What Free actually means.
From sign-up to first send.
- 01Sign upEmail + password. No card.
- 02Verify a domainPublish SPF/DKIM/DMARC — we generate them.
- 03Create an API keysdo_live_… returned exactly once.
- 04POST /v1/sendPick channel: email · sms · whatsapp · push · slack · telegram.
- 05Watch it landLogs tick queued → sent → delivered, live.
curl https://api.senddio.com/v1/send \
-H "Authorization: Bearer sdo_live_…" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"channel": "email",
"from": "hello@yourdomain.com",
"to": "you@example.com",
"subject": "First send",
"html": "<p>It works.</p>"
}'
# → { "id": "sdo_msg_…", "status": "queued" }Why the Senddio free plan is a real product.
Most free plans for developer tools are demos — artificially restricted to push you towards a paid tier within the first week. Features get locked behind upgrade prompts, email verification gets throttled to ten sends a day, and AI features appear in the navigation but do nothing until you add a card.
The Senddio free plan runs on the same infrastructure as Pro. Your domain verification checks the same DNS every minute. Your email sends use the same same email infrastructure. Your API key format is identical — sdo_live_ — because it is a live key, not a sandboxed one. The sampler limits on SMS and WhatsApp exist to prevent abuse, not to preview the feature.
The 300 emails per day limit is a real ceiling for a real reason — it costs us real money to warm IP ranges, maintain email infrastructure, and keep your sender reputation clean. Below that ceiling, every feature works: SPF, DKIM and DMARC verification in the dashboard, bounce classification and suppression list, open and click tracking, inbound reply threading.
The AI credits (20 per month on Free) unlock spam scoring, the template generator and the anomaly detection feed. The Claude MCP server and OpenAI tool schemas are fully functional — your agent can send its first production message on the free tier with an agent-scoped key and every send labelled correctly in the dashboard. There is no paid AI tier unlocking you have to do first.
Built on Free. Still on Free.
Composite quotes from founders and indie devs running real workloads on the Free plan.
Your first 30 days, for $0.
Free plan — FAQ
There isn't one. Free is a real product tier we run forever. The sampler quotas on SMS, WhatsApp, push, Slack and Telegram exist to prevent abuse, not to push you to upgrade — they're generous enough for a side project. When you want production volume, paid plans start at $9.
Yes for low-volume transactional email (300/day) and notification channels. For real SMS / WhatsApp volume, move to Pro. We don't throttle quality or features on Free — only volume.
Yes. Free uses the same infrastructure as paid plans — encrypted credentials, suppression lists, audit-able key creation. The only thing missing from Free is the audit-log export and 365-day retention.
Yes. Install @senddio/mcp-server in Claude Desktop or import our OpenAI tool schemas. Free gives the agent its own scoped key and labels every send with agent name in the dashboard.
Upgrade in-app to Starter ($9), Pro ($79), or contact us for Enterprise. Your domains, keys, members, webhooks and message history all carry over.