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It's a split decision.
Choose Mailgun if you need published paid pricing, validation, inbound routing, or a CRM data connection: Basic starts at $15/month for 10,000 emails. Choose Resend if its developer workflow—SDKs, test mode, webhooks, and contact tools—fits better, or you want three inboxes and three custom domains on the free plan. Both free tiers cap sending at 100 emails daily. Resend's paid prices are not published on the vendor's site, so confirm the cost before switching.
01Side by side
| Mailgun | Resend | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $15/month Basic; 10,000 emails | Paid plan prices not published |
| Free plan | 100 emails/day; 1 domain, 2 API keys | 100 emails/day; 3 inboxes, 3 domains |
| Best for | Senders needing validation and inbound routing | Developers wanting SDKs, test mode, webhooks |
| Core strength | Validation, email previews, inbound parsing | SDKs, webhooks, contact management |
| Learning curve | API and SMTP; difficulty data not published | API and SDKs; difficulty data not published |
| Integrations/data | CRM connection and inbound email parsing | Nine listed SDKs, contacts, modular webhooks |
| Team/seat costs | Seat pricing not published | Extra inboxes: $1/month; conditions apply |
| Support | Review support score: 5/10 | Review support score: 5/10 |
Mailgun Choose Mailgun if
- Choose Mailgun if you need published paid pricing and validation tools.
- Choose Mailgun if inbound routing or CRM data connection matters.
- Choose Mailgun if 10,000 emails/month at $15 fits.
Resend Choose Resend if
- Choose Resend if SDKs, test mode, and webhooks fit your workflow.
- Choose Resend if you need three inboxes on the free plan.
- Choose Resend if its contact tools and deliverability features fit.
02Pricing compared
Mailgun has the clearer paid price: Basic is $15/month for 10,000 emails, with no daily sending limit. Foundation is $35/month for 50,000 emails, and Scale is $90/month for 100,000. The pricing page lists extra emails from $1.80 per 1,000 on Basic, $1.30 on Foundation, and $1.10 on Scale. It shows monthly pricing, with no annual price listed.
Both free plans cap sending at 100 emails per day. Resend’s free plan also includes 3 inboxes, 3 custom domains, and 30-day data retention. Its paid plan prices are not published on the vendor's site, so we can’t compare total cost at higher volumes. Resend lists no annual billing discount. Check its price before switching.
03Features and depth
Both products provide an email API for transactional sending. Resend also describes support for marketing email, and lists SDKs for Node.js, Ruby, Python, PHP, Go, Rust, Java, Elixir, and .NET. Its test mode simulates events without sending real email; webhooks can report deliveries, opens, bounces, and clicks. It also includes contact management, DNS monitoring, domain authentication, suppression lists, and regional sending.
Mailgun offers API and SMTP sending, plus email validation through a real-time API or bulk upload. Its listed tools include email previews, incoming-message parsing, inbound routing, and a CRM data connection. Foundation includes full access to inbound routing; Basic includes 5 inbound routes. Scale includes 5,000 email validations, while extra validations are available for a listed fee on some plans.
The practical difference is breadth: Resend spells out developer tools and contact features; Mailgun lists more validation and inbound-email capabilities. The published Resend feature details do not list validation or inbound routing.
04Ease of use and learning curve
The better fit depends on how your team builds and operates email. Resend lists SDKs across several languages and offers test mode, which lets developers simulate events without sending real email. Its webhooks provide event notifications for delivery, opens, bounces, and clicks.
Mailgun supports both API and SMTP, and its feature list includes email previews and inbound routing. That may suit a setup that needs to receive or parse email as well as send it. The published details don’t establish that either product is easier to set up, so compare the integration options against your stack. For a migration, also check Resend’s unpublished paid prices and confirm that the features you rely on are included in its plan.
Questions people ask
Which is cheaper, Mailgun or Resend?
Mailgun’s paid pricing is published: Basic starts at $15/month for 10,000 emails, with higher plans at $35 and $90 per month. Resend’s published pricing details don’t publish paid plan prices, so we can’t say which costs less beyond the free tier. Confirm Resend’s price before switching.
Do Mailgun and Resend have free plans?
Yes. Both free plans allow 100 emails per day. Mailgun’s Free plan includes 1 custom sending domain, 2 API keys, 1-day log retention, and 1 inbound route. Resend’s Free plan includes 3 inboxes, 3 custom domains, and 30-day data retention.
Which is better for developers?
Resend lists SDKs for Node.js, Ruby, Python, PHP, Go, Rust, Java, Elixir, and .NET, plus test mode and modular webhooks. Mailgun offers API and SMTP sending. The right choice depends on your stack and workflow; the published details don’t establish that one is easier to use.
Can Mailgun or Resend validate email addresses and handle incoming email?
Mailgun lists real-time and bulk email validation, incoming-message parsing, and inbound routing. Its Basic plan includes 5 inbound routes, while Foundation includes full access to inbound routing. The published Resend feature details don’t list email validation or inbound routing.