Mailgun
Transactional Email · www.mailgun.com
Mailgun is an email delivery service offering RESTful email APIs and SMTP relay for sending, receiving, and tracking email, with deliverability tools such as email validation and analytics.
Switching to MailerSend saves $180 / year and covers 67% of the compared capabilities.
Find my alternative
Way less money.
Top Mailgun alternatives
We compared 7 products and found 6 cheaper alternatives · vs Mailgun Basic at $15/mo · scenario: 1,000 emails/month, 1 seat, monthly billing, USD.
Mailgun’s own free plan covers this scenario. If you’re paying for features you don’t use, downgrading beats switching. The paid comparison below is for when you’ve outgrown free tiers — the “Free plans” view shows alternatives if you want free with different limits.
Mailgun costs $15/mo on the Basic plan at 1,000 emails/month, 1 seat, monthly billing. We found 6 assessed alternatives that are cheaper in this scenario; 0 of them cover at least 75% of the 12 compared capabilities. Mailgun's own free plan covers this scenario, so downgrading may beat switching.
| Product | Match | Price | Annual savings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
TOP PICK MailerSend Hobby plan · missing: Send-time optimization, SSO (SAML), Event tracking, Analytics API | 67% | $7/mo how? ⓘ | $96 / year 53% cheaper | |
SMTP2GO Starter plan · missing: Send-time optimization, SSO (SAML), Event tracking, Analytics API, Email address validation, Inbound email parsing, Event webhooks | 42% | $10/mo how? ⓘ | $60 / year 33% cheaper |
Which Mailgun alternative for which situation
Picked by the numbers in this scenario — same subtype unless stated, assessed products only.
- Best free plan
- MailerSend — $0/mo (Free plan) · covers 67%
- Need transactional email API, email templates, dedicated IP, custom sending/tracking domain, email address validation, inbound email parsing, event webhooks or deliverability SLA / support?
- MailerSend — from $0/mo (Free plan)
- Need SSO (SAML)?
- Resend — from $0/mo (Free plan)
What you give up
Capabilities Mailgun has that the top alternatives lack.
- Email templates — Start a campaign from a pre-built email template.Missing from Amazon SES.
- Custom sending/tracking domain — Send and track email from your own domain.Missing from Amazon SES.
- Send-time optimization — Automatically send each email at the recipient's best time to open it.Missing from MailerSend, Resend, SMTP2GO, Amazon SES.
- SSO (SAML) — Sign in through your company's SAML SSO.Missing from MailerSend, SMTP2GO, Amazon SES.
- Event tracking — Track specific user actions like clicks or sign-ups.Missing from MailerSend, Resend, SMTP2GO, Amazon SES.
- Analytics API — Pull analytics data programmatically via an API.Missing from MailerSend, Resend, SMTP2GO, Amazon SES.
- Email address validation — Validate an email address before sending to it.Missing from Resend, SMTP2GO.
- Inbound email parsing — Parse incoming email into your application.Missing from SMTP2GO.
- Event webhooks — Get notified of email events like opens or bounces via webhook.Missing from Resend, SMTP2GO, Amazon SES.
- Deliverability SLA / support — Get a guaranteed deliverability service-level agreement.Missing from Amazon SES.
Feature comparison
Mailgun vs the top alternatives, on the 12 compared capabilities.
| Capability | Mailgun | MailerSend | Resend | SMTP2GO | Amazon SES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transactional email API from Free | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email templates from Foundation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Dedicated IP from Foundation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom sending/tracking domain from Free | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Send-time optimization from Scale | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| SSO (SAML) from Scale | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Event tracking from Free | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Analytics API from Free | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Email address validation | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Inbound email parsing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Event webhooks | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Deliverability SLA / support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Scenario price cheapest qualifying plan | $15/mo Basic | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Essentials |
✓ means the product offers the capability — possibly only on a higher tier than the plan priced below it. The price row shows the cheapest plan that qualifies for our comparison scenario, with its plan name; a $0 free plan may not include every checked capability.
What Mailgun covers
The capability set used for comparison. Grey entries are not available on self-serve plans.
- ✓ Transactional email API — from Free
- ✓ Email templates — from Foundation
- ✓ Dedicated IP — from Foundation
- ✓ Custom sending/tracking domain — from Free
- ✓ Send-time optimization — from Scale
- ✓ SSO (SAML) — from Scale
- ✓ Event tracking — from Free
- ✓ Analytics API — from Free
- ✓ Email address validation
- ✓ Inbound email parsing
- ✓ Event webhooks
- ✓ Deliverability SLA / support
Price ladder
Observed prices from the official pricing page.
Sources
Every claim traces to an official source and a check date.
- https://www.mailgun.com/pricing/ (official_pricing, checked 2026-09-07)
- https://www.mailgun.com/pricing/#navSearch (official_pricing, checked 2026-09-07)
Frequently asked
How much does Mailgun cost?
Mailgun's Basic plan costs $15/mo in our scenario (1,000 emails/month, 1 seat, monthly billing). A free plan exists.
Is there a free Mailgun alternative?
Yes. MailerSend has a free plan that covers 67% of the 12 capabilities we compared against Mailgun.
What is the cheapest Mailgun alternative?
In our scenario (1,000 emails/month, 1 seat, monthly billing), MailerSend is the cheapest assessed alternative at $0/mo (Free plan).
Does Mailgun have a free plan?
Yes. Mailgun's free plan exists; its limits are not stated on the pricing page.
When were these prices checked?
Between 2026-08-31 and 2026-09-07, on the vendors' official pricing pages.