Quick answer: Mailgun is a strong developer email API, but at 100,000 emails its Scale plan is $90/mo (Mailgun). If cost is the issue, Amazon SES (~$10) and Resend ($35) undercut it (AWS, Resend). If you want transactional and marketing on one plan, Bluey Email and Brevo bundle both. If you want the deepest transactional reliability, Postmark leads. Pick by whether your issue is price, marketing, or reliability. Written with AI assistance and reviewed against primary sources.
Full disclosure: Bluey Email is my own product, and it’s on this list. I’ve held it to the same criteria as everything else, named where each competitor beats it, and cited third parties — not myself — for the competitive claims. Read it with that bias in mind.
Why look for a Mailgun alternative?
Mailgun is a capable, developer-first platform — it says it sends over 600 billion emails a year, offers US or EU data regions, and bundles routing, validation and deliverability tooling (Mailgun). People leave for three reasons.
Price at volume. Mailgun’s ladder is Free (100 emails/day), Basic $15/mo for 10,000, Foundation $35/mo for 50,000, and Scale $90/mo for 100,000, with overages from $1.10–$1.80 per 1,000 (Mailgun). At 100k that $90 is roughly nine times Amazon SES’s ~$10 (AWS).
No real marketing layer. Mailgun sends transactional email well, but it isn’t a campaign tool with segmentation, visual automations and a newsletter editor. If you need those, you’re adding a second product.
Feature gating. Dedicated IPs, longer log retention, send-time optimization and phone support sit on the higher tiers (Mailgun). Teams that need one high-tier feature end up paying for the whole tier.
The 7 best Mailgun alternatives
1. Bluey Email — best if you send transactional and marketing
Who it’s for: teams that want transactional email, campaigns and automations without running two products.
Bluey bills on sends, not contacts: Free at 500 sends/mo permanently, Spark from $7/mo (about $14 at 10,000 sends), Grow at $30/mo with unlimited contacts around 50,000 sends (about $84 at 250,000, about $180 at 1M), and Business at $300/mo adding a built-in CRM, landing pages and pre-built ecommerce flows.
Why it’s ranked first: one specific, checkable reason — Mailgun is transactional-only, and most teams also send marketing email; Bluey puts both on one plan. While writing this I validated a live transactional payload against Bluey’s API (it returned a valid result) on a key that also carries campaigns:write and crm:write scopes — one credential for both jobs.
Where Mailgun beats it: routing and validation depth, EU/US data-region choice, and a decade-plus of high-volume deliverability tooling. Where others beat it: Amazon SES is far cheaper at raw volume; Postmark has a longer transactional-only pedigree.
2. Amazon SES — best for the cheapest high volume
Who it’s for: engineering teams that want near-cost sending. Pricing (AWS): $0.10 per 1,000 emails — about $10 at 100k, roughly a ninth of Mailgun’s Scale plan. The catch: support is a separate paid plan and “despite its name, the Amazon SES isn’t that simple to use” (EmailTooltester). Where Mailgun wins: built-in routing, validation and included support.
3. Resend — best modern developer API
Who it’s for: developers who want a clean API and React Email. Pricing (Resend): Free 3,000/mo (100/day), Pro $20/mo at 50k, $35/mo at 100k — well under Mailgun’s $90. The trade-off is automation: “there’s no visual editor to set up automations” (EmailTooltester). Where Mailgun wins: routing, validation and EU/US regions.
4. Postmark — best transactional reliability
Who it’s for: teams that treat a late receipt as a bug. Pricing (EmailTooltester): 100 free, $15/10k, $55/50k, $115/100k. You get “full access to almost all of Postmark’s features at every pricing tier” and its Message Streams keep transactional and broadcast reputations separate (Postmark). Where Mailgun wins: price at 100k, and built-in validation.
5. Brevo — best low-cost all-in-one
Who it’s for: small teams that want marketing and transactional cheaply. Pricing (EmailTooltester): ~9,000/mo free (300/day), around $69/mo at 100k, marketing plans include transactional. Caveat: no native email validation. Where Mailgun wins: validation and routing.
6. SendGrid — best for enterprise scale
Who it’s for: large senders on Twilio infrastructure. Pricing (Twilio SendGrid): 60-day trial, Essentials from $19.95/mo, Pro from $89.95/mo. Note it “bills for transactional and marketing emails as separate products” (EmailTooltester). Where Mailgun wins: routing and EU data residency.
7. MailerSend — best value transactional with templates
Who it’s for: teams wanting a clean API and drag-and-drop templates at a lower price. Pricing (EmailTooltester): free tier for light use, about $68/mo at 100k — below Mailgun’s $90. Where Mailgun wins: deliverability tooling and scale pedigree.
Mailgun alternatives compared
| Service | Free tier | ~100k emails/mo | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluey Email | 500 sends/mo | ~$84 (incl. marketing) | Transactional + marketing, one plan |
| Amazon SES | 3k/mo, 12 months | ~$10 | Cheapest at volume |
| Resend | 3k/mo (100/day) | $35 | Modern developer API |
| MailerSend | yes | ~$68 | Value + templates |
| Brevo | ~9k/mo (300/day) | ~$69 | Low-cost both types |
| Mailgun | 100/day | $90 (Scale) | Routing + validation |
| SendGrid | 60-day trial | ~$90 (Pro) | Enterprise scale |
| Postmark | 100 emails | $115 | Transactional reliability |
How to choose a Mailgun alternative
If the problem is price, go to Amazon SES or Resend — both are far below Mailgun’s $90 at 100k. If it’s reliability, Postmark is the specialist. If you need marketing and transactional on one plan, Mailgun was never that tool — go to Bluey or Brevo. If what you actually valued was Mailgun’s routing and validation, weigh whether an alternative truly replaces it before you switch. See the complete transactional email guide.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Mailgun cost? Free for 100 emails/day, Basic $15/mo at 10,000, Foundation $35/mo at 50,000, and Scale $90/mo at 100,000, with overages from $1.10–$1.80 per 1,000 (Mailgun).
What’s the cheapest Mailgun alternative? Amazon SES at about $0.10 per 1,000 emails — roughly $10 at 100,000 — though it’s harder to use and support costs extra (AWS).
Does Mailgun do email marketing? Not really; it’s a transactional email API. For campaigns and automations you’d add a marketing tool, or use an all-in-one like Bluey Email or Brevo.
Does Mailgun have a free plan? Yes — 100 emails per day with one custom domain and one-day log retention (Mailgun).
References
- Mailgun pricing — mailgun.com/pricing
- Amazon SES pricing — aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing
- Resend pricing — resend.com/pricing
- EmailTooltester, SendGrid alternatives (Inka Wibowo & Robert Brandl) — emailtooltester.com
- Postmark, transactional vs marketing email — postmarkapp.com
Related reading: the complete transactional email guide, Resend alternatives, Amazon SES alternatives, best transactional email services, and the pillar guide to the best email marketing software.
— Shivam