Mailgun charges $15-90 per month for email delivery APIs. Free tiers from Amazon SES, Resend, Brevo, and SendGrid cover transactional sending, SMTP relay, and delivery analytics at $0 — often with far cheaper volume pricing on top. Here are the best free Mailgun alternatives.
| Alternative | Price | Best For | No Signup? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon SES | Free (3,000 emails/month) | High-volume transactional email | Account needed |
| Resend | Free (3,000 emails/month) | Developer-friendly email API | Account needed |
| Brevo Transactional (Free) | Free (300 emails/day) | Transactional plus marketing in one | Account needed |
| SendGrid (Free) | Free (100 emails/day) | Email API with dashboard | Account needed |
| SMTP2GO (Free) | Free (1,000 emails/month) | Simple SMTP relay | Account needed |
Amazon SES sends transactional and bulk email at $0.10 per 1,000 emails after a free tier of 3,000 per month — dramatically cheaper than Mailgun for volume senders.
Resend's free tier includes 3,000 emails per month (100/day) with a modern API, webhooks, and delivery analytics — the easiest Mailgun-style API to start with.
Brevo's free plan covers both transactional email (300/day) and marketing campaigns with unlimited contacts — Mailgun's sending plus a newsletter tool.
SendGrid's free tier sends 100 emails per day with templates, analytics, and a well-documented API — enough to prototype Mailgun-style delivery at $0.
SMTP2GO's free plan relays 1,000 emails per month with strong deliverability and easy setup — a drop-in SMTP replacement for Mailgun basics.
Mailgun costs $15-90/month (Foundation & Scale plans). That is $180-1,080/year every year — money that could go toward building an AI-powered income stream instead. Our case studies show that you can build complete revenue-generating systems using only free tools.
| Option | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost | 5-Year Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailgun | $15-90 | $180-1,080 | $900-5,400 |
| Free Alternatives | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Savings | $180-1,080/year/year saved | ||
The best free alternative to Mailgun depends on your needs. Amazon SES is ideal for high-volume transactional email. Resend is ideal for developer-friendly email api. Brevo Transactional (Free) is ideal for transactional plus marketing in one. All of these alternatives are free or have generous free tiers.
Mailgun costs $15-90/month (Foundation & Scale plans). For most individual users and small projects, the free alternatives listed here provide 80-100% of the functionality at zero cost. Teams with complex collaboration needs may find the paid version worthwhile, but solo creators and small businesses can save hundreds per year.
Yes. The alternatives we list are production-ready tools used by millions. Most people switching from Mailgun find that 2-3 free tools combined cover all their needs, often with better specialised features than the all-in-one paid product.
Yes. Every alternative listed is a well-established tool with active development, large user bases, and transparent privacy policies. Open-source options like those from Hugging Face and Ollama are additionally auditable — you can inspect the code yourself.
Switching from Mailgun ($15-90/month (Foundation & Scale plans)) to free alternatives saves you $180-1,080/year per year. Over 5 years, that is enough to fund a side business or invest in other tools.
Browse All Free Alternatives →