Two transactional email providers, compared on price, features and ratings, so you can pick fast.
Mailgun wins developer experience and complianceSparkPost wins sending APIs and cost at scale
Updated August 2026
At a glanceMailgunSparkPost
Entry price$0.80$20
Cost per 1k @ 100k$0.9$0.3
Free tier100/day1,000/mo
G2 rating4.54.0
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.
Which should you choose?
Pick Mailgun
✓You want a developer-first email API with strong deliverability tooling
✓You send high-volume transactional email and want usage-based pricing
✓You need EU data residency, log retention, and email validation add-ons
✓You are in the Sinch ecosystem or want enterprise deliverability consulting
Winner cells are tinted, green where Mailgun leads, violet where SparkPost does.
capability
Mailgun
SparkPost
Pricing
Starting paid plan
$15/mo
$15/mo
Cost per 1k @ 100k
$0.9
$0.3
Pricing model
Hybrid
Hybrid
Overage
from $1.10 / 1,000 emails
~$1.00 per 1,000 (Starter)
Deliverability
Dedicated IP
Plan-gated
Plan-gated
Deliverability tooling
Yes
Yes
Automated IP warmup
Yes
Yes
Suppression management
Yes
Yes
SPF / DKIM / DMARC
Yes
Yes
API & sending
Transactional API
Yes
Yes
Marketing campaigns
—
Yes
SMTP relay
Yes
Yes
Inbound routing
Yes
Yes
Dynamic templates
Yes
Yes
Batch send
Yes
Yes
Scheduled send
Yes
Yes
Developer experience
Official SDKs
Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, Node.js, Go
Node.js, Python, PHP, Java, Go, Elixir
Event webhooks
Yes
Yes
Drag-and-drop editor
Yes
—
Custom HTML editor
Yes
Yes
Email validation
Add-on
Add-on
Log retention
1-30 days
—
Sandbox / test mode
Yes
Yes
Analytics
Open / click tracking
Yes
Yes
Analytics dashboard
Yes
Yes
A/B testing
Yes
Yes
Compliance
EU data residency
Yes
Yes
SOC 2
Yes
Yes
HIPAA
BAA
—
GDPR
Yes
Yes
ISO 27001
Yes
Yes
Support
Support channels
Email/ticket, Chat, Phone
Online/Email support; TAM on Enterprise
Support SLA
Plan-gated
Plan-gated
FAQ
Common questions
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.
Pricing, plans and feature availability as of August 2026 and may change. Ratings are aggregated from public review platforms. Mailgun is a Sinch product; SparkPost is a Bird (MessageBird) product.