Mailgun vs Scaleway Transactional Email (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Mailgun grades higher than Scaleway Transactional Email: 2.4 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Mailgun grades higher on the free plan, features and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and 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
Scaleway Transactional Email
Transactional email API and SMTP on Scaleway's European cloud
Which one is for you
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 Scaleway Transactional Email if
- Fits if you want email sent from a European cloud for GDPR reasons
- Works for apps with uneven volume that suit paying per 1,000 emails
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan or trial, as there is neither
- Pricey if you need a dedicated IP or the SLA, since both sit on the €80 a month Scale plan
- Not for you if you send marketing email, as the page only describes transactional messages
- Watch out: prices are in euros and the page doesn't say whether VAT is added
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAMailgunFair | 1.6GPAScaleway Transactional EmailWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | CScale is €80 a month for 100,000 emails. That's in the dearest tenth of the category, but Essential has no monthly fee and charges €0.25 per 1,000, which pulls it back to the ordinary range. |
| Free plan and trial | 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. | FNo free plan or trial. Essential includes 300 emails before it charges, which is a sample, not a plan. |
| Features | 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. | CAPI and SMTP sending, reports and alerts, blocklist handling and webhooks. A managed dedicated IP and the 99.9% SLA need Scale, and it's transactional only. |
| Ease of use | 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. | CNo store rating on record. You add domains and DNS records on a cloud console. |
| Platforms and integrations | 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. | CWeb console with an API and SMTP. No integrations list on its page. |
| Best for | sending and receiving email from an app | pay-as-you-go transactional email from a European cloud |
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: Mailgun and Scaleway Transactional Email. How we grade
Price against what you get
Mailgun starts at $15 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Scaleway Transactional Email starts at about $89.38 a month and scores 2.0.
Mailgun scores higher and starts $74.38 a month lower. Of the other email sending services on the chart, none scores higher than Mailgun for less, and 29 score higher than Scaleway Transactional Email 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
- Mailgun also covers email verification.
- Scaleway Transactional Email also covers dMARC.
At a glance
| Mailgun | Scaleway Transactional Email | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $15 per month for 10,000 emails | €80 per month for 100,000 emails |
| Free plan | 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. | None |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial of the Foundation and Scale plans | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Mailgun | Scaleway |
| Price read from | mailgun.com | scaleway.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
Scaleway Transactional Email
- The Essential plan is pay as you go with no monthly fee shown: 300 emails included, then €0.25 per 1,000 emails.
- A dedicated IP and the 99.9% SLA need the €80 a month Scale plan.
- Prices are in euros and the page does not say whether VAT is added.
- The service is for transactional messages; marketing email is not described on the page.
Key features
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.
Scaleway Transactional Email
- API and SMTP sending
- Emails can be sent through an API or over SMTP, which suits notification services, alerts and CMS or application integrations.
- Reports and alerts
- Both plans include reports and alerts for sent email.
- Blocklist handling
- Essential has an automatic blocklist mode; Scale adds a manual blocklist mode.
- Managed dedicated IP
- A managed dedicated IP address is part of the Scale plan.
- Domains and webhooks
- Essential allows 5 domains and 1 webhook per domain; Scale has unlimited of each.
Plans
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.
Scaleway Transactional Email
Scale€80
per month for 100,000 emails
Unlimited domains and webhooks, a managed dedicated IP and a 99.9% SLA. Emails beyond 100,000 cost €0.20 per 1,000.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Mailgun or Scaleway Transactional Email?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Mailgun is cheaper to start with: $15 a month, against about $89.38 a month for Scaleway Transactional Email. Mailgun starts at $15 per month for 10,000 emails, and Scaleway Transactional Email starts at €80 per month for 100,000 emails.
Which has a free plan, Mailgun or Scaleway Transactional Email?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Mailgun has a free plan. Scaleway Transactional Email 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.