Nylas vs. Unified.to: which Unified API powers AI-ready SaaS better?
June 15, 2025
Nylas is purpose-built for developers embedding email, calendar, and contact features into SaaS apps. Unified.to helps teams move beyond communication APIs, powering real-time pipelines, AI agents, and full data access across 270+ SaaS integrations.
If you're building a scheduling or inbox-heavy tool, Nylas is strong. But if your product needs clean, real-time data across domains—Unified.to gives you more breadth, more control, and zero storage risk.
At a glance: Unified.to vs Nylas
Nylas supports rich email, calendar, and contact use cases. Unified.to supports AI-ready, real-time data delivery across 19+ verticals.
Unified.to gives you:
- Real-time updates (via native + virtual webhooks)
- 270+ integrations across HR, CRM, ATS, Accounting, Support, and more
- Deeply normalized schemas with passthrough and custom field support
- Database sync: structured data into Postgres, Mongo, BigQuery, Snowflake, etc.
- Zero-data architecture: no customer data or tokens stored
- Generative AI tools: stream data to agents or vector stores in real time
Breadth vs depth: communications vs. business systems
Nylas offers deep ECC (email, calendar, contacts) coverage—ideal for building communication-heavy products. It supports Gmail, Microsoft 365, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo, and more.
Unified.to supports integrations across 19+ SaaS verticals:
- Messaging (e.g., Slack, Discord, Intercom, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Outlook, Webex, Freshdesk, RingCentral, IMAP, Circle.so)
- HRIS (e.g., Workday, BambooHR)
- CRM (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot)
- ATS (e.g., Greenhouse, Lever)
- Support, Payments, Repos, Storage, and more
One platform to unify customer, employee, and system data—in real time.
Real-time by default, not by sync job
Nylas supports webhook events, but some data syncs still rely on scheduled jobs and delay tolerances. Unified.to is real-time by default:
- Native webhooks when available
- Virtual webhooks where not (89% of APIs)
You get live updates from any system—no cron jobs or polling logic.
Database sync for AI agents, dashboards, and analytics
Nylas sends webhook alerts, but you'll still need to fetch payloads and ingest them manually.
Unified.to delivers normalized records directly to your database:
- Built-in sync to Postgres, MongoDB, MySQL, Snowflake, and more
- Ideal for powering dashboards, AI copilots, and RAG workflows
AI-ready structure for context-rich agents
Nylas offers ExtractAI, a tool for pulling structured order and logistics data from emails. It's helpful for e-commerce and transactional email parsing.
Unified.to takes a broader approach:
- Structured, real-time data from 270+ systems
- Clean schemas across domains
- Database-ready delivery for agents and AI tools
If you're building AI with multi-source context, Unified.to is the stronger fit.
Zero-data architecture
Nylas stores encrypted customer data and access tokens. Unified.to stores nothing:
- No tokens, payloads, or email content cached
- All data proxied live through customer-owned infra
- Better for compliance, lower vendor risk
Developer-first experience
Nylas provides SDKs for Node, Python, Ruby, and Java, plus solid docs for email workflows.
Unified.to offers:
- SDKs in 7+ languages
- OpenAPI schemas and real-time logs
- Fast integration turnaround with responsive support
TL;DR — Unified.to vs Nylas
| Feature | Unified.to | Nylas |
|---|---|---|
| Integration focus | 270+ APIs across 19+ verticals | Email, calendar, contacts (ECC) only |
| Real-time support | Native + virtual webhooks | Webhooks + hybrid sync model |
| Schema model | Deeply normalized across all categories | Normalized ECC schemas |
| Database delivery | Built-in sync to customer DBs | No DB sync; webhook then fetch |
| AI readiness | AI-ready infra + GenAI tools | ExtractAI (email-specific) |
| Data storage | Zero-data architecture; no storage or caching | Stores encrypted email + token data |
| Developer experience | SDKs, logs, real-time observability | SDKs for ECC, solid docs |
| Best for | AI-native apps with real-time, multi-source data | Communication-focused apps with ECC needs |
If you're embedding inbox features, Nylas is a strong ECC platform.
But if you're building a product that depends on clean, real-time data across business systems—Unified.to gives you a broader foundation for AI-ready features.
Start your free 30-day trial or book a demo to see how fast you can ship live integrations.