Mailgun vs Plunk (2026): which should you pick?

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

Pick Plunk if

• Fits if you send a few thousand emails a month and want pay-as-you-go
• Works for developers who might self-host it later

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you send more than 1,000 emails a month on the free plan, which also adds Plunk branding
• Pricey if your volume grows, since it is a flat $0.001 on every email
• Watch out: self-hosting under AGPL-3.0 carries that licence's obligations
• Watch out: the hosted service runs in the EU

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.

Plunk

• The free plan stops at 1,000 emails a month and puts Plunk branding on emails.
• The paid plan has no monthly fee: it is $0.001 per email, so cost scales directly with volume.
• The hosted service is in the EU; self-hosting under AGPL-3.0 carries that license's obligations.

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.

Plunk

Transactional email

Send single emails through a REST API or an SMTP relay, from your own domain with DKIM signing.

Campaigns and newsletters

Broadcasts go to the whole contact list or to a segment, with a visual and an HTML editor and open and click tracking.

Workflows

Event-triggered sequences with delays, conditions and webhook steps, started by something a contact does in your product.

Segments

Dynamic segments are queries that re-run each time they are used, so a campaign reaches the current audience.

Inbound email

Addresses at your domain can receive mail, and replies become contacts that can start workflows.

Self-hosting

The code is open source under AGPL-3.0 and can be deployed with Docker Compose on your own servers.

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.

Plunk

• Free forever$0

  1,000 emails a month and unlimited contacts. Every feature is included, but emails carry Plunk branding.

• Pay as you grow$0.001

  per email sent, no monthly fee

  Removes the Plunk branding and the 1,000-email cap, with a monthly spend cap you can set. The vendor's example shows 10,000 emails costing $10.