Mailgun

Mailgun has long positioned itself as the developer-friendly alternative to SendGrid. The API is well-documented, SMTP is first-class, and routing rules are powerful. Still a strong pick for technical teams that want SMTP relay plus rich routing.

Growth work lives or dies on targeting and measurement. What matters is whether behavioral triggers can be built without engineering time, whether the event stream supports attribution past the open, and whether deliverability holds when broadcast volume shares a reputation with product email.

Against behavior-triggered journeys, broadcasts, and winback campaigns measured on revenue, Mailgun covers scheduling, event stream, the suppressions API, and multi-tenant support, and does not cover operating track record and best published rate per 1,000. Whether that gap matters depends on how central those are to the build.

• Scheduling: Yes
• Event stream: Yes
• Deliverability: Generally good, with deliverability monitoring tools available on higher tiers. Inbound routes and suppressions are battle-tested.
• Operating since: 2010
• Suppressions API: Yes
• Best published rate per 1,000: $0.70
• Multi-tenant: Yes
• Free tier: 100/day permanent free plan
• Starts at: $15/mo for 10,000 emails (Basic)

Generally good, with deliverability monitoring tools available on higher tiers. Inbound routes and suppressions are battle-tested.

Technical teams that want SMTP relay plus advanced routing.

Teams that need a generous free tier or simple billing.