---
title: Mailgun
slug: mailgun
url: "https://toolweight.com/options/mailgun"
homepage: "https://www.mailgun.com"
categories: email-sending-apis
last_verified: 2026-05-18
license: CC-BY-4.0
---

# Mailgun

> Long-running transactional API with strong routing and inbound handling.

Mailgun was the developer-first option before that phrase existed, and its inbound Routes remain among the best implementations of receiving mail as a webhook. Now part of Sinch, it sits alongside Mailjet for marketing and the wider Sinch messaging stack. Log retention on the cheapest tier is short enough to matter, and the deliverability add-ons, validation, optimisation, dedicated IPs, are where the pricing actually lands.

## Identity

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Name | Mailgun |
| Company | Sinch |
| One-liner | Long-running transactional API with strong routing and inbound handling. |
| Site | https://www.mailgun.com |
| Docs | https://documentation.mailgun.com |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Funding | Subsidiary (Sinch, acquired 2021) |
| Brand | https://toolweight.com/vendors/Mailgun |
| Compared in | 1 |

## Where it is compared

### [Email APIs](https://toolweight.com/compare/email-sending-apis)
Ranked **#7 of 13** on default weights.
| Field | Value | Confidence | Verified | Source | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Time to first send | 30 min | Community-reported | - | - | Fast once a payment card is on file. Without one you are restricted to authorised recipients, which does not count as a first send under our definition. |
| Product scope | transactional-first | Inferred | - | - | Marketing lives in Mailjet, its Sinch stablemate. |
| Inbound parsing | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-05-18 | https://documentation.mailgun.com/docs/mailgun/user-manual/receive-forward-store/ | Routes are the strongest inbound implementation in the category. |
| Event webhooks | delivered, opened, clicked, bounced, complained, deferred, unsubscribed, inbound | Vendor-claimed | 2026-05-18 | https://documentation.mailgun.com/docs/mailgun/user-manual/events/ | - |
| Hosted templates | visual-editor | Inferred | - | - | - |
| React Email / MJML | handlebars | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Log retention | 1440 min | Inferred | - | - | Cheapest paid tier only. Retention extends to around 30 days higher up, this is a real upsell lever. |
| Throughput ceiling | - | Unknown | - | - | No published figure. |
| Multi-domain sending | ◐ | Inferred | - | - | Custom domain count is capped on the entry plan. |
| Data residency | us, eu | Vendor-claimed | 2026-05-18 | https://documentation.mailgun.com/docs/mailgun/user-manual/sending-messages/ | - |
| Shared pool quality | 3 | Inferred | - | - | Large and mixed, but Sinch polices it more actively than SendGrid does. |
| IP warmup | ● | Inferred | - | - | - |
| DKIM/DMARC friction | 3 | Inferred | - | - | Four records including a tracking CNAME and a custom return-path subdomain. |
| BIMI | ◐ | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Suppression list | ● | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Bounce handling | ● | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Price / 1k emails | $1.5 /1k | Inferred | - | - | Approximate: the entry paid plan is around $15/mo for 10,000 emails, and the rate improves sharply with volume. |
| Free tier | 3,000 emails/mo | Inferred | - | - | Trial-shaped: capped daily and restricted to authorised recipients until a card is added. |
| Dedicated IP | $59 /mo | Inferred | - | - | Approximate; sold as a monthly add-on and bundled into higher plans. |
| Pricing model | volume-tiers | Inferred | - | - | - |
| MCP server | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| llms.txt docs | ○ | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Funding | subsidiary | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Positioning | "Email API for developers." Was the developer-first option a decade before that was a category; the deliverability add-ons are where the real pricing lives. | Inferred | - | - | - |
| GA year | 2010 | Inferred | - | - | - |

**Verdict.** Pick it for inbound. Routes and the events API remain best-in-class, and if your product receives mail as well as sending it, Mailgun does that job better than anything except Postmark. One-day log retention on the entry plan is a genuine operational problem.

## Alternatives

- [AhaSend](https://toolweight.com/options/ahasend), Small indie transactional API competing on price and instant signup.
- [Amazon SES](https://toolweight.com/options/amazon-ses), The cheapest way to send email at scale, and the least finished product.
- [Brevo](https://toolweight.com/options/brevo), EU-hosted marketing platform with a competent transactional API attached.
- [Loops](https://toolweight.com/options/loops), Lifecycle and marketing email for SaaS, priced on contacts rather than sends.
- [MailerSend](https://toolweight.com/options/mailersend), Transactional sibling of MailerLite, bootstrapped and cheap at mid volume.
- [Mailtrap](https://toolweight.com/options/mailtrap), Email testing sandbox that grew a production sending product.
- [Plunk](https://toolweight.com/options/plunk), Open-source email console you self-host on top of your own AWS SES account.
- [Postmark](https://toolweight.com/options/postmark), Transactional-only sender with the best-policed shared IP pool in the category.
- [Resend](https://toolweight.com/options/resend), Developer-first email API built around React Email components.
- [Scaleway TEM](https://toolweight.com/options/scaleway-tem), EU-sovereign transactional email from Scaleway, deliberately minimal.
- [SendGrid](https://toolweight.com/options/sendgrid), The incumbent: enormous scale, enormous shared pool, everything bolted on.
- [SparkPost](https://toolweight.com/options/sparkpost), High-volume sender with deep analytics, now folded into Bird's platform.

## Licence and attribution

Data from toolweight (https://toolweight.com), licensed CC-BY-4.0.

- Licence: [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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- toolweight takes no affiliate revenue and sells no placements. Corrections: https://toolweight.com/suggest