Does Mailgun have a free plan?

Yes, a free tier of 100 emails per day with one day of log and message retention and knowledge centre support. Separately, the Foundation and Scale plans are advertised as free for the first month, but that is a trial on a paid plan rather than a standing allowance.

Can Mailgun receive email as well as send it?

Yes. Email routing parses incoming messages into UTF-8 JSON so they can be handed to other systems, and webhooks push delivery and engagement events out in real time.

Is deliverability testing included in the sending plans?

No. Inbox placement testing, blocklist and spam trap monitoring, and preview rendering across devices and clients belong to Mailgun Optimize, which is priced separately from the sending plans. The sending plans themselves include SPF, DKIM, DMARC and BIMI authentication, suppression management and email validation.

How long does Mailgun keep logs?

One day on Free and Basic, five days on Foundation, and 30 days on Scale. Message retention is one day on Free, Basic and Foundation, and up to seven days on Scale.

Sinch, which acquired it in 2021. Mailgun was founded in 2010, went through Y Combinator's 2011 class, was acquired by Rackspace in 2012 and became independent again in 2017. It now sits in the Sinch Email division alongside Mailjet and Email on Acid.

Mailgun

Email API and SMTP relay for high-volume sending, with address validation and deliverability testing alongside it.

Starting price: Free tier; Basic from $15 / month
Free trial: Free tier: 100 emails per day
API: Yes, RESTful email API and SMTP relay, with official SDKs for Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, C#, Node.js and Go

Visit Mailgun

Overview

Mailgun is an email sending platform aimed at developers, with a RESTful API and an SMTP relay as two routes into the same infrastructure. Batch sending pushes up to 1,000 fully personalised messages in a single API call, and Send Time Optimization places individual messages when a recipient is most likely to engage. Mail also travels the other way: email routing parses incoming messages into JSON, and webhooks push delivery and engagement data out in real time. Deliverability is a separate product, Mailgun Optimize, covering inbox placement testing.

Our take

Mailgun earns its place when volume is the problem and a European data centre is a requirement rather than a preference, but the plan ladder is best read as a retention ladder: the entry plans keep only a single day of logs, which is short enough to hurt the first time somebody asks what happened to a message a week ago. Budget separately for inbox placement, because Optimize is a distinct purchase and assuming the sending plan covers it is the expensive mistake here. Anyone shopping for a campaign tool should look at Mailjet, which sits in the same Sinch family and is built for that job; this is infrastructure, and the marketing surface is thin on purpose. Note also that the free month advertised on the middle plans is a trial rather than a standing allowance, unlike the daily free tier, so it does not survive the first invoice.

Key Facts

Category	Email Marketing
Starting price	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	Free tier: 100 emails per day
API	Yes, RESTful email API and SMTP relay, with official SDKs for Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, C#, Node.js and Go
Hosting	Cloud (SaaS), with data centres in the US and the EU

Features

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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.

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

Deployment and Support

Deployment: Cloud (SaaS)
Browser-based
Support: Email helpdesk
Phone
Chat
Onboarding: Documentation and knowledge base
Company size: Freelancers
Small and mid-sized
Enterprise

Suitability

Industry	Freelancers	Small and mid-sized	Enterprise
Agencies	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Architecture & Engineering	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Consulting	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Media & Creative	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Technology	Stated as a fit	Stated as a fit	Stated as a fit

The table combines the industries the vendor addresses with the company sizes the tool is aimed at. An empty cell means the combination is not stated, not that it is ruled out.

Pros and Cons

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

Pricing

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.

Best For

Technology

Alternatives and Comparisons

FAQ

Does Mailgun have a free plan?: Yes, a free tier of 100 emails per day with one day of log and message retention and knowledge centre support. Separately, the Foundation and Scale plans are advertised as free for the first month, but that is a trial on a paid plan rather than a standing allowance.
Can Mailgun receive email as well as send it?: Yes. Email routing parses incoming messages into UTF-8 JSON so they can be handed to other systems, and webhooks push delivery and engagement events out in real time.
Is deliverability testing included in the sending plans?: No. Inbox placement testing, blocklist and spam trap monitoring, and preview rendering across devices and clients belong to Mailgun Optimize, which is priced separately from the sending plans. The sending plans themselves include SPF, DKIM, DMARC and BIMI authentication, suppression management and email validation.
How long does Mailgun keep logs?: One day on Free and Basic, five days on Foundation, and 30 days on Scale. Message retention is one day on Free, Basic and Foundation, and up to seven days on Scale.
Who owns Mailgun?: Sinch, which acquired it in 2021. Mailgun was founded in 2010, went through Y Combinator's 2011 class, was acquired by Rackspace in 2012 and became independent again in 2017. It now sits in the Sinch Email division alongside Mailjet and Email on Acid.

Last verified: 2026-09-09

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