# SendLayer > SendLayer is a transactional email service from SendLayer, LLC, with an SMTP relay, a REST API for sending and email events, webhooks, SDKs in five languages and a hosted MCP server. It is aimed largely at WordPress and small-business sites. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sendlayer - Pricing: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sendlayer#pricing - Reviews: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sendlayer#reviews - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sendlayer.md (~6,350 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sendlayer.min.md (~1,480 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sendlayer.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json) - Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt) - API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json - MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key) - DNS: dig +short TXT sendlayer.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.. and .vs.. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev) - Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data) - Updated: 2026-11-07 ## Overview **Grade D · 47.7/100 · rank #1135 of 1486 · #19 in Email delivery APIs · not agent-ready · confidence medium** ## Assessment A small API with an OpenAPI file, llms.txt, per-plan send limits with numbers and SDKs in five languages, plus a hosted five-tool MCP server. Sends have no idempotency key, keys can't be scoped, and the privacy policy gives no retention periods or sub-processors. ## Facts | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Vendor | SendLayer, LLC (https://sendlayer.com) | | Kind | HTTP API | | Category | Email delivery APIs (https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/email) | | Transport | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | | Endpoint | `https://mcp.sendlayer.com` | | Auth | API key · Bearer API key in the `Authorization` header, created per sending domain in the dashboard (one is made when a domain is authorised). Keys can be labelled and deleted; no scopes or read-only keys were found. The hosted MCP server takes the same key in an `x-sendlayer-api-key` or `Authorization` header. | | Pricing | Paid ($5 / mo) · Plans billed annually. Starter $5 a month for 1,000 emails, Business $15 for 5,000, Growth $25 for 10,000, Scale 20,000+ by quote. A free trial sends up to 200 emails. Accounts that reach their limit are upgraded automatically. 14-day money-back guarantee. | | x402 | No · No x402, MPP or L402 in the developer docs, llms.txt, the OpenAPI file or the pricing page (checked 2026-11-06). | | Licence | unknown | | Tools exposed | 5 | | Packages | npm: `sendlayer`; pypi: `sendlayer` | | Docs | https://developers.sendlayer.com/ | | llms.txt | https://developers.sendlayer.com/llms.txt | | Last release | 2026-08-21 | | npm downloads / week | 113 | | PyPI downloads / week | 9 | | Surface listed | The REST API at console.sendlayer.com/api/v1 (email, events, webhooks), SMTP relay and the hosted MCP server at mcp.sendlayer.com, read from developers.sendlayer.com, sendlayer.com, the status page, npm and PyPI on 6 November 2026. No account was made and no tool was called | | Plans | Starter 1,000 emails a month, 1 domain, 3 days of logs. Business 5,000, 3 domains, 15 days. Growth 10,000, 5 domains, 30 days. Scale 20,000+ by quote | | Log retention | 3, 15 or 30 days of email logs depending on the plan, per the pricing page | | MCP server | Hosted at mcp.sendlayer.com and built on the Node SDK per the setup guide. No public source repository or MCP registry entry was found | | Tracking | Open and click tracking on every plan | | Capabilities | email.send, email.analytics, email.domains | | Tags | hosted, closed-source, smtp, webhooks, openapi, llms-txt, mcp, remote-mcp, status-page, typescript, python, php, ruby, go | | JSON | https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sendlayer.json | ## Score breakdown (methodology v0.7, October 2026 research run) Assessed 2026-11-06 from public evidence against the published checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist). Confidence: medium. Performance and Task success pending (no score, not in the total); the total is Σ(score × weight) ÷ 80 over the 7 assessed categories. "This run" is each category's share of the 100 points. | Category | Weight | This run | Score (0–100) | Points | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% | 20 | 48 | 9.6 | | Performance | 10% | pending | pending | n/a | | Schema & documentation | 13% | 16.2 | 68 | 11.1 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% | 16.2 | 62 | 10.1 | | Security & auth | 14% | 17.5 | 38 | 6.7 | | Payments & pricing | 10% | 12.5 | 20 | 2.5 | | Task success | 10% | pending | pending | n/a | | Maintenance & community | 7% | 8.8 | 40 | 3.5 | | Transparency & trust (editorial 23, provenance 75) | 7% | 8.8 | 49 | 4.3 | | Negative events | up to −15 | up to −15 | none recorded | 0 | | **Total** | | | | **47.7 → D** | ### Why each score - Reliability 48 (checked 2026-11-06): Graded with the hosted lines. A Cronitor status page at status.sendlayer.com with components for the app, SMTP, tracking links, the website and each plan's sending IPs, and a history (15 of 20, see below). The 90 days from 8 August hold 98 automated outage entries, 13 of them on SendLayer Services Health, most on per-plan IP monitors, all marked resolved but with no durations or write-ups, so their size can't be judged (5 of 30). Send limits per minute, hour and day are published per plan, plus recipient and size caps (15). 429 appears in the error code list, with no Retry-After, backoff guidance or idempotency for sends (3 of 15). No SLA found (0). The API is at v1 with no beta label (10). The status page's uptime columns showed no data on 6 November, so the component line takes 15 of 20 rather than 20. Total 48. - Performance: Pending. Latency is measured per call by our probes, which haven't run yet, so this run doesn't score it. Its weight is shared across the assessed categories until the first probe window closes. - Schema & documentation 68 (checked 2026-11-06): OpenAPI file at developers.sendlayer.com/api-reference/sendlayer.json (version 1.0.1) covering four paths, send, events and webhooks (25). llms.txt and Markdown copies of every developer page (10). Operation summaries say what each call does; nothing says when not to use one, and the hosted MCP server's tool definitions aren't public (10 of 20). Parameters are typed but without enums or limits, and the event filter is a free string (7 of 15). Code samples in five languages and a table of 35 error codes, but the spec documents only 200 responses (11 of 15). Version in the path and in the spec, with no public changelog (5 of 15). Total 68. - Agent ergonomics 62 (checked 2026-11-06): Small responses and five MCP tools (18 of 25). Events filter by start and end date, event type and message ID, with an offset and a count (15 of 20). Errors are JSON with a numbered code and message per field, and documented (14 of 20). No idempotency key on sends, and the MCP annotations can't be read (0 of 20). A send needs from, to, subject, content type and content; official SDKs for Node, Python, PHP, Ruby and Go (15). Total 62. - Security & auth 38 (checked 2026-11-06): Plain revocable API keys per domain, several allowed, sent in a header; no scopes, expiry or rotation feature beyond creating and deleting keys (20 of 30). No read-only key or approval step (0 of 20). The API returns event data, not received mail (10 of 15). Email logs kept 3, 15 or 30 days by plan, and no log of API calls was found (8 of 15). No security.txt (404), disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found (0 of 20). Total 38. - Payments & pricing 20 (checked 2026-11-06): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public but only as annual plans, with no per-email overage price; accounts are upgraded automatically at the limit (10 of 20). A free trial of 200 emails is offered through checkout; whether it needs a card couldn't be read, since robots.txt disallows the add-to-cart URLs (10 of 20). A person signs up and authorises a domain in a browser (0). Total 20. - Task success: Pending. Task success needs the category task suites run through each tool, which haven't run yet, so this run doesn't score it. Its weight is shared across the assessed categories until then. A data provider's data-quality score is published on its listing now and becomes half of this category when it's scored. - Maintenance & community 40 (checked 2026-11-06): The Node and Python SDKs were last released as 1.1.0 on 21 August 2026, 77 days before this check (20). One SDK release in the 90 days and no dated changelog (0 of 20). A closed service with a support form and docs updated through 2026, but no public changelog (5 of 15). Not in the official MCP registry (search for sendlayer returned nothing on 6 November). Official SDKs in five languages (10 of 15). The SDK repositories exist on GitHub under sendlayer; their CI wasn't read (5 of 10). Total 40. - Transparency & trust 49 (checked 2026-11-06): Closed service with terms naming SendLayer, LLC under Florida law (15 of 30). The privacy policy is undated, says data is kept as long as the account is active or as needed, and names no retention periods, DPA or processors; only the pricing page gives log retention per plan (8 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices (0). No sub-processors or data locations disclosed (0). Total 23. Fix list, everything this grade says the listing lacks, the biggest gain first (17 items). What it covers is at https://www.anchorterminal.com/fixes/sendlayer.md (JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/fixes/sendlayer.json). The whole list for a coding agent comes from `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/fix-list` with `{"listing": "sendlayer", "plan": "read"}`, free while the beta runs ### What we couldn't check - Whether the 200-email free trial needs a card; the checkout URL is disallowed by robots.txt - How long the 98 status-page outages lasted and whether any affected the API - unchecked: the hosted MCP server's tool definitions and annotations, since no source is public and no MCP session was opened - Who owns SendLayer, LLC; its pages name no people or parent company - Disclosure: this check fetched pypi.org/pypi/sendlayer/json, a path PyPI's robots.txt disallows. The release dates used here were then confirmed from the allowed release feed at pypi.org/rss/project/sendlayer/releases.xml ### Sources - developer docs index: (seen 2026-11-06) - rate limits: (seen 2026-11-06) - error codes: (seen 2026-11-06) - OpenAPI file: (seen 2026-11-06) - MCP server setup: (seen 2026-11-06) - pricing: (seen 2026-11-06) - status history: (seen 2026-11-06) - terms: (seen 2026-11-06) - privacy policy: (seen 2026-11-06) - managing API keys: (seen 2026-11-06) - npm package record: (seen 2026-11-06) - PyPI release feed: (seen 2026-11-06) ## Score history Every move of a score since the listing was graded, newest first, with its cause. A score can't move without an entry here. JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sendlayer/history.json - 2026-11-06: graded 47.7 D (methodology 0.7) ## Who's behind it (provenance 75/100, checked 2026-11-06) | Check | Finding | Points | | --- | --- | --- | | Legal entity named | SendLayer, LLC | 20/20 | | Domain age | sendlayer.com, registered 2015-07-22 (11 years) | 15/15 | | Endpoint on the vendor's domain | mcp.sendlayer.com | 15/15 | | Terms of service | read, states 5 of the 7 things a reader expects, and has 1 clause that costs points | 6.3/10 | | Privacy policy | read, states 5 of the 8 things a reader expects | 7.8/10 | | Status page | status.sendlayer.com | 10/10 | | Changelog | not found | 0/10 | | security.txt | not found | 0/10 | | People named | 1 named with their role, none with a public profile | 7/10 | | Support route | a support address, help pages | 5/5 | The terms name SendLayer, LLC under Florida law with courts in West Palm Beach. Neither the terms nor the privacy policy carries a date. The terms contain no clause on automated access to the website. sendlayer.com/robots.txt disallows only WordPress internals, cart and search paths. developers.sendlayer.com allows all but /_next/ and /cdn-cgi/. RDAP gives sendlayer.com a registration date of 22 July 2015; the about page says the team started SendLayer in 2022, and the footer copyright runs from 2021. /.well-known/security.txt returns 404. ### Terms and privacy, as read A reading by a fixed set of rules, each answered with the vendor's own sentence. Not legal advice. **Terms of service** (https://sendlayer.com/terms-of-service/), read 2026-11-06, gives no date, states 5 of the 7 things a reader expects. - To know. Says the terms or the service can change without notice (costs points). "SendLayer reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue the Site and/or Services, or any portion thereof, with or without notice at any time and for any reason, including, but not limited to, a failure to comply with the terms of this Agreement." - To know. Says access can be ended without notice or for any reason. "If any attempt is made by another party other than the subscription holder to access support in a manner not specified, we reserve the right to suspend indefinitely service without notice or consent." - Not found in the text. Gives the date it was last updated. - Names the governing law or courts. The law of the State of Florida. - States a limit on its liability. Capped at the fees paid in the 12 months before the claim. - Says how changes to the terms are announced. Changes are posted, with no other notice named. - Not found in the text. Refers to a service level or uptime commitment. **Privacy policy** (https://sendlayer.com/privacy-policy/), read 2026-11-06, gives no date, states 5 of the 8 things a reader expects. - Not found in the text. Gives the date it was last updated. - Says how long data is kept. For as long as needed, with no period named. - Not found in the text. Says whether personal data is sold or shared for advertising. - Gives a privacy contact. Gives an email address, hidden from our reader by the page. - Not found in the text. Says where data is transferred or stored. ## Humans behind the project (researched 2026-11-06 from public pages, not part of the grade) ### Key people - Syed Balkhi, Announced SendLayer as his new product; founder of WPBeginner - Note: Syed Balkhi's launch post on WPBeginner (the site he founded) says "I'm excited to announce my new product, SendLayer" and that it had been out since April 2022; it doesn't call him SendLayer's founder or give him a SendLayer title, so he isn't marked as a founder. SendLayer's about page names no founders and the pricing page's guarantee is signed 'CEO of SendLayer' without a printed name. Blog posts carry staff bylines, left out here. The terms name SendLayer, LLC under Florida law and mention a parent company without naming it, so ownership stays unknown. No funding or investors were found on sendlayer.com's about, pricing, terms and privacy pages, the WPBeginner launch post or a web search on 6 November 2026, so investors are left out. - SendLayer, LLC: X https://x.com/sendlayer GitHub https://github.com/sendlayer ### Getting support - Support email: support@sendlayer.com - Help: https://sendlayer.com/contact/ - Help: https://sendlayer.com/docs/ - Help: https://status.sendlayer.com - Sources: https://sendlayer.com/about/, https://sendlayer.com/pricing/, https://sendlayer.com/terms-of-service/, https://developers.sendlayer.com/api-reference/sendlayer.json, https://www.wpbeginner.com/news/introducing-sendlayer-reliable-wordpress-email-deliverability-made-easy/ ## Live (updated 2026-11-07 17:50 UTC) - Right now: up, HTTP 405, 343 ms, checked 2026-11-07 17:50 UTC (get on `https://mcp.sendlayer.com`) - Uptime 24h 100.0% (195 probes) · 30 days 100.0% (195 probes) · p50 334 ms · p95 425 ms - Vendor status page: not read, no machine-readable status found - npm `sendlayer` 1.1.0 - pypi `sendlayer` 1.1.0, released 2026-08-21 - security.txt: none - Watching privacy - Watching terms - Tools: the endpoint asks for credentials before listing them (checked 2026-11-07 01:47 UTC) - Always current: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/live/sendlayer.json ## Probe metrics Not measured yet. Our benchmark probes haven't run, so there's no availability, latency or error rate from a run and Performance is pending. Live uptime, where we poll the endpoint, is under Live and doesn't change the score. ## Prices | Item | Price | Unit | Note | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Starter | $5 | per month (plan) | 1,000 emails a month, billed annually | | Business | $15 | per month (plan) | 5,000 emails a month, billed annually | | Growth | $25 | per month (plan) | 10,000 emails a month, billed annually | Across all listings: https://www.anchorterminal.com/prices/index.md ## Strengths - Send limits per minute, hour and day are published for each plan - OpenAPI file, llms.txt and Markdown copies of every developer page - Official SDKs for Node, Python, PHP, Ruby and Go - Hosted MCP server at mcp.sendlayer.com with five tools for sending, events and webhooks - Numbered error codes with messages for each missing or invalid field ## Weaknesses - No idempotency key on sends, so a retried request can send twice - API keys can't be scoped or made read-only - Status history shows 98 automated outage entries in 90 days with no durations or write-ups - Privacy policy has no date, retention periods, DPA or sub-processor list - No public changelog, SLA, security.txt or disclosure policy found ## Before you call it (notes for agents) 1. Check the email log with `GET /api/v1/events` before retrying a failed send, since sends have no idempotency key 2. Keep To and CC at 10 addresses or fewer and BCC at 5, or the API returns error code 20 or 27 3. Pace sends to the plan's per-minute limit, 50 on Starter and 120 on Business, and back off on 429 4. Pass the API key in a header to mcp.sendlayer.com; the server answers 405 to anything but POST ## Connect Install: ```bash npm install sendlayer ``` First request: ```bash curl https://console.sendlayer.com/api/v1/email -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDLAYER_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"From":{"name":"You","email":"you@yourdomain.com"},"To":[{"name":"Person","email":"person@example.com"}],"Subject":"Hello","ContentType":"Text","PlainContent":"Hello"}' ``` Claude Code: ```bash claude mcp add --scope user --transport http sendlayer-mcp https://mcp.sendlayer.com --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SENDLAYER_API_KEY" ``` MCP client configuration: ```json { "mcpServers": { "sendlayer": { "headers": { "x-sendlayer-api-key": "YOUR_SENDLAYER_API_KEY" }, "url": "https://mcp.sendlayer.com" } } } ``` Through letme: https://letme.dev/sendlayer. letme answers with the pick and how to call it direct. How it works: https://www.anchorterminal.com/letme/index.md ## Similar tools Ranked by shared capabilities, then score. Same-category tools with no shared capability key are listed last. | Tool | Grade | Score | Rank | Shared capabilities | x402 | Markdown | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Resend API + MCP | A | 78.1 | 26 | email.send, email.domains, email.analytics | no | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/resend.md | | AhaSend API + MCP | BB | 75.4 | 62 | email.send, email.domains, email.analytics | no | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ahasend.md | | Amazon SES | BB | 73.6 | 99 | email.send, email.domains, email.analytics | no | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-ses.md | | AgentMail API + MCP | BB | 72.8 | 116 | email.send, email.domains, email.analytics | yes | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agentmail.md | | MailerSend | BB | 71.4 | 160 | email.send, email.domains, email.analytics | no | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mailersend.md | | Mailgun API + MCP | B | 69.3 | 253 | email.send, email.domains, email.analytics | no | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mailgun.md | ## Panel reviews (0) Reviewed by the Anchor panel (https://www.anchorterminal.com/reviewers/index.md): . Desk reviews, written from public documentation, pricing, terms, source and status history on 1 October 2026. No calls made. For a desk review, the outcome says whether the reviewer's questions could be answered from public material: success, partial or failure. How reviews work: https://www.anchorterminal.com/reviews/how-it-works.md ## Notable - Per-plan send limits published per minute, hour and day, from 10, 25 and 50 on the trial to 200, 1,000 and 2,500 on Growth (source: ) - Hosted MCP server at mcp.sendlayer.com with five tools, send-email, get-events, list-webhooks, create-webhook and delete-webhook (source: ) - Cronitor status page lists 98 automated outage entries in the 90 days to 6 November 2026, mostly on per-plan sending IP monitors, without durations (source: ) - Recipients are capped at 10 To, 10 CC and 5 BCC addresses, and messages at 10 MB (source: ) - #19 of 20 in Best email delivery APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/email/index.md - All 174 email comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/email/index.md ## Compare - [AhaSend API + MCP vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ahasend-vs-sendlayer.md): BB 75.4 vs D 47.7 - [Amazon SES vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-ses-vs-sendlayer.md): BB 73.6 vs D 47.7 - [Brevo API + MCP vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brevo-vs-sendlayer.md): E 42.5 vs D 47.7 - [Cloudflare Email Service vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-email-service-vs-sendlayer.md): B 65.2 vs D 47.7 - [Groundmail API + MCP vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groundmail-vs-sendlayer.md): B 64.5 vs D 47.7 - [Loops API + MCP vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/loops-vs-sendlayer.md): B 64.5 vs D 47.7 - [MailerSend vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mailersend-vs-sendlayer.md): BB 71.4 vs D 47.7 - [Mailgun API + MCP vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mailgun-vs-sendlayer.md): B 69.3 vs D 47.7 - [Mailjet API + MCP vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mailjet-vs-sendlayer.md): C 59.6 vs D 47.7 - [MailPace vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mailpace-vs-sendlayer.md): C 58.4 vs D 47.7 - [Mailtrap Email API + MCP vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mailtrap-vs-sendlayer.md): B 66.8 vs D 47.7 - [Mailchimp Transactional (Mandrill) vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mandrill-vs-sendlayer.md): C 61.5 vs D 47.7 - [Postmark API + MCP vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/postmark-vs-sendlayer.md): B 64.9 vs D 47.7 - [Resend API + MCP vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/resend-vs-sendlayer.md): A 78.1 vs D 47.7 - [Twilio SendGrid vs SendLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sendgrid-vs-sendlayer.md): B 68.8 vs D 47.7 - [SendLayer vs SMTP2GO API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sendlayer-vs-smtp2go.md): D 47.7 vs B 62 - [SendLayer vs Zoho CPaaS (formerly ZeptoMail)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sendlayer-vs-zoho-zeptomail.md): D 47.7 vs C 58.2 ## Verify this listing For the vendor. The badge or a plain link to this page verifies the listing, from a page on sendlayer.com or one of its subdomains. It shows the listing is the vendor's and that the vendor knows it's here, and it never changes a grade, rank or review. The vendor sends the page's address to `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` as `{"slug": "sendlayer", "url": "…"}`, or calls the `verify_listing` tool at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp. We fetch the page once, then again every week; two failed checks in a row and the verification lapses, and a later pass restores it. What we check: https://www.anchorterminal.com/builders/index.md#verify HTML badge: ```html SendLayer on Anchor Terminal ``` Markdown badge, for a README: ```markdown [![SendLayer on Anchor Terminal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/sendlayer.svg)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sendlayer) ``` Plain link: ```html SendLayer on Anchor Terminal ``` ## Share this listing For the vendor. Sharing assets for social media, two PNGs of 1200 × 630 that say SendLayer is listed on Anchor Terminal, with the vendor's logo and this page's address and no grade or score. - Dark: https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/share/sendlayer-dark.png - Light: https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/share/sendlayer-light.png --- Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp