Courier vs Mailgun (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Courier and Mailgun share a 2.4 GPA, both have a free plan and their prices can't be set side by side, so the choice depends on whether you care more about the free plan, where Courier grades higher, or features, where Mailgun does.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Courier
Notification and messaging API across email, SMS, push and chat
Mailgun
Email API and SMTP relay for developers, with list validation
Which one is for you
Pick Courier if
- Fits if you send mail, SMS and push from one product and want one API
- Works for small apps that stay under 10,000 sends a month
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want Courier to deliver email itself, since it routes through your own provider
- Tight if you pass 10,000 sends a month, when Business charges $0.005 per send
- Pricey if you send high volume, where 100,000 sends works out at $500
- Watch out: AI Translations, the AI node and EU data residency are on Business
- Watch out: Device Preview is an extra from $20 a month
Pick Mailgun if
- Fits if your app needs to receive email and pass it on to a webhook
- Works for teams whose email data has to stay in the EU
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you're on Free or Basic, with 1 sending domain and 1 day of logs
- Not for you if you want an editor to write and send campaigns, since it's all code
- Pricey if you need a dedicated IP, which starts with Scale at $90 a month, with extra IPs at $59 each
- Watch out: inbox placement tests and reputation monitoring are a separate product, Mailgun Optimize
- Watch out: Free stops at 100 emails a day, and Basic charges $1.80 per 1,000 past 10,000
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACourierFair | 2.4GPAMailgunFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CThe Developer plan is free and Business is $0.005 per send with no per-seat fees, so 10,000 sends cost $50, in the ordinary range for email tools at low volume and above it at high volume. | CGraded on 50,000 emails a month: Foundation is $35 at that volume, toward the dear end of this category, with the first month free. Basic is $15 but stops at 10,000 emails, 1 domain and 1 day of logs. A dedicated IP means Scale at $90. |
| Free plan and trial | BDeveloper is free for 10,000 sends a month with journeys, broadcasts, CLI and SDKs, which one person can live on. | CFree for good: 100 emails a day through the API or SMTP, with 1 domain, 1 inbound route and 1 day of logs. Enough to build against, not to run a live app on. There's also a 30-day trial of Foundation and Scale. |
| Features | CRouting across channels, journeys, design studio, inbox and an AI step. It routes through your own email provider rather than delivering mail, and add-ons like Device Preview start at $20 a month. | BAPI and SMTP with SDKs in six languages and an MCP server, inbound routing, webhooks, templates, address validation, US or EU regions and dedicated IPs. It covers the job; inbox placement tests are a separate product, Mailgun Optimize. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. You connect providers, build templates and journeys, and wire in SDKs. | CJudged on how fast a developer sends a first email: grab an API key, use an SDK or SMTP, and verify a sending domain. No rating on record. There's no send button at all, so everything goes through code. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb service with SDKs, a CLI, an MCP server and connections to SES, Mailgun, Postmark, SendGrid, Twilio, Slack, Teams and FCM. | BWeb, with an API, SMTP, SDKs and an MCP server, plus Zapier, Make, n8n, Shopify, HubSpot, Salesforce, WordPress and Datadog. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | notifications across email, SMS, push and chat | sending and receiving email from an app |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Courier and Mailgun. How we grade
Where they differ
- Courier also covers workflow automation and chatbots.
- Mailgun also covers email verification.
At a glance
| Courier | Mailgun | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | $15 per month for 10,000 emails |
| Free plan | Developer plan: 10,000 sends a month, with journeys, broadcasts, MCP server, CLI and SDKs. | 100 emails a day, 1 custom sending domain, 1 user, 1 inbound route, 1 day of logs and ticket support, through the API or SMTP. |
| Free trial | None listed | 30-day free trial of the Foundation and Scale plans |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Courier | Mailgun |
| Price read from | courier.com | mailgun.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Courier
- The Business plan has no monthly fee and charges $0.005 per send, with AI Translations, the AI node and EU data residency.
- The Developer plan stops at 10,000 sends a month.
- The Device Preview add-on is from $20 a month.
- Courier routes through your own email provider rather than delivering the mail itself.
Mailgun
- Free and Basic allow 1 sending domain and keep 1 day of logs; unlimited users and 1,000 domains start with Foundation at $35 a month.
- There is no send button: Mailgun sends through code, not a campaign editor.
- A dedicated IP comes with Scale at $90 a month; extra IPs are $59 each a month.
- Inbox placement tests and reputation monitoring are a separate product, Mailgun Optimize.
Key features
Courier
- Omnichannel routing
- One send can go to email, SMS, push, chat or in-app, with fallback between providers.
- Journeys
- Multi-step messaging triggered and personalized from your data.
- Design Studio
- A no-code visual editor with multi-channel preview.
- In-app Inbox
- An embeddable notification center that syncs across devices.
- AI agent step
- Run a language model as a step in a workflow to score users or generate content.
- Provider connections
- Bring your own email, SMS, push and chat providers.
Mailgun
- Email API and SMTP relay
- Send from an app through a RESTful HTTP API or SMTP, with SDKs for Go, Node.js, PHP, Java, Ruby and Python, plus an MCP server.
- Inbound routing
- Receive email and forward it to your app or a webhook by rules called routes: 1 on Free, 5 on Basic and unlimited from Foundation.
- Email validation
- Check addresses by API or upload a whole list; Scale includes 5,000 validations and other plans pay from $1.20 per 100.
- US or EU data regions
- One account can send through either the US or the EU region, so message data can stay in the region you choose.
- Logs, analytics and webhooks
- Tracking, bounce classification and event webhooks on every plan, with log retention growing from 1 day on Free and Basic to 30 days on Scale.
- Dedicated IPs
- Scale includes a dedicated IP, IP pools and automated warm-up; more IPs cost $59 each a month.
Plans
Courier
Developer$0
10,000 sends a month, journeys and broadcasts, MCP server, CLI and SDKs, SSO via Google and GitHub, email and chat support.
EnterpriseCustom
Everything in Business plus volume pricing, a dedicated Slack channel, observability integrations, role-based access control and an enterprise SLA.
Mailgun
Free$0
100 emails a day, 1 sending domain, 2 API keys, 1 inbound route, 1 day of log retention and ticket support.
Basic$15
per month for 10,000 emails
No daily limit, 1 sending domain, 5 inbound routes, 1 day of logs. Extra emails $1.80 per 1,000.
Foundation$35
per month for 50,000 emails
1,000 sending domains, unlimited users, template builder, 5 days of logs, full inbound routing. Extra emails from $1.30 per 1,000; first month free.
Scale$90
per month for 100,000 emails
Dedicated IP and IP pools, SAML SSO, 5,000 validations, send-time optimization, chat and phone support, 30 days of logs. Extra emails from $1.10 per 1,000.
EnterpriseCustom
Everything in Scale plus custom features, deliverability services and a burst sending SLA.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Courier or Mailgun?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Courier publishes no starting price, and Mailgun starts at $15 per month for 10,000 emails.
Which has a free plan, Courier or Mailgun?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Courier and Mailgun have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.