What should I use for email templates and webhooks?

It depends on your stack and how much control you want, but here’s the practical breakdown:

For email templates

Use one of these:

• React Email — best if your team already uses React/TypeScript.

  • Easy to build reusable templates
  • Good for modern codebases
  • Lets you preview templates locally

• MJML — best if you want reliable HTML emails without fighting email-client quirks.

  • Strong for responsive layouts
  • Great cross-client compatibility
  • Less “app-like” than React Email, but very dependable

• Nodemailer + plain HTML — okay if you only need something simple.

  • Fast to start
  • More manual maintenance
  • Easier to get messy over time

For webhooks

Use a small webhook service or handler layer depending on scale:

• Dedicated webhook endpoint in your app if you’re just starting

  • Validate signatures
  • Store events idempotently
  • Queue processing if needed

• Serverless functions if you want easy deployment and auto-scaling

  • Good for low/medium volume
  • Great for quick integrations

• Webhook management platforms if you need retries, logging, routing, or fan-out

  • Examples: Svix, Hookdeck
  • Useful when reliability matters

My default recommendation

If you’re building a modern web app:

• Emails: React Email
• Webhooks: your own endpoint + queue
• If webhooks are important and external-facing: add Svix or Hookdeck

Quick rule of thumb

• Want the easiest email templating with React? React Email
• Want the most dependable HTML emails? MJML
• Want webhook reliability and observability out of the box? Svix/Hookdeck

If you tell me your stack (Node, Python, Rails, etc.) and whether these are transactional emails or marketing emails, I can recommend a specific combo.