12 best Mailgun alternatives & competitors
The top Mailgun alternatives for transactional email, compared on price, free tier, ratings and what each is best for, with Mailgun pinned so you can measure each option against it.
Updated October 2026
About Mailgun
Mailgun
EmailMailgun is a developer-focused email API for transactional and marketing mail, with a deliverability and validation suite and an EU region in Frankfurt. The catch is inconsistent deliverability and support quality across reviews, and short log retention on lower tiers.
developers needing transactional and marketing email with strong deliverability and validation tooling, including an EU region
- Starting price
- $15/mo
- Free tier
- 100/day
- Rating
- 4.2 / 5
- HIPAA
- Yes
Company profile
- Founded
- 2010
- Headquarters
- San Antonio, USA
- Funding
- Public-company unit
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Ownership
- Part of Sinch
- Reviews
- 4.2 / 5 on G2 (322)
Compliance
Official SDKs
Side by side
Mailgun vs the alternatives
Sorted by rating · figures as of October 2026
Mailgun
You're viewing
Starting price
$15/mo
Free tier
100/day
Rating
4.2
Starting price
$19/mo
Free tier
10,000/mo
Rating
4.7
Starting price
$100/mo
Free tier
No
Rating
4.4
Starting price
$7/mo
Free tier
500/mo
Rating
4.1
| Provider | Starting price | Free tier | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mailgun You're viewing | $15/mo | 100/day | 4.2 | |
| $20/mo | 3,000/mo | 4.8 | Compare → | |
| $19/mo | 10,000/mo | 4.7 | Compare → | |
| $15/mo | 100/mo | 4.6 | Compare → | |
| $9/mo | 300/day | 4.5 | Compare → | |
| $49/mo | 4,000/mo | 4.5 | Compare → | |
| $100/mo | No | 4.4 | Compare → | |
| Usage-based | 3,000/mo (1st yr) | 4.3 | Compare → | |
| $20/mo | No | 4.2 | Compare → | |
| $7/mo | 500/mo | 4.1 | Compare → | |
| $19.95/mo | Trial | 4.0 | Compare → | |
| $15/mo | 1,000/mo | 4.0 | Compare → | |
| $9/mo | 6,000/mo | 4.0 | Compare → |
At a glance
What each Mailgun alternative is best for
- Resend
4.8 / 5
- Resend is a developer-first email API for React and Next.js teams. The catch is no HIPAA BAA, US-only data storage, and reports of abrupt account suspensions.
- OneSignal Email
4.7 / 5
- OneSignal Email offers a generous free tier within its multichannel push platform. The catch is email is secondary to its core push product and less mature than specialists.
- Postmark
4.6 / 5
- Postmark is a transactional email service with strong deliverability and streams that isolate message types. The catch is no marketing focus, no HIPAA BAA, and US-only data storage.
- Brevo
4.5 / 5
- Brevo is a GDPR-first, EU-based platform bundling email, SMS, WhatsApp, and CRM. The catch is it is not a purpose-built transactional provider, with strict anti-abuse suspensions.
- Loops
4.5 / 5
- Loops bundles marketing, lifecycle, and transactional email for SaaS teams with automated deliverability setup. The catch is a young company with no SOC 2, HIPAA, or EU data residency.
- Customer.io
4.4 / 5
- Customer.io is a lifecycle messaging platform with deep behavioral segmentation and a visual workflow builder. The catch is a steep learning curve and profile-based pricing that climbs with your audience.
- AWS SES
4.3 / 5
- Amazon SES sends high-volume email through AWS at among the lowest costs at scale. The catch is a bare-bones service with no template editor, campaign UI, or analytics.
- Mandrill
4.2 / 5
- Mandrill is a transactional email add-on tightly integrated with the Mailchimp ecosystem. The catch is it requires a paid Mailchimp plan and will not sign a BAA.
- MailerSend
4.1 / 5
- MailerSend is a developer-focused transactional email and SMS API from the MailerLite team, with EU-hosted data by default, a real free tier, and built-in email verification. The catch is no formal SOC 2 Type II or HIPAA, and reports of accounts suspended over bounce-rate triggers.
- SendGrid
4.0 / 5
- SendGrid is a high-volume email API with dedicated IPs, deliverability tooling, and detailed analytics. The catch is support: slow responses and occasional account suspensions, reflected in a low Trustpilot score.
- SparkPost
4.0 / 5
- SparkPost (now Bird) is a high-volume email API with strong deliverability and analytics. The catch is no HIPAA BAA and poor reviews since the 2023 Bird rebrand.
- Mailjet
4.0 / 5
- Mailjet is a GDPR-certified email service with EU data storage and a drag-and-drop editor. The catch is a 200-per-day free cap and reports of inconsistent deliverability.
FAQ
Common questions
The strongest Mailgun alternatives depend on what you need. Resend rates highest among the options here; the comparison table covers price, free tier, and rating, and the "what each alternative is best for" section matches each option to a use case.
Yes. Several alternatives offer an ongoing free tier, including Resend. Check the "Free tier" column above; free allowances and limits vary by provider, and some offers are trials rather than perpetual free tiers.
Mailgun is primarily a developer-focused email API for transactional email such as password resets, receipts, and notifications, delivered over API or SMTP. It also supports marketing and bulk email through scheduling, list management, and analytics. Its sibling product Mailjet, also owned by Sinch, leans more toward marketing use cases.
Mailgun will sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with customers who need to handle protected health information, and this is generally offered on its Enterprise plans. It backs this with encryption of data at rest and in transit and access controls. Customers should confirm current BAA terms and eligible plans directly with Mailgun before sending any PHI.
Mailgun's paid plans start at $15 per month for the Basic plan, which includes 10,000 emails per month with no daily sending limits. The Foundation plan is $35 per month for 50,000 emails, and the Scale plan is $90 per month for 100,000 emails. Additional emails beyond plan limits are billed as overages per 1,000 sends, and Enterprise pricing is custom.
Yes. Mailgun operates an EU region hosted in a data center in Frankfurt, Germany, letting customers process and store email data within the European Union to support GDPR requirements. You select the EU region when creating your domain, and message data does not leave the region it is processed in.
Often, yes. Courier sits in front of these providers behind one API, so you can route through Mailgun or an alternative, or fail over between them, without rewriting your integration each time.
Keep exploring
More transactional email alternatives guides
One API, every provider
Switch or combine providers without rewrites.
Courier sits in front of Mailgun and every alternative above: route, fail over, and swap providers behind a single API.
Company facts, pricing and compliance were verified against each provider's public pricing and security or trust pages, plus G2 and Trustpilot, as of October 2026, and compiled by the Courier team. Details change often, so confirm with the provider before you buy.