Two transactional email providers, compared on price, features and ratings, so you can pick fast.
Updated September 2026
THE VERDICT
Mailgun wins on developer experience and compliance. SparkPost wins on sending APIs and cost at scale.
Mailgun starts at $0.80 versus SparkPost's $20. Mailgun rates higher with developers (4.5 vs 4.0 on G2). Pick based on volume and team, and the scorecard below breaks down where each one leads.
Winner cells are tinted, green where Mailgun leads, violet where SparkPost does.
FAQ
Mailgun starts at $0.80 versus SparkPost's $20. Because pricing models differ by tier, the cheaper option depends on your monthly volume, so compare the pricing rows in the scorecard above.
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.
On current Bird pricing, signup provides a test API key for evaluation rather than an ongoing free production allowance. SparkPost historically offered a free monthly volume for some accounts, but the published Bird email plans now start with the paid Starter tier. Teams needing a permanent free sending quota should confirm current terms directly with Bird.
Yes. Many teams route different message types through different providers or fail over between them. Courier lets you send through both behind a single API and switch providers without changing your code.
Why not both?
Use both behind one API.
Route Mailgun, SparkPost, or both, and switch providers without changing your code. Courier sits in front of every channel.
Pricing, plans and feature availability as of September 2026 and may change. Ratings are aggregated from public review platforms. Mailgun is a Sinch product; SparkPost is a Bird (MessageBird) product.