Overview

Resend and Bento both serve SaaS companies but from completely different angles. Resend is a transactional email API focused on developer experience - send password resets, receipts, and notifications via clean API calls. Bento is a behavioral marketing platform that tracks users across your app and triggers emails based on their actions.

Pricing Model Difference

This is the biggest practical difference. Resend charges per email sent (about $0.40/1k emails on Pro). Bento charges per user tracked at $0.01/user with unlimited emails. If you send many emails per user, Bento can be cheaper. If you have many users but send few emails, Resend is cheaper.

User Tracking

Bento's core feature is tracking user behavior. Install their JavaScript snippet and Bento tracks page views, clicks, and events. Then you can trigger emails based on these behaviors. Resend doesn't track anything - you call the API when you want to send an email.

Developer Experience

Resend wins here. The API is cleaner, the SDKs are better, and React Email support is first-class. Bento's API is fine but not their focus - they're more about the visual workflows and AI email builder.

When to Use Each

Use Resend if you're building transactional email into your app and want the best developer experience. Use Bento if you want to track user behavior and trigger marketing emails based on actions. Some companies use both.