Mailgun vs SendGrid: Developer Control vs Enterprise Features
Comparing Mailgun and SendGrid for transactional email. Granular infrastructure control versus enterprise-scale features and marketing.
Overview
Mailgun and SendGrid are both established email infrastructure providers. Mailgun emphasizes developer control and granular logging. SendGrid offers enterprise features with both transactional API and marketing campaigns.
| Feature | Mailgun | SendGrid |
|---|---|---|
| Parent Company | Sinch | Twilio |
| Starting Price | $35/mo | $20/mo |
| Free Tier | Trial only | 100 emails/day |
| Detailed Logging | Granular | Standard |
| Email Routing | Advanced | Basic |
| Marketing Campaigns | Limited | Full |
| Inbound Processing | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise SSO | Available | Available |
Key Differences
Infrastructure Control
Mailgun provides granular control over email infrastructure. Detailed logs for every message. Complex routing rules. 99.99% uptime SLA. Developers who want to understand exactly what happens to their emails prefer Mailgun.
SendGrid abstracts more details. The focus is on getting emails sent at scale rather than granular infrastructure control.
Feature Scope
SendGrid includes Marketing Campaigns alongside the Email API. You can run newsletter campaigns and transactional email from one platform. Enterprise features like SSO and custom contracts are comprehensive.
Mailgun focuses on infrastructure. Marketing features exist but are secondary. The platform is optimized for developers building custom email solutions.
Pricing
SendGrid has a free tier (100 emails/day forever) and lower starting prices. Good for getting started.
Mailgun starts higher at $35/mo after the trial. Pricing changed after the Sinch acquisition and some users found it less competitive.
When to Choose Mailgun
- Granular logging and control are essential
- Complex email routing is needed
- You prefer infrastructure-level tools
- Inbound email processing is required
When to Choose SendGrid
- You need marketing campaigns with transactional
- The free tier is valuable for your use case
- Enterprise features like SSO are required
- You expect massive sending volume
Alternative: Sequenzy
For modern SaaS applications, consider Sequenzy. It provides cleaner tooling with native billing integrations for Stripe, Polar, Creem, and Dodo without the complexity of either Mailgun or SendGrid.
The Bottom Line
Choose Mailgun for granular infrastructure control and detailed logging. Choose SendGrid for enterprise features and marketing campaigns alongside transactional.