It started with a simple frustration. We were running a SaaS business, sending about 50,000 transactional emails per month. Nothing crazy. But every month, our email bill kept climbing—and we had zero control over the infrastructure.
The Breaking Point
We were using one of the popular email API providers. The developer experience was great, but the costs were not. At 100,000 emails per month, we were looking at $800+ per year just for email. And that was just the beginning.
The real problem? Vendor lock-in. We had built our entire email infrastructure around their API. Switching would mean rewriting significant portions of our codebase. They knew it. We knew it. The pricing reflected it.
The AWS SES Experiment
We tried switching to AWS SES. At $0.10 per 1,000 emails, the math was a no-brainer. Same volume, fraction of the cost. But SES had its own problems:
- • No webhooks for delivery tracking
- • No built-in analytics dashboard
- • Complex API that felt dated
- • No SDK with modern TypeScript support
The Idea: Best of Both Worlds
What if we could combine the developer experience of modern email APIs with the cost-effectiveness of bringing our own SMTP? What if we could use AWS SES (or Gmail, or SendGrid, or our own server) for delivery, but get a beautiful REST API, webhooks, and analytics on top?
That is how Void Relay was born. We built the email API we wished existed:
- • Simple, Resend-compatible REST API
- • TypeScript SDK with full type safety
- • Real-time webhooks for all events
- • Analytics dashboard
- • Bring Your Own SMTP infrastructure
- • No vendor lock-in
The Result
Today, Void Relay handles our email (and many others) with the same reliability and better observability than the expensive alternatives. At 1M emails per month, we pay AWS SES ~$100 plus $2 for Void Relay Pro. That is $102 instead of $800+.
But the real win is not just the cost savings. It is the freedom. We can switch SMTP providers anytime without changing a line of application code. We are not locked into anyone's infrastructure. And that is exactly how we think email should work.
"We built Void Relay because we believe developers deserve great email infrastructure without the vendor lock-in. Bring Your Own SMTP is not just a feature—it is the future."
— The Void Relay Team