Inbound vs Mailgun (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Mailgun grades higher than Inbound: 2.4 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Inbound grades higher on value for money. Mailgun grades higher on the free plan, features and platforms. They get the same grade on ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Mailgun
Email API and SMTP relay for developers, with list validation
Which one is for you
Pick Inbound if
- Fits if your app needs to receive and answer incoming email
- Works for developers who want email handled by webhook
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want to try it free, since no free plan or trial is listed
- Not for you if you send marketing or bulk email, which the page does not describe
- Tight if you run many domains, with 50 on the $15 plan and $3.50 for each extra
- Watch out: extra capacity is $16 per 50,000 received plus 50,000 sent 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
| 1.8GPAInboundWeak | 2.4GPAMailgunFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | B$9 a month for 5,000 emails is at the edge of the cheaper quarter of email tools. Extra domains are $3.50 each and extra capacity $16 per 50,000. | 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 | FNo free plan and no trial are listed, so every email is paid for from the first one. | 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 | CEmail to webhook, address routing, threaded replies, API and CLI, spam filtering and retries. It does that narrow job fully, and does not describe bulk sending. | 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. It is an API and CLI product, so setup means DNS, webhooks and code. | 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 | CWeb dashboard, API and CLI only. No integrations list is shown. | 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 | receiving and replying to email by API | 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: Inbound and Mailgun. How we grade
Price against what you get
Inbound starts at $9 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Mailgun starts at $15 a month and scores 2.7.
Mailgun scores higher, and starts $6 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other email sending services on the chart, 8 score higher than Inbound for less, and none scores higher than Mailgun for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Inbound also covers AI agents.
- Mailgun also covers email verification.
At a glance
| Inbound | Mailgun | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free plan |
| Starts at | $9 per month for 5,000 emails | $15 per month for 10,000 emails |
| Free plan | None | 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 | Exon Enterprise LLC | Mailgun |
| Price read from | inbound.new | mailgun.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Inbound
- There is no free plan or trial listed.
- Extra domains cost $3.50 per domain per month.
- Extra capacity is $16 per 50,000 received plus 50,000 sent a month.
- The product centers on receiving and replying; the pricing page does not describe bulk or marketing sending.
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
Inbound
- Email to webhook
- Point MX records at the service and received mail is delivered as parsed JSON.
- Address routing
- Route specific addresses or a catch-all to different endpoints.
- Threaded replies
- Reply to a received message in the same thread from the API.
- API and CLI
- One API and a command-line tool cover receiving, parsing and replying.
- Spam filtering
- Choose to reject, flag or accept mail marked as spam.
- Failed delivery retries
- Failed webhook deliveries show in logs and can be retried.
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
Inbound
Default$9
per month for up to 5,000 emails
Basic support, with unlimited mailboxes.
Pro$15
per month for up to 50,000 emails
Up to 50 domains.
Growth$39
per month for up to 100,000 emails
Up to 300 domains.
Scale$79
per month for up to 200,000 emails
Unlimited domains.
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, Inbound or Mailgun?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Inbound is cheaper to start with: $9 a month, against $15 a month for Mailgun. Inbound starts at $9 per month for 5,000 emails, and Mailgun starts at $15 per month for 10,000 emails.
Which has a free plan, Inbound or Mailgun?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Mailgun has a free plan. Inbound does not.
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.