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Most buyers should pick Mailgun.
Choose Mailgun if you want a lower paid starting price, a free plan, or built-in email validation and incoming-message parsing. Its Basic plan is $15/month for 10,000 emails. Choose Twilio SendGrid if you want marketing campaign tools or need a published plan for higher sending volumes; its Essentials plans start at $19.95/month for 50,000 emails. SendGrid’s free trial lasts 60 days, while Mailgun lists a free plan capped at 100 emails per day.
01Side by side
| Mailgun | Twilio SendGrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting paid price | $15/month Basic; includes 10,000 emails | $19.95/month Essentials; includes 50,000 emails |
| Free plan | Yes: 100 emails/day and one sending domain | No free plan; 60-day trial, 100 emails/day |
| Best for | Senders wanting API tools, validation, and email parsing | Senders wanting campaigns and higher-volume plan options |
| Core strength | API, SMTP, validation, previews, and inbound routing | Email API, SMTP, marketing campaigns, and delivery at scale |
| Learning curve | Not published | Not published |
| Integrations and data | CRM data connection and incoming email parsing | Event webhooks and partner integration support |
| Team and seat costs | Free and Basic include two API keys; seat pricing not published | Listed plans include one extra teammate; seat pricing not published |
| Support | Published review support rating: 5/10 | Published review support rating: 4/10 |
Mailgun Choose Mailgun if
- Choose Mailgun if you want a free plan for low-volume testing.
- Choose Mailgun if $15/month for 10,000 emails suits your budget.
- Choose Mailgun if you need validation or incoming email parsing.
Twilio SendGrid Choose Twilio SendGrid if
- Choose Twilio SendGrid if you want built-in marketing campaign tools.
- Choose Twilio SendGrid if 50,000 emails for $19.95/month fits.
- Choose Twilio SendGrid if you need plans listed up to 2.5 million emails.
02Pricing compared
Mailgun has the lower paid entry point: Basic costs $15/month for 10,000 emails, while SendGrid Essentials starts at $19.95/month for 50,000. Mailgun also has a free plan capped at 100 emails per day. SendGrid offers a 60-day free trial, also capped at 100 emails per day.
The plans are not like-for-like: SendGrid’s entry plan includes five times Mailgun Basic’s monthly volume. Mailgun lists extra Basic emails from $1.80 per 1,000; SendGrid overage rates are not listed on its primary pricing page. Mailgun’s Foundation plan is $35/month for 50,000 emails, while SendGrid’s 100,000-email Essentials plan is $34.95/month. Neither provider publishes annual pricing in the published plan details.
03Features and depth
Both services offer an email API and SMTP sending. Mailgun adds a broader set of delivery tools: its features include real-time or bulk email validation, email previews, incoming-message parsing, and CRM data connections. Its plans also spell out controls such as inbound routes and log retention. Foundation includes full access to inbound routing; Scale lists 5,000 validations and dedicated IP pools.
SendGrid pairs its Email API and SMTP service with marketing campaign tools, so it may fit teams that want campaigns alongside transactional email. Its paid plans list validation allowances, email history, and—on Pro—testing credits and a dedicated IP. For example, the $89.95/month Pro plan includes 100,000 emails, 2,500 validations per month, 60 testing credits per month, and seven days of email history. SendGrid says it delivers more than 200 billion emails monthly; that scale claim does not tell you how either service will perform for your sending program.
04Ease of use and learning curve
The published reviews rate Mailgun higher for ease of use: 8 versus SendGrid’s 5. That is a review score, not a guarantee that setup will be simpler for your team. Both products are built around API and SMTP sending, so developer involvement is likely if you are integrating them into an application.
SendGrid also offers campaign tools and API documentation, while Mailgun’s feature set includes validation, previews, and inbound parsing. Check which pieces you actually need before switching; more tools can mean more configuration, not less. SendGrid’s review flags sending caps and account approval risk as points to check. Its plans list email history of three days on Essentials and seven days on Pro; Mailgun lists log retention by plan.
Questions people ask
Which is cheaper, Mailgun or Twilio SendGrid?
Mailgun has the lower listed paid starting price: Basic is $15/month for 10,000 emails. SendGrid Essentials starts at $19.95/month for 50,000 emails. The volumes differ, so compare the plan that matches your monthly sending needs, not just the entry price.
Does Mailgun have a free plan?
Yes. Mailgun lists a free plan with 100 emails per day, one custom sending domain, two API keys, one day of log retention, and one inbound route. SendGrid instead lists a 60-day free trial with a 100-email daily limit.
Does Twilio SendGrid include marketing campaigns?
Yes. SendGrid lists marketing campaign tools alongside its Email API and SMTP service. Mailgun’s published feature list focuses on email delivery, validation, previews, inbound parsing, and CRM data connections; it does not list campaign creation.
Which service offers email validation and inbound parsing?
Mailgun lists real-time API and bulk-list validation, plus incoming email parsing. SendGrid also includes validation allowances on some paid plans, such as 2,500 per month on Pro, but the published feature details do not list inbound-message parsing.