# Mailgun

> Email API and SMTP relay for developers, with list validation

Mailgun is an email sending service for developers, owned by Sinch, that sends and receives email from an app through an HTTP API or SMTP relay. It adds inbound routing, webhooks, templates and an email validation API, and lets one account send through either its US or EU region. Plans are priced by emails a month, with a free plan of 100 emails a day.

- **Category:** Email Sending Services
- **Made by:** Mailgun (since 2010)
- **Website:** https://www.mailgun.com
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026

## Pricing

Mailgun has a free plan. Paid plans start at $15 per month for 10,000 emails.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **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.
- **Free trial:** 30-day free trial of the Foundation and Scale plans.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Everything in Scale plus custom features, deliverability services and a burst sending SLA. |

Read from https://www.mailgun.com/pricing/ on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Mailgun before buying.

## Key features

- **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.

## Good for

- Developers sending and receiving email from an app
- Teams that want address validation from the same provider
- Companies that need email data kept in the EU

## Worth knowing

- 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.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Mailgun is built for developers: send through an API or SMTP, receive email with routing rules, check addresses, and keep data in the US or EU. 50,000 emails a month is $35 on Foundation, which is also where unlimited users and full inbound routing begin. The cheaper plans are thin, with 1 sending domain and a single day of logs.

- **Value for money: C.** Graded 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 cheaper but stops at 10,000 emails, 1 domain and 1 day of logs. A dedicated IP means Scale at $90.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** Free 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: B.** API 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 whole job; inbox placement tests are a separate product.
- **Ease of use: C.** Judged 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: B.** Web, 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.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Mailgun's own pages on 18 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among email sending services

- Mailgun's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 3 of the 11 other email sending services we grade, and level with 2.
- It stands best on features (B, above 2 of 11) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $15 a month, against a middle price of $15 for the category: 2 of the 10 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/email-sending

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Mailgun you would be making mail servers with a good name among inbox providers. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 6 of the 11 other email sending services grade higher. It costs $180 a year.

- You could not: Mail servers with a good name among inbox providers.
- You could not: Checking that an address exists without writing to it.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Zapier, Make and n8n among them, and has an API.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

Zapier, Make, n8n, Shopify, HubSpot, Salesforce, WordPress, Datadog

**Tags:** Transactional email, Public API, Email verification

## Alternatives

- [Twilio SendGrid](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sendgrid): Twilio's email API and SMTP service, priced by monthly email volume. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mailgun-vs-sendgrid)
- [Postmark](https://toolgpa.com/tools/postmark): Transactional email API and SMTP, with broadcasts on a separate stream. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mailgun-vs-postmark)
- [Amazon SES](https://toolgpa.com/tools/amazon-ses): AWS email sending and receiving, paid per 1,000 emails. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/amazon-ses-vs-mailgun)
- [Bird Email](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sparkpost): SparkPost's successor: Bird's email API, paid from a prepaid balance. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mailgun-vs-sparkpost)
- [Mailjet](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailjet): Email API, SMTP relay and campaign editor on one plan priced by volume. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mailgun-vs-mailjet)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026:

- https://www.mailgun.com/pricing/
- https://www.mailgun.com/about/
- https://www.mailgun.com/integrations/

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailgun
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).