLS. Broadcast mail uses its own hostname. | Yes, on port 587 with STARTTLS. Same events and log as the API. |
| SDKs | Official for Node.js and TypeScript, Python, Ruby, .NET, Java and PHP, plus a Rails gem and a CLI | None. Plain HTTP and SMTP, nothing to install. |
| Templates | Pre-built templates and shared layouts, with variables and iterators and CSS inlined for you. Up to 100 per server. | Versioned, with variables and conditionals, on every plan |
| Webhooks | Not signed. Postmark recommends HTTP Basic Authentication and an IP allowlist. Outbound events are retried 6 times over about 50 minutes. | Signed. Retried with backoff until your endpoint returns 2xx. Separate per domain. |
| Inbound email | Parsed to JSON with headers, attachments and a spam score, and posted to your URL. Received at your own domain through an MX record, or at a Postmark address. | Not offered |
| Event history | Full message content and events for 45 days. From 7 to 365 days with a retention add-on from $5 a month, on Pro and Platform. Statistics kept indefinitely. | 120 days on every plan, queryable with GET /v1/events |
| Sending IPs | A vetted shared pool, with broadcast streams on IPs separate from transactional. A dedicated IP from 300,000 emails a month on Pro and Platform, at $50 a month each. | Shared between Pharos customers, all sending transactional mail only under the acceptable use policy. Never a public pool. An isolated IP on request. |
| Data regions | Primary data at a data centre outside Chicago and on AWS, with no EU servers planned. SMTP endpoints in several AWS regions. | No region choice and no guaranteed data residency |
| Certifications | No SOC audit of Postmark itself. Its data centre outside Chicago is SOC 2 Type 2 accredited, and Postmark shares that report after a non-disclosure agreement is signed. | None held |
| AI agent integration | An official package with 24 tools, from sending to message search and delivery diagnosis, plus open-source agent skills for coding agents | Not offered. An agent can call the REST API directly. |
| Marketing email | Broadcast streams for product updates, digests and newsletters sent from your application. No list uploads, visual editor or campaign reports. | Not offered. Transactional email only. |
What it costs.
The cheapest published way to send each monthly volume, billed monthly, in US dollars. Postmark charges $1.15–$1.80 per 1,000 extra emails, by plan and volume. Its free plan sends 100 emails a month, with no overage. Pharos: on the Starter, Growth and Scale plans, going past the allowance moves you to the next plan for that month, with an email telling you. The free plan stops at 3,000. For more than 500,000 emails a month, talk to us.
| Emails a month | Postmark | Pharos |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $15 Basic, 10,000 included | $9 Starter, 10,000 included |
| 50,000 | $55 Basic, 50,000 included | $29 Growth, 50,000 included |
| 150,000 | $159 Pro 125,000 ($126.50) + 25,000 × $1.30 per 1,000 | $79 Scale, 150,000 included |
| 500,000 | $455 Basic, 700,000 included | $199 Volume, 500,000 included |
Postmark prices Basic, Pro and Platform at the same volume tiers, and the higher plans charge less for extra emails, so at 150,000 the cheapest route is Pro. Received inbound email counts toward the monthly volume.
Source: Postmark pricing, read on 17 September 2026. Pharos's full ladder is on the pricing page.
Where Postmark is better.
Inbound email, parsed for you
Postmark receives mail at an inbound.postmarkapp.com address or at your own domain through an MX record, wildcard subdomains included, and posts each message to your URL as JSON with its headers, attachments, a spam score and a clean version of the reply text. A failed post is retried 10 times over about ten hours. Inbound is on Free, Pro and Platform, not Basic, and received email counts toward the monthly volume. Pharos does not receive mail, so reply-by-email or support-ticket flows need another provider.
Broadcast mail on its own stream
A broadcast message stream carries product updates, digests and announcements from the same account, on IP ranges the transactional stream never uses. The Bulk API, enabled on approval, sends one message to many recipients in a single call. Postmark offers no list uploads, visual editor or campaign reports, so the list stays in your application. Pharos sends transactional email only and has no broadcast option.
Official libraries in six languages
Postmark maintains libraries for Node.js and TypeScript, Python, Ruby, .NET, Java and PHP, along with a Rails gem, a CLI and WordPress and Craft plugins. Pharos publishes no library: you write the HTTP request or fill in SMTP settings in the mailer you already use.
Message content kept for up to a year
Postmark stores each message’s full content with its events for 45 days by default, so a support question can be answered by reading what was sent. On Pro and Platform the retention add-on sets that period anywhere from 7 to 365 days, and statistics are kept indefinitely. Pharos keeps 120 days of events on every plan and publishes no option to change that period.
A data processing addendum in the terms
Postmark’s terms of service incorporate its data processing addendum with the EU standard contractual clauses, and it lists its sub-processors, Deft and AWS, with a sign-up for notice of changes. A Data Removal API, switched on by request, erases a recipient’s data. Pharos has no published DPA, as its security page states.
AI agent integration
Postmark’s official AI agent integration has 24 tools across sending, templates, message search, delivery diagnosis, bounces, suppressions, stats and webhooks, and a separate set of open-source agent skills teaches coding agents its API. Pharos has none. An agent can still send through the Pharos REST API with a tool definition.
Where Pharos is better.
A lower bill at every volume priced here
Pharos costs $9 for 10,000 emails a month against Postmark Basic at $15, and $29 against $55 at 50,000. At 150,000 Pharos is $79, and Postmark’s cheapest route is $159, a Pro plan of 125,000 plus 25,000 extra emails. At 500,000 the two are $199 and $455. On Postmark, received inbound email also counts toward the volume you pay for.
Signed webhooks
Every Pharos webhook carries a signature your endpoint checks before it trusts the payload, and a failed delivery is retried with backoff until your endpoint returns 2xx. Postmark’s docs say it does not sign webhooks with HMAC, and recommend a username and password in the webhook URL plus an allowlist of its IP ranges. Its outbound events are retried 6 times over about 50 minutes, and a 4xx other than 408 or 429 drops the event.
120 days of events without an add-on
Every Pharos plan keeps 120 days of events, and GET /v1/events returns them by message, event type or date. Postmark keeps 45 days by default, and a longer period is a paid add-on available from Pro up. A bounce from three months ago can still be traced on the Pharos free plan.
A larger free plan and no plan limits
The Pharos free plan sends 3,000 emails a month, where Postmark’s sends 100, and it carries every feature. No paid plan holds anything back either: sender domains are unlimited on every plan, where Postmark allows 5 on Basic and 10 on Pro.
Switching from Postmark.
The step-by-step version, with Postmark's DNS records, suppression export and webhook events mapped: moving from Postmark to Pharos.
Questions.
Is Pharos cheaper than Postmark?
Yes, at each volume compared here, as of 17 September 2026. At 10,000 emails a month Pharos is $9 and Postmark Basic is $15. At 50,000 it is $29 against $55, at 150,000 $79 against $159, and at 500,000 $199 against $455. Postmark also counts received inbound email toward that volume. Pharos does not receive mail.
Does Postmark only send transactional email?
No, as of 17 September 2026. Postmark sends transactional mail on a transactional stream and broadcast mail, such as product updates and newsletters sent from your application, on a broadcast stream, on IPs separate from the transactional stream. It does not offer list uploads, a visual editor or campaign reports. Pharos accepts transactional mail only, under its acceptable use policy.
Can I send through Postmark and Pharos at the same time?
Yes. Postmark signs with a DKIM selector named from a date string and uses a Return-Path CNAME to pm.mtasv.net, so the Pharos records sit next to them without a clash. Postmark keeps suppressions per message stream, so export the suppressions of every stream and import them into Pharos before its first send, and keep SpamComplaint addresses suppressed, since Postmark does not allow deleting those. Keep Postmark for inbound or broadcast mail if you use them.
Can Postmark or Pharos keep email data in the EU?
Neither, as of 17 September 2026. Postmark hosts its primary data at a data centre outside Chicago and on AWS, says it has no plans to add EU servers, and covers transfers with standard contractual clauses in its data processing addendum. Pharos has no region option and no guaranteed data residency.
Try it next to Postmark.
3,000 emails a month free, every feature included, no card. Enough to verify a domain and send alongside whatever you run today.
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