Use React Email if: Already using React in your stack Want component-based email development Using or planning to use Resend for email delivery Want TypeScript support and modern DX Use MJML if: Need the best email client compatibility Want automatic responsive layouts Building emails for multiple clients (Outlook, Gmail, etc.) Prefer a template language over JavaScript Use Maizzle if: Love Tailwind CSS and want it in emails Need maximum control over HTML output Building a design system for emai

Email rendering has unique constraints — every major email client (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, Yahoo) renders HTML differently, and CSS support is extremely limited. The right tool depends on your workflow and template volume. React Email is the choice when: Your team is already working in React and wants to use familiar JSX patterns for email templates You want TypeScript support and component reuse across email templates You need to preview emails in a browser with hot reload You're building a

React Email vs MJML vs Maizzle 2026

TL;DR

React Email builds emails with React components — JSX syntax, styled components, preview server, integrates with Resend, modern developer experience. MJML is the responsive email markup language — custom tags that compile to responsive HTML, handles email client quirks, the most popular email framework. Maizzle is the Tailwind CSS email framework — write emails with Tailwind utility classes, builds to inlined CSS, template-based, maximum control. In 2026: React Email for React developers, MJML for responsive email templates, Maizzle for Tailwind CSS emails.

Key Takeaways

React Email: ~500K weekly downloads — React components, JSX, Resend integration
MJML: ~1M weekly downloads — custom markup, responsive, email client compatibility
Maizzle: ~50K weekly downloads — Tailwind CSS, utility-first, inlined CSS output
All three solve email HTML pain (tables, inline styles, client quirks)
React Email has the best DX for React developers
MJML has the widest adoption and email client support

React Email

React Email — React components for email:

Basic email

import {
  Html, Head, Body, Container, Section,
  Text, Button, Heading, Hr, Img,
} from "@react-email/components"

export default function WelcomeEmail({ name }: { name: string }) {
  return (
    <Html>
      <Head />
      <Body style={{ backgroundColor: "#f6f9fc", fontFamily: "sans-serif" }}>
        <Container style={{ maxWidth: 600, margin: "0 auto", padding: 20 }}>
          <Img
            src="https://pkgpulse.com/logo.png"
            width={120}
            alt="PkgPulse"
          />
          <Heading style={{ fontSize: 24, color: "#1a1a1a" }}>
            Welcome to PkgPulse, {name}!
          </Heading>
          <Text style={{ fontSize: 16, color: "#374151", lineHeight: 1.6 }}>
            Start comparing npm packages and make better dependency decisions.
          </Text>
          <Hr style={{ borderColor: "#e5e7eb" }} />
          <Button
            href="https://pkgpulse.com/dashboard"
            style={{
              backgroundColor: "#3b82f6",
              color: "white",
              padding: "12px 24px",
              borderRadius: 6,
              textDecoration: "none",
            }}
          >
            Go to Dashboard
          </Button>
        </Container>
      </Body>
    </Html>
  )
}

Render to HTML

import { render } from "@react-email/components"
import WelcomeEmail from "./emails/welcome"

// Render to HTML string:
const html = await render(<WelcomeEmail name="Royce" />)

// Render to plain text:
const text = await render(<WelcomeEmail name="Royce" />, {
  plainText: true,
})

// Send with Resend:
import { Resend } from "resend"
const resend = new Resend(process.env.RESEND_API_KEY)

await resend.emails.send({
  from: "PkgPulse <hello@pkgpulse.com>",
  to: "royce@example.com",
  subject: "Welcome to PkgPulse!",
  react: <WelcomeEmail name="Royce" />,
})

Preview server

# Start the email preview server:
npx react-email dev

# Opens http://localhost:3000 with:
# - Live preview of all email templates
# - Hot reload on file changes
# - Desktop/mobile preview toggle
# - Send test email
# - View HTML source

Tailwind support

import { Tailwind } from "@react-email/components"

export default function StyledEmail() {
  return (
    <Tailwind
      config={{
        theme: {
          extend: {
            colors: { brand: "#3b82f6" },
          },
        },
      }}
    >
      <Html>
        <Body className="bg-gray-100 font-sans">
          <Container className="max-w-xl mx-auto p-5">
            <Heading className="text-2xl font-bold text-gray-900">
              Package Update
            </Heading>
            <Text className="text-base text-gray-600 leading-relaxed">
              New versions are available for your tracked packages.
            </Text>
            <Button
              href="https://pkgpulse.com"
              className="bg-brand text-white px-6 py-3 rounded-md"
            >
              View Updates
            </Button>
          </Container>
        </Body>
      </Html>
    </Tailwind>
  )
}

MJML

MJML — responsive email markup:

Basic email

<mjml>
  <mj-head>
    <mj-attributes>
      <mj-all font-family="Arial, sans-serif" />
    </mj-attributes>
  </mj-head>
  <mj-body background-color="#f6f9fc">
    <mj-section background-color="#ffffff" padding="40px">
      <mj-column>
        <mj-image width="120px" src="https://pkgpulse.com/logo.png" />
        <mj-text font-size="24px" color="#1a1a1a" font-weight="bold">
          Welcome to PkgPulse!
        </mj-text>
        <mj-text font-size="16px" color="#374151" line-height="1.6">
          Start comparing npm packages and make better dependency decisions.
        </mj-text>
        <mj-divider border-color="#e5e7eb" />
        <mj-button
          background-color="#3b82f6"
          color="white"
          border-radius="6px"
          href="https://pkgpulse.com/dashboard"
        >
          Go to Dashboard
        </mj-button>
      </mj-column>
    </mj-section>
  </mj-body>
</mjml>

Multi-column layout

<mjml>
  <mj-body>
    <mj-section>
      <mj-column>
        <mj-text font-weight="bold">react</mj-text>
        <mj-text>25M downloads/week</mj-text>
      </mj-column>
      <mj-column>
        <mj-text font-weight="bold">vue</mj-text>
        <mj-text>5M downloads/week</mj-text>
      </mj-column>
      <mj-column>
        <mj-text font-weight="bold">svelte</mj-text>
        <mj-text>2M downloads/week</mj-text>
      </mj-column>
    </mj-section>
    <!-- Automatically stacks on mobile! -->
  </mj-body>
</mjml>

Compile to HTML

import mjml2html from "mjml"

const { html, errors } = mjml2html(`
  <mjml>
    <mj-body>
      <mj-section>
        <mj-column>
          <mj-text>Hello World</mj-text>
        </mj-column>
      </mj-section>
    </mj-body>
  </mjml>
`)

if (errors.length > 0) {
  console.error("MJML errors:", errors)
}

// html → Full responsive HTML with tables, inline styles, media queries

CLI and tooling

# Compile single file:
mjml input.mjml -o output.html

# Watch mode:
mjml --watch input.mjml -o output.html

# Validate:
mjml --validate input.mjml

# With config:
# .mjmlconfig
{
  "beautify": true,
  "minify": false,
  "validationLevel": "strict"
}

Maizzle

Maizzle — Tailwind CSS email framework:

Basic email

<!-- src/templates/welcome.html -->
<x-main>
  <table class="w-full">
    <tr>
      <td class="bg-gray-100 p-6 sm:p-10">
        <table class="w-150 mx-auto bg-white rounded-lg shadow-md">
          <tr>
            <td class="p-10">
              <img src="https://pkgpulse.com/logo.png" width="120" alt="PkgPulse" />
              <h1 class="text-2xl font-bold text-gray-900 mt-6">
                Welcome to PkgPulse!
              </h1>
              <p class="text-base text-gray-600 leading-relaxed mt-4">
                Start comparing npm packages and make better dependency decisions.
              </p>
              <div class="mt-6">
                <a href="https://pkgpulse.com/dashboard"
                   class="inline-block bg-blue-500 text-white px-6 py-3 rounded-md no-underline">
                  Go to Dashboard
                </a>
              </div>
            </td>
          </tr>
        </table>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</x-main>

Build configuration

// config.js
module.exports = {
  build: {
    templates: {
      source: "src/templates",
      destination: {
        path: "build",
      },
    },
    tailwind: {
      config: "tailwind.config.js",
    },
  },
  inlineCSS: true,       // Inline all CSS
  removeUnusedCSS: true,  // Purge unused styles
  shorthandCSS: true,     // Merge shorthand properties
  prettify: true,          // Format HTML output
}

Layouts and components

<!-- src/layouts/main.html -->
<html>
<head>
  <style>{{{ page.css }}}</style>
</head>
<body class="bg-gray-100">
  <content />
</body>
</html>

<!-- src/components/button.html -->
<a href="{{ href }}"
   class="inline-block bg-blue-500 text-white px-6 py-3 rounded-md font-bold no-underline">
  <content />
</a>

<!-- Usage in template: -->
<x-main>
  <x-button href="https://pkgpulse.com">
    View Dashboard
  </x-button>
</x-main>

Build and preview

# Development (with preview):
npx maizzle serve
# → http://localhost:3000 with live reload

# Production build:
npx maizzle build production
# → Outputs inlined, purged, minified HTML emails

# Build output:
# - CSS inlined on elements
# - Unused CSS removed
# - HTML minified
# - Responsive with media queries

Feature Comparison

Feature	React Email	MJML	Maizzle
Syntax	JSX (React)	Custom markup	HTML + Tailwind
Approach	Component-based	Tag-based	Utility-first CSS
Responsive	✅	✅ (auto)	✅ (media queries)
Preview server	✅	✅ (online editor)	✅
CSS inlining	✅ (auto)	✅ (auto)	✅ (auto)
Tailwind CSS	✅ (component)	❌	✅ (core feature)
Components	✅ (React)	✅ (mj-include)	✅ (x-components)
TypeScript	✅	❌	❌
Server rendering	✅ (render())	✅ (mjml2html)	❌ (build-time)
Resend integration	✅ (native)	❌	❌
Email client compat	Good	Excellent	Good
Learning curve	Low (React devs)	Low	Medium
Weekly downloads	~500K	~1M	~50K

When to Use Each

Use React Email if:

Already using React in your stack
Want component-based email development
Using or planning to use Resend for email delivery
Want TypeScript support and modern DX

Use MJML if:

Need the best email client compatibility
Want automatic responsive layouts
Building emails for multiple clients (Outlook, Gmail, etc.)
Prefer a template language over JavaScript

Use Maizzle if:

Love Tailwind CSS and want it in emails
Need maximum control over HTML output
Building a design system for emails
Want utility-first CSS approach

Methodology

Download data from npm registry (weekly average, February 2026). Feature comparison based on @react-email/components v0.0.x, mjml v4.x, and maizzle v5.x.

Email Client Compatibility and What Actually Breaks

The reason email frameworks exist is that HTML email rendering is a patchwork of inconsistent engine support across clients. Outlook on Windows (still widely used in enterprise) renders HTML using Microsoft Word's rendering engine — not a real browser — and famously ignores CSS properties like flexbox, grid, CSS variables, and many border-radius values. Gmail clips emails longer than 102KB (the clipped portion is hidden behind a "View entire message" link). Apple Mail and modern webmail clients like HEY and Fastmail support most modern CSS. The gap between best-case (Apple Mail) and worst-case (Outlook 2019) rendering is enormous.

MJML's primary value proposition is abstracting away these inconsistencies. Its custom tags (<mj-section>, <mj-column>, <mj-button>) compile to deeply nested table-based HTML with inline styles, conditional comments for Outlook, and mso-* Microsoft Office-specific properties. A two-column layout in MJML that looks correct in Outlook requires approximately 60 lines of generated HTML that no developer would write by hand. This is MJML's strongest argument: the output is Outlook-safe by construction.

React Email takes a different approach. Its built-in components (<Section>, <Column>, <Row>) also compile to table-based HTML, but the library is younger and Outlook compatibility requires more attention from developers. The community has documented known issues and workarounds, and the @react-email/components library is actively maintained. For teams sending primarily to B2C audiences (Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook.com), React Email is reliable. For B2B audiences with heavy Outlook desktop usage, testing in Litmus or Email on Acid before deploying is essential.

Maizzle gives you the most direct control over the HTML output — you write the tables yourself, using Tailwind for styling. This means Outlook compatibility is entirely your responsibility. Maizzle's CSS inlining and removeUnusedCSS are build-time operations, but the underlying HTML structure is whatever you write. This makes Maizzle the right choice for developers who understand email table layouts and want utility-class productivity on top of manually structured email HTML.

Sending Integration: From Template to Delivery

Each framework integrates differently with email delivery services, and this affects production deployment patterns. React Email has the most direct sending integration: Resend (from the same creator) accepts a react prop on its emails.send() call, rendering the React Email component server-side internally. No manual render() call is needed — just pass the component. Resend also supports React Email templates in its dashboard for preview and testing, creating a tight loop between development and production.

For MJML, the sending integration requires an explicit compilation step. You compile MJML to HTML with mjml2html(), then pass the resulting HTML string to any email provider — Nodemailer, SendGrid, Mailgun, AWS SES, Postmark. This provider-agnostic approach is a feature for teams with existing email infrastructure: MJML doesn't force any particular sending provider. The MJML VS Code extension and online editor (mjml.io/try-it-live) provide immediate visual feedback during template development without needing to run a local server.

Maizzle's build-based approach produces static HTML files at build time, which are then deployed or embedded in application code. This works well for transactional emails with low dynamic content variation, where the HTML template is pre-generated and only a few values (like the recipient name or a specific URL) are substituted at send time using string replacement or your mail provider's templating variables ({{name}} in Mailgun, %%name%% in Mailchimp). For highly dynamic emails that need to be generated per-user at runtime, React Email's server-side rendering model is a better fit.

Compare email tooling and developer utilities on PkgPulse →

Compare MJML and React Email package health on PkgPulse.

When to Use Each

Email rendering has unique constraints — every major email client (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, Yahoo) renders HTML differently, and CSS support is extremely limited. The right tool depends on your workflow and template volume.

React Email is the choice when:

Your team is already working in React and wants to use familiar JSX patterns for email templates
You want TypeScript support and component reuse across email templates
You need to preview emails in a browser with hot reload
You're building a SaaS product that sends many types of transactional emails

MJML is the choice when:

You want a battle-tested, production-proven email framework with broad compatibility
Your designers work in HTML/XML-like syntax rather than JSX
You need the widest email client support out of the box
You're converting existing email designs from tools like Figma or Sketch

Maizzle is the choice when:

You're already familiar with Tailwind CSS and want to apply that knowledge to email
You need highly customized, design-system-aligned templates
You're building a static email template library, not a programmatic email system
You want full control over the HTML output with PostHTML transforms

For new projects in 2026, React Email is the most developer-friendly option for teams already in the React ecosystem. MJML remains the most compatible option for agencies producing email templates for clients with diverse email client requirements.

One important consideration across all three: email client compatibility testing is essential before shipping. Gmail, Outlook (2019 and earlier), Apple Mail, and Yahoo Mail each handle CSS differently. React Email includes a preview server for localhost testing, but production validation requires a tool like Litmus or Email on Acid — no framework eliminates the need for multi-client testing in a production email workflow.

The 2026 JavaScript Stack Cheatsheet