--- title: "Best Mailgun Alternatives in 2026: Lower Prices and a Real Free Tier" description: "The best Mailgun alternatives in 2026 compared: Reloop, Resend, Postmark, Amazon SES, SendGrid, MailerSend, SMTP2GO and Elastic Email on price at 50k and 100k emails, free tiers, inbound routing, overage and migration." canonical: "https://reloop.sh/blog/best-mailgun-alternatives" last-updated: "2026-10-25" --- # Best Mailgun Alternatives in 2026: Lower Prices and a Real Free Tier > For the site documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). Docs index: [llms-docs.txt](/llms-docs.txt). Marketing corpus: [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt). Docs corpus: [llms-full-docs.txt](/llms-full-docs.txt). Product skill: [skill.md](/skill.md). Prefer markdown URLs (append `.md`) when available. > The best Mailgun alternatives in 2026 compared: Reloop, Resend, Postmark, Amazon SES, SendGrid, MailerSend, SMTP2GO and Elastic Email on price at 50k and 100k emails, free tiers, inbound routing, overage and migration. Source: https://reloop.sh/blog/best-mailgun-alternatives Published: 2026-10-25 **The short version:** if you're leaving Mailgun because of price, **Reloop** is the closest like-for-like replacement: the same REST and SMTP sending, stored templates, webhooks and inbound mail, for **$10 at 50,000 emails instead of $35**, with a permanent free tier and open source. **Postmark** is the pick for pure transactional deliverability, and **Amazon SES** is the cheapest pipe if you'll build the tooling yourself. We build Reloop, so weigh that. Every price below comes from the providers' public pricing pages, linked in our head-to-head posts, and each section says where that provider beats us. --- ## Why teams leave Mailgun Mailgun, now part of Sinch, still does the basics well. People usually leave for the same handful of reasons: - **No real free tier.** The free option is a trial at 100 emails a day. - **Small entry plan.** Basic is $15 for only 10,000 emails. 50,000 needs Foundation at $35. - **Expensive overage.** Extra mail costs from $1.30 per 1,000 ($1.80 on Basic), so 100,000 a month lands around $100. - **Paid extras.** Dedicated IPs and email validation are add-ons. - **Marketing lives elsewhere.** Campaigns are a separate Sinch product. - **Hosted only.** No source and no self-hosting. If Mailgun's routes, log search and validation are central to your stack, it may still be worth the price. Otherwise, here are the alternatives. --- ## Top picks at a glance | Category | Pick | Why | |---|---|---| | **Best overall Mailgun alternative** | Reloop | $10 for 50k, inbound mailboxes, campaigns, open source | | **Best hosted developer experience** | Resend | Clean JSON API, React Email | | **Best for transactional deliverability** | Postmark | Transactional-first, message streams | | **Cheapest raw sending** | Amazon SES | $0.10 per 1,000, if you build the rest | | **Best for enterprise contracts** | SendGrid | Twilio procurement, subusers, IP pools | | **Best for a visual builder** | MailerSend | Drag-and-drop editor | | **Best SMTP relay** | SMTP2GO | Many fallback ports, simple setup | | **Best for low-cost bulk** | Elastic Email | 3,000 free a month, volume slider for millions | --- ## The comparison table | | Mailgun | Reloop | Resend | Postmark | Amazon SES | SendGrid | SMTP2GO | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | **Free tier** | 100 / day trial | 6,000 / mo (200 / day) | 3,000 / mo (100 / day) | 100 / mo | $200 AWS credits, 6 months | 60-day trial, 100 / day | 1,000 / mo | | **~50,000 / mo** | $35 | **$10** | $20 | $87 (Basic + overage) | ~$5 | $19.95 | $50 (Starter + overage) | | **~100,000 / mo** | $90 | **$20** | $35 | $177 (Basic + overage) | ~$10 | $34.95 | $75 | | **Overage per 1k** | From $1.30 | **$0.50** | $0.90 | $1.80 (Basic), $1.30 (Pro) | $0.10 | Plan upgrade | $1 / $0.85 | | **Dedicated IP** | Paid add-on | Included on Growth ($20) | $30/mo add-on on Scale ($90+) | $50 / mo, from 300k / mo | $24.95 / mo | Pro, from $89.95 | Included on Professional ($75) | | **Inbound** | Routes (match and forward) | Mailboxes + threads, API, MCP, IMAP | Webhook | Webhook (Pro and up) | Receipt rules | Inbound Parse webhook | Not a focus | | **Open source / self-host** | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | MailerSend and Elastic Email are covered in their own sections. Mailgun's 100k figure is its Scale plan ($90 for 100,000); SMTP2GO's 50k figure is Starter plus overage at $1 per 1,000, worked out from its published rates. --- ## 1. Reloop: best overall Mailgun alternative Reloop is open-source email infrastructure: a transactional API, SMTP relay, inbound mailboxes, contacts, campaigns, automations and webhooks in one product, hosted or on your own server. **Pricing:** Free is 6,000 emails a month (200 a day) with no end date. Pro is $10 for 50,000. Growth is $20 for 100,000 and includes a dedicated IP. Extra mail costs $0.50 per 1,000. Or prepay credits at $0.50 per 1,000, valid for 6 months. Self-hosting is free under Apache 2.0. **Why it fits Mailgun users** - **A fraction of the price.** $10 vs $35 at 50k, and $20 vs about $100 at 100k. Overage is $0.50 per 1,000 instead of $1.30 or more. - **Inbound that goes further than routes.** Mailgun matches and forwards messages. Reloop stores them in threaded mailboxes, scores spam, and lets you read and reply over the API, the [MCP server](/docs/integrations/ai-tools/mcp-server) or IMAP, with an `email.received` webhook when you want push. - **A JSON API with readable errors.** No `multipart/form-data` and no domain argument: Reloop reads the domain from `from`, returns errors as values with `message`, `why` and `fix`, and supports `Idempotency-Key` for safe retries. - **Campaigns and automations on the same plan**, sharing one suppression list with your transactional mail. - **Open source and self-hostable.** Reloop Cloud runs on Hetzner, a German hosting company, with EU data centers. **Where Mailgun is still ahead** - **Template logic.** Mailgun templates use Handlebars. Reloop substitutes variables like `{{{first_name}}}`; logic stays in your code. - **Years of history.** More Stack Overflow answers, client libraries and edge cases already solved. **Best for:** teams that want Mailgun's sending surface at a much lower price, plus real inboxes. Full breakdown: [Reloop vs Mailgun](/blog/reloop-vs-mailgun) · [Mailgun alternative overview](/alternatives/mailgun) · [Feature comparison](/compare/mailgun) --- ## 2. Resend: best hosted developer experience **Pricing:** Free is 3,000 a month (100 a day). Pro is $20 for 50,000. 100,000 costs $35. Overage is $0.90 per 1,000. **Strengths:** excellent docs, a JSON API with a small SDK, first-class React Email, and Broadcasts for simple marketing. **Weaknesses:** $35 at 100k vs $20 on Reloop, a dedicated IP needs the $90 Scale plan plus a $30/mo add-on, inbound is a webhook per message, and it's hosted only. **Best for:** small teams that want the most polished API and will stay under 50k emails a month. Full breakdown: [Reloop vs Resend](/blog/reloop-vs-resend) --- ## 3. Postmark: best for transactional deliverability **Pricing:** a free developer plan of 100 emails a month. Basic is $15 for 10,000 with $1.80 per 1,000 overage; Pro and Platform lower that to $1.30 and $1.20. Inbound needs Pro or above. Dedicated IPs are $50 a month per IP above 300,000 emails a month. **Strengths:** a long transactional-only track record, message streams that keep bulk mail away from password resets, and excellent support. **Weaknesses:** priced like Mailgun or higher once you pass 10,000, a tiny free tier, and hosted only. **Best for:** teams leaving Mailgun for reliability, not price. Full breakdown: [Reloop vs Postmark](/blog/reloop-vs-postmark) --- ## 4. Amazon SES: cheapest raw sending **Pricing:** $0.10 per 1,000 emails plus $0.12 per GB of outbound data. Receiving costs $0.10 per 1,000. Dedicated IPs are $24.95 a month. New AWS accounts get up to $200 in Free Tier credits for six months. **Strengths:** the lowest list price by far, deep AWS integration, and huge scale. **Weaknesses:** a sandbox to escape, and no logs dashboard, templates editor, bounce processing or inbound mailboxes unless you build them. Inbound is receipt rules into S3 or Lambda, a step down from Mailgun's routes. **Best for:** AWS-native teams with engineering time. Reloop can route outbound mail through SES (or any SMTP provider) while you keep Reloop's API, logs, templates and suppression list. Full breakdown: [Reloop vs Amazon SES](/blog/reloop-vs-aws-ses) --- ## 5. SendGrid: best for enterprise contracts **Pricing:** a 60-day trial at 100 emails a day. Essentials is $19.95 for 50,000 and $34.95 for 100,000. Pro, with a dedicated IP, subusers and SSO, starts at $89.95. Marketing Campaigns is a separate plan. **Strengths:** proven at huge volume, Twilio procurement, subusers and IP pools, and Handlebars logic in templates. **Weaknesses:** no permanent free plan, separate plans for marketing, an older API, and hosted only. **Best for:** larger companies that need enterprise paperwork more than a low price. Full breakdown: [Reloop vs SendGrid](/blog/reloop-vs-sendgrid) --- ## 6. MailerSend: best for a visual builder **Pricing:** free for 500 emails a month. Hobby is $7 for 5,000. Starter is $35 for 50,000 and $68 for 100,000, with $1.30 per 1,000 overage. Professional, which unlocks the dedicated IP add-on, is $110 for 50k. **Strengths:** a drag-and-drop builder, SMS in the US and Canada, and inbound forwarding. **Weaknesses:** the same $35 at 50k as Mailgun, a small free tier, and marketing in a separate product (MailerLite). **Best for:** teams where non-developers edit the templates. Full breakdown: [Reloop vs MailerSend](/blog/reloop-vs-mailersend) --- ## 7. SMTP2GO: best SMTP relay **Pricing:** free for 1,000 emails a month. Starter is $10 for 10,000 ($1 per extra 1,000). Professional is $75 for 100,000 ($0.85 per extra 1,000) and includes a dedicated IP. **Strengths:** a long list of fallback ports (2525, 8025, 80 and more) that get devices sending through restrictive networks, simple setup, and SMS. **Weaknesses:** inbound isn't a focus, there are no campaigns or automations, and it's hosted only. **Best for:** teams that mostly use Mailgun as an SMTP relay for apps, WordPress or devices. Full breakdown: [Reloop vs SMTP2GO](/blog/reloop-vs-smtp2go) --- ## 8. Elastic Email: best for low-cost bulk **Pricing:** the Email API's free plan is 3,000 emails a month (100 a day). Starter is $19 and Pro is $49, both for 50,000. Above that, a volume slider runs up to 10 million a month. Dedicated IPs are a $40 or $50 add-on. **Strengths:** a permanent 3,000-a-month free tier, and a slider that may come out cheap per email in the millions. **Weaknesses:** inbound and webhooks are on Pro only, logs are kept for 3 to 7 days, and marketing is a separate plan. **Best for:** high-volume senders who only need to send. Full breakdown: [Reloop vs Elastic Email](/blog/reloop-vs-elastic-email) --- ## How to choose - **"We want the same features for much less."** Reloop: $10 at 50k and $0.50 per 1,000 overage. - **"We rely on inbound routes."** Reloop if you want stored, threaded mailboxes; stay on Mailgun if pattern-based forwarding is all you need. - **"Deliverability is everything."** Postmark. - **"We're on AWS and price per email is all that matters."** Amazon SES, or SES behind Reloop. - **"We just need a dependable SMTP relay."** SMTP2GO or Reloop. - **"We need to self-host or audit the code."** Reloop, the only open-source option here. --- ## Migrating off Mailgun 1. **Verify your domain** with the new provider. For Reloop, publish the `reloop._domainkey` DKIM record and merge `include:reloop.sh` into your existing SPF record. Never publish a second SPF record. 2. **Export suppressions** (bounces, unsubscribes, complaints) from Mailgun and import them. 3. **Swap the client.** Replace `mg.messages.create(domain, {...})` with a JSON send. In Reloop that's `reloop.mail.send`, with the domain taken from `from`. 4. **Move templates.** Handlebars `{{first_name}}` becomes `{{{first_name}}}` in Reloop, and values are passed as template variables instead of `h:X-Mailgun-Variables`. 5. **Replace routes.** If you forward inbound mail, point MX records at the new provider and read from its mailboxes or inbound webhook. 6. **Point webhooks** at a new handler. Reloop events like `email.delivered` and `email.bounced` are signed in the `Reloop-Signature` header. 7. **Ramp traffic** from 10% to 100% over one to two weeks. The [SendGrid migration guide](/blog/migrating-from-sendgrid) covers the same steps in detail, including a traffic-split flag and a suppression import script that work just as well from Mailgun. --- ## FAQ For a complete platform, Reloop: $10 for 50,000 emails against Mailgun's $35, and $20 for 100,000 against about $100. For raw sending only, Amazon SES at $0.10 per 1,000, if you build the tooling yourself. Reloop gives 6,000 emails a month (200 a day) with no end date. Resend and Elastic Email each give 3,000 a month (100 a day), and SMTP2GO gives 1,000 a month. Mailgun's own free option is a trial. Self-hosted Reloop has no per-email fee. Reloop is open source under Apache 2.0, with its own MTA (KumoMTA). Use the hosted service or run the same code on your own server. Reloop receives mail into stored, threaded mailboxes you can read and reply to over the API, MCP or IMAP, and also sends an `email.received` webhook. Resend, Postmark (Pro and up) and SendGrid post inbound mail to a webhook. Mailgun's validation is a paid add-on. Reloop includes email validation, so you can keep checking addresses before you send.