Before discussing the 7 best Mailgun alternatives or competitors, first, we must understand what Mailgun is.
Mailgun is an email service that started in 2010. This SaaS product offers SMTP, email marketing, transactional email service, email validation, etc.
You will need Mailjet (Mailgun’s sister software) configuration for other email marketing functionalities.
Mailgun is widely known and used for its transactional email services. Since you are reading this article and learning about Mailgun’s alternatives, I assume that you know what transactional emails are.
No software is perfect, and the same goes for Mailgun. Though it is a capable tool, it comes with its own limitations.
Some of Mailgun’s cons that make us consider alternatives are:
- It does not provide the highest inbox delivery rate. Some Mailgun shared IPs are blacklisted, which causes the email to be routed to the spam folder rather than the inbox. Although their delivery rate is quite good (97.4 percent), I believe the shared IPs impact it.
- If one wants to go for a dedicated IP to avoid the faulty shared IPs, it comes at a high price as one IP costs 59 USD per month.
- Mailgun is developer-friendly. If you are a developer, you can use Mailgun well. But for non-technical users, it can be an additional burden to hire a developer.
- Lastly, you must know the alternatives if you decide to change the software for any reason in the future.
Whatever your reason for looking for Mailgun’s alternatives, this article featuring the 7 best Mailgun alternatives available on the market will help you.
The 7 Best Mailgun Alternatives
- Sendinblue
- Mailjet
- SendGrid
- SMTP2Go
- SendPulse
- SparkPost
- PostMark
#1. Sendinblue
Armand Thiberge founded Sendinblue in 2013, and since then, has had over 175,000 users in 160 countries with great ratings.
Sendinblue is different from its competitors because this email marketing software charges you based on the number of emails you send and not how many contacts you have. In contrast, most email marketing services charge you based on your contact list.
Features
Services for Transactional Email:
- With Sendinblue’s transactional email functionalities, you can send the right emails at the right time to a contacts’ inbox in less than a minute. A transactional email requires the fastest delivery since it has user-triggered characteristics.
- You have many set-up options: API, SMTP Relay, and eCommerce plugins. You can connect your website or application with Sendinblue and sort out the transactional email functionality at your convenience.
- Not only do you get an email API, but you can also have your content delivered to your contact’s phone through their SMS API. Sendinblue offers SMS marketing as well.
- Sendinblue has a 99% delivery rate. You can track, introspect, and review your email performance through Sendinblue’s monitor dashboard.
Email Marketing
- Unlike Mailgun, Sendinblue does not need the help of other software to send marketing emails. It offers a complete email solution.
- It has a drag-and-drop interface for smooth use.
- It offers several pre-built email templates and allows personalization, segmentation, send-time optimization, A/B testing, and more.
- It supports automation functionalities to create workflows and automate the email marketing strategy.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- It has a free plan.
- The interface is intuitive and simple to use.
- It offers a complete email marketing solution.
- It offers unlimited contacts storage.
- It provides a software status page.
- Sendinblue is GDPR compliant.
- You get a good source of knowledge through their help center, academy, and blogs.
Cons
- Dedicated IPs are not included in any plans except for the Enterprise plan.
- Sendinblue’s rates are higher than Mailgun’s.
Pricing
Sendinblue has four pricing plans, one of which is a free forever plan.
You can send 300 emails per day on the free plan, and the Enterprise plan is designed for your advanced needs.
The other popular plans are Lite and Premium plans.
The rates for the number of emails you get in the Lite package are:
- For 10,000 emails per month, it is 25 USD/month and 22.50 USD/month if you subscribe for a year.
- It’s 39 USD/month for 20,000 emails per month and 35.10 USD/month for the yearly subscription.
- For 100,000 emails per month, the rates are 99 USD/month or 89.10 USD/month if subscribed to a yearly plan.
The rates for the number of emails you get in the Premium package are:
- Starting from 20,000 emails per month, the rates are 65 USD/month and 58.50 USD/month if subscribed yearly.
- For 60,000 emails per month, the rates are 94 USD/month and 84.60 USD/month for the yearly subscription.
- For 750,000 emails per month, the charges are 499 USD/month, and for the yearly plan, the rate is 449.10/month.
The rates are reasonable if you compare Sendinblue’s pricing structure with other software.
Let’s move to the second Mailgun alternative.
#2. Mailjet
Next on this list is Mailjet, the all-in-one marketing service alternative to Mailgun, specializing in transactional email services.
Mailjet was co-founded in 2010 by Wilfried Durand and Julien Tartarin, and it has a user base of over 130,000 companies in 150 countries.
Some notable users are Microsoft, DHL, KIA, and American Express.
Features
Services for Transactional Email
- Mailjet requires the Mailgun platform to send transactional emails, as they both come from the same family. You can integrate Mailgun’s SMTP Relay or RESTful APIs to send triggered-based emails to your customers.
- With Mailjet, you get a drag-and-drop interface to create personalized emails for your users.
- You can also keep track of your email performance in real-time by using its webhooks.
Email Marketing
- Mailjet does not offer A/B testing, but you get A/J testing features. That means you can send out ten different types of same-context email content and then compare how they perform. In this list, this is the highest email test that software allows.
- Mailjet offers several email templates that you can pick and alter the content. If you wish, you can also create a template of your own with the help of coding.
- Mailjet has a “live collaboration” feature, enabling a team to collaborate, edit and design emails on the editor platform.
- Personalization, segmentation, marketing automation, and all other required email features are present.
- The last and most important part is dashboard monitoring, which helps you track what is happening with your campaign, for instance, click rates, open rates, bounce rates, and important analytics.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Free forever plan.
- Drag and drop interface.
- GDPR compliant.
- The features mentioned above.
- Mailjet has a software status page.
- Detailed documentation for integrations.
- You get a help center for all your queries.
Cons
- It has limited automation and segmentation functionality.
Pricing
Mailjet has a four-tier plan, one of which is free.
In the free plan, you can send 200 emails per day, which is 6,000 emails in a month.
The next two paid plans are Essential and Premium, starting at 15 and 25 USD for a maximum of 15,000 emails per month. No daily email sending limit is imposed on the paid plans.
- For 50,000 emails, the rates are 35 and 50 USD per month for the respective two plans.
- If you have more email requirements, you will need to upgrade to the Premium plan that offers 100,000, 250,000, and 500,000 emails per month at 95, 225, and 425 USD per month.
Let’s move on to the next Mailgun competitor.
#3. SendGrid
SendGrid is one of the best transactional email service providers available in the market, and offers a complete email solution to its customers, be it email marketing, marketing automation, email validation, and everything that your email marketing strategy requires.
SendGrid was founded by Isaac Saldana, Jose Lopez, and Tim Jenkins in 2008 and was later acquired by cloud computing platform Twilio in 2018, which caused SendGrid’s name change to Twilio SendGrid.
SendGrid has a user base of over 80,000 paying customers that send more than 100 billion emails per month. Its highlighted customer brands are Uber, Spotify, Airbnb, and Yelp.
Features
- Your developers can easily connect SendGrid’s RESTful API and SMTP with your website or applications. SendGrid has a detailed documentation library to get things done.
- SendGrid provides a 96% average delivery rate if we consider the deliverability rates. However, the delivery rate is lower than what Mailgun offers, which is 97-98%.
Email Marketing
- From email design, email templates, email testing, marketing automation, list management, sign-up forms, drag-and-drop interface, and statistics, you get everything you need from an email service.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- System status page.
- A free plan is available in both solutions.
- High email deliverability rate.
- Dedicated IP addresses.
Cons
- The user interface is difficult to use.
Pricing
SendGrid has two pricing plans. The first is for an email API plan, and the second is for a marketing campaign plan.
And as mentioned earlier, both pricing structures offer a free plan.
Since we analyze SendGrid as a Mailgun alternative, we will go through the email API pricing structure.
Email API plans include Free, Essentials, Pro (Popular), and Custom.
You can send 100 emails every day in the free plan and use the same features offered in the Essential (paid) plan, such as Ticket Support, Deliverability Insights, APIs, SMTP Relay, and Webhooks.
For the Premier plan, you must contact customer support for a quote.
Below are the other two plans:
Pricing for the Essential Plan
- For 40,000 emails per month, the rates start at 14.95 USD per month.
- For 100,000 emails per month, the cost is 29.95 USD per month.
Pricing for the Pro Plan
- For 100,000 emails per month, the cost is 89.95 USD per month.
- For 300,000 emails per month, the rate is 249 USD per month.
- For 700,000 emails per month, it will cost 449 USD per month.
- For 1,500,000 emails per month, the price is 749 USD per month.
If you are interested in knowing more about the marketing campaign rates, visit this page.
#4. SMTP2Go
As an alternative, next on this list is SMTP2GO. The software is proficient in both transactional email and marketing emails.
SMTP2GO is a part of Sand Dune Mail Ltd, which was founded in 2006. It is a New Zealand-based email service company founded by Charles Abrahamson, Simon Slade, and Mark Ling.
SMTP2GO has the trust of 35,000 businesses in 130 countries. Some of their highlighted customers are HP and Red Roof Inn.
SMTP2GO was also featured in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia/Pacific for five years in a row, from 2012 to 2016.
Another notable thing about SMTP2GO is that they donate to causes related to New Zealand’s endangered species every month.
Features
- Through its blacklist monitoring, automatic DKIM/SPF, feedback loops, and spam trap detection features, you get powerful email deliverability.
- Another great thing that SMTP2GO provides is the detailed reporting features. You get real-time analysis, spam tracking, and an instant alert in the event of an emerging issue.
- You can test your emails for 40 email clients, analyze their performances, and detect any issues.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Both marketing and transactional services.
- The features mentioned above.
- They have a free plan.
- They offer good support through phone, live chat, email, or ticketing.
- You get dedicated IPs in SMTP2GO.
- The software is GDPR compliant.
- SMTP2GO has great ratings.
- A good help desk and support resources such as guides and blogs.
- They have a software status page.
- 30-day money-back guarantee.
Cons
- You cannot roll over the unused credits.
- Mandatory opt-in to send campaigns to contacts.
Pricing
Before analyzing the paid plans, know that you can use the software for free for 1,000 emails every month, and there is no expiry for this free plan. You can use this plan as long as you wish.
There are three paid plans: Starter, Professional, and Premier (Custom). Custom prices are unknown and require getting in touch with customer support.
The Starter plan starts from 15 USD per month for 40,000 emails, and if you require more emails, it will cost you 1 USD per every extra thousand emails.
The rates start from 75 USD for 100,000 emails per month in the Professional plan.
For 500,000 emails, the cost is 280 USD per month. Other details are available on the website.
#5. SendPulse
At number 5, we have another capable Mailgun alternative, SendPulse. It was founded by Kostyantyn Makarov in 2015. SendPulse is efficient in its transactional email services and is a great tool for campaign emails, SMS marketing, and Web Push notification.
Features
Services for Transactional Email
- If you are looking for an SMTP to send trigger-based emails to your contacts, you can rely on SendPulse’s SMTP Relay. Connecting it with your application is a simple and hassle-free process.
- SendPulse’s API supports Python, Java, Ruby, Obj-C, Node.js, etc., with detailed documentation.
- You get custom tracking domains in SendPulse, so if you want to remove SendPulse’s logo from your email, you can.
- SendPulse’s SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) ensure that your email does not land in your contact’s spam folder and only hits their inbox.
- You have dedicated IP address facilities, so you can enhance your sender’s reputation and be protected from being blacklisted.
- You also get to see a detailed analysis of your email performance.
Marketing Services
SendPulse not only provides transactional email services but also makes sure you have access to all email solutions on a single platform.
- From email verifier to landing page builder, chatbot builder, campaign email marketing, segmentation, workflow automation, A/B testing, and a free CRM, you get everything to execute and organize in one location.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- It has a free plan.
- It is an all-in-one marketing solution.
- Data-protected software
- Drag-and-drop user interface
- There is multilingual support.
- You get a free CRM.
- A good knowledge base.
Cons
- A high bounce rate can cause your account to be blocked.
- No software status page.
Pricing
SendPulse’s transactional email services have a three-tier pricing structure: Basic, Pro, and Enterprise.
The Basic plan is the free plan, where you get 12,000 emails every month. If you need a large number of emails, the starting rate for 25,000 emails per month is 8.85 USD per month. For 50,000 emails, the rate is 16.85 USD per month.
Regarding the Pro and Enterprise plans, the rates are given below.
Pro plan:
For 100,000 emails, the rate is 74.85 USD per month.
For 200,000 emails, the price is 124.85 USD per month.
For 300,000 emails, the cost is 144.85 USD per month.
Enterprise plan:
This plan is for the advanced usage of transactional email services.
The number of emails ranges from 500,000 to 5,000,000 emails per month are available at a rate of 274.86 USD and 1,785.85 USD per month.
You will get a discount on the plans mentioned above if you choose the other two subscription types. You receive a 10% and 20% discount for biannual and yearly subscriptions.
#6. Sparkpost
We are almost at the end of this article, and it would be unfair not to include Sparkpost when discussing the best Mailgun alternatives.
Sparkpost delivers 40% of the world’s total b2b and b2c emails, which is 4-5 trillion emails every year.
Some of the big brands that use Sparkpost are Twitter, Adobe, Pinterest, and The New York Times.
Features
- Sparkpost has a good email deliverability rate of 96% and great email delivery speed, less than 2 seconds.
- Sparkpost’s signal feature alerts you about email issues as soon as it detects any, so you can take immediate action to fix the issue.
- Sparkpost is just.01% away from being 100% reliable. The software delivers 99.99% uptime.
- Sparkpost has a recipient validation feature, which checks for the validation of your contacts’ email addresses, detects if they are scams or bouncy addresses, and helps you remove them.
- Sparkpost’s real-time alerts help you know the metrics of your critical information, such as an increase in bounce rates, decrease in engagement rates, and everything that can have a major impact on your email delivery.
- With its email API, you can easily connect your website or application with Sparkpost’s email service.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Provides a software status page.
- They offer a test plan, too, which allows 100 emails per day.
- Responsive customer support.
- Reasonable pricing.
Cons
- The platform is more technology-driven.
Pricing
Sparkpost has three pricing plans: Starter, Premier, and Enterprise.
The Starter plan starts at 20 USD per month for a maximum of 50,000 emails per month. And for every thousand additional emails you send, you will be charged 1 USD.
The Premier plan starts at 75 USD per month for 100,000 emails, and for every extra thousand emails sent, they will charge you 85 USD.
Let’s move on to the last Mailgun alternative.
#7. PostMark
The last Mailgun alternative is Postmark.
Postmark was founded in 2010 and offers both transactional and email marketing solutions. Postmark is trusted by some of the most well-known brands, including Asana, iPassword, Salesforce Desk, and others.
Features
- Dedicated IP ensures high deliverability. Hence, most email services suggest dedicated IP. But Postmark thinks otherwise. Postmark says that this is an excuse to suggest a dedicated IP, as it is an email service’s responsibility to provide a better reputation rate even on a shared IP. Postmark recommends dedicated IP when you send over 300,000 every month.
- Their lightning-fast email delivery is four times better than most email services.
- In-depth analytics with complete email history of 45 days.
- Postmark’s email API only needs a couple of minutes to be configured.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- It has a software status page.
- It has a free plan.
- The software is GDPR compliant.
Cons
- The rates are higher than Mailgun.
- With Postmark, you do not get A/B testing functionality.
Pricing
Postmark’s pricing is straightforward and depends on the number of emails you send per month. Postmark has a free test plan too, which lets us send 100 test emails per month.
The pricing section starts at 10,000 emails per month, available at 10 USD and 1.25 USD per thousand emails if you require more.
The rates are higher than Mailgun, but you get many more features.
Conclusion
Mailgun is good software, as are the 7 email services mentioned above. The choice is up to you.
Consider the following while selecting a Mailgun alternative:
- Does the tool offer everything that your marketing strategy requires?
- Is the tool budget-friendly?
- Is the tool user-friendly and intuitive?
- What’s the support like?
After judging your options, you can go for a free plan or trial to test the services and customer support and select the right platform for your business.
This is where this Mailgun alternative post ends.
What best Mailgun alternative have you selected for your business? Please share your thoughts through the comments section.
