Mailgun vs. Resend

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

Resend

Best for

Best for product and engineering teams that want transactional email, broadcasts and templates in the same codebase as the application that sends them.

Freelancers
Small and mid-sized
Enterprise

Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.

Full Comparison

Criterion	Mailgun	Resend
Starting price	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 tier; Pro from $20 / month Transactional and marketing volume are billed separately. The transactional ladder runs Free, Pro from $20 per month and Scale from $90 per month, priced in bands by monthly email volume; marketing runs Free, Pro Marketing from $40 per month and Enterprise, priced by contact count.
Free trial	Free tier: 100 emails per day	Free tier: 3,000 emails per month, 100 per day, 3 domains, plus 1,000 marketing contacts
API	Yes, RESTful email API and SMTP relay, with official SDKs for Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, C#, Node.js and Go	Yes, REST API with official SDKs for Node.js, Python, PHP, Ruby, Go, Rust, Elixir, Java and .NET, plus a CLI, webhooks and an official MCP server
Hosting	Cloud (SaaS), with data centres in the US and the EU	Cloud (SaaS)
Campaign types	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	Transactional email over the API, broadcasts to contacts and segments, and inbound email by pointing MX records at Resend
Automation and journeys	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.	Yes, flows triggered by custom events from your own application, built from condition, delay, wait for event, send email, contact update, contact delete and add to segment steps, with a Runs view for debugging
Segmentation and personalisation	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.	Yes, contacts with custom properties grouped into segments, plus Topics so recipients can opt in or out of individual categories
Templates and editor	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	React Email, a component-based template system written in code; there is no drag-and-drop builder
Deliverability and testing	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.	Domain verification with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, delivery event webhooks and event monitoring in the dashboard; dedicated IPs are a $30 per month add-on on Scale and above
Ecommerce and CRM data	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.	Contacts are created and updated over the API or bulk-imported by CSV up to 200 MB, with custom properties carrying the data used for personalisation
Integrations and API	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.	Yes, REST API with bearer key authentication, a batch endpoint for up to 100 messages per request, SDKs for nine languages, a CLI, webhooks and an official MCP server
MCP-ready	No	stated Yes
Deployment	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support	more entries Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat	Email helpdesk
Onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base	Documentation and knowledge base
Company size	Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise	Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
Integrations	Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce, SAP S/4HANA, Zapier, Make, n8n, Pipedream, Workato, Slack, Asana, Google Analytics, Datadog, Splunk, Heroku, GitHub Actions, Replit, Lovable	Not stated

Compare more tools

Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.

The short version

Key Differences

Starting price Mailgun Free tier; Basic from $15 / month Resend Free tier; Pro from $20 / month
Free trial Mailgun Free tier: 100 emails per day Resend Free tier: 3,000 emails per month, 100 per day, 3 domains, plus 1,000 marketing contacts
Hosting Mailgun Cloud (SaaS), with data centres in the US and the EU Resend Cloud (SaaS)
Support Mailgun Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat Resend Email helpdesk
MCP-ready Mailgun No Resend Yes

Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

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

Resend

Strengths

Transactional sending, broadcasts, contacts and automations on one API and one account
Official SDKs for Node.js, Python, PHP, Ruby, Go, Rust, Elixir, Java and .NET, plus a CLI
Standing free tiers on both ladders rather than a time-limited trial
Inbound email by pointing MX records at Resend, delivered as webhooks
Official MCP server, so the platform can be driven by AI agents

Limitations

Templates are React components, so building an email needs a developer
Two separate price ladders, one for sending volume and one for contacts
Dedicated IPs, extra domains and SSO are priced as add-ons on top of the plan
SSO and dedicated IPs require the Scale plan or above
The free tier caps sending at 100 emails per day

Plans

Pricing

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.

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Resend

Free $0 3,000 emails per month, capped at 100 per day, 3 domains, 10,000 automation runs and 30-day data retention. Marketing side is free up to 1,000 contacts.
Pro $20 Per month, 50,000 emails and 10 domains, no daily limit, 5 webhook endpoints. $35 per month for 100,000 emails. Overage $0.90 per 1,000 emails.
Scale $90 Per month, from 100,000 emails and 1,000 domains, 10 webhook endpoints and a dedicated Slack channel. Rises through $160, $350, $650, $825 and $1,150 per month up to 2.5 million emails, with the overage rate falling from $0.90 to $0.46 per 1,000.
Pro Marketing $40 Per month for 5,000 contacts, rising to $650 per month for 150,000 contacts.
Enterprise Not stated Custom volume and contact limits, a 99.99% uptime SLA, a dedicated customer success manager, migration support and flexible AI credits.

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What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

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. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.

Resend

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. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.

How we check reviews

Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.

Every review is read by a person before it appears. An email address is required and is confirmed: we send a link to it, and a review does not reach us until the author opens that link, so a review has a sender who was reachable at least once rather than being anonymous. Where what somebody writes needs backing, we ask them for evidence that they used the product, and a review that does not get it is not published. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.

What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on their own declaration, on whatever we ask them for, and on the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.

A vendor cannot buy a review, and cannot have one removed or changed because they dislike it. We remove or edit a review only if it breaks our rules or the law, for example a false statement of fact. Paid placement has no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.

Read the full version on our methodology page

Where this comes from

Mailgun https://www.mailgun.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-09

Resend https://resend.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-07

This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.