14 Mailgun Alternatives for Email Automation (2026)

1. Brevo

Best for: Coaches and consultants whose Mailgun SMTP sits behind a website or course plugin. Mailgun’s free plan allows 100 emails a day, while Brevo’s free plan allows 300 a day, stores up to 100,000 contacts and brings campaigns and automation with it. If your Mailgun account exists because a membership plugin or booking tool needed an SMTP relay, and you now also want to email the list, Brevo covers both from one workspace.

Trade-off: Brevo’s free plan limits marketing automation to 2,000 contacts. A developer who relies on Mailgun’s inbound routes, which start at 1 on Free and 5 on Basic, should confirm Brevo covers that before leaving.

Moving from Mailgun: Swap the SMTP host, port and credentials in each plugin or app, and add the new sending domain’s SPF and DKIM records before the first send. Mailgun lets you pick a US or EU region; if you chose the EU for privacy reasons, ask Brevo where your data is processed, since its pricing page names no hosting region.

What it costs: The free plan is $0 with 300 emails a day. Starter begins at $9 a month and Standard at $18, both from 5,000 emails a month with no daily limit on Starter, and Professional starts at $499 for 150,000 to 10 million sends. Mailgun Basic is $15 for 10,000 emails. See the Brevo pricing page.

2. Postmark

Best for: Developers who want fast delivery and long activity history. Postmark’s Basic plan is the same $15 as Mailgun’s for 10,000 emails, but it keeps 45 days of activity data, where Mailgun Basic keeps logs for one day. Mail goes through message streams that keep receipts and resets apart from broadcasts, which helps when you chase a bounce reported by a customer a week later.

Trade-off: The free plan is only 100 emails a month, against Mailgun’s 100 a day, and the price climbs faster: 50,000 emails cost $55 on Basic where Mailgun Foundation is $35.

Moving from Mailgun: Re-create the sending domain, API token and webhooks, and decide on the plan by your inbound needs: inbound email processing is listed from Pro, not Basic. Basic allows 5 custom sending domains and Pro 10.

What it costs: Basic is $15, Pro $16.50 and Platform $18 for 10,000 emails, with extras at $1.80, $1.30 and $1.20 per 1,000. The slider reads $55, $60.50 and $66 at 50,000 emails, and $115, $126.50 and $138 at 125,000. See the Postmark pricing page.

3. Resend

Best for: Code-first teams that want a small bill at 100,000 emails. Resend’s pitch is a modern API and a compact price ladder. The same 100,000 emails that fall on Mailgun Foundation at $75 read $35 on Resend Pro, and webhook endpoints are listed on paid plans. Its Marketing tab covers broadcasts when a newsletter shows up later.

Trade-off: Free is 3,000 emails a month with a 100-a-day limit, close to Mailgun’s free allowance but with 3 domains instead of 1. A dedicated IP is a $30 a month add-on available once you exceed 3,000 emails a day on Scale.

Moving from Mailgun: Swap the SDK call or SMTP credentials, verify the domain and recreate webhooks. If you lean on Mailgun’s mailing lists or recipient variables, export those lists before the switch and decide where each one will live.

What it costs: Pro is $20 a month for 50,000 emails and $35 at 100,000; Scale is $90 for 100,000 and $160 at 200,000, with extra emails at $0.80 per 1,000 there. Domains beyond the plan cost $20 a month for 100 more. See the Resend pricing page.

4. SMTP2GO

Best for: Plugins and appliances that only speak SMTP. SMTP2GO is a managed relay for software that can only send through an SMTP server, such as an older CMS or a form plugin. It is the plainest replacement for a Mailgun account that has been used as nothing more than an SMTP relay.

Trade-off: The free plan is 1,000 emails a month, about a third of what Mailgun’s 100 a day allows, and there is no 50,000 tier on the page between Starter and Professional.

Moving from Mailgun: Replace the SMTP host and login in each place they are stored and add the new domain’s DNS records. Nothing else moves, so the job can be done one application at a time.

What it costs: Starter is $10 a month ($100 a year) for 10,000 emails, and Professional is $75 a month ($750 a year) for 100,000, the same $75 that Mailgun Foundation reads at 100,000 emails. See the SMTP2GO pricing page.

5. SendGrid

Best for: One vendor for API mail and marketing campaigns. SendGrid sells delivery and campaigns side by side, so a team that wants a developer-owned API for system mail and a marketer-owned tool for newsletters can have both under one contract. The free Marketing Campaigns plan stores 2,000 contacts and sends 6,000 emails a month.

Trade-off: There is no permanent free API plan, only a 100-emails-a-day trial for 60 days, whereas Mailgun’s free plan does not expire. Two products also mean two sets of limits.

Moving from Mailgun: Decide which product owns which mail and move the API traffic first. Twilio publishes a data protection addendum, which helps when a client asks for one.

What it costs: Essentials reads $19.95 at 50,000 emails and $34.95 at 100,000, and Pro reads $89.95 at 100,000, $249 at 300,000 and $499 at 700,000. Marketing Campaigns begins at $15 for Basic and $60 for Advanced. See the SendGrid pricing page.

6. Amazon SES

Best for: Engineers comfortable in AWS who want the lowest per-email price. SES charges by volume with no monthly tier: its pricing page lists Essentials at $0.16 per 1,000 emails, which makes 100,000 emails $16.00 against $75 on Mailgun Foundation. It suits a team already running in AWS.

Trade-off: You assemble more of the tooling yourself, from permissions and regions to bounce handling, than in Mailgun’s control panel, and the Pro and Enterprise rates of $0.22 and $0.23 per 1,000 carry fixed per-account, per-region fees.

Moving from Mailgun: Verify your domains and wire bounce and complaint notifications into your own system before sending real traffic. A standard dedicated IP is $24.95 a month, against $59 for an extra one at Mailgun.

What it costs: Essentials at $0.16 per 1,000 means $1.60 for 10,000 emails, $8.00 for 50,000 and $16.00 for 100,000 on this arithmetic; AWS’s own example of 250,000 emails comes to $40.00. Eligible new customers get up to $200 in credits and a free plan for 6 months. See the Amazon SES pricing page.

7. Mailtrap

Best for: Teams that want testing and production sending in one account. Mailtrap started as an inbox for testing mail and now sends production mail too, so one vendor covers the staging environment and the live domain. Its Basic ladder is flatter than Mailgun’s: 50,000 emails cost $20, against $35.

Trade-off: The Business tier steps from $30 to $85 at 100,000 emails, so most of the saving belongs to Basic.

Moving from Mailgun: Add the sending domain and move credentials first in staging, then in production. Keep Mailgun live until the Mailtrap logs show the same delivery rate for a week.

What it costs: Free is 4,000 emails a month. Basic is $15 for 10,000, $20 for 50,000 and $30 for 100,000, while Business is $85 for 100,000, $200 for 250,000 and $300 for 500,000. See the Mailtrap pricing page.

8. MailerSend

Best for: MailerLite users who need a transactional channel of their own. MailerSend is the transactional sibling of MailerLite, which hands its own transactional email to it. A coach who keeps the newsletter in MailerLite can send receipts and course notices through MailerSend without touching Mailgun’s dashboard.

Trade-off: The free plan is only 500 emails a month, and Hobby covers 5,000 emails, so the cheap end is for small senders.

Moving from Mailgun: Verify the domain, create an API token and move one template at a time. Hobby overage is $1.50 per 1,000 emails and Starter overage is $1.30, so check monthly volume before choosing.

What it costs: Hobby is $6.30 a month ($75.60 billed yearly) for 5,000 emails, Starter is $31.50 a month ($378 billed yearly) for 50,000 and includes 100 SMS, and Professional is $99 a month ($1,188 billed yearly). MailerSend’s own FAQ example puts 100,000 emails on Starter at $68. See the MailerSend pricing page.

9. Mailjet

Best for: Teams that share templates between marketers and developers. Mailjet pairs a template editor that non-developers can use with an API, which helps when a marketer must edit the receipt a developer wired in. It also carries a free plan of 6,000 emails a month.

Trade-off: The free plan caps sends at 200 emails a day, and at 100,000 emails Premium reads $112 against $75 for Mailgun Foundation.

Moving from Mailgun: Rebuild each Mailgun template in Mailjet’s editor and re-point the API and SMTP credentials. Check how many emails a month you really send, because Starter covers 8,000 and Essential 15,000.

What it costs: Starter is $9 for 8,000 emails, Essential is $19 for 15,000 and Premium is $29 for 15,000. The slider reads $40 for Essential at 50,000 emails, $59 for Premium at 50,000, $112 at 100,000, $265 at 250,000 and $499 at 500,000. See the Mailjet pricing page.

10. Elastic Email

Best for: Cost-conscious senders who want an email API with webhooks. Elastic Email runs a separate Email API product, with Starter at $19 a month for up to 50,000 emails, which undercuts Mailgun Foundation’s $35 at the same volume. Its pricing page states GDPR compliance and privacy training for staff.

Trade-off: Inbound email processing and webhooks are listed on the $49 Pro plan, not on Starter, so a team that needs events should price the higher tier.

Moving from Mailgun: Choose between its campaign plans and the Email API before you sign up, since they are sold separately. The free plan has a 100-a-day limit.

What it costs: The Email API reads Starter $19 and Pro $49 a month for up to 50,000 emails. Its campaign plans start at $29 for Starter and $49 for Pro with up to 2,500 contacts and 37,500 emails, and Free is $0 for up to 1,000 contacts. See the Elastic Email pricing page.

11. SparkPost

Best for: High-volume senders who want delivery analytics. SparkPost’s ladder suits a sender who expects to grow: Startup covers 50K to 100K emails and Growth runs from 100K to 2.5M. At 250,000 emails Growth reads $175 against $215 for Mailgun Scale, and at 500,000 it reads $295 against $400.

Trade-off: The default overage ceiling is five times your plan, and sends pause at the ceiling unless you agree different terms, so a surprise spike stops mail rather than bills you.

Moving from Mailgun: Dedicated IPs are $24.95 a month each on Growth only, up to five. Every plan keeps 30 days of retention and a 20 MB message limit, so check that your largest attachments fit.

What it costs: Startup reads $15 at 50K and $30 at 100K; Growth reads $80 at 100K, $175 at 250K, $295 at 500K and $530 at 1M. See the SparkPost pricing page.

12. SocketLabs

Best for: Teams that want managed delivery with support in the plan. SocketLabs sells API and SMTP delivery with a support layer attached. Pro adds StreamScore, a dedicated IP address, 30 days of insight history, 180 days of performance history and priority support channels, features that Mailgun keeps for its top tier or sells separately.

Trade-off: There is no permanent free plan, only a month of Core or a set of credits, so testing is time-boxed.

Moving from Mailgun: Treat the first month as a trial and use it to run production mail in parallel. Enterprise is quoted on request.

What it costs: Core is $0 for the first month and then $39.95 a month, with each email over 40,000 at $0.00130. Pro is $89.95 a month for 100,000 emails, with each email over 100,000 at $0.00110. Its security table lists SOC II and GDPR/CCPA compliance. See the SocketLabs pricing page.

13. Customer.io

Best for: Behavior-driven lifecycle mail on top of delivery. Customer.io belongs on this list for the team that discovers that what it needed from Mailgun was not delivery but messages that react to what users do. Transactional email is included in every plan, along with a visual workflow builder.

Trade-off: It is a lifecycle platform, not a tuned delivery service, and pricing counts profiles including objects, so a delivery-heavy app with few users overpays.

Moving from Mailgun: Send the same events you now log to Mailgun into Customer.io and rebuild each flow around them. Run both for a month, and note that a profile existing at any point in a month counts toward that month’s bill.

What it costs: Essentials starts at $100 a month for 5k profiles with 1 million emails included, then $145 at 10k and $235 at 20k. Premium starts at $1,000 a month, billed yearly, with US or EU data centers on every plan. See the Customer.io pricing page.

14. Netcore Email API

Best for: Regional senders who want a quoted transactional contract. Netcore sells its Email API on a quote basis, with Growth and Enterprise packages and add-on packs for AI agents, predictive intelligence or advanced analytics. It is built for organizations that negotiate a contract.

Trade-off: You cannot read a price before talking to sales, which rules it out for anyone comparing monthly bills at 10,000 emails.

Moving from Mailgun: Ask for a pilot using the 30-day pack trial and compare delivery and support against Mailgun on a single domain before committing.

What it costs: Netcore’s pricing page asks for a custom quote and says enterprise pricing is based on MTUs and feature configuration, with 30% of its platform fee tied to your business KPIs, so pricing is on request (quote-based). See the Netcore Email API pricing page.

What to inventory before you leave Mailgun

A Mailgun account is usually wired into more places than anyone remembers: a plugin here, a cron job there, a webhook nobody has touched in a year. Go through these rows before you change a single DNS record.

Verdict: which Mailgun alternative to choose

For coaches, course creators and consultants, choose Brevo. The usual reason a non-developer has a Mailgun account is that a plugin asked for an SMTP relay, and the next wish is to send a newsletter, which Mailgun cannot do. Brevo’s free plan sends 300 emails a day (against Mailgun’s 100), holds up to 100,000 contacts and includes campaigns and automation, with paid Starter from $9 and Standard from $18 a month. Expect to stagger a first broadcast on the free plan, and plan on a paid tier once the list passes a few thousand.

The exceptions are clear. A developer who wants fast delivery and 45 days of activity data should pay for Postmark at $15 for 10,000 emails; the Postmark alternatives page covers what to do if that price later bites. A team that sends 100,000 emails and wants the smallest bill should price Resend at $35 or Amazon SES at its $0.16 per 1,000 rate, which is $16.00 for that volume, and a store that needs abandoned-cart flows needs an ecommerce platform rather than a relay, as the ecommerce automation guide explains. Stay on Mailgun when you rely on inbound routes, validations or the EU region, and keep the volume near a plan boundary: Foundation at $35 for 50,000 emails is a reasonable price. The transactional email guide and the SendGrid alternatives page compare the same delivery vendors from other angles.

A cutover that keeps receipts flowing

Moving a delivery service is mostly a DNS and credentials job, and the safest way is by sender rather than all at once: the least important mail goes first, and the stream that customers wait for goes last.