Catalog entry · InboxRatio Editorial
Mailgun
Mailgun is a transactional email API and SMTP relay aimed at developer sending. Like Mailjet, it is owned by Sinch with the brand unchanged; mailgun.com served the transactional email API homepage directly when we verified it in August 2026.
The free plan allows 100 emails per day, and API, SMTP, and webhooks are included on every plan. Basic at $15/month covers only 10,000 emails, so the cheapest tier covering our 50,000-email normalization volume is Foundation at $35/month, with overage billed from $1.30 per 1,000 emails. Pricing checked 19 August 2026.
Deliverability: not yet tested. We publish placement numbers only after running our own seed-list cycle — the method is on the how we test page — and tested services appear in the email deliverability ranking.
From our pricing dataset
Pricing at a glance
| Tier | Monthly price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | — |
| Basic | $15/mo | 10,000 emails/mo |
| Foundation | $35/mo | 50,000 emails/mo |
| Scale | $90/mo | 100,000 emails/mo |
Pricing checked 19 August 2026 · monthly billing, prices as shown by the vendor.
From our feature dataset
Deliverability capabilities audit
The 17 deliverability capabilities we check every vendor for — authentication help, IP management, list hygiene, and reputation tooling. This audits what Mailgun documents; it is separate from our tested deliverability ranking.
14 of 17 documented capabilities
- Yes:
SPF assistance
'Email authentication and TLS encryption secure email transmission' — sending-domain setup includes SPF/DKIM records
- Yes:
DKIM setup
Domain authentication at sending-domain setup
- Partial:
DMARC supportpartial
Authentication guidance covers SPF/DKIM; DMARC monitoring not stated as a product on fetched pages
- Yes:
Dedicated IP
Dedicated IP access at 50k volume, included at 100k+ (Scale plan includes one)
- Yes:
Shared IP pools
Shared IPs default below dedicated-IP thresholds ('Access at 50k, included at 100K+')
- Not documented:
IP warmingnot documented
Warm-up tooling not stated on fetched pages
- Not documented:
Automated warmupnot documented
Not stated on fetched pages
- Partial:
IP pools managementpartial
'One dedicated IP included + IP pools' on Scale plan
- Yes:
Bounce management
'track bounced or dropped email with timestamps and detailed information'
- Partial:
Suppression listspartial
Bounce/complaint/unsubscribe tracking present; suppression API not verified on fetched pages
- Partial:
Complaint managementpartial
Complaint events tracked via webhooks; auto-suppression policy not stated on fetched pages
- Not documented:
Feedback loop handlingnot documented
FBL not explicitly stated on fetched pages
- Partial:
Reputation monitoringpartial
'Monitor your most essential email signals... identify and remediate issues' — via Mailgun Optimize add-on
- Partial:
Blacklist monitoringpartial
'Monitor your IPs and domains against all major blocklists and spam traps' — Mailgun Optimize add-on
- Partial:
Deliverability analyticspartial
'inbox placement testing to see where your emails will land across all major mailbox providers' — Optimize add-on
- Yes:
Deliverability consulting
'team of technical deliverability experts... personalized guidance'; managed deliverability services with TAMs
- Yes:
Domain authentication guidance
Authentication setup in onboarding + docs
Items marked — are not documented by the vendor. In this category, silence is itself a signal. How we read vendor claims: methodology.
From our feature dataset
Mailgun feature matrix
What the vendor documents, category by category. ◐ marks tier-gated or limited capabilities; — means the vendor does not document it.
Email5 of 6 documented
- Partial:
Marketing campaignspartial
'send a bulk campaign to your entire mailing list' — bulk/campaign sending exists but no full marketing suite
- Yes:
Transactional email
'Transactional Email Platform'
- Yes:
SMTP relay
'Mailgun's SMTP relays eliminate the need for legacy senders to host their own server'
- Yes:
Bulk sending
Volume plans 10k-100k+ emails/mo with overage
- Yes:
Email templates
'Email Template Builder'
- Not documented:
Drag-and-drop editornot documented
Template builder editor type not stated
Automation6 of 6 documented
- No:
Email sequences
No marketing automation product — API-driven sending platform
- No:
Drip campaigns
Not offered (developer-first sending, no drip builder)
- Partial:
Event-based automationpartial
Event webhooks push data so customers can trigger their own sends; no built-in event automation
- No:
Behavioral automation
Not offered
- No:
Workflow builder
Not offered
- Partial:
Conditional logicpartial
Template variables/logic in Email Template Builder; no automation branching
AI6 of 6 documented
- No:
AI email generation
No AI content features stated on product pages
- No:
AI subject lines
Not offered
- Partial:
AI content optimizationpartial
'Send Time Optimization: Send email campaigns when recipients are most likely to engage'
- No:
AI segmentation
Not offered
- No:
AI campaign recommendations
Not offered
- No:
AI agent / assistant
Not offered
Personalization3 of 4 documented
- Not documented:
Segmentationnot documented
Mailing-list targeting; marketing-style segmentation not stated
- Partial:
Dynamic contentpartial
Templates with variables via Template Builder/API
- Partial:
Personalization variablespartial
Template variable substitution
- No:
Behavioral targeting
Not offered
Analytics4 of 4 documented
- Yes:
Opens & clicks
'Analyze key metrics like open rates, click-through rates'
- No:
Conversion tracking
Not offered — no revenue attribution
- Partial:
Campaign reportingpartial
'Email Analytics' + 'Email Logs' (5-day retention on Foundation)
- Partial:
Deliverability analyticspartial
Inbox placement testing via Mailgun Optimize add-on product
Developer features5 of 5 documented
- Yes:
API
'RESTful email API... programmatically send, receive, and track emails' on all plans incl Free
- Yes:
SMTP API
SMTP relay on all plans
- Yes:
Webhooks
'Email Event Webhooks: Push email campaign data to other apps' — all plans incl Free
- Yes:
SDKs / client libraries
'Our comprehensive documentation and SDKs make it easy to get started'
- Yes:
Public API docs
Public documentation portal
Marketing platform7 of 7 documented
- No:
CRM
Not offered — transactional email service
- No:
Signup forms
Not offered
- No:
Popups
Not offered
- No:
Landing pages
Not offered
- No:
Chatbots
Not offered
- No:
SMS
Not offered (email only; Sinch family has separate SMS products)
- No:
Other channels
Email only
E-commerce5 of 5 documented
- No:
Store integrations
Not offered — no store apps
- No:
Cart recovery
Not offered
- No:
E-commerce automation
Not offered
- No:
Purchase tracking
Not offered
- No:
Product recommendations
Not offered
Features checked 21 August 2026 · from vendor documentation and official feature pages.
Captured from the vendor website
Mailgun in screenshots
Mailgun homepage, August 2026
Source: vendor website · 21 August 2026
Homepage "Send and deliver emails with assurance" section with analytics UI
Source: vendor website · 21 August 2026
Independent review platforms — shown as context; never part of our measured Deliverability Score
What users say
Capterra
4.3/5
197 reviews
Checked 21 August 2026
Trustpilot
4.1/5
1,522 reviews
Checked 21 August 2026
Weighted average 4.1/5 across 1,719 reviews.Substantial review base
Shown as independent context — never part of our measured Deliverability Score
What others say about deliverability
Across 75,674 test emails, Mailgun achieved 76.87% inbox placement with 20.82% in spam and 2.31% lost (score 88/100), a mid-tier result trailing top performers Klick-Tipp (78.61%) and Sarbacane (78.39%), with weaker placement in the Dating and Job/Career categories.
Troubleshooting article (promotes InboxAlly) stating that on Mailgun's entry-level shared IPs 'your deliverability is tied to other senders on the same IP' whose behavior you cannot control, and that poor shared-IP reputation can sink placement even with perfect authentication; recommends a dedicated IP above a few thousand emails/month.
Independent B2B benchmark (Nov 2025) measures Mailgun at 26.05% inbox placement in Q1 2025 — a steep -27.75 pp year-over-year drop, the largest decline among the six ESPs tracked.
Thread sparked by the Phabricator developer's dispute with Mailgun (billed for a dedicated IP, ~80% delivery success cited by Mailgun's own rep, 30,000 suppressed addresses); commenters add deliverability complaints such as 'they never seem to be able to deliver to hotmail addresses.'
Same primary category, from our catalog
Alternatives to Mailgun
Brevo
$$Email marketing plus transactional email and SMTP relay on one platform; the European demand anchor in our catalog.
View profile →
SendGrid
$$Transactional email API and SMTP service operated by Twilio, with a separate Marketing Campaigns product; the transactional demand anchor.
View profile →
Mailjet
$$Email marketing with transactional API and SMTP sending, owned by Sinch; most of its measured demand sits in Europe.
View profile →
Selected by catalog rule — same primary category, same depth tier first, then catalog demand order. Never hand-picked.
Generated from our datasets — every value verified and dated
Frequently asked questions
What is Mailgun?
Mailgun is a transactional email service in the InboxRatio catalog, also covering smtp provider and developer email infrastructure. Its regional focus is Global.
How much does Mailgun cost?
Paid Mailgun plans start at $15/mo (Basic tier), prices as shown by the vendor, last checked 19 August 2026.
Does Mailgun document its deliverability capabilities?
Mailgun documents 14 of the 17 deliverability capabilities we audit every vendor for (authentication help, IP management, list hygiene, reputation tooling). This audits what the vendor documents — it is separate from our measured Deliverability Score, and undocumented items are themselves a signal. How we read vendor claims.
What do users say about Mailgun?
Across 1,719 reviews on Capterra and Trustpilot, Mailgun averages 4.1/5 (review-count-weighted). User ratings are shown as context only — never part of our measured Deliverability Score.
Has Mailgun's deliverability been tested by InboxRatio?
Not yet — Mailgun is in the queue for Cycle 0, our first seed-list test cycle across the whole catalog. We publish measured inbox-placement results only after a completed cycle, so this profile carries no Deliverability Score until then. How we test.
What are the main Mailgun alternatives?
From our catalog, the closest alternatives are Brevo, SendGrid and Mailjet — services sharing Mailgun's primary category (transactional email), selected by a neutral catalog rule, never hand-picked.