APIPriceBook
Compare developer API pricing on a normalized cost-per-unit basis — email, SMS, authentication, payments and search.
APIPriceBook compares developer and SaaS API pricing on a normalized cost-per-unit basis across five categories. As of June 2026, the cheapest options are typically: transactional email — Amazon SES ($0.10 per 1,000); US SMS — Plivo (~$0.0050 per message) plus carrier fees; authentication — Supabase (~$0.00325 per MAU after 50,000 free); payments — Braintree (2.59% + $0.49) or Stripe/Square (2.9% + $0.30) depending on ticket size; and search — Typesense (capacity-priced or free to self-host). The right choice depends on your volume, so use the calculators and category tables below. Pricing changes often — always verify on the vendor's page.
Source: Vendor published pricing pages. Data as of June 2026.
Compare by category
5 providers · cheapest: Amazon SES
SMS APIs4 providers · cheapest: Plivo
Authentication APIs (per MAU)4 providers · cheapest: Supabase Auth
Payment Processing APIs5 providers · cheapest: Braintree
Search APIs3 providers · cheapest: Typesense Cloud
What you can look up
- Normalized cost-per-unit tables for email, SMS, authentication, payments and search.
- 21 per-vendor pages with the headline price, free tier, pricing model, pros and cons, and a direct link to the source pricing page.
- Head-to-head matchups like Stripe vs PayPal, Twilio vs Amazon SNS and Auth0 vs Clerk.
- Free calculators — a payment fee calculator, an email cost calculator and an auth (MAU) cost calculator.
Popular head-to-heads
Cheaper on price: Amazon SNS
Stripe vs PayPalCheaper on price: Stripe
Auth0 vs ClerkCheaper on price: Auth0
SendGrid vs Amazon SESCheaper on price: Amazon SES
Postmark vs MailgunCheaper on price: Mailgun
Algolia vs Typesense CloudCheaper on price: Typesense Cloud
Guides
What it costs to send a million transactional emails a month across Amazon SES, SendGrid, Resend, Mailgun and Postmark — and why the answer is almost always SES.
2026-06-18 How much do payment processing fees really cost?Payment fees are a percentage plus a fixed fee — so the effective rate you actually pay depends on your average order value. Here's the real cost across Stripe, PayPal, Square, Braintree and Adyen.
2026-06-17 Auth0 vs Clerk vs Cognito: pricing compared (2026)How the three leading authentication providers price per monthly active user — free tiers, per-MAU rates, and which is cheapest as your user base grows.
2026-06-16 Stripe vs PayPal fees: which is cheaper in 2026?A head-to-head of Stripe (2.9% + $0.30) and standard PayPal Checkout (3.49% + $0.49) on real ticket sizes, plus when PayPal's higher fee is still worth paying.
2026-06-14 Twilio vs Amazon SNS: SMS pricing compared (2026)A head-to-head of Twilio and Amazon SNS for US SMS — base per-message rates, the carrier fees both hide, free tiers, and when each one wins.
2026-06-12 The cheapest transactional email API in 2026A normalized cost-per-1,000 comparison of Amazon SES, SendGrid, Resend, Mailgun and Postmark — and why the cheapest provider flips depending on how many emails you send.
2026-06-10How we price-check
Every number on APIPriceBook is a snapshot of the named vendor's public pricing page, captured in June 2026. Derived figures (per-1,000-email costs, effective payment rates) are computed with transparent formulas you can see on each page. API pricing changes frequently — always confirm on the vendor's own pricing page before you commit. See our methodology for sources and formulas.
Last updated: 2026-06-18