We're not trying to compete with them, we're using them. They solved the hard problems of delivering email, we're just trying to make it easier to send good looking emails through them.
From the sound of it, I'm guessing they're similar, but I haven't had a chance to use Mandrill's templates. This started as an internal API we created and just decided to open up.
Our templates use a Django-like syntax, which let's you use loops and conditions in a easy to use way. Mandrill's might be the same or better. We done a lot with Django so that feels comfortable.
We're trying to focus on the experience of creating a new transactional or triggered email, so it's easy to go from "I have an idea for an email" to "I'm actually sending it." We use this internally with a simple Python script to send formatted summary emails of product usage each night and it's easy to set up -- write the script to fetch the data, create the email template and you're done.
