Best for
Best for ecommerce and direct-to-consumer brands on Shopify, WooCommerce or BigCommerce that want behavior-based email automation with onsite popups in one platform.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Email Marketing Comparison
Drip vs. Mailgun
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for engineering teams sending at high volume that need an API and SMTP relay, with the option of an EU data centre.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Drip | Mailgun |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $39 / month For up to 2,500 active people; the price scales with the number of active people and the volume of emails sent. | lower value Free tier; Basic from $15 / month Basic $15 per month for 10,000 emails, Foundation $35 for 50,000 and Scale $90 for 100,000, then Enterprise on request. Overage is $1.80 per 1,000 on Basic and Foundation and $1.10 on Scale. Foundation and Scale are free for the first month. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial | Free tier: 100 emails per day |
| API | Yes, open API access on every plan | Yes, RESTful email API and SMTP relay, with official SDKs for Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, C#, Node.js and Go |
| Hosting | Cloud (SaaS) | Cloud (SaaS), with data centres in the US and the EU |
| Campaign types | Yes, one-off email campaigns and newsletters plus automated workflows, with an onsite suite of popups, slide-ins, sticky bars and quizzes | Transactional and bulk sending over the RESTful API or the SMTP relay, batch sending of up to 1,000 personalised messages per call, scheduled messages, and inbound routing that parses received mail into UTF-8 JSON |
| Automation and journeys | Yes, a visual workflow builder with branching logic, goals and split tests, and 15-plus prebuilt templates for abandoned cart, browse abandonment, welcome and win-back | No journey builder. Sends are triggered by your own application, with message scheduling and Send Time Optimization placing individual messages when a recipient is most likely to engage. |
| Segmentation and personalisation | Yes, dynamic segments that update automatically from behavior, purchase history and engagement, synced from the store in real time | Per-recipient personalisation through batch sending, which substitutes recipient variables for up to 1,000 addresses in a single API call; mailing lists are documented in the user manual. |
| Templates and editor | Yes, a drag-and-drop visual email builder with 50-plus themed templates, plus a plain-text builder | Reusable templates, documented in the user manual alongside mailing lists, batch sending and scheduling; there is no drag-and-drop campaign designer in the sending product |
| Deliverability and testing | Yes, A/B split testing of up to four subject line or content variations, reporting opens, clicks and revenue per variation | Authentication covers SPF, DKIM, DMARC and BIMI, with suppression management and an email validation API. Deeper tooling sits in Mailgun Optimize, priced separately: inbox placement testing down to the tab or folder, blocklist and spam trap monitoring with Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft SNDS integration, preview rendering on 100+ devices and clients, and deliverability consulting. One dedicated IP is included from Foundation; extra IPs are $59 per month. |
| Ecommerce and CRM data | Yes, deep native Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce integrations that sync customers, orders and product catalog in real time | No store or CRM data model of its own; orders and customer records stay in the system they come from. The integrations directory connects Salesforce, Salesforce Agentforce Marketing, HubSpot, SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition and WordPress, whose free Mailgun plugin also carries the mail from plugins running on it such as WooCommerce. Shopify runs through Zapier rather than a Shopify app, triggering on events such as a new order to send a message or add the customer to a Mailgun list. |
| Integrations and API | Yes, open API access and 50-plus integrations on every plan | Yes, RESTful email API and SMTP relay, plus an SMTP API for finer sending control, webhooks for real-time event data and an email validation API. Official SDKs for Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, C#, Node.js and Go. |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Email helpdesk, Chat | more entries Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat |
| Onboarding | Not stated | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce | more entries Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce, SAP S/4HANA, Zapier, Make, n8n, Pipedream, Workato, Slack, Asana, Google Analytics, Datadog, Splunk, Heroku, GitHub Actions, Replit, Lovable |
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The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price Drip From $39 / month Mailgun Free tier; Basic from $15 / month
- Free trial Drip 14-day free trial Mailgun Free tier: 100 emails per day
- Company size Drip Small and mid-sized, Enterprise Mailgun Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
- Hosting Drip Cloud (SaaS) Mailgun Cloud (SaaS), with data centres in the US and the EU
- Support Drip Email helpdesk, Chat Mailgun Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Drip
Strengths
- Every feature included on every plan, with nothing locked behind higher tiers
- Deep native Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce integrations with real-time data sync
- Onsite suite of popups, slide-ins and quizzes included at no extra cost
- Billed only on active people who can receive email
Limitations
- No free plan, only a 14-day free trial
- Purpose-built for ecommerce, so less suited to non-store senders
- Live chat support is reserved for the $99 / month and higher plans
Mailgun
Strengths
- RESTful API and SMTP relay as two routes into the same sending infrastructure
- Batch sending of up to 1,000 fully personalised messages in one API call
- Data centres in both the US and the EU
- Official SDKs for seven languages
- Inbound routing parses received mail into UTF-8 JSON for other systems
Limitations
- Log retention is one day on Free and Basic and five days on Foundation
- Deliverability tooling sits in Mailgun Optimize and is priced separately from sending
- No journey or campaign builder; marketing automation lives in the sibling product Mailjet
- Additional dedicated IPs cost $59 per month each
- Phone and chat support require the Scale plan
- Messages sent in test mode are still charged
Plans
Pricing
Drip
- All features From $39 / month For up to 2,500 active people. Every feature is included on every plan; the price scales with the number of active people and email volume. Live chat support is available on the $99 / month and higher plans.
Mailgun
- Free $0 100 emails per day, with one day of log and message retention and knowledge centre support only.
- Basic $15 Per month for 10,000 emails, overage $1.80 per 1,000. One day of log and message retention, ticket support.
- Foundation $35 Per month for 50,000 emails, free for the first month, overage $1.80 per 1,000. Five days of log retention and one dedicated IP included.
- Scale $90 Per month for 100,000 emails, free for the first month, overage $1.10 per 1,000. 30 days of log retention, up to seven days of message retention, phone and chat support.
- Enterprise Not stated Custom pricing on request.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Drip
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Mailgun
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Drip https://www.drip.com · checked against the official source on 2026-08-23
Mailgun https://www.mailgun.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-09
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.