Transactional Email APIs · reliability comparison
Mailtrap Email Sending vs SparkPost (Bird): which is more reliable? (2026)
Mailtrap Email Sending is more reliable than SparkPost (Bird), scoring 98.2 vs 87.7 out of 100. Over the last 90 days Mailtrap Email Sending reported 2 incidents and SparkPost (Bird) reported 8, with effective uptime of 99.99% and 99.90% respectively. Mailtrap Email Sending resolves incidents faster on average (6m).
Data updated Nov 1, 2026 · How we score
| Metric | Mailtrap Email Sending | SparkPost (Bird) |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability score | 98.2 | 87.7 |
| Rank (transactional email APIs) | #2 | #5 |
| Uptime (90 days) | 99.99% | 99.90% |
| Incidents (90 days) | 2 | 8 |
| Partial / major outages | 0 | 0 |
| Avg time to resolve | 6m | 2h |
| Outages we detected | 0 | 0 |
| Transparency score | 100/100 | 100/100 |
Where Mailtrap Email Sending and SparkPost (Bird) differ
- SparkPost (Bird) reported 4× as many incidents as Mailtrap Email Sending over the last 90 days (8 vs 2).
- Mailtrap Email Sending fixes problems faster: 6m on average, against 2h for SparkPost (Bird) (20.3× quicker).
- Mailtrap Email Sending's longest incident on record lasted 2h 57m (Nov 18, 2025); SparkPost (Bird)'s lasted 7h 30m (Jul 24, 2026).
90-day uptime
Mailtrap Email Sending
SparkPost (Bird)
- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Recent Mailtrap Email Sending incidents
- MaintenanceOct 8, 2026 · resolved in 38m
- Degraded performanceSep 16, 2026 · resolved in 6m
- Degraded performanceSep 16, 2026 · resolved in 6m
Recent SparkPost (Bird) incidents
- InformationalOct 30, 2026 · resolved in 22h 2m
Outbound message delivery is delayed/slow for some SparkPost customers (US hosted only)
Affected: SMTP Delivery - USA
- Degraded performanceOct 28, 2026 · resolved in 1h 1m
Outbound message delivery is delayed/slow for some SparkPost customers (US hosted only)
Affected: SMTP Delivery - USA
- Degraded performanceOct 11, 2026 · resolved in 3h 6m
Increased message delays in US and EU due to DNS resolution errors
Affected: SMTP Delivery - USA, SMTP Delivery - EUROPE
- Degraded performanceOct 1, 2026 · resolved in 31m
Affected: SMTP Delivery - USA, SMTP Delivery - EUROPE
- Degraded performanceSep 17, 2026 · resolved in 54m
Outbound message delivery is delayed/slow for some SparkPost customers (US hosted only)
Affected: SMTP Delivery - USA
- Degraded performanceSep 14, 2026 · resolved in 2h 27m
Health Score and Cohort data is delayed
Affected: SparkPost Application - USA, SparkPost Application - EUROPE
Other transactional email APIs to consider
- Mailjet · #1 · 100% uptime
- Loops · #3 · 99.98% uptime
- Twilio SendGrid · #4 · 99.98% uptime
- Mailgun · #6 · 99.84% uptime
See the full most reliable transactional email apis ranking →