What sending feature should I be using?
How to pick between our different sending features depending on your number of recipients and the nature of the message.
Resend allows you to send both Transactional and Marketing emails.
What’s the difference between Transactional and Marketing emails?
What is a Transactional email?
A Transactional email is a message triggered by a user action or required for legal compliance. These emails are essential communications that users cannot unsubscribe from. Common examples include:
- Order confirmations
- Password reset emails
- Account notifications
Typically, transactional emails are 1-to-1 messages sent in response to a specific event.
What is a Marketing email?
A Marketing email is any email that is not transactional. These can be promotional, informative, or general communication messages.
Marketing emails are regulated by laws like CAN-SPAM (US) and CASL (Canada), and recipients must have the option to unsubscribe.
Examples of marketing emails:
- Promotional offers and discounts
- Newsletters
- Product updates
Marketing emails can be 1-to-1 (e.g., abandoned cart reminders) or 1-to-many (e.g., newsletters).
Should I be sending a Transactional or a Marketing email?
While not exhaustive, here’s a table listing different examples of emails and the most appropriate type for each example.
| Type of Message | Type of Recipient | Transactional | Marketing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order confirmation | Single | ✓ | ⨯ |
| Password reset | Single | ✓ | ⨯ |
| Abandoned cart | Single | ⨯ | ✓ |
| Newsletter | Multiple | ⨯ | ✓ |
| Promotional offer | Multiple | ⨯ | ✓ |
How to send an email with Resend?
How to send a Transactional email?
You can send a Transactional email using:
- Our Send Email API
- Our Batch Send API (send up to 100 transactional emails in one API call)
How to send a Marketing email?
You can send Marketing emails using:
- Resend no-code Editor – a collaborative interface for designing emails
- Broadcast API – for programmatic sending
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